Meet Asian Tech Start-ups at the Inaugural DEMO Asia 2012 Conference
January 19th, 2012
Guest blog entry written by Tan Yinglan
A large part of my job involves meeting entrepreneurs, which I love. I meet with a staggering number of them each week. Some you can tell are lemons after five minutes, but a special few make my day (the best part of my day). I recently wondered whether there were any common traits amongst those entrepreneurs who were great.
The wonderful thing about venture investing is that it is a science where your experience is cumulative. Similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, if you’ve seen 10,000 business plans and met with 10,000 entrepreneurs, you develop pattern recognition – and it gets better the older you get, like a well-aged wine.
The great VCs – I’d name Michael Moritz and Don Valentine here; both of whom I have met personally, spoken with at length, and admire greatly (you can read more in The Way Of The VC) – all have this perceptible quality. It’s what industry veterans call ‘the smell.’
Some of the filters I have developed for assessing entrepreneurs:
- Thoughtful listening. Does s/he watch customers and how they behave? What is the input-output ratio?
- Do they iterate rapidly?
- Are they good at mental arithmetic?
- Do they validate the user-base of the product? i.e. measure high-quality repeat users or the net promoter score?
- Do they measure figure metrics which reflect both the quality of the business and factors which they can influence?
- Is s/he able to convey a complex business in very simple terms? (The test is to explain it to your mom and see whether she understands. If she can’t understand it, it is too complicated.)
- Would they ‘throw a turd in the punch bowl’ and disrupt the industry?
- Can s/he imagine doing anything with his/her life other than the chosen service or product? (Correct answer is no)
- Do they refer to a ‘museum of mistakes’ and avoid them?
There is one last factor which I’m hesitant to put because there are numerous counterexamples – it’s that, by and large, great entrepreneurs are also great human beings. You leave a meeting with them feeling that they are nice individuals, and often like to help them. Some have this quality in them naturally.
To give one real-world example… We work with one brilliant entrepreneur who has great engineering and product skills. He’s extremely sociable, does business development naturally, and all his staff love him. Most importantly, he is very thoughtful and a great listener. (Most entrepreneurs talk too much and the signal-to-noise ratio is low). Not surprisingly, the company is preparing for a high profile exit. We wish we could clone more folks like him.
There are more key attributes, of course. Although these are the main traits which I think personally are more important. Feel free to add on in the comments.
Original version was published on Penn Olsen. Penn Olsen is founded by Willis Wee, a rising young star in the world of entrepreneurship. I think great things will come from this young man.
On Monday, the annual entrepreneur-focused conference, FailCon, took place in San Francisco, to a near sold-out crowd. I was fortunate enough to attend a couple of panels, and two workshops, one of which left me with a spark of an idea (check out a design firm) the other which shed light on a much-opined and passionate interest of mine (customer satisfaction and how to achieve it). All in all, it was one of the best spent afternoons I have had in my conference-going days – on both sides of the table. (Trade show table, that is!)
Here are some key take aways for me, from the sessions I attended:
In Workshop with Solana Crawford of Design About Town: “Expand Your Brand (Without Fail)” – Solana and her team are behind such familiar brands as TechCrunch Disrupt, VSP and yes, the FailCon logo!
* She leads with: There are 3 things that matter in choosing or determining what your design should be: 1) audience, 2) context, and 3) content
* Branding is ultimately about communication … And, “the person on the other end!”
* Success in good brand design = a good user experience. Including:
- Good execution (of your business plan) – engagement – image – recognition (making a good impression)
* She kept coming back to something that is reminiscent of Dieter Rams’ work: Keep it simple! – Also, be clear about what makes you different from your competitors.
* She emphasized creating a “system” — using color, this could be a common thread that goes throughout all your assets: your website, twitter presence, your blog, and all print collateral.
* She listed 3 main steps to always include in your brand design planning:
1) Engagement: Tell a story; create a personality; build trust; and inspire to take action
2) Consistency: Use a consistent voice and message; and again, be consistent with color schemes
3) Recognition: Show good design; have a good promotional strategy.
In his workshop: “Show Your Customers You Care” – Evan Hamilton of UserVoice had these points to make:
* There are 3 options for gaining & sustaining users for your app/site: 1) Make it cheap to acquire; 2) Make more money off initial transaction; and 3) Make customers stick around longer to pay more in the long run. — Of these #3, he suggests, is the easiest.
* Always tell (broadcast, really) your customers what you’re doing to improve your site — while you’re doing it — this will increase their likelihood of sticking around, rather than leaving for a competitor.
* Some solutions to retaining customers and making sure they are happy?
1. Transparency: Tell people about how you’re needing to improve, even if they don’t notice it. “Uncovered issues can be ten times worse.”
2. Show you Care: Always post when, how, and where you are open to supporting them. Make it really, really easy to find your contact info.
3. Empathy: Take time to understand. (Especially for those who email in to complain/comment.) Realize that: “People who demand things, love your product.”
4. Scaling Contact: Set up automation, set up a forum, set up a ticket system. Anything you can to get your customer contact streamlined and avoid potentially ignoring customers.
Joe Gebbia - airbnb
From Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder in his case study keynote: “How We Survived the Trough of Sorrow”:
* One notable point he led off with was: “A spectacular failure is always better than a mediocre success!” also:
* “Fail faster, so you can succeed sooner.” — (He borrowed this quote, but believes it to be true.)
* After telling the story of their very popular ‘Obama O’s’ & ‘Cap’n McCain’ cereals: Joe’s point was that – You have to be willing to do whatever you need to in order to stick to your idea. And that even if you’re not doing your business plan exactly the way you set out to, this did, for example, attract the attention of investors, (in their case Y Combinator). (after their ‘trough of sorrow’ lasting 18 months)
* Lastly, he emphasized: Solve your own problem and that way you will stick with it, because you believe in it.
Then, there was the panel: “The Failure of Business Models” moderated by Adriana Gardella of the New York Times. — But, that is a subject for another day’s post! Thanks to Cass Phillipps for putting on such a wonderful, information-rich event, that I am sure everyone who attended will likely return to next year if given the chance. And, if you were an attendee, yourself, and wish to share your best take away(s), please leave us a comment, below.
Demos were by several, varied-product start ups, for example: from Let’sListen (social music sharing) to Bizee Bee (yoga studio schedule streamlining and enhancing)
(Photos credit: FailCon)
Stevie Awards for Women in Business List Announced
October 21st, 2011
Good news: Several of our very own Bay Area executives and women-owned businesses have been named as finalists for the 8th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. The nominees come from all categories, such as:
Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Business Services
Betts Recruiting, San Francisco, CA USA: Carolyn Betts, founder and CEO
DRT Strategies, Inc., Arlington, VA USA: Susan M. Kidd, Founder and CEO
Dynamic Office & Accounting Solutions, Danville, CA USA: Tiffany Stuart, President
Gagen MacDonald, Chicago, IL USA: Maril MacDonald, thought leader and industry pioneer
Going Global, Mobile, AL USA: Mary Anne Thompson, Founder & President
Human Resource Essential, LLC, Tempe, AZ USA: Stephanie Angelo, Founder and CEO
Staging Diva/Six Elements Inc., Toronto, Canada: Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, President, Six Elements Inc.
Suzanne Evans Coaching, LLC, Murrells Inlet, SC USA: Suzanne Evans, Owner & Founder
Vaco Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA: France Moreno, Partner
VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA USA: Janine Popick, CEO and Founder
Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Financial Services & Insurance
iFinance Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada: Ann Kaplan, President & CEO
Mercury West Associates, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom: Katie Small, Owner & Managing Director
Your Equity Source, LLC, Cour DAlenem ID USA: Sandra J. Wach, Vice President
VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA USA
Best Overall Company of the Year – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Business Services
DRT Strategies, Inc., Arlington, VA USA
MyCorporation, Calabasas, CA USA
Sage Consulting Associates, San Francisco, CA USA
The Omnia Group, Tampa, FL USA
Integrated Archive Systems, Palo Alto, CA USA
Best Overall Company of the Year – Non-Profit or Government
Athena International, Chicago, IL USA
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA USA
Women Presidents’ Organization, New York, NY USA
Winners will be announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on November 11. The complete list is available at the link below. We wish all the local nominees good luck; and congratulate all those who are nominated!
http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/women/awards/414_2252_21305.cfm
FailCon 2011 Just 2 Weeks Away – Register Now To Learn How Failure Fuels Success!
October 12th, 2011
FailCon 2011 is just 2 weeks away! And the FailCon crew is excited to announce their incredible Demo Competitors for this year’s SuccessCon-test. Twelve new startups will be trying to win your vote as “Most Likely To Succeed.”
Demo Competitors Include:
- Repost.us - an instant syndication platform that makes digital content embeddable.
- SaverMint - a smartphone based loyalty and referral program for small and medium businesses.
- BAMM.tv - provides free HD video creation, global distribution and payments for artists.
- 2600hz - a scalable, open-source VoIP platform that supports many telecommunication services.
- Dolphin - a customizable, touchscreen-specialized Android browser.
- Who’s Here Now - an event application to help you connect with the best people.
- Overstat - robust website analytics and landing page optimization, with no programming required.
- Passing Green - helps businesses receive qualified leads and better manage the process.
- CardFlick - the easiest way to create and share business cards with your phone
- MoreDays - a mobile app to make planning and designing your life easier and fun.
- Let’s Listen - a cloud music locker that lets you chat and listen to music with friends in real-time.
- GridSearch - the easiest way to navigate videos on a mobile device.
So, come out and demo their apps, cheer them on, and vote your favorite to the top!
Join 500 founders, investors, designers, and developers at this year’s incredible FailCon.
Details:
October 24th, 2011 | 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Hotel Kabuki
1625 Post Street
San Francisco, 94115
Register: here.
Through word of mouth, I recently heard about a new concept, which meshes crowdsourced design and innovation with social coupons built on an intuitive eCommerce platform – this concept is called “Fab.com” – this site allows users to design and share cool new products with the world at a discounted price.
Fab.com encourages the world to tap into their inventive, curious and creative side to produce interesting products, which could prove to be useful to others. With exceptional customer service, Fab.com ensures that each product featured on their site is built with quality materials and a “story”. Each inventor or designer has a story to share – the impetus for launching the product, the problem that they are solving and their passion behind innovation.
I had to share this with the community because at the core of Girls in Tech is creativity and we encourage our members and readers to check it out!
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Girls in Tech Invite You to “Net Effect: The Impact of Women on The Web – Start-up Edition”"
October 4th, 2011
Silicon Valley-based Venture Capital firm, KPCB and Girls in Tech cordially invite you to attend “Net Effect: The Impact of Women on the Web – Start-up Edition”. KPCB partner Aileen Lee talks with four distinguished female execs who recognize women as not only influencing the overall tech landscape, but increasingly leading it. Join Aileen and her industry-shaping guests on Nov. 9th as they discuss how women are breaking the glass ceiling. The panelists will share their distinct insights on leadership and how businesses across the social web, e-commerce and advertising are achieving success with the female demographic.
Please click on the following infographic to purchase a ticket to the event:
Girls in Tech CrowdConf2011 Ticket Giveaway!
September 12th, 2011
Girls in Tech are giving away 3 tickets to the World’s Largest Crowdsourcing Conference, CrowdConf2011. How would you apply the crowdsourcing principles in a unique way?
Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine first coined the term crowdsourcing. Howe explains that because technological advances have allowed for cheap consumer electronics, the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished. Companies are then able to take advantage of the talent of the public, and Howe states that “It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.” A less commercial approach was introduced by Henk van Ess in September 2010: “Crowdsourcing is channelling the experts’ desire to solve a problem and then freely sharing the answer with everyone”. More >>>
Girls in Tech would like to offer 3 tickets to our members. To be considered, simply post how you would use crowdsourcing (crowdfunding, crowdwisdom, crowdvoting, or crowdcreation) for your business or any other business out there. It doesn’t have to be a a large submission, simply comment to this post with a few lines of how you would apply the crowdsourcing principles in a unique way. Get creative, think of how the fashion world and television has utilized its concepts, non profits (like Kiva) and how crowdsourcing could possibly grow an organization like Girls in Tech… you can post as many ideas as you’d like. If you do, please post each idea in a separate comment. Post away!
It’s not too late to get your tickets for CrowdConf2011!
September 12th, 2011
Be sure to grab your tickets for the World’s Largest Crowdsourcing Conference coming this November 1 & 2nd.
Curious about what Crowdsourcing? The Daily Crowd describes it as “getting a crowd of people to help you with a task. You ask an undefined group of people to perform a task for you, and anyone who’s interested may perform the task. You’ll get finished work from dozens of participants, which you get to select the best one(s) from.
The principle of crowdsourcing is based on the idea that more heads are better than one, and you can hire people based on skill rather than lowest bid. By canvassing a large crowd of people for ideas, skills, or participation, the search for an elusive answer or design is made that much simpler and more accurate.” Read More >>>
I am sure you can think of dozens of business models that take follow the principle of crowdsourcing. It’s strategy can be differentiated into four types, crowdfunding, crowdcreation, crowdwisdom, and crowdvoting. Grow your understanding about crowdsourcing at the world’s largest Crowdsourcing Conference, CrowdConf2011. CloudFlower has set up a series of crowdsourcing competitions through their many sponsors for the conference. Read about them here >>>
Girls in Tech are joining the Crowd in giving away 3 tickets to CrowdConf2011! Learn More >>>
From Disruption to Default: Another successful OSCON 2011
August 15th, 2011
Another year passed for OSCON 2011 with over 3000+ attendees flocking to Portland, Oregon for this year’s theme: From Disruption to Default.
OSCON 2011 events, tracks, sessions and keynotes raised the bar again.
Here are a few highlights of the keynote session and tracks:
- Microsoft Keynote by Gianugo Rabelino, Sr Director of Open Source Communities is quite great as he talks about the future of community: informed trends: education, repeatable science and experience. See speakers slides
- Rob Pike: The expressiveness of Go programming language. Read blog
- Ariel Waldman: On hacking space exploration. See speaker slides
- IBM: On building native mobile apps with phone gap. Becky Gibson and Simon MacDonald showed best practices on mobile apps. See speaker slides
- Gabe Zichermann discussed the importance of Gamification. Check out the slides
Check out full speaker list
Check out full program speaker and slides
Check out keynote and video interviews
Lastly, On Thursday, July 28th, Global Girls in Tech Mentorship Program kicked off their inaugural VIP sessions at Oscon. Fortune 500, academic, tech and entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world gathered together to participate and support our kick-off meet-up. Thanks so much to everyone who showed up. We couldn’t have done it without your continued help and participation. Interested in participating? Drop me an email; ivo@girlsintech.net | Follow me @MsSonicFlare
For More info about GIT Mentorship
Watch video live interview with Ivo Lukas- Director of Global Mentorship/Partnership program & MD of Portland Chapter
Join our Local PDX Chapter
(Photo credit: Pinar Ozger & OSCON)
