Startup Weekend Ann Arbor

Drum Roll Please…

swannarbor — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:03:04 +0000

A big congratulation to our winning teams!

Top 2 teams:

1. Rap Roulette: Video Chat Roulette for Rap Battles

Prizes:

2 sponsored tickets from the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship to San Francisco to pitch their startup! Trip includes visits to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Own Point of Sale, and Twilio.
$200 Amazon Web Services Credit
$75 Google AdWords credit
Tour of Bizdom U + private pitch workshop. Teams will work together with the Bizdom U Leadership team for a pitch and feedback session.

2. Task Missile: Real time web-development feedback system

Tour of Bizdom U + private pitch workshop. Teams will work together with the Bizdom U Leadership team for a pitch and feedback session
$75 Google AdWords credit

Most Promising Pitch (sponsored by RPM Ventures): Task Missile

Prize:

Private pitch workshop with RPM Ventures. Opportunity to work together with RPM team to both practice their pitch and receive feedback from a seed investor.

Best Use of SMS (sponsored by Nexmo): EvenTalk: Real time text-message based event feedback system.

Prize:

Amazon Kindle Fire

Best Demo: Backtrack: Searchable database of previously visited web pages.

Audience’s Choice (powered by Nexmo): Rap Roulette

End of Day 2

swannarbor — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:56:12 +0000

As we reach the end of Day 2 here at SWAnnArbor, I can’t believe all that has happened here in the last 30 hours.

After kicking off with a buzzing mix & mingle, we got off to a killer start with 71 pitches! The atmosphere was filled with excitement to brainstorm, share, and dive into new waters.

Here are the pitches from Friday:

Shannon: Author Me This- Allows you to capture your children’s stories.
Adam: Task Missile- Real time customer or client feedback system, Firebook,
Scott: Bachelor Chow: Subscribe and receive same bi-weekly groceries
Stuart: Corporate Dating Service: Help companies recruit employees + match pool of locals
Ricardo: The Stock Market for Web Startups: people invest in future revenues for web startups
Shreyas: YouNews: Web Article Tool which generates blurb or summary based on highlights
Ryan: IMich: Better free collaborative online learning community- for anyone!
Kinnard: Chirper: Text message goes from directly from me to you, and free
Lawrence: Syllabus: Add syllabus directly to Google calendar
Matt Text it: Timed text messages + emails
Vijay: Universal Address Book: easy to add, extract, + update: unique pin + profile-based
Jeff: Happy Turtle: Interface that streamlines the ability to send targeted recruiting ads
Mark: Linknotes: Write message on sticky note and scan it and auto update on the web
Dave: Doork: Door Module each one has info that gives you a memoryboost and saves you time
Ben: Earworm: Song stuck your head? No longer. Bam.
Mike: Cluster: Collaborative recommendations from your inner circle.
Alex + Sanjeet: Kaijan: Bars bid on you- “5 guys looking for a bar, which bar wants them?”
Nathan: Backtrack: Browser extension: track all the pages puts it on searchable online database
Jaime Did Some: App that bothers/reminds you do to your goals
Billie: I Hope You Know: Web service that makes it easy to make memorable gifts
Armin: Allows applicant to highlight accomplishments + objective assessment of competency
Nick: Supertext: Number that you text and directly answers your personal questions
Tierra: Intro.me: Networking platform that facilitates meetings between minority women.
Joe + Stephen: Collaborative Calendar: Everything (others can post and goes right on calendar)
Becca: Website where you can post things you want to borrow or loan out + name price
Zach: MyCards: Register all cards (giftcards, loyalty, credit) on website
Adam: Lets people at Startup Weekend trade skills
JJ + David: Peach: Pay without credit card + get recommendations based on past transactions
Udae: List all details for contractor and gives out money to contractor after each task is done
Jon: Me Gusta: Make awesome games for iPhone + iPad
Nazih: We Compete: Allows corporate teams to compete + lock results, track via smartphones
Manish: Gateway: Money only goes to worker when the work is done to satisfaction ,
Brian: Local.tv: Website that is optimized for TV viewer
Rui: Gobartering.com- Allows to barter
Dharmik: One stop resource for students (forums, resources, textbook market, social media,etc)
Ned: I’m Fucked, Save Me!: Geo-locating advice- to help you find the right people
Ghazi: Trailer Park: Watch trailers to pick movies, not reading boring synopsis, can tag trailers
Mitch: Open Content Company with quality content
Alex: Dashboard that tells you when stuff is freakin’ out in your life!
Adam: Cleo: Phone-based software:works with external hardware to remember + video record details of your life
Yohei: Captures all DJ merchandise on one website for all fans
Tharyn: Layer on top of blogpost that highlights parts of article + shares on other networks
K.J.: Sopa Soap: send directly to congressman!
Arthur: Create a concept tree of Wikipedia and simplify it to make it understandable
Jon: Buy One, Feed One: Find restaurants that have open tables- for each table filled, a child is fed
Rachita: Never Alone: Meet up with that “one” person you need help you accomplish goals
Kevin: Craysis: Filtering reception and targeting signals sent out
Shannon: The ability to control who texts you (no stranger, companies- only people you want)
Joe: Wolfkin: Sticker that becomes a reward, to encourage
Tharyn: GoodAds: Ads are sponsored by good people
Nathan: App that allows you to sell yourself to an event- gets you domain + designers
Dave: Asks questions based on your courses that will not shut off until you answer
Zach: Write in idea + find techies who can help bring it to life
Erik: Rap Roulette: Chat Roulette of free style rapping (virtually simulated rap battle)
Erik: Better way of GPA
Meme Images and give them a copyright
Mike: Reverse Auction site: give out requirements for job
Stuart: Check-please, help, order button at restaurants on table + waitstaff interface
Dimitry: Party Points: Compete with friends at a party and get points
Steve: Eat Me: Lets you find out if what you eat is safe or not (based on allergies, etc)
Danyaal: Gifgallery.com
K.J. + Jon: Asiantablesavers.com
Jeff: CyberGrandma’s Cookbook: Input recipe, tells you ingredients needed. Database of pantry + scanner-based updates
Neil: App that calls a cab for you
Jim: Consumeractivitist.org- database of analytics allowing support of advertisers for good advertising not violence
Greg: Rude Awakening: Insults you until you wake up + can submit insults
Cameron: Collaborative Drawing Game
Alex: Cohort: Achieve your goals with the help of your support network
Vijay: Put in ingredients you have and website/app gives you a recipe
Jon: Google TV ads- combine Good Ads + Consumeractivist.org
Nancy: The Ingredients that made me: What is your recipe all about?

After Mixing and Mingling, the votes came in and the top 12 killer teams were announced:

1. Rap Roulette: Chat Roulette of free style rapping (virtually simulated rap battle)

2. Collaborative Calendar: Calendar which complies everything- can include what others post.

3. Me Gusta: Make awesome games for iPhone + iPad

4. Buy One, Get One: Find resturants that have open tables- for each table filled, a child is fed

5. YouNews: Web article tool which generates blurb or summary based on highlights

6. Sopa Soap: Send Sopa soap to congressmen

7. Bachelor Chow: Users subscribe and receive the same bi-weekly grocery package

8. Doork: Door Module each one has info that gives you a memory boost and saves you time

9. Text it: Time text messages and emails

10. Kaijian: Bars bid on you- “5 guys looking for a bar, which bar wants them?”

11. Task Missile: Real time customer or client feedback system, firebook

12. IMich: Better free collaborative online learning community for everyone.

Teams have been working hardcore all day, with some awesome prototypes on the way!

A huge shout out to our mentors: Dov Rosenburg, Sally Carson, Steve Schwartz, Jon Baugh, Jason Raznick, Zach Steindler, Ankur Oberoi, Kyle Mulka, Nathan Bashaw, Jim Xiao, Tony Jamous, Tim Lytle, as well as our guest speakers: Verdi Ergün and Erol Ahmed for sharing your experience and advice!

Can’t wait to see the presentations tomorrow!

Interested in coming to see what the teams are all about? Join us tomorrow evening beginning 5:30pm, right here in East Hall for the our final team presentations and awards!

A Message from Ann Arbor SPARK

swannarbor — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:22:53 +0000

Ann Arbor SPARK is thrilled to be involved with the Ann Arbor Startup Weekend event this year! The Director of our Entrepreneurial Services, Bill Mayer will be a judge during the event. As an organization whose mission is to advance innovation-based economic development in the greater Ann Arbor region we strongly believe in supporting initiatives which bridge the gap between student and non-student entrepreneurs.

As a part of our sponsorship to the event we are donating three free months of virtual tenancy at our SPARK Central Incubator in downtown Ann Arbor to one Startup Weekend company. Ann Arbor SPARK has three incubator locations. Our SPARK Central Incubator in downtown Ann Arbor, our SPARK East Incubator in Ypsilanti and our Michigan Life Science and Innovation wet lab Incubator in Plymouth.

We welcome Startup Weekend participates to become more involved with us and attend our monthly free educational events aimed at entrepreneurs. The content of our events comes in all forms; marketing, legal, life-science and environmental topics aimed at giving out relevant information for those starting a business. Another benefit of our events is the networking opportunities for those who attend to meet others involved in our robust Ann Arbor entrepreneurial community.

Itinerary

swannarbor — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:07:13 +0000

Here is the general itinerary for the weekend:

January 20-22, 2012 ‘
Psychology Atrium, East Hall
University of Michigan
530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI
Friday 5:30pm – Sunday 9pm

Friday:

5:30 pm: Registration starts (pizza served)
6:30 pm: Welcome and kickoff
7:00 pm: Pitches Begin-(60 seconds per person)
8:00 pm: Attendees mix, mingle, and vote for the top ideas
8:45pm: Top ideas are announced. Teams form and begin to work
12:00am: Teams either call it a night or leave the venue for elsewhere to work throughout the night

Saturday:

9:00am: Doors open. Breakfast + coffee.
12:15pm: Verdi Ergün and Erol Ahmed: “Rethink.”
1:30pm: Lunch + Teams continue working. Mentors begin working with teams.
6:30pm: Dinner + Teams continue working.
10:30pm: Informal Social/Mixer (participants can continue to work if they want)
12:00am: Teams either call it a night or leave the venue for elsewhere to work throughout the night

Sunday:

9:00am: Doors open. Breakfast + coffee.
9:30am: Teams continue working and begin prepping for presentations + Mentors begin working with teams.
12:00pm: Lunch + Continue working
12:00-5:00pm: Teams begin dry run through of presentations: pitch timing, equipment check, etc. 4:30pm: Dinner, final touch-ups on presentations
5:15pm: Judges and additional presentation audience arrive
5:30pm: Richard Sheridan: “Entrepreneurship: Purpose, Passion and Joy.”
6:00pm: Introduce judging panel and kickoff presentations
8:00pm: Judging + awards
9:00pm: The end! Socialize, exchange numbers, celebrate!

Get Pumped!

- The Startup Weekend Ann Arbor Crew

Sneak Peek into Startup Weekend!

swannarbor — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:23:07 +0000

Entrepreneurship in the Eyes of Rich Sheridan

swannarbor — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:25:50 +0000

We would like to thank Rich for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share his experiences with us! We look forward to seeing you next weekend!

Q: How did you get started in entrepreneurship?

Rich:

My first entrepreneurial experiences involved selling candy door-to-door for school fundraisers when I was in elementary school. I fell in love the idea of profit! My next venture was as a newspaper boy. Not only did I love the “customer service orientation”, but I could also see and feel the profit while being a good service provider. I did my first acquisition around 14 years old when the kid who had the route that adjoined mine retired. I nearly doubled revenues in one transaction!

By 17, I co-formed a company called Micromation that was focused on provided micro-computer based software for doctors, lawyers, and dentists to organize their billing processes. Total failure on every front. In 1976, I began working evenings after my regular work schedule, selling survey analysis results using computing power at my workplace. Very profitable. I got so busy that I had to shut it down so I could enjoy my life. I then tried to help someone create a new product using the brand new TRS-80 microcomputer. Total failure.

Having always envisioned being an entrepreneur, I never lost that entrepreneurial flair even though I went to U-M to get a couple of degrees (BS Computer Science ’80, MS Computer Engineering ’82). In fact, I had perfectly imagined Menlo (it was probably going to be called Sheridan Inc. in those days) at 21 while walking down State Street near Nichols Arcade. I was determined that I was going to build the best damn software team that Ann Arbor had ever seen. But all of this was sort of put on hold as I got a real job and starting working my “career path”. I began to lose the fire inside of me very quickly. I call this time my personal “trough of disillusionment”. Meaningless work, bad results, poor teamwork, crappy products, bad customer service, poor software quality, missed schedules, unhappy bosses, unhappy team members, unhappy me. I wanted out!

I considered starting canoe camps in the boundary waters of Minnesota, a favorite destination for my father and I when I was young. But I couldn’t figure out how to support my wife and three daughters with that plan. All I knew was that I was losing my “fire” – and that frightened me.

So, I began reading books including Peter Drucker’s book on Management, Peter Senge’s book on building Learning Organizations called The Fifth Discipline, John Naisbitt’s Megatrends, and finally Tom Peter’s In Search of Excellence. I was the perennial kid in the room full of manure. I KNEW there was pony in that room, there had to be. 1999 came and I was the R&D VP at Interface Systems, the #1 public company in Michigan. I read a book by a guy named Kent Beck (Extreme Programming Explained) and saw a video about an industrial Design firm in Palo Alto called IDEO (ABC News Nightline episode called The Deep Dive). That was all I needed: I now had an instruction manual and a video. I transformed my entire team to a new way of working. I had two years to build the archetype of Menlo.

The internet bubble burst in 2001, the Nasdaq crashed, and just as quickly, I was out of work. No stock options, no job, no industry! Everything was gone in an instant. All, except an idea. I went home and told my wife I had lost my job. She asked me, “You’re unemployed?” I said, “No, honey, I am an entrepreneur!” (pay was nearly the same… in fact, unemployment paid slightly more). Once again, I had everything I needed: the idea, the structure, and the passion. Menlo Innovations was born on June 12th, 2001 (it would have been my Mom’s 84th birthday!). Within 2 years, I landed on the cover of Forbes. A few years later, as one of Inc. 500’s fastest growing privately held firms. And just this past year, on cover of Inc. Magazine.

The joy is back for me. It doesn’t feel like work anymore. I’ve got it to the point where I only need to work half days … and I get to decide which 12 hours that is. Joy, pure joy.

Q: Can you tell us a little about Menlo Innovations‘ approach to running a company?

Rich:

The key elements of our approach are driven by passion, purpose, structure without bureaucracy, and an intentional culture of joy instead of fear.

When people come to visit Menlo (in 2011 we did 168 tours for over 1300 visitors), I begin by speaking of the “business value of joy.” This confuses people. They don’t believe that joy, business, and profit can fit together. I don’t see how it can work sustainably any other way. Most see the common sense of this, yet never see this common sense in practice anywhere. We believe you get the most creativity, energy, productivity, engagement and quality when you remove fear from the management philosophy. There is enough to be afraid of in the outside world without artificially manufacturing fear to motivate people.

This results in some interesting attributes: no hierarchy, no traditional perks (such as a corner office for the CEO). You get a culture and operation that is custom-tailored to our joyful intention.

Teamwork and trust then result.

We work hard to ensure the world’s outside perception of us with our inside reality. We want it to be real and focused on goals outside of the organization. We speak of “ending human suffering in the world as it relates to technology.” Well, most of that suffering occurs out in the world for the poor end users who are tortured daily by bad software – either software that doesn’t work or is so difficult to use that it isn’t even clear if it works.

Q: What would you like to see from Startup Weekend Ann Arbor?

Rich:

That we ignite a fire in the hearts of student entrepreneurs. Even if they choose a job over entrepreneurship, that they ultimately feel the excitement and energy of entrepreneurial thinking.

Q: What do you see in the future for Ann Arbor’s entrepreneurial community?

Rich:

I see a very bright future. With the work being done inside the University community alongside the growing legion of successful Ann Arbor entrepreneurial mentors available to Michigan students, we now have most of the ingredients necessary for sustained growth of this segment of the economy. I believe many of today’s students are searching for a deep meaning to their work and the impact it can have on the world. Entrepreneurship is one very powerful avenue in pursuing that deeper meaning.

Q: If you had one piece of advice to give entrepreneurs today, what would it be?

Rich:

Entrepreneurship, in my view, involves a “journey to self.” It is a process of discovering your passions and then pursuing them, profitably. Gather information wherever you can. Look for examples (good and bad). Read. Explore. Stay curious. Experiment. Do not fear mistakes or failure. Take action.

How to put lean startup ideas into practice during Startup Weekend.

swannarbor — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:42:26 +0000

Thanks Nathan for the great advice!
(Nathan’s advice can also be found in the Startup Weekend Book)

Here are a couple of tricks I’ve discovered in my adventures trying to figure out how this whole startup thing works. Hopefully they should help you build something awesome during the weekend and gain valuable experience putting lean startup techniques into practice. So without further ado, here are my top 3 tips for making your startup weekend experience a little leaner:

1) Build, but not too much – Just asking people if they like your idea isn’t enough. They will have a hard time conceptualizing what you’re trying to sell them, and they might say “yes” just because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. After all, if your product is just a dream, how can they objectively (or constructively) criticize it? You’ll need to show them something you’ve made before they’ll understand it. It doesn’t have to be the full product. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Everything you build is worthless until proven valuable. Sinking a lot of time and effort into an unproven concept is a recipe to achieve a failure. Much better to build small things first, like a fake screenshot or landing page. Show them to people, learn from what they say, iterate, repeat. Plan on throwing away a lot of good ideas in order to get to the great ones.

2) Be a human – Have you ever noticed how the best conversations tend to wander away from the original talking point, and head towards interesting, uncharted territory? When you’re talking to potential customers, do everything you can to let these types of engaging discussions emerge. Don’t stop them when they’re leaning forward in their seat with their eyes wide, adrenaline surging, paying rapt attention to the conversation. I used to take a rigid, formal approach to customer development interviews until I realized that I never got many good ideas or feedback from those conversations. My scripted questions made people uneasy, and they weren’t willing to open up with what they *really* think. Now, I don’t think of these interviews as anything more than an opportunity to build a relationship and learn from an interesting person. I ask about their story, how they got started doing what they do, what they’ve been reading lately, where they want to be in five years. This gives me a holistic understanding that no survey will ever be able to replicate, because it takes a genuine human connection for people to feel comfortable opening up. Bonus tip – be vulnerable, and they’ll reciprocate.

3) Understand your corner – Startups are small, fragile creatures. You can only dominate the world if you start out by capturing a small corner. In order to do that, you’ve got to know it like the back of your hand. Talk, read, listen, ask, argue, and stumble your way towards figuring out what makes your niche tick. That means you have to figure out who all the players are, what they do, how they relate to each other, etc. Think of yourself as a zoologist studying an anthill. Watch the flows of resources and information, figure out the strong and weak points, who has power, who doesn’t, and who to *actually* be afraid of. Give each team member homework to do, and let them present their findings to the group. Do all this, and maybe you’ll begin to understand 1% of whats actually going on. It’s important to realize that blogs and newspapers are trying to tell stories for entertainment, not for truth value. The best info comes from discussions with real people. Don’t be afraid to email useful strangers with “random” questions for your research.

So those are my 3 ideas for how to be a little leaner during startup weekend. The most important thing to remember is that advice = limited life experience + over-generalizations. Take all this with a cup of salt

Application!

swannarbor — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:45:24 +0000

The application’s finally here!!

The final deadline is January 12, 2012.

Click here to apply!

Getting to know Verdi Ergün and Erol Ahmed

swannarbor — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:24:00 +0000

We would like to thank Erol and Verdi for taking time out of their busy schedules to sit down and chat with us! Look forward to seeing you guys in January!

Q: What is Own?

Erol:

Own lets your retail business turn every customer into a regular with the world’s first social point of sale. Smart analytics to run your sales and employees; social media built into the point of sale to know your customers; and deals and mobile advertising to get people into your store. Own is a complete platform to run your business smarter.

Q: How did you guys get into entrepreneurship?

Erol:	I wasn’t really an entrepreneur but I did a lot of freelance work and was always working with all kinds of different people for design projects: institutions, non-profits — it was a lot of fun. After a while, you kind of want to do your own thing. Actually when I was in middle school and high school, my friends and I had a fake company we ran for a couple of years. We had board meetings and employees — about 15 people. We did a pop can drive in our neighborhoods to raise money for the company. We actually got in trouble for it because that was illegal. But I mean, we were not a real organization when we were asking for cans. But yeah, we had money, about $30 in the coffers at one point.
Verdi:	I guess I didn’t really decide. My first experience was when I had an ice-cream truck when I was a sophomore at U of M. I started driving around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, selling ice-cream. I didn’t really do that well, to be honest — I hate selling ice-cream on an ice-cream truck — so that turned into this magnetic advertising business called the Student Guide where some delivery-businesses are featured on a magnet and then given out to the recreation buildings on campus. But that didn’t go well either — lasted for about three, four months. Then I faced the decision of finishing undergrad and well, I didn’t want to get a sales and marketing job. I was going to get a design job actually, but then at the same time, a friend of mine was like, “We could open up a little taco place.” That seemed more interesting, and I actually like Mexican food. So in my senior year, we ended up doing and planning that. We opened up two to three months after I graduated. It just seemed to be a fun thing to do.
Erol:	I think people are afraid that they are going to make a mistake — but there’s literally no right way to do it.

Q: That’s a great way to put it. So, Own was formed after Verdi’s Mexican food business. When did the light bulb “go off” for this new point of sales system?

Verdi:

I was so actively thinking about Mexican food and burritos that it didn’t. But I suffered pretty much every day and didn’t really think about solving it because I was trying to figure out how to make burritos better, faster, and cheaper. But in 2009, there was this point where I ended up thinking about going to grad school and ended up selling half of the burrito business to my partner. Then I hit this point when — grad school applications were fun but not that fun — I just started getting really bored. So a friend of mine, a software developer, basically said we should get a “Big CRM” [Customer Relations Management] type thing. There are so many other big CRM companies out there and none of that sounded really interesting. But then I thought ERP systems, point-of-sales, and I was like — wow, I remember how much my point-of-sale system sucked. It is a basic urge to be able to see your sales data when you are not at the store. And that was the most basic, fundamental concept. It just started going from there and I was like, what else can I do if it’s all on the web? Now you can do online orders connecting to Twitter or social media, or can manage your menus and look at what customers are coming and going. And that’s how it started.

Q: So after developing this new point-of-sale concept, how did you and Erol come to work together? Did you find it hard to find teammates in the process?

Verdi:	I met Erol 6-8 months after getting started. People are really skeptical by nature. I worked with a few people before we met — but nobody was doing what you need to actually do to build a company — which is work. But yeah, I guess you never know what is going to happen or where you are going to meet people — which also makes it exciting. In fact, Erol and I met at the most unlikely of places to meet a business partner.
Erol:	Yeah, we met at a Turkish association wine tour — my family’s Turkish and my mom was president at the time so I had to go. Verdi was actually learning Turkish at the time.
Verdi:	And we hit it off on a friendship kind of basis at the first moment.
Erol:	Yeah, you can tell. With a lot of people on our team, within the first hour, you can at least see their culture and personality and how they will fit. Of course technical skills are important, but getting along is what is most important.

Q: How did you approach being an early stage startup?

Verdi:	The hardest thing in the early days is momentum and traction. And a team. You’re constantly leveraging what you did yesterday. You’re always coming up with new stuff. I tried to go out and create business partners but Erol created new product vision, development, and technology. I would sell his ideas and communicate back, then he would rework what he was doing. When Erol and I became business partners he was able to make the product move faster in terms of aesthetics and design. This attracted more people to the company. We used designs to go to investors, to get loans. It showed that we knew where we were going and I think that made people start really paying attention.
Erol:	People are naturally skeptical and you need tangible things to prove to them that they should not be. It is rare to find people who believe in something without seeing anything at all. Having designs, talking to people — that is how you build momentum to answer that skepticism.
Verdi:	In the early days it is kind of like a ladder. You’re climbing a ladder, but you do not know where it is going. You have an idea, but all you can really see is the next one or two rungs. You have to grab the one before because they are spaced apart. This is true in the early days, but as the company grows then the analogy may not be as true.

Q: How is it different when the company takes flight and leaves the early stages?

Erol:

We cherish the energy and culture of an early stage, so we try to keep that as much as possible. That work environment, execution, fast paced environment — all stays. It is like a person. The early stages are like your teenage years. There are a lot of things you want to be over with, some things you can’t wait for. Now, we are literally in our twenties. As you mature, you start defining who you are as a company and start believing in it and the definition. You create more work flows, processes, bring on more people. To switch the analogy up a little bit, instead of defining yourself, you are watching another child grow at a distance when you mature. Your creation grows big.

Q: You mentioned you’re in your 20s- how old are you guys now?

Erol:	I’m 25. I’m at the center of the 20s. It’s all downhill — no just kidding. But I was 23 when I started working at Own.
Verdi:	And I’m three years older than him.

Q: After starting out in Ann Arbor, you both are now in San Francisco- how would you describe the atmosphere difference between these cities?

Verdi:	It’s a lot different. I just had the Richter scale explained to me. It’s logarithmic, so if you have a 3 it’s ten times worse than a 2 and a 4 is ten times worse than a 3, but there’s definitely an order of magnitude difference. There’s an order of magnitude more engineers, capital, and design talent. It’s just a tremendous difference. And because everything is so concentrated it’s also really competitive. There’s this sense of it being laid back and relaxed, but there’s also the sense that people are innovating all the time so if you’re not innovating you’re going to die.
Erol:	I agree with Verdi. I don’t even know if it’s laid back. It is definitely in the back of your mind: if you’re not working, you know someone else is working; if you’re not innovating, someone else is innovating; and if you don’t hire this person, someone else will. It’s super competitive, but people-wise everyone’s really friendly, kind of like the Midwest. Actually there’s a lot of Midwesterners that live in San Francisco so maybe that’s why, but it’s not quite like a New York City kind of vibe. And the weather’s great so it helps you work and think more because you’re not so much tied to the seasons. It sort of just one flow of weather. That’s a big difference weather-wise because I know how Ann Arbor weather can get.
Verdi:	The mindset’s different too. For example, when we raised our angel round of funding it took literally five months’ worth of work to convince 7 or 8 people to invest.
Erol:	Almost a year I would say.
Verdi:	Yeah first contact was maybe even almost a year. It could be a traction difference, but within the first week or two we got out here we had a couple people already invest. People are more in the mindset of entrepreneurship and what goes around comes around.
Erol:	And if you don’t invest, someone else will.
Verdi:	Yeah exactly.

Q: So do you guys recommend that people go through angel investment or VCs when they are trying to gather capital?

Erol:	It’s definitely true. It’s not a solo mission when you come out here, or even anywhere.
Verdi:	My personal belief is that you should always raise money. Even if you have the money to self-finance it, because money brings you more than just the money, it brings you partnerships, friends, business opportunities, connections, publicity opportunities, etc. You need a network: almost like a web of relationships, to build a company. You can’t do it on your own.

Q: If you had one piece of advice to give an aspiring entrepreneur what would you say?

Erol:	Show up to work and do what you love.
Verdi:	I would say you have to give in order to receive.

Questions?

swannarbor — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:49:23 +0000

Have more questions? Feel free to contact us at aastartupweekend@umich.edu!