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).