Just to check

Watching Dragon's Den does count as startup research, doesn't it?

Ceaseless

I've been making progress with the app, one step at a time - "a time" in this case meaning "a week".

But I am making progress.

Take-aways from entrepreneur meet up

Yesterday I went to a second, and last for this year, entrepreneur meet-up.

Some take-aways from it:

• when we were going around the table talking about our intentions some-one after me started saying that the venture he is working for is "dangerously close" to what we are doing. We had a chat a bit later and though it is close the business model is fundamentally different.
• 12min.me (12 minute me) is a good forum to pitch an idea and also to network and meet potential contributors and investors. I know about this event but have not yet been as it is often in German.
• The owner of where we met (in a Cafe) may be a good candidate for an early adoption/beta tester.
• Don't forget cross-selling opportunities from the data will be collecting.

A slog

I went for a Dinnernations thing on Tuesday and then the next few days had a cold type infection.

At the best of times this next step is difficult but I know I will get there.

And now, right now (Friday almost 5pm) appery is having some more maintenance.

Cocktails and curry from 6pm as well (my maintenance).

Sussed it by sleep

For the last few days I've been trying to add a feature to the prototype which will really help us sell the idea.

I knew it was possible but couldn't work out how.

But last night I went to bed and then came the ideas. Sleeping on it worked and this morning it only took around 90 minutes to produce the solution in the dev environment I'm using.

With that feature delivered there are now others in the queue (actually I am using Trello to track these) and I have no idea at all how to deal with them. I guess I better get an early night.

The Register nails it, as usual

with an article about the current craziness of venture investments.

Take-aways from yesterday's AGBC Exchange meeting

... none really.

But, I did observe that Germans are very territorial about data and don't like it in the cloud.

They would prefer it within their domain. It's very difficult to get across that the cloud is just an off-site, shared set of data centres with lots of certifications and security which very few companies could afford (or even think of).

After the main meeting someone explained to me that the German experience left them wary of entities having their data. He pointed out that the Nazis were able to quickly round up Jews in The Netherlands because the Dutch had just held a census where people had to put down their religion.

The tech is there

Here is the first of (hopefully) quite a few lessons learnt - so one day when I am rich and a poster-boy for the start-up community I can use them to give an inspiring speech. And then all the hot babes at the speech (there is always at least one, although maybe after consuming a few free beers first) will want me.

From my mobile app development oddyssey I have relearnt that the tech is there.

Having spent an IT career successfully avoiding any coding now that I am in a startup there is no one around to write the code we need.

But no one will give us money, even seed money, without some sort of prototype.

So I  had to roll up my sleeves and do it. Not easy as learning Java, or even JavaScript, isn't a quick activity. But eventually I found appery.io which I can relatively quickly use to create a prototype.

Now it ain't - or won't be after the trial period - free but it cheaper than hiring a bunch of developers just to write a prototype.

The products from this appery.io service is a little bit clunky but it is good enough.

If you need to do something the technology is there - quite probably free or cheap and relatively easy to use - at least in the early stages.

Day of rest failure

After getting the kernel of the app (database uploads, downloads and push notifications) to work I was going to do anything other than dev work today.

This morning I did some tax related paperwork (for the company).

And this evening I am going to a business networking event where the business advisor we met last week will be speaking.

And in case he, or anyone else, would like to at least see a glimpse of what I've been working on, I thought I better tart it up this afternoon.

Which I have.

It is by no means complete (it needs authentication, payment oh, and lots more) but it looks a bit better now.

There

I eventually got the push notification to run from an event rather than a user input.

It bloody works!

I've been testing it repeatedly because I am so relieved.

The app needs quite a bit of tarting up before it reaches beta level but right now the main functions I needed to work work.

Almost there

I can now get push notifications to work from a button on the app - so, semi manual.

This wasn't easy and I look at appery's examples until I found something that worked.

Now I have to get the push notification to be triggered by an event but ...

... in half an hour appery is having some system maintenance. I've stopped all work and saved everything rather than push everything to the last minute.

Hopefully the maintenance will last less than an hour.

Well that was quick

I now have push notifications working ... manually.

appery.io's videos really make it easy (though I think going through the tutorials first helped get up to speed).

Soon, tomorrow I have to make PNs work automatically from a database event.

Progress

The weekend was one of debauchery, find dining, drinking and coding.

Yesterday I had a bit of a panic in the morning when appery.io didn't load properly.

But it sorted itself out after about an hour.

This morning I made some progress but not much. While their tutorials are good their video are even better.

Then this afternoon I cracked it and could send data from an app to the backend database and back down again.

This is a big step for me, with other dev environments (Android Studio, PhoneGap, ConfigureIT) I could never get so far at all.

Now I have to set up the push notification function.

I fear this will take some time.

Very good meeting

On Wednesday the Crazy Chicken and I had a very good meeting with an startup consultant (whom I met, not for the first time, at the maker's meeting on Tuesday).

Gave good feedback and was impressed with the idea.

Before he could give us any service we would need a full business pitch desk (we almost have that) and a working prototype - looks like I need to carry on studying appery.io

Making

After a hard day of looking at mobile app dev tools I went to a tour of a makers-space workshop in Garching.

Awesome.

Lots of toys machinery for wood work, metal work and 3d printing.

Most of the people there were from the AGBC and I met some very useful contacts in the financing/investment area. 

Business cards were exchanged.

Some other things

The Crazy Chicken and I have been talking to a potential third co-founder.

CC will talk with him some more tomorrow.

We know the potential but it is sooooo important that we make sure there is a fit.

When I am not doing that, and going to founder or investor meetings (see recent entries) I am continuing my odyssey for a mobile phone app dev tool.

I spent a few days looking at ConfigureIT but gave up this morning as it was too complicated (even though it was a web based GUI claiming not to require any programming).

Then I found appery.io and this looks like it could be a winner. There are understandable tutorials and I get it for a few weeks free.

More tutorials tomorrow.

Take-aways from GABA (and the P word)

GABA is  the German American Business Association which is distinct from the American German Business Club although not too distinct.

Tonight they had a panel discussion about funding options including VCs and crowdfunding.

I made a few good contacts and ....

• Crowdfunding like Kickstarter could be used as a side-investment for a specific project (though with care over formulation).
• The US market now has a lot of controls over this now which is making it less attractive as an investment.
• Although it may be more attractive in Germany - there are over 60 platforms and some are used by established companies to fund certain initiatives (for example, savings in energy reduction).
• Could also perhaps be used is VC funding is not possible - kinda a plan B
• Valuations are high and we are possibly heading for a tech bubble (when people say "it isn't a bubble then it's a bubble")
• There are about 40 unicorns in Europe but apparently the creator of the term "unicorn" has a new term: "unicorpse".
• It seems VCs value on likely future valuation rather than actual profit and right now few companies (at least in Europe) are heading towards IPO ...
• this led me to ask if this valuation things wasn't just a "Ponzi scheme". Seems I asked an obvious question.

Takeaways from entrepreneur's meet up

Another evening, another startup/tech/entrepreneur type meet up. This time (yesterday evening) in a rather cool cafe.

Some takeaways:

• there are other mobile app prototyping tools than PhoneGap - Titanium for instance
• Approaching investors ...

... in answer to my question "what's a good way to make the initial approach to a potential investor/angel ...

The advice started off with 

1. write a simple email (which we have already drafted) to 
2. suggest a quick 10 minute meeting in a cafe near their office - people like to help people
3. actually try first to connect with them via someone you know ....

... this became a big thing. The investor community is small and you may get "burnt out" if you are making cold approaches.

The last bit of advice has changed my thinking on approach and I will hold off sending the email we drafted yesterday and see who we could contact using our networks.

Am I thinking about this business too much

I was at a startup workshop with my business partner and another business partner.

One of them gets a call on their mobile and then tells me the good news: one of the ancillary things we've been working on, some sort of collaborative tool to help with the main business has really impressed a potential investor. They want to talk to us within 24 hours with a view to a major investment.

Basically another pivot.

I must be dreaming.

Um ... actually I was dreaming.

Bother.

Risky

It looks like this is becoming a technical blog about trying to speed learn Java, Javascript, PhoneGap, Parse etc.

By this afternoon I could take no more and have put my brain on hold the usual way (it is Friday).

A technical odysssey

I've spent a lot of this week and last looking at Java, Android Studio and the JavaScript, CSS and HTML combo.

But I really wanted a simple way to connect to a back-end (not in the Carry On sense missus) and discovered parse.com

It can work with PhoneGap which should make lean development simpler.

But as I have never done anything like this before simple and simpler doesn't come into it.

The odyssey reference is that I started with Android Studio, gave up because it needed Java, moved to PhoneGap so leant up JavaScript, got fed up and went back to learning Java. Then found out about Parse so started back on JavaScript (not least as it seems PhoneGap will allow quicker development).

AGBC takeaways

Despite being neither American or German I am a member of the local American German Business Club.

The Crazy Chicken does, however, possess one of those nationalities.

Yesterday there was a meeting which we both attended and we talked to a couple of angels/PE investors whilst we were there.

Some takeaways:

• During the talk on cyber security a tale was related of a German venture which was turned down by a PE investor as being too expensive. Then the venture was badly hacked resulting in the price dropping significantly. Imagine their surprise when the PE came back with a lower offer - which they accepted. But one of the founders had engaged a cyber forensic review which eventually discovered that the attack had come from Israel and seemed - it was alleged - to have been commissioned by the PE investor. Very naughty.
• Whilst quite a few people have been saying, recently, that it is easy, even beneficial, to get financing from Munich rather than the USA, one guy, with venture experience, to whom we spoke felt that the contrary was true. This was partly down to the tax situation in Germany for shareholders (losses can't be transferred into subsequent years) and the general approach to investment risk in the US.
• This guy also said he takes about a 3% to 13% cut in the companies which he is supporting (as an angel) with around 7% being the usual case.
• Also, he never invests when there are just two founders. One is ok, three is great but not two. And he strongly recommended dealing with this - either get someone else on board or find an arbitrator before there are problems - something we agree with. Incidentally another startup investor said, a few weeks ago, that he never, ever invests in a single-founder startup.
• Another angel investor told us that normally seeding happens after the app has at least been prototyped. Wireframes are not enough.

Still ill

This man flu is now a cold and cough. But i really have no energy.

The business plan - in my opinion - is almost ready but i can only do an hour's of so's work per day.

And this week I wanted to do more coding.

I am hoping I am well enough to go to a business network meeting tomorrow evening.

But I did, with some trepidation, update my Mac to the latest version of El Capitan and this time there were no glitches.

De-teching

The problem with speed learning JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 is that you speed forget it.

By yesterday, having finished going through the tutorial for these I tried to write some apps, using PhoneGap.

It's a slow and painful process going from tutorial to actually writing stuff - even basic stuff - that works.

Today the Crazy Chicken and I met up for over an hour and went through what needs to be done to complete the business plan.

We want it to be ready for next week.

But tomorrow morning I am going to a former colleague's wedding in the morning. I am not sure when the celebrations will end and when I write "when" I mean which day.

Oh, and I have a dose of man flu.

TechDaze

Just returned from a TechDay event in Munich. It started at 10am and there is now a party.

However, I am not convinced that a group of cyber security techies are the sort of party animals I am used to.

As well as cyber security there was also talk about startups so it was reasonably useful.

But tiring, not least as nearly all of it was in German. After the first hour of listening to speeches in German I do tend to get a bit tired.

Learning

Since Tuesday I've been learning JavaScript using a rather good tutorial from w3school.com

I had been going through another online tutorial a few weeks ago but this one better suits me.

Next I will go through their tutorials on CSS and HTML5  - hopefully this will be more of a revision.

Why?

Well I found a solution called PhoneGap which allows the creation of mobile apps using JavaScript (rather than Java as required by Android Studio). Learning up JavaScript will be quicker than learning Java.

And it's a break from the business plan (which I kinda dumped on the Crazy Chicken).

Now off to a TechDays event for techies and startups.

Brain hurts and also hungry

Just watched a re:Invent video focussing on AWS's Mobile Hub which was announced a few days ago.

Totally what we need.

Going to have to watch it a few more times though but soon I hope to be playing with it.

First, must learn some more programming.

Oh, and eat. I am starving.

Grey

Because it was Sunday in Germany during Autumn.

Business-wise we showed our concept to a target business we know.

There was a mix of enthusiasm from the two people (the owners) to whom we showed it.

But it was still positive - one seemed less convinced than the other.

We also learnt more about how to improve our presentation (or, to re-word it, we learnt that our presentation needs changing a bit).

We haven't finished the business plan and I really want to get it wrapped up so we can go to investors.

More take aways from the startup meeting of yesterday.

1. There's about the same amount of investment capital going around in Europe (12 trillion dollars, I think) as there are in the US.
2. There's no need to go to the US for investment: you can get investment in the US, then you could have got it in  Europe.
3. Think - and be - global from the start. If you proposition can be global (ours can) then don't think small go for it (I think this is a version of my "Go big or go home").
4. It's all about the business, not the technology.
5. Remember, historically a lot of the best technologies failed in the market place - think BetaMax compared with VHS.
6. Make sure, when pitching, you have a business model
7. Proper planning and preparation prevents piss poor presentation.
8. A Thai curry from the local Thai restaurant. They were just in the act of closing but let me order a take-out.

Reinvigorated

The last few days have been a rearguard defence against prostration because:

1. I am not eating awesome Sardinian food
2. We're still working on this fucking business plan. I know we have to do it but it is beginning to drag.
3. I am not drinking awesome Sardinian wine
4. El Craptian wouldn't load on my Mac.

Things, however, are now quite a bit better because;

1. The Crazy Chicken and I went to a Startup meeting. It was very good, very informative and inspiring. We also spoke to a few people about our idea and received a positive response. We need seed investors!
2. I fixed my Mac by moving from a Systems sub-folder non-signed .kext files. Using the Terminal. Obvious in retrospect. Considering Microsoft have just announced game-changing hardware (Surface 4 and Surface Book) and Windows 10 is pretty good I suggest Apple sort themselves out.
3. I am drinking a nice Syrah.

Summer is over

And while TJHWNN was off sunning in the Mediterranean I was busy getting my ducks in a row, as they say, to be able to handle the next few months. Part of this involves me having to drop a beloved customer – well-paying and interesting work, but too sporadic and complicated in terms of file transfers and return on time invested. Especially when the time is needed here.
 
Just as background - unlike TJHWNN who has maintained a stable employed or project-based life, Crazy Chicken juggles several clients in a creative freelance setup. This gives up both completely different and complementary approaches. Often, however, this really leaves TJH to concentrate on the techy side of life and CC to squawk if something doesn’t make sense.
 
This is also happening in non-techy areas. I’m not satisfied with one section of the business plan, but my focus was pulled today to another aspect – startup financing.
 
Since we live in a non-English speaking country, whatever we come up with also has to work for the non-English speaking people we want to give us their time and money. So I have been working on a spreadsheet to reflect both languages. TJH will be thrilled, I am sure?

El Crapitan

Slow start today. I slept in so tired, probably as a result of all that travelling back from Sardinia.

It's like I need a vacation.

Instead, I worked on the business plan.

But first I saw that Apple's latest update to their operating software was available, El Capitan, so I installed it.

It didn't work and left my Mac mini in an unhappy state of not completing the installation, giving a scary system dump (first line started with "panic") and then restarting.

Eventually I managed to boot it into safe mode, which runs the original OS it came on. To do this you have to hold down the shift key, not any shift key but - it turns out - the right shift key.

I'm now downloading the OS update again and will attempt another reinstall (I have all but essential peripherals removed this time).

Whilst all this was going on today I have been working on the business plan using my laptop. Just as well I bought one a few weeks ago.

Sardinia

Because of a long standing arrangement this week I have been lounging in Sardinia.

There's still work to be done on the business plan and I did do a little bit in connection with this.

I also talked to the Crazy Chicken a few times over Skype.

And I've been reading a few start up-related blogs.

But apart from that it's been a case of eating Italian food and drinking all the wine in Sardinia.

Oh, and they also have great beer.

This is good but it means we are a bit behind as we wanted to have the business plan finished by the end of September.

So next week I won't be lounging.

"A business plan ...

is a document that investors make you write which they then don't read."

From Steve Blank.


I've been looking at slides on Business Model/Lean Canvas creation.

Business planning

Part of the day was spent asking myself how much Löwenbräu did I really have to drink last night, the rest was looking at the business plan.

No matter how much displacement activity I find I am coming up against the need to put in numbers.

I don't like my earlier, home-brewed spreadsheet for the finances (startup and projected) but I don't like the templates I've found either.

And we have set ourselves the deadline of the end of the month to have the business plan ready to show to investors. But next week I am on holiday with friends (booked a long time ago).

Did go

In case you were wondering yesterday I did drag myself from my sick bed and go to the Oktoberfest.

I even drank three Maß of beer.

Although I didn't make any great contacts it was important that I went and I wouldn't have gone otherwise (not least as we were in a Löwenbräü tent - the things I do for this startup).

apps baby

As you can probably tell, at the moment we are keeping details of our actual business to ourselves. You will all learn in time.

(By the way, this blog is really for ourselves: to remind us of things we did and capture stuff which doesn't necessarily fit well into samepage.io which is our main collaborative suite. But you are welcome to continue reading).

But it is also 2015 and as we are in the technology sector that means mobile apps. Or as it is past mid-2015, just apps.

Being poorly today I checked one of the recently delivered flyers I've received in my mailbox advertise. One of them is very good but to my utter shock it didn't have an app.

The web site was good, and the service (and food) was also good. But no app.

That seems so strange these days.

Every day is like Sunday

Well, when it is Sunday.

Whilst my business partner is doing serious networking at the Oktoberfest I have been feeling ill.

From experience I know that if I do any work while ill I just make loads of errors. In fact this afternoon I ordered some food (the home delivery service is really picking up now) and got my own address wrong.

Today I also received a message from the data analysis guys I met up with a few days ago. They invited me to their Wiesn (that is their Oktoberfest) company table tomorrow.

But I have so much to do ... but I genuinely see this as work related - getting contacts etc.

Yesterday I started looking at AWS's help to startups and will to continue to do so (because I can just read rather than do anything). They seem to have a really good network of investors with whom they collaborate and provide special offers (for using their services).

What makes an entrepreneur?

This, according to udacity.

Business and beer (1)

Business and beer - (1) because this is Germany and there will certainly be more business and beer.

I can't help but think that we are missing some excellent chances by not going to the Oktoberfest with various business and startup groups. This is really a networking event for many companies; "the 'fest" isn't only extremely crowded because of drunken tourists - large companies in Bavaria book tables every year for their higher-level staff, top customers and potential customers.

We have decided to focus instead of reaching a couple of goals before the end of the month, and repeated visits to the World's Biggest Beer Bash (tm) tend to be counterproductive to planning.
And though TJHWNN might be going with a few contacts, I am (so far) only going once - with a group of mainly retired Bavarians. Shall make the goal of engaging in at least one business related conversation.

Prost!

(Not the authors of this blog.)

Curry and data

Yesterday evening a former colleague and I had a curry with two founders of a data analysis consultancy. I met the main founder a couple of times at a business networking club and the former colleague has a focus on big data technologies.

For the avoidance of doubt curry means curry and cocktails afterwards. What do you think I am, some sort of barbarian?

It was a very pleasant evening but two particular take-aways were:

- AWS may be giving significant benefits to startups
- I was given the name of someone I actually know within the business networking community who could assist in certain aspects of the business (sales etc.).

Mutual Muses

TJHWNN and the Crazy Chicken have completely difference approaches to life and work, and work incredibly well together.

Multi-tasking for CC now involves  switching from Facebook with morning coffee to reading reference articles and links added to the collaboration space (so far mainly by TJHWNN). I can get just as lost reading articles and links on startups (and less frustrated than by reading blindingly posted Facebook memes).

This morning a piece on "Red Flags for Startups" led me to a piece on frugality in startups. (See Cash Efficiency.)  A key sentence for me was "Cash efficiency is the core indicator that a founder understands what she or he is trying to accomplish." Whilst I sometimes plead for financial restraint, TJHWNN has in "Go big or go home" in mind for our project - and we keep each other on track.

What constitutes cash efficiency in a startup? When is an item a necessity or a luxury? If you were employed in a startup, how would you confront a CEO about an unnecessary purchase – or try to convince them to purchase something? Or would you?

MVP

This evening I attended a meetup.com meeting about the power of MVP and product testing (such as AB testing).

A good meeting - in fact a very good meeting - which gave me the realisation that there is more to product development than I thought (I know I should have thought of this already).

Earlier today, despite a hangover, I assembled an outline for the business plan. It's more about the structure and none of the business plan guides I have seen have a structure I really like.