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.