startup – my passion for startup and my experience in Poland vs USA

On these gloomy autumn days someone sent me a link with a sentence underneath “He who fears, he is a slave” – Seneca. Let me add to the above what Marek Kondrat said once: We cannot be afraid because we lose too much. Therefore to all the startup people building their companies struggling with their visions and hallucinations:

„He who fears, he is a slave”
A friend of mine wrote to me yesterday that he would like to set up a company, but he is not ready yet and he will still wait. Damn, I was never ready and I’m not even ready today. There are so many guys smarter than me that it makes my hair stand on end when I think how much this one or the other one knows comparing to me. I think you cannot get yourself ready for chaos, risk and failure. One can think about them and try to accustom oneself while they bite your hand. However if the only reason holding us from entering the game is fear (not health, family situations etc.) we have to jump in, because:
„He who fears, he is a slave”

Several silly thoughts which I think I worth sharing.

a) only customers can decide if product is ok or not ok

Angry Birds simplicity could be a failure and is big success. Facebook founders didn’t want it to be a company. So…. can we realy decide what is good product. It looks like not, stupid ideas can be golden mountains, golden mountains (perceive) could be stupid ideas. The key is customers (with accent on “s”). MVP could not be developed under the startup office roof, it must be put on a market. I believe

b) lean startup methodology support customers centric approach, this is why it is interesting approach.

c) simplicity looks like key feature. I think it is a feature because it must be featured inside products. Corel Studio is worse than iLife not because it is expensive, more developed, better in options – is worse because of fuzziness. iLife is better because of its transparency. Better for me, simple user, not graphic man, a mass population.

d) churn rate is something important but it exists anyway. If somebody understand what is churn rate and how to calculate it using web/mobile analytic (I didn’t for a long time, what a shame) it looks like he / she pays attention and lean startup can grow.

e) Seth says cool words: “Inherent in the process of minimal viable product, then, is a trusting, large permission base that will eagerly listen to you, try your new work and let you know what they think. And you don’t have the option of building that audience once the product is ready–that’s too late.”

Hope it was worth your morning coffee. Have a cool week.

Arek

Yesterday I was watching Merchant of Venice movie, great example of Al Pacino’s work. Cool story, cool art wrote by great man! I was astonished by the story about merchant of venice who was stubborn man with material goods orientation. He was good at what he was doing. On the other side, there was a salesman, a man who was counting on his own venture, entrepreneur, startup man!

Finally he lost. Startup man lost and according to a contract with Jewish Merchant contract, startup had to give 1 pound of his body = death! He was scared. But he was ready to do it.

But life smiled to him and whole situation turned upside down. He won because he was ready to give everything away.

That made me think that life is sometimes like that, you need to be ready to give everything you love away so life will smile to your face and afterwards you will be rewarded!

It was great time recently. Our photo recognition technology found some attention in peoples minds. I must say as being pride that we were chosen to top 10 startups during startupweek2011 in Vienna. We were showing up our photo recognition technology in San Francisco and some really cool Polish newspapers and web pages mentioned us.

Sometimes you feel that things are really cool. Technology got traction, VCs pay attention, people write about your staff. This is such a great feeling which takes you up to the sky. Gives energy.

Startup life is great, it opens a box o surprises (probably the same forest gump had) and it shows that so many things are possible when you in enterprenuership mode.

So sometimes it is hard to wait for the surprise but it will come !

I am watching crisis around us, watchin’ Polish politicans fighting for their next 4 years life. I am looking at Polish flag waving. I can see so many great startups around me, so many smart people, smarter than I am, than I can even imagine. I can see investors watching pitches but admitting that not having time for insight. All of these surround me. In spite of all that stuff around me I must say I am so lucky to be inside entrepreneurship world.

I need to admit that startups showed me what I love. Being in this chaos world I realized what is best for me as a human-being. Entrepreneurship shows what are my strengths and where my weaknesses are rooted. This is so obvious that I can’t cheat myself. So much self development insight from my life.

I feel in love in sales and marketing. This year I realized what is it. How it works. After all these years, startups gave me the best advice how to love sales and marketing. Startup should sell. This is healthy money.

There are no boring days when you entrepreneur, no back scratching and beer drinking with remote control in your hands.

I must say, I don’t know why I wrote all of this but I feel I have to….

“I read it somewhere once (I’m not so smart to make it up), but I can’t remember where. After these few years of startup life this is the truth. How does a brain of an entrepreneur work dealing with something so dispersed and chaotic as startup? The brain works like this:

1. Defines goal – with a burst of energy, faith in oneself, hallucinations and delusion it makes up a purpose. Damn right. I’ll do it, no matter what! Brain thinks out a goal because there is no adrenaline without it.

2. He gets up in the morning and pursues this goal. Startup man with a wording “Made of steel” engraved on his shoulder follows the dream drinking his own adrenaline. He is motivated!

3. He picks up the phone, let’s say from the president of a big advertising agency and he hears – you have some company with some program or application, don’t you? I would like to use your application to conduct action X”

SURPRISE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Startup man has a purpose situated at Y and then there is this damn CEO wanting to do X! F$%#…… it is not the way he wanted it. There is a question growing like a mushroom:

Do it or screw it !

After all these years I can see big DO IT if only this action brings a few cents of startup’s value. Press it, model it, but don’t give up. Startup man travels from island to island, does not follow a goal on a straight path because he can’t afford it. Corporate people can afford acquisitions worth billions of dollars to straighten up the line to the goal. Startup man strives in a twisted way. He jumps from an island to an island not to drown. So gather your scattered deals, but straighten them into your visions. Cling to a subject and push it towards your vision. Unless you feel that an island is distant from the other island by gallons of energy drinks. Between leaps from island to island the fuel is burned (the wealthy’s money, VCs, BAs). This consciousness sharpens sense of choice of what is valuable. So take it easy, don’t worry, under stress of burning money your brain will choose right islands for you. Automatically, ha! Therefore negotiate, talk, ask and try to use your chance if it’s a boletus !!!????

Get hold of a boletus, pass by a toadstool

There are less boletuses than toadstools in the forest. Startup man with a vision searches for people sharing vision with him. Coca Cola does not search for them for it sucks in tons of golden bars. Startup man searches for people sharing vision with him. Islands, which he can cling to offering them value. He develops this island and then he jumps to another one. From one man sharing vision with him he follows to another one. He searches for allies. Boletuses don’t occur as often as toadstools. Toadstools should not be picked up. They should be passed by and moved away. 

I am trying to tell here that many VCs forgot about Poland and they shouldn’t. I was visiting several conferences in UK, Germany and States of course and still there is no Poland attention. So Why Poland should be on your list Mr VC!

Great people with big brains

I can’t find as great developers and engineers as we have here in Poland. Maybe Valley rocks here, but Germany or UK, doesn’t. One part of the case is students experience, their intelligence and hacking / coding focus but other side of the coin is their ability to work in modest environment. For VC it means cheap, for Polish engineers it means “I am not lingerer, I don’t complain. I take this old crap computer and start working cause I am motivated by my ability to survive”. (part of this flows straight from our history)

Market still didn’t do homework

Poland is still a little bit behind western countries when it comes to technology adoption. This is great as you VCs can work on this market to be leaders in the future. I mean, companies you invest in, they will be leaders as the wave will come. If you wait with your investments you will be out of the game.

Market is not Poland, is World.

I don’t want to say you should invest in Poland and stay in Poland. Polish ecommerce market grows 20%, yearly (according to Kelkoo.co.uk). So you should consider investing here and finding good teams to build web / mobile app, offer it here in Poland but have global ambitions. Why? Because it will be cheaper for you to conquer global market, starting in Poland. Why cheaper? Because Great Polish people with big brains don’t expect fancy computers or offices. They can start with crap. Why? I answered this above in Great people with big brains section.

to be continued…….

I felt something what makes you write sometimes. I don’t know maybe it is about throwing certain emotions and feelings out of oneself. Sometimes there is such a feeling inside which makes you write and speak. Today, it was the day when I did want to.
Just by observation I came to the conclusion that enthusiasm sweeps me off my feet. While building startup we meet with publishers, bookstores and generally deal with book market. While gaining new customers we meet so-called haters and malcontents. My conclusion is that without enthusiasm you cannot go forward. You can’t just do it and that is the fact. If you see worn-out marketing manager in Polish publishing house, the man without energy, saying with his squinted eyes: „well, your application is fine but this is future”.

What can you tell this man?

One should tell him to quit his job and find a better one, for marketing manager, marketing I repeat, can’t be bored and have no energy. This is him who is responsible for the future of a company he is representing. Meanwhile he is not willing to step into this future. He thinks that, when this future comes closer, he will step into it.
Enthusiasm allows to kill fear, boredom and stress. It grows from inside, it appears in the moments of doubt. It is very important. I’m rarely bold enough to make a radical statement but in this case I want to emphasize my certainty. If you don’t have the enthusiasm in yourself – you’re gone! Where does the enthusiasm come from? I think it is a combination of: regular physical exercises, faith in what you do, work in a way you like, and open-mindedness.
Regular exercises – it is just so obvious how difficult it is to find time and will to move your body.

Faith in what you do – I’m not a psychologist and I don’t know the scientific principles of this problem. However, if you sow grass in your garden with the conviction that it will wither because it withers every year, this will be an action without faith. If you prepare a report for your boss and you know anyway that he will not use it, this is an action without a faith. If you build up startup and you know that people want your product or service this is an action with faith, even when you have an illusion. My startup idol is Christopher Columbus, the best startup man in the world. He believed he would reach the shore! I suppose it is within our competence to take care about your faith. If you do startup and have any doubts whether your boss uses what you deliver then you must take care about dissolving these doubts. Don’t blame your boss, because you are responsible for your level of faith.

Work the way you like – it is super important in my opinion. If you like to work in your underwear and a cigar in your mouth, do it this way. That’s all I can say. Why startup? Ha, and this is what I love – for in startup possible is something which is not possible in corporation. Only in startup you can sit in your underwear with a cigar in your mouth and you’ll still be building up value and rocking. In corporation your boss approaches you and says: where is your fucking suit? Obviously the notion „work the way you like” doesn’t only refer to clothing dimension, if you like to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and work till 9:30 and then go to the swimming pool for an hour, it’s cool, startup allows you to do it. However there is one “but” – freedom is not free (I read such a sticker on the bumper of big Buick in the USA). If you have a flexible time you have the responsibility, i.e. while being at the pool it might turn up that the server is down and then it would be your responsibility. Eventually everyone should work the way they like.

Open-mindedness – again the subject I am no expert on, but I can say something as a man. Enthusiasm grows somewhere in the land of an open mind. It makes us look at new circumstances with a smile. Open-mindedness cultivates enthusiasm in a certain way. When we see a black man who is a Methodist, we can either say that his faith is interesting or we can say as well: go away heretic! Openness balances on extremes, it makes us get to know something different, gather information in the head, mix these pieces of information and blend them with the information we have. Eventually we’ll obtain something which has a label “made in enthusiasm country”. I don’t know how to call it but a mixture of something new is created. Something that says: “now I have a unique mix with which I can do this and that. That’s where the enthusiasm grows in saying: “thanks to my openness I have something unique which gives me an advantage”. That’s where the enthusiasm is born and it gives us boundless possibilities.
I ask myself a question why there is often a lack of enthusiasm in these publishing houses, bookstores etc.? The enthusiasm is missing because some of the listed elements are missing. Maybe the person who we speak to does not spare any time for sports, maybe he or she works the way they hate. Going further in this argumentation maybe they don’t see a sense of their work, or they are thick-skulled who think only in one proper way.

Fortunately when startup draws you in it smashes everything into pieces. It builds up its value due to a fact that it concentrates active people who believe in what they do. At the same time startup ruthlessly chews up those who are withdrawn and don’t see any sense in their everyday life.

I’ve been receiving phone calls (I have no idea where these people got my number from ), emails, tweets from many wonderful people who ask me for evaluation of their business ideas, advice or thought. It’s a distinction for me because it is a nice feeling if someone wants a piece of advice from me. My lips are smiling.
I’m still sailing on enterprise assessment. I started my expedition in 2003 establishing my first company DVC Partners (ha… dvcpartners.com is still working). It’s been 8 years since that moment when together with Bober, Sławek and Dżokonda we were setting up BIPs (Public Information Bulletins) for public administration units, we were creating document circulation tools etc. Beautiful time it was, in a flat on 2nd floor in a block of flats, housing estate of Strzeszyn Grecki in Poznań we would fill up our printer with a medical syringe. We could not afford the ink. We took a public bus on our first visit to our client – town council of Szamotuły. On the way back Bober said: “Aras, maybe we should buy little fiat (maluch) for 100 USD so we would travel faster than using this damn public bus”.
Therefore I’m still sailing on boundless waters of entrepreneurship. I still haven’t learned a lot but I’ll share my thoughts. Write to me. Due to a lack of time I might not respond at once. Sometimes I have to read and think to answer you. If you want to drop by for a cup of coffee my doors are open for you in Poznań and in Warsaw as well.

I want to share a bit personal information regarding my everyday’s problems while completing tasks as a CEO of SaveUp. To be able to explain certain phenomenon I must tell you shortly about a change that has taken place. Starting with SaveUp we had only people working on technology (one team). Back then the main goals and challenges we had before us were: get organized, obtain equipment, define priorities and start building software (not to mention problems of leaking toilet or faucet). Feeling pressure from the investor and having established goals with them we wanted to get organized the best we could.Today the situation looks a bit different. Apart from technology squad, in SaveUp’s team we have people working on relations with our partners, people working on SEM, SEO and buzz marketing. We increased number of people working with great commitment on SaveUp’s success. Other things that have changed recently:- We have first imperfect version of SaveUp in AppStore (presently books, we’ll have broader assortment of products),

- We have over 30 partners working with us (mainly e-stores), providing hundreds of thousands of products and price offers,

- We had an enormous pleasure to appear on the following portals: www.gazeta.pl, www.antyweb.pl and  www.tech.wp.pl,

- We launched SaveUp Ninja program, which purpose is to cooperate closely with several people we are getting involved in product development,

- We receive inquiries about possibility of using our technology in scanning number plates, billboards, library books and other strange cool things,

- And the most beautiful thing. We have the database of users with whom I want to make a direct contact (if you are the user reveal yourself by writing to me or signing up to our   newsletter).

Of course a way to success we dream about is still loooong and full of uncertainties and questions. All these abovementioned issues make my inbox grow bigger, I am losing individual contact with the team (sometime ago we all used to play poker together, we spoke together – today it is difficult in a form I would like it to be), I must brutally define what I want to do and what I don’t want to do, I have to care about my private time in a more brutal way. I love to read posts, blogs, tweets – I find comfort and inspiration in them and they stimulate my creativity. I thought that a lot of you have the same challenges and tasks. You probably have the same dilemmas, same mountains to climb, therefore this is how I plan to tackle it (I want to share it with you):

- everyday ritual of getting up at  6:00 a.m. allows me to read posts quietly (before most of the people get up and start their computers),

- avoid answering emails all the time

- discipline of answering 3 times a day (in the morning, at noon, and in the evening),

- better and more effective use of skype and telephone in order not to carry on fast, interrupted conversations which give you only a lot of misunderstanding (plan time slots for conversations in order to discuss important subjects calmly),

- use priority inbox in Gmail even better  (select emails),

- use Google calendar in even more consistent way,- if during meeting there are millions of ideas that come to your head, write them down in Evernote, so you can browse them through later.- jog and use the gym on a regular basis (it’s amazing how these clear the head from stress),

- talk to people more, dedicate time to direct communication with members of the SaveUp’s and Saveup, SaveUpNinjas team and the users.I wanted this post to be valuable by showing ideas how to overcome chaos during the day. I think some of them are well-chosen  And they will act giving us better future.