The year 2017

Reviewing this year as we approach the end

One area that will be an area of focus for the coming year and beyond will be StartUp Teams Alignment. Like marriage, this is one space that can derail startup team, when partners are not Aligned.

How do you get Aligned with your Startup CoFounders?
Why is this a Very Important part of the StartUp?

Let's look at the stats of failed marriage and startups.
When you break that down by number of marriages: 41 percent of first marriages end in divorce. 60 percent of second marriages end in divorce. 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.Oct 30, 2012. These numbers are 5 years old.

This is cut and paste from Entrepreneur website, so I could offer insights into the cause and some remedial work on how to fix an issue :

1. Lack of focus- How this was rated number one has to be taken into context of the whole reason, why startups fail. To come so far in your startup and loose Focus is very easy to happen because Life gets in the way.
2. Lack of motivation, commitment and passion- These are driven by other co-founders. When others are not pulling their share of the weight.
3. Too much pride, resulting in an unwillingness to see or listen- This should have been number 1, because a lot of startups think, that their idea, is the best thing since sliced bread. All the above are within the startup founders control.
4. Taking advice from the wrong people- This is a statement that you as the startup founder have to answer, let's quantify these- what is wrong people? is it a qualification issue(do they know what they are talking about)? is it a personal agenda issue(other than qualification issue)?
5. Lacking good mentorship- Good mentors cost money, finding a mentor that has skills and experience in your industry is a blessing. The issue here is most mentors are old school and new ideas or business models just clash from day 1
6. Lack of general and domain-specific business knowledge: finance, operations, and marketing- Outsourcing????

Other issues that can derail startups:

1. No market need
2. Ran out of cash
3. Not the right team
4. Got outcompeted
5. Pricing/cost issue
6. Poor product
7. Need/lack business model
8. Poor marketing
9. Ignore customers

Have a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year

This week in StartUp Space

This week in StartUp Space

This blog is about the StartUp Ecosystem Globally.
SMH had a write up regarding Sexual Harassment in the Venture Capital space and the impact that has in the StartUp space. Seriously this was an Accident waiting to Happen, lets look at the players in this space. The Alpha male in the VC space, is a formidable player, stopping at nothing to get what he wants. When I wake up in the morning, I know my place and where the line is drawn, call me a coward if you will, for not have the nuts to chase, what I desire. For the Alpha Male, this line is blurred and will do whatever it takes. I am not saying that this behaviour is right and boys will be boys. I am wanting to shad some light on this behaviour.
Lets look at some of the statements made
'You owe me a blow job, for the favour'
This is an Alpha Male expression, I owe you one or if said from the other person, you owe me one.
How to handle this in 2017?
Easy
Tell my brother to sought him out, with a broken leg and never to use that tone again.
Because to call the Alpha Male out, will lead to close rank, as we see in some religious organization

Moving on
New Zealand Electric car sharing, looking to expand into Australia
New car sharing

Next for all you Fast geeks = Fashion Technologist
GlamCorner raised 4.2m in Series A round
Fashion corner
 

News Update 25/03/2017

I was at a seminar last week and the topic of conversation with the presenter was pure gold.
The US backs a Winner and in Australia we back the Underdog and the by product is Tall Poppy Syndrome
Au tech in the Valley
Insight from that conversation and when you read about Tech companies SV migration, just makes sense.

Next
500 startups sets up shop in Melbourne
Had comments about this from all over the place( I admin for Europe, Asia and Australia startup groups) all very positive signals from all in the startup ecosystem. Melissa Star( Board member for The Next Wave Accelerator Limited Partnership) also made a comment, regarding entering US market as a 1st option, also because of the volume of people in US market.

Next
New Equity Crowd Funding laws

This just got passed through Federal Government, another avenue of funding for early stage growth startups. Attached is a Google list of how Equity Crowd funding works.

Next
Lady Gaga in Tech space
Not new to tech space Lady Gaga invest in Bud
Food for thought, for those looking for doing a Capital Raising list, some people in Entertainment have deep pockets.

Till next week Keep Hustling

Lent in the StartUp space

How does Lent relate to the 2017 startup?

Lent is a period of fasting and prayer, in the startup space the equivalent is white noise/temptations and focus.
You the startup founder, need to be aware of white noise and the ability to get shit done. Anything that is not helping your startup gain traction and moving forward is White Noise.
What is White Noise?
Yes we need breaks in between getting shit done, the difference is the breaks are starting to get more frequent. The moment we hit a hiccup, we take a break. The moment we have a setback, we take a break. The moment our VC/Angel deal falls through, we take a 4 day break
What is Focus?
The ability to stay on track, pivots aside, deals that are dragging it's feet aside, disagreements with other CoFounders aside.
The above only happens when your Values are Aligned with your Goals.

Once you as the founder sort out your Values and Align that with your Project Goals
Everything falls into place.
   

So Belated Welcome to 2017

December 2016 - Inspire to Buy
Feb 2017 - Turning Point
Feb 2017 - Key Person of Influence

Inspire to Buy
Learning to pitch in different space, was well put together by Benjamin Harvey
Was able to put all the content I learnt to the Test
Those that know me, know of my fascination with Platforms
Went to a Meetup regarding this platform
Because I was so gung ho about this platform, i literally  had a bout of verbal diarrhea
Then remembered the part about letting the client sell themselves
So I kept quite and he went for it, you could link this with other projects blah
Walks away, comes back 5 minutes later
Would you like some space? Walks away, comes back 5 minutes late, We have a License, would you like to share in using this License?

So lessons learnt
Keep learning new things things

Automate possibles

Have included this small pics to keep you focused on what you are working on and that is your StartUp
Is there any way possible for you to automate some parts of your work ie through short cuts, templates that would just make it so much easy to get stuck in the more serious part of your startup.

Automate possibles

Have included this small pics to keep you focused on what you are working on and that is your StartUp
Is there any way possible for you to automate some parts of your work ie through short cuts, templates that would just make it so much easy to get stuck in the more serious part of your startup.