atllean-blog

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Commonly Heard: I need a developer. Can you introduce me? | LaunchMemphis

See on Scoop.it - Atlanta Lean Startup See on launchmemphis.com

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Zombies!!

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Instagram And Intuit Founders Discuss Lean Startups, Pivots, And What Makes A Product Successful | TechCrunch

See on Scoop.it - Atlanta Lean Startup

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Founder of Intuit Scott Cook, writer and former CTO at IMVU Eric Ries, and Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom gathered to discuss concepts from Ries' new book, The Lean Startup.

See on techcrunch.com

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Gotye concert (Taken with Instagram at Chastain Park Amphitheater)

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Are there acqui-hire's in Atlanta? (Taken with Instagram)

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Ponce city market- maybe the new tech hub (Taken with Instagram)

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This Brave Soul Moved To Silicon Valley From Atlanta To Kill Pinterest—And Just Needs A Developer

See on Scoop.it - Atlanta Lean Startup

Atlanta web entrepreneurs are moving west to find talent...not really a surprise given the lack of access to capital and the general culture.

See on businessinsider.com

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It has started...now let's focus

When you have a long way to go there is a tendency to chase instead of lead.  It's natural to want to copy, duplicate and repeat what has worked in Silicon Valley and San Fran, but usually chasing is out of desperation…rather than leadership.  

Atlanta's ecosystem is just too far removed from those guys.  Our tech startup roots are too nascent and shallow.  Our largest and greatest technology asset, the ATDC, only recently started helping the general high tech startup population as a core service (2 years ago?).  Any taste of Mindspring success has long been washed down before it could be passed on.    

I have never been fond of chasing.  For the simple reason that 'they' are always head of you.  That sucks and makes it depressing to even start the battle.  No "world beater" goes into something that they can never win.  They look to change the conversation to something they can.  

Chasing has never gotten us anywhere.  Atlanta was late to the internet bubble in 2000 but just in time for it to burst.  We took no advantages and all of the heart break.  Investment went from the billions to a couple hundred millions (yes those are real numbers according to TAG)  Rather than chasing Silicon Valley lets dispense with comparison.  It hasn't done girls any benefit to "chase" photoshopped super models and I don't think it's going to help Atlanta.  We have to be our own woman…ummm man or whatever. 

Who wants to invest in a new company called "facenovel" that does everything exactly the same as Facebook just always after it.  Hopefully no one.  Who wants to invest in a social network that connects friends and shares feeds, but around photography.  Hopefully you do because they already sold for a Billion dollars.  Instagram wasn't chasing…it was drafting and drafting I like.  

These guys have drafted well.  

Drafting is all about taking advantage of the person in front of you.  A symbiotic relationship, simultaneously serving and being feed.  We need both.

Some thoughts around drafting…to draft you need to be close.  The further you are away from your partner the less the benefit that you will receive.  You need to be moving forward.  Drafting is different than pulling and dead weight gets dropped quick.  You need to have a similar speed to your efforts and you need to have a partner(s).  The more you have the easier it is on everyone in the chain.  

These are all important for Atlanta.  The Atlanta Sprawl affects our ability to create a cohesive pack culture, the lack of early stage risk capital leaves our speedometer pinned to the ground, articles about Southern tech culture seem to illustrate that their are really two different pelotons and even a self-defeating attitude of malaise in the tech ecosystem that hints at startups being full of dead weight, instead of bright talent.    The good news is that our ability to draft isn't affected by each and every factor (though optimal performance is).

Some things are changing though.  The ATDC has taken on a massive effort to rebuild it's educational/mentoring structure and feedback has been resoundingly positive.  ATL startups have begun to talk the same language about startups (thanks to Flashpoint, TiE Atlanta, Lean Startup, ATL UX group and others) But we are moving slow, missing opportunities and focusing on the wrong issues.  Basically, we are showing signs of drafting, but we are trying to do it uphill…and drafting uphill just doesn't feel the same.  

So how do we get to flat ground? 

Before I give it up, let me give a little back story.  

Before I was into software companies, I played professional sports, soccer.  It was a lifetime commitment from the age of 5 years old.  I wasn't always good.  As a matter of fact, I was pretty bad.  I didn't have the skill that the other kids had as I reached my teen years, but what I lacked in skill, I made up for in persistence and determination.  I even had a coach tell me when I was 13 that I wasn't good, but that I tried so hard he was willing to give me a chance.  He had cut me the year before.

Fast forward 10 years and I was the first 1st team all america (soccer) in my schools history, a college all-star and headed to my first professional team... but it really isn't that uncommon of a story.  You see it at University sport programs, Olympic athlete bios and athletes everywhere.  What is uncommon about the story is that they don't really cover the main reason for why these stories turn around.  They attribute it to amazing skill or hard work and perseverance.  True those stories have those qualities but so do all the failures.  I can't tell you how many better players I passed in my rise.  I can't tell you how many players worked harder than I did.  I worked my ass off, but the saying that someone is out there working 24 hours a day to beat you…its true.  I have seen these guys, but that doesn't mean they are going to make it.  You still have to have talent, a supporting cast… and the ability to work smarter rather than harder.  

Nope, there is another reason why someone or some program succeeds in athletics.  It's called mindshare and it's exactly the same thing that Yahoo! just did by hiring Marissa Mayer from Google. 

You don't need to be the best to capture mindshare, but you need to capture mindshare to be the best.  You need to build momentum, acquire attention, attract talent and let success breed success.  The crazy part of this whole thing is that Atlanta is loaded with Entrepreneur mindshare…it's just more on dirt than digits.   

So we need to focus on what we are trying to capture...  The great news is that it has started.  Two examples are Hypepotamus and TechCrunch.   

If you haven't heard of Hypepotamus, it is a free, 'living space' for web startups, artists and journalists.  What makes it so unique in the battle for mindshare is that there is no business model.  No rent, no grand scheme other than unifying, recording and broadcasting all that Atlanta is doing in the web-tech community.  This is a bonified 'Holy shit' moment for Atlanta web-tech.  This isn't corporate space with office hours.  This is wide open community space with a walk up and share stuff attitude.  It is everything that we haven't had and if you haven't seen it, you should get out of your chair and go to the biltmore to meet someone there…anyone.  

As for TechCrunch, people have already written about it.  What's important is how we leverage that moving forward.  How are we helping others get covered by them.  How are we spreading the word and how does that change mindshare around Atlanta's web-tech scene.  

Anyone want to use our successes to create more success?  Anyone want to join the web-tech peloton to capture mindshare?

These are just opinions so let's meetup and discuss...

These are my opinions, Pete Santora, cofounder Blue Sombrero (acquired by Dick's Sporting Goods), cofounder of ThundrLizard. 

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About time someone spoke up!

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Maybe Atlanta is thinking too meta to get anything done

Since the topic lately has infrastructure, and Atlanta's relative lack thereof, perhaps we should start applying some lean thinking to how we can establish the infrastructure - I'll start here is an LLC document anyone can use.

What else can we do quickly to build up the infrastructure, here are some ideas

Definitive answers on how to structure a company that investors can easily invest in

Definitive answers on how to set up web hosting (dedicated, shared, cloud, etc)

Sample worksheets on how to do market research and customer development

Also (meta thinking is addictive) what can Atlanta specialize in to give it an edge in something?

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How a Business Analyst can Support a Lean Startup

I recently completed reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.  Without a doubt, this book is a must read for all entrepreneurs and business leaders.  The real gem of this book is Eric Ries’ formula for launching a startup: build ⇒ measure  ⇒ learn, which he calls the “feedback loop.”  Ries details each aspect of the feedback loop, but it is clear that “learn” is the key variable of the formula. According to The Lean Startup methodology, “learning is the essential unit of progress for startups. Any effort that is not absolutely necessary for learning what customers want, can be eliminated.” 

 With that in mind, Ries goes on to explain that in order to know what efforts will lead to learning and what efforts should be eliminated; startups must form a series of hypotheses.  These hypotheses should serve as the foundation for what’s needed to learn and specifically attempt to answer 1) how the startup will grow and 2) what value it will provide to customers.  These hypotheses are the bread and butter of the feedback loop.  With them, startups can then define what aspects of their business must be measured in order to validate the hypotheses.  By linking business metrics to the startup’s value and growth hypotheses, a startup can then eliminate what Eric Ries calls vanity metrics (metrics that look good in a press release but really don’t mean anything to the value or growth of your business).  Eric Ries defines these hypotheses based metrics as “innovation accounting” metrics.

So what does all of this have to do with the role of a Business Analyst (BA)?  Typically, a BA's role on a team starts with the process of requirements elicitation and ends with the creation of a product requirement spec detailing what features will be built for the next release.  To that end, Eric Ries states that “we write the feedback loop as Build-Measure-Learn because the activities happen in that order, our planning really works in the reverse order: we figure out what we need to learn, use innovation accounting to figure out what we need to measure to know if we are gaining validated learning, and then figure out what product we need to build to run that experiment and get that measurement.”  This is exactly where the BA can support a Lean Startup, since learning as a first step is exactly what the requirements elicitation process is all about.

This is why the skill set of a BA fits perfectly with the reverse build ⇒ measure  ⇒ learn planning process.  In my role as a BA over the years, one of the main skills I have developed is the ability to elicit requirements in the context of a pre-defined scope. When you are in a room of diverse stakeholders tasked with defining the requirements for an upcoming release, you learn the art of facilitation that requires taking “nice to have features” and putting them of the proverbial “parking lot” while at the same time driving the conversation to focus on those critical features that will make or break the release without making anyone feel marginalized.  This art of facilitation is exactly what I believe would be invaluable to a Lean Startup.

The business analyst in a lean startup should be the chief adjudicator of product features using Eric Ries’ concept of “innovation accounting” as the foundation for defining the scope.  As such, the principal BA skill that must be utilized more than any other is this ability to facilitate and adjudicate the iterative development of product requirements using the elicitation process, and then tracking each requirement using an “innovation accounting” requirements traceability matrix that:

maps each requirement to the value and/or growth hypotheses

identifies which requirements will provide measurements for validated learning as well as define the measurement

prioritizes requirements based on the direct impact on the primary engine of growth

In a perfect world every startup would have a dedicated BA.  However, I understand that it makes sense in most startups for the BA to double or triple up as the product manager and/or project manager.  In either case, I believe having a single owner of an “innovation accounting” requirement traceability matrix managed using the fundamentals of business analysis provides three benefits: 

a  higher quality product road map

a tool to help developers build the product right

an objective analysis for managers to measure if they are building the right product

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Christopher Mance II is the co-founder of Nichevertising®, an Atlanta startup building an alternative advertising solution for targeting niche markets.  Follow him on twitter @chrismance or on his blog at chrismance.com.

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Ross Rankin on Atlanta Tech Scene

This post was initially posted on www.atlantatechstartups.com (a google group by Sanjay Parekh dedicated to ATL tech conversations)

So here's my opinions on what we need to figure out solution to:  It's always been perplexing to me the "true" number of startup in Atlanta versus the number that participate in the "community."  So I use those quotes on purpose.  The true number because I run into people that are creating startups but they are not the traditional technology startups.  Look at some of Kickstarter projects that are in town, to a one, I've never seen them at a ATDC, Startup (riot, chicks, drinks, meetup, etc.) event.  Nor have I seen many other startup businesses that build widgets, make food, etc attend either.  I also meet many two guys and a dog startups that often don't even know any type of community is even out there.    I think we need to be a bit more inclusive to get more momentum.  My opinion, I think some of the skillsets like sales, marketing, finance, etc could learn from each other.   For example, Atlanta has a number of POS vendors in town, why couldn't one of these vendors and a new restaurant concept meet up and make a deal?    "Community" is a great word but I also think many of the events cater to the same people.  I often see the same faces over and over as well, when I do see the random new face, they often don't return.  I think we need to try to be more inclusive even force some interaction.  An icebreaker, game, or giveaway that drives interaction beyond your buddies.  Give a free drink to someone that brings a newbie; something like that.   This is the easiest to solve.  Many of the successful Valley companies help the community.  Again, I see the same sponsors over and over.  Why doesn't more of our Fortune 500 participate?  We also have even more Fortune 1000 companies that don't participate.  It's interesting to see an Atlanta event mostly sponsored by West Coast companies.  It's kinda sad.    Space is also an issue.  There really aren't good free spaces for new entrepreneurs to work.  Most of the co-working spaces require money to visit.  Getting some space in ATDC just to squat is impossible.  We have the start of some hacker spaces but none really funded and self-sustaining yet.  One of the first things TL needed to do is shell out money to a co-working space to we all could work together.  I know I can't throw a dead cat without hitting a corporate real estate guy, why can't we put some of the un-utilized space all over town to use for the betterment of the community and the economy.   Would there be tax breaks for it?    We don't embrace failure.  Most startups fail. If you’re serious about startups, embrace failure.  I saw Sanjay's pitch at Web Weekend but we need much more. We need learn from it, we should be sharing what we learned.  We focus on the successful, the hot, the funded.  Everyone needs help and what not to do is as important as what to do.  We don't collaborate a much as we should.  Often, we share a sale lead or an intro here and there but what about operational best practices?  How about server administration?  There's a lot to running a business beyond the product, we may give a pitch or a deck about this or the other but when do a group of us in the same discipline get together to just talk about issues we're facing?  No speakers, no decks, just collaboration?  Don't happen much.   Happened when ATDC had their Founder's Forum for a year or so before it first became a presentation event, then fell apart.  I think our funding environment is a bit backwards.  Call it a bubble or whatever, but in the two big startup hubs, money is chasing companies.  Here it's like trying to get an audience.  You don't seen many investors out at most events and when you do, they are mobbed 5 people deep.  We also have huge paperwork and legal hurdles to get minor funding.  We need to make it easy for someone to put $25K into a startup to build a prototype without $5 - 10K of that doing to documentation and lawyers.    Why doesn't one of the big incubators have a class here in Atlanta?  Cities with a lot less going on have multiple options.  Why are we watching our startups moving to cities with much less talent, infrastructure, and worst standards of living?  Y Combinator, 500 Startups, TechStars... Any of them planning Atlanta expansion?  Flashpoint is a great start, but there's not real rock star involved.  No offense to any of the staff or mentors but there is no one involved with the cache of Brad Feld, Paul Graham, Dave McClure, or even Sam Yagan.  Also look at the profile of most of the incubators that are in the top 10 or 15, most have a major Fortune 500 execs as well.  This is a huge advantage.  A F500 CEO will return the call of another F500 CEO.  I have helped raise institutional rounds for three companies, the majority of the money has all come from outside Atlanta.  I've worked for another 3 VC backed companies, again the majority of the funding was again outside the city.  The Valley, Boston, NYC, even DC seem to fund more Atlanta companies than Atlanta.  We need more early stage institutional money here in town.  I'm positive that a small group of the "right" folks could raise a fund for use here in town.    Finally, if I haven't stirred the pot enough, I think we have an attitude issue.  When taking my first investment, I was asked one very specific question that stuck with me.  The question was "Do you want to be rich or king?"  The idea is, do you want to build a successful business that will make you and your investors rich or do you care about your position, the spotlight, and the press, more about what "your" company can do for you.  I really didn't understand it at the time, until the investors flexed their muscles in the BOD meeting.  It's hard to allow someone to make decisions for "your" company but you need to do what's best for the company and not always what's best for you.  I see many too many interested in becoming the next rock star in a hoodie than actually building a sustainable business.  We have people that are trying to tackle the Herculean task like David and Sanjay but they can only do so much.   OK that's my $1.50, way over two cents.  I have ideas on changes, but without help, support, and consensus, it's just that ideas.  However, I welcome the discussion.   Oh and warn me if I need to put on my asbestos underwear...   

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A counterpoint to last night's meeting

Maybe the lack of investment is a slowing of technology, more here http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/07/thiel-v-schmidt.html

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Disruptions: Looking Beyond Silicon Valley's Bubble

See on Scoop.it - Atlanta Lean Startup

Within the bubble of Silicon Valley, everyday conversations can touch on private jets and billion-dollar deals. But if you look past the ostentation, truly magical work is taking place.

See on bits.blogs.nytimes.com

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As for putting music out today… The album is fading. Not because I said so, but because the consumer said so. The consumer wants to cherry-pick. He only wants what he wants and he wants it now. He doesn’t want to watch everything on AMC, only “Breaking Bad”. This is so different from the way it always was that most people can’t wrap their heads around it. Kids don’t have a short attention span, anybody who says that is completely ignorant. They’ve got an incredible shit detector. They’re only interested in what is great. They only want the hit, because they know the rest is shite and they don’t have the time to waste, they’re dedicated to video games and texting and apps and the old days of being shy of stimulation and playing a mediocre album until you memorized it are done.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/07/19/old-outsells-new/

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Inspiration for scoutmob prom tonight (Taken with Instagram)