Tuesday August 31, 2004
I am constantly amazed at the reach of the Internet. I re-launched my newsletter earlier this month, and I was pleasantly surprised by the a) the number of responses I received, and b) the geography that those responses cover. Even though I am Chicago based, and I suspect the majority of the email addresses on my list are from the Chicago area, I received messages from Japan, Israel, Denmark…and even Schaumberg!
For those of you who have asked, I have about 300 people on the newsletter mailing list. As I continue to develop this thing, I obviously hope to get a few thousand captivated people to sign up. According to the fine people at YourNet Connection, I think I can handle up to 50,000-email address with my current listserv package. Don’t be reluctant to ask your friends and business contacts to join the fray.
Does anyone have any experience with or know anything about www.shareyourexperiences.com? I received a rather cryptic email a few days ago; the first few lines are reprinted below:
**PLEASE KEEP THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL MESSAGE FOR YOUR RECORDS**
Notice - A member is trying to share Opinions and Experiences about you in our online community.
The purpose of this email is to inform you that a submission has been made about you at our website. This is email is not commercial in nature.
If this email message was delivered to your spam or bulk email folder please notify your ISP or spam filtering company regarding this mistake on their part.
You may view the submission here:
I think this site uses a number of different URLs, including www.sharingopinions.org. Obviously, an unsolicited email that begins the way is suspect. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link and discovered there were about 5 or 6 submissions looking for info about me, or claiming to know something about me. I wasn’t about to fork over money to view this stuff, so I’m not sure what the submissions say…if anything.
Can anyone tell us anything about this site? Scam? Legitimate business? Pest? Something valuable? If I wanted to read snide comments about myself (and others), I believe there is still a Chicago-based website where the knee-biters of the world get their venom published…“anonymously,” of course.
As I was checking this newsletter before firing it off the masses, I realized that the shareyourexperiences.com website was down. Here’s a cached version of the site. I don’t know how long this will be up. Also, I found a blog that has had the same experience I had.
Looks like a scam.
3. Venture Capital 101
The 7 Types of Start-Up Characters…That You Should Avoid
Based on many years of working for and advising countless start-ups, I’ve compiled the following “seven types” of entrepreneurial personalities you should avoid. If you spent any time working for a start up, you’ve probably run across these personality types.
This is by no means an “end all be all” list of personality types; I’m sure that there are many others. While the majority of characters who inhabit start-ups are positive people who do valuable work, there are, nonetheless, a few negative creeps out there in start-up land. I’ve often referred to them as the “knee-biters” of the world. These are the ones who are most apt to eventually post “anonymous” venom about formers employers on certain websites.
So…without further ado, here is my list of the seven types of start-up personalities…you should avoid:
1. Expense Check Entrepreneurs (ECE)
This is a term I’ve used for a few years, but it is always worthwhile to repeat yourself from time to time. These people typically boast MBAs from top-flight school. They use big words and cutting edge jargon. They are part of the gadget culture elite. Their heyday was 1995 to 2000, which coincided with the heyday of the venture capital/jackpot mentality boom years. ECE do not start companies, they latch themselves to start ups (but still call themselves “founders”), and like a plague of Zebra Muscles, they tend multiply -- they bring their buddies in -- when they find a food source: Expense checks.
ECE love the cache (and potential rewards) that comes with being an “entrepreneur.” Let’s face it, saying “I’m an entrepreneur” is a great way to impress the chicks at parties. The only problem is ECE do not have the stomach for the risks that are associated with truly being an entrepreneur. In other words, they are only “entrepreneurs” so long as the $10,000 per month expense checks are de rigueur. Once the going gets tough, when actual results are demanded, and once the expenses are reduced, these types immediately leave the entrepreneurial life behind.
Tagline: “I’m outta here” (emergency purposes only).
2. Mt. Eruption
After dealing with a “Mt. Eruption,” a beleaguered former colleague mentioned, “it seems every company has one.” As I thought about it, my former colleague was correct. Just about every company I’ve worked for has had that one person who goes “nutso” at the slightest provocation. They think nothing of yelling and screaming in front of others. This personality type is especially dangerous if the person has managerial responsibility. Mt. Eruption thinks nothing of it to dress down a subordinate in front of others.
It becomes very difficult to work with this personality type because everyone has to walk on eggshells for fear of inadvertently offending this person – and of course – setting off an eruption. A seemingly innocent little question will likely be rebuffed by a long-winded, “it is not my fault” response which will likely segue into an ad hominem attack on the question asker. And naturally, if the question goes unasked, Mt. Eruption will eventually erupt over that fact.
This is a person who displays classic passive-aggressive tendencies. After all, Mt. Eruption will not let you know when you’re making a minor error and politely suggest a way of avoiding the error. Instead, life’s little “bumps in the road” are stored in the recess of the brain, and only after a sufficient stockpile is obtained, will the eruption occur.
Tagline: “FINE! LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I REALLY THINK OF YOU AND YOUR STUPID IDEA, YOU #$@%&!!!”
3. Gloomy Gus
Everything is a disaster. Everything is wrong. It will never work. These are the hallmarks of the classic Gloomy Gus character. Forget the optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy of “is the glass half full or half empty,” because with Gloomy Gus, the glass is always completely frigging empty.
I’ve long believed that people can be divided into two camps: optimist and pessimist. Gloomy Gus puts the typical pessimist to shame because even the typical pessimist has the dumb luck of having the occasional good day. Gloomy Gus doesn’t merely have a perpetual rain cloud over his head, the rain cloud is actually a bus used (allegedly) by the Dave Mathews Band.
Tagline: “It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s never been worse!”
4. The Grasshopper
“Get paid, do no work,” is the mantra of the grasshopper. As much as I wish I could lay claim to the discovery of this character, it is Dilbert Creator Scott Adams who created the best example of this character…Wally.
Calling this character grasshopper is a reference to the classic fable by Aesop. Just like Aesop’s grasshopper, this character is known for doing nothing, producing nothing, and contributing nothing. Come to work at nine, go home at five. Put the minimum in (perhaps), and certainly do not contribute for any extra effort, ideas, thought, or planning. Don’t even try.
For the life of me I do not know how these people continue to get jobs. I recall working with one grasshopper – a person who was paid considerably more than me for doing the same job, by the way – who simply and flat out replied “no” to anyone who asked anything of her. Can you contribute an article? Can you make a sales call? Can you work on this marketing literature? Do you have any ideas? No. No. No. No.
Apparently I missed the class in college that dealt with developing a six-figure career for doing nothing. She’s not the first, nor the only grasshopper I’ve dealt with, so I am convinced there are entrepreneurs who, when putting together their business plans, pencil in a few slots for people who do nothing. Maybe they consider it a cost of doing business.
Tagline: “I’m taking off early…do we get paid today?”
5. Daffy the “Visionary”
It’s one thing if you are actually a billionaire who has a rather Looney-Tunes approach to life and business. It is another thing if you haven’t amounted to anything and you willfully ascribe the “crazy visionary” moniker to yourself.
It just doesn’t work that way, folks!
The basic difference between being considered eccentric and crazy is, of course, money. If you are able to pay people gobs of money, and you engage in crazy (but mostly harmless) behavior, people will probably continue to work for you and simply call you eccentric. If you have not had massive success, cannot pay people, and you engage in crazy (but mostly harmless) behavior, people will not work for you and they’ll simply call you crazy.
I think some otherwise intelligent people have gotten off track because they mix up two separate things: wealth and eccentricity. They forget one of my golden rules, “correlation does not equal causation.” Just because one person is rich and crazy, does not mean acting crazy will make you rich.
Tagline: “Hey! Look at me! I’m crazy! Crazy as loon, I tell ya!”
6. Das Kommandant
Otherwise known as the “Devotee of the 1950’s School of Dictatorial Management.” These are people, typically executives or managers, who think so highly of themselves, that they actually think they are gods. They seem to believe employees merely exist to serve them. Worse, they actually think that grown adults like to be taken to task in front of others. These creeps have no idea how to truly motivate intelligent adults.
Over a decade ago while I was finishing my MBA, I wrote a thesis paper that utilized the research of Geert Hofstede. Hofstede identified various culture differences between the US/Western Europe and Asia, including “power distance,” which is germane to this section. Essentially, power distance is how employees think of their bosses. In many Asian cultures, the boss is revered as an all knowing, all-powerful being. A near deity. As such, the power distance in Asia is very large.
In the US and Europe, employees might have respect for the boss, but they consider the boss to be merely a person, not a god. The power distance in the US is very small.
Das Kommandant doesn’t seem to realize this, and certainly does not realize his tyrannical rants, dress downs, put downs, and, well, hissy fits, have the opposite effect on people. Das Kommandant will drive away the talented and intelligent, and will soon have a domain of only mice.
Tagline: “Who’s the boss?! Me, me, me! I am! Don’t forget that, moron!”
7. The Mouse
The Mouse comes and goes, and no one notices. The Mouse takes a two-week vacation, and no one realized. The Mouse makes a suggestion, but no one hears. The Mouse obviously is the person without a backbone, afraid to stick up for him or herself, afraid of saying anything that might cause trouble. Ironically, the Mouse often ends up working for Das Kommandant. They form a weirdly symbiotic co-dependent relationship that usually travels down the path of stupidity, with Das Kommandant thinking everything is smooth sailing because no one is voicing any discontent, and the Mouse too afraid to point out any possible problems.
Tagline (from someone else): “Oh, you still work here?”
Worse than dealing with people who have one of the personality types is dealing with someone who has ordered the combination platter. Das Kommandant may be bad, but when you combine it with Daffy The Visionary, look out! Mt. Eruption is a terrifying thing to deal with, but imagine the horrors of discovering someone who you thought was a Mouse actually has a Mt. Eruption personality, too.
We’ve all probably dealt with these types of people in our careers. Perhaps some of us possess some of these traits. If anyone has any funny or interesting stories about personality types, of if you have other examples of personality types, let me know. Fire away!
From: Jerry R Mitchell [mailto:jerry@jerryrmitchellandassoc.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 1:21 AM
Subject: RE: Bill Snow Newsletter - August 17, 2004
Great to see you returning to the publishing arena. Always found your ideas thought provoking. Best of luck with your work. Jerry
From: Richard McMahon [mailto:modelerr@optonline.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 5:07 PM
Subject: Glad you're back - a pre-start up question
Bill,
Glad your newsletter is back in the game – have missed its informative content.
Would appreciate your addressing some of the issues normally not broached by VC’s (for good reasons) concerning the pre-start up phase. That’s right: the warm, wet feeling...dare we say “idea” phase. Specifically, I was wondering if you are aware of any organizations/networks roughly analogous to angel investors, but dedicated to providing access to human venture capital? That is, access to individuals with specific technical skill sets or managerial expertise that may be interested in pooling talents to explore an equity venture, based initially on a well-thought out concept and business proposition.
Would appreciate your thoughts and insight.
Rich McMahon
South Salem, NY
From: Itzhak Margalit [mailto:imargo@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:13 PM
To: list-owner@billsnow.com
Subject: RE: Error Message
Bill,
Thanks for the error message, stating that I have already subscribed to list.
Thank G-d, I just wanted to make sure!
Have really missed your wit, wisdom, and straight talk and look forward to the re-launch of your newsletter.
Sincerely,
Itzhak Margalith / Ganei Tikva, Israel
While I have half jokingly referred to myself as the king of shameless self-promotion, I am only a mere student compared to the true master, Barry Moltz. Barry, after all, has had his book published by a real publisher. You can go to Borders or Amazon.com and buy a copy of his book. My book was self-published, and you have to go to billsnow.com to obtain a copy. His book costs money and you can put it on your bookshelf. My book has typos and you have to print it on your own printer.
See the differences?
Anyway, Barry chimed in the following…
From: Barry Moltz
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:46 PM
Cc: alexsotereanos@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Bill Snow Newsletter - August 17, 2004
Love it! Keep it going…can you include a blurb on my upcoming conference?
http://www.moltz.com/CrazySeminar.html
You have customers in a business that you are working hard to build. Your courage and resiliency are challenged as you ride the weekly rollercoaster up and down. It's hard to find the right people to put on your team in order to effectively grow your business. You struggle to balance your work and personal life. You hate to cold call. You need to find other ways to bring new customers to your business and grow relationships you already have. You know that your networking is "notworking."
We can help! Our three part mini conference on October 21, 2004 will help you learn what it takes to grow a business.
http://www.moltz.com/CrazySeminar.html
Just so no one misunderstands my use of the term, “shameless self-promotion,” I consider the term to be something positive. In business, especially in the entrepreneurship world, too many of us seem to be afraid of “asking for the business.” To ask for the business means you run the risk of sounding crass. Who the hell cares if the knee biters of the world think of you as crass? I’d rather be rich and crass than poor and polite. As a sage advisor once told me, “no matter what you do in life, you’re probably going to p*** off a quarter of the people you deal with. Don’t worry about it. If you try to get everyone to like you, you’ll probably end up p***ing off more than 25% of them.”
I’ve recently been communicating with one Ari Wegter, co-founder of digitarian, a European start up modeled after Netflix. Ari was kind enough to submit the following email, which details how digitarian got its start, and where it is today. Ari included an executive summary, but I have not included it here. I suggest contacting Ari directly if you are interested in reviewing their executive summary.
From: Ari digitarian.dk [mailto:ari@digitarian.dk]
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 5:21 AM
Subject: Re: Venture 101 feedback
The digitarian story:
Netflix's success inspired us to start the company about 14 months ago. I contacted their CEO Reed Hastings with a franchise proposal for Europe, which he declined (they are launching in the UK later this year). Denmark/Scandinavia is very suitable for this business model because of: great postal service, high broadband penetration and a Hollywood-hungry public. Est. market size: 1m users.
Sales have grown steadily each month since launch. Our 12-month trailing revenues are about $350K with a net loss for 2003 of $160K. Last month we did about $50K, i.e. about a $600K run rate and consistent with our YoY growth forecast. Burn rate is some $60K per month, and we expect to be cash flow positive within the next 3-6 months. Marketing is almost exclusively online and often co-sponsored with film distributors.
Our software is developed
in-house (PHP MySQL) and supplemented with Sourcelight Technologies'
collaborative filtering power (see exec sum). We have had some talks with
local/international investors (see below) and are currently looking to
raise $2.7 million to finance our expansion into Europe. Until now, we’ve raised
approx. $400K, coming from my partners and I as well as some US and local
angels. Our last round had a $750K post money valuation. Customer numbers remain
confidential (sorry).
As you can see, our current status is still modest compared to US standards, but we are pleased to have come this far with limited funds. Having survived the first year, our main goal is to reach profitability this year and work towards the exit in 18-24 months. A merger with our main competitor in Denmark is in progress and expected to be complete by Sept. 30. Further consolidation is currently taking place across the continent to get ready for Netflix' arrival in Europe.
Digitarian milestones:
· 3 founders (Danish, American, Dutch) living in Copenhagen start digitarian, own 90% today
· Started out as a business plan competition thruConnect Denmark - Jan 03
· Seed money of approx. US$250K invested by founders - May 03
· Company incorporated (A/S = Inc.) in Denmark -Jun 03
· Colorado-based ABB Enterprises (friends & family fund) buys 10% stake - Sept 03
· Receive Danish angel investor loan of approx. US$100K - Jan 04
· Preliminary meetings w. Benchmark Capital (London) and other European VCs - Feb/Mar 04
· Preliminary meetings w. local media company re 2nd round financing/trade sale - May/Jun 04
· Merger with main competitor in Denmark, DVDZone.dk - Jul 04
· Monthly revenue milestone: 100K USD - Sept 04
I have attached the exec summary of our b-plan so you can get some more facts from there. Use what you like for the newsletter. Hope this gives you a better picture of what we're doing out here!
Ari
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Based on what I know so far, it’s a great story. They seem to be doing things the right way: find a model that works, finance it with friends and family, launch, gain customers, generate revenue, then approach VCs for additional funding.
I wish them nothing but success.
A quick aside, when I read Digitarian’s executive summary I saw the three principals added their favorite movie quote. Ari apparently is fond of Apocalypse Now because he cites Robert Duvall’s famous, “smells like victory,” as his favorite quote.
My favorite movie quote? From Gladiator, of course!
“At my signal, unleash hell.”
My friends usually say this as I’m about to tee off.
I thought the movie quote thing was kind of ironic because I was recently communicating with one of my crazy friends, and the subject of movie quotes came up. Please excuse the following, as it delves into the world nonsense and is certainly a non-VC related subject. I warned all of you: This newsletter might contain some irreverence.
Reading the favorite movie quotes in digitarian’s executive summary made me think about the unique career path that one of my college buddies has taken. I can’t use his real name because he works for a huge multinational company, so this will have to be an anonymous post. We’ll call him “Jim.”
After a stint selling Christmas trees, and after being mugged at gunpoint with his wife near their posh Lincoln Park condo, Jim righted the ship career-wise…and moved to the ‘burbs, too. As an aside, an Uzi (yes, an Uzi) being pointed at him didn’t immediately cause Jim to acquiesce – he actually tried to negotiate with the mugger by saying he was poor, didn’t have any money, was selling Christmas trees to get by, and if the mugger wasn’t careful, he’d tie said mugger to the top of a car. Apparently, there’s a time for a humor and then there’s a time to hand over your wallet to an armed thug. Despite his stabs at humor, Jim was conked on the head with a gun and knocked out. If you ever find yourself near our old watering hole, The Local Option, you might still find a bloodstain. Jim always thought it was funny to say “hi” to himself on the sidewalk.
Back to movie quotes. Jim has found a two-pronged approach to career success. First, he outsources. This actually involves using another college buddy to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the database design and other IT related work that Jim’s bosses think he designs. Second, Jim peppers his every day conversation with obscure quotes from movies. Naturally, everyone thinks he’s fascinating and always quick with a quip or a line. In Jim’s own words, here’s how he turned teenage loserhood in career gold. Be warned, he’s been known to exaggerate things, just a bit:
From: someoneyoullneverknow@abigcompany.com
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 9:06 AM
To: bill@billsnow.com
Subject: Re: quotes
Bill,
90% of my movie quotes come from movies between circa 1974 to 1985: grade school and high school years for me. Chicks hated my 42-inch orange Afro, so I stayed in and watched a ton of movies, but since we had no money, I watched the same movies over & over. My uncle, who lives in a bomb shelter, used to copy movies off HBO and mail them to us. Here is a list the accounts for about 80% of my daily vocabulary along with the most frequent quote from it:
§ Revenge of the Nerds: "What are you looking at, nerd?"
§ Real Genius: "You're laborers; you should be laboring. That's what you get for not having an education."
§ History of the World: “Don't get saucy with me, Bernaise”
§ The Road Warrior: "Don't touch please, that's a precision instrument. "
§ Sixteen Candles: ”This information cannot leave this room. Ok? It would devastate my reputation as a dude.”
§ Blazing Saddles: “Work, work, work…hello boys.”
§ Repo Man: “The life of a repo man is always intense.”
§ Princess Bride: “INCONCEIVABLE.”
§ Raising Arizona: “Well, that's natural.”
§ Trading Places: “I had the most absurd nightmare. I was poor and no one liked me.”
Also, you might want to differentiate between Frat boys -- who quote movies as a way of sounding cool – and social misfits like me -- who use movie quotes to speak in everyday conversations. This is probably the case since I didn’t learn to read until I was 19 (seriously). If you notice, I stay way from the Frat Boy movie quotes like:
§ Animal House: "May I have 10,000 marbles please"
§ The Blues Brothers: "Blessed mother of acceleration don't fail me now"
§ Fletch: "May I borrow your towel, my car just hit a water Buffalo"
§ Caddie Shack: "It's in the hole"
Finding and learning enough suitably obscure movie quotes is a great way to pepper your work efforts, without really trying that hard. I haven’t had an original thought since ’74. I find that these quotes – and sometimes I modify then slightly to fit specific situations – cover the gamut of work related issues I face.
“Jim”
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© 2004, all rights reserved
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