Monthly Archives: July 2014

San Diego Startup Events July Wrap-Up

San Diego Startup Events July From The Startup Garage

San Diego Startup Events July Wrap-Up

CyberTech & CyberHive — IoT Pitch Night

Monthly

Free monthly event hosted by CyberHive, an incubator and shared working space dedicated to cyber security and high tech companies — this “pitchfest” gave 7 different companies the floor to present for 3 minutes (and not a second longer) in front of a panel of judges and other like-minded individuals.

It was an interesting range of companies pitching from a variety of disciplines including: Cybersecurity, Internet of Things, Big Data, Analytics, sustainable technology, software and apps. Afterwards the judges and the audience gave valuable, and constructive feedback and awarded the top 3 companies with prizes as well as a free trial using their shared office.

My personal favorite was Cause Based Solutions (3rd place), which has created a debit card system that nonprofit organizations can offer to the supporters. Basically it rounds up every purchase consumers make to the nearest dollar and donates the difference back to the non-profit.

1Million Cups at Co-Merge

Weekly

This hour long, weekly event hosted at Co-Merge, the co-working space in downtown San Diego, offers 2 entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their company for 6 minutes, followed by a 20 minute feedback and a Q& A session.

Before starting it is emphasized that the forum is not intended as a chance to seek investment, but instead as a way to practice their delivery/ pitch and gather feedback from the startup community, so they are better prepared when an investment opportunity occurs in the future.

During this event in particular Price Patrol, one of The Startup Garage’s clients, presented their sample pitch that they intended to use for angel investment. The slogan was “what you want at the price you want.”

They are developing an app that will allow consumers the ability to find out where specific products are available at the most affordable price in their local region. With the app, consumers will also be able to reserve items so that they are available once they arrive at the brick and mortar storefront, as well as receive notifications when the products reach a certain price point that they set up beforehand.

3D Printing Meetup @ FabLabSd

Monthly

This is a must-attend, monthly event for forward thinkers. Perfect for those with experience in the new 3D printing field and anyone who just wants to learn more.

Much to my surprise, San Diego is actually one of the leading areas for 3D printing startups. Allen McAffee, the event organizer, created the event in an open forum style, allowing everyone to mingle and network.

It was an eye-opener to learn about how 3D printing can be used as a means of social entrepreneurship. McAffee is currently involved in a project to create prosthetic limbs for kids — with production costs of less than $20 and the ability to print each one in 5-10 hours.

Marketing Mondays @ EvoNexus

Bi-Weekly

Hosted by 2 marketing experts with several decades of experience, Randy Gerson and Chris d’Eon, these bi-weekly meetups at the EvoNexus Incubator office in downtown are the perfect event for anyone looking to advance their knowledge in the ever-changing digital marketing world, discuss strategies with other industry professionals and make connections before and after the event. (The free pizza/ refreshments are a nice perk too)

The discussion turned to finding leads, giving me an overview of tools out there that can be used to gather potential client information. As unsettling as it seems that most of our personal information is readily available to those with enough energy or cash to gather it through the internet, the fact of the matter is that it’s there, it’s not going away anytime soon, and you can either ignore it or use it to your advantage.

Obrary Launch Event @ PreFabSD

Hosted at PreFabSD, a co-working space for creatives and designers in non-tech industries, Obrary (A play on words of “Object” and “Library”) introduced some of their newest products that they have a kickstarter campaign for. Many of the products they introduced were modified using high-powered laser cutters that allows a single piece of plywood to be bent into a box.

Their long-term strategy is to become an open marketplace for product collaboration. What this means is that members will be able to use design files from their database, tweak them for their own preference, then submit the modified design back into the database for others to use.

This “outside the box” approach seems to have unlimited potential in regards for what it can be applied to and it puts the power of design into the consumers hands.

Overall, the month of July offered a variety of Startup events well worth attending.

The Startup Summer scene in San Diego is just heating up. If you have an event you’d like for us to attend or spread the word on please Tweet us @Startup_garage

Where to find market, industry and competitive analysis?

Competitive research from The Starup Garage

Where to find market, industry and competitive analysis?

Welcome to video Fridays
from The Start Up Garage


A place where Tyler Jensen, The Startup Garage’s founder, answers questions directly from viewers

Key Take Aways From Video:

1) One of the first places I start with is industry associations or trade associations for that particular industry that you’re going to be in.

2) Google search — really getting into google and searching for the data that you’re looking for is a great place to start, especially on the competitive analysis because your competitors are going to be online most likely, or they’re probably not a competitor.

3) The library has access to a lot of databases. These databases cost a lot of money, but if you go through your library you can get free access to them.

4) Build a team of advisors These are probably the best resource.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

7 Notable Investor Insights of the Month

7 Investor Insights of the Month from The Startup Garage

7 Notable Investor Insights of the Month

Straight from the investors mouth.

7 top insights from investors around the globe.

1. Marc Andreessen @pmarca
Twitter Investor

“The biggest misconception 1st time founders have is that they will always stay aligned with their the co-founders.”

 
2. Reid Hoffman @reidhoffman
Facebook Investor

“We’ve moved from the information age to the networked age. Are you network literate?”

 
3. Josh Kopelman @firstround
LinkedIn Investor

“Being a VC is like watching a car accident.”

 
4. Todd Chaffe @toddchaffee
Dropbox Investor

“Investing in high growth stocks both in private and public markets is a challenging game, just like hockey.”

 
5. Theresia Gouw @Tgr
Trulia Investor

“Diversity is more than gender and ethnicity. It’s about diversity of thoughts.”

 
6. Marc Cuban @Mcuban
Sharktank Investor

“Anything you text can & will be used against you.”

 
7. Jim Goetz @Jimgoetz
Whatsapp Investor

“We’re confident WhatsApp will flourish Facebook just like Instagram. On their way to a billion active users and just getting started.”

 
 

Whether you have a question about you investing or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

What Type of Funding is Best for My Company?

What type of funding is best for my company? From The Startup Garage

What Type of Funding is Best for My Company?

Welcome to video Fridays
from The Start Up Garage


A place where Tyler Jensen, The Startup Garage’s founder, answers questions directly from viewers

Key Take Aways From Video:

1) There are really three main sources of funding, and to determine which source is right for you, you need to know what stage your company is in and how much money you need.

2) Those 3 main sources for funding are:
– Friends, Family, and Founders
– Angel Investors
– Venture Capitalists

3) Generally family, friends, and founders are the first one and they invest anywhere from $25,000-$250,000 and they do it right as the idea is getting started.

4) Angel investors typically invest $250,000 – $1,000,000 and they want to invest after you got a business plan going, a team, maybe you’ve got a prototype developed.
They want to see some traction with your business.

5) The last stage is a Venture Capitalist. It’s also called a Series A. Then you could have Series B, C, and so on.

Complete Transcript below:

Question= “What type of funding is best for my startup?”

Tyler Jensen: Yes, this is a very common question that we get all the time, and it can be totally overwhelming and there’s all this information out and it’s really hard to get through all the details of it, so I’m going to try and simplify it in the answer. There’s really three main sources of funding, and to determine which source is right for you, you need to know what stage your company is in and how much money you need. Those 3 main sources for funding are:

1. Friends, Family, and Founders

2. Angel Investors

3. Venture Capitalists

And they go in that order to determine your stage. Generally family, friends, and founders are the first one and they invest anywhere from $25,000-$250,000 and they do it right as the idea is getting started. The next one is angel investors and they typically invest $250,000 – $1,000,000 and they want to invest after you got a business plan going, a team, maybe you’ve got a prototype developed — They want to see some traction with your business. The last stage is a Venture Capitalist. It’s also called a Series A. Then you could have Series B, C, and so on. That comes along once you’ve taken that angel money and really gotten some customer traction and you’ve proved your model, you’ve proved your metrics, then the Venture Capitalists come in and that money’s really used to scale out, whether that be nationally or internationally it’s really for a large scale plan.

Nicole: If you have a question, feel free to post it below and we’ll see you next Friday.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

How To Determine Potential Startup Costs?

How to Determine Startup Costs? From The Startup Garage

How To Determine Potential Startup Costs?

Startup expenses are the costs incurred before the business opens its doors.

Many first time entrepreneurs underestimate the amount of startup expenses that it will take to launch their business.

Before you start making your first expenses, it is important to create a plan of your initial financing so that you know exactly what it will cost.

When creating your startup expense plan, it is important to understand the different types of costs your startup will incur: expenses and assets.

Expenses are the costs that occur during the startup phase for operations, such as travel, rent, supplies, marketing materials, legal fees, and business incorporation fees.

Assets, also referred to as capital expenditures are one-time costs of buying assets such as inventory, property, or equipment.

Determine Your Startup Costs

To estimate your startup costs, start by brainstorming all of the various expenses and assets that your company will phase before you begin selling to customers.  Next begin to assign actual costs.  You may need to do some searching online, call service providers, and reach out to professionals.  Some of the most common expenses and assets include:

–        Legal

–        Collateral (sales and marketing literature)

–        Inventory

–        Consultants

–        Accounting

–        Rent and deposits

–        Research and development

–        Assets (leasehold improvements, fixtures, signage)

–        Long-term or fixed assets (land, plant, equipment, furniture)

–        Website or app development

Timing is Everything

Remember, your startup costs are incurred before you generate any income from the business.  Be sure to develop a budget for all of your startup costs as well as some additional funding as most businesses are not profitable for some time.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

What’s the Biggest Challenge For New Entrepreneurs?

What's the Biggest Challenge For New Entrepreneurs? from The Startup Garage

What’s the Biggest Challenge For New Entrepreneurs?

Welcome to video Fridays
from The Start Up Garage


A place where Tyler Jensen, The Startup Garage’s founder, answers questions directly from viewers

Key Take Aways From Video:

1. The biggest obstacle that new entrepreneurs tend to face is really overcoming their personal limitations.

2. As a new entrepreneur you need to be coachable, which means you need to be able to listen to other peoples viewpoints and opinions and consider them seriously.

3. Be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses.

4. Surround yourself with people who compliment your weaknesses.

Complete Transcript below:

Question= “What’s the biggest obstacle that new entrepreneurs tend to face?”

Tyler Jensen: The biggest obstacle that new entrepreneurs tend to face is really overcoming their personal limitations. In order to be successful new entrepreneurs really need to learn a whole bunch of new knowledge, they have to learn new leadership skills, and communication skills.

Nicole Morris: So what would you say are some kind of tips for overcoming these?

Tyler Jensen: I would recommend number one is that you really need to be coachable, which means you need to be able to listen to other peoples viewpoints and opinions and consider them seriously. You also need to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses. You don’t want to overestimate or underestimate your abilities. I see this all the time — you just need to get real about it. And thirdly which compliments this with, you need to surround yourself with people who compliment your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid to not know everything and not be able to do everything. No one person is good at all the parts of running a successful startup.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

HBO Show Silicon Valley Shines The Spotlight on Business Planning

Silicon Valley Show On Business Plans from The Startup Garage

HBO Show Silicon Valley Shines The Spotlight on Business Planning

The clip below provides accurate yet comical insights into a typical angel investor meeting.

Key Take Aways From Video:

  • Investors are in the business to invest in companies, not just products.
  • Investors are not guidance counselors for your Startup.
  • Investors are smart and sophisticated, they want you to be prepared.
  • There are key Milestones investors care about.
  • One thing you want to never hear in an investor meeting
    “He doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.”

    • Are you prepared to #Getfunded?

     

    Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

I Have An Idea For a Product. Where Do I Start?

I have a product idea. What's next? from The Startup Garage

I Have An Idea For a Product. Where Do I Start?

Welcome to video Fridays from The Start Up Garage


A place where Tyler Jensen, The Startup Garage’s founder, answers questions directly from viewers

Key Take Aways From Video:

1. You want to start is with your research, specifically around the industry, market, and competitive analysis.

2. For the industry research, you want to know the size of that industry,

who the major players are, and who the trade associations are in that industry.

3. For ompetitive research. You want to get out there and look at all the potential competitors; these are both direct and indirect.

4. For market research. These are all the potential markets that you might be able to sell your product in and to.

Complete Transcript below:

Question= “I have an idea for a product…. Where do I start?”

That’s probably one of the most common questions we get from entrepreneurs. We give pretty much the same recommendation for everyone who asks that question. Where you want to start is with your research — and your research is around the industry, market, and competitive analysis.

On the industry side you really want to understand the name of your industry. Sometimes you cross over into multiple industries, so you want to know the different names that you may cross over into. You want to know the size of that industry. Who the major players are. Who the trade associations are in that industry. And just really learn about what goes on into the entire industry that you want to be a part of.

The second part is your competitive research. You want to get out there and look at all the potential competitors; these are both direct and indirect. Don’t skimp on this issue — the best part about competitive research is that you are going to get a ton of ideas and it’s going to improve your product idea as well, so just make sure you get out there and do as much competitive research as you can.

And the final area is your market research. These are all the potential markets that you might be able to sell your product to. This is the one we find that entrepreneurs get stuck on the most — given that they think they could sell their product to everybody. But you really need to break it down into small segments to understand why each of these different segments would buy your product. This is probably the longest part of the startup process is to really spend a lot of time learning all this information. Check back and we’ll let you know where you can find this information.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

Exclusive Q&A With The Founder Of The Startup Garage

Q&A with The Startup Garage Founder from The Startup Garage

Exclusive Q&A With The Founder Of The Startup Garage

Tyler the founder of The Startup Garage and previous founder of Vavi Sports and Social Club spoke exclusively with George Meszaros of Success Harbor.

Success Harbor is a podcast, “where it’s all about making success happen for you.”

To listen to the complete audio with additional entrepreneurial insights please vist:
Tyler Jensen Success Harbor Podcast

12 Key Take Aways from Serial Enterpreneur Tyler Jensen:

Question1 What was one of the greatest challenges you were faced with during the first year of business?

Tyler Jensen: I think that most of the challenges entrepreneurs face are personal challenges.
I didn’t really put into place a `pay my bills plan’ before we started. I just thought the company would start making money really quickly, and I could pay myself a salary. The reality was that that wasn’t true, and isn’t true for most start-ups, so I struggled for a while just trying to figure out how to pay my bills, while still having time to get the business started.

Question2 Not only were you starting a business, but you were starting something that hasn’t really been done here locally. How did you approach marketing your business?

Tyler Jensen: We had $2,000 and so our marketing plan was to print out some flyers, go out to the beach and hand out flyers one-on-one, and have conversations with people that we thought would be in our target market.

Once we got the first couple hundred people interested (which was the hardest) and in specifically in having those conversations, I really got to learn how to present the brand in a way that would really resonate with potential customers.

Now, whenever I start a new business, I always go out and talk to a whole bunch of customers about it. I pitch to people one-on-one to really learn about the brand, and getting the message out in the right way.

Question3 Now, why did you sell VAVi? What was the reason for selling it? It sounds like it was going really well.

Tyler Jensen: You know, it was more personal than business related. I had read online a whole bunch of places where there was something about the 6th or 7th mark for entrepreneurs where they get burnt out and that was…I felt `oh well, people are different’ but looking back (like) that’s about the time when I really got burnt out. I just wasn’t as excited and motivated anymore to continue to build the company

Question4 Do you think it’s possible, or do you think it would have been possible to build VAVi without burning yourself out or you think it’s just part of the territory when you build a business?

Tyler Jensen: No, I absolutely think that it’s possible and that’s what I am doing now. I have a consulting company and I advise other entrepreneurs on how to go through the start-up process. One of the big pieces of our business really is around writing business plans and helping start-ups raise capital.

One of the things that is motivating for me is to help coach them through the personal process of it and how do you make sure that you plan the right way so that you are not in crisis mode all the time and how do you make sure that you have enough capital to do what you need to do.

Question5 So when did you start that business and why did you start it?

Tyler Jensen: The Startup Garage started around 2009 when we picked up our first client. I had learned so much through the process of starting and running and eventually selling VAVi and if I had known what I knew at the end, at the beginning then I would have done it very, very differently.

I wish I had somebody like me at the beginning to teach me what I teach other entrepreneurs now. That has been my real motivation and so for the last five years I’ve helped over a hundred different companies get started all over the world.

Question6 What were the biggest mistakes that you made with VAVi, maybe in the beginning or maybe later on in the business that were a good learning experience?

Tyler Jensen:The under-capitalization problem that was a big issue. I was personally not set up so I didn’t have a good `pay the bills plan’ and so I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills each month.

I was making business decisions that would lead to being able to pay my bills when they weren’t the best business decisions.

Question7 If you had to start VAVi over again what would be the biggest change that you would make? Would it be the capitalization part? What would you do differently?

Tyler Jensen: I had a lack of planning, I didn’t plan ahead, I didn’t understand the financial part of the business.

I really had a huge passion for the product, but I really didn’t understand the financials and that includes more than just capitalization.

I didn’t understand how I was going to make money, what were the expenses that it was going to take to actually do it the right way.

I didn’t put the financial projections together the right way and I didn’t put a business plan together beforehand, which would have saved me a lot of headache, heartache and a lot of mistakes if I had done that before I started the business.

Question8Early on in business what do you think is the biggest time waster for entrepreneurs? Stuff they shouldn’t spend their time on but they insist on spending all their time on it?

Tyler Jensen: Well, I can answer this a couple of different ways. The first thing that pops into my mind is that entrepreneurs end up falling in love with their product or service.

In the big picture of things the product and service is really only about 5% of building a company and so I find that you can spend so much time just diving in, doing product development…product development and reiterating it…reiterating it which is important, but they ignore all the other parts of the business as well.

Question9 ”What advice do you have for others to deal with the roller coaster ride of being an entrepreneur?

Tyler Jensen: What works for me is having a really good personal practice, focussing on making health my number 1 priority. That includes not only physical health but mental and spiritual and emotional health as well.

I would put a daily practice into place, like I have now, where I get up and either run or walk in the morning and then I do about 30 minutes of meditation and prayer.

I also make sure that I have a very clear plan, and I take breaks to make sure that I’m not getting off track, this really helps me stay efficient and focused.

Question10 Today you working with entrepreneurs and start ups consulting with them, what do you think are areas that they need help with?

Tyler Jensen: There are two types of entrepreneurs that I generally work with: one is the brand new entrepreneur and one is the serial entrepreneur and they have different needs.

For the beginning entrepreneur they generally come to me and say `I’ve got this great idea for product and service and to be really honest I don’t know how to make this into a business.’

So, it’s really just learning how the whole process works. There is a step by step process that really makes sense when you are starting a business and a lot of times just understanding what to focus on when changes the whole game for entrepreneurs.

They start doing things that really don’t need to be done for 12 months or 18 months and ignore things that are really important earlier on in the process. For the first-time entrepreneurs I think the biggest thing is just understanding what to focus on.

For the serial entrepreneurs when they come to us they generally have gone through the process and they know how it works and everything and they just need help, they just don’t have the bandwidth to do the work that we do,
Business Planning and the financial model.

They just need a great service provider to provide objective opinion and really poke holes in their plans before they go to investors.

It’s already been picked apart and put back together so that investors don’t have to pick it apart as much.

Question11 What do you think serial entrepreneurs successful over and over?

Tyler Jensen: You know, this is my opinion and I’m certain many people will disagree with me, but having worked with so many people,

I really think it has little to do with the business and more with their personal practices.

Their personal beliefs of who they are and really ultimately their spiritual grounding. I find that the ones who are most successful have something that grounds them in life.

No one knows all the things in business.
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses as entrepreneurs.

Question12 If a first-time entrepreneur came to you, what would you teach that person about becoming an entrepreneur?

Tyler Jensen: The first thing I would say is `don’t quit your job’.
 You want to hang on to your job for as long as you can because that takes care of the bills.

The place that I tell them to start is the research. So, specifically, industry research, market research and competitor research. Generally they have a new idea and sometimes they are going into an industry, that they are not that familiar with, they don’t know all the different types of competitors and they don’t know who their target market is.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!