localeverywhere

From getting our beginnings at a Startup Weekend and exploding on to the stage with help from the DreamIT accelerator, we’ve been able to spread our startup roots.  As part of our commitment to the startup community at large, we’re going to be supporting the SURF Incubator space for digital startups.  All of the SURF resident companies will have complete access to our platform for developing, building, and deploying their apps.

SURF is dedicated to advancing the ideas and passions of technology-focused entrepreneurs - who now won’t have to worry about maintaining a backend.   By bringing together a collection of great minds from different technical and business backgrounds, entrepreneurs within the SURF community can solicit resources as needed and grow their businesses on their own terms.  Check out their site for more details about the program and how to apply. 

derekmansen

Some unfortunate events occurred during the afternoon, related to some very poor and offensive wording in the flyer for an event that we were sponsoring. A short summary of what happened:

1. An event posting for the Boston API Jam was created containing clearly sexist language. We were listed as a sponsor of the event at the time.
2. The sexism in the event details was pointed out to us by many followers on Twitter (special thanks to @coolaunterin!)
3. Before the flyer was posted, we were unaware of the specific wording that was going to be used in the flyer.
4. We, and other companies, pulled our sponsorships from the event.

All of us at CloudMine agreed that this type of language is not acceptable, and we made an effort to contact the organizers of the event to get this changed as quickly as possible. Sexism in tech is a serious problem. Events like what happened today are, unfortunately, not uncommon. Catering exclusively to men in a sexist manner in your marketing materials is not only wrong, but it undermines those trying to make real progress. It hurts everyone when something like this happens—it can make women feel like outsiders in their own field, and it normalizes this type of behavior as okay (which it absolutely never is, even if there was no intention to hurt).

Having said that, we sincerely apologize for any offense that was caused. We never would have posted something like that, and do not endorse anyone who does.

Since we are no longer sponsoring this event, we now have extra funding to sponsor a different event which is more aligned with our views. We love hackathons—our company born at one—and we’d like to put this money to good use at an event that will bring all hackers (women and men alike!) together. Give us your suggestions in the comments or on Twitter (@CloudMine).

brendanmccorkle

I’ve been reading some of the early (2005-ish) blogs from 37signals, a company I greatly admire. I came across a post on the lean startup movement that I really liked which spoke of reducing “mass”. As we’ve been thinking about our competitive space I’ve found myself thinking a lot in good old physics terms: mass, velocity, inertia, etc.

The folks at 37signals say to embrace some of the following to reduce mass:

• Multi-tasking team members
• Embracing constraints, not trying to lift them
• Less software, less code
• Open-source products
• Open data formats
• Humility
• Admitting mistakes early
• Having customers evangelize your product
• Enjoying what you are doing
• Passion for your product
• Using what you’re building

I’ve highlighted three of these that I think resonate well with small software startups.

1. Embrace constraints, try not to lift them
   We are all resource constrained. This keeps us clever and motivated. No fat cat syndrome here. Somewhere outside of “the box” there is a solution where these constraints do not apply. Embrace this kind of thinking. Your big “scary” competitors at Big Corporate™ aren’t, and that gives you an advantage.
2. Admit your mistakes early
   We’re not the same company we were when we started. How many resources have we saved by changing directions when we realized our mistake? This is very hard to measure for an early company, but I’ll guesstimate some numbers to illustrate: $5,000 to outsource prototype development with potentially another $10,000 of work to turn that into a real product. But we switched gears shortly after the prototype. If we had spent that $10,000 before switching we would have spent half of our funding to date on something that is not our product. Half. Ouch. The lean methodology is all about rapid iterations and testing. Build something quick and dirty and get it in front of your customers. We all know they tell you A, B, and C when they actually need D, so stop wasting resources on B and C! Live close to your customers and iterate, iterate, iterate. See what actually helps them instead of just hypothesizing.
3. Use what you are building
   There is probably no argument less compelling than you asking for money to build a product you won’t use yourself. Would you pay for something the creators didn’t use?

The bottom line is that there is more to being a lean startup than being “agile”. That word is overused. Embrace the journey toward a lower-mass company and you will end up “agile”, whatever that means to you.

brendanmccorkle

Having listened to business students bemoaning their inability to find technical co-founders for the last two years I’ve decided to echo Jason Freedman’s sentiments from his post on the co-founder issue: co-founders are something you earn, not find.

If you start the timer when I started my graduate education at UPenn, which was more the start of “I have no day job, oh crap this is real” than my entrepreneurial endeavors, I have been looking for the right co-founders for 27 months. This span includes an epic fail of a partnership at another startup and an attempt all on my own. Both of these were fantastic learning experiences. At my previous startup, one partner and I realized we were not right for each other and the third realized he wasn’t really an entrepreneur. During this time I also discovered I am not the rare breed of entrepreneur who can fly solo.

I also spent this time drifting in and out of tech community events in Philadelphia. As if back on the prowl, I always kept one eye and ear scanning for “the right one”.

This spring, I lucked out and won a last minute ticket to Startup Weekend. It was during this event that I pitched CloudMine. It was selected as a team, but no mobile developers were left to join the team. While mingling with other teams, I chatted with a “taken” mobile developer, Marc. When we discussed the CloudMine idea, he “loved it, lets talk Monday.” This was like meeting my future spouse at a speed dating event, without actually sitting at their table.

Perhaps it was more like a group date. I had a chance to see Marc in his natural environment coding away like a maniac for 52 hours, full of energy and clearly a [insert overused metaphor for rockstar here]. Marc also saw me dress far nicer than I usually dress. He also saw the awesome business results our team made during the same 52 hours.

Initial screening: passed.

The second and third dates were getting sushi and talking about our idea. Marc broke the news that he was seeing other companies and couldn’t commit to CloudMine…yet. My heart sunk. I spent the next month nervously wondering whether Marc would get stolen away by another local startup as he desperately tried to leave his job at Big Corporate™. I would like to take a second to thank Big Corporate™, because they tried their best to salvage the relationship. This made him ease off the job hunt which was all the time I needed to get into DreamIT and seal the deal with our letter of acceptance. Before I knew it, Marc was saying “us” instead of “you” and the job hunt was off. We were exclusive.

Shortly after, still during the honeymoon phase, I attended a Philly Startup Leaders monthly happy hour, an event that I had missed for the past seven months. Enter the third musketeer, Ilya. Both of us were tired from schmoozing and our interaction went along the lines of: “Hi, I’m a Dev.” “Hi, I’m a Suit.” “Whats your idea?” “CloudMine.” “Wow, I’ve been thinking about something similar already, lets talk more.” Throw in a few more months and some minor persuasion tactics on my part, and Ilya was in.

To those complaining about finding technical co-founders, I have the following advice: complaining is not going to get you anywhere. Instead, embrace your entrepreneurial nature and do something about it. Yes, technical talent is hard to find but it’s out there. Go out to events, talk to people, and best yet — sign up for your local Startup Weekend and see how you work with some of these folks.