The Kev Blog

Thanks to David Crow’s blog for pointing this out:

Last Thursday I attended my first StartUpCamp ever. While I don’t have a startup going right now (at least in the tech/web sector), it is certainly something I am interested in and wanted to check out. The startup ‘community’ is really exciting to me, probably because it combines the best of why I ever decided to get involved in ‘business’ in general; creativity, problem solving, persuading others you’ve got something of value, and of course, the ‘pitch’.

A lot of readers of this blog are not in the tech scene or involved with a startup. I always said that this blog would be a way of me communicating the really cool things that I discover, for others who may not have heard about this stuff yet.

So, for those who haven’t heard about StartUpCamp, here’s the def’n:

Startup Camp is an unconference-style event that’s dedicated to bringing together the various members of the startup community for a face-to-face collaborative meetup where its the attendees that drive the agenda. http://wiki.startupcamp.org/wiki/AboutStartupCamp

What’s great about StartUpCamp is it provides a venue for feedback, networking, and just learning about what’s up and coming from new companies in the area.
So, a few new startups pitch their ideas and the work they are doing, then the floor is opened up to whoever might be there; other entrepreneurs, VCs, Angels, random people like myself. Sometimes the startups have specific questions for the audience, other times they leave it completely open for any constructive criticism. Really cool!

The startups that presented this time around were:

InvestMate
Investmate creates customized CAPM model portfolios based on personal interests for those with little to medium amounts f money who desire to invest in the stock market.

Workspace
http://www.createworkspace.com
Building an online IDE to help developers create web applications faster and easier while following best software engineering practices. Application is at alpha stage and seeking funding.

Defensio.com (Karabunga Inc)
http://defensio.com
Defensio is a better spam filter for social web apps. They make spam management less of a chore with spaminess ranking and an open API.

CakeMail (The Code Kitchen)
http://www.cakemail.com
CakeMail is a multilingual white label email marketing platform with an architecture that is open to extension by third parties. Just launched public beta; building a developer community.

FreshBooks
http://www.freshbooks.com
The profitable Trinity of Software as a Service is product, marketing, and service. FreshBooks explains how to balance all three. Focused on a target market and crossing the chasm.

(stolen from http://barcamp.org/StartupCampToronto1)

All really cool ideas, that, with some tweaking and creative problem-solving, have the potential to succeed. It was great to see a somewhat more mature startup, Freshbooks, talk about the issues they are dealing with as they grow (and quickly too! 250,000 users in just over 4 years!).

I had read up on the event before I got there, so it was pretty much what I expected - a lax environment and some really smart people working together. There was, however, one thing that John (my friend and coworker) couldn’t help but notice:

Where the heck were the young people!?!?!?!

This is STARTUP camp! Were they studying for finals?!!! Or Christmas shopping?!!! I’m not sure, but I expected a TON of young people to have filled that room! I think I was the youngest person there, and the only others that were visibly under 25 years old were the two students who pitched “InvestMate” (who were great, btw: tons of energy).

Albert, who was present and delivered the opening speech, has blogged about the lack of interest from (or perhaps encouragement for) young people in startups and entrepreneurship before. Check out that article here.

Anyways, I felt young there, and was pretty quiet this time around, but I definitely plan on heading back for more. What a cool place/event. Also have to check out DemoCamp and BarCamp in the future.

For a really detailed post about Toronto: http://blog.madwhips.com/?p=55

Albert’s speech was great - a lot of talk about how failure is the best way to possibly learn. He also mentioned how for every startup he’s “succeeded” with, there have been waaaaaaaay more failures. It takes a lot of confidence to be okay with the idea of outright failing. I thought that was pretty cool.

Anyone who knows about Maktub Leadership knows I’ve already failed once. Let’s see if ‘Millrush’, the idea I’m working on now, works out! (fingers crossed).

StartUpCamp Waterloo is coming February 26 at the Accelerator Centre: 6pm - 9pm. Get more info here, and give me a shout if you plan on going.

For more info on the Canadian startup scene in general, check out StartupNorth

This is going to be a unique post for me; in the Tom Peters, rant-style, in the heat of the moment kind of way.

I’ve recently been shooting emails back and forth with Albert Lai. For anyone who doesn’t know, Albert was featured on the cover of Canadian Business magazine in June 2008.

Here’s what I can tell you about Albert:
-28 years old
-founded, invested in or consulted with over a dozen startups in the past 10 years
-Founder of:
-MyDesktop
-BubbleShare
-BuyBuddy
-and a TON more

From what I hear, he sleeps about 3 hours a night - bed at 1am and up at 4:30am. The guy is incredible, and what I’ve written doesn’t do justice to the work he is doing or how highly regarded he is in the web/tech world right now.

Read the article in Canadian Business here.

Something that has come up a lot over the past few months is being visionary, forward-looking, and determined to follow through with an idea - no matter how crazy people think you are.

There’s been a few times over the past few years (and heck, even more when I look back to ever since I can remember) where I did NOT follow through with something (an idea, a project, a business, or even saying something) no matter how good I thought it was. “What will other people think?”

Well, Kev, what the hell were you [not] doing?

I was recently speaking with my dad, one of my most trusted mentors, about Albert.

“How the heck does he do it, Dad? People search their whole life for just one idea. Here’s this guy that’s taken over twelve ideas and turned them into profitable, exciting, and most of all disruptive new ideas.”

My dad’s answer:

“No Fear.”

And, just like most father-son moments, he was exactly right. You can’t have fear.

Most importantly, when people say you’re crazy (and they will!), you’ve got to keep pushing.

A good idea is a good idea. Want to follow through? Just do it. Don’t let anyone tell you no.

To be completely honest, I think you’ve got to be at least a little crazy, quirky, weird, and/or straight up strange if anyone’s going to listen to you. People might tell you you’re crazy, but that’s when you know you’ve got their attention.

I’ve had the “crazy talk” with a few people recently. Most notably, Marc Stamos. Another ‘crazy one’. Here’s a guy who ‘had it all’, including a lucrative career in corporate law.

But, he did something very unique. Marc looked up the corporate ladder at the firm he was with, and decided it wasn’t for him.

What did he do? He quit.

And he turned his attention to what is one of the coolest projects/organizations I have seen in a while: REBEARTH (www.rebearth.com)

Another “crazy one” who didn’t let fear get in the way.

It makes me sad when I encounter someone so scared of change that it almost paralyzes them. I actually, no word of a lie, feel sad - because they’re missing out on the exhilaration of trying something new, taking risks and working for something they actually believe in - not to mention the possibility of success! They let fear get in the way.

So here is what I’m going to do (and I owe this to the person who gave me some very good advice today over the phone). The next time I have an idea - I’m just going to do it. I’m not waiting for anyone’s permission to try something out, and I’m certainly not going to wait to have things perfected before I get the ball rolling. I’m just going to do it, ‘crazy’ or not.

You see, ‘crazy’ is a relative term. You’re only considered crazy until everyone else thinks the same way.

And besides, who will listen if you’re not half crazy?! In the words of Jack Welch:

“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.”

Here’s my commitment to living out on that fringe. I am a lunatic. And I am more than OK with that :)

Just to finish things up, here’s a great ad from the mid 90’s Apple campaign called Think Different:

Please, if you do one thing tomorrow: be a little crazy. The world could use a few more crazy ones.

-K