When I have my lunch at TheCodeFactory I like to grab a seat by one of the windows and take the time to read a bit of “Founders at Work” by Jessica Livingston. This is a great book with interviews of some of the greatest start-up founders recounting their recollections of the early days. Anywho, the other day I decided to read the foreward in the book. What a great read.
Here is a quote I wanted to share:
“Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the rest of the race slowing down. the winners slow down the least. It’s that way with start-ups too.”
This is probably a great metaphor for cash conservation and burn rate. Maximize cash conservation and minimize burn rate to have a successful race.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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What if you had a scrap between the defending Canadian Innovation paradigm of heavy weight, socialist and bureaucratic versus the innovation paradigm of the new world knowledge based economy? I think what you would have is something like a sumu wrestler versus a lightweight UFC fighter. Well IMHO on a global scale we are in just such a match right now. As the fight wears on the fat guy own obesity wears him down but, the UFC guy is faster and always a few steps ahead. Not only is that but Mr. UFC is continually pummelling the fat guy in the head. If blubber boy doesn’t catch UFC guy and he never will, then he is doomed to failure.
Again, IMHO what we need is some speedy light weight processes that facilitate the growth of quick and nimble start-ups rather than bureaucratic processes that wear them down. The public sector laden in bureaucracy and process is ill suited to anything quick or nimble. I understand the importance of accountability and managing other people’s money (which is really what the public sector does), however, to compete on the global stage in a knowledge based economy means being quick, nimble and adaptable.
I understand that Scotland does some innovative stuff around seed funding and will be checking them out over the next few weeks.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start-up by Ian
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Lunch was most awesome today and I wanted to take a minute to thank Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre (riding TheCodeFactory is located in) and our very special guest John Wilkinson, Minister for Research and Innovation Ontario. This was a very informal roundtable affair with about a dozen folks affiliated in various capacities with TheCodeFactory.
Everyone had a chance to introduce themselves and then we had some really great entrepreneurship and innovation related conversations. Afterwars I spoke with various people and they enjoyed the session, appreciated the opportunity and were impressed by the ministers openness and approachability. We also gainied a better appreciation for the depth and breadth of the innovation ministry. Our guests are certainly welcome back anytime and Allan Isfan has in fact asked me to request a follow up meeting for a future Start-up club lunch.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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A BIG TheCodeFactory thank you to Mike Ball from Loyalty Match, Jay Lawrence from Infonium and Nikhil Adnani from thnkRF who were our bootstrapping speakers at TheOttawa Network event on Wednesday February 11th. I thouroughly enjoyed the session and it was great, in a misery loves company kind of way, to know that other entrerpeneurs share the same sort of pain and struggle.Here are my key lessons learned in the order in which the speakers presented.
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Mike Ball:
Always remember to celebrate your small victories and reflect on your accomplishments once in a while. This makes dealing with those inevitable challenging times bearable.
Always look for opportunities and you never know where you will find them. Mike and his brother found an unlikely investor for a decent tin cup round totally unexpectedly by asking someone for advice. Turns out they liked the idea nad wanted to invest.
Balance. Remember you have a family.
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Jay Lawrence:
Remember Geoffrey Moore and crossing the chasm? As a start-up you should. Pick your niche and pick your battles. You are small nimble and innovative pick that beach landing where you have a good probability of success and don’t spread yours resources over too broad an area. Focus and win.
Spousal support is crucial to the success of your business. Everyone in one fashion or another talked about dark days of entrepreneurship or those low ebbs. It is at these times that spousal support is essential and usually the catalyst that enables you to keep on truckin. If you are thinking about being an entrepreneur make sure you have full support on the home front.
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Nikhil Adnani
Again the theme of if you are going to be an entrepreneur or a start-up there will be dark days. The key characteristic that keeps all entrepeneurs going is passion. In fact a certain passion that is beyond explanantion something I have refered to before as “Stupid Passion”. All excellent entrerpeneurs posses the “Stupid Passion” gene that keeps you moving forward inspite of set backs, people telling you to get a real job or those inevitable dark days.
All in all a very entreprneurial crowd that lingered and chatted with our speakers until after 10pm.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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This is my sixth and final post in the cornerstones series. Probably my second most favourite book is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, topping my favourite on the book list is Dale Carnegies timeless “Winning Friends and Influencing People.” In Good to Great Collins did a significant amount of research into what separates the Great companies from the Good companies. In the end he boiled the elements of greatness down to 5 key factors, among them was one that he called “A culture of discipline”. I am speculating that this culture of discipline he is referring to is in fact the single greatest contributor to the greatness factor. Here is how the culture of discipline is defined:
“The good-to-great companies built a consistent system with clear constraints, but they also gave people freedom and responsibilities within the framework of that system. They hired self disciplined people who didn’t need to be managed, and then managed the system, not the people.”
I think the system Collins is referring to is in fact that culture of discipline. Hire the right people, give them direction, clear objectives and create a culture of results and accomplishment and you are on your way toward greatness. In order to have a successful company you need to have a way to establish a framework for that system Collins refers to as the culture of discipline. I sincerely believe that the framework is built on the four cornerstones of:
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Mission
Vision
Values
Principles
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Entrepreneurship and starting a business is a wild roller coaster ride or one could also think of it as a journey through the wilderness. If principles are your compass in the wilderness then mission, vision and values are your survival kit, map and supplies. The journey toward greatness starts with the proper equipment and supplies.
If you are going to build a great company then having a foundation to build on right from the start is a solid idea.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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Here is the link to an interesting event forwarded to me by a TheCodeFactory member. Sounds pretty cool from the description and may be of interest to both folks in the public sector and those working to promote collaboration in that space. Here is the description of the film:
MASS LBP is pleased to announce the Canadian premiere of Us Now with national partners IPAC and the British Council, Deloitte, and our Ottawa partner, the Canada School of Public Service.
Us Now is a new British documentary about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver.
Us Now tells the stories of online networks that are challenging the existing notion of hierarchy. For the first time, it brings together the foremost thinkers in the field of participatory governance to describe the future of government.
If you are engaged in the pbulic sector please check out the invite. Thank you for the tip Dave.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Innovation, Ottawa by Ian
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When in doubt consult the corporate compass or principles.
Is there more to charting the direction than Mission, Vision and Values? I believe you could also add principles. Principles are akin to values, yet somehow at the same time distinct. Principles are your corporate cultural Compass, unwavering, steadfast and always point due north.
This is the Fifth in my series of post on an exploration into the cornerstones of culture. Stephen Covey’s “Principled Centered Leadership” is an excellent book based on the premise that great organizations are governed by principles.
A start-up is typically a leader and team or a peer group. The important characteristics for this size of an organization are personal and interpersonal relations. Covey lists trustworthiness as the most important characteristic at the personal level and trust as the most important characteristic for inter-personal relations. The important implication here is that for a start-up to have a culture of accomplishment and results their people must be trustworthy and the team must trust each other. This is consistent with Jim Collins “get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus.” Trust is an essential ingredient of culture founded in principles.
Principles compliment the trust and trustworthiness linkages in an organization. When in doubt refer to the corporate compass (principles) for direction.
TheCodeFactory adheres to the open source principles of: Open, Transparent and Meritous.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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I understand that banks are in the business of making money and have certain criteria to loan money. I also understand that the Federal government has made available considerable money to Canadian Banks, BDC and EDC through repurchasing mortgages or outright grants. However, what doesn’t seem to have happened is an attitudinal change in these institutions to stimulate the flow of credit to businesses. The tolerence for risk appears to remain relatively consistent. In order for the government stimulus incentives to take root what will be necessary is a more entrepreneurial attitude from our leading financial institutions.
I have heard it said getting money for the bank is like having someone give you an umbrella on a sunny day and then taking the umberella away when it rains. Well … we are currently in a downpour and to have any chance of making it to the next sunny day someone is going to need to be giving out umbrellas not taking them away.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Commercialization, Entrepreneurship by Ian
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This is a good follow up to the Sunny Day Umberella post. If there is no funding out there then what do you do? Well I’d start by saying have a listen to a few of the start-ups that are going about it under their own steam. We are fortunate to have three of Ottawa’s finest bootstrappers on tap tomorrow night at TheCodeFactory. The theme of the event is bootstrapping for success and our speakers are:
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Nikhil Adnani, CEO, thinkRF
Nikhil has over twelve years of experience in the area of wireless. He has held engineering positions at Nortel and Communications Research Centre Canada. Nikhil has a BSc and an MSc from the University of Manitoba and a PhD from Carleton University, all in Electrical Engineering.
Jay Lawrence, CEO, Infonium
Jay is an entrepreneur in the software industry specializing in performance in third party governance environments. He has proven experience in leading the development of effective software applications suitable for enterprise deployment. Jay and his company Infonium are leaders in Performance Governance.
Mike Ball, CTO, Loyalty Match
Mike has over 22 years experience building and leading high technology development companies. Mike was one of the architects of Bell Sympatico and Advantage Business Internet Solutions, served as VP Technology for SpiderTop Rich Media Internet Corporation, and is an accomplished game developer and author. He is a computer science graduate of Confederation College and a member of OACETT.
Ian Graham
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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VersAccounts Limited is an Ottawa-based provider of accounting Software-as-a-Service. VersAccounts is designed to address the accounting needs of small consulting businesses, job shops, and small manufacturers. The service allows users to do their accounting on-line using a standard internet browser. In preparation for our product release in July 2009, we are inviting interested parties to use VersAccounts for free during our beta testing phase…and beyond.
All of our valued beta users will get a VersAccounts “Pro-5″ 5-user subscription, which includes all software features (see note), in perpetuity. Also, all beta users will be entered in a draw for a $150 Hy’s Restaurant gift certificate. The winner will be drawn at the conclusion of a beta user’s focus meeting to be held at The Code Factory on 24 June, 2009. To register as a beta user please contact Jim Welch (jim.welch@versaccounts.com) or Ian Graham (ian@thecodefactory.ca).
Ian Graham
Filed under: Ottawa, Start-up by Ian
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