Topping from the bottom

Someone actually used this term at a panel discussion yesterday on the topic of corporate entrepreneurship. Apparently I was the only one who noticed.

His usage on the term was on how to innovate in a large company. I spoke with him afterwards, stressing that actually I'm not into that scene but am aware.

The lesson learnt in this post is that if you want to remember something write it down.

Several of the panel talked about the need of a good mentor. I agreed and made a note of it. A mental note which I immediately forgot.

That's also my take-away: we (and all startups) need a mentor.

Investment

We're getting the feeling that the investment advisor/facilitator we've met doesn't think we're ready to approach investors.

The steam problem

I had to get out of the flat. Even though I should be meeting the Crazy Chicken this evening I had to escape now.

So, I am sitting in a San Francisco Coffee Shop (in Munich) - think Starbucks without the grotty carpets.

To avoid any incidents I didn't get a coffee - already had one - but tea.

They handed it over with a second saucer on top. So I didn't realise that they had put two - TWO - tea bags in the cup.

Oh well.

Why is this post labelled as a lessons learnt?

Well, I've been looking at colour swatches. Purple is our corporate colour which is used on our flyers, window stickers, logo and most of the app itself.

But to make the app less monochromic I am looking for a colour that is complementary to purple. There are lots of free colour matching sites out there. But I am kinda thinking that maybe we should have asked our designer to give us a series of colours.

A few days ago the latest version of the app rolled out. This gives us usage information. Appery supplied a view of this but we couldn't download it and analyse it - I guess for security reasons.

So I had to create a work-around.

From this we deduced that one phone (apart from ourselves) is using the app. Well, it's a start.

I'm hoping that by this weekend I will have submitted a more colourful and enticing version of the app with some bugs fixed and some new features.

Take-aways from Startup failure

Another good panel discussion, this time on failure.

There was a lot of talk about German attitude to failure and almost whimsical debate on whether failure is a good thing.

Anyway here are my takeaways:

• according to research entrepreneurs on average succeed on their fifth venture (!!!)
• startups tend to fail for these three reasons:
• poor marketing
• poor team
• running out of cash
• get and check references for investors (one of the panellists had a galling story of how she was conned into leaving a company and joining a new VC funded by someone who turned out to be a fraud)
• get a good lawyer on your side, early on.

Still no tequila

But another good meeting with the investment facilitator, this time with the Crazy Chicken.

One thing though, check meeting placed beforehand to ensure they are acoustically satisfactory, which is unlikely to be the case with beer halls. Fortunately it was warmish so we sat outside.