the snagsta blog

We chalked up a major milestone this week and replaced our blackboard pre-alpha site with the real thing. Chalk you can rub out but now we’re committed. We’ve only given access to a handful of people so far - we want to spend a week or two tarting ourselves up first. Because you’re worth it.

The other really exciting news is that we were selected ahead of several startups across Europe to present at Mike Butcher’s inaugural TechCrunch Pitch event last night. The event was hosted in St Anne’s Church in Soho - a misleadingly peaceful venue considering the somewhat hostile audience that included the likes of Doug Richard (ex Dragon’s Den) cast in the Simon Cowell role, London’s top VC’s (DFJ Esprit, Atlas Ventures, Balderton Capital, etc) and some other interesting people like the co-founder of Bebo, Paul Birch (who has incidentally shared his list of favourite business books with Snagsta).

Alex M and I met some really cool entrepreneurs and investors. It was a great night despite the fact that we didn’t win Mr. Butcher’s contest. That honour went to Raphael Arbuz’s fun site: WhatZatSong.

Jan Andresen from weblin, who travelled all the way from Hamburg, stood his ground impressively despite the roasting Doug gave him.

Evgeny Shadchnev has started a great community site for scientists called Kappa Prime.

We met Jay Adair whose business connects his two great passions: photography and motorbikes.

And also Alfie Dennen from moblog, an awesome site that puts mobile video & photos on the web in one easy step, who managed to capture our presentation (be warned the phone video is a little jumpy - but then so was I!).

Today’s list comes from Mike. Concerned by the fact that some start-ups struggle to get their point across, he set up this event to strip things back to basics and get startups to answer the following fundamental questions in just 10 slides (and only 5 minutes!):

1. Problem: what is the market pain, size and how are you measuring it?
   
2. Your solution: You have opportunity to be “the Google/eBay/Skype/iPhone etc of what”?
   
3. Business model (and potential for revenues)
   
4. Underlying magic: Technology / What you are trying to build: how much and for how long?
   
5. Marketing and sales: How will you get distribution?
   
6. Market: Drivers & dynamics / Your positioning and sustainable advantages
   
7. Competition
   
8. Team
   
9. Milestones so far and projections
   
10. Funding requirement & potential exit routes

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The sun doesn’t always shine here in old London town but when it does, this city sparkles. Today is one of those days.

Spending summer in this place certainly has its advantages. The biggest problem for me is choosing where to go and what to do and with the limited amount of spare time I have right now.

Before I had Snagsta to play with, finding new things to do in London was always a bit of a hit or miss affair. I might read something in the Evening Standard or pick up Time Out Magazine but most of the time I’d rely on a recommendation from a friend or take a peak online and roll the dice.

Search engines are a great place to research things but only if you know what you are looking for.

A search for “good London restaurants” on Google for example, will return an impressive but baffling 963,000 results: that’s several hundred thousand different opinions from people you may, or may not agree with.

Review sites can also be equally frustrating to use as they often contain conflicting opinions. Trip Advisor often delivers vastly different opinions on the same hotel.

A bloke named Win Wenders once said, “The more opinions you have, the less you see”. I couldn’t agree with him more.

Now that Snagsta’s database is filling up with great lists, it’s much easier to discover new things via recommendations from friends and like-minded people.

I just searched for London pubs on Snagsta and the following list from friend and pub aficionado Andrew Rogoff magically appeared.

I now have some new places to check out on my way home tonight where I can enjoy some early evening summer sunshine and perhaps one or two beers. Oh happy day!

My favourite drinking spots in London

By Andrew Rogoff

1. The Lansdowne

This pub in Primrose Hill is laid back, unpretentious and attracts quite a cool crowd. The food’s nothing amazing but I’ll let it off.

2. The Ebury

This bar is just about the only decent place in Pimlico (where I live) so I absolutely love it for that reason.

3. The Mitre

Holland Park Avenue - if you’re sick of poky little pubs where you’re constantly jostled by other punters then this place is big enough to swing your elbows (unless it’s packed of course).

4. Builders Arms

Little pub off the King’s Road that has a good atmosphere and does pretty good food. Watch out for the toffs though.

5. Windsor Castle

Notting Hill. This is a great place to be on a hot summer’s night in London. The trouble is, too many people know that!

6. Troubadour

Earl’s Court. Very atmospheric live music venue with a great history.

7. The Engineer

Primrose Hill. Another great spot in Primrose Hill. The only thing is that the bar area is quite small. Great if you want to eat.

8. The Endurance

Probably the best pub in Soho.

9. Pigs Ear

Old Church Street, SW3. There’s something about this place that I really like - just can’t put my finger on it. Does great food too.

10. The Abingdon

Off High St Kensington. Great bar/restaurant - nice big sofa and excellent food.

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We launched our private alpha (geek-speak for test site) yesterday so the mood under the arches is buoyant to say the least! Well, it was buoyant until we reviewed our bug register… 170 and growing! But all the major functionality is working well so we’re pretty amped!

I need to get back to squishing those pests so will hand you over to someone a lot smarter than me (not easy to find that sort of person I hear you say). Today’s list comes from the tail end of a recent interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb in the Sunday Times. And I can proudly say I have permission from Taleb to publish his words of wisdom. To give things a slightly different spin this week I have tried to add a comment beneath each of his tips that reflects its relevance to entrepreneurs and start-ups. When I couldn’t think of any, I have done something completely different and made sarcastic comments at the expense of myself and those around me.

1. Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.

I think scepticism is one of driving motivations behind many entrepreneurs: a healthy scepticism for existing products and people’s predictions invokes the ‘challenger’ mindset. I have honed my scepticism on the small & aesthetic for long enough now…

2. Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.

HOW can you possibly fault a man who holds amongst his top 10 tips: ‘GO TO PARTIES’

3. It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.

There is ONE exception to this rule. Never tease a Venture Capitalist. Regardless of the size of his tie. Buy him a drink, complement his colour-co-ordinated cufflinks, but never tease him.

4. Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act — if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.

Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) once said: ‘If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” And so it is with Snagsta. When the time comes we’ll be wearing our best but at first ‘site’ it may appear as if we got dressed in a bit of a hurry… tucking in our shirt on the way out the door. Kind of my ’style’ I suppose, given I was once described as looking like an ‘unmade bed’…

5. Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’.

I didn’t understand that but I am sure it’s deep.

6. Learn to fail with pride — and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and error — by mastering the error part.

There is an interesting debate on the correlation between success and past failure. In my industry the US is very pro-failure, whereas Europe is far more risk-adverse. Statistics suggest there is no correlation but I have hedged my bets by establishing a long track record of failure…

7. Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words ‘impossible’, ‘never’, ‘too difficult’ too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never take ‘no’ for an answer (conversely, take most ‘yeses’ as ‘most probably’).

Bit late for this advice given I am now inextricably linked to Alex M… he’s not really a loser but has exceptionally dodgy taste in music.

8. Don’t read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course, profiles of authors). The best filter to know if the news matters is if you hear it in cafes, restaurants… or (again) parties.

I’ve talked about this before. Ironically this list came from the business section of The Times… a Black Swan perhaps?

9. Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

The central theme in Taleb’s book (Black Swan): success has a lot to do with luck. Do whatever you can to put yourself in its way. Luck is less likely to visit you in your bedroom while you’re watching dvds…

10. Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.

Given his instantaneous reply to my mail I know exactly how junior Taleb thinks I am. To those of you that I haven’t written back to recently… it’s because you’re so important.

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I attended NESTA’s Innovation Edge conference this week. Despite the title apparently the only thing jaw-dropping about it was Gordon Brown (who was doing that thing with his chin so quickly even Rory Bremner would have been impressed).

As with all such events it’s a bit hit & miss and one has to make a cost-benefit call. Can an entrepreneur trying to launch his site afford to spend the day nodding sagely in agreement with keynote speakers, nancying around making small talk and drinking lukewarm coffee? Well, the answer is ‘sort of’. At my decisive best I elected to attend the more targeted afternoon sessions and so unfortunately missed Gordon Brown, Bob Geldof & Tim Berners-Lee. But I have it on good authority from the effervescent Meriem Aissaoui from Smarta that they were in fine form.

By the way, Smarta is a fantastic business resource and social networking site for entrepreneurs and small businesses that launches officially in November.

The first seminar I attended was called ‘Are online social networks the new cities?’ Unfortunately the topic was too high level to get the crux of matters the same way blog conversations do but at least it was fairly entertaining. Here’s an extract of the dialogue between the facilitator and Michael Birch (founder of Bebo):

Facilitator: So Michael – why did you move to San Francisco? Was it Silicon Valley?
Michael Birch: Because of my wife - she’s from San Francisco. There just happened to be a small thriving internet community there too.
Facilitator: Lucky she wasn’t in Utah. That would have been interesting.
Michael Birch: Probably not that interesting.

The second seminar, ‘Entrepreneurs v Investors: Can the relationship ever really work?’, was better. Saul Klein (The Accelerator Group) highlighted honesty, self-awareness and the ability to face issues sooner rather than later as critical ingredients for an effective relationship and Jon Moulton (Alchemy) provided a list of habits that help you spot Bad Managers & Entrepreneurs that I have paraphrased below:

1. They don’t know the numbers, don’t care about them
2. They don’t have any customer interaction
3. They are often arrogant and dismiss questions from their staff
4. They are little too focused on the material things (talk about pay & bonus schemes in the first meeting)
5. They don’t have a TO DO list – no signs of structured organisational skills
6. They don’t visit their businesses
7. They make stupid acquisitions (double or quits)
8. They isolate themselves
9. They work 9 to 5 – lacking passion for their business

Investors – if you’re reading this – it’s midnight and I’m still in the office testing the site. This post only took a few minutes. PS: did you get my email about a payrise?

Another interesting point from Jon was that good presenters aren’t necessarily good managers, but people always make this assumption. But on the contrary: good managers are very often good presenters.

The lesson I draw from this is: if you know you’re a crap manager take a course in presentation skills.

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Okay, this Twitter post (a ‘tweet’ in geek-speak) is a silly example but it illustrates a much less trivial point. With all the clutter on the web people are increasingly turning towards recommendations to help with their decisions. It saves time and the results are a lot more reliable (well… Paul may beg to differ!).

But the process of acquiring these recommendations, as you’ll see from the following examples, can be quite inefficient. You might email a friend who then has to spend 10 minutes digging through old emails to find the one on ‘Tips for Vietnam’. Worse still if you post a question on Facebook, A Small World or LinkedIn you could have several people chasing around for suggestions for you. Great for you maybe, but it results in a lot of duplication of effort. And it can also be rather hit & miss depending on who’s online at the time or, if you’re using Stumble Upon, depending on when you’re online.

The chaps at RecommendBox have a better and more structured way of looking at this problem. You select who you want to receive recommendations from or send recommendations to. It eliminates the duplication mentioned above but is still a fairly intervention-heavy manual approach.

Snagsta is creating a platform that hopefully solves many of these problems and automates the process. If (and we know it’s a big if!) we build huge database of interesting individual lists then finding things within the lists of friends and like-minded people can be done without interrupting them.

I took the time to consider Paul’s dilemma and ultimately recommended he wear a tasteful leopard-skin thong. But in a few months time, all Paul will have to do is slide over to Snagsta and snag something from this list we recently received:

Underwear with a message for all moods and occasions

1. Bridget Jones’s Granny Pants – sends a strong message and that message is ‘Here. But no further.’

2. Edible – need i say more

3. Boxers – bit of a tomboy

4. Commando – doesn’t leave much for the imagination but is at least unambiguous

5. Leopard-skin thong – hopefully they’re changed more often than the wearer’s spots

6. Y-Fronts – hang on! This is supposed to be a girl’s list…

7. Satin – that’s better

8. Lace – femininity with a touch of class

9. Crotchless – come hither

By the way, Paul Walsh is one of my favourite bloggers. For all things internet from someone who ’speaks his mind and then some’ check out his blog.

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You may have read Alex M’s list in his post last week - you probably wouldn’t remember it though, even I nodded off while reading it. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s exactly why we’re hoping Snagsta will do well. One man’s delight is another man’s anathma.

So where am I going with this? Sure we’re a site that’s full of lists. And people love lists. Especially Americans according to videoblogger Kirby Ferguson (check out this amusing clip: Americans love lists). In truth though, we’re more of a ‘find’ engine. And here’s why:

1. You’ll be able to dip straight into lists created by your friends. People who you trust and whose passions you understand.

2. More interestingly, by comparing people’s lists and tastes we’ll be able to indentify like-minded people and send them suggestions from each other’s lists.

3. And we won’t send you lists from people you have nothing in common with.

4. It’s going to be interesting to see how good at this we are.

5. Alex M is the last person I’d want as the DJ at my party or advising me on men’s fashion but if I needed advice on buying a mountain bike or how to prepare for a trip to the North Pole then he’s the man I’d want behind me. Well, perhaps just to the side…

6. But if the Snagsta engine suggests a selection of Kylie Minogue tracks or a variety of Bill Cosby sweaters from Alex M’s lists then I know we’re in big trouble.

7. Then it’s time to roll up our sleeves again. Not like the old days when all I’d roll was my eyes… along with a non-committal “Sorry. This is not my thing, I work in the Marketing Department”.

8. But if our theory works, if you’re still reading this list you’re probably my mom.

Happy Easter!

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Hunter Strategic Solutions via kwout

Okay - maybe they didn’t invest 150 million in Snagsta but I did convince one of the members of the Atomico team (European VC Group) to buy me a mineral water for 150 pence at last week’s Second Chance Tuesday event. We joked that it might not be the last time they put their hands in their pockets for us. The Early Stage Funding Workshop we attended was fantastic. One of the messages that came back from Simon Murdoch (and echoed by the rest of the panel) was: “Don’t raise money!”. For most of us unfortunately that’s not possible (despite the fact that according to Paul Graham setting up a start-up is cheaper and easier than ever before). So as we give away equity in exchange for cash we have to think very carefully about our partners - choosing people (if you have the luxury of choice) whose involvement will add value but not muzzle your creativity. We’ve been very lucky so far (thank you seed investors!). This extends to board members and advisors too. Finding wizened, battle-scarred advisors can really help you avoid mistakes, see things you may have missed, and keep your eye on the ball. Mentors that won’t provide you with all answers, but rather challenge you in ways that’ll help you find them on your own.

There’s a joke my dad likes to tell about board members. It goes something like this: What’s the difference between a non-executive board member and a supermarket trolley? A trolley has a mind of its own and you can get more food and drink into a non-executive.

But it’s a serious subject so I’d like to wind up with a great post on this topic from one of my favourite blogs - “Musings of a VC in NYC” by Fred Wilson.

Thoughts On Choosing Board Members

I am a professional board member. I’ve been sitting on boards for almost 20 years and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen some of the best board members in action and have tried to copy them. I’ve seen some of the worst board members in action and have tried hard to forget them.

Here are some thoughts on choosing board members. This advice is for everyone, but it’s of particular use when you are a bigger company, maybe public, and need to fill your board with good people.

1. Avoid “big names” For the most part, they are useless.
2. Select people who will attend each and every meeting, who will pay close attention to the business
3. Select people who have an affinity for your business, who understand your challenges and your opportunities
4. Avoid putting someone you can control on your board. In tough situations they will have a fiduciary duty to do what’s right and you won’t be able to control them when it matters most to you.
5. Don’t let conflicts get in the way of selecting the ideal board member. Conflicts will be disclosed and can be managed. Many times the people who will understand your business best are conflicted in some way. There are ways to deal with this problem.
6. Make sure to have an experienced accountant/auditor on your board and have them run the audit committee. That is no place for amateurs.
7. Make sure to have at least two or three CEOs of comparable companies on your board. Make sure they are on the comp committee. Compensation issues are best handled by people who understand the talent market.
8. Select people who have the time to do the job right. Being a board member is a job. It’s not a retirement perk. If someone cannot commit to attend each and every meeting and to spend at least several hours a week on your company, they are not the right choice.
9. Select people who will get along with each other. The very best boards I am on are friendly social active groups. Serious business doesn’t have to be stilted and formal. It can and should be fun.
10. Above all else, look for great judgment and ethics.

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A long, long time ago bookshops had tiny little shelves with about 5 books on them (Waterstones). The shop assistant either told you what to buy (marketing) or what everyone else was buying (crowd psychology). Some bestsellers became bigger bestsellers simply on the basis of ‘herd mentality’. Along came the digital marketplace (internet) and stuffed another 500 books onto the shelf (Amazon). All of a sudden we had unlimited choice (the Long Tail) and choosing a book started to take forever (especially if you’re me!). ‘Marketing’ & ‘crowd psychology’ became decidedly average selection tools. Fortunately in wandered Web 2.0 with Wikinomics (user generated content & mass collaboration) closely followed by social networking. And suddenly we had the perfect platform to leverage the Wisdom of Crowds. But not the herd-type crowd of days gone by. Rather, a diverse collection of independently-deciding individuals (Facebook friends!?).

Snagsta [enter stage left] wants to use this platform and your networks to help you find things and make decisions without having to trouble people directly with questions. If we can make Snagsta remarkable (Purple Cow) you are more likely to tell your friends about it (The Tipping Point). But just in case the Tipping Point is toast we’ve got a couple of other tricks up our sleeves because you never quite know where your luck is going to come from (The Black Swan).

Now… about choosing that book…

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - Chris Anderson
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few - James Surowiecki
Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion - N. Goldstein, S. Martin & R. Cialdini
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything – Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable - Seth Godin

Too much of this stuff can make you start to take yourself a little too seriously, so to remind you that we’re really just children at heart, buy this book:

The Eye of the Moon - Dianne Hofmeyr
(how about that mom!)