Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Interviews (Page 1 of 13)

Brad Feld On When to Quit Your Day Job

(Note: This interview first appeared at MinneInno.com — “Your Source for Local Innovation” in  Minnesota: Innovation, Startups, and Tech.)

Brad Feld, one of the most admired VCs, talking at event

Brad Feld, coauthor, “Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job”

Few VCs have the success record of Brad Feld of Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado, and even fewer as many writing credits. That includes several best-selling books. Well, now he’s uncorked another title, this time with coauthor Sean Wise, the subtitle of which addresses that vexing question most every would-be entrepreneur faces: when do I know it’s time to go all in and quit my day job?

I first met Brad in 2007, the year I began attending a tech conference he helped launch in Denver called “Defrag.” (And I reported on it every year for 10 years.) That was also the year Brad cofounded Techstars, and I was lucky enough to sit next to him at dinner and get the download on those plans. I so tried to get Minneapolis to become one of the Techstars cities, but, alas, it wasn’t to be back then. Eventually, of course, the accelerator found its way to Minnesota as our startup community strengthened, launching Techstars+Target and smaller programs at Mayo Clinic and Land O Lakes. Also, after years of encouraging Brad and his partner Seth Levine to look at investing in Minnesota, Foundry Group led a Series A in a startup they discovered called LeadPages, and they continue to watch what’s happening here.

When I got a look at Brad’s new book, and loved it, I immediately wanted to know more.

Q: Brad, were you surprised this book so quickly hit the list of top five best-selling business books on Amazon?

Yes. While I was confident that it would be popular, especially at a discounted price for a short period of time, I was overwhelmed and excited by the number of people who grabbed a copy.

Q: The original version of the book was published in 2014. Why did you and your coauthor decide to publish a second edition?

The first edition was published by FG Press, a publishing company that my partners and I at Foundry Group started. FG Press wasn’t successful so we shut it down, but we were proud of “Startup Opportunities” as a book. I had previously (and am currently) publishing with Wiley. They were enthusiastic about doing a second edition of the book. We added a few chapters, cleaned stuff up, and had Chris Sacca write a foreword.

Q: While the title of book is somewhat bland, the subtitle — “Know When to Quit Your Day Job” — is certainly not. Tell us about that came about, and why.

My coauthor Sean came up with it. He is quick with a one-liner and often talked to his students about the key to starting a new business was to identify the right opportunity. He often said that “friends don’t let friends pursue bad opportunities,” and one day the line “Know When to Quit Your Day Job” popped out.

Q: You make it very clear the book is intended primarily for first-time entrepreneurs. But it’s no secret they have a hard time getting attention from VCs. Is the book your way of trying to help the many thousands you have to say “no” to? I’m of course alluding to your famous blog post in 2009, “Saying No In Less Than 60 Seconds.”

When I look at the hundreds of companies I’ve funded (well over 500 at this point), greater than 50% of them were started by first-time entrepreneurs. However, even if I’ve invested in 300 companies started by first-time entrepreneurs, I’ve probably said no to 10,000 or more. I often get asked for feedback after telling someone no. Given that volume, there is no way to give people deep feedback. So, I thought a book around Startup Opportunities would be helpful to be able to point at.

Q: Of all the things this book tries to teach entrepreneurs — the realities of doing a startup — what’s the one thing you find is the hardest for them to understand or accept?

That the idea is useless. Ideas are cheap. Ideas flow freely. Lots of people have the same idea at the very beginning. The idea is not what matters. It’s what you do with the idea that matters.

Q: Are millennial entrepreneurs different? What would you say about their expectations? Are they coachable?

I work with entrepreneurs born between 1950 and 2000. Everyone – each entrepreneur – is different. I wouldn’t categorize them by the generation they belong to.

Q: Why are early-stage investors so focused on “the team”?

It’s really hard to be a solo entrepreneur. Having a great, effective, and well-functioning founding team makes an enormous difference. And, the greatest killer of startups is team issues.

Q: Knowing you have, in fact, invested in first-time entrepreneurs in your day, have many of those been financial winners? And will you continue to invest in first-time entrepreneurs?

Yes and yes. Many of the successful companies that I’ve been an investor in have been started by first-timers. And, if you look at my last few investments, I think each of them has at least one first-time entrepreneur on the team.

Q: You’ve written or cowritten so many great books for entrepreneurs. How do you keep it up? Do you have a writing schedule? You’re also a prolific blogger. How many hours per week do you devote to writing?

I try to blog daily, but I go through phases where I need a break because I don’t feel like my writing is fresh. I’m in one of those modes now and have taken a few weeks off from blogging and am getting ready to start again. Regarding my books, I go through phases. I’ll have very productive periods where I can write for two or so hours a day. I then have long stretches, often many months, where I don’t work on any books. My general pace right now is about a book a year, but it’s lumpy. I don’t really segment my time carefully, so I don’t really know how much I write each week. And, I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing email – does that count?

Thanks, Brad. The new book is fantastic. Congratulations to you and your coauthor, Sean Wise. We’ll continue here in Minnesota to practice the things you recommend in another of your great books, “Startup Communities.”

Raising Money You Don’t Need: MN Startup Trend?

I Dont Want Your Money[UPDATE 9/28/15: At the bottom of this post, I include some great comments I got from a leading VC over the weekend.]

This thing about profitable startups raising money they don’t need is getting deafening around here. A few years ago, Code42 shocked us by taking their first VC money (a huge $52M round), which confused people because they knew they were doing fine without it. [UPDATE: days after I wrote this post, it announced an $85M Series B.] Then LeadPages raises a surprise A round in late 2013 that it soon was openly bragging it hadn’t touched — didn’t need it. Only months later, it takes yet more — another $27M. It’s growing crazy fast, so we wonder… do they not need that either?  How about SportNgin, raising something close to $40M over four rounds going back to 2011? With the continuous growth they’re experiencing, why do they need all that cash and can they even spend it?

Now we learn about another rapidly growing Minnesota startup, Field Nation, which began as a young college grad’s idea more than a decade ago and now claims a $100M gross revenue run-rate, grabbing a huge (for this town, FieldNation-logo-horizanyway) Series A round of $30M. Reading the recent news in the StarTribune and the MSP Business Journal, you had to be impressed. Another homegrown startup raises a huge initial round. Wow, yes, we say to ourselves, beaming with pride, the Minnesota startup community really is rockin’! But what’s going on here with this latest winner in the local VC stakes?  Continue reading

All About Minnesota’s Latest Angel Fund – and Now Its First Investment

[NOTE: This post first appeared April 7, 2015 on Minnov8.com, where I am a contributor.)

SofiaFund-logo-250wThe news about a new angel fund in Minnesota appeared in the StarTribune in late January: “Sofia Fund receives nearly $4 million for angel fund”.  Just over two months later, the fund has announced its first investment — in Minneapolis-based Kidizen, a “kid resale marketplace to buy, kidizen-logosell, and swap your kid’s clothing, gear, toys, decor and more.” Here’s how Kathy Grayson at the Business Journal reported that news on April 3:

“Women-focused angel fund Sofia backs Kidizen.” The amount of the investment was not revealed. [UPDATE: A Twin Cities Business magazine story that appeared after I first posted this said it was $100,000.]

I’ve known three of the Sofia Fund’s members for some years, and have had the pleasure of working closely with one of them, Barb Stinnett, since late 2012. So, I decided to interview Barb to get some more background on the Sofia Fund.

Continue reading

Gluecon 2014: StrongLoop Adds Offline Synch for Mobile Apps to Its LoopBack API Framework

At the Glue Conference May 21-22 in Broomfield, CO, StrongLoop announced it is greatly simplifying data synch and replication for mobile apps requiring APIs and connectivity to enterprise data sources. StrongLoop-logoThe company's LoopBack open-source API framework, written in Node.js, is used to connect devices to enterprise data sources. This new functionality is available for Oracle, SQL Server, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL and more.

Almost all enterprise mobile apps that are data-driven require offline sync capabilities. Until now, developers first had to figure out how to locally store a subset of the application's data. Secondly, they had to implement a mechanism that could keep the data synchronized on both the client and server.  For the first time, developers can now easily synchronize to and from various databases without requiring constant network connectivity. LoopBack's replication also handles the complexity of moving data between devices, device to server, and server to server. This upgrade to LoopBack means developers can now focus on the front end versus the mechanics of how to replicate data between disparate databases, whether they be in the cloud or the data center.

I interviewed Al Tsang, CTO of StrongLoop, after he gave his talk at Gluecon, which was entitled, "Isomorphic JavaScript in Action: Using HTML5, Node.js, and LoopBack for Offline Synch." (Apologies for accidentally clipping off his last sentence. The company was founded in 2013, is based in San Mateo CA, and is backed by investors including Ignition Partners and Shasta Ventures. It is the leading contributor to the latest Node.js v0.12 release. Also apologies for the sound quality. Forgot my good mic!)

W3i Rebrands and Launches New ‘Native’ Ad Platform; Names Trip Hawkins as Senior Advisor

(Note: This news appeared earlier this morning on Minnov8.com.)

NativeX_graphicW3i, one of Minnesota's largest and fastest-growing Internet companies, with headquarters in St. Cloud and offices in Minneapolis and San Francisco, just made a major announcement today.  The company has changed its name to NativeX and completely rebranded around a new platform to help developers better monetize their apps. The focus for W3i has long been primarily (though not exclusively) on game apps, so it's no surprise the announcement was timed to hit the wire as the company prepares for the huge Game Developers Conference, which takes place all next week in San Francisco.

With this move, the company is positioning to jump on what is becoming a clear trend toward advertising that is more specific, or native, to various web platforms, as opposed to the old, tired banner advertising, which everyone loves to hate.  W3i, now Native X, clearly wants to own the concept for apps, and what better way than to use the term right in their name?

A key part of the announcement today, adding mucho cred with the gaming community, is the addition
TripHawkinsof Trip Hawkins as an "advisor to the board."  Trip, whom the company rightfully calls an "industry giant," has a history going back to Apple's early days. You can read all about him here on his Wikipedia page.

“Native advertising is the future," Hawkins says in the news announcement. “Every major publisher on mobile and web has their eye on native advertising right now. NativeX is proving that we as an industry can do better than banner ads.”

What many observers would find even more interesting about this new initiative of W3i (now NativeX) is that a guy named Young Sohn is chairman of its board.  (More on Young below.)

I conducted an email interview with Rob Weber, cofounder and EVP of NativeX, after I got early word of this news last night:

Why did you decide to rebrand the company?

RobWeber"As we reviewed our marketing strategy, it became clear to us that the name 'W3i' didn't convey what we are all about. In the digital media world, most industry experts would agree that display advertising is broken. Even the largest banner ad units result in CPMs for publishers only in the $2.00 range, max. The reason for the low performance is display ads don't drive engagement, and ultimately value, for marketers. This is why Google invented a more 'native' ad unit for its business (paid search), Facebook created new ad units built for the news feed, Twitter launched sponsored tweets, and, locally, DoApp introduced 'RSS news ads.'  We are focused on solving this problem for consumer app developers, and we felt like the name 'nativeX' speaks directly to where we are headed — creating new, native ad units for developers that bring strong monetization to their business."

How did you get connected to Trip? What role will he play?

"I was first introduced to Trip about a year ago by a mutual friend on a trip to San Francisco. We stayed in touch, and it became clear he could help us in a number of ways. Trip will provide a strategic perspective to our board with respect to what is going on in mobile and in the app space, which is dominated by game apps. Trip will help us build even stronger ties and awareness within the broader app world, and specifically in the Bay Area. On a personal level, Trip has also been helpful as a mentor to me."

How long have you been planning this?  Who drove the rebranding?

"Plans have been in the works for a few months, and the rebranding effort has been led by our new VP of
DianaLaGattutaMarketing, Diana LaGattuta, based in San Francisco." [Ed.: Her photo at right, and her bio appears on the NatixeX web site.]

What changes will result to the organization locally, if any?

"In terms of local changes, we expect a clearer message to our target clients, along with the new technology we're launching, will enable us to continue to increase the value of our company, which will result in us ontinuing to hire even more folks locally."

How will this affect your SF organization? Will you be expanding it?

"We are looking to grow additional headcount in all three of our offices — St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. The Bay Area has a lot of relevant talent for a business like ours, and we plan to add significant headcount there. We've seen that the Bay Area talent we already have gives us the opportunity to increase our perspective, which helps the rest of the team grow faster."

Does it mean any significant new hiring plans right away?

"We have lots of hiring plans immediately. Check out our career page for specifics." [Ed.: That would be here. No specific jobs listed there as I publish this, but there sure is some enticing copy. And an email link to apply.]

What new partnerships, if any, will become a part of this new initiative?

"We will continue to ramp partnerships with mobile and desktop app developers. For example, in October we announced a new partnership with one of the globally most popular mobile app developers in the world, Imangi Studios, maker of the smash hit Temple Run. We have some other new partnerships that will be similar, but taking advantage of our new native technology."

What are the long-term implications in this for your company?

"We think the rebranding and new technology will help us create further differentiation in the market. We think we can own 'native advertising' within the app space. Expect to see more specifics in terms of new products, technology, partnerships, and more tied to this 'native' approach."

What if anything can we read into this because you have the Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung on your board?

"Young was 100% supportive of our rebranding."

Rob Weber and his company have long been champions of developers, not only helping them make money with their apps, but even helping them get funding to launch or expand. He wrote a guest post on VentureBeat earlier this month, Six ways the Five Horsemen of Tech can build better app ecosystems, in which he spoke about that. (The "Five Horseman" being Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Samsung.)

#3 Lend a Hand: Create Funding Programs for Developers

This one is also fairly obvious. On one hand, you have large thriving companies generating billions of dollars in revenue every year. On the other hand, you have an app market that gets more cutthroat every day and is filled with bootstrapped developers struggling to stay competitive. All of the horsemen should be creating sizable developer funds to help them build the teams and infrastructure they need to make great apps. Such funds would also encourage developers to leverage the horsemen’s technology and make something innovative on their platform. Samsung is a great example of this. With their recently announced $100 million Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung will expand their brand, work with great developers, and help build their app ecosystem as clarified at the recent Dive Into Media conference.

Horseman that does this the best: Samsung*

*Full disclosure, the Chairman of our board at nativeX, Young Sohn, is President and Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung, and is involved in overseeing Samsung’s fund.

Young Sohn will surely play a role in guiding NativeX to even more growth going forward. Stay tuned!

And, by the way, I'll be reporting from GDC next week myself, inlcuding updates about Minneapolis-based startup Canopy, which also will have a big presence there.

——-

(My disclosure: I provided consulting services to W3i in past years, but have no current contractual relationship with the firm.)

 

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