StartupCamp1DiscussionIdeas
From StartupCamp
Startup Camp: An Unconference for you, by you
This page is where you should give people an idea of the session(s) that you may end up proposing at Startup Camp. But first, if you're not sure how things will work at Startup Camp and how to create and edit pages on this Web site, then read on. If you're an old hand at unconferences and are ready to offer some ideas for some discussions (and you know how to edit wiki pages), then click the edit tab above, scroll to the bottom, add some discussion topics (along with brief descriptions to this page).
Open Space Basics
Startup Camp will be conducted Open Space style (more about Open Space and unconferences can be found here). Much the same way other camps like Mashup Camp have been run, at the beginning of each day, there will be a general assembly where attendees can propose the discussions that they're interested in leading. Attendees will line up for their turn at the microphone, propose a discussion and, on a whiteboard that lists all of the available rooms and timeslots in grid fashion, slot their proposed discussion into one of the available room/times. We'll follow the same protocol as we did in Mashup Camp where the details about the proposed discussion are written in magic marker on a piece of paper and then taped into an available slot (this way, they're easily moved).
Startup Camp Logistics
To get an idea of what this looks like, check out the images on the Camp Agenda for Mashup Camp 1. For each day of Startup Camp, there will be about 8 different rooms and 4 or 5 different time slots which means there's opportunity for a lot of different dicussions to take place. On one or both days of the event (to be determined), one or more blocks of time will be reserved for "speed geeking." Speed geeking is like speed dating and the purpose of it is to give all attendees the information they need to vote for their favorite startup in the BestStartupContest. Startups will be given the opportunity to setup up stations where they can present their business idea, plan of execution, and demonstrate any tangibles. Attendees will spend five minutes at each station before moving to the next one at the sound of a buzzer. For more information about the Best Startup Contest, be sure to vist the BestStartupContest.
Principles of Open Space
There are several principles of Open Space:
- Whoever comes are the right people.
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
- Whenever it starts is the right time.
- When it is over, it is over.
- Document your session on the wiki.
The Law of Two Feet
There is also the Law of Two Feet: If durring the course of the gathering, any person finds themselves in a situation where they are neither learning nor contributing, the must use their two feet and go to some more productive place.
And Be Prepared to Be Surprised.
And amazed.
Discussion Proposals
Below is a list of probable/proposed discussions. At the end of each description is a link to a detail level page where you can get more information, indicate your interest in attending the discussion, and flesh out the topic in more detail with other attendees. However, in some cases, the proposed discussion is neither listed yet or the detail level pages are not setup yet. So, feel free to add to this wiki. If you click on a link for which a page hasn't been created, it will take you to a page that you can start to edit (if you are one of the people who proposed a topic, feel free to start the detail level page associated with that topic and get the conversation going!).
Note: We've had a few people use the discussion tab along the top of the wiki interface to enter a proposed discussion. Be sure to click the edit tab at the top of this page. This will put you into the edit mode for this page. Then, scroll to the bottom and enter your discussion idea.
Check out our help page for getting started when it comes to logging in and creating or editing pages on this wiki.
In no particular order, here are some proposed discussion topics. If you're adding a topic, please bracket the topic with four "=" signs to designate a new section heading (e.g., ====MyTopic====), and add your name so we know who proposed the topic.
Discussion Proposals for Startup Camp 2? Add 'em here: StartupCamp2DiscussionIdeas
Getting Started from scratch
We're seeking a discussion leader -- preferably someone who has already launched a startup -- to share their startup checklist with attendees. What are the do's and don'ts? How the heck do you start a company up anyway? What are the steps you must take before opening your doors for business? What about incorporating? What about intellectual property like trademarks, patents, copyrights? How about other legal issues? Where does the money come from to get started? At what point do you bring on employees and what jobs do you focus on filling first? What about compensation and equity? Do you need insurance? How do you find customers? Bottom line: what is the checklist and how do you prioritize? Discussion Moderator: Salim Ismail
Outsourcing vs. Insourcing
When it comes to starting up a company, one major question is what technology to insource and what to outsource. Or, should you be insourcing any technology? Web site hosting? Customer support systems? Salesforce automation? E-mail? There are so many pros and cons to both insourcing and outsourcing that there aren't any easy answers. For example, is there a point at which your data is so sensitive that you can't fathom the idea outsourcing for fear that your data could end up compromised. What about the issue of how capital expenditures hit the books versus outsourcing to services. Discussion Leader: David Berlind
Offshore? Onshore? Nearshore? Noshore?
For pre-funding start ups, it is important to stretch their seed/angel/grandmother dollars until they've created tangible value. Getting a good valuation depends on having a reasonably robust product and some clients or at least users. You can stretch them dollars and improve your chances of getting there with you initial investment by doing some/all work outside the US. But where's the best "shore" for your company? The goal of this discussion is to share experiences to 1) map out the alternatives and 2) come up with some criteria for deciding how to choose. Discussion Leader: Matt Pérez
Leadership Hacks
This session is meant to be a participatory discussion of hard-earned experiences as leaders. There's a lot of literature about managers and managing - but very little about leadership. The idea of the discussion is to incorporate as much oral history, experiences, anecdotes, and advice to people who are taking on leadership positions in startups, and to share and learn from others who are in leadership roles. Discussion Moderator: David Sifry
Making infrastructure choices
Although it's an overgeneralization, a startup's information technology can generally be divided into three categories: infrastructure, platforms, and applications. The three can often be intertwined. Infrastructure choices include but are not limited to servers, operating systems, connectivity, and security technologies. What are the main choices when it comes to choosing infrastructure and, going back to the outsourcing question, are startups better off insourcing or outsourcing their infrastructure? Discussion Moderator: IanKallen
Making application choices
We're in the midst of an application revolution. Never before have seen so many browser-based substitutes for applications that have traditionally been "locally" delivered via an operating system (be it Windows, Mac, or Linux). What have attendees used and in their experience, what are the pros and cons to both approaches? Are certain applications better suited to one approach versus the other? Are some more mobile than others and is mobility a requirement for your startup. Are some applications better off being insourced while others should be outsourced?
The benefits of standards
Starting up a business? This could be the first and last chance you have to take advantage of the many standards that are out there. And, contrary to popular belief, choosing largely proprietary applications doesn't mean you must forgo standards. Many proprietary applications support standards. It's just up to you not to take advantage of the proprietary features that lock you in? How do you know where standards exist and which ones to pay attention to? What are the benefits of standards and what sort of leverage do they give you over your suppliers? How can going with standards ultimately save you money. On the downside, what sort of innovative functionality might you have to give up in order to toe a standard line?
What Startups need to know about Open Source
This topic came up during my panel at OSCON 2006 and I gather there are a good number of startups that have had problems getting acquired or managing their FOSS strategy because they didn't know everything they needed to know when they were starting out. Discussion Leader: Danese Cooper
Starting socially responsible companies
Taking advantage of incentive programs
In the beginning and throughout any business venture the ultimate challenge is assembling, motivating and keeping the team. In order to do all of these things one needs to really understand people. A project that I am currently involved in is building the team first and then developing a product idea afterwards. Please join me for a candid discussion of this topic.
Balancing your startup and your personal life
So you want to start a business, and you're not a single twentysomething without a spouse and kids. How do you balance the demands of your startup with your desire to avoid divorce, therapy, and a lifetime of kids blaming you for their psychological issues? This discussion needs a discussion leader. Proposed by: Chris Yeh
Web Scale Computing
How do you start your business on a shoestring, yet architect your technology and internal processes so that you can grow to an enourmous size without having to make a gigantic up-front investment in hardware or committing yourself to fixed costs? Discussion Leader: Jeff Barr
Open Source Startups
Business models, exit strategies, and fitting in -- can small groups of people can get paid to produce great open source software while feeling part of the startup community? How does producing open source affect interactions with VCs, other startups, and potential business partners? Discussion Moderator: Luke Kanies
TrailBlazers
What is different for startups trying to break new ground, rather than refining existing products or ideas? Clearly there are marketing issues, since you have to create the market to some extent, but it also changes how you build a community and name-recognition. How can business models take this into account, maybe even turn it into an advantage? Discussion Moderator: Luke Kanies.
SEO: Essential for Startup Success
80% of people use search engines to find products and services. We are living in a search engine world when it comes to web site development, PR and marketing. Why should you care about SEO? What are the ethics and technologies involved? How can you employ ethical and effective SEO techniques to ensure that your company, products and services can be found? We will also provide industry resources and handouts so that you can get educated and put in place SEO right from the start with your web site, news announcements and online marketing. Discussion Moderator: Maxine & Ron Bingham.
Equity Split: How to split equity unequally
Reading Noam Wasserman's blog it is pretty clear that a lot of founders just use the arbritary 100/N (N=number of people in room at beginning) method of dividing up equity. Different people are more (or less) valuable to a start-up. How to split the equity more unequally so it is fair to the work and risk each is taking? How about late arrivals with valuable skills. How much should that CEO make who is being added to the team after 6 months of hard engineering work?
We Are Really In Web 0.2 - Heading Towards The Semantic Web
The original design of Tim Berners-Lee and W3C of The World Wide Web was and is one a "planetary info-mesh" of machine processed documents, capable of self-reference and communication and forming new relationships with each other, all in the name of aiding Humanity in its daily tasks and routines.
The buzz of "Web 2.0" user participation and generated content was designed from the very beginning as Web 1.0, as Tim Berners-Lee said in the early 1990s that he thought it would only take a year for an intuitive browser/editor to be created. He said in 1999 he was still waiting. User agent (browser) "forking" from W3C Standards such as the Netscape "blink" element caused there to be no HTML 3, but HTML 3.2, or "Wilbur". This is one small example of how the marketplace has affected, for better or worse, the continuing development of the Semantic Web, the original design of The World Wide Web.
BootStrapping 2.0 - How to build a startup cheap, fast and big
Many internet companies have come and gone the way of AllAdvantage and Pets.com - to the graveyard. Learn how to build a company that will last the tides of the market without needing huge VC checks AKA BootStrapping. Two people who like to think they're experts (but still open to ridicule and tarring) will lead a discussion in how to bootstrap and what new company factories are like. The discussion will be led by Scott Rewick (runs NextInternet.com, a SF based incubator where he has the goal of building the first web 9.0 application and formally ran netblue until he cashed out to VC's.) & Richie Hecker, who bootstrapped his first company when he was 15 and currently runs www.BootStrapper.com, a consulting co & incubator for startups in NYC.
Self Defence For Startups
This has NOTHING to do with law, accounting or any such fun stuff. Instead this will be a quick and dirty self defense seminar. Why? If you're crammed up in a cubicle all day you should have some excercise and if someone picks a fight with you over the easy button, you should know how to defend yourself.
Advice and Advisors
How to find and use advisors.
Much progress has been made, much more needs to be done. We are in Web 0.2. Discussion Moderator: Alex Piner
The Upside & Downside of VC
Lots of entrepreneurs (particularly first-timers) eagerly seek VC financing, feeling that this is an essential step on the road to success. Others actively avoid it. Tim Bray will be happy to kick-start this discussion but has an acknowledged anti-VC-money bias in the case of Web 2.0 companies; given the number of VCs registered at the camp, presumably one or more of them can serve as an advocate for startup venture investments.
"Career" Paths for Entrepreneurs
You've started a company, built a team, released products, gotten customers. May have done it several times, both in start-ups and within larger organizations, both succeeding and failing to create successful ventures. Now what? What is the "career path" for an entrepreneur? What are the options beyond turning the crank on yet another technology company?
Startup Financing: Options and Strategies
I have been participating or leading that discussion at a number of camps, and want to suggest to go a bit further this time: beyond the general introduction to strategies to finance a startup (bootstrapping, angel, VC, etc.), I would like to suggest two additional tracks that will respectively cover in more details "Pitching Angels" and "Pitching VCs". These two tracks will be very practical and be focused on answering practical questions of session attendees.
The introductory session "Startup Financing: Options and Strategy" will therefore focus laying out the basics of financing strategies, the investor(s) ecosystem, the process, etc. As usual, I hope to be joined by other professional investors (Angels or VCs) in this interactive session. Discussion Moderator: Jeff Clavier
Startup Financing: Engaging Angel Investors
Angel investors have been extremely active in funding the new generation of consumer Internet companies, either co-investing with VCs or actually taking a lead role in a seed or series A financing. The goal of that session is to discuss who these "angels" are, where to find them and how to engage them on a potential financing opportunity. Discussion Moderator: Jeff Clavier
Startup Financing: Engaging VC Investors
VCs still play an important role in funding innovation. While it is true that the cost of developing startups has been divided by factors of 5, 10 or 20 in certain sectors, a VC financing is often a major milestone in the development of a company. The goal of this session will be to discuss practical steps required to secure VC financing, and what that really means to entrepreneurs. Discussion Moderator: Jeff Clavier
Incubators: Would you like to form one out of Startup Camp?
Have groups that help entrepreneurs, such as incubators, become too structured and formal in the same way that many professional conferences have? Is there a need for self-organizing incubators that are styled after unconferences like Startup Camp? Are there others at Startup Camp who would like the help and resources of an incubator after Startup Camp ends but would like to have a say in how the incubator is run? Discussion Moderator: Benay Dara-Abrams
Starting up small, making it big - ideas for cost effective web tier infrastructure
Focusing on horizontal scaling of data center (particularly as it relates to web tier) on inexpensive, energy efficient hardware along with infinitely scalable session replication and cluster aware software management. Discussion also touches on use of deployment software during development to reduce overall development and testing time. Discussion Moderator: Joe McCabe, Murthy 'cvr' Chintalapati
Building the Dream Team
In the beginning and throughout any business venture the ultimate challenge is assembling, motivating and keeping the team. In order to do all of these things one needs to really understand people. A project that I am currently involved in is building the team first and then developing a product idea afterwards. Please join me for a candid discussion of this topic.Discussion Moderator: Ken Brock
I would like to brainstorm and exchange ideas for how to find management team partners when you are pre-funding. [Gary.Krane]
I signed up pretty late and have not been told that I am on the list of attendees so unless I receive an email telling me otherwise I will not be there. [Ken Brock]
Outsourcing for peak loads: Using a pay per use service
In this session, we will discuss options for managing your datacenter processing capacity at loads that are optimal - transfering excess capacity needs to a variable cost infrastructure such as the Sun Grid Compute Utility [1].
In addition to open source software that provide startups with cost effective software platforms and tools to start development of the next Web 2.0 software services, Sun has compute infrastructure utility resources it wants to make available to emerging software startups.
The first part of this session will provide an overview of compute resources that are available from Sun for free that help startups build and test their software services and get through the early stages of deployment. After the initial stage of development and deployment, Sun's utility infrastructure is available on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis, eliminating the need for large up-front investment in infrastructure (often a large drain on startup's initial resources and capital).
The second part of this session will be an interactive session that will enable participants to engage with the speakers on how a startup could take advantage of these free resources. Sun's representatives also want to hear from participants on how Sun can better service the startup community and provide a relevant tools and resources.
The Sun Grid infrastructure is particularly applicable to startups needing cost effective compute resource for high performance computing. Startups in area of software services, biotechnology, design automation, media and entertainment, financial services, will find this an interesting session.
Discussion Moderator: Rohit Valia
Establishing a Lively Developer Network
In this session, we will discuss how to encourage the growth of a committed, productive and satisfied community of developers who are interested in leveraging your own published services for their own business purposes. Topics are to include developer support, finding users who need your services, registration and tracking and billing, security and abuse, APIs, web technology. Discussion Moderator: Brian McQueen
VC Fundraising: Understanding the Deal
In this session, we will discuss the terms frequently offered to entrepreneurs by venture capitalists, and what they really mean. Topics include standard VC termsheets, how to analyze them, and what to watch out for as an entrepreneur. (This will focus less on questions such as whether you should seek VC financing or how to pitch your business, and more on the important but underappreciated mechanics of deals.) Looking forward to the participation of investors (angels, VCs), lawyers, and entrepreneurs (experienced and aspiring) as well. Discussion Moderator: David Sachs
Fundraising on the Phone. Getting revenue for your new business
80% of the CEOs in the Fortune 500 have a sales background. Often tech founders avoid the painful process of picking up the phone and making sales calls. In this session, ideas will be shared that center around cold calling, prospecting for new business, adding value to the sales process, second supplier gambit and mentoring through the sales process.
Revenue is the lifeblood of every organization and we’ll focus the majority of time bringing money in the door. Make every Friday a liquidity event when you are a rainmaker for your start-up. Please join me for a hard-hitting, bare knuckle discussion of selling techniques and sales management for founders.Discussion Moderator(s): Larry Chiang of Duck9 dot com and...
NOTE: there is a cost for this session. Each attendee is required to bring two quarters to be used for "sales rewards" and incentives throughout the session.
NOTE: if there aren't two or three questions here, I will assume there's not enough interest for me to present.
I would like to brainstorm and exchange ideas [Gary.Krane] Larry Chiang: Great, at the beginning of the session, I will collect session goals on the whiteboard.
I am very interested in this discussion and would like to talk about how the different types of selling techniques fit the different types of companies and product price points. A specific point of discussion I am particularly interested in is, putting real salesmen on the street, what is the current conventional wisdom, and what are some people's experiences? [David Reed] Larry Chiang: great! I think a nice chart for products vs selling techniques would work here. As far as putting salpos on the street, I will talk about being your own inside sales office, generating leads and cold calling before the hiring of feet on the sidewalk.
If a car salesman ran my sales staff for a day, what would he do? Larry Chiang: I think he'd focus on closing new business at the expense of being "nice".
What are common mistakes that founders make developing a sales team? Larry Chiang: Founders often think that hiring a VP of Sales solves all the problems. Co-founders should be on the front lines of sales so that they can get immediate feedback AND be able to work for the VP of Sales. Founders that can work as a sales rep two levels below the VP Sales have a huge advantage because 1) they intimately know product, 2) they see buyer resistance, 3) they overlook features they take for granted and 4) can use selling points in VC meetings where user adoption is always tantamount.
Larry Chiang: I am going to focus on selling on the phone since in person pitches are pretty rare and phone sales work is really effective. Keep those questions coming!
Rick Munden: I would like to learn how to find leads, how to make email look less like spam, and how to get past voicemail and receptionists on the phone.
LC Answer: Great, question Rick. I will be showing real emails I send and give examples of about five different voicemails I leave for "targets"
Felipe Albertao: I have the same question as Rick, and in specific I am curious to learn about what sales skills a geek should develop. As a matter of fact, we just started doing sales calls using Greg Gianforte's bootstraping method [2], and by May we hopefully will have some results to share!
How Can Big Technology/Internet Companies Help Your Startup Succeed?
Big internet companies have released quite a number of APIs and developer tools designed with people like you in mind. We want you to be successful when you incorporate our products and services into your business. What do you need to be more effective? How can we help you grow your business? What API, service, support, etc... could we offer that would help you the most? Come discuss with us -- we'd like to hear directly from you. Discussion Moderator: Michael Winton
Business Mashups for Fun and Profit
The Web services and APIs offered by Google, eBay, Yahoo, salesforce.com and others not only let developer create new apps, they are also driving new businesses in both consumer and enterprise markets. What are the key APIs to know, and what skills are required to use them? What businesses are being formed around mashups of these APIs and services? Discussion Moderator: Ron Hess
BusinessNetworking
(No, not ethernet and wifi) Networking isn't a dirty word. Too many people associate networking with fake tans, bleached teeth, and Tony Robbins types pressing business cards into as many hands as possible. Startups need to network. Connecting with others is the lifeblood of a good startup. A good network can help you find capital, co-founders, office space, customers, employees, partnerships, and press. But a good network doesn't come from passing cards out like candy at a "networking event." A network is built on relationships. How can tech-minded founders build a network? How can you build relationships with people you hardly know? And why do industry parties and conferences feel like 8th grade dances with you standing on the wall watching the cool crowd have fun? Discussion Moderator: Adam Kalsey
Hi, this is Jennifer Yoon of StockWiki.com (pre-launch). I've added my references to networking under "articles" section of this wiki. Link here: http://wiki.startupcamp.org/wiki/BusinessNetworking#Discussion_plan
Acheiving Critical Mass for Your Consumer Internet Business
VCs seem to find it difficult to pick winners in the Web 2.0 space, so they are willing to pay a premium for fundable milestones such as strong user growth momentum. How do you achieve a critical mass of users and get your web business on the right growth path. Where should you focus your scarce resources--SEO, PPC, viral marketing, PR, partnerships, your family and friends. How do you figure out what a customer is worth? How fast have successful sites grown? What should you be measuring? How would you know if you are doing something wrong or if your idea just naturally takes a while to build up a user base? This is the most important business issue that I am facing right now in my startup. Discussion Moderator: Clint Korver
Selecting the Right Open Source Database
With Sun's integration of PostgreSQL into Open Solaris, now more ever before developers shouldn't assume that MySQL is the best open source database for every type of application. In this discussion, we'll review some of the criteria that should inform the selection of a database platform and go over some of the major application categories best suited for MySQL and/or PostgreSQL. If you have an interesting experience implementing an open source database (or even a horror story), you're encouraged to participate. Discussion Moderator: Jon Asher
Managing Virtual Teams
What are the tools and methods available to properly manage employees located outside corporate headquarters. What are the personal/personnel and political concerns that a company needs to be aware of in implementing processes to track production and time. Submitted by Richard Nacht, rnacht
