Things a startup founder will never tell you...

Founder Non-Admissions

View more OpenOffice presentations from Chris Yeh.

I just loved this little slideshow from Chris Yeh on things a startup founder will never tell you. I can't tell you how many times I've asked some of the entrepreneurs that approach me questions like these and gotten a ton of prevaricating..... If your startup can't answer these questions honestly - you should consider whether it's a valid idea in the first place...

If we treated everything in life like consultants and developers are treated

Give this excellent video a watch:



... then ask yourself - is this the way I treat my vendors and development partners? Is there a lesson to be learned here? If we go into a grocery store to buy something we don't dicker over the price, try to delay payment or anything else. We go, we buy an item, we pay for it and we leave. Why then do people feel compelled to dicker over the prices offered by resellers of professional services like software development, or computer tech support? What is different about the product they offer from the product the other service professionals in this video offer?

My guess is - they really aren't that much different. We don't ask our hairdresser to "wait 30 days" till we can pay them. We don't try to talk our waiter or waitress down in price so we can get our meal cheaper. We just decide - is their product or service worth the price I'm paying and then we either do - or do not - do business with them.

In a great software development effort, both parties are working to maximize return on investment and minimize cost of development. This is what long term relationships are built on. Not a "sell it to you once and then soak you for everything you've got" attitude, but a sell it to you once and work together so that the product continually improves until it's delivered, and continues to improve after that.

So the next time you feel tempted to "dicker over price" think about it. Is the product or service worth it to you? If it is you might want to consider just paying that amount then. Your vendor with thank you for it and you'll be developing a long-term partner relationship that may last forever!

Being a program manager

One of the key things that every software development effort needs is an excellent program manager. That manager's key vision, leadership and customer advocacy drive success. In How to Be a Program Manager, author Joel Spolsky gives us some insight on combining agile programming and program management in a productive way. Since Joel worked on the team developing the next generation of Microsoft Excel, he's qualified to speak authoritatively about dividing up large projects into manageable bite-sized pieces. Like at OS-Cubed Joel believes that one program manager should be responsible for a team of up to 4 programmers, and that work should be divided up by functional area.

The most important part of Joel's article states that the program manager must be the customer advocate on the team. They must look at every interface from the customer (or end user's) point of view, and express that point of view to the programming team. Their job is to help the programming team design something that users will find easy to use and appealing. If users complain that the program doesn't work - it's not the programmers fault it's the program manager's fault.

I think this is an important point about program managers. Too often development teams focus on the program manager's job of coordinating resources and delivering on-time and in-budget without defining their visionary status.

Joel goes on to say that - despite agile programming pushing prototyping as a methodology, the program manager must write specs - detailed functional specs from the user's point of view - not the programmer's point of view. It's their job to advocate for the user and build an interface that is the best for them. I typically fill this role within OS-Cubed, Inc. I have just enough programming and platform knowledge to be dangerous, but not enough to be so buried in it that it's all I think about. I would go on to state that a good program manager probably has a high "DI" in the DISC test and a low "C". I will talk more about DISC and how it integrates into a programming team later.

The program manager should not however, be the person writing up the actual specifications for how the product should be developed (that responsibility is the programming team lead's job), nor should the programmers report the the program manager because that would allow the program manager's ideas to run roughshod over the programmer's. This needs to be a negotiation between what is optimal and what is possible and both the user's and programmer's needs are taken into account.

Agile programming is typically about fast turnaround and constant customer approval. So the program manager must stay ahead of this curve, constantly re-examining the impact that feature and user interface changes have on the full vision. Sometimes it will be their job to control the scope of the project and to do that they need to retain and update the vision as it changes.

Joel's article is a great read, and I highly recommend both the blog post itself, and the links he offers for help and assistance.

Inside a Google data center

Presented without comment:

Introducing RochesterStartups.com

I was asked by the folks at SpringStage to be the Catalyst for the Rochester area Startup blog and I eagerly accepted. To get a feel for what Springstage is, and what a "Rochester Catalyst" is I encourage you to review this post, which I will summarize here.

" “What is SpringStage.”

• First, let me explain what SpringStage is NOT:
• SpringStage is not an angel network
• SpringStage is not an investment group
• SpringStage is not a business incubator

SpringStage is a network of community catalysts who are in tune with their local entrepreneurship and startup scenes. Our goal is to find entrepreneurs who are interested in promoting startup culture and community in their hometowns. The network formally launched in early 2009. This is the first step in ensuring that there is a visible resource in every community for early stage entrepreneurs.

Today, if you’re new to a city and you want to be involved in the startup scene there, there is no clear cut way to get involved. Springstage hopes to fix that by identifying and promoting credible catalysts in each community. We are providing the infrastructure for those catalysts to begin promoting their location entrepreneurship scene immediately. "

As a board member on the Eyes On the Future event board, Rochester GVCSHRM, Rochester Neighborhood of the Arts, and JSEC, and a former Rochester Small Business Council board member, and an advisor to Nazareth's Business development program, as well as a serial entrepreneur and developer myself, I feel I have a good cross-sectional background to publish articles of an interesting and engaging nature in www.rochesterstartups.com. But I do need your help. I'm looking for entrepreneurs (at all stages in development) and in all different growth areas to answer a brief 5 question profile, and I'm looking especially for great articles or interviews from Angels, Venture or other investors.

If you are a consultant who works with entrepreneurs, I urge you to pitch me on a story about your services and how they can help the local entrepreneur be successful. We also want to build a link-list of service providers in the area.