Arhiva: septembrie 2013, în engleză

Freshome is one of the most well known design blogs in the world, reaching 4 million pageviews monthly. I’ve known Mihai since before starting it and I was able to follow the entire adventure of the site and I often talked to him asking for tips on blogging :)

I’ve read today an interview with him for the design and tech blog Hongkiat. Here are some ideas I thought they are worth mentioning (with italics from me):

It’s a good thing to do something you like, you are already involved in:

I wanted a dream house, so I started checking out different sites for inspiration. I started finding different ideas for furniture and interior design stuff and I noticed that the guys running those sites were actually doing it as a business. I thought hey, I could do it too. So it all started with me trying to imagine my dream house.

It’s great, as an entrepreneur, to set your own working hours, but it’s still more than 9 to 5

The site isn’t on auto-pilot. I carry the weight for different updates, ad optimization and sales. I don’t see anyone replacing me yet. There’s no fixed schedule, I couldn’t say how much I work daily, but I would say it’s more than a normal 9 to 5 job.

Blogging as a business might not be the best idea right now, look for better opportunities (mobile?)

So to answer your question, no, I wouldn’t start over. Today there are better opportunities, especially in the mobile world. It wouldn’t be wise for me to invest in blogging today when you have areas in which those resources would be put to far better use and enojoy a faster growth. I always try to find a rising industry.

Before starting something new, think of a “transition business” (great term!):

Well, if you’re a freelancer wanting to become an entrepreneur, start with a ‘transition business’. For example, if you’re a designer, you can easily stop selling your time for money and instead go to themeforest.net, where you can transform your skill into a passive income by creating and selling themes. That’s one example of a ‘transition business’.

Read the entire interview here.

Since this week I focused a lot on gaming (because of the panel I moderated at TechHub on Creating Killer Games), I thought it’s only natural to close the week with a video about gaming.

The following video is on of the lectures available from Casual Connect. What makes it different is the fact that it is a panel of real gamers, real fans of Candy Crush Saga, that tell the audience what makes the game so addictive. And, for a game developer (especially for a mobile/Facebook/casual games one) is pure gold.

So, take 50 minutes and go through it. It is worth it.

Moreover, if you have the time, look for all the Casual Connect videos (or GDC videos, but they are not usually available publicly).

Did you see “Indie Game: The Movie“? If not and you are interested in the world of gaming, stop reading this and go watch it :)

In this documentary, you follow 3 indie game developers going through the process of launching their games. One of those developers is Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid. The guy is considered “the philosopher” of the gaming industry and his game, Braid, on of the best indie games ever.

Braid is a platform and puzzle cross-platform game (I play it on my Mac, but you can also find Windows versions, XBox, PS3), a game that initially seems a clone of Mario Bros, but it is so much more than this.

You, basically, look for your princess in different worlds, jumping your way from room to room. The thing is, though, that the game is not as simple as it initially looks. It took me several hours and, in frustration, watching some YouTube walkthroughs to finally finish the first world. The thing is, the game is solvable all the time. If you cannot find the solution, you are not thinking the right way (not my words, but the developer’s).

If you love pixel art, Braid is a game where pixels look as great as they can ever look. The graphics in the game are perfect (every color, every move, every character is perfect in every way). And the soundtrack gives you the feeling of a triple-A title.

Finally, if you loved the Prince of Persia series and the fact that you could take back time, you will love Braid :)

Go, play the game, have fun. At the top of the article there’s a big sort of infograph I’ve “stolen” from their site, one that will explain the game a little bit better and give you some idea of what to expect (I bought the game cheaper in the Mac App Store and I think you can find good deals on Steam).

P.S.: the game made several million dollars, just saying.

Here is a link to the meetup I moderated yesterday on “Creating Killer Games”.

Start looking at the video starting with minute 42 or something like this, until the there’s just a placeholder.

I hope you enjoy it, the panel was really great and the questions afterwards were even better :)

We talked about starting a career in gaming (entrepreneur from the start or go through the ranks in another company first), about the process of Acquisition – Retention – Monetization, about copycats, financing and more.

Later today I will moderate a great gaming panel: Mihai Sfrijan, Head of Studio in Bucharest for King, George Lemnaru, founder of Green Horse Games and last, but not least, my co-founder at MavenHut, Cristi Badea.

The thing is, I need to prepare some questions for the 40 minutes of panel talk.

Some ideas are:
– how do you analyze metrics in your company
– what are the most important metrics that a game creator should follow initially
– how much should you force the monetization, where do you stop?
– how do you react to players revolt (it happens!)
– what are some numbers that define a good game
– what is the most important element in acquisition-retention-monetization process?
– some suggestions on acquisition, both free and paid?
– some suggestions on retention?
– suggestions on monetization?
– how expensive is to create a hit game?
– how big should the team be? is it possible to do it by yourself, with a small team? who should be in the team, what skills should be there no matter what?

OK, it should be enough for 40 minutes, but do you have some questions of your own? If so, the comments below are at your disposal :)

P.S.: if you want to come, the event is today, 6:30, at TechHub in Bucharest.

We work hard at MavenHut. We really do. The culture of the company is to work hard and have fun about it. Cristi is the one taking care of this when it comes to MavenHut (to be sure that everyone in the team understands what is expected of them) and you can feel it: people really try hard to do their part.

Still, we are also trying to relax from time to time and the team is actually happy to join in.

Several weeks ago, we had a lot of fun at karting (and I missed my first ever medal in internal competitions by 4 hundreds of a second!!!). In the photo below there’s a heated moment between me and Cristi on the race track:

Then we went to see Jobs at a cinema VIP room. You can read more about the movie here. The certain thing is that I’ve never seen so many people not wanting to leave their chairs at the end of the movie and actually sitting in through the entire credits.

But these one-off events are nothing compared to the massage we receive at the office. Not all the time, of course, but we have someone coming constantly to give us 15 minutes massages. And it’s great, as you can see below, when I was almost falling asleep in the chair :D

Finally, the XBox hooked to the video projector makes games like FIFA and Mortal Kombat a totally different experience.

Work is good, you need perfection in everything you do and that’s not easy. But fun is also good. From time to time :))

So don’t forget about it. It makes work a lot easier and more productive.

Photos by Elvis, Cristi and me.

If, by any chance, you are in Bucharest and you are interested in gaming or entrepreneurship, this is an interesting event to be at: TechHub Meetup: Developing Killer Games.

You can ask questions to and listen the experiences of:

– Mihai Sfrijan, Head of Studio at King. Mihai is a great guy, that we got to know better this year and is one of the great resources about gaming in the Romanian market, especially when you are talking about Facebook/mobile casual games (I mean, they develop Bubble Witch Saga in Romania and King is the studio behind the crazy successful Candy Crush Saga).

– George Lemnaru is, I think, a pioneer in the gaming entrepreneurship in Romania. He co-founded eRepublik and he is now starting another gaming company, Green Horse Games.

– Cristi Badea, my co-founder at MavenHut. He is the guy behind the mechanics of Solitaire Arena, the one that crunches numbers for breakfast in order to create the best games that we can create.

Of course, I will be there. I will be the host for this event, the one that will try to squeeze as much information as possible from the guests. I will appreciate any kind of questions you want to ask, so don’t be afraid to write them in the comments below.

If you can be in Bucharest, come to TechHub on Thursday at 6:30pm. You’re not gonna regret it.

When you think of advice for your business you are usually thinking of specific, detailed advice. Steps to take to make your business great. The truth is that nobody can give you this kind of advice: your business is your own, you know it better than anybody else, so most of the time you will get basic ideas, nothing world shaking.

I’ve written recently an article about the TV series I watch. One of the comments refers to the fact the host of Hotel Impossible, Anthony Melchiorri, offers only basic advice. And, frankly, the commentator is right: the advice is pretty basic.

The thing is, though, that most of the businesses in disarray need exactly this: basic advice. They need to be reminded to focus on what they know, to understand what hurts them and what is the general path to take to get back. They do not need specific tactics, because they lost their way.

I have to say that about 15-20 years, when I first started something on my own (selling computers from my parents home or repairing computers for friends), my parents gave me a lot of advice. And it was really basic: “before starting a company, get some customers!” was the one I got sick and tired of hearing. I thought I knew better: I need a company, otherwise nobody will trust me. Of course, first I need an incredible logo. Oh, and business cards, right? I finally got my first clients (my parents forced their friends into it, I am sure of this) and I started to understand business a lot better. And I never had a business card and I used a friend’s company to invoice the clients. And they never cared I was a 16 years old kid as long as I was coming to a bad computer and I was leaving from a working one.

Right now, when I talk to people and ask for advice I expect basic advice most of the time. The thing I need is a pair of eyes seeing my business from outside. And then, after getting the basic advice, I put it through my own filter and create the necessary tactics to get to where I want. But still, the advice I get doesn’t go too far from these kind of things: get revenues, get more users… basic, right? :)

Basic advice is great advice. It actually is the best advice. It is up to you how you understand it, what you ask about it and what you do with it.

Photos from Shutterstock

Brad Feld is on of the most visible VCs around the world being a blogger at feld.com, ex-entrepreneur and, even more, the founder of TechStars, the US accelerator that recently launched their first European version in London.

Brad was also invited, recently, via Skype, to a meeting with Romanian entrepreneurs at TechHub Bucharest.

In this video he is the guest of Mark Suster, another star VC and blogger, at his show called This Week In. Mark writes at Both Sides of The Table, another great VC blog.

And, finally, Brad is an accomplished writer, among his books being Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur, which is the first book touching the personal life of an entrepreneur, including the difficulties you and your partner go through.

The video touches subjects like: blogging, entrepreneurship, VC investment, accelerators. It’s an interesting video, especially because of the combined experience of the two participants (host and guest).

Unfortunately, the video is no longer available, but here is a synopsis of it.