Archive for June, 2007
SLDS: An acronym this time
Posted on 27. Jun, 2007 by jon.
When we tell people what we’re doing we often get questions like “Oh, kind of like Tutor.com or (insert your favorite other online education company here).” Those comparisons are interesting in that it’s great to get a sense of what people think is the current state of online learning. But at the end of the day comparing what we’ll build over the long-term to sites like those is kind of like comparing Facebook to Walmart.com. Not very meaningful…
My friend Farb introduced me to the concept of the Borg, a mythical creature that rapidly assimilates the collective knowledge of other Borgs. In other words, what one Borg knows all the Borgs know. It would be the equivalent of saying since you learned tie your shoes yesterday I now know how to. True knowledge amplification.
I love that concept but we’re probably a ways off from that. In the meantime there’s something more real on the horizon that’s very interesting: Social Learning Discovery Services.
Think about how the new Facebook stuff is working (click here to catch up). It’s a real interesting new paradigm for the discovery of content and applications. But here’s what I find really cool. Imagine if every time someone you knew learned something you were made aware of it. That ain’t Borg-world yet but it’s getting close. The funny thing is we’re getting there very quickly in so many other areas like music and movies. It’s only a matter of time before this permeates all areas of our lives.
That’s a good thing.
Life is social.
Online learning is about to be.
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Innovative Education is Not an Oxymoron
Posted on 25. Jun, 2007 by jon.
“A revolution is needed in education — students exist in a world where technology is pervasive but classroom teaching hasn’t basically changed in 50 years.”
From this New York Times article (thanks Ranjit!)
This time the revolution will be televised. And blogged. And podcasted. And Facebooked (is that a word yet?!).
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Our Manifesto: 25 Rules to Live By
Posted on 21. Jun, 2007 by jon.
1. Education is everything
If you’re reading this right now you can thank the person who taught you to read. We all owe an incredible amount to the people who helped us learn and get to the place we’re at today. So why is it that eyes glaze over when we use the word “education” in describing our business? It’s because education traditionally has been stodgy, boring and bureaucratic. Say goodbye to that world. The education of the next generation will be (dare we say it) sexy, fun, and participative. We can’t wait to show you.
2. Equality rules
We believe in Jefferson’s ideal that all men and women are created equal. However, we think that it’s a tremendous shame that education around the planet suffers from incredible inequalities. This ends up leading to tremendous disparities in income levels around the globe. By helping give everyone equal access to world-class education, we’ll move much closer to true equality.
3. Silos suck
Throw something behind your proprietary/premium/DRM-infected wall (or simply the physical walls of your buildings) and the math is easy: fewer people will benefit from it. We need to move to a world of more transparency and universality, like eMusic and MIT’s OpenCourseWare. We need more people to understand The Grand Unified Theory On The Economics Of Free. We’ve seen the future and it’s more open than the present.
4. Simple and fun are better
Volumes are written each year in academic journals about teaching methodologies and pedagogical jibber-jabber. The plain fact is that the best teachers always make complicated things appear simple and make learning fun. So we’ll cut a deal with you. We’ll make technology that’s simple and fun to use. You create materials that are simple and fun to learn from.
5. Education has no economies of scale‚ yet…
If Kobe Bryant could only play basketball in front of 30 people at a time, how much money would he make? People who complain that teachers are underpaid are right‚ but they’re missing half of the puzzle. Until you create economies of scale for education, teachers will always be underpaid. Once you do create economies of scale you turn teachers into rock stars, give them the possibility of earning as much money as doctors or lawyers (or more), and attract new types of people (think “ambitious entrepreneurs”) to the industry.
6. Our list of heroes may have you on it
Our list of heroes includes people you might suspect. We revere Martin Luther King and Gandhi and Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. But we also admire the “quiet heroes.” The high school biology teacher who cares passionately about both his subject and his students. The meditation instructor who sees the difference her teaching makes in the lives of the people she teaches. We spend our days building technology to serve these people. It’s pretty darn fun when your customers are also your heroes.
7. We work when and where we want
Who came up with this crazy notion that working 9 to 5 in an office building is what everyone should do everyday? That might have made sense a century ago, but it makes no sense today. We work smart, when we’re most productive, from places that energize us the most, and on projects that we’re completely jazzed about. Anything else is counter-productive. Literally.
8. The environment affects everyone
All of us impact the environment in some way. We strive to be a company that does as little to negatively impact the environment as possible. We also takes steps to mitigate any negative impact that we do have through purchasing offsets, supporting renewable energy projects, and encouraging our team to take an active role in making this planet better for the generations that will follow.
9. Give back
We’ve been given so much in our lives and so it only makes sense for us to give back to the community around us (both locally and globally). We give back by encouraging our team to contribute to open-source projects. We are also setting aside a portion of our pre-tax profits, company equity and employee time for projects that create better futures. We’re both following in the footsteps of companies like Google, Patagonia and Salesforce.com, and also attempting to blaze a new trail for corporate responsibility.
10. People matter most
Happy people are motivated and passionate. Motivated and passionate people execute like hell and have great ideas. And it’s well-executed good ideas that change the world. We optimize for happiness so that we can change the world.
11. Transparency, accountability and democracy rule
Transparency means open-book salaries, blogging tough decisions, and practicing radical honesty. Accountability means doing right by your community, both inside and outside the company. And democracy… well, let’s just say we’ve been to the mountaintop and seen the democratic organizations described by visionaries like Ricardo Semler and companies like WorldBlu. We’re building a democratic organization that’s designed to kick ass in the 21st century.
12. Fail fast
Failing doesn’t suck. What does suck is being afraid to fail and therefore not taking any risks. After all, you don’t learn without failing. So make sure to fail fast, learn your lessons quickly, share your story and move on. We don’t have the time to play it safe, and we don’t have any desire to cover up when we fail. After all, the world appreciates warts.
13. Assholes need not apply
Life is too short to work with people who aren’t a joy to be around. We want to work with nice people who show genuine concern for the people around them and realize that their actions have an impact on the ecosystem. If you’re one of those people, drop us a line. If you’re not, kindly go play in someone else’s sandbox.
14. Small is the new big
Tight teams get the most stuff done these days. Look at Google. Or 37signals. Want to work with a big, bloated team in a massive company? That ain’t us. We’re big believers in the simple notion that smaller teams of smart people can solve more of the important problems more quickly. It’s all about getting cool stuff done. Why work any other way?
15. Abundance is the new scarcity
We don’t subscribe to the belief that there’s a fixed pie and we’re all fighting for slices. We believe in a growing pie that offers everyone a larger slice. Thus, we’re stoked to share our knowledge, experience, ideas, contacts, etc. with you (yes you!) in the hopes that it might help you achieve success. The scarcity mentality is so 20th century. Abundance is where it’s at.
16. Saying yes to something means saying no to something else
Saying no to the wrong opportunities can be difficult but is always worth it. Strive to say no to things that are wrong, don’t align with your values, or simply don’t matter. Obey the 80/20 rule, prioritize ruthlessly and remember that life is over in the blink of an eye. Time is indeed the most precious commodity we have. Use it wisely.
17. Design matters
Design of our environment, our business, our software and our systems affect how we achieve, interact, and feel. We can all choose to use well-designed products or poorly designed ones. We know which ones we like to use, and which ones we strive to create.
18. Fire politicians
Advancing your own interests at the expense of the company’s is a fire-worthy offense. If you’re a big fan of politics, join the Obama or Romney campaign. Our environment is based on freedom, not fear, and we require our team to rise above all the petty bullshit that plagues so many companies.
19. Build stuff people want
Does it make any sense to throw a team in a room for six months and hope that what they produce is what the customer wants? Um, no. That’s why we involve the customer from Day One in building our product. Agile development = good. Customer observation = better. Building products that are delightful to use and solve real problems = best of all.
20. Success is everything and nothing
High-fives for everyone when we do something kick-ass. Giving the credit away to others who’ve gotten you there is the right thing to do. What doesn’t make sense is believing your own press. The world will say what they want. Sometimes it will be good. Sometimes it will be bad. Realize that in the end it’s most definitely not the critic who counts.
21. Diversity is a must
Who are the rocket scientists in corporations who think that stocking boards with old white dudes makes any sense? We live in a diverse culture. We need to get diverse input. This means hiring people that.aren’t.like.us. Greater variation in thought leads to more interesting perspectives and ultimately better decisions. So seek out those who are different and listen to them. Or go stick your head back in the sand. Your choice.
22. Learning is more important than Education
Wait, didn’t we say at the top that education is everything? Yeah…sort of. Education is what happens to you, but learning is what you actually do. Learning is an active process that implies engagement. Ultimately learning, not education, is what’s useful. We’re here to revolutionize education and the best way we know to revolutionize it is to kill it off entirely. Replace it with a world in which people learn. All the time. In new and creative ways. And have a blast doing so.
23. Be Human
Corporations are de-humanizing. Nobody speaks in synergistic marcomm-babble in the real world. People hide behind policy when they should be using their heads. And it’s too easy to sleepwalk through the day. Being Human means talking like a real person, trying to do the right thing, screwing up sometimes, learning, forgiving, being nervous, being elated, and using your brain. It can be messy, but people don’t turn into robots come 9am. We’d prefer to deal with reality instead of delusion.
24. We’re not a family
In a family, there are people who makes decisions for you for your own good. You’re an adult who makes complex decisions every day, so why are you treated like a child from 9-5? Being treated like an adult means being trusted with information, accepting decisions you don’t like (because you’ve had a say), and being held accountable for your actions. Paternalism breeds learned helplessness, and there are few more disempowering and cancerous feelings than believing you can’t change things.
25. Have Fun
This is the most important thing! Life’s a short ride, so enjoy it while you’re here. If you’re not having fun, figure out a way to change that. The power to have fun is in your hands, so there’s only one place to point fingers.
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Two Great TED Videos
Posted on 17. Jun, 2007 by jon.
If you haven’t watched the TED Talks yet you really should. They’ll leave you tremendously inspired about what the future will hold. Here’s two good ones that were recently sent my way.
Thanks T and E!
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Startup Investing 101, Part 1
Posted on 15. Jun, 2007 by jon.
Kareem suggested to me this week that I should blog a bit on Startup Investing from a beginner’s perspective. In other words, let’s say you’re an entrepreneur and this is your first start-up company. What should you do to raise money? Had a lunch with a friend earlier in the week and he has a great product (crazy cool viral growth) but he’s never raised money before and isn’t very experienced in terms of what to do. So I’ll write some posts that would be a close proxy to what I’d tell a guy like him over a series of lunches. Enjoy! :)
First Things First: Figure out how much money you need.
Figuring this out will help you to determine where you need to go to get the capital. If you only need $20K to push your idea forward there’s little reason to get outside investment. You can probably just get a line of credit from your bank (you’d be surprised at how much they’ll give you if your credit is good) or take out a few credit cards. Giving up valuable equity early on for that little bit of money doesn’t make sense.
But let’s say you need more…how much more? $100K? $1MM? $10MM? This depends so much on what you’re building. Best thing is to find comparables in your space. The average web 2.0 start-up probably doesn’t need much more than a few hundred thousand to get going (most often much less). However, if you have an idea for the next great bio-tech company you’ll need much more than that.
I think a good rule of thumb is to raise enough money for 12 months of operations. Raising too much further out than that makes the fundraising process a little more tricky and also puts you in a position where you may spend money excessively just because you have it. On other hand, raise less than 12 months worth of capital and you’ll find yourself finishing up a round only to be going out soon to raise more capital. The last thing you want to do is be perpetually raising money. You need to spend most of your time and energy building the biz.
OK, so let’s say you’ve figured out how much money you need.
Next step: Figure out who to raise from.
This is a very rough guideline but should prove somewhat helpful in terms of getting you started.
$0 – $50K = Bootstrap/lines of credit/credit cards/etc. – Don’t give up equity if you’re only going to raise this small amount of money. There are quicker ways that don’t require you to dilute yourself. You can even look at a site like Prosper to raise some money (I have a friend doing that to fund his business).
$50K – $300K = Friends and family – If you need more than plastic and the bank will give you then the obvious next choice is to look to people in your personal network. This varies quite a bit from person to person as some people don’t have the network to raise $50k and others could raise $50 million from people they know. But in general most people probably have enough people with money to raise a small six-figure amount. Friends and family are a good choice because they typically will move pretty fast and be fine with fairly entrepreneur-friendly terms. Of course they can be a bad choice for what I’ll assume are obvious reasons.
$300K – $1 MM = Elite angels or early stage institutions - If you’re looking for more than your personal network can provide then it’s time to step up to people who can put healthy six figure investments into a company. Examples of angels like this would be guys like Ron Conway or Jeff Clavier or groups like the Tech Coast Angels. These guys are regionally focused so you’ll have to dig around to see who’s appropriate depending on where you live. At the institutional level there are people like Josh Kopelman at First Round or Mike Maples that will put in seed rounds. There aren’t enough of these types of people out there but the number is increasing given the dynamics of the VC biz.
$1MM+ = Venture capitalists – If you need more than a million bucks then VCs are the typical people you’ll raise money from. The best thing to do here to help whittle down your list of potential funders is to closely read what their investment areas and philosophy are and (perhaps most importantly) see what they’ve already invested in. A VC that typically funding B2B infrastructure companies might not be a good candidate for your consumer facing web app. Likewise, don’t go to early-stage Web 2.0-focused VC to pitch your bio-tech investment. This seems obvious but as someone who has wasted the time of a few VCs in the past pitching them ideas that were out of their investing paradigm I figured I’d pass it along.
OK, enough for now…in the next part I’ll cover raising money through a priced round vs. a convertible note as well as common vs. preferred shares in priced rounds. If you have other things you’d like to see me cover please add them in the comments.
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Let’s Build a New System
Posted on 11. Jun, 2007 by kareem.
Educational consultant Barbara Brier writes about how the current educational system can’t be saved, and references a phenomenal post by Tom Haskins.
After reading smart people like Dan Pink and Sir Ken Robinson, understanding how technology is changing our lives, and speaking to several teachers recently who all echoed similar sentiments, I think she’s right.
Most attempts to fix the system are incremental. Things like “stronger, more consistent curriculum standards nationwide; lengthening the school day and year; and improving teacher quality through merit pay and other measures.”
How about re-imagining what learning could be like, and then going to build that?
We have the luxury of not being the incumbent, but we have the challenge of trying to institute change from the outside.
Either way, something needs to be done.
So, off to write some more code…
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On Competition
Posted on 03. Jun, 2007 by jon.
One of the feelings that most entrepreneurs experience at some point is that of competition. (Actually, if you don’t ever feel that you probably aren’t going down the right path.) Most great ideas have not one competitor but a number of them. There were at least 50 video sharing sites that were diretly competiting with YouTube to be king of that space (check out this old TechCrunch article for an early comparison). Google was far from the first search engine.
The question is as an entrepreneur how will you react to news of another company doing the same thing as you (or something similar)?
A couple of days ago we got wind that there is another company that is planning to launch a platform somewhat similar to ours. There have been a couple of instances of this happening before in our young life but this is by far the most solid one we’ve come across. Started by some of the sharpest people on the planet…backed by a significant amount of capital…a sense of scope that seem to be almost as big as ours.
So what was my reaction to finding this out?
Joy. :)
There are two main reasons why I get fired up about competing with really sharp people. The first is validation. One of the nice things that Sergey and Larry had going for them was that they didn’t have to convince anybody of the need for a search engine when they were developing Google. Once you have strong competitors in your space it becomes less about whether the idea makes sense and more about whether you can be the ones to successfully pull it off.
Validation is great when you’re pre-launch because often it may be tough for a potential investor to see your vision. Seeing that there are other sharp people interested in similar business ideas often gives them a level of comfort. That’s not to say you necessarily need that. Just that it can help in raising money. (Of course, it’s not always helpful as there are definitely investors out there who don’t relish the thought of putting money into start-ups that have strong competition.)
The second reason is that I believe that competition is probably the main driving factor in fostering innovation. Established companies have a clear sense of who their competition is and what they must do to succeed. Start-ups don’t always have that. Once a few players show up on the scene it’s easier for a company to tell how it stacks up and just how easy or hard it will be to dominate the market. I feel like there should be a Sun Tzu Art of War quote here but it’s escaping me… :)
I’ve been on a caffeine-esque high in the last 48 hours after learning of this new competitor. I love that feeling. I’ve always had a sense of urgency about what we’re developing but it has been heightened lately. And I’m starting to thinking bigger than I ever have about our idea knowing that (a) some of the smartest people in the world are thinking along the same lines as we are and (b) we’re going to be competing against these people.
So without further ado let me give you my five tips for dealing with competitive situations:
1. Be honest, realistic and transparent about your competition – Don’t pretend like they don’t exist while at the same time don’t overestimate their impact. Great businesses are almost always formed in competitive environments and First Mover Advantage is often overrated (brush up on Fast Follower theory if you haven’t recently). And be transparent. Communicate with employees and investors about the threats on the landscape. They’ll appreciate you for doing so.
2. Learn from your competitor’s mistakes – If they get to market/revenue/profitability/etc. before you consider that a blessing. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from their miscues. One of my favorite things is seeing new companies launch sites and trying to predict how well they’ll do. Do this enough and you’ll start to develop a keen sense for factors that lead to success and failure. No one predicts it perfectly all of the time but the best entrepreneurs and investors are experts at analyzing new businesses and being able separate the wheat from the chaff (yeah, I’m using way too many cliches in this post…).
3. Don’t emulate your competition – Too many people get way too caught up in what the competition is doing. You see this a lot in software development. People think that just because their competitor included a feature that they need to too (the dreaded “We Have to Win the Battle of the Feature Matrix” syndrome). Rather than overly focusing on your competition spend time with your customers instead. I love this quote from Nivi’s blog:
“Even in the fact of massive competition, don’t think about the competition. Literally don’t think about them. Every time you’re in a meeting and you’re tempted to talk about a competitor, replace that thought with one about user feedback or surveys. Just think about the customer.”
– Mike McCue, CEO Tellme Networks, Former VP of Technology Netscape
(Note: Tellme was recently acquired by Microsoft for close to a billion dollars.)
4. Realize that the world is abundant – In our soon-to-be-posted Manifesto you’ll notice that we’re big believers in the theory of abundance. In other words, the pie is not fixed but rather growing and our actions help in part to grow it. If you operate from a scarcity mentality (”Someone else has to lose in order for me to win.”) then competition should scare the shit out of you. Otherwise, it’s merely something that drives you to better actualize your vision.
5. Never quit until your vision becomes a reality – As an entrepreneur you either have a vision of a world that’s better because of your company or you don’t. If you don’t, quit now. Seriously. If you do then the only point at which you should quit is when someone else has something that is as good or better than your vision. 99% of the time your competitors will have a vision that is different than yours. 99% of the time it will be (at least in your eyes) worse. If that’s the case there’s absolutely no reason to let up.
In the end if someone does a business that’s your vision but better then there’s one emotion you should feel.
Joy. :)
Because if the vision was strong enough and important enough to you to dedicate your life/career to it the fact that it came true should make you really happy. Sure, you might not be buying the Ferrari or mansion anytime soon but there are plenty of ways to make money in this world and you’ll figure something out.
So relish competition. It’s one of the things that makes being an entrepreneur so incredibly fun. After all, I’m pretty sure a guy like LeBron James woke up this morning hoping that the Spurs bring their best game into the Finals. That’s what will make make hoisting the championship trophy that much more sweet for him. The same will be true for you.
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Some EduRev Micro-Learning Lessons
Posted on 01. Jun, 2007 by jon.
In the spirit of Micro-Learning here are a few quick lessons we’ve learned lately that we thought we’d share in the hopes that they might help you out.
Investing – The first check is the hardest. We brought in our first outside investment this month and since then our fundraising conversations have definitely gotten easier (not necessarily easy but easier…). Finding investors for a business is a lot like dating (seriously, reading The Game might be one of the best uses of an entrepreneur’s time). In dating there’s a theory called Social Proof which states that people are interested in you to the extent that they think others are interested in you as well. The same definitely holds true in the world of start-up investing. Once people know that some other people have put real money into your company (especially if your investors are sharp and seasoned businesspeople) then they’re much more likely to invest.
Investing Part II – Too many start-ups seem to think that there’s a cookie-cutter approach to finding capital. We’re examining a number of options outside the traditional realm of angels and VC funding including lines of credit, SBA loans, SBIR grants, P2P lending sites like Zopa and Prosper, etc. We think it’s important to assess all available options and make the decision from there. While we’re confident in our ability to raise money the traditional way we’re also very interested in doing things that aren’t necessarily traditional but in the end just might make more sense. We’re looking forward to sharing with you what we find going down these paths and would love to hear any feedback you’ve had about any alternative funding sources.
Developers – The search for developers is still ongoing. Finding good development talent is probably the biggest problem most tech entrepreneurs are facing nowadays (at least based on our informal survey of these peeps). I think there’s an excellent opportunity out there to create a website that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to connect with dev talent. Something like LinkedIn would be great except for the fact that most devs either don’t use LinkedIn or don’t have very many connections which subsequently makes it tough to connect with them. Finding a developer through your network is perhaps the best way to go because (a) you have some who has vouched for said dev and (b) the best devs in the world are typically already working on projects and rarely responding to jobs ads or listing their resumes online.
Building Your Network – A friend recently reminded me that in the 21st century our wealth is our network. A lot of truth to that statement. We’re in the process of connecting to more and more people these days and have already interfaced with an amazing number of really cool people. Four tips that I’d offer:
#1 – Approach every interaction seeking first to help rather than to be helped. One of the best ways to do this is to ask people “What challenges are you facing?” Everybody has something. Once you find that out you can see if there’s anything you can do to help them.
#2 – Share your vision as boldly as you. Don’t hold back when you meet people for the first time. Don’t sell yourself short. People get excited and want to help people with BHAGs. Paint a picture for them of what you plan to create and most people will do their darnedest to help you make that picture a reality.
#3 – Always make sure to ask the question “Who else should we be connecting with?” I’ve never asked that question and not been given at least one or two names of people to meet. Outstanding way to grow your network…
#4 – Follow up. It’s amazing how people will go to networking events, meet you for coffee, etc. and then not follow up afterwards. If you get a business card it takes one minute to send an e-mail letting someone know that you enjoyed meeting them and making sure they have your contact info and know they can get in touch you anytime for help.
Blogging – Every start-up should be doing it. Start-up life is really busy but there are few excuses for not blogging. It’s a great way to connect with potential partners and advisors and to find good employees. You’re sharing your world with the world and that’s an increasingly valuable thing in this connected universe. Finally, it’s a great way to document your experience doing your start-up. Regardless of what happens here at EduRev it’s fun to know that we’ll have a diary of sorts for posterity’s sake. Think about it…who wouldn’t love to go back and read Larry and Sergei’s early thoughts when they were starting Google?
OK, that’s it for now. I hope you’ve micro-learned something from this. :)
