I have been in a bit of quandary trying to work out how we do the equity splits. In comes Garry Visontay with his pearls of wisdom -- "check out Slicingpie.com".
Wow! Perfect.
So we're using a Grunt Fund.
I downloaded the Grunt Fund spreadsheet and started populating the information and popped it into a Google Drive folder and shared it with the team. We're tracking it all ourselves 'in good faith' as there are really just the 3 of us and we have some idea of what hours and $$ each other are putting into things.
So now it's just a matter of prioritising features we need/want for the amount of funds we have left and me trying to chase down some investment.
Friday 30 August 2013
Oddswop - We're alive!!
Someone once said if you aren't embarrassed by your initial release you have launched too late. Well... I'm certainly not embarrassed by it but it still has a lot to go feature wise. We threw a lot of things overboard in order to get it alive. There are still some issues we're working out but it was good enough for me to tell Andre to push the beta.oddswop.com.au to the www subdomain early this morning.
With a bunch of tools helping out with the launch side of things that was pretty smooth going. The problem was all the cross browser stuff, in particular Internet Explorer. Thank goodness Dave actually uses IE (don't ask!) and could do testing quickly. There are still issues with IE8 and IE9 but some of those... well... some of them just aren't compatible with the features built into the site!
We had a session in the morning about our next major feature -- the Communities model and then it was lunch time. Had a great time discussing user acquisition and other features we need to bring back into the fold.
Here's a photo of us celebrating over lunch...
With a bunch of tools helping out with the launch side of things that was pretty smooth going. The problem was all the cross browser stuff, in particular Internet Explorer. Thank goodness Dave actually uses IE (don't ask!) and could do testing quickly. There are still issues with IE8 and IE9 but some of those... well... some of them just aren't compatible with the features built into the site!
We had a session in the morning about our next major feature -- the Communities model and then it was lunch time. Had a great time discussing user acquisition and other features we need to bring back into the fold.
Here's a photo of us celebrating over lunch...
You can see Andre is very proficient at Selfies!
So day 1... this is what the site looks like:
Monday 26 August 2013
Guide to starting up
Interesting list of things to do / not to do when starting up via Techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/24/the-ultimate-cheat-sheet-for-starting-and-running-your-business/
So sounds like I should continue contracting for a while longer yet and not talk to VCs for another month or so when we hopefully will have a revenue generating stream...
In the meantime, hustle, hustle, hustle...
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/24/the-ultimate-cheat-sheet-for-starting-and-running-your-business/
So sounds like I should continue contracting for a while longer yet and not talk to VCs for another month or so when we hopefully will have a revenue generating stream...
In the meantime, hustle, hustle, hustle...
Friday 23 August 2013
Startup 'Juice'
I presented on Wednesday at the UNSW CSE Sydney Startup Expo where there were a bunch of other startups presenting. It was great. It's the first time I pitched/presented after Founder Institute which brought back lots of rose-coloured memories of practising and preparing my pitch deck.
I realised that I need to go to these events every so often as I get into a bit of a slump with what I'm working on and although I still network with the FI grads it's not the same. The buzz and excitement of mingling with other startup types is great. I wouldn't advocating going to too many (as where would you find time to work on your startup?) but every so often it's good.
Firstly, I got to pitch (always good to stay in the game). And this time it was in front of total strangers as I didn't know anyone there. Maybe that's a good thing in a way as there is no need to feel embarrassed? I did chat to a few people before hand and then it was into the pitches. I think there were around 20 and I was impressed with how well Brad from CSE handled everything. It was 3 minutes per pitch and 1 minute changeover. I was prepared FI style and had my USB key loaded with the PDF version of my slidedeck. (I also took my Netbook and my Chromebook just in case!) Brad kindly let me preload the PDF onto the machine which was in the room. The pitch went well and what I was really pleased about was that people actually listened! I did go slightly over my 3 minute allotment but I think everyone stole a bit of time from their 1 minute handover ;)
Secondly I got to listen to other people pitching. I think doing FI you forget that there are other startups out there doing the same sort of thing. But Brad was right... he suggested that we wear our shirts. Because at the end of the pitching I had no idea who was which startup! I did as he suggested and was wearing an Oddswop shirt up when speaking. But I don't think I had that much trouble being remembered as I was the only female Founder speaking! (There was a lady from General Assembly and an Intern for NSInnovations as well who spoke). I knew there weren't very many female founders and it was a CSE event but still... 1 female! *hmfp*
So other people are doing some innovative things. Some businesses are inspirations in terms of growth or funding or pitching, some are great to laugh with, some are strange in the way they pitch but everyone was in someway interesting. And most were in a similar stage where it was 'almost' launched.
Lastly, I got to mingle and network. I really need to learn how to do it better so I get better coverage. I am happy to chat to people but I'm useless at moving on to chat to someone else. And I don't want to mercenary about trying to talk to more people but I'm just curious as to what other people are talking about and want to meet them. So if someone has mastered the art of the 'next' IRL please let me know.
I realised that I need to go to these events every so often as I get into a bit of a slump with what I'm working on and although I still network with the FI grads it's not the same. The buzz and excitement of mingling with other startup types is great. I wouldn't advocating going to too many (as where would you find time to work on your startup?) but every so often it's good.
Firstly, I got to pitch (always good to stay in the game). And this time it was in front of total strangers as I didn't know anyone there. Maybe that's a good thing in a way as there is no need to feel embarrassed? I did chat to a few people before hand and then it was into the pitches. I think there were around 20 and I was impressed with how well Brad from CSE handled everything. It was 3 minutes per pitch and 1 minute changeover. I was prepared FI style and had my USB key loaded with the PDF version of my slidedeck. (I also took my Netbook and my Chromebook just in case!) Brad kindly let me preload the PDF onto the machine which was in the room. The pitch went well and what I was really pleased about was that people actually listened! I did go slightly over my 3 minute allotment but I think everyone stole a bit of time from their 1 minute handover ;)
Secondly I got to listen to other people pitching. I think doing FI you forget that there are other startups out there doing the same sort of thing. But Brad was right... he suggested that we wear our shirts. Because at the end of the pitching I had no idea who was which startup! I did as he suggested and was wearing an Oddswop shirt up when speaking. But I don't think I had that much trouble being remembered as I was the only female Founder speaking! (There was a lady from General Assembly and an Intern for NSInnovations as well who spoke). I knew there weren't very many female founders and it was a CSE event but still... 1 female! *hmfp*
So other people are doing some innovative things. Some businesses are inspirations in terms of growth or funding or pitching, some are great to laugh with, some are strange in the way they pitch but everyone was in someway interesting. And most were in a similar stage where it was 'almost' launched.
Lastly, I got to mingle and network. I really need to learn how to do it better so I get better coverage. I am happy to chat to people but I'm useless at moving on to chat to someone else. And I don't want to mercenary about trying to talk to more people but I'm just curious as to what other people are talking about and want to meet them. So if someone has mastered the art of the 'next' IRL please let me know.
Friday 9 August 2013
My Start up Tools
I'm often advising others about tools I use and tools I've discovered so thought it may be worthwhile sharing the tools I use or have tried and like.
I'm sure I'll miss some but can always come and revisit this post (or add a part 2) at a later stage.
These tools are mainly cheap/free and suitable for startups and small businesses. Also these are from an Australian point of view which may or may not make a difference!
Mailchimp for eDMs (electronic direct marketing) or newsletters and general email out. There is a very generous free tier.
Google Apps -- I've had a Google Apps account (two actually!) back when it was free. This is great as I can attach additional domains to it and create groups, aliases etc. It is limited to 100 users max but at this stage I haven't hit that mark yet :)
Google Apps also comes with Google Drive which includes the suite of productivity tools aka Google Docs (found under Drive) including Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Form, Drawing. There additional tools you can add via the marketplace too (for a Visio type tool you can use Draw.io)
Waveapps for accounting. Great for creating invoices and ability to upload receipts (there is even an iPhone app and soon an Android app to process receipts but I haven't tried it). It doesn't do Australian payroll though. The really cool thing with Waveapps is that it's free!
Kickofflabs -- I started with LaunchRock but there was some sort of bug in it that would make the page not render. Hard to justify keeping with LaunchRock if that is the case! So I moved to Kickofflabs. I use the tier which allows me up to 5 pages/5 domains. I like how quick it is to alter and to use. Their templates are good and they have a lot of integration with other tools such as Mailchimp. I love the ability to easily add Google Analytics goals, facebook advertising tags etc without having to think where to put it in the code. Their support is also fantastic (they use another tool I'll mention below UserVoice).
GoDaddy -- this is mainly for historic reasons and price. It's cheap and it's good for me to have all my domains in the same place.
LastPass -- I use this personally to store all my logins/passwords and for it to generate a secure password. For a shared password list I'd recommend Passpack.
AWS -- we're using Amazon Web Services and although the console is confusing to navigate the suite of tools is pretty amazing.
SendGrid / Mandrill - both seem good for transactional emails. Received some good support from SendGrid when initially setting things up to keep emails out of the spam folder!
Uservoice / Desk.com - there are a number of similar tools which allow you to provide a support queue and FAQs for your website. I've used both Uservoice and Desk.com and they seem pretty similar to be honest. I'm using Uservoice for my own startup... because I had a discount voucher :)
Pixlr - I use this for graphics with my limited ability to do things.
General every day tools...
Evernote for note taking although on my Chromebook I sometimes have to use Google Keep instead
Feedly and RSS feeds to keep up to date with all that's happening with what I'm interested in
Google (how the heck did anyone do anything before search engines existed?)
Dropbox for synchronising files and it backs up my photos from my phone automatically
Podcasts via Doubletwist so I can listen to This Week in Google and a couple of startup podcasts.
Some Apps on my (HTC One XL) phone:
Whatsapp for messaging although lately it's been a bit flakey and unreliable and I've gone back to normal text messages.
MightyText to type my sms messages on a real screen
Timeriffic - to adjust settings according to the time
Busyme - to stop the phone from ringing out loud when I'm in a meeting
CallTrack to record in my messages and calls into my Google calendar
I'm sure I'll miss some but can always come and revisit this post (or add a part 2) at a later stage.
These tools are mainly cheap/free and suitable for startups and small businesses. Also these are from an Australian point of view which may or may not make a difference!
Mailchimp for eDMs (electronic direct marketing) or newsletters and general email out. There is a very generous free tier.
Google Apps -- I've had a Google Apps account (two actually!) back when it was free. This is great as I can attach additional domains to it and create groups, aliases etc. It is limited to 100 users max but at this stage I haven't hit that mark yet :)
Google Apps also comes with Google Drive which includes the suite of productivity tools aka Google Docs (found under Drive) including Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Form, Drawing. There additional tools you can add via the marketplace too (for a Visio type tool you can use Draw.io)
Waveapps for accounting. Great for creating invoices and ability to upload receipts (there is even an iPhone app and soon an Android app to process receipts but I haven't tried it). It doesn't do Australian payroll though. The really cool thing with Waveapps is that it's free!
Kickofflabs -- I started with LaunchRock but there was some sort of bug in it that would make the page not render. Hard to justify keeping with LaunchRock if that is the case! So I moved to Kickofflabs. I use the tier which allows me up to 5 pages/5 domains. I like how quick it is to alter and to use. Their templates are good and they have a lot of integration with other tools such as Mailchimp. I love the ability to easily add Google Analytics goals, facebook advertising tags etc without having to think where to put it in the code. Their support is also fantastic (they use another tool I'll mention below UserVoice).
GoDaddy -- this is mainly for historic reasons and price. It's cheap and it's good for me to have all my domains in the same place.
LastPass -- I use this personally to store all my logins/passwords and for it to generate a secure password. For a shared password list I'd recommend Passpack.
AWS -- we're using Amazon Web Services and although the console is confusing to navigate the suite of tools is pretty amazing.
SendGrid / Mandrill - both seem good for transactional emails. Received some good support from SendGrid when initially setting things up to keep emails out of the spam folder!
Uservoice / Desk.com - there are a number of similar tools which allow you to provide a support queue and FAQs for your website. I've used both Uservoice and Desk.com and they seem pretty similar to be honest. I'm using Uservoice for my own startup... because I had a discount voucher :)
Pixlr - I use this for graphics with my limited ability to do things.
General every day tools...
Evernote for note taking although on my Chromebook I sometimes have to use Google Keep instead
Feedly and RSS feeds to keep up to date with all that's happening with what I'm interested in
Google (how the heck did anyone do anything before search engines existed?)
Dropbox for synchronising files and it backs up my photos from my phone automatically
Podcasts via Doubletwist so I can listen to This Week in Google and a couple of startup podcasts.
Some Apps on my (HTC One XL) phone:
Whatsapp for messaging although lately it's been a bit flakey and unreliable and I've gone back to normal text messages.
MightyText to type my sms messages on a real screen
Timeriffic - to adjust settings according to the time
Busyme - to stop the phone from ringing out loud when I'm in a meeting
CallTrack to record in my messages and calls into my Google calendar
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