#startupriot

Since I started deductmor in December of last year, I've been working at home. But after visiting ATV a few times and attending a couple of events there, I decided to join up. A little background on me: I've been involved in 7 startups, including deductmor, with my name on the founding papers of 5 of them.  But I've been out of the "startup scene" in Atlanta for a long time, since starting CWNP in 1999.  Part of my strategy for (a) finding a new business idea, (b) starting a new business, and (c) building that business, has been to connect with as many tech entrepreneurs as possible in as many ways, venues, and events as possible. The energy, knowledge, and help that any entrepreneur needs to start a business from scratch is best found from other experienced entrepreneurs.  ATV fulfills this need in a big way.  Here are the four main values I have discovered at ATV, aside from free parking, free coffee, free snacks, and free lunch Friday:

Energy - Not just from the free energy bars available in the second floor kitchenette. The energy at ATV flows from all the startups and their teams.  When I work from home, the thing I miss the most is the electric interaction from my teammates.  I don't currently have any teammates, so I have to get that energy elsewhere.  ATV provides the proverbial water cooler, and surrounds it with high-energy new and experienced entrepreneurs who are all trying to start, grow, or run a tech business. It's energizing just to be there and listen to what each entrepreneur is doing.

Help - David Cummings & Co. have made it clear that one of the principles behind how ATV will operate is "pay it forward".  I'm also a mentor at ATDC, and I get more satisfaction from seeing the lightbulb click on in the head of the aspiring entrepreneur than anything except seeing pure, unadulterated joy on the faces of my kids.  If you need help - specific tech or application help even - you just ask anyone. If they can't help you, they'll point you to someone who can, and does.  You can't get that working at home and you can't get it in your own private office.

Encouragement - similar to help, but vastly different when in its purest form, encouragement is the elixir, the juice, the balm, and the C4 explosive we all need at different stages of the startup. Any entrepreneur can tell you that, even in their 2nd or 20th venture, it's a roller coaster ride.  There are days when you fly in and days when you have to hook your neck to a leash to drag you back in the next day because it couldn't have gone any worse.  EVERYONE at ATV is on that roller coaster. Maybe in your car with you, maybe on a different train at a different time, but they are all there, and everyone needs encouragement to get to the next level, whatever that level is. I've found encouragement abounding at ATV.

T-shirts - No, not an April Fools Day joke. Join ATV, get a T-shirt. I haven't got mine yet because my first day at ATV was the day after the Atlanta Startup Village event, and apparently there was a run on t-shirts that evening.  But that's not the t-shirt I'm referring to. I'm referring to the "been-there-done-that-got-the-t-shirt" t-shirts. Those are harder to come by, but nearly everyone at ATV has at least one.  What's that mean? It means they have been where I am, and where you are, and more importantly, where we're about to go in our startup adventure.  That's the t-shirt that is very valuable.

The first time I started a company, the co-founder and I had some very good reasons for starting it: We wanted to be our own bosses!  We...well, that was about it. That was way back in 1999. Thirteen years later, that company we originally started was acquired.  Not your average startup incubation period, but not a lifetime either.  Looking back, I can humbly say that at least 2 of those 13 years were because we had incorrect reason for incorporating in the first place.  You see, starting your own business is great; however, before doing so, you must know why you're doing what you're doing, and there really is only one answer. We'll get to that. In the medicinal world, there are two kinds of pills. Yes, I know there are more, but I'm making - or borrowing - an analogy here, so bear with me.  There are 2 kinds of pills: vitamins & pain killers.  Both have unique and valuable purposes.  Vitamins are good for you. They give you the elements of a healthy diet that you may not already be getting or that your body, for one reason or another, doesn't produce enough of.  That's good. Vitamins are good. But, you don't always need vitamins, and vitamins may be the first thing to get cut when income is down. A good example, in my mind anyway, of a "vitamin" business would be Air Jordan basketball shoes. Nobody needs a $250 pair of Air Jordans.  I bought a pair back in 1990, the old "Grape" color scheme. Man, I loved those shoes.  My folks had given me, among other things, $100 for Christmas, so I blew all of it and then some on those Air Jordans.  I didn't need them. Nobody needs Air Jordans!  But they sure do make you feel good, don't they? Yeah, they do. Yeah... For the painkiller explanation, I'll refer to the father of a friend of mine.  Fraternity brother to be exact. His dad is a retired urologist.  Having just been through bladder cancer last fall, I can tell you that my urologist knows me better than anyone else in my life except for my Maker.  Anyway, when folks asked this doctor why he chose urology of all medical professions, he had a simple answer that applies to the startup world today. He said the following.

If I am an orthopedist, maybe you come to me when you hurt your arm. If I am a dermatologist, maybe you come to me if you think you have skin cancer. If I am a GP, maybe you come to me when you are sick. But if you have problem in your groin, I am first person you call and you don't wait.

I've launched several new businesses before, but not like this. "This" is new, good, and very exciting.  When I  made deductmor official in December, I had my ideas for launching. Then the folks at ATDC told me about Startup Riot. My ideas suck.  Sanjay's idea is better.  Simple as that. Knowing virtually nothing about Startup Riot, I hit the site and applied, not knowing what to expect and certainly not knowing if I'd be in the 30 to be picked.  Couple days later I get an email from Sanjay saying I'm in, but that my slides, and hence my pitch, needed "major work."  OK, so happy to be in, but I thought my slides were pretty good, no?  No. Compared to what I ended up with, they sucked. Simple as that. Then comes honing the pitch.  I changed it at least 30 times, each time thinking to myself and actually saying out loud, "this is it. I got this."  Every time I was in my car alone, I'd set the timer on my iPhone and practice, practice, practice.  Even the morning of the event, riding down GA 400 practicing, practicing, practicing.  I was SO ready. But first I have to digress and describe what came before Startup Riot.  Founder Fables is Sanjay's newest event, and a brilliant one.  Only thing is, I can't talk about what was said.  I can say that Sanjay has to know everyone everywhere.  Sanjay got 11 very inspiring entrepreneurs to spend at least an hour talking - totally off the record - about the good, bad, and ugly of starting and running new businesses.  I was at Founder Fables from 8am to 7pm. I never even thought of leaving.  The food was good. The coffee was good. The Founders were inspiring. When Sanjay announces the where and when of the next Founder Fables, you must go. Simple as that. That was Tuesday.  Startup Riot was Wednesday.  Here's what happens: 450 people gather at The Tabernacle at 830am to hear the 30 startups that Sanjay & Co. have chosen to "pitch" our new startups. We get 4 slides, 3 minutes to present, and 3 minutes of questions from tech startup gurus Adam Rich, TA McCann, and Hiten Shah.  Follow these guys on Twitter. You'll learn much.  Some of the fun came from Sanjay's expertise at keeping secrets. Just like Founder Fables, we did not know everything that was going to happen this day.  We all gathered and setup our 6' black tables to show our wares, and waited. Shortly after arrival, we got the schedule of who's going to present and when. So I'm #2 in line in the first group.  If you're applying to pitch at the next Startup Riot, know this: you gotta wait behind the stage for 20 minutes or so, and it's really, really cold. And you're probably a little nervous. Ever pitched anything to 450 people before?  It can be a little intimidating. You should practice. A lot. I did not nail my pitch.  I hit the slide-forward button twice the first time I touched it, so it went to far, and you can ask "them" to go back one time and one time only, then you gotta deal with it. That was my time. Then I jumped ahead of myself.  See, turns out all my in-car practicing was great, but that was not practice with the slides. Doh! A little insight into some of what I think makes Startup Riot pretty freaking great.  First, it's a competition. Not everybody likes competition, but if you're starting a small business, especially a tech business, you had better get on board with the fact that it's uber competitive.  I love competition. Competition makes everyone better, brings the cream to the top and exposes the pretender. Startup Riot is at its heart a competition, and that alone is exciting. Second, Startup Riot is big. Where else can you launch your new business to 450 people who love new businesses?!?  You can't. Simple as that.  I pitched again the very next day at a great event, but there were less than 100 people there.  Great event, yes, but 1/4 the size of Startup Riot. No comparison.  I met more investors at Startup Riot than I've ever met in one place. Third, part of the DNA that Sanjay and folks like him bring to events like Startup Riot is pay it forward. Every one of the speakers at Founder Fables at one time or another was helped along when the needed it. Everyone there was competitive, but over and over I heard the same theme preached that we are all in a position to help someone else.  We all know someone who needs help. We all need help ourselves at some point.  Proof of that meme was put into a superb post by @bubs. Brilliant and inspiring. Back to the competition.  I was nervous, and as I said, did not nail my pitch. But that's ok. Nobody's perfect, right? Well, this young lady was.  Excelegrade's Lauren Miller killed it.  Seriously, I don't think she said "um" or "uh" or hesitated once. It was perfect. They won, and they deserved it. She killed it.  I did not get to hear the 2nd place pitch by Spensa Technologies, but they've created a way to automate agricultural pest control. Who knew that was even a problem?!? They did. And they've fixed it.  I did see the 3rd place pitch by Ten Eight. Turns out I went to college with the older brother of they guy giving their pitch. Small world indeed, but you never know who you're going to meet. Dress appropriately.  Ten Eight is going to do away with the commercial real estate binder, because it's a waste of time and money.  Are you in commercial real estate? Wouldn't you rather carry an iPad than 72 tour booklets?

Team Rocket Whale wins the SendGrid award at Startup Riot MAKE for their HowTracker Policies and Procedures software. We had a great time hacking away for a weekend and we built a very alpha version of our upcoming policies and procedures software, which we continue to make progress on and expect to release within the next couple of months.

Our prize was a Sphero, which is essentially a phone/tablet powered cat toy that Sam's cats enjoy tremendously. The award comes from SendGrid, primarily as a result of our users being able to attest to policies by simply responding to an email.

The "startup season" in Atlanta is slowly picking up steam. Business plan competitions, demo showcases, presentation practices, drink-ups, and a ton of other entrepreneurial events are being held for investors and investees alike. The common denominator in this varied collection of biz-focused get-togethers is, of course, the pitch.

It's been about one week since the whirlwind StartupRiot 2012 (where I was representing Kanjus) came to a spectacular close, but only one of its many moving parts really stood out in a negative way: the judges. Punctuating the event's tweet stream were periodic complaints about the judges' approach to evaluating pitches and the businesses behind them. Most of the kvetching was justified.

After re-reading all of these tweets, I realized, "there are a ton of guides for pitching, but almost none for judging." I now humbly submit these points for consideration by all prospective biz plan, pitch, or presentation judges.

For the search engines out there, this is "How to Judge A Business Pitch Competition."

1. Have clear judging criteria in mind, even if you aren't given any

Backstage with founder and organizer Sanjay Parekh, the presenters in my cohort discussed StartupRiot's history, the rules for the competition, and Sanjay's views on determining what makes a "good" pitch. I was shocked when he said that there were no official judging guidelines published for fear of contestants "gaming the system" or judges having their creativity stifled...or something. There were no checklists, flowcharts, or anything similar given to judges or contestants. Kafka would be proud; there's nothing quite like getting ready to defend against an inquisition whose nature is largely unknown.

But more to the point, judges really should prepare for this kind of scenario even when presenters can't. As a judge, simply tweeting or blogging that you prefer the idea over the pitch (or vice versa), marketing plans instead of technology, or any other criterion can give the contestants some confidence that you aren't totally in the pocket of the organizers. It also keeps you honest on stage and throughout the deliberation process.

2. Please, please, please don't use logical fallacies

Perhaps the most laughable questions were those addressed to the audience for an effect, like "how many people out there would lie to their BodyBoss?" (in response to a personal fitness app that crunches self-reported workout data). Thankfully, this particular bandwagon appeal totally backfired: laughter replaced raised hands, presumably because everyone understood that it's entirely counterproductive to lie to a fitness app that doesn't tell others about your progress.

Failtroll was waaaay fail.

The worst part was how the judge kept pursuing this obvious non-starter to save face, and that the speaker was then forced to answer. I did get some relief from some vocal peanut gallerist's defense: "Why would you lie to the BodyBoss?" Now that's more like it.

3. Keep in mind that finding a hole is different than poking one

Presenters, prior to pitching at StartupRiot or elsewhere, often talk of judges and VCs mercilessly "poking holes" in an idea. I'd like to posit that, though there's often a fine line between finding a legitimate business issue and playing up a trivial one, finding and poking really are different things.

Example: one judge said of a pitch that the business was "one Google API away" from being eclipsed by the search giant's massive development machine. He was rightfully rebuked by TJ Muehleman of We&Co, who tweeted:

Repeatedly whipping out throwaway questions like this one (granted, such a question may be warranted sometimes) is like saying "your high school soccer team would be a darn sight better if they were coached by José Mourinho. How do you expect them to beat Arsenal otherwise?" I mean, really, who does that?

4. I know you're a big shot, but don't act like one

Indeed, my time in academia has molded me a into timid and fragile creature, so I think the scary startup culture is dominated by bravado and big egos. But I get that - being a big shot mezzanine-closin', exit-havin', bootstrappin' millionaire gives you certain bragging rights.

What it doesn't endow is the license to apply your experience to every single idea.

Example: "Well, I can tell you from my time in ABC that XYZ didn't work and still won't work" isn't good form for a judge - instead, try something like "we had a lot of trouble doing XYZ because it's not that scalable. What's your plan for overcoming this?" Humility and open-mindedness work wonders, and can even elicit richer responses from the contestants when applied properly. After all, these pitch events are about their startups, not yours.