I'm meeting with another VC tomorrow. The partner I'm meeting with is someone I actually have wanted to meet for a long time. He founded a startup in the 90's called MobShop. It was essentially a group discount site for consumer products.
I wanted to meet this guy b/c we are doing essentially the same thing, but with a social networking twist. We are also introducing products to our users, so on second thought, it's a little different. Regardless, I think that he will have some insights to offer on what we are doing.
We are now just slightly over a month from launch, I'm all pins and needles to see how things work out.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Investor Updates
Since I last wrote we met with the Venture Capital people. It was a really interesting meeting that went better than I thought it would. The only complaint was that I didn't tell them exactly what bodbook was (social network). I did gloss over that point b/c I assumed that they had some knowledge about what it is we were doing from the executive summary of the business plan (the main guy didn't read it). Luckily the person who convinced the main partner to meet with us did understand the opportunity and was able to pitch the finer points for us. My feeling is that we are a little early stage for these guys...but who knows.
I also had another last minute meeting with another potential investor. I felt like that meeting was much more fruitful. He is an Angel investor that puts in money at the earliest stage. He and his partner have the money we need now, and the connections we need later to grow bodbook so I see this as being a better fit. There's only one hitch and that is that we would have to move to Montreal, as that is the only place they invest. I don't consider this to be a big issue since Montreal is our second biggest market in Canada.
I also had lunch that same day with Ben Yoskovitz from Standout jobs. They had a deal with the VC that we met with in the morning, but things fell apart along the way to the cheque actually being signed. I had heard of Standout before things went south with the VC and had asked for their advice on how to approach the meeting. Ben was really generous with his time and gave me alot of really useful advice. Anyhow, we met for lunch and discussed startups, investors, and the entrepreneurial climate in Montreal. I got a really good sense that the development of the entrepreneurial community was growing by leaps and bounds. So moving bodbook to Montreal sounds like it holds alot of promise for our fledgling little company.
We are now about 5 weeks to launch and things are looking really great. I'll keep you posted.
I also had another last minute meeting with another potential investor. I felt like that meeting was much more fruitful. He is an Angel investor that puts in money at the earliest stage. He and his partner have the money we need now, and the connections we need later to grow bodbook so I see this as being a better fit. There's only one hitch and that is that we would have to move to Montreal, as that is the only place they invest. I don't consider this to be a big issue since Montreal is our second biggest market in Canada.
I also had lunch that same day with Ben Yoskovitz from Standout jobs. They had a deal with the VC that we met with in the morning, but things fell apart along the way to the cheque actually being signed. I had heard of Standout before things went south with the VC and had asked for their advice on how to approach the meeting. Ben was really generous with his time and gave me alot of really useful advice. Anyhow, we met for lunch and discussed startups, investors, and the entrepreneurial climate in Montreal. I got a really good sense that the development of the entrepreneurial community was growing by leaps and bounds. So moving bodbook to Montreal sounds like it holds alot of promise for our fledgling little company.
We are now about 5 weeks to launch and things are looking really great. I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
A sense of responsibility to the community
It's been a few weeks since my last post. It's not that I haven't had anything new to report, just that we have been in the midst of trying to battle our way through what has ended up being our greatest technical challenge...making a social calendar. I'm happy to report that we finally found a template and user process that looks and works well.
You wouldn't think that making a calendar where your friends could look at your schedule and invite you to events would be so difficult but my goodness has it been. The trickiest thing about web design is that it is near impossible to see your site through the user's eyes. Each template was completely a riddle to users. They could never figure out how to input and access the contents, therefore it was just a useless feature. However, we figured that this feature is going to be a huge part of the service so we had to go back to the drawing board at least three times and rebuild the design from scratch, incorporating feedback and new ideas. We've done it so many times that I actually felt obligated to apologize to our developer.
Well today we got the new calendar up and it looks and works well. I've had users play with it while I silently observed and to my relief they have been able to do everything it offers without coming to the procedural roadblocks they were coming to before. Of course, it still needs some tweaking but I am confident it is a calendar that everyone will be able to use without any instruction.
Onto other things, I have my meeting next week with the Venture Capital firm mentioned in the last post. I have been putting together a presentation as well as compiling an up to date business plan. The benefit of doing a business plan over and over again is that you can see how much you have developed over time. I look at the one I did in March and I can see we are miles of ahead of where we were only 3-4 months ago. I also see how my knowledge of the potential of bodbook grows with every version of the plan. I feel very confident that the VC I am meeting with will be impressed by my level of market knowledge and insight into how our technology will change how word of mouth travels at the very least in the post-secondary market.
I also came across this great article that describes a recent study talking about how technology is giving those that are naturally inclined to share their opinions about products more effective tools to get the word out. The entire article supported our model and niche, but what really stuck out to me was the reason that these evangelists gave for sharing their word of mouth...community service.
These evangelists thought that it was important that others be given the benefit of their opinion so that they could make informed decisions. This was an incredible find because it supports what I believed would be a great motivation for our connectors to share their reviews...a sense of responsibility to the community. That's why with every discount coupon we distribute we include a reminder that says "Remember to share a review to save your friends money, and earn reward points". This statement is designed to emphasize to our connectors that simply sharing their review helps save their friends money. They don't have to do anything that they were not inclined to do before, just that the benefits of what they do will now be greater.
As I learn more about social behaviour I become more confident in the power of bodbook to enhance and accelerate word of mouth to the benefit of all our users. It's exciting to know that what you are doing really will transform the world for the better of all those involved.
Anyhoo...I'll let you know how my meeting with the VC goes.
You wouldn't think that making a calendar where your friends could look at your schedule and invite you to events would be so difficult but my goodness has it been. The trickiest thing about web design is that it is near impossible to see your site through the user's eyes. Each template was completely a riddle to users. They could never figure out how to input and access the contents, therefore it was just a useless feature. However, we figured that this feature is going to be a huge part of the service so we had to go back to the drawing board at least three times and rebuild the design from scratch, incorporating feedback and new ideas. We've done it so many times that I actually felt obligated to apologize to our developer.
Well today we got the new calendar up and it looks and works well. I've had users play with it while I silently observed and to my relief they have been able to do everything it offers without coming to the procedural roadblocks they were coming to before. Of course, it still needs some tweaking but I am confident it is a calendar that everyone will be able to use without any instruction.
Onto other things, I have my meeting next week with the Venture Capital firm mentioned in the last post. I have been putting together a presentation as well as compiling an up to date business plan. The benefit of doing a business plan over and over again is that you can see how much you have developed over time. I look at the one I did in March and I can see we are miles of ahead of where we were only 3-4 months ago. I also see how my knowledge of the potential of bodbook grows with every version of the plan. I feel very confident that the VC I am meeting with will be impressed by my level of market knowledge and insight into how our technology will change how word of mouth travels at the very least in the post-secondary market.
I also came across this great article that describes a recent study talking about how technology is giving those that are naturally inclined to share their opinions about products more effective tools to get the word out. The entire article supported our model and niche, but what really stuck out to me was the reason that these evangelists gave for sharing their word of mouth...community service.
These evangelists thought that it was important that others be given the benefit of their opinion so that they could make informed decisions. This was an incredible find because it supports what I believed would be a great motivation for our connectors to share their reviews...a sense of responsibility to the community. That's why with every discount coupon we distribute we include a reminder that says "Remember to share a review to save your friends money, and earn reward points". This statement is designed to emphasize to our connectors that simply sharing their review helps save their friends money. They don't have to do anything that they were not inclined to do before, just that the benefits of what they do will now be greater.
As I learn more about social behaviour I become more confident in the power of bodbook to enhance and accelerate word of mouth to the benefit of all our users. It's exciting to know that what you are doing really will transform the world for the better of all those involved.
Anyhoo...I'll let you know how my meeting with the VC goes.
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