Arhiva completă: engleză

I am not the biggest fan of TV, but I enjoy some TV series a lot. Some of those I watch are TV shows that are worth the time for a business person, especially for the negotiating skills you can learn from them.

I would recommend, in no particular order: Pawn Stars, Counting Cars, Shark Tank.

Shark Tank is a show presenting startup founders that need investment (or, in some cases, just visibility) in front of a jury of investors including Mark Cuban of Broadcast.com and Dallas Mavericks (see more details here). The most interesting part about this show is the explanation of decisions by the jurors. Really worth the time.

Pawn Stars is an interesting show for men interested in the weirdness of the human beings. As well as people interested in history :) YOu can see here people bringing Elephant Poo in a can or really historic artifacts like books signed by old US presidents and similar things. I enjoy the show for the way they negotiate: the first time I saw the show and someone asked for $10,000 for something and the guys fired back with $2,500 I was in awe. I would’ve never thought of negotiating 75% of the price!

FInally, Counting Cars is a TV series around flipping old cars, after restoring them. Again, you see the owner of the car shop buying old, destitute cars and repairing them for a profit. Again, from the school of Pawn Stars, they really negotiate by dropping the price down to 60 percent on the initial offer> and sometimes they actually get away with it.

As a bonus, an interesting show I only saw some episodes on Travel Channel is Hotel Impossible: a series about bringing bad service hotels back in business.

About 6 months ago I’ve discovered Score! (I think Cristi, my co-founder at MavenHut, told me about it). It’s a game for both iPhone and iPad, but I only played it on the iPad.

Score! is a kind of Pocket Planes for football. Basically, you take goals scored in the last 30 years or so and try to recreate them on the iPad screen. Based on the level (Amateur, Professional), you set up directions, shot power and let the game unwind and gain stars and points based on accuracy.

Initially it felt like a stupid game, I must admit, but with every goal I would go forward I would get more and more into it. So much, actually, that I wanted to buy a goal package (you have some initial ones, and some additional that keep updating, with goals from World Cups, Premiership and similar).

The thing is I haven’t deleted from my iPad it since I downloaded the game the first time, though I do not play it that often. And, thinking of it, I really, really enjoy it, from time to time (especially on longer flights, when I am tired and unable to focus on reading and the inflight entertainment is boring).

So, if you have the time and care to have a non-realtime football game, you should give it a try.

Last spring I went on my first visit to the US. And my first stop was, completely unexpected for me, Austin. And SXSW.

There are lots of things to say about Texas and Austin and about the days of madness around SXSW. But one of the things I will remember was the keynote from Elon Musk (actually an on stage interview).

The feeling of being in the presence of what future generation will consider visionary and greatness was palpable. I think Elon Musk will be the Nikola Tesla of our generation (hopefully with more financial success).

As a funny thing, they say that Robert Downey jr.’s Tony Stark (IronMan) was modeled after Elon Musk. Also, you can follow a Twitter parody account which, from time to time, actually says funny one liners: BoredElonMusk

Take an hour and see the video below, it’s worth it. This is the man that started PayPal, sold it and invested two really disruptive businesses: Tesla and Space X. He’s the CEO of both and he wants to die on Mars, after living there the last years of his life.

Ask a startup founder about the revenue for the month. Or the number of users his/her business has. Or the amount of servers and the load on them on an average day. The answer should be immediate (there can be some hesitation, but only to take into account or not today’s numbers). Obviously, ask each founder the questions specific for him: I would hate to be asked about the servers, instead of Elvis. Obviously, I now a general number, and I know how much we spend on it, but that’s it. My job is not to know how many they are, but how they impact the cash flow.

Surprisingly, though, I have met so many startup founders, especially in early stages, that don’t have a clue about their numbers. And I have no idea how that happens. How can you think about your business every minute of every day and not know those numbers?

When I ask about this, they say there are so many numbers, how can they remember all of those? And I give them the example of Cristi, the other co-founder at MavenHut, who follows several hundred indicators permanently and he probably knows by heart about 50 of them (the most important ones). Or it takes him 2 minutes at the most to give details on the others (after looking through Excels and stats). It may sound huge, but gaming is a metrics driven business and that is his job. If he doesn’t know those, he can’t do what he’s supposed to do: create great games that are played by lots of users.

You may say that you don’t have the time to look at the numbers, because you are busy building a business. How do you know how to build it, what it needs, if you are not looking at the numbers?? It’s mind blowing for me how many times I hear this, though.

And, as a side information, every investor I’ve met asked me about numbers. User numbers, growth, revenues, if any, estimates, industry numbers. You NEED to know numbers!

Photo from ShutterStock

I am not a native English speaker. I’ve spoken the language (to the best of my abilities) since I was a kid. Thanks to my mother, I started to learn the language pretty early in life (6 years old), while games with lots of English text gave me the necessary push to actually go to the classes she paid for.

Unfortunately, I don’t speak English as good as I’d like to. Of course, I can make myself understood, I speak pretty fluently, but I often feel the wording I use is not the best or the terms I use have a different meaning in a specific context. Case in point: “I speak pretty fluent” or “I speak pretty fluently”? :D

Anyway, I don’t have an issue with people that don’t speak the language. I get it, it’s not easy for all of us (a German guy will have a hard time saying “v” as [vi] instead of [fi], I know), but you need to speak it. And, until today, I had no argument for pushing this other than the fact that everybody in our world (startups in tech) speak English: investors, co-workers, partners.

Today, though, I read this interview with Paul Graham from Y Combinator, and this is what he says when he is being asked about signs of a potential bad team while selecting them for YC:

One quality that’s a really bad indication is a CEO with a strong foreign accent. I’m not sure why. It could be that there are a bunch of subtle things entrepreneurs have to communicate and can’t if you have a strong accent. Or, it could be that anyone with half a brain would realize you’re going to be more successful if you speak idiomatic English, so they must just be clueless if they haven’t gotten rid of their strong accent. I just know it’s a strong pattern we’ve seen.

I know, life’s not fair. Not everybody was born in an English speaking country. Does it really matter?

P.S.: this is my Demo Day presentation. The tremble you hear in my voice is stage fright. After all these years…

Later updates: People reacted to Paul Graham comments and he answered here. More reactions from Mark Suster and Om Malik.

Two days ago I’ve read something that sounded really familiar: startups don’t work with other startups. I am sorry, I can’t find the article right know, but this is something I’ve been thinking in the last 18 months, since we started MavenHut. Maybe a little more nuanced: early startups don’t work with early startups.

One of the most difficult things to do when in a startup is to convince your potential partners to work with you: startups, by their nature, are a fiddly beast. Most of them don’t survive the first several month, let alone the first year, so everybody starts with the assumption that a startup will not deliver.

To makes matters worse, a startup has even less incentive to work with another one. And the reasoning is simple: the startup you build is already on the edge of survival (as any startup is). You don’t really want to base your own existence on somebody else’s capacity of making it to the shore. And startups make mistakes, and first versions of the products are rarely the ones the customer needs. And I have limited resources (money and work hours), I don’t want to lose anything because of your testing/mistakes. I lose enough on mine.

Yes, working with a startup may be cheaper, even free. But I would rather pay more for something or make it without the specific thing that startup offers, than to base my livelihood on somebody else’s promises.

I am keeping in touch with startups we talk to for partnerships, though. We can still help each other and thrive together, but working together? Later down the road, once we’ve both crossed 2 years of building the same product. By that time you should already have a version stable enough for us to use.

Does this make life more difficult for startup founders? Hell, yes! But it’s the way it is.

P.S.: actually, I remembered that when we started, Cristi, my co-founder, kept saying: “While I am a startup, I am not going to be the first customer of another startup. Too much uncertainty involved.”

Photo from Shutterstock

Yesterday MavenHut’s entire team went to the movies: Jobs. While the experience of a VIP cinema room just for ourselves made us feel a lot better, I have to say I really liked the movie. I was quite surprised, especially after reading all the bad reviews the movie got on IMDB and similar sites.

Ashton Kutcher, which I actually like, especially because of his business acumen, creates a believable Jobs, down to his behavior patterns, his walking and, especially, his eyes. Really, when the images of both Kutcher and Jobs appear at the end of the movie, look at their eyes.

Anyway, the movie is a series of short moments that take you from the launch of the company to the launch of the iPod, without respecting the timeline. At times it feels like a series of sketches, but, if you already know the timeline, the movie is quite enjoyable. And the acting, I have to say, is good. Including (or especially) Josh Gad as Wozniak.

Yes, the movie has some off beat moments, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

My advice: if you have the time, go see it, regardless of the bad reviews. I think you will really enjoy it. Especially if you read Isaacson’ biography on Jobs or Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple (which I actually think is the better read).

Finally, an interesting thing, the official site for the site is a collaborative effort on tumblr.

We are always testing new games here, at MavenHut. On all devices, from anybody. Last week we’ve discovered Wooga’s Jelly Splash.

The game is a cross between Dots and Candy Crush Saga. It starts a little bit slow, but I got really into it after the first 7-8 levels. Now I am at level 50, to give you an idea :)

It’s a free game with inApp purchases. I managed to get to level 50 without spending any money (you start with some credits that can be used to unlock new areas, so don’t spend them in the first levels).

My advice: if you’re looking for a Candy Crush Saga like new game, try Jelly Splash. But don’t blame me for the lack of productivity :)

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.

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