Having recently done my first SW, and forming a company with the team, I'll throw some ideas out at random. Note, we didn't win, so we didn't have the baggage any prize winnings or office space or whatever.
- The biggest thing that we ran into were a couple of personality clashes. They were evident during the weekend, but grew to be more obvious as the idea proved worth pursuing. We ended up shedding some people in the process, mostly due to attrition.
- We welcomed everybody to keep going, in the hopes that roles (CEO, CTO, Cwhatever) would become organically defined. In reality, it's mostly just collaborative brainstorming, and the real roles won't become apparent until we have a product to sell.
- Don't incorporate too quickly -- let there be some time for people to realize that they don't really have time for this in their lives. A weekend is one thing, but every weekend (and afternoon, and day, etc) is another. People have lives that they can't necessarily divest themselves of. The last thing you want is to name somebody CEO and then they stop showing up.
- Try to figure out an equitable split in the event that people start talking about a big exit. Our team started as 10 people (we're down to 7) -- our initial number was 5% per person, vested, and with more to be potentially allocated later.
- Try to figure out a way to keep people on for the long term. Monthly profit sharing is an idea that potentially can kickstart someone into leaving their day job to work on it full time.
- Find the shortest path to revenue. Make dollars immediately. Even if it's just a tiny fragment of the feature set -- take one defining feature, build it, and start trying to generate revenue.
- Try to keep everybody focused. Some of our team is biz-dev, and while there's not obviously as much for them to do during the development cycle, they can be lining up sales, blogging, marketing, networking, attending related conferences, etc., etc. People that aren't looking for those opportunities should be addressed.
- Try to capitalize on the publicity you got. During our weekend, we got national press, 3 beta customers and were able to pitch with a working product and a solid business plan. Keep that going. Perpetuate that.
- Get a contract in place with everybody -- vest some shares to ensure that they get a piece of whatever happens, but make it fractional depending on how long they stay. Make it equitable -- developers can still own their code, but can't take it away from you. All works contributed become patentable, ownable, redistributable and sellable by the company. You might need a corporate entity for this to work, not sure.
- Avail yourself of legal counsel. We were fortunate enough to have a conference lined up right after which dealt with company formation from some very qualified attorneys -- we asked them a lot of questions. This might be good enough for you, or it might not. IANAL, but find one and talk.
- I'll keep that one under my hat for the moment. We'll be announcing something in about a week, so if you add your email to your profile, I'll let you know when we do.
Have you ever consider kickstarter.com for funding your SW startup?
- We're bootstrapping, and don't really have a way to make use of funds other than hosting, but it's immediately profitable after the first sale, and hosting isn't a huge part of the cost.
What's the best 3 ways you've found to keep everyone focused (project management system, group chat, weekly meetings, etc)?
- We're on Skype always, and aside from a recent hospital trip of mine, we're in pretty constant contact. We use pivotaltracker for bug-spotting, Skype for general chat, Group.Me for mobile contact or finding people who aren't on Skype, Google docs and GoToMeeting for collaboration. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but those are the main things.
How were you able to get national press?
- We put some of the non-developers on buzz-building during the StartupWeekend. By the end of the weekend, we had over 100 Facebook likes, 900 Twitter followers, some blog coverage and a phone call + a couple of mentions on Twitter by Robert Scoble.
What lawyer did you use?
- Steve Kaplan of Pillsbury Law is who we consulted with, and whose insight proved to be invaluable. Like I said, we were able to exploit his wisdom at a conference, so we aren't regular customers of his (yet), but he was extremely savvy in answering our questions and even provided follow-up answers via email for some questions we had that were outside of his focus.
- http://www.pillsburylaw.com/
- If you'd like his contact info, email me, and I'll be happy to provide it for you.
I did (I think). If not, it's bigcheeseatmousekickdotcom
Thanks for your comments about kickstarter. I think we are in the same boat but just interested in what others are doing.
So, national press doesn't mean like a "national" site...just lots of people all across the place. I think the tweets by Scoble probably are a lot better for buying street cred though.
I'll check out this site. We are all meeting this week and this will be something we'll be talking about (lawyer/legal stuff)
Comments
Having recently done my first SW, and forming a company with the team, I'll throw some ideas out at random. Note, we didn't win, so we didn't have the baggage any prize winnings or office space or whatever.
- The biggest thing that we ran into were a couple of personality clashes. They were evident during the weekend, but grew to be more obvious as the idea proved worth pursuing. We ended up shedding some people in the process, mostly due to attrition.
- We welcomed everybody to keep going, in the hopes that roles (CEO, CTO, Cwhatever) would become organically defined. In reality, it's mostly just collaborative brainstorming, and the real roles won't become apparent until we have a product to sell.
- Don't incorporate too quickly -- let there be some time for people to realize that they don't really have time for this in their lives. A weekend is one thing, but every weekend (and afternoon, and day, etc) is another. People have lives that they can't necessarily divest themselves of. The last thing you want is to name somebody CEO and then they stop showing up.
- Try to figure out an equitable split in the event that people start talking about a big exit. Our team started as 10 people (we're down to 7) -- our initial number was 5% per person, vested, and with more to be potentially allocated later.
- Try to figure out a way to keep people on for the long term. Monthly profit sharing is an idea that potentially can kickstart someone into leaving their day job to work on it full time.
- Find the shortest path to revenue. Make dollars immediately. Even if it's just a tiny fragment of the feature set -- take one defining feature, build it, and start trying to generate revenue.
- Try to keep everybody focused. Some of our team is biz-dev, and while there's not obviously as much for them to do during the development cycle, they can be lining up sales, blogging, marketing, networking, attending related conferences, etc., etc. People that aren't looking for those opportunities should be addressed.
- Try to capitalize on the publicity you got. During our weekend, we got national press, 3 beta customers and were able to pitch with a working product and a solid business plan. Keep that going. Perpetuate that.
- Get a contract in place with everybody -- vest some shares to ensure that they get a piece of whatever happens, but make it fractional depending on how long they stay. Make it equitable -- developers can still own their code, but can't take it away from you. All works contributed become patentable, ownable, redistributable and sellable by the company. You might need a corporate entity for this to work, not sure.
- Avail yourself of legal counsel. We were fortunate enough to have a conference lined up right after which dealt with company formation from some very qualified attorneys -- we asked them a lot of questions. This might be good enough for you, or it might not. IANAL, but find one and talk.
Good luck.
@bmelton Thanks for your detailed response.
What is your SW startup?
Have you ever consider kickstarter.com for funding your SW startup?
What's the best 3 ways you've found to keep everyone focused (project management system, group chat, weekly meetings, etc)?
How were you able to get national press?
What lawyer did you use?
What is your SW startup?
- I'll keep that one under my hat for the moment. We'll be announcing something in about a week, so if you add your email to your profile, I'll let you know when we do.
Have you ever consider kickstarter.com for funding your SW startup?
- We're bootstrapping, and don't really have a way to make use of funds other than hosting, but it's immediately profitable after the first sale, and hosting isn't a huge part of the cost.
What's the best 3 ways you've found to keep everyone focused (project management system, group chat, weekly meetings, etc)?
- We're on Skype always, and aside from a recent hospital trip of mine, we're in pretty constant contact. We use pivotaltracker for bug-spotting, Skype for general chat, Group.Me for mobile contact or finding people who aren't on Skype, Google docs and GoToMeeting for collaboration. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but those are the main things.
How were you able to get national press? - We put some of the non-developers on buzz-building during the StartupWeekend. By the end of the weekend, we had over 100 Facebook likes, 900 Twitter followers, some blog coverage and a phone call + a couple of mentions on Twitter by Robert Scoble.
What lawyer did you use? - Steve Kaplan of Pillsbury Law is who we consulted with, and whose insight proved to be invaluable. Like I said, we were able to exploit his wisdom at a conference, so we aren't regular customers of his (yet), but he was extremely savvy in answering our questions and even provided follow-up answers via email for some questions we had that were outside of his focus. - http://www.pillsburylaw.com/ - If you'd like his contact info, email me, and I'll be happy to provide it for you.
I did (I think). If not, it's bigcheeseatmousekickdotcom
Thanks for your comments about kickstarter. I think we are in the same boat but just interested in what others are doing.
So, national press doesn't mean like a "national" site...just lots of people all across the place. I think the tweets by Scoble probably are a lot better for buying street cred though.
I'll check out this site. We are all meeting this week and this will be something we'll be talking about (lawyer/legal stuff)