The official HUDDLERS.com blog

Finally finished: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, below are the quotes I highlighted …

The reality distortion field was a confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand — Andy Hertzfeld after joining the Macintosh team.

I had learned you had to stand up for what you believe, which Steve respected.  I started getting promoted by him after that. — Debi Coleman, member of the Mac team.

Steve had a way of motivating by looking at the bigger picture — Bill Atkinson member of Mac team.

But even though Jobs’s style could be demoralizing, it could also be oddly inspiring.  It infused Apple employees with an abiding passion to create groundbreaking products and a belief that they could accomplish what seemed impossible.

Jobs said he would provide the money. “I believed in what John was doing,” he later said. “It was art.  He cared, and I cared.  I always said yes.” His only comment at the end of Lasseter’s presentation was, “All I ask of you, John, is to make it great.” — John Lasseter of Pixar prior to funding the Academy Award winning short Tin Toy

Here’s to the crazy one.  The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.  The ones who see things differently.  They’re not fond of rules.  And they have no respect for the status quo.  You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.  About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.  Because they change things.  They push the human race forward.  And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.  Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.  – The famous “Think Different” ad, one that Jobs co-wrote.

One of his motivating passions was to build a lasting company.  At age twelve, when he got a summer job at Hewlett-Packard, he learned that a properly run company could spawn innovation far more than any single creative individual.  ”I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company …”

There are no formal design reviews, so there are no huge decision points.  Instead, we can make the decisions fluid. Since we iterate everyday and never has dumb-ass presentations, we don’t run into major disagreements. — Jonathan Ive

The ideas that come from me and my team would have been completely irrelevant, nowhere, if Steve hadn’t been her to push us, work with us, and drive through all the resistance to turn our ideas into products. — Jonathan Ive

Many companies pride themselves on having few meetings.  Jobs had many: an executive staff session every Monday, a marketing strategy session all Wednesday afternoon, and endless product review sessions.  Still allergic to PowerPoints and formal presentations, he insisted that the people around the table hash out issues from various vantages and the perspectives of different departments.  Because he believed that Apple’s great advantage was its integration of the whole widget – from design to hardware to software to content – he wanted all departments at the company to work together in parallel.  The phrases he used were ‘deep collaboration’ and ‘concurrent engineering’.  Instead of a development process in which a product would be passed sequentially from engineering to design to manufacturing, to marketing and distribution, these various departments collaborated simultaneously.  ”Our method was to develop integrated products, and that meant our process had to be integrated and collaborative.”

“If something isn’t right, you can’t just ignore it and say you’ll fix it later,” he said. “That’s what other companies do.”

“We won because we personally love music.  We made the iPod for ourselves, and when you’re doing something for yourself, or your bet friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out.  If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.”

Instead of encouraging each group to let product lines proliferate based on marketing considerations or permitting a thousand ideas to bloom, Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time.  ”There is no one better a turning off the noise that is going on around him,” Cook said.  ”That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things.  Few people are really good at that.”

Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now.  History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford.  More than anyone else of his time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors.  With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world’s most creative company.  And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities, perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.

“The demise of RIM will be the best thing to happen to the Ontario startup ecosystem because you will have a ton of incredibly talented software engineers disenfranchised with big business wanting to join or found startups.”

The preceding quote was stated by Rick Segal from Fixmo at the Accelerate TO conference in November 2011.  Conceptually, it made a great deal of sense to me, but wasn’t something that truly resonated until a couple weeks ago…

HUDDLERS has been actively looking for a technical co-founder since its first inception almost a year ago.  In our company’s search for the proverbial technical co-founder, I have met some incredible people and phenomenally talented engineers that, despite their interest, are unable to join the HUDDLERS Team.  I have met people through referrals, job postings, events, and throughout my networking efforts in the Ontario tech community.  I have pretty much done everything, gone everywhere, and spoken to everyone possible in an attempt to find the ideal candidate as a co-founder.

A couple weeks ago I met with Michael Litt of Vidyard and explained the company’s predicament.  Litt had an incredibly forward-thinking idea that I just couldn’t turn down. He said that I should “go to the RIM offices – make a sign that you’re looking for technical co-founders – and stand outside their headquarters talking to everyone you possibly can.”  It was a suggestion that, in theory, made sense to me.  In actuality, however, his idea seemed kind of desperate.  It wasn’t until another potential co-founder recently passed on the role at HUDDLERS that I realized that the RIM stunt was something I had to do.  

In a recent blog post, Ben Yoskovitz argued that there is a certain appreciation for the role of the hustler in a tech startup and the hustler is often referenced in this quora post on the ideal startup team.  Engineers who have experienced startup success have a vivid appreciation for this role because they’ve seen the positive impact of a hustler in their previous companies.  Most engineers know their own skills and limitations and consistently tell me, “I want to believe in the vision of the company, and work on making an incredible product that changes the world.  All that other stuff  … is not for me.”  The issue with the role of the Hustler, compared to a designer or engineer, is that the work produced by the Hustler is much less tangible on a day to day basis, which is: get the job done  … and nothing else matters.

While working on HUDDLERS, most people have praised my ability to hustle.  That hustle, in my view, is just hard work, as evidenced by the web app you see today; the development of our mobile prototype; our growing user base; the myriad of positive press the company has received; our potential strategic partnerships (in negotiation); and pool of stakeholders who have helped build the company.  With respect to finding a technical co-founder; however, I have not yet gotten the job done.  That is why I felt I had to go to RIM.

Thanks to our designer and the good people at Kinkos, I headed west on the 401 towards RIM HQ with a slickly made sign and a dangerously potent mix of hubris and nerves.  Throughout the drive, I couldn’t help wonder:  will I actually find a co-founder? Is this a productive use of my time? Will I look like a complete idiot? Will I get arrested?  Who cares?

Upon arriving at RIM HQ with my accomplice Ben Clarke, I headed to the intersection of Phillips and Columbia in which a perfect storm of opportunity presented itself.  Half of the street was under construction forcing an otherwise widespread intersection to converge on the very corner I was standing.  I planted my feet and  put up the sign.

The first few passerby weren’t RIM employees but were Waterloo computer science students.  They looked at the sign, in a somewhat disgusted manner.  I spoke to them about the company, they expressed their interest in the product/vision, and told me they’d sign up (though they likely just wanted to get rid of me).  Although pedestrian traffic was somewhat limited, the cars passing by were mesmerized.  Every car slowed down, and took exaggerated turns to try and uncover exactly what this crazy guys’ sign said.  Franky, I thought there was a chance that I could very well be the cause of a number of car accidents.  I saw some chuckles and heard some honks but, perhaps predictably, no one jumped out of their car telling me they were my long lost co-founder.  The bulk of the pedestrians I spoke to were Waterloo students who snickered and empathized with my situation.  A number of them were even sports fan and have since signed up for our beta.

My most striking interaction occurred when two angry looking RIM employees approached me; the following exchange ensued:

Angry RIM Employee: (“A.R.E.”) So what, you become a millionaire and developers do all the work for you?

Me: Well, my hope we share in the success of the company.

A.R.E.: So, you get 99 percent and your developers split the rest?

Me: As co-founders my aim is to provide a substantial stake in the company so that whoever the co-founders may be can feel as passionate as myself?

A.R.E.: Well … whats your pitch?

Me: HUDDLERS solves …..

A.R.E.: Oh, that actually sounds pretty good.  Good luck.

Note: Though this employee was particularly obtuse, the exchange was indicative of point to point interactions I’ve had when I’ve mentioned I’m trying to find a technical co-founder.  I have found that I am mostly viewed as just another hack on the street trying to take advantage of someone else’s talents for my personal benefit.  It is incredibly difficult to validate yourself and your company on the spot, otherwise one just gets lost in the noise.  For this reason, I recommend that anyone looking for co-founders not aim to do so at networking events or conferences.  As with a potential investor meeting, nothing is more powerful than a referral from a trusted source.

After about 45 minutes shamelessly soliciting outside the RIM HQ, I realized my efforts would not turn into a fruitful endeavour.  I found that people around RIM are still very passionate about the company (or at least so it seemed) and the responses I received were not far off from those given to Bruce Willis at the beginning of Die Hard 3 on his notorious visit to Harlem.  Naturally, one’s job status is an incredibly sensitive subject, and the tension around the HQ was palpable.  I decided to cut my losses, put the sign down, and head back to my car.

I left Waterloo in ostensibly the same position as I arrived; without a business partner.  That’s the tough part about being the hustler in a startup.  Unless you can tangibly show that you can get the job done, your hard work can only be viewed as a learning experience.  It’s your job to make sure though, that people are thinking about your company.  They might love it, and they might hate it, but if they don’t know about it, you’re not hustling.   That might mean putting in more hours than you possibly imagined; attending event after event with incredulous focus; sending that third follow up email; attending meetings when you’re unwanted; and even standing outside of RIM HQ trying to poach employees.  It’s your job to do absolutely everything to move your company forward, under any circumstances … whatever it takes.

The vision of HUDDLERS has always been for users to interact with public sporting venues in ways they have otherwise never been able to do so.  To date, users on our platform have been able to schedule athletic events at venues; interact with fellow athletes by writing on the “board” of a venue; and our users have also had the ability to fan these venues.  Now those fans are coming to life.

This week, we’ll be deploying HUDDLERS notifications.  It seems like a natural development, given the fact that any social platform requires notifications to engage its user base;  and it has always been part of the plan, but is now it will be deployed.  On HUDDLERS you will now receive notifications anytime to you’re invited to an event, someone fan’s your skill (formerly awards); someone writes on your team message board; or someone joins an event you’re participating in.  However there’s one aspect of notifications that I find particularly fascinating.

Now, for every venue that you’ve fanned, you receive a notification anytime a user schedules an event at that venue or writes on the board of that venue.  Conceptually, you could fan the six or seven parks, courts, rinks, and fields around you, wakeup on a weekend morning and notice that you’ve received notifications of events that you would have never been able to discover sitting at home on your couch.  You will then have the ability to go to that event page, select “in” and enjoy playing that sport you love.  Think about it, you are now able to communicate athletically for the first time with public venues such as fields of grass: lines of hardcourt; slabs of concrete, and rinks of ice.  These are venues that had previously been surfaces that you’ve run and sweat on, but never before spoken to you.  Now, on HUDDLERS, they’re joining that conversation.

Our vision is to create engaged local athletic communities.  The most valuable use case we envision is someone logging onto our platform, discovering an athletic event, participating in that event, and creating lasting relationships with people that they would not have otherwise met.  Using our software to enable offline athletic experiences is the future of our company and this is one of many deployments allowing our user base to stay more engaged and active.

The joys we’ve had from these experiences are the reason why we started this company.  We want more people in the world to share this joy between athletes.  So, log on, fan a bunch of venues, schedule your sports, and meet more athletes like us.

Earlier in June I attended the New York Tech Meetup, and an incredible startup Rap Genius presented their web application that generates 8 million unique visitors a month.  They have created an wondeful product and have a loyal and engaged user base.  During their Q&A, someone in the audience asked them “but how do you make money?”  

In Toronto, this seems to be the common question any company is met with after presenting their product.  It is met from the rest of the audience with genuine curiosity, almost as though the credibility of the entrepreneur is judged by their ability to answer such a mundane question.  Strikingly, in New York, the person asking the question is met with a chorus of boo’s.  After the  presentation, I asked a number of attendees why the “booing”, thinking, “isn’t the idea of creating incredible products to make money off them and turn them into sustainable businesses?”

The responses were uniformly insightful.  Firstly, anytime and entrepreneur is presenting their product publicly only creativity and innovation should be celebrated.  One should not be burdened by paraphrasing their seemingly inaccurate cash flow projections to an audience of several hundred people.  Public events such as this meetup or Toronto’s SproutUP should celebrate building beautiful products, and the people that have been working painstakingly hard to earn their right on the stage.

More importantly, asking this question is irrelevant because early stage monetization strategies  (almost) anytime one creates a mobile or web application are phenomenally inaccurate.  It’s not about making money, it’s about creating an  product that people can’t live without.  It is so incredibly difficult to change human behaviour, and have people adopt your technology with unparalleled vigor, even when your technology is so obviously better than the incumbent alternative (as noted by Chris Dixon succinctly eye opening blog post: The Default State of a Startup is Failure).  One has to work so hard, and be so smart to create this product and audience that if by chance you’re one of the few lucky ones you’ll figure out how to make money.  Moreover, business models are a commodity, as explained by Andrew Chen, a company can easily tap into one of many ad networks and payment providers.  A company at its early stage must be focused on improving its product, and fostering its userbase if it aims to become a sustainable business.  Too many people in Toronto don’t appreciate that.

The most alarming aspect of the perspective New York tech compared to Toronto is that often times the New York community is chastised by those in the Valley for focusing too much on early revenue, and not focusing on what matters: creating beautiful and engaging products.   So next time you see an interesting early stage tech company try not to show your naivety by asking how the company would make money, ask about how they’ll make a behaviour changing product.

So, you’re a wide eyed business type with some grand idea for a web or mobile application that’s going to change the world.  You’re smart, motivated, and ready to work your tail off to see your idea through.  There’s one (big) problem: you can’t implement your idea on your own.  Sadly, those years of modeling financial projections and skillfully crafted essays on the nuances (or lake thereof) behind Reagan’s economic policy will not translate into lines of code or beautifully designed PSD files.  What can you possibly do?

Invariably, most, if not all technical people will suggest you “learn to code“.  For some, this may be a sound strategy.  I’m here to suggest it is not.  Simply put, it is not a valuable use of your skills and is a very inefficient use of your most valuable resource: your time.  Any non-technical person attempting to learn to code is left to do so for two reasons:

1) To prove to technical people that they passionate about software development, so much so that they are willing to dedicate hundreds of hours to a totally new craft.  I understand the importance of this gesture, but frankly there are many more ways in which you can show your passionate about this craft, and provide value in doing so.  I should say this, you really should spend at least a day or two trying to learn to code, doing so will give you an appreciation for the logic and the time requirements needed to develop just a feature in your application.  It will allow you to empathize with developers, and will likely make your working relationship a much smoother ride.

2) To prototype your concept as cheaply as possible.  While I get this rationale, in my view, it is also a very inefficient use your time.  In all likelihood whatever prototype you create will be merely another tool to showcase your concept.  There is a very strong possibility that you will need to start from scratch if you’re actually going to fully develop your application.

I truly do think that both of the reasons  are worthwhile, but as a non-technical founder you need to find creative ways to provide as much value as possible to your startup – and learning to code is probably the most inefficient means of doing so.  Which is why you need to: Learn to Execute.

“Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.”  Truer words cannot be spoken.  It’s exceptionally easy to be the guy at the bar with the idea to change the world.  It is phenomenally difficult to be the guy in a garage  actually executing that idea.  When you share your idea with people in your local tech community, they have every right to doubt you’re ability to execute because they know themselves how hard it is to actually do so.  For that very reason, you need to learn to execute so that the product that you ship is as valuable as you had always hoped.

Executing effectively, takes time, and often requires learning the hard way: in the winter of this past year, I tried to have the HUDDLERS product built by a team of student developers and designers.  I envisioned that the product they’d create would be a solid “phase 1″.  Over the course of a couple of months, deadlines were missed, code reviews were skipped, and somehow I naively believed that on the day they intended to deliver the product all the functionality I had hoped for would magically be deployed.  Instead they handed me a marginally functional prototype.  At the time I was obviously rather upset with their inability to deliver, but in retrospect it was my own inability (from a project management perspective) to enable them to succeed that doomed their development.  Accordingly, I needed to learn how to execute the complete development and design of a web application.  The following are a number of key insights in learning to execute:

1. Learn Project Management:

In my last year of law school I participated in the Queen’s University TEAM program, in which myself and another group of students (engineering and business) were tasked with devising a logistical, marketing, and funding plan for the development of a large scale solar energy initiative in Toronto.  To prepare for the project we were mandated to read Project Management for Dummies.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the principles in that book, and the lessons learned on that project provided me with invaluable execution experience such as setting out specs, scheduling the development of work; adhering to that schedule; identifying key deliverables, and presenting our work were all vital aspects of the execution in developing a mobile or web application.  More importantly, these are all key skills that can be learned quickly if you’re bright and a sponge for information.  The book, Making Things Happen, a book specific to software project management is perhaps the most insightful thing any non-technical founder can read in his/her quest to implement their idea.  The best part about project management — it’s in a language you understand (as opposed to Python), if you’re ability to articulate thoughts and convey key messages that level of communication is a skillset you likely have, and a great opportunity for you to provide value.

2. Wireframe and Understand User Interface Design

If you’re product doesn’t look hot, it sucks.  The tough thing is that you can’t say to a designer (or at least the designer that you can afford) – “make it look hot”.  You need to be incredibly specific with how you’d like design implemented.  This begins with wireframes.  A super easy, and quick tool for wireframing is Balsamiq  - it provides ready made icons and buttons that allow you to sketch your application in a quick and productive manner.  Next, get on Dribbble!!!!  I like to spend about 30 minutes a week browsing Dribbble for current trends and beautiful UI design work.  The work on Dribbble will inspire creativity and idea for the design of your product that you likely would be unable to come up with on your own.  Best of all, you can point directly to someone else’s work, and say to your designer: “this is how that navigation bar should look”.  Being able to identify good design, and aiming to replicate that in your own product is another place in which you can provide value.  Design for Hackers is a great book to provide you with the principles of User Interface design.