I was planning to write a post updating everyone on our search engine optimization experience today but the real world injected itself with a sick kid at home. High fever and rescheduling meetings doesn’t leave much time for writing long, heavy posts. Plus I had to sneak in a nap in the afternoon while our daughter napped since we didn’t get much sleep the night before. 🙂
So instead, while my husband takes care of the kids this evening, I thought I’d write a post on the example of an unanticipated, viral marketing story with a mom twist. So here it goes…
Once upon a time I met a friend on the Internet. I found her blog and commented away. After some time, we realized we had similar visions and she invited me do a guest post on her blog called Entrepreneurship: A Blessing or a Curse. We kept in touch, spoke on the phone a few times about ways to work together, became twitter pals, and finally met in person at SXSW here in Austin back in March and clicked even more.
While at SXSW she got further proof of what she already knew which was that the name of her blog, then called eMoms at Home, was not really reflective of the demographics of her readers and would-be readers so she had a mini-meltdown, picked herself up and came up with a cool new name called Sparkplugging! Since she was and still is an advocate of entrepreneurs and especially those who work from home, her cool, new name opens the door wide open to many of us who are moms or not but like to spark up ideas and play with them until something happens.
So after SXSW, she went home and saw a post about dads on twitter and decided to do one for moms. Within hours she got tons of replies and created a post called The Ultimate List of Moms on Twitter that started with 250 moms. I commented and subscribed to comments on that post and every day new moms would leave a comment with their twitter name until May 1, 2008 that is. Twitter sent out an email to everyone yesterday, May 1, and in it they included:
Mother’s Day: On The Way
We’ve noticed a trend of parents twittering the moments of their baby’s birth so we know there are some new moms on Twitter. Are you a mom on Twitter? Is your own mom on Twitter? Maybe you even made “The Ultimate List of Moms on Twitter”? Mother’s Day is just around the corner so don’t forget to @reply the moms you know with a thoughtful phrase–but keep it under 140 characters, moms are busy people.
And today I had 150+ comments in my inbox and they are still coming. Now she has close to 400 comments on that one post! Did she do anything extraordinary to make it happen? Not really. Did she tell people on twitter about it? Yes, of course. Did she know others would tell and re-tell more people about the list? Possibly. Did she know twitter would pick it up in their mass email to everyone? Doubtful (but I don’t know what went on behind the scenes). So in hindsight what played in her favor to have a post she wrote on April 8 (before her name change) take on a life of its own? Here’s what I think:
She took the initiative to do something that ended up being quite time consuming, but she saw from the responses it resonated with hundreds of moms on twitter that it was a worthwhile endeavor.
She told her friends about it who re-tweeted and blogged about it.
The tweeters kept the link going within twitter and in the blogosphere.
Mother’s Day was around the corner and the guys (I think they are all men) at twitter saw the activity and might have said to themselves “Hmmm. How can we mention a major holiday, get brownie points with our wives/mothers, and promote twitter at the same time” and voila a mention was born!
UPDATE: I sent a link to @Biz to this post and he informed me there are several women who work at twitter! So of course I followed them. Here is his tweet:
biz@aruni awesome! I included the moms list because it was noteworthy – also, women who work at Twitter: @crystal @krissy @alissa @lane @sara
In case you haven’t guessed who this friend is, it’s Wendy Piersall. I guess only Wendy can tell us if she planned all of this, but to me it’s another example of viral marketing that in hindsight makes sense but when started, the current result would have been highly unpredictable.
To me, this is why it is so hard to orchestrate a viral campaign. You can plan everything down to the “t” and still not have it work out the way you wanted. It’s hard to predict when there are so many variables. You can also just do something you enjoy doing that helps others and see a “spark” turn into a flame! Way to go Wendy! 😀
Oh and by the way, I am @aruni and Wendy is @eMom on twitter…
Recent studies show that there are more wealthy women than ever before. While a growing number are making it by climbing the corporate ladder, most of today’s wealthy women are still making their money through inheritance or divorce. A scarce few are making their fortunes by launching big companies – the most common source of big riches for today’s men.
and concludes with:
There are two explanations for the female shortfall, according to the USA Today story. First, starting a business usually requires capital, and men have easier access to the clubby world of bankers, venture capitalists and private-equity. Second, the article says, women are more devoted to their family and have less time than men to start businesses.
The blog post is interesting but the comments just blow me away because it’s like I was reading comments from people back from the dark ages. Most of the comments were well thought out but several posted by people not choosing to put their name down were really shallow. I mean do people really think like this:
There is this little thing called a brain. Most women are severely lacking in this department, and as such have been relegated to house duties for most of history. Now that women are clamoring for equality, we see that they really aren’t equal at all.
Talk about issues! Other thoughts from the commenters:
Seems to me that women are better at following rules than men, hence they do better in structured institutions (schools, large companies, institutions) whereas men are more intrinsically rule breakers and therefore on average do less well, but sometimes succeed spectacularly. – Bill
While I agree that risk aversion plays a part, one also has to look at Analysis Paralysis. As ‘not trying to offend’ points out, men often “execute and follow through based purely on logic”. Women (and I am one, early 30s, well-employed, trying to start my own company at the same time) tend to need full answers before they act. – More than just risk aversion
Despite advances for working women, I think it is certainly the case that they are not supported by husbands. I am about to be married and my fiancee is asking me to quit my job to raise a family – despite making twice as much as him. – so true
To be an entrepeneur one has to be completely comfortable with business risk. In my experience, women as a group
are far less willing to risk everything they have for a business idea. This may be a gender specific biological trait related to the female’s reproductive functions. – Orrin Schwab
Many of the paths to entrepreneurial success are only open to people who have college degrees in science or engineering. Most women don’t have them and it certainly limits their opportunities. – Kevin
I think women also tend to have their eye on the “big picture,” and define success much more broadly than in dollars and cents. This can lead to decisions like cutting back on work hours or taking less challenging jobs in order to have more time to spend on family or other personal pursuits. At the end of the day, this may lead to less money – but greater happiness. – e c
Sometimes I can’t believe we are still having discussions and comments like this. Why can’t we just get along and let women choose to do what they want to do without analyzing every thing about it? If a woman wants to stay at home with the kids full time and be CEO of the house, great! If she wants to work from home, great! If she wants to work outside of the home, great! If she wants to work part time, great! If she wants to work full time, great! If she doesn’t want kids, great! If she wants to try to be Bill Gates, fine. If she wants to be the CEO of PepsiCo, awesome! If she wants to be head of the PTA, cool!
We are all (hopefully) doing the best we can. Us women were given the gift of being able to incubate and give birth to the future generation of humans, honestly that in and of itself is success! Sadly that ability is often sort of brushed aside as not being as valuable as being a billionaire entrepreneur/CEO. Honestly, I can think of several former billionaire CEOs who would have traded their fate to be a woman/mom. 🙂
I made it to the semi-finals for the Women 2.0 business plan competition in California for my company Babble Soft! It’s so exciting because it’s a great opportunity to meet people who ‘get’ what I’m trying to do. People in Silicon Valley live & breathe social media and social networks which is very different than here in Texas. The grand prize includes some money ($1500) but more importantly access to a network of people with great experience! Here’s the email I got this morning:
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the semi-finals of Pitch 2008. This is the next step you should take.
Please log into your application via Angelsoft and upload a 2 min video pitch. Any pitches that are more than 2 mins will be disqualified.
Upload your video by Apr 20 2008, 11.59PM (PST). If we do not receive your video pitch by Apr 20 2008, you will be eliminated from the competition.
If you have already submitted a video, please ignore this message. You are only required to upload a 2 min video pitch. Do not upload any other files or presentations.
Please RSVP to this message so that we know you have received this email. Thanks.
All the Best,
Women2.0 Team
I guess my napkin handwriting skills were better than I thought! My husband, who has much better handwriting than I do, didn’t have time to help me, so I ended up doing it myself.
Now I have to submit a 2 minute video for a chance to make the finals. I haven’t done a video pitch for Babble Soft before so I’m not exactly sure what to do. Actually, I have never done a video pitch. Should I be formal about it? Should I have my kids in it? Should I walk through a slide deck? Should I beg, borrow, or steal a professional to help me with it? Should I just use our digital camera and record something in our house or should I do it outside, etc., etc., etc.?!?
Liz’s assistant approached me a few weeks ago about doing a guest post on my blog. She sent me a copy of her book The MavHERick Mind, which I mentioned in my Psychology of Entrepreneurship post. It’s a really quick and easy read and a great reminder of how/why our thoughts get in the way of our success! One quote from a famous person that she included in her book that made me really smile was “If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I am very sorry for the forty-eight.” by Margaret Thatcher.
An Inside Look at a Little Known Secret to Success
By: Liz Pabon, The Branding Maven
During a recent interview, I was asked if women find it easier (or harder) to model the branding principles I teach. While my answer may not come as a surprise to you, identifying where you fit within the continuum may.
Here’s how I replied…
The fascinating thing about it all is that women are known to wear their hearts on their sleeves, are more generous, and are generally an open book. Yet, in business many women have been led to believe they must hide behind a role…the role of “business woman.”
What do I mean by hide?
Let me explain…
You see it’s quite a challenge to be your most authentic self when you turn who you are at your inner most core “on” or “off” depending on your circumstances. Yet, that’s exactly what many women do.
When we’re with friends we play the role of “trusted friend” always listening, offering sage advice or just being…silly.
When we’re with family, we play the role of “mother,” “wife,” “daughter,” “sister.” It’s then that we exhibit all the behaviors and place (sometimes unrealistic) expectations on ourselves associated with those roles.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, I’m 100% authentic 100% of the time.
It’s funny how we are sometimes asleep to the subtle shifts in our behavior brought on by the situation we’re in.
Here’s what I observed in the interview I mentioned earlier…
During my interview we had a short break. And on this break the host and I gabbed about shoes, lipstick and where we planned to vacation this summer. As soon as we got the cue that we were back on the air, her voice tone and demeanor did an about face and she was now playing the role of “show host.”
Was she being phony in her role as show host? No. But she turned off the delightful, engaging part of her and replaced it with a more formal, conservative persona. Had her listeners been introduced to the woman I connected with during the break, her listening audience numbers would grow like wild fire!
What’s the result of all this mask wearing and role swapping?
Living with a tiresome sense of having to compartmentalize yourself instead of enjoying life in a wonderful stream of simply being. Where the personal and the professional flow naturally and effortlessly as one.
It’s a rule of good branding to remain consistent. Showing your market two faces can lead to disaster. Showing your market what you think they want to see can also prove ineffective.
Business today has gotten very personal. What this means is giving (and showing) your audience more of who you are and what you’ve got.
About the author: Liz Pabon (aka: The Branding Maven) is a champion of women, shoe lover, award-winning author, and brand strategist. To learn more about Liz and her recent book, The MavHERickTM Mind, visit her at http://www.lizpabon.com/.
I’m applying for the Women 2.0 business plan competition in California for my company Babble Soft. Thanks to Angie Chang for leaving a comment on my recent Economy and Entrepreneurs post letting me know about it. At the time the deadline was April 1, but they’ve since extended it to April 15. They encourage companies located outside of California (and the Bay Area) to apply so we’ll see if they will actually select a company from l’il ‘ole Austin, Texas.
It’s a pretty short application form that challenges even the most frequent twitter user (i.e., type your thoughts in less than 140 characters) with maximum character requirements between 210 to 410 characters to describe things like your target market, business summary, or competitive advantage! It sure made me focus on picking what I believe are the right words. The online application form is run by Angelsoft, which I mentioned in one of my SXSW posts.
I will be submitting my application later today and then mailing in my paper napkin with my best paper napkin handwriting ability (UGH!) soon thereafter. I might have to ask my husband to write it for me because his napkin handwriting talent is much better than mine. 🙂
Entrepreneurs are all just a little bit crazy and add motherhood on top of that and you get a whole new experience! Entrepreneurs see the world differently, yet we still want to fit in, maybe more so if you are a woman and mother, for the sake of our children.
I’m sure there have been books written about the psychology of entrepreneurship, but I don’t have time to seek them out. I figure one will fall in my lap as I need it. And interestingly Liz Pabon, who wrote The MavHERick Mind, recently reached out to me and will be doing a guest post on my blog soon. I just began reading her book and so far it’s a fascinating read on how and why women entrepreneurs in particular hold themselves back from achieving the success that they are capable of.
A post also recently fell in my lap in-box written by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and Ning, called The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment. It is an excellent read where he puts modern language around observations made by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long time partner and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Here are the themes and you’ll have to head on over to Marc’s blog to read the rest:
The Doubt-Avoidance Tendency is the one that resonated with me the most. It’s true that “You’d better not have a lot of doubts about what you are doing because everyone else will, and if you do too, you’ll probably give up.” But it’s darn hard not to have doubts when the stakes can be so high. I would add that if you don’t have any doubts at all, then you might just run over a cliff without knowing it. But if you need a quick answer, you can always ask the Magic 8 Ball (thanks to Scott Allen of The Virtual Handshake for the link). I only had to ask my question 3 different ways to get the answers I wanted. 🙂
One thing I remember from Marc’s past blog posts is that there is a direct correlation between success and how many times you get up to bat. Many inventors had a string of things that didn’t work out before they found the few that did, and the chances of finding something that does work increases when you try more things. So Babble Soft is my second at bat. I believe we barely slid into 2nd base with our first company, which is still operating, so I’m swinging for the fences on this one!
If you don’t want to miss more posts on entrepreneurship and parenting by me or my fabulous guest posters, Subscribe Now! Oh and share your thoughts because blogging is a form of therapy even if most won’t outwardly admit it. 🙂
Unless you live under a rock or don’t drive a car, you have no doubt heard about or felt the state of the US economy. It’s in a state of well let’s say ‘confusion’ with indications it’s moving in the wrong direction. Gas prices are at record highs, people are filing for bankruptcy, they are losing their homes, the government has a record amount of debt, the stock market is going down, etc. etc.
So where does this leave us entrepreneurs who want to raise funds to take their businesses to the next level? Well, that’s a good question and a challenging one to answer.
I’ve had a handful of meetings with potential investors and a couple of them have expressed interest in participating, but they might change their minds given what’s going on in the economy. As the saying goes “It’s not in the bank, until it’s in the bank!” Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in NYC, linked in his Read the Blogs post to a post on the Bear Stearns bailout by JP Morgan, which illustrates why even if you think it’s in the bank, it might not actually really be in the bank! Our personal savings accounts are also going down with the market.
I had several conversations with entrepreneurs coming from different parts of the country at SXSW Interactive who have been struggling for a while to raise funds for businesses that are up and running with strong visitor and user traction.
So despite only being less than two months into the process, all of this has forced me to revaluate my fundraising plans for Babble Soft. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart as there are many ups, downs, and false starts. The economy changes however have a huge impact on the success or failure of a startup. If the economy is doing great you get all sorts of crazy new ideas/businesses popping up with chances to live and prove themselves. If it’s bad, even the companies with wonderful ideas can suffer, die out, or never even get a chance to shine.
The good news is that of all the industries out there (except for maybe the alcohol industry), the baby market is fairly recession proof. People don’t stop having babies nor do they stop buying things for their babies or things to help them take care of their babies. The bad news is that what we are trying to do at Babble Soft does not yet have a predefined “mental need or want” (because it’s so new) like say bouncy chairs, bright/shiny toys, Baby Einstein videos, or diapers.
On the plus side, we have not taken any outside money to date so we don’t have to worry about how and when we pay investors back like some other start-up companies. The downside is that if we don’t raise money right now, it will take longer to bring the exciting, potentially life changing vision I have to the world or worse we might miss the market opportunity.
I’m still trying to figure out the best plan of action. I wish we had more money to create a new user experience, enhance our current applications, and create new applications ourselves. I’m evaluating trying to raise a smaller amount of money and growing slower. Now’s the time when the creative juices start flowing!
If you know an entrepreneur, give them a hug (if you can’t give ‘em money) because it’s going to be a tough roller coaster ride for the next probably year or so. Some will be able to hang on and emerge stronger and better, some will get off gracefully, others might fall off unexpectedly, and yet others will wish they had fallen off before they lost their money and lost some of their sanity. 🙂
If any of you have any thoughts, advice, virtual hugs, or even questions please share below…
Yesterday was the last day of SXSW Interactive and I have practically a desk full of business cards. Our son came yesterday (yes, it’s Spring Break here) for part of it as well but went with husband this time to a panel he attended. I was only able to make one panel yesterday and spent the rest of the time networking. Check out my posts on events I attended on Sunday (including my take on the Zuckerberg/facebook interview) and Monday.
Robert Scoble even did an interview of me that was posted to Qik but for some strange reason (due to the 3G connection) it got broken down to 16 different few second clips. Here’s the first one, here’s a middle one, and here’s the last clip. They are going to try to see if they can string it together, but it’s looking doubtful. Guess that means we’ll have to do a more official one next time!
UPDATE: Qik was able to string pieces of the video together and you can see it HERE. Once they get Robert’s phone, they will see if they can fill in some of the missing gaps using the files on his phone. Once they do that, I’ll embed the video in a future blog post.
The Insiders Guide to Angel Investing This panel was not really a panel because the only speaker was David Rose. David is the founder of New York Angels and Angelsoft, a software application that helps angel investing groups manage plans received by entrepreneurs. He had some great info on angels and angel investing. He mentioned that he would make his slide-show presentation available and I will update this post if and when he sends the link, but here are some highlights:
There are 600K new companies started each year. Of those 350K are self-funded, 200K are funded by friends and family, 50K by Angel investors, and a mere 1200 by venture capitalists.
Angels are generally about 57 years old, they have a master’s degree, 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, have been involved with and/or started on average 2.7 ventures.
To be an accredited investor you must have $1 million in assets and have to have made $200K of annual revenue for the past 2 years.
The average angel investor has spent 9 years investing, had done 10 investments, had 2 exits (profitable or lost their money), and 10% of their wealth is tied up in angel investments.
Angels look for companies with Scalable Business Models, an “Unfair Advantage,” a Great Entrepreneur, External Validation, Low Investment Requirement, Reasonable Valuation ($1 to $3 million pre-money range), and a 20 to 30 times return on their investment within 5 to 7 years.
The single most important characteristic an Angel investor looks for in an entrepreneur is Integrity. Then they look for Passion, Experience, Knowledge, Skill, Leadership, Commitment, Vision, Realism, and Coachability.
David said most angel investors don’t end up making a ton of money from angel investing. In fact most lose money. Many invest because they want to give back and help other entrepreneurs. He even offered us a joke that goes like this: How do you make a small fortune angel investing? You have to make a large fortune first! 🙂
He then went on to talk about the process of applying to an Angel network and described what the entrepreneur as well as the Angel investor sees if they are using the Angelsoft software application tool. If you are an entrepreneur, he suggested you submit your plan at www.angelsoft.net/entrepreneurs. They will soon be launching a site called Open Deals where entrepreneurs who don’t have access to a local angel group can submit their plan. For a full list of angel groups, check out the Angel Capital Association site and their directory of angel groups.
All in all, I had a great time at SXSWi. I look forward to attending next year and maybe even being a panelist!
Several readers who saw my Fundraising Toolkit post have asked me about my experience raising funds from angels and VCs for my first entrepreneurial endeavor. We raised about $15 million of which $3.5 million was from angels or what I would call boutique VC firms (i.e. a group of angels under one investment roof). Keep in mind that was all before the bubble burst back in 2001. Here are some of my observations based on my experience and from stories I’ve heard from other entrepreneurs.
Angels
They tend to invest their own money and reputation in earlier stage companies that can benefit not only from dollars but also their advice and contacts.
The really good ones (yes, there are fallen bad ones) have built their own businesses from the ground up. They have a great appreciation of what it takes to build a business and are creative with solutions to the inevitable unexpected issues that arise.
They tend to get their ‘hands dirty.’ Our lead angel investor for my first company was Marc Seriff, founding CTO of America Online. You may recall that in 1999/2000 talent was scarce and the Internet bubble was close to its biggest. Marc actually manned a career fair booth that we had at The University of Texas at Austin. He also participated in the interview process of finding great developers! Needless to say we found some good people. Since Marc was our lead for our first round, he even assured our vendors that he would make sure (i.e. personally guarantee) they got paid if for some reason we couldn’t close the round!
They tend to bring their friends along for the ride. Marc and another of our angel investors, Jack Baum, brought in their friends and contacts making the fundraising process a little bit easier. Jack also introduced us to the owners of our very first big paying customer who ended up doing a nationwide rollout with us. I remember framing the check! He and his partner Steve Winter brought in two of our three venture investors. The two good ones! Steve even served as our interim-CEO between the time we parted ways with the first CEO we hired to replace me until we found the next one.
They don’t necessarily have to invest money to be an angel. Richard Benkendorf was one of our advisors who introduced us to our first key customer in the Coca-Cola bottling system that helped us achieve our first $1 million in revenue! We framed that check too!
When the dollars needed get big for future financing rounds, angel investors usually voluntarily step back or can’t provide the needed growth capital.
Some of them may not have sat on a Board or been involved in building their own businesses making some board meetings interesting to say the least. In other words, an angel who made his/her money from their own business versus someone who came in later at Google, Microsoft, or Dell have different perspectives and experiences.
Venture Capitalists
They tend to invest in later stage companies with some revenue, product completed, and market traction. They seem to like to come in after an initial angel round of investment (if the deal structure is not too messed up).
The really good ones (yes there are bad VCs – in case you haven’t heard) have had repeated success with other portfolio companies, have built their own businesses, and come with a big rolodex of contacts and partners to help you cross some of the early hurdles. One of our venture investors, SAP Ventures, led by Jeff Nolan who blogs at Venture Chronicles (the only former investor I found who blogs publicly) introduced us to departments within SAP who were targeting the same customers that we were. He also gave me a copy of The Monk and The Riddle by Randy Komisar (see below for book link) that was a great read at a time when I think he sensed I was no longer enjoying the journey.
They tend to be more bankers/financiers than operating (i.e., built their own business) people. They tend to look at a business with a black/white eye on numbers and how fast they can get their money plus a nice return on their money out.
The good ones will often bring along investment partners in what is called a syndicate. A few VC firms who have worked together before will join forces to fund a deal which makes life easier for the founders because they can go back to building the business versus fundraising sooner.
They seem to use and apply a formula that they have achieved financial success with before which often means replacing the founding CEO or other key founders with people they have worked with many times before. If more often than not something has worked for them with a portfolio company in the past, they’ll apply the same logic to future deals companies.
They are investing other people’s money (i.e. their limited partner’s money – insurance companies, wealthy individuals, other corporations) and if they perform well those people will give them more money to invest. In other words they are risking more than just their finances and reputations, they are risking other people’s finances and reputations as well.
Who To Choose?
Personally, I think it all comes down to the investor fit and the stage of the start-up game you are in. It’s definitely better to have people who have built businesses on your side. It’s also good to have people who have backed high-growth businesses if you plan to IPO or sell to an established business in the near future.
Most technology start-ups don’t make it big. It’s a unique combination of talent, dedication, luck, timing, and great people that make the difference between the companies who become household names and those who shut down on the wayside or find another comfortable existence. We often forget that it is more than OK to start a good profitable business that provides value to your local community. If you want to play with venture capitalists, then you need to aim for the ‘household name’ category like Google or Yahoo! even if chances are high you won’t make it to an IPO.
My biggest learning was how important it was to be able to communicate with your investors openly and honestly. Trust your gut and if they respect and trust you as a person and you respect and trust them, it will be much easier to weather the inevitable storms. It’s easy to take money for money’s sake but in the end it can end up being more costly than what it was worth.
As Ben Yoskovitz says in his Startup CEO School of Hard Knocks post, you must have fun! When you are no longer enjoying the journey, take a break and look around to make sure you are doing what you should be doing. Make sure you are in the right place at the right time for yourself and don’t be afraid to make changes.
Picture by Sandy Blanchard Choosing a corporate attorney is an interesting endeavor. I have avoided using attorney’s for Babble Soft in the past because a) they are very expensive, b) sometimes they make you feel like they need to review everything you do for fear of some horrible thing happening, and c) I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life what my strategic business plan was. Since I have a new business strategy and have decided to raise funds, an attorney is a must have.
I’ve met with a couple and spoken to a few more. The first I spoke to was the attorney at my first company and although I would love to work with her we both agreed that the firm she is at now is catered more for more established businesses (i.e., very, very expensive). It is so much better to understand that up front because we have worked on many outside projects together, and I consider her a friend.
The second attorney I spoke to was referred by another entrepreneur in the area. I liked her and her partner but a few things gave me pause. One potential area of risk is the fact we might end up doing business with the other entrepreneur’s company which might result in a conflict of interest. They had good rates and good experience but did not have an in-house tax attorney. Since Babble Soft is currently an LLC and we’d like to continue as an LLC for at least our first round of financing, having someone who understands the tax implications could be important.
The third attorney I met had done some pro-bono work for me a year or so ago because I guess he knew I couldn’t afford his services at the time. What I liked about him is that he does have a tax attorney in his firm, has represented several small companies in the technology space, one of my business Advisor’s has worked with him in the past, he was on time for our meeting, said he could help with introductions to potential investors, and he sent a brief follow-up note after our meeting expressing his interest in working with me. However, his rate is $125/hour more than the attorneys at the second firm I spoke with!
Special thanks to @princess_belle who blogs at GloKay, @chelpixie who blogs at Chelpixie.com, and LPT who blogs at Direct2Dell who tweeted me things to think about and questions to ask the attorneys. I plan on making a decision in the next couple of weeks so if you have attorney stories or suggestions to share with me or the blogosphere, please leave a comment. Thank you!
I’m making some progress on my personal 2008 goals. I signed up for yoga and have lost between .5 and 1 pound. Regarding my business goals, I’m still working on the executive summary, financial projections, visuals, and finding an attorney in order to raise funds. If all goes well documents will be substantially ready by end of next week, and I’ll be well on my way to finding the perfect lawyer…if that’s even possible. 🙂
Posting will be light over the next few weeks so in the meantime please check out the Work It, Mom! interview of me where they asked me the following questions:
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
You’ve written that you and the other founder of your first company were “washed out.” How did you recover from that? Was it hard to jump back into the entrepreneurial game after that experience?
Many women entrepreneurs have mentioned that they felt they were not taken as seriously as businesswomen once people knew their companies were geared toward mothers. Has this been your experience?
What lessons from your first company are you applying to your second?
What’s most challenging part of your working-mom juggle?
What advice would you give a working mom who is trying to start her own company? What pitfalls would you tell her to avoid?
You have a great general attitude — what motivates you besides, well, creating a super-successful company?
Then pop on over to Thom Singer’s Some Assembly Required blog and check out my guest post on Building your e-Network where I expand on the following tips:
Do what you say you will do when you say you will do it.
When someone reaches out to you for help, answer them.
In case you missed it, here is the hilarious video about Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft that was shown at his final keynote address at the Computer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas yesterday. I think it’s so great to see his fun side! As an entrepreneur, I am in awe at what he has accomplished in his lifetime and even did a post about a prior appearance of his with Steve Jobs a while back.
The video stars Brian Williams, Steve Ballmer, Matthew McConaughey, Robbie Bach, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Kevin Turner, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, and others. Thanks to Long Zheng for posting his own video and helping me find a link. Here’s the link to the YouTube video that will hopefully show properly below (its been off & on again).
I don’t really like making New Year’s resolutions. However, I’m making an exception this year because I figure I’ll try something new. Maybe I’ll even make quarterly resolutions! This is the first year I’ve had a blog which means I can now write them down and let my readers hold me accountable. So here it goes.
Business Goals
Raise funds for Babble Soft. I will finish the business plan, refine the pitch, and set up meetings with angel investors.
Establish additional nanny partnerships and other corporate partnerships that lead to increased revenue and revenue opportunities. I have to make hundreds of calls, send hundreds of emails, set up meetings, and close deals.
Identify and become a member of at least 2 organizations that will help build my network to reach our customers. If you have any suggestions on what organizations to join I would love to hear them!
Convince some great companies to advertise with us. If I can demonstrate a significant increase in users (SEO please work!) of our applications, I believe those advertisers who want to reach new parents and caregivers that are breastfeeding, bottle feeding, changing diapers, taking medicine, pumping, and trying to get some priceless, precious sleep would be *extremely* interested. Plus with our planned new applications that audience widens and deepens.
Find great people to help make it happen! Must find great people. Must find great people! Key team additions needed are 1) Experienced Senior Product Manager with strong technical skills to manage products from design to implementation to market and 2) Experienced Internet Partnership, Social Media & Ad Sales Manager (does such a person even exist?). Must find great people!
Personal Goals
Lose 5 pounds. I will eat less and exercise more.
Take Yoga classes. I will locate, sign up, and attend classes. Anyone have any recommendations for instructors in the Austin, Texas area?
Laugh more. I will find more funny and fun people to hang out with. 🙂
Be less concerned with what other people think. This will probably be the hardest one for me to accomplish and the hardest to measure. Worrying about what people think of me, my decisions, my company, my appearance, my parenting, my words, etc. sometimes unduly stresses me out and takes up way too much energy that should be devoted elsewhere. I’m not alone in this issue. I’ve seen many bloggers write about it but more women than men which may be a result of our society or more likely Oprah. I will work to drastically reduce the negative self talk in my head. I think Yoga will help me with this goal.
My Personal Goals are mostly in my control. I decide what to eat. I decide when/how to exercise, etc. I decide when to pick up the phone and sign up for a Yoga class.
Achieving the Business Goals, on the other hand, are less in my control. I can do everything right but if the angel investors don’t understand or care for the market or market need I’m addressing then funding sources might not be available. If the stock market crashes and everyone quits investing then, c’est la vie. If the funding doesn’t come through then I won’t be able to hire great people, etc., etc. I believe I have the most control over establishing additional partnerships and joining organizations but that’s what I believe right now on January 1, 2008. As the Internet has proven, things change at the speed of each new thought!
What are your goals? Feel free to leave a comment here and/or leave a link back to your blog to where you posted your 2008 thoughts.
If you’d like to see if I meet my goals (or even heckle me – I don’t mind as long as its funny and helps me with my Laugh More goal 🙂 ) subscribe to this blog’s feed and share your wonderful thoughts with me.
I’ve seen companies doing soft launches of software products which makes me wonder what a hard launch is. So far the main difference I’ve noticed is that the official press release about the new application or new feature doesn’t go out until after the ‘hard’ launch. My guess is that a lot of bug fixing is going on between soft and hard launch.
So, I’m happy/thrilled/ecstatic to report that we just soft launched our new sleep and immunization recording features of Baby Insights Web! We are still working on some development issues on Baby Insights Mobile and plan to hard launch that app in January 2008. The mobile app is not web-based (yet) so we don’t have the luxury of a soft launch.
Babble Soft is offering FREE 3 month gift subscriptions valued at $19.95 until March 15, 2007 to anyone who discovers a software bug in our NEW Baby Sleep and Immunization features of Baby Insights Web. Gifts are transferrable! Sign up for your FREE account today. Happy hunting!
So far the soft launch has been uneventful (i.e., no major bugs), which is nice. Thanks go out to our development team Cressanda and especially our project manager. I recommend them highly. The smoothness of the soft launch is also because we don’t have thousands upon thousands hundreds upon hundreds of users yet. I’m banking on our foray into SEO to help get us there. I mean if the “right people” (a.k.a. target market) don’t know we exist; it’s not surprising that we don’t have thousands of users yet. Even viral marketing takes a bunch of upfront work because you have to get to the right early adopters who have major Internet influence. I need to figure out how to do a video and get it in YouTube.
Given the fact that over 4 million babies are born in the US each year then include Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and other Internet savvy countries, I’m anticipating that once those new parents and nannies find out about us, the floodgates will open. Babies and floodgates…not sure if the analogy works but I think you get the point. 🙂
I’ve been spending my time the last couple of days doing website updates to reflect the new features. And I’m working on pulling the pieces together of a business plan for some potential angel investor meetings that I have scheduled for early next year. If you know an angel investor (or you happen to be one) who likes the baby/new parent/web application/social networking space, please send them my way! The applications we have now are only the tip of the colossal iceberg.
Now for a short SEO break:
Whether you need breastfeeding support, are excitedly following your pregnancy week by week, are experiencing baby sleep issues, or are already under way creating your baby’s first year album, Babble Soft offers unique, easy-to-use Web and Mobile software solutions that improve communication between caregivers about baby’s and mom’s schedules.
Baby Insights helps caregivers keep track of baby’s breast & bottle feeding, sleep periods, diaper changes, medicine doses, and immunization records, as well as mom’s breastfeeding, pumping and medicine intake. Having important information stored in one location makes communication between parents, their nanny, babysitters, grandparents, or doctors seamless and reliable and gives new parents insight into their baby’s patterns to help with crucial baby care decisions. Baby Say Cheese lets you create a wonderful online baby’s first year photo album with milestones and family tree that you can share with friends and family.
If you are interested in reading about how I cope with manage software launches, fundraising, and SEO consider subscribing to this blog’s feed. If you are an entrepreneur, it will be worth your while…even if I crash and burn….which I won’t…because I said so, that’s why. Now go play with your Power Rangers. Sigh.
As I contemplate a plan to raise angel financing for Babble Soft in 2008, I have begun mentally preparing myself for the inevitable ups and downs of the process. I have raised funds to the tune of $15 million as founding CEO of my first start-up, Isochron, back before the first Internet bubble burst, so I have that experience to leverage. But that was just over 7 years ago and a lot has changed since then.
Isochron, which we started as part of a business plan competition back in 1997, was sold in 2002 after the bubble burst. I had already left in 2001, but Erin stayed on for two more years until 2003. The Founders/employees were washed out (i.e., got nothing) and the Investors got only a small fraction of their invested capital back. At that time many companies were just disappearing all together. When it was sold, Isochron was on its 4th CEO with me being the first. Now it’s on its 5th, is still operating and as I understand it doing reasonably well, but not the high growth trajectory we had hoped for back when we started. Looking back, if we (and our investors) had truly understood Porter’s 5 Forces we would have approached the business differently or maybe even run the other way because with a customer like Coca-Cola you don’t have much negotiating power! But hey, we were young entrepreneurs (I was 27 – what did I know? ) who felt we could conquer the world of distribution to and maintenance of vending machines and other equipment after that. Mostly because we were tired of going to school vending machines and them being out of stock of what we wanted so we figured we could help sove that problem with creative technology.
Since then, I have taken time to decompress, teach entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin business school, have two amazing kids, consult, and dabble with the notion of Babble Soft. Erin and I did some development and had a beta product ready in 2005 to use when our daughter was born, but it really wasn’t until 2007 when we launched our Web application and she started full time care, that I became serious about committing to the bigger vision of Babble Soft. I quit straddling the mental fence probably around October of 2007 and jumped squarely onto the side of the fence that has a vast open field with mountains, land mines, cool rivers, placid lakes, tornados, sunny skies, rainy days, ego bruises, good decisions, bad decisions, no money, fun, and most importantly a yet to be discovered journey!
After Isochron, I didn’t think I’d ever want to do a tech startup again. It was hard. It was tiring. I aged. It was stressful. I was disillusioned. It didn’t end like I had hoped/planned it would. But if you read my Entrepreneurial Self Portrait, you’ll see that I since discovered that it is in my blood. Looking back, I wouldn’t trade the experience and lessons learned for anything!
Do I wish I had made the decision earlier to dive head first into Babble Soft or another tech company? Sometimes, because I spent money on the wrong things due to not being focused/committed, which leaves us less money to spend now and means I have to raise funds sooner than I might have had to. But I know deep down I will not regret the decision I made to stay home with my kids when they were babies, work from home, and maintain a fairly flexible schedule for them. So maybe now’s the right time to really scratch my 7 year entrepreneurial itch! 🙂 This time I want to make sure I laugh a lot more…which is not hard to do with little kids around.
Stay tuned for more stories about my start-up journey. Next up in this series will be a subjective post on the pros and cons of raising outside capital.
If you are interested in reading ‘the rest of the story,’ you might consider subscribing to this blog’s feed (tell your friends too) so you won’t miss a thing! Even if you just can’t bring yourself to subscribe right now because you have a boulder on your head, would you mind helping me increase my chances at winning $50K from Intuit in their Just Start competition by clicking on the Quickbooks widget on the top right hand side of my blog or clicking here. Thank you!
Once upon a time I met a friend on the Internet. I found her blog and commented away. After some time, we realized we had similar visions and she invited me do a guest post on her blog called Entrepreneurship: A Blessing or a Curse. We kept in touch, spoke on the phone a few times about ways to work together, became twitter pals, and finally met in person at SXSW here in Austin back in March and clicked even more. 
, which I mentioned in my 
Unless you live under a rock or don’t drive a car, you have no doubt heard about or felt the state of the US economy. It’s in a state of well let’s say ‘confusion’ with indications it’s moving in the wrong direction. Gas prices are at record highs, people are filing for bankruptcy, they are losing their homes, the government has a record amount of debt, the stock market is going down, etc. etc.
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