Marc Nager

All too often I hear people mutter, “It’s just so tough to get funding here,” or “Our startup is doing well, but people just don’t ‘get it’ here,” or “We’re going to have to move to Silicon Valley if we want to ever make it.” Most of the time, they’re wrong. Tell them to quit complaining and start doing something to solve whatever problem they are facing. Here is my un-scholarly perspective from my experience after seeing over 400 new startup ventures launched in over 40 cities around the world.

Remember in grade school when someone said, “It’s freezing in here.” Confirmation and complaints spread faster than the yawns in history class. Nothing got accomplished by doing that unless someone, who probably wasn’t cold in the first place, went and bumped the thermostat up a few degrees. Point – generally most people are really good at complaining about extremely obvious things, and luckily, for our friends in skirts or flip-flops in January, there’s always a few people that actually get out of their seat and do something about it.

Weather you are in Grand Rapids, Michigan or you are in Santa Monica, California, you can find every single ingredient required. I bet the first thing that popped into your mind when I said “ingredients” was “money,” right? I’m so tired of the prevailing thought is that you can’t do anything without money and using it as an excuse. Yes, its part of the equation, but I will fight to keep it out of the focus of any conversation. We all know about LeanStartup principles and how you can start a business for practically nothing these days, but one thing for sure is that there is no shortage of money out there. There is however, a much higher shortage of people who have money that do not understand the startup culture and ecosystem.

Building a “startup ecosystem” isn’t rocket science, and all too often I see what seems to be a broken, over engineered system for delivering money to individuals and teams that are willing to kill themselves to reach unrealistic goals.  We’re lucky enough in the US to have everything it takes to support a healthy ecosystem in any city. It is not some complex machine, but rather it is a way of thinking and acting, a culture. A simple paradigm shift and network of community support that instills that “yes, you can start today” – not in a few weeks, or when you save enough money, or when the time is ‘right,’ but today. Main ingredients: 1. Smart People 2. Mentors (smart & successful people) 3. Physical Location 4. One Successful Startup

Since all of these ingredients exist in every community, we just need to get the right mix to foster a culture that supports entrepreneurship, risk-taking, innovation, and startups.

Events like Open Coffee, Lunch 2.0, Startup Drinks, Founder Dating are amazing networking events where you are sure to rub shoulders with some of the community’s brightest. Educational events and workshops like Ruby on Rails, Google App Engine, .Net, Mobile Developers, Investor Pitching, Business Plan Writing, etc. are an amazingly essential aspect to helping educate and expand the skill sets of potential entrepreneurs. Now you need programs that focus on tangible results by merging the networking aspects with real world applications like Startup Weekend which help encourage, incentives, and mentor individuals and teams willing to forgo talking and start executing. Of course, once you have some people actually executing, there needs to be some support structures that help lower the barriers to starting a company such as local incubators, co-working spaces, mentoring programs, etc.

There is an obvious need for a physical location for these events to be taking place that is convenient, accessible, and has a great energy. A successful company or location with successful companies truly becomes the nexus of startup culture in communities. It takes success to breed success, and more often than not, offices of successful startups absolutely reek of fun and creative energy. There needs to be more offices where you can play video games, grab a drink, or just hang out after those long bootstrapping early days. More open and creative workspaces truly foster the “community” of entrepreneurs that then set the tone of the entrepreneurial culture.

So, what about the money? Once you have enough people executing, starting, and supporting other startups with little to no money but a whole ton of passion, it is only a matter of time before rich Uncle Jimmy, who gave you $1,000 to help you pay your mortgage, realizes that their is something special happening and a legitimate chance that you are not actually dealing drugs. Start inviting all of Uncle Jimmy’s friends to your office or to your next event as this is truly an educational experience for them. They will realize that something needs to change when they show up and are the only person wearing a suit, yet they leave with the biggest smile on their face after getting a taste of the amazing creative energy and culture developing in their community. They’ll be back sans suit and money in hand. I’ve see it happen a dozen times, but you’ve got to convince them that it no longer takes $100million and an 80 page business plan to get a legitimate startup off the ground.

Most everyone knows about these ecosystem members and community players, but there is still a difference between someone who talks about them, and someone who actually does them. What can you do though if you want to get more involved?
Join a mailing list, community group, or meetup and go to a new event that interests you. If one doesn’t exist, start one. (greenhornconnect.com, meetup.com)
Start talking to other people about your ideas. Find people that are interested, GET FEEDBACK on your ideas. (startup drinks, open coffee, lunch 2.0, Founder Dating, etc.)
Find a co-founder. You’re idea can’t be the next Google alone. (Startup Weekend)
Start building. TODAY! Challenge yourself.
Reach out for advice. Get mentors.
Invite a local Angel or VC to attend one of your events.

If you don’t believe me already, you need to realize that you have everything it takes right in your backyard, and you can start doing little things today that helps breed a completely new level of passion and inspiration. This is the beginning of a culture that understand and fully supports anyone crazy enough wanting to start building the next “big thing.” Harvesting moon water just became a reality. Next is Mars.

The Science of Simplicity

I truly believe that most people can be classified in two categories when it comes to ideas vs. execution: those who talk about doing things and those who just do them. Everyone is of course aware of this cliché but it certainly is something that you have to always be cognoscente of and it really becomes a way of life.

I certainly catch myself over-committing to eccentric ideas sometimes and even some not so crazy ideas which might be even more frustrating when I realize that I just physically can’t find the time or resources (or I don’t have the ability) to do them.

Anyways, brings me to my point that there are some people that are just good at getting shit done, and there is a common theme behind a lot of these people who can do it – simplicity. Sounds logical right? But it’s human nature to pick things apart, critique everything from color to size to how your grandma will use it. When you find yourself getting antsy, pretending to listen to your co-founder while checking your e-mail, or thinking that you’ll never be able to communicate how great your idea is so everyone understands it, step back and truly find what you are trying to accomplish at the most basic level… Then do it. You’ll save time, money, effort, stress, and you’ll be amazed at how quick you will learn if it was a good idea or not. Harder than it sounds and I’m certainly no pro at it yet despite my insane desire to quit wasting my time and energy on unnecessary things.

Here are some prime examples:

TheStartupDigest.com

CloudCamp.org

Craigslist.com

Venturehacks.com

GarysGuide.org

This day in age everyone understands the value in having a large social prescense on the web. Similar to the idea of woofies, our social capital determins the value of your netowork and therefore anything you have to say. How do you help build that and capture that value? Today’s default answer is an online community or social network. This isn’t news to anyone; however, it is a space flooded with startups and services sure to “be the best online community platform” our there. After spending far too much time testing and evlauating alternatives for Startup Weekend over the last 9 months, I figured that I could share the process, and hopefully save someone else from pulling out there hair over some trivial feature.

Lesson 1 – Look for the 80% solution. Don’t waste your time trying to ensure that every little feature is exactly how you envision it. Identify your needs vs your wants. You will waste A LOT of time and money otherwise. Life isn’t perfect, and your network wont be either unless you can invest $70k+/yr for a full-time admin and a custom platform.

Lesson 2 – Build a network not a webpage. Your webpage and your network are two separate things. Don’t make the mistake of trying to replicate your existing website in a social network. A social network is literally a forum for your community to connect, share ideas, create content, and ultimately interact with your brand. Map our your architecture so that everything points back to your website. Your website or blog needs to remain at the backbone of your operation since this is what you own and have the most control over.

Lesson 3 – It’s about your brand. Sure, the dozenens of options out there look the same, have the same features, and generally have comparable pricing models. Don’t waste your time worrying about every feature or tiny nuances in CSS. Take your time to ensure that you create content that is relevant and ultimately offers an experience around your brand.

The A-List – The largest point here is to pick a brand that allows for open developement and an API so the world can contribute to building custom features for the platform. There are a few giants in the relm of out-of-the-box online communities and the truth is that if they don’t have the features that you want right now, they probably will in 6 months time. They have the staff and the money to give their users what they want to see.

Ning, Socialgo, YouNoodle, BuddyPress, Boonex, OneSite, SocialSpring, and Presently were the top contenders.

We wasted so much time on BuddyPress trying to implement a nice solution that integrated with WordPress MU nicely, but that is a lost cause. The features just are not there quite yet. YouNoodle is great for networking just the companies. This is important for the Startup Weekend network, but it is missing the community aspect of other netoworks. Boonex is a great option if you have an admin that can invest the time into getting the network live and customizing it. There are a number of others that I looked into that cost anywhere from $30k-$70k to get a custom build-out that pretty much had the same features as the out of the box solutions.

We settled on Ning just the other day. Why? They have the most robust set of features currently, an open store for apps and widgets so we can continue to add our own custom features, the ability to export user’s data, and probably the biggest reason – they have the most funding and largest community already. They have the best ability to meet the demands of community organizers around the world without having to cater to clients that are shelling out $30k.

Lastly, make sure that you even need an online community. I saw far too many groups with only 3 members which is just a waste. Focus on establishing your following and giving people a reason to want a community. Start with a blog and a mailing list.

1. you visit 12 cities in 5 weeks for work.

2. you haven’t slept in your own bed for more than a day or two in more than 6 weeks.

3. you couch surf with people and you interview eachother for future blog posts.

4. you think a girl riding a moped can be sexy.

5. people have to constantly remind you to eat.

6. your family stops even asking what you do because they are scared to hear it.

7. your friends stop calling you because they don’t understand you anymore.

8. most conversations can be finished in less than 140 characters.

9. you get random calls from singapore at 1AM.

10. you arrive at meetings on the 70th floor in bike clothes.

11. you can see your desk from your bed. (when your bed is not your desk)

12. you recognize more people at a conference by their avatar than their name.

13. you save old laptops so you can take pictures with them on floaties in the middle of a lake in a storm.

14. you help setup poker tournaments in mansions.

15. your life would end if a rouge breeze blew off any post-it notes your wall.

16. your living room window becomes your extra whiteboard.

17. you get tired of hearing the phrase “someday soon.”

18. your wardrobe consists of t-shirts from your own events.

19. your toilet seat is covered in startup company promo stickers.

20. you have a fish named America.

21. the new email chime makes makes you run across the room.

22. you hear twitter sounds on conference calls with your partners.

Just tonight, we were talking about how we remember those days when we would buy a $10 bottle of wine, and eat out for lunch every day. Those were the days before we “made the leap” into the world of a startup back in May with Startup Weekend.

What would I change? Absolutly nothing. Happiness is truly not a product of money. Sure it takes a bit to survive, but I have barely making rent the last 6 months and never had so much fun. The people we meet, the lessons we learn, and the progress we see makes me want to get out of bed every day to “go to work”. In fact, I wouldn’t go as far as to even call the 17 hour days “work.” However, there are the hard days!

Especially lately with 14 events planned before the end of the year, the stress has been mounting. Realizing that we are never ever “caught up” is a feeling that you learn to live with. Its so hard soemthing when you wish you could just climb up on a hill and yell at everyone to stop and just listen to you because you know you have an amazing product, you just can’t express it in a perfect message to everyone quick enough!

What do you get when you have too much stress from a startup? A stiff neck and a stressed out girlfriend. So Ashley and I started hot yoga. Holy hell. I never knew that it would take something like twisting upside down and sweating like a pig on the gridstone to forget about that startup thing… It is so important to take the time to do this or something similar. Time to start riding the bike again too.

Can’t forget the food. Most days we forget to even eat until 3pm. The dozen cups of green tea we have every day seems to get carry us until we realize that we have to make some pasta again… I’m tired of pasta and rice. Seriously.

Global Entreprenuership week is here for Startup Weekend. This is an amazing opportunity to spread the word around the world about what we are doing. We will be hosting events in at least 9 cities during the week, so we will be busy to say the least…

The GEW folks asked us for a bio and a picture, so naturally, i took the bio from my blog here and we decided to throw a curve ball at the GEW guys. We sent them a nice picture out in front of the Lincoln Memorial in DC and this picture. Guess which one they chose.

It is truly amazing the identity something like startup weekend can create. We are able to bike to meetings with directors of the city of Seattle, give presentations in flip flops, and wear slippers all day at work. I guess this is one of the perks of a startup, but somehow people have an unspoken respect for this “style.” We are immediately able to relate to almost anyone on a friendly level. One thing both Clint and I focus on is making everyone we “work” with feel not like a business partner but a friend. It makes everything we do so much more enjoyable for everyone involved, and if anything creates a more productive working relationship as well!

http://www.unleashingideas.org/usa/partners

It’s going to be crazy! Check it out on Everlater. Clint and I will be trotting the Western Hemisphere over the next month to set up future Startup Weekend events. It is going to be nuts!

My Trips on Everlater

We had a couple of the guys from the Redmond event swing by the other day to check out the Startup Weekend Global HQ!  They did some amazing work on the video. Really love these things despite not being a good interviewee… haha.

Coffee with eventNu: Startup Weekend from Ruchit Garg on Vimeo.