Archives For startup

Great interview with Ben Horowitz from Andreessen Horowitz

June 24, 2012

Last week at the PandoMonthly event Ben Horowitz was the main guest. He is one of the partners at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the big new VC firms in the Valley. Little history, Ben and Marc ran Netscape, and he has only a little pain left over from the battle with Microsoft in those days:). Their firm is kicking everybody’s behind with their model that gives companies not only money but also the infrastructure and network to become successful. Besides extremely smart he is also very down to earth and funny.

Some of my favorite quotes of the interview:

  • “If you don’t have winning product, it doesn’t matter how well your company is managed, you are done” – about founders being CEOs
  • “Even if you succeed, if you built a company that everybody hated working at, what have you done?”  - about bad management style
  • “Jealousy is just love and hate at the same time” – about the competition of Andreesen Horowitz and a Drake quote
  • “To me the piece sign is just the trigger and the middle finger” – about VC’s approaching him wit their fingers in the V-sign
  • “..If you don’t have courage you have no virtue because all these other virtues never get activated”
  • “Women tend to be more confrontational then men”
  • “The difference between a hero and a coward is not what you feel, you both feel terrified. It is what you do”
  • “CEO’s are not born, they are made”
And read this blog post that got also featured on Techcrunch about The Struggle.

And yes, Sarah sings way out of tune :)

 

In events, silicon valley, startup, venture capital
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Silicon Valley Lonely Planet – How to find the good events

July 20, 2011

So you are new in Silicon Valley, a foreigner fresh off the boat with a big dream to build your own tech startup. Got your place via AirBnB or Craigslist. Now what? Where do all the cool startup dudes hang out and how do I get in touch with them? Well fortunately enough there are a lot of events going on that you can attend for (almost) free. A lot of activity is going on in San Francisco nowadays, same in Mountain View or Palo Alto. If you haven’t picked your place to live yet I would recommend San Francisco btw.

Here is how to find out about the good events:

  1. Subscribe to StartupDigest newsletter. These guys rock, they will send you a list of all great events with sometimes discount codes
  2. Subscribe to WebWallFlower. Not the same league as StartupDigest, but still useful
  3. Create an account with Plancast and follow the active dudes like me. Plancast imports event from Meetup, Eventbrite and Facebook events, links them to your FB or Twitter friends or the persons you subscribe to on Plancast. Excellent service
  4. Check out Meetup.com, and sign up for interesting groups
  5. Look at Eventbrite.com, and make sure you integrate your Facebook account to get recommendations

There are a few recurring events that are always good to attend:

  1. SF NewTech SF’s oldest and biggest tech event
  2. Hackers and Founders. Great monthly events with lot’s of actual hackers instead of just dreamers with ideas:)
  3. SF Beta – great location and food

So how to meet people? Well fortunately Americans are very approachable. Just walk up to them, introduce yourself and ask “What do you do?”. Nine out of ten times you will have a good conversation. Listen to what they do, try to relate to them and tell them something about yourself that is interesting for them. Have your business cards always with you and ask theirs. A LinkedIn request is more than normal to send the next day. As easy as it is to start a conversation, the same goes for ending. A 5 or 10 minute conversation is pretty long already, on a given night someone might speak to 10-15 people. So expect to be asked for your business card or be told they see someone they really have to talk to someone as a signal it is time to move on.

Some other tips to meet people: work from bars like Coffee Bar. It is not exceptional for these places that you buy a coffee and a muffin and work half a day or more there. These working bars have good wifi, a reasonable amount of power outlets and let you stay around for a long time. See this Quora thread for more coffee shops to work from.

Also subscribe to Let’s Lunch. Let’s lunch will hook you up with someone that is from the same field like you are, depending on your LinkedIn profile. I got my desk office with Ark.com by meeting the CEO on a LetsLunch lunch.

Last tip, research the cool companies out there, follow their founders on Twitter and see where they hang out. Mission district is packed with bars like Zeitgeist where you might actually run into one.

Ah or take a Silicon Valley tour, Steve Blank approved.

Ps. A big thank you for my Dutch friend Ronald Mannak for introducing me to Silicon Valley.

 

 

In events, silicon valley, startup
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First experiences with the Founder Institute: man up!

July 1, 2011

We started last week, had two sessions and it has been very interesting. Very insightful but also tough. You go in thinking you know something about what you are doing, but soon you learn there is a lot you don’t know, haven’t done or are not good at. Teaches you some humility, and shows you you need to man up if if you want to be successful.

The previous class in Silicon Valley started out with 55 founders. They take in founders, whereas other incubators (YCombinator, 500startups, AngelPad, I/O ventures) only take teams with ideas. That Founder Institute class ended with 14 founders, so that shows part of the program is to test you, and your idea. So you need to be 100 % committed, as you have to be if you want to create a new business from scratch. Also, while not really being probed for your business idea while applying for the Institute, it is clear that you only get a few weeks to come up with a great idea that you can build a business and company with.

The 70 people were divided up in groups. I volunteered to become president as I want to get the most out of the program and like to be in charge. Because of that, the first introduction evening I was one of the 7 lucky ones that were picked to do a one minute pitch. Brutal, I got a 2 out of 5. I did not have my market well enough defined, and no in dept usage numbers of my current user base.

The next evening (like 24 hours later), I was picked again! Lucky me. Besides Adeo we had two mentors that were judging, Bill Hunt and Madeline Duva. I was kind of caught off guard, thinking with 60 something other founder that hadn’t presented I would not be picked again. I had looked up some numbers, but could have done a better job. Lesson to be learned: always be ready. I got sloppy. So how did I do? Not much better, 2 2-s and a 1. Feedback: they did not see the pain point, didn’t understand my numbers and my presentation lacked enthusiasm.  Work to do baby.

In founder institute, incubator, startup
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I have moved to Silicon Valley and joined the Founder Institute!

June 30, 2011

Some of you may know already, but a couple of months ago I got a Visa, packed my bags and moved to Silicon Valley. San Francisco to be precise. Why? Easy, almost all great technology startups are created here! It is such a great ecosystem. Here are the (early) investors, your fellow entrepreneurs and the supporting services like legal and accounting that will help you out. I have been trying to get my startup HelloInbox off the ground from my hometown Amsterdam for a while, and realized it was going to be hard from there. After having visited Silicon Valley last November with a trip for Dutch entrepreneurs organized by Handelsroute I knew if I wanted to learn how to build a successful tech startup and make a success out of HelloInbox I had to get out of Amsterdam to Silicon Valley. So I did.

I spent 5 weeks here in February/March, had to go back to Amsterdam then and got into the country again in the beginning of May. Till now I have spent quite a lot of time getting to know people, do networking and learn about the ways of SV. Yes that will be a whole separate blog post in the future:). To learn quicker and get to build up your network faster I wanted to join an incubator. After reviewing all around the area and applying for a few I joined the Founder Institute . This is a program ran by Adeo Ressi with chapters all over the world. Of course, the one in Silicon Valley is the oldest and probably the most valuable, as a lot of local mentors are Silicon Valley heroes.

Very exciting! I will let everybody know here what my experiences are with the institute and doing business in Silicon Valley!

 

 

In incubator, startup
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