Tag: Startup

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A visit to VeloCity

Today I had the opportunity to make a presentation to students at the VeloCity residence at the University of Waterloo. If you don’t know about VeloCity, it’s worth checking out. In their words:

VeloCity is no ordinary student residence.

It’s a place where some of UW’s most talented, entrepreneurial, creative and technologically savvy students will be united under one roof to work on the future of mobile communications, web and new media.

It’s a place where students, faculty and corporate partners will be active collaborators and beneficiaries of the talent, ideas and innovations that evolve.

It’s a place where the ‘next big thing’ could happen.

My presentation was a pretty simple one – Ten Thoughts on what matters at a startup. It certainly wasn’t meant to be definitive, but it did cover the kinds of things that, in my experience, matter on a daily basis. Some of it was informed by my recent experiences at Primal Fusion. Anyway, it seemed to go over well, and I had some good conversations with a few of the students after I finished.

In the near future I’ll start a little series of posts inspired by that presentation.

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That vision thing

One of the things that is important to any organization, but in particular to a startup, is a clarity of purpose. With limited resources, a startup can’t afford to allocate them to the wrong activities. Clarity of purpose is informed by a strong vision of what the company is about. At Primal Fusion we have a diverse group of smart and experienced people driving the company, and our shared vision originates from our founder, Peter Sweeney. In a series of provocative posts to our company blog, Peter has been revealing that vision to the world. Are we in the midst of a new industrial revolution? Peter thinks so. Read his latest post and see why. Read the others to see the vision that he’s been laying out for our particular startup.

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Sharing a product with the world

Screen image: Jazz as understood by Primal Fusion

I’ve written previously about Primal Fusion and the successful launch of our product at the DEMO 09 conference. In the days since then we’ve been busily fixing issues that have popped up and adding enhancements. We’re in a closed alpha period right now, which means that we’re controlling the number of users that get active accounts. There are many reasons for this, but it really all boils down to making sure that all is working well and that Primal Fusion provides a reliable service. We’ve had a lot of people register for accounts, many of whom have been waiting patiently for access. The most satisfying activity following the launch has been activating accounts and getting feedback from our users. There are certainly issues, and we’re addressing them, but what we’ve been hearing has been generally positive. Visit Primal Fusion and get yourself an account. I’d love to hear what you think.

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Busting dams at a startup

I recently had the good fortune to hear Scott Berkun speak at a UX Group of Waterloo Region event (and the great fortune to dine with him and some like-minded folks afterward). Early on in his presentation Scott observed that having an idea was only the beginning, and there was a lot more creative work to be done after that. At one point he was asked about how designers might cope with the hardship of trying to be creative and innovative in a cube farm. Scott’s response was to gently dismiss this as a real constraint and to talk a little about the movie The Great Escape, observing how it showed innovation under extreme conditions.

My contribution to the movie-as-metaphor festival would be the great British war film The Dam Busters.

The Dam Busters features a visionary founder (Barnes Wallis) with an innovative idea (dropping bombs that skip along the water to avoid obstacles before hitting a dam) to solve a pressing problem (the industrial output that fed the Nazi war machine). There are angel investors (a British government committee that explores scientific opportunities to defeat the Nazis) who sustain Wallis through the hard work of proving that his idea will work. Having successfully reached the prototype stage, Wallis creates a Powerpoint presentation (a black and white movie) that he uses to sell a venture capitalist (Arthur Harris, head of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command) on his vision. Harris appoints a CEO (Wing Commander Guy Gibson) to build a dedicated team (617 Squadron) that will bring Wallis’s work to market (using specially modified Lancaster bombers), while Wallis the CTO continues to work through formidable technical challenges (including test bombs that break up upon hitting the water). The product launch date is selected (to coincide with a high water conditions behind the dams and favourable moonlight), and everyone involved works incredible hours to hit the date. Ultimately, the product launch is a great success (several dams are breached, causing massive flooding), though the costs are high.

Of course, the above is a simplified overview of a film that, itself, simplifies a complex story. Even so, I find the parallels striking.

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There has to be a first post

Why a blog? Why now, when the rest of the online world is merrily tweeting?

I’m currently immersed in the best job I’ve ever had, designing and building software products at Primal Fusion, a great startup company with an audacious vision to transform the internet. I get to wear several hats, and there’s always interesting work to to: designing the user experience, managing a terrific application development group, playing the role of product owner in a scrum team, putting stickers on promotional postcards, and a great deal more.

It feels like a good time to share what I’m learning on this journey from stealth mode obscurity to products in the marketplace. A blog seems like a simple venue. We’ll see what happens.