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).