Building a startup? There are no rules.

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Building a startup is tough. Because it is so hard, it makes sense for entrepreneurs, founders, and VCs to trade advice. We see advice everywhere. The blog posts. The essays. The coffee meetings. It is all useful. Yet, it kind of isn’t.

One of the things I’ve begun to realize is that there just aren’t any hard and fast rules to building a successful startup.

OK, there may be one: create value in the world which can scaled and captured.

That seems true and obvious, but unfortunately isn’t very actionable. Other than that, I’m not sure I can give you a rule which is 100% true.

You may hear that design matters, but I can point you to successful website that are ugly and janky.

You may hear that you should raise as much money as you can, but there are successful companies which have been bootstrapped.

You may hear that the Lean Startup movement is the way to go, but I am show you many of the Alexa Top Sites that didn’t follow the principles.

You might hear that you need a cofounder, but there are startups which have succeeded with a single founder.

You may hear that these accelerators and incubators are great, but many great startup successes have been built outside of these communities/ecosystems.

You may hear you should move fast and break things, but there are other successful startups that don’t seem to move fast on product at all.

You may hear about the benefits of a private beta, but other founders have found success just getting their stuff out there.

I could go on and on.

For any piece of advice, you could follow it and be successful.. or you could not follow it, and be successful.

How do you proceed?

Too much analysis results in paralysis. And, at any moment, there are a ton of decisions to make. For each one, you can deliberate and ask for advice, but at the end of the day, you have to make a decision and run with it. If it is a mistake? Change directions 😉

My current project: Soulmix

This will be my 139th blog post. That means that I’ve published 138 times while barely talking about my actual work! That isn’t so cool. In an effort to be more open, I plan to start writing more about what I am actually doing.

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Those who have been following my blog have probably seen me link to my current project Soulmix.

Soulmix beta 1.0.

I started working on Soulmix last June, and initially, it was conceived as a niche community site for sharing content related to living a good life. People would share content related to life (personal development, relationships, psychology, lifehacks, etc.), upvote the posts they liked, collect their favorite posts, and discuss within the comments.

After building the site, I beta tested it for a few months. It seemed to have potential. Return traffic was growing steadily, but slowly. I sent a weekly email newsletter curating the best posts on living a good life, and it was well received. People sent emails thanking me for it, and I could track email clicks throughout the entire week. I think if I kept pushing for another year, it could have grown into a great little community for life-related content.

Making the decision to pivot.

A few months in the beta testing, I came to two realizations:

  1. I was getting bored of it. I enjoy reading great content about life, but after a while, it gets old. I have many other interests. I found myself wanting to discover and share content related to all of my interests; not just on living a good life. In short, creating a niche content site felt too restricting for me. I strongly believe in finding founder-market fit, and that means creating a site that I personally love and want to use everyday.
  2. I realized I was building interaction mechanisms. Soulmix was conceived as a niche site, but what I was building was general interaction mechanisms. Upvoting allows masses of users to choose great content. Collections allow users to save the stuff they like. Comments let users talk about stuff. Nothing about these interactions is specific to a niche. They are general, and can be used for general content.

These realizations made the next step obvious for me. I had to broaden the scope of Soulmix, and focus on the general interaction mechanisms.

Focusing on interaction mechanisms.

Furthermore, I’ve begun to strongly believe in keeping products simple. Soulmix had content shares, upvotes, collections, and comments. That felt like too much. I decided that I could go two routes:

  1. The discussion forum route. This would include content shares, upvotes, and comments. The problem was that I couldn’t think of anything much better that Reddit. I would like the Reddit community to be slightly more friendly, but at scale, I understand why it is difficult (if not impossible) to control the Internet masses. The other problem was that historically, I haven’t been a discussion forum kind of person. I lurk, but I’ve never been a big commenter. That means I would never be the power user of a discussion forum site.
  2. The collection/curation route. This would include content shares and collections. This route seemed much more appealing for two reasons. First, the large sites in this space (Pinterest/imgfave/weheartit/etc.) are mostly image collection sites. As much as I like images, much of the content that I consume are links, not images. This leaves me space for building something that I might love. Second, I love the passive social model behind these types of sites. It lets you interact with others through shared interests, but I don’t need to actively think about (or inject myself into) conversations.

So, about a month ago, I decided to pivot. The next version of Soulmix would be a general site for collecting stuff I liked online.

Soulmix beta 2.0.

This brings me to what I’m working on now: the new and improved Soulmix!

Soulmix is now an online tool for organizing and sharing the stuff you love on the web.

Your favorite images, links, and videos are typically scattered all across the web. Soulmix lets you take them all, and organize them into remixes (or collections). It gives you your corner of the web where you can collect and share the stuff you like. You can also follow others users (or their remixes) to discover new great stuff.

Sound good?

Soulmix recently became functional again and is in private beta. If you’d like to check it out, just request an invite *nudge nudge* 🙂

I’ll be letting people into the beta with time, and if you join, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Arnold’s 6 rules of success

I’ve recently stumbled across a really inspirational rendition of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech on his 6 rules to success. I’m a sucker for these kinds of things so thought I’d share.

  1. Trust yourself.
  2. Break some rules.
  3. Don’t be afraid to fail.
  4. Ignore the naysers.
  5. Work like hell.
  6. Give something back.

I could watch this over and over, and get pumped up every single time.

Wrong, stupid, boring writing

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Many people don’t write because they are afraid.

Even if they do write, they may not write as often as they could… because they are afraid.

They fear that they have nothing to say, that they may not write well, that they may make incorrect arguments, that they may end up sounding stupid, or that their writing may be boring.

I’ve certainly felt all of this before. I have always enjoyed writing. For years, I have toyed with the thought of starting a blog. But, I only started about two years ago. And once I started, I had a hard time writing more than once a week… or even once a month.

It was always these fears.. I don’t want to be wrong, stupid, boring, etc.

If there is one thing I am proud about from the 100-day blogging challenge, it is overcoming these fears. Looking back on it, there were two big things that contributed to getting over these fears.

  1. Just do it. A very effective way to get over the fear is force yourself to do it. And then continue forcing yourself to doing it. I actually went through the process of writing (and publishing!) each day for 100 days in a row. Yes, the first few days sucked. But surprisingly, it doesn’t take too long to hit a rhythm. If you aspire to write more, find a way to force yourself to write every day. You don’t have to publish, but I would suggest it because it forces you to do the next part.
  2.  Make your fears come true. Writing high quality stuff is really hard. If you publish often enough, you will quickly reach a point where you fears come true.  It is pretty easy to quickly publish something wrong, stupid, or boring. It didn’t take me long to look back at my previous posts, and find some that I just didn’t like very much. But you know what? It doesn’t really matter. That is the funny thing about making your fears come true: you find out that most of the time, the outcome isn’t that bad.

There is one more thought that has made writing considerably easier, and it is this.

Writing is simply a form of expression. And at its best, it shares the human condition. If we want our writing to be expressive and honest, perhaps it is good for it to represent all of our human experience. It can represent our awesome, profound, and insightful sides, and it can also represent those parts of us that aren’t as sexy: being wrong, stupid, boring, etc.

Now isn’t that a freeing thought?

I sure thing so. It makes writing a hell of a lot easier for me now.

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(image credit: flickr/HeatherHeatherHeather)

24 hours of happy

I stumbled across a Medium post a few days ago on how Pharrell’s song “Happy” has been topping the charts around the world, but somehow hasn’t made it here yet. The post says it will probably grow in popularity, and then because the summer hit of 2014.

After two days, I would not be surprised. The song is bouncy, and catchy, and just makes you want to dance. The music video just adds to it, showing a bunch of people dancing to the song.

As if the music video wasn’t enough, it actually comes from a much larger project: 24 hours of happy. Pharrell and his crew actually recorded 24 hours of people dancing to the song. You would think the song would get old, but after 2 days of watching it for a few hours a day (it was in the background as I worked), I’m not sure it will get old. There is something magical about seeing someone dance. Each person has their own personality and style, and each dance feels like a new video. Amazing.

The 24 hour video is the best thing I’ve stumbled across in a while. I can check in at any hour, and there is always joy and entertainment. Beyond that, it is a great example of how we music and technology can be fused to create the type of art that has never been created before. I hope other artists get inspired, and push the boundaries of what modern art could be.

Not yet a good bet

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Yesterday, I wrote about my new goal to be more open on this blog. This means being more personal about my own strengths/weaknesses, delving deeper into my own psyche, and writing more about what I am actually doing on my enterpreneurial journey. It will make blogging more cathartic for myself, and should hopefully make a better read for you.

Here is an example of what I mean.

Earlier, I wrote about securing investment from others. The main idea behind that post was that in order to secure investment from others, you must seem like a good bet.  The problem is that you won’t always seem like a good investment. In those circumstances, the only thing you can do is bet on yourself. With time (and of course with working smart), you will eventually become a good bet.

If I look at that blog post, it sounds interesting in theory. The problem is that it is abstract. If you read between the lines, you will see what I was trying to get at. But, to make things easier, I could just come out and say it.

What I meant to say is:

I am not yet a good bet. But I hope that one day I will be.

Specifically, I speak in terms of startups. I am not yet a good bet for seed or angel funding. I know this because if I was looking at myself from an outside perspective, I wouldn’t invest.

In startups, a good investment seems like it has some sort of unfair advantage. There are several ways you could have an unfair advantage, and I don’t meet any of them. Here are what I can come up with:

  • Experience: Founders or early employees with a success under their belt have valuable experience. It gives them an unfair advantage compared to most, and it is no wonder why some of these people can raise on simply an idea. Guess what? I have no experience in startups. Zero points for me.
  • Team: You hear about team all the time. An experienced team is the best. If they aren’t experienced, a few super smart friends who have banded together may also be a good bet. It isn’t surprising that accelerators prefer teams. The bad news is that I am a inexperienced solo founder at the moment. Again, zero points.
  • Market insight: This is another form of experience. Even if I have no experience in startups, if I had deep knowledge about my niche, that would give me an unfair advantage; one that may be worth betting on. My area of expertise is in computer architecture, and now I am building a social media web app. Those aren’t the same thing: zero points.
  • Traction: If there is one thing that trumps everything else, it is traction. If doesn’t matter who you are. If you go to a VC with massive traction in a big market, you will be probably be a good bet. I have no traction.

Let’s check out my total score: zip.. zero.. zilch. This is why I am not yet a good bet.

So, I’m doing the one thing that I can do: investing in myself.

21 months ago, I quit an industry research job and jumped into the deep end. I picked up front-end and back-end web programming. I’ve dabbled in product design. I’ve built and scrapped three different products along the way. I’ve played with different consumer web apps and studyed them to figure out why they are great (or why they aren’t). I’ve spent a good amount of time on Hacker News, reddit, USV.com, etc. I’ve been blogging to develop my own thoughts. And, I’ve been slowly building a network of founders and operators. Through this time, I’ve been living off of savings, which obviously won’t last forever.

To be honest, I haven’t gotten far. But I still feel good about myself because I have learned a whole hell of a lot. I can feel the growth. Yes, there is a lot more to do, but progress matters.

I’m like a tiny sprout in the middle of the forest. Around me are the giant redwoods; the Googles and the Amazons. They dominate the forest, and are impossible to miss. Some are smaller, but still difficult to miss: the AirBnbs, Dropboxes, Pinterests, and Tumblrs. And even smaller, you see all the saplings. They aren’t huge, but they have grown a good bit, and show potential. These might be worth investing in.

But the sprouts? They are tiny. As an outside observer, there isn’t much you can do with all of the sprouts. You can’t really see them unless you look close. And if you look close, they are everywhere. Which one would you bet on?

As a sprout, the only thing you can do is (1) remember that everyone started as a sprout, and (2) give yourself the chance to grow.

So that is where I stand.

I am not yet a good bet. But with time, I think that one day I will be. Hopefully, it comes sooner than later. My savings won’t last forever.

New blogging goal: Be more open

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This blog as been up for nearly two years now, and I’ve gone through several stages of blogging.

The first stage: writing.

Writing alone is one thing. Unveiling your writing for the whole world to see is a whole different story. When I first started, it would take me weeks to publish a single post. I would think of an idea, start writing, think a little, write more, wait a day, think about it, and revise. Sometimes, after a few revisions, I’d scrap the post because I didn’t like it.

After many revisions, I would find myself sitting there staring at the publish button. At the moment, I would get a huge rush. And then I’d get nervous. The voices would start going in my head. What if I’m writing something stupid? What if people don’t like it?

This first stage was all about hitting the publish button. That was all. It was to get stuff out there in the world. Every few weeks (or few months), I did.

The first stage lasted a little under 18 months. During that time, wrote 14 blog posts, and my email subscriber list was around 60-70 people. Nothing big, but it was a start.

The second stage: writing more.

About four months ago, I began a 100-day blogging challenge. I had realized that I enjoyed writing, and wanted to write more. The challenge was the extra kick in the ass that I needed to write more.

When it comes to doing things, I’m typically an all-or-nothing guy. So I thought to myself: why not just commit to blogging every day?

I’m glad I did.

I won’t say that I wrote the best blog posts. The biggest lesson I learned is that if I sacrifice the desire to write the perfect blog post, I can publish more often. Looking back, some of the posts definitely aren’t very good. And some of them are clearly throw-away blog posts.

But you know what? I actually did blog every day. I hit the publish key.. over and over.. 100 times in 100 days in a row. That is something I’m pretty proud of.

These 100 posts brought me to a total of 114 blog posts, and an email subscriber list of ~1000. Even though I don’t do much to promote the subscriber list, it is really cool to see it grow. The 100 posts had a significant effect on the list!

This brings is to the third stage: being more open.

Lately, I have been reflecting on blogging, and what I want out of it.

Overall, I realized two things:

  1. Blogging is awesome. Seriously. It forces me to think about life and about work. It has helped me build connections, on the web and in the real world. I’ve been learning that if you put yourself on there in the world, good stuff tends to come back around your way.
  2. I’ve been fairly superficial. Most of my posts are about life in general. Or on startup trends in general. Generalities are fine, but the good stuff in life always lies beyond all the surface-level stuff.

I know I can do better with sharing more. I want to share more about my thought process, on life, and on my entrepreneurial journey.

This is the stuff that matters to me, and I’m fairly sure this is the stuff will be more useful and interesting to read. It just isn’t stuff I’m used to publishing for the world… until now 🙂

Entrepreneurs: the eternal optimists

 

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Recently, my girlfriend and I have started running together a few days a week. It is the perfect chance to exercise, talk about how our days went, and chat about anything that may be on our minds. So far, it has been awesome.

During our run today, I began to get excited about my current work on Soulmix. I started talking about how great things could be, and how exciting the big vision could be. I didn’t get more than a minute or two into this before my girlfriend stopped me.

The following conversation went something like this:

Her: “Alex, the big vision is great and all, but you need to figure out how to get it off the ground from nothing.”

Me: “I know, I know.. I’m just talking about how I’m starting to see more potential in the project.. of course, if it pans out.”

Her: “I just don’t want you to count your chickens before they hatch. In the past two years, you have gotten this excited 3 times already, and then later on decided to work on something different. It might be good to not focus on the big vision that much right now, and keep focusing on what comes next in the short term.”

Me: “Yes.. it has already happened a few times. But hey! I’ve been learning a lot, and I have to choose something to be working on. I’m only going to choose, it might as well be something which I believe has a big vision behind it. Whether it actually does? I’m not sure. I guess I will find out somehow. But I need to believe it.”

The last sentence seems to be one of the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs: we want to believe.

We are eternal optimists. Actually, it is more than that. We have to be eternal optimists.

The entrepreneurial journey is tough. It is a rollercoaster of a ride, and it would be difficult (if not impossible) to withstand the continual ups and downs without believing in ourselves, and believing in the vision. At times, that belief is all there is.

We are eternal optimists, but not eternal blind optimists.

The trick is to believe, and then forge ahead with eyes wide open, looking for the obstacles and market realities that will render the belief useless.

How do you manage this?

I don’t know.. I’m still figuring it all out. But I can tell you it certainly ain’t easy.

 

A lot of people…

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This phrase has always been a little pet peeve of mine: “A lot of people…”.

Fox News is a master at using this phrase: “A lot of people are asking whether… <enter proposterous thing there>”. Beyond the TV, it is used all over the place in real-life arguments and debates.

Whenever I hear this, warning bells go off in my head. Ding.. ding.. ding!! Warning, warning! Be careful about what comes next!

The main problem is an argument that starts with “a lot of people…” is vague.

What is it?

Is the argument arguing existence? It is possible, but if existence was the main argument, there would be no reason to say the words “a lot”.

People only add “a lot” because they want to make it sound like a lot. Usually people say it because it would support their stance in an argument.

So if we are trying to argue “a lot”, than how many?

Is it everyone? Is it most people? If it is one of these two, the argument makes a lot of sense.

If it isn’t most people in the world, the meaning of “a lot of people” becomes more difficult to understand.

Is it 45% of people? Or is it .1% of people. 45% is obviously a lot of people, but even .1% of the world population is a good number of people (with a world population of +7B, we’d be talking about +7M people!).

In this case, I want to make sure we agree on what we are talking about. If we care about percentages of a population, lets talk about that. If we care about the absolute number of people, lets focus on that.

Sorry, this post turned into somewhat of a rant.

I guess I’m just trying to say, if you hear an argument that starts with “A lot of people…”, watch out.

And if you find yourself saying it, make sure to think it through and clarify what it means.

OK, rant over 🙂