Speaking of the business
Andys and I went to a presentation last night about seeking angel funds. It was at MIT's Kresge Auditorim, and there was a 90-minute networking session scheduled in front of it. This was supposed to be in a big tent set up outside, but heavy rain moved it into the lobby, which therefore ended up packed with hundreds of people for the duration.
Ironically this made it kind of hard to start any conversations. Not counting meeting up with our friend J, I had only three: greeting a fellow I had met at last week's startup clinic, talking to some random friendly guy who was just there because he liked to talk to entrepreneurs, and then again with another guy trying to launch a company around a single board game. Well, you can imagine what my reaction to that was. Gave him a meaty follow-up pitch via email this morning... might follow up some more with a call later if I don't hear back.
Call it a practice run for Origins.
The presentation was pretty good, even a little entertaining. Had some lively moments. No major insights, but a enough take-aways to fill the backs of three of my new business cards (coz I neglected to bring a notebook).
Then the four of us retired to the Cambridge Common for beer and meat and nurdy chatter. Came home and went bed before 1, so exhausted was I.
At some point before all of this I managed to call slacker guy, and left voice mail. daerr correctly sez I gotta try earlier in the day. I hate it so much though... bleah.
You may have noticed that in my networking stories so far I have spoken only to men. It's happened to come out that way, even though there are always women at these events (though they always make up significantly less than half the crowd). I was just now thinking about how I felt an odd instant of repulsion every time I saw a lady entrepreneur walk past yesterday, just long enough for me to let her go. Why was this?
My first insight is that I instinctively wanted to avoid feeling like I was hitting on anyone! Even now that I'm thinking it through I have to admit it seems a little skeevy: sidling up, drink in hand, to one of these women, and while looming down with a big grin (for I am most likely gonna be several inches taller) saying "So tell me what you do, over there in, uh," at which point I overtly eye her chest in order to read the name and company off her tag.
I know it's foolish, though its heart be in the right place. I will attend my next networking session with this new bit of self-knowledge, and see what might happen differently. Surely I can find a way to act that creeps out neither party.
(It probably doesn't help that the presentation's panelists, men and women both, really liked to compare the entrepreneur/capital relationship to dating and marriage.)
Got up around 8am today (a feat I'll have to repeat tomorrow, except moreso) and spent the morning writing various businessy email and the afternoon and evening working on our store. This is the bit that will sell the inventory of partners' games that we have, all the Fluxx decks and such. Collected some good advice from friend and fellow entrepreneur Mr. Jivjiv and set up a merchant account with PayPal because it's very easy to do so. They accept lots of payment types, and their basic service has no setup, cancellation, or recurring fees. The commissions they extract from purchases is moderately high, but I think it's still a great place to start, and we can switch to something better when we find it.
It's not online yet... will be going up alongside all the other new webstuff I've been doodling with over the last couple of weeks as soon as someone else manages some bugfixes. (I've been saying that one a lot, haven't I. I'll press the issue over the weekend and will see what happens.)
Tomorrow meeting at the office at 8 and moving on to a local VC outfit to meet with VC guy. I'd be asleep now but I'm waiting for daerr to stop putting out other people's fires at his job so he can help me fix the damn projection spreadsheet that I messed up last month argh.
The presentation on Wednesday made me even more skeptical about the utility of this meeting, since I'm fairly positive that we don't want to come near any VC money and all the strings usually attached to it, just as I'm sure that we're asking far too little for any VC to think we're worth their time. But our asking figure was right there in the summary I mailed him. Assuming that he actually read it, maybe he has something else in mind? Well, we'll see very soon. Wish us the best!
Ironically this made it kind of hard to start any conversations. Not counting meeting up with our friend J, I had only three: greeting a fellow I had met at last week's startup clinic, talking to some random friendly guy who was just there because he liked to talk to entrepreneurs, and then again with another guy trying to launch a company around a single board game. Well, you can imagine what my reaction to that was. Gave him a meaty follow-up pitch via email this morning... might follow up some more with a call later if I don't hear back.
Call it a practice run for Origins.
The presentation was pretty good, even a little entertaining. Had some lively moments. No major insights, but a enough take-aways to fill the backs of three of my new business cards (coz I neglected to bring a notebook).
Then the four of us retired to the Cambridge Common for beer and meat and nurdy chatter. Came home and went bed before 1, so exhausted was I.
At some point before all of this I managed to call slacker guy, and left voice mail. daerr correctly sez I gotta try earlier in the day. I hate it so much though... bleah.
You may have noticed that in my networking stories so far I have spoken only to men. It's happened to come out that way, even though there are always women at these events (though they always make up significantly less than half the crowd). I was just now thinking about how I felt an odd instant of repulsion every time I saw a lady entrepreneur walk past yesterday, just long enough for me to let her go. Why was this?
My first insight is that I instinctively wanted to avoid feeling like I was hitting on anyone! Even now that I'm thinking it through I have to admit it seems a little skeevy: sidling up, drink in hand, to one of these women, and while looming down with a big grin (for I am most likely gonna be several inches taller) saying "So tell me what you do, over there in, uh," at which point I overtly eye her chest in order to read the name and company off her tag.
I know it's foolish, though its heart be in the right place. I will attend my next networking session with this new bit of self-knowledge, and see what might happen differently. Surely I can find a way to act that creeps out neither party.
(It probably doesn't help that the presentation's panelists, men and women both, really liked to compare the entrepreneur/capital relationship to dating and marriage.)
Got up around 8am today (a feat I'll have to repeat tomorrow, except moreso) and spent the morning writing various businessy email and the afternoon and evening working on our store. This is the bit that will sell the inventory of partners' games that we have, all the Fluxx decks and such. Collected some good advice from friend and fellow entrepreneur Mr. Jivjiv and set up a merchant account with PayPal because it's very easy to do so. They accept lots of payment types, and their basic service has no setup, cancellation, or recurring fees. The commissions they extract from purchases is moderately high, but I think it's still a great place to start, and we can switch to something better when we find it.
It's not online yet... will be going up alongside all the other new webstuff I've been doodling with over the last couple of weeks as soon as someone else manages some bugfixes. (I've been saying that one a lot, haven't I. I'll press the issue over the weekend and will see what happens.)
Tomorrow meeting at the office at 8 and moving on to a local VC outfit to meet with VC guy. I'd be asleep now but I'm waiting for daerr to stop putting out other people's fires at his job so he can help me fix the damn projection spreadsheet that I messed up last month argh.
The presentation on Wednesday made me even more skeptical about the utility of this meeting, since I'm fairly positive that we don't want to come near any VC money and all the strings usually attached to it, just as I'm sure that we're asking far too little for any VC to think we're worth their time. But our asking figure was right there in the summary I mailed him. Assuming that he actually read it, maybe he has something else in mind? Well, we'll see very soon. Wish us the best!