Startup Founders Get Lean in Sydney

The past few months, I've had the pleasure of planning, organizing, and launching the second Lean Startup Machine Workshop in Sydney, Australia! The 3-day workshop was held 19-21 April at Fishburners, a local co-working and tech start-up space.

Now that I've recovered from my jet lag, I thought I'd share an inside perspective on what it can take to truly test your start-up or business idea BEFORE writing a line of code, or buying any inventory, or hiring your first person, or ... you get the idea. Here's a sample of what went down ... down under!

The Stats

• 56 entrepreneurs
• 20 mentors
• 10 ideas
• 5 speakers
• 5 judges 
• 2 winning teams who benefited from over $2,500 in prizes

The Story

We started on Friday evening with the high energy of ideas being pitched and teams being formed -- 20 app, product, and service ideas were culled down to 10 teams based on group voting. 

Natasha, Pascale & Coach Colette

Lessons from launching successful start-ups were shared in our Fireside Chat by Sydney entrepreneurs Pascale Helyar-Moray (founder StyleRocks) and Natasha Rawlings (co-founder StreetHawk App & Springboard Australia member).

Teams spent the remainder of Friday night beginning to define their problem and customer hypotheses, and initial customer assumptions using the Validation Board.

By Saturday morning, 10 teams had become 9 as one team of three people disbanded because a team member decided not to return to the workshop. Just like in the real world, when you think you've got everyone on board, someone jumps overboard; and then you have to either reiterate, pivot, or (in this case) abandon ship.

We encouraged teams to spend the majority of Saturday 'getting out of the building' to have real conversations with real potential customers. Teams begin to learn that their ideas are essentially useless until they're validated (or invalidated) by customers who are actually living/dealing with the problem. 

My 'Saturday-tough-love' coaching to any team who was resisting going out and yet still struggling to find "the 'right' answer" was: "You're not going to find it in here standing in front of the board, talking to yourselves. Get out there and ask some more people some more questions!"

Sebastien Eckserley-Maslin on Customer Dvpt

Hamish Barney on MVPs

Shihab Hamid on Landing Pages

Lean Sydney 2013 Mentors

In addition to hands-on coaching from me and our 20 mentors, teams heard relevant presentations on customer development, building MVPs, and launching landing pages to solidify their understanding of Lean methodology.

The Breakthrough

On Saturday night, the energy was much lower as many teams seemed frustrated by the feedback they were receiving from target customers. Perhaps their perceived problem wasn't really a problem at all, or maybe it wasn't an urgent problem that their proposed customers cared enough about to solve. These are not uncommon experiences for an entrepreneur -- it just doesn't often happen in a 24-hour period!

How an entrepreneur responds to this feedback is crucial: do you continue to hold onto your idea (e.g., it's such a great idea, and did I tell you how I came up with it) or do you listen to your customers? We witnessed this struggle through Sunday morning, until some of the teams had the breakthrough as described below:

".. we stopped trying to change the customer to fit [our] solution (wasting time), and started ACTUALLY looking for [their] pain points." 

The Finale
On Sunday, it was all about making last iterations and pivots; and collecting data from online MVPs and landing pages to find out how much validation (e.g., signups, pledges, and/or letters of intent) each team had gained.

We told the teams how they could win Lean Sydney 2013 -- by sharing their findings in a short, yet compelling presentation that demonstrated how they apply the methodology and validated (or invalidated) their key assumptions.

Tom Frazier on Pitching Tips

Our Lean Sydney 2013 judging panel included renowned Sydney entrepreneurs Jodie Fox (founder Shoes of Prey) and Matt Barrie (founder Freelancer.com), and Lean Sydney 2012 founder James Nathan (Food Orbit).

And, the winners were .... @pixcapp (helping online retailers create better images) and GoTix (helping business travelers find last-minute tickets to shows and sporting events). The grand prize included a cloud hosting package from Ninefold, marketing plan consultation, and free desk space at The Hive (co-working space at Pollenizer).

To practice what I'm preaching, here's feedback from one of the attendees to validate the value of the Lean Startup Machine workshop experience:

"It teaches you really good techniques for validating business ideas, so you can see if you have a valid business before wasting lots of money on it building a solution."

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sydney -- getting to know the start-up ecosystem there, and seeing a bit of the city. I'll share more about my personal adventures in Oz soon!

85 Broads Goes the Extra Mile to Fight Breast Cancer

Yesterday was the Komen Greater NYC Race for the Cure. It was phenomenal to be in the company of survivors, family members and supporters of this cause. There were so many great people with great energy! Here's a brief update and photos from the day's festivities.

First, I'd like to send a huge THANK YOU to the team at Ducale restaurant on Columbus Avenue. They hosted our 85 Broads - Komen NYC team for a wonderful pre-race breakfast. As we were power walking, many members remarked about how great were the coffee and (fresh-squeezed) orange juice. Here are some team members at the breakfast.

Here's a group photo of the 85 Broads - Komen NYC team in front of Ducale before we made our way to the starting line.

THANK YOU to Krista for bringing the 85 Broads water bottles that kept many of us refreshed as we ran and power walked the Race!

And, I'm so excited to report that the 85 Broads - Komen NYC team has exceeded its fundraising goal of $3,500 USD! On behalf of the team, I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to all of our donors!! The great news is that we can continue to receive donations until October 31, 2009. I'd love to see us go the extra mile and raise $5,000 before then!

Because, TOGETHER, we WILL Run Breast Cancer out of Town!

Has Vayner Ruined E-Portfolios as a Job Search Strategy?

There has been much buzz about a recent "presumed-failure" in job search strategies: A Yale senior, Aleksey Vayner, sent an email with a 7-minute video describing some of his attributes and investment-banking career aspirations to UBS. Somehow, the video became part of the public domain and eventually aired on You Tube.

Since we've had recent posts on career portfolios, I thought I'd continue the thread.
What role can electronic portfolios play in your career management strategy?

Electronic portfolios use interactive multimedia to increase the range and type of materials that can be included in a portfolio. They enable you to take full advantage of advanced technology and utilize graphics, animation, sound and video.

Forbes has all but relegated Vayner to its Career Hall of Shame. I've reviewed the video excerpt -- aside from the somewhat suggestive dancing scenes, is there any value in his creativity? You can probably bet that no other aspiring I-bankers created a similar montage.

However, there is one definite downside to his approach -- it doesn't appear as if Vayner really KNEW HIS TARGET INDUSTRY. Given the traditionally-conservative nature of investment banking, the less likely it is that the video would have been seen as a viable introduction to his capabilities.

While electronic portfolios can be valuable tools to help you stand out from the crowd, you have to know how receptive your audience will be to this career management tool. What do you think?

Tips for Your Job Search