What makes a great start up/business idea 101

The short simple answer for me is to brainstorm about 100 ideas, pick the best one you're most passionate about, get your awesome team together and keep executing. As we know however, things can get a bit more complicated out there. In business like anywhere else, the trick is to make sure you spend enough time picking a great answer, but not mentally masturbating when you could have been taking action. The bullet points are a short list of things I think you should consider when starting a business or looking for ideas to play with. I think each bullet point in this article can have an endless essay written on it, however I don't wanna make this too long of a read. Of course as time goes on you'll find some of your views getting more refined and others flippy flopping, so read on for my long and drawn out opinionating. ; )

-Is your idea realistic?

                A realistic idea has multiple factors and can be the difference between making or breaking it. I think the best ideas are the ones that are ahead of their time, but not too far off. For example, trying to implement an idea that may be possible in 3-5 years. For instance implementing solar powered laptop batteries would be a lot easier than creating a flying car (although I have heard about the car).  The more innovative the less realistic I'd say so don't try to create another a planet. For starters I take the view that you get better as you go along, that’s why my first ideas were real basic selling B2C online through Amazon. I also take the view that an "idea" is just that, so having it fail doesn't really matter as long as you're in a profitable market and can pivot the right way. If you stick to your day job and have a side income and traction, then all should be well.

-Do you know how to make/implement it?

Do you know how to create the idea? Horribly me and my co-founder aren't devs only our 3^rd member is, so to launch we've been having to lean a lot on our CTO. The problem is our CTO is still in school at the moment so as a result production has decreased. (Who saw that one coming?) Now we are learning how to create the software plus searching for an extra possible developer, which isn't making things go super smooth, but still fun enough to push forward. Luckily, our first software iteration is very basic so learning how to code the product isn't out of the question. If I could go back in time I'd tell myself to start learning how to code or implement the idea early, but then again no one can see the future. If you're in a start up then knowing how to code can easily help with communication to programmers. If you can't implement the idea then you may find yourself going through a pot hole like me. 

-Do you know a viable partner(s) that can work on the idea with you? and team up with?

This might not seem like such an important factor for some at first, however having the right co-founders can make a world of difference.  If multiple people are passionate about a concept then it can multiply the amount of work done. We all know having the right person on board can push you to new heights and literally quintuple results, the wrong person can create the exact opposite factors of course. I think the most important factor is passion and trust in a co-founder, the learning curve in a start up and business in general is always steep, but if you have the passion and trust you can succeed. Trust will help you cut the crap and speed things up, plus when you get in fights you'll push through them. Passion or as I like to call it effort is of course immensely important. With the right amount of passion the answer to the next question should be an easy yes.

-Are you prepared to work 10 hours a day for the next 5 years on this? Can you make that sacrifice?

No matter what idea you have, it’s a bad one if you don't have the passion yourself. All too often I've seen deadlines get pushed back and lag behind because team members were careless. A product without a passionate team behind it is easy to spot, since it's poorly made. Passion of course doesn't mean you're crazy about what you're doing to the point where you never want to pivot, but it means that you'll be in it for the long haul and will put in the very long hours it takes to succeed. There is a silent sacrifice that all start-up founders make when they begin…the dream is to be free and control your life, however to get there it takes a hell of a lot of work.

My mentor puts in 70 to 80 hours a week and has been doing so for years on all the companies he has started and sold. If the company is successful the average time spent working in a start up is 5 years, which can wear you out. Do research on someone like Bill Gates you'll hear about the body aching work he did, coding until he fell asleep under his desk, or going home and passing out in bed without changing clothes. Things will get very tough and family time has to be scheduled, but every second you don't push into your start up is a chance for a competitor to leap ahead. It's certainly a sacrifice being a founder, living with a rat cheap salary can be depressing if you don't love the idea or concept. Put some metrics on your goals and you'll see a direct correlation with progress. There were and probably will be periods when you'll feel like its going nowhere, but as long as you keep moving forward I'm sure it'll be worth it.

-Do you know the market?

This is probably one of the factors that gets least considered when the average person starts a business. The market is always changing and "knowing" it takes a lot of time. I'd say it took 70 hours alone for me to have a competent amount of knowledge on all the big players in my sphere. Knowing the market can save you a lot of time and being an expert marketer can make you very powerful. Knowing how to market by my definition entails all the business engineering as well. For instance you should already have a clear picture of your micro-tested product.

For the n00bs: Micro-testing is what determines if you have user interest or not and what gets you started on your journey. It's pretty amazing at the amount of people I've spoke to who have no traction, yet are off trying to raise money…they think by throwing more money at the concept it'll gain more users…What are you gonna do pay your customers to buy your product!? (Coincidentally this is how pay pal marketed itself) While this may be a way to succeed depending on the product…I just don't see how you should be accepted by investors if you can't put together a minimum-viable-product or even 1 feature together. Before I jumped into my current project we did a single feature application on the market, after those tests were successful we can now move on to the next step. Each stage in my company is itself a micro-test for feedback, the more positive return I get the more I keep moving forward. Every stage in your company is in a sense a micro-test, this mindset can make it much easier to pivot and succeed It'll help you look down before jumping out of the plane without a parachute.

As a great entrepreneur once said, capitalism is opposite of competition. The more competition you have in a field the harder it will obviously be to succeed, however competitors can be positive too. For one having competition can let you know that a market already exists, secondly you can see where they messed up and make sure you don't follow suit, lastly if you are start up is competitive enough, it can make exiting or forming alliances and doing deals with others a lot easier. I think there's nothing wrong with competing, however having a patent-able idea is always best. (I love business, but making money is good too). Patents make sure the idea is hard to be replicated and if it is easy to replicate, then its probably not a good idea to pursue it unless for micro-testing.

-Are you and your team specialized in this market?

If you have a passion in this area then you should already be "specialized" in your market due to all the related work you have done before hand. One of my friends is very passionate about his engineering company and its clear how huge an advantage he has. No one likes engineering and ping pong as much as this guy. His passion in the field makes his product very hard to duplicate, it would take you at least a 100,000 dollars to hire all the engineers and computer scientists you need to figure out his tracking mechanisms to figure out the advanced math and his product, not to mention marketing costs etc. If you've been in the field before, or around it as a child it'll give you a big boost over anyone who decides to compete, not to mention more importantly you'll know that you won't quit so easy.

-Can you market the idea?

           Being able to market the idea entails a lot of components in itself. From the logo, to user interface and design, the distribution strategy, to channel integration this one is endless. The name alone will tell your customers if they should use the product or make fun of you. Naming the company and logo designs like I said deserves an article on itself, but to make it short simplicity is best. 

Do you know how to scale the idea so that you're making money in all stages of the company? A simple example might be your micro-tested version has an ad attached to it. Making a couple of thousand off the previous advertisements you now have enough money and users to impress a vendor who you plan to do a deal with. Once the deal is made you start gaining users from your next version and your next stage is working on a deal integrating all vendors (you should keep planning these stages a couple years out). I think that proper integration in a company's stages is WAY underrated. Bill Gates didn't create Microsoft, until the deal with IBM went through, as a result the company had money from day one. This question would also be linked to your team members, if one gets sick can the rest pick up the slack?

-Would you use it yourself?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask because if the answers yes you know the person is on to something. Why? Because even if the idea fails then at least you have 1 user at the end of the day ; ) Also if you would use the product yourself then getting in the mind of your core user base becomes much easier and so does innovating. Lastly if you have a deep urge to use this product, then creating it becomes a lot more enjoyable and fulfilling.  

-How long does it take to implement?

I personally think that the speed of implementing an idea is just as important as the idea itself. Can you hold out 5 years on an idea? Or are you the type of person that likes to see things happen now and can only wait 1 month? I think that ideas which are fast to implement hold highest value because they are naturally easier to test for results. I've personally noticed the best businesses take no longer than about a year to launch an minimal viable product. It all depends on you of course, but personally I can't sit and wait on hashing out an idea and my friends are just as impatient.

-I'd like to address the wastrels out there

 A caveat to asking any question or reading articles is to make sure you filter everything. There are so many "business consultants" out there it makes me sick sometimes. I'm 21 and its sad to me when I know as much or even more about business then they do, yet they charge exorbitant fees for their "consultations" or "coaching sessions". Some of these "small business experts" are very good at stealing money because as I like to say no one gets in business to feel small (no offense to any competent people out there you shysters know who you are).  I have to say there are useful consultants, however these guys have started and sold successful companies before and know what they're doing. When I first got on the market everyone from random people interrupting conversations on the street to literally my mom had an opinion on how things should be run. It's always fun and sometimes useful to entertain random thoughts, but there are only a handful of people whose opinion I seriously consider about my next move.  The hard truth is at the end of the day YOU need to be the sole decision maker, otherwise you might as well let the other person run the company.

-The secrets

As many greats will tell you there is a plethora of information to master in this game, but that’s one of the reasons you got into it didn't you? The challenge is endlessly amazing. The business owner is an independent thinker and therefore reading will only get you so far. Testing for traction on your ideas and strategizing is what has given me the best results so far and continues to do so. I feel that starting a new company helps us uncover the secrets of value creation for mankind, hopefully you know what they are or are prepared to search. I don't think anyone besides family will tell you all the nitty gritty details and secret sauces they implemented on their company or has the time to, so enjoy finding your own out. : ) When creating a start up knowing the advantage you posses and coming up with new ones is key to staying afloat.

-There will never be a perfect answer in an imperfect world

Getting the right opinion helps, but MAKE SURE you know the credentials of the person that gives you advice. Given my credentials I'd say you should play around with my theories at best, but not take them too seriously. (after all I haven't succeeded, so there's no proof my theories are valid). What have I done you ask? Here is my first companies cheap website: http://www.shoplletes.com/ I know its crappy, but this was made a year and a half ago, it was my first "business" and I didn't really know what I was doing.  You can look on the market and our first apps, after that previous business concept, I started a second one. Technically I've had 3 ideas I've been pursuing so far and we keep pivoting moving forward and making more money or becoming more tangible. The site looks crappy because customers rarely if ever check it out, plus my company structure and name has changed. We've been "stealth" (which is something I frankly don't like), but we'll be public in 3 months.

I'd like to end with the statement that some of the advice I've given in the article is inherently wrong. I say this not to confuse you as a reader, but point out that business is always changing and you need to make your own judgments. Blockbuster was on top, but then went bankrupt due to failing to innovate online and in store. Following your ideas will keep you ahead of the curve, but who knows what's to come? That’s a question were all trying to answer. Thanks for the read : ) and feel free to comment. 

Fights with your Founders

FUCK THAT! THE MARKETING PLAN MAKES NO SENSE AND WE DON'T NEED TO RUN THOSE FUCKING NUMBERS!!!

This is a taste of the brutally honest colorful language I shamefully use with my co-founder when we have our harsh, but thankfully rare disagreements...scary? maybe... passionate? you bet....productive?...maybe...While having our once in a while founder free for all today I figured I should write about this not so much covered topic...having fights with your fellow start up founders is well hidden among the tech world. We all know people don't always get a long, but for some reason we fear to probe into the dark side of a start up. I spoke to friend of mine yesterday who also stated that "when people are passionate about something fights will happen", which I wholeheartedly agree with. The most important part is moving forward.

 I never plan for these things to happen...it starts with our daily schedule of stuff to do, then we have a topic not fully covered, then we give our viewpoints, then we find our strong disagreements and THEN!!!! well...everything escalates from there...we don't always see eye to eye and communication inevitably breaks down whenever you're talking to anyone about anything.

What happens after the communication breaks down? Well this is what makes or breaks your team isn't it?...Do we quit the project?...Do we keep fighting forever? Of course not...since my co-founder has a ton of my trust I know they won't leave me. The more interesting answer is we have a pattern of solving our fights and moving on to the solution.

Whenever things get heated I simply make my grotesque, not so proud, infantile comment and slow down...I try to notice it, but if I'm enraged sometimes I don't. Nonetheless my anger gets pointed out and a break is taken. I leave and go on a walk or engage in some sort of physical activity to take my anger out and cool down completely removing myself from the situation, then finally everything clears up.

The physical activity helps my heart rate slow down and calms me down, it also shows me that there's more to life then business and gets my mind off of immediate frustration.

In the middle of the fight I might say something that I don't mean like: "THIS WILL NEVER WORK" or "WHY AM I WASTING MY TIME WITH YOU?", but instead of taking it to heart, my co-founder sees it for stress or miss-communication and prompts a 10 minute break. When my co-founder falls into a fit of rage, I respond likewise and magically all seems right in the world after those seconds we spend separated.

The break itself does wonders for me. I look back at the problem and notice what could have been done better; I see how stupid I was, why I wasn't making any sense and more importantly I get to gather logic on the core matter itself.

I have a strong feeling that I'm not the only one that gets into fights with my co-founder, but the bottom line is as long as you are willing to stick it out with that person you'll only learn from each other and get stronger.

I'm sure many of you have had your harsh founder disagreements, my simple solution is to take10 and re-group. As corny as it sounds, I think if the founders are loyal and passionate, a start up can succeed and overcome any obstacles (you can't be dumb either). Its more about bringing the idea to lief then your little disagreements, but we may all sometimes forget. At the end of the day people are the ones that really count for a start ups success, if you have the right team in place magic can happen.

Thanks for the read and cheers,

-Vlad

reminders to be a successful entrepreneur

Every morning I wake up and follow my daily ritual, however I follow a short list of rules. I write or re-write this list of principles in my cellphone everday to remind myself of what it takes for me to be a successful "entrepreneur" and let's face it success means money! :-) Plus it’s the easiest way of measuring value and more importantly freedom. I think principle number 3 is the biggest difference between entrepreneurs and everyone else.

What are the principles? Well these are the principles that I think separate entrepreneurs from everyone else and push me towards becoming one. (In no particular order here are the reminders in my cell)

1. You get out what's put in.
2. Remember Be Awake
3. Either create heaven or be comfortable in hell
4. Love your work
5. Change or die
6. Life is just 1 tiny step

Read further for the ideology behind each step, or just skip to the one you'd like to know more about.

1) You get out what's put in.

We all know this one. This is an old saying and should hit home with everyone. We all know that if you want to get anything, you're going to have to do something for it. "If you ask enough girls one will kiss you" – Warren Buffet I happen to have a girlfriend, but to get her I had to have the balls to talk to her, ask her out on a date and not play around with the fact I thought she was attractive. I had to put in time and energy to get her, not to mention going outside of my comfort zone attending a Yakima (live in Seattle) inter-college student conference. (They aren't mandatory) Yes, you get out what's put in and in order to know what I would have to put in I created these principles to create myself a recipe of the "what". Everyone had to pay a price for what they have even the ones "born" with it.

           2) Remember Be Awake

This one is also quite simple, as most of my principles are so I can remember them easier. Be awake, simply means that there are times in our lives where we're simply "following the pack", sheep, lemmings even! : ) It means don't be one, be yourself! Don't get comfortable with being a follower and think CONCIOUSLY for yourself, there are times when we're on autopilot just doing what we told ourselves we wouldn't do, staying conscious and being awake is important.  Think before you act, know why your doing it and have good reasons. It actually is very similar to the next principle. The word remember, is also added in to "be awake" because as we all know people naturally forget about their struggles, their hardships and all of their accomplishments. If you take a look back at your life and re-visit your hardest moments, nothing in the future should look insurmountable. If I take a look at the time my grandmother died of cancer and compare it to any other hardship nothing comes close to what I had to go through being around her.

          3) Either create heaven or be comfortable in hell


Before we get into a philosophical rant about what hell/ heaven is, if they exist etc,  I respect all faith(s)  so this principle isn't anti-spiritual, it's simply conceptual. The place you are in right now, the place you do not want to be in, I deem that "hell". The place you'd like to be in is what I call "heaven". Even though, these places might not have such a huge difference, I give them these terms to prevent myself from nullifying the very real fact that there is a difference. I think an entrepreneur doesn't live in "Mickey Mouse" world where everyone does what they're supposed to like a good puppet and not notice their surroundings. I want to create my  own slice of heaven, a place where I follow my own rules and am free; To do this I need to remind myself of where I want to go and where I am. Psychology also points out that humans are motivated more by pain  (hell) then heaven, recognize the pain of the situation you're in and you'll be on a fast track to success.

         4) Love your work


This one is super simple, but can be easily misconstrued. I wrote this principle so I can love the work I don't like or don't think I will like. We all have that thing about ourselves that we don't want to do but know we should. I'm telling you to love it! :-) Yes love to exercise, because if you don't you'll most likely stay or get fat and forget it has a benefit whatsoever, love to sell because it's what helps you connect with your customers, LOVE WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO TO SUCCEED! (Of course stay ethical =P)  "Work" is simply a term that means doing something productive, love the productive things you do to get you to that next stage. If you learn to love what your next step towards success, you'll live an amazing life. (at least things shouldn't be so bad).

       5) Either change or die

This principle is repetitive of the hell one, so if you read that one you'll notice a similarity ; ) I think all successful entrepreneurs are "agents of change" as some would put it. If you don't change in today's society you die, so this one tells you how to survive. You have to change! Sooner than later someone else will change and if you don't as well you'll fall behind. You'll slowly shrivel away...like a snail!...ok maybe not a snail, but you get the point. By the way, my definition of change includes "innovate" just so you know ; )

      6) Life is just 1 tiny step

Since I LOVE to simplify things and make them "elegant", I like this principle the most. It makes your life easy and is a good one to remember when the going gets tough. Whatever you're down just remember…"life is just 1 tiny step". 1 Tiny Step is actually an idea I was a part of, which "failed" at start up weekend http://www.1tinystep.com : ) If successful our startup would give you the next tiny step to solving whatever problem you had, which I think was an ingenious principle in itself. If you don't know what to do, I'm sure you can think of a tiny step to help you get the answer. Action is most important and I'm sure you don't need a company to tell you that. Keep taking those tiny steps and you'll get very far. That next tiny step may be enough to push you over the edge, where you'll be free falling towards your success and hitting all your targets before you know it. This principle also resides with the whole "a journey starts with one step" saying, but my cellphone doesn't have a lot of space. = P

If anyone has any other principles they think are important for entrepreneurs to follow let me know below or just tell me what you think of the post. These are the principles I think I need to follow to be a successful entrepreneur, everyone has their own problem areas, but these just help me get back on track when I'm #$@%*&% up.

What reminders do you think an entrepreneur needs? Maybe I shouldn't have anything on my cell because typing reminders, reading etc could have been time used as action I could have taken for my start up.

How to find what you love

The path to riches is what we all want to take, but how does one do it? By "riches" my definition is the best life you can create for yourself. If you talk to a person who has made it already they'll probably say something like: "follow your passion" or "do what you love". I personally am really into technology and come up with about  1 tech idea a day of what I could do to start a business (most are worse than good)…so with this curse I've developed the last year, I'm pretty sure I should be doing technology. Luckily I also know that having a job in this field is not hard to find, but on the flipside there are fields where the chances of making it are very low...good luck making it as a poker pro. 

Who knows what the odds of making it platinum as a musician are and the odds of being a sports star?  Pursuing those things seems a bit crazy to me, which is how I know they're not my cup of tea. I'm very sure business is my sport. I can trace this back to my scheming 8 year old self. I would drive my remote control car around my neighborhood. When kids asked: "can I drive?" I'd say: "yea, but in return I'd like a Pokemon card".  A very efficient model for getting Pokemon cards, but I guess asking for 50 cents would not be so bad either. Plus,  I'd rather be a much less successful version of Bill Gates than Michael Jordon, Mike Myers or Michael Jackson any day so with this logic it's why I love business. Every once in a while I ask myself if this is my passion.....YES! Explodes in my mind…I also have been a bit of a musician in the past creating songs and various arrangements since I was 15. While I love to do that as well, I chose business for the future because, however fun it is being a rapper, being a business man is much more appealing and challenging to me.

I see people all around me that aren't following their path and looking miserable everyday.

So what if I didn’t know what my path was? How do we find out what we love to do?

My hypothesis:

Simply look at your heroes (hopefully you want to be like you heroes) and you follow those footsteps in your own way. The people I admire and try to learn the most from happen to be Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Wozniak, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Gordon Moore, Peter Thiel, Mark Cuban, Sean Parker,  I could dig out a lot more, but you get the point.  So just take your heroes study them, try to get in contact to similar people in the field and have fun. HOWEVER…

As we all know, there is more than one ways to skin a tiger (it’s a cat too) and nothing is set in stone until your last day, so let's look at the other options.

Some believe: "If you wanna be successful just take something like your hobby and blow it up" Even though this could be good advice at first, I think that in the long term it does not apply to everything directly, but can be great advice indirectly. I mean I like playing video games as much as anyone, but being a professional gamer is a bit out of the question…starting my own gaming company isn't though. (No I don't play a lot of video games anymore because my new game and most addicting game is business). Other advice could be to try to jump into a field and see if you fall in love with it, which isn't a bad choice either. Jumping in a field and working for a company can help you find your business passion while making some dough. It takes a lot of balls and I respect it as well.  Anyways, I hope I'm on the right "path to riches" money or no money.

An intro to myself and the blog

Who am I? My name is Vladimir K Mkrtumyan I'm a wannabe funny man/ wantrepreneur/ retired musician and chess player. Currently 20 years old, I'll turn 21 a month from now. I know you're thinking I'll go out partying though, I'm very prudish. I don't drink even though most of my friends do and I find nothing wrong with it whatsoever. I've grown to be a contrarian by nature, so that means if you go one way, I'll try to go the other just to see what happens probably making an ass out of myself most of the time. I try to be financially successful all though I feel I'm having as much success at the task as a flamingo trying to learn how to dance the flamingo…yes my mind does jump around a lot and I need an editor, so please try to follow along…moving on!

I came to this country as an immigrant, so and have always seen my parents work hard. Of course they never had any intentions of building a scalable company and making millions like me, but they did pretty well. My dad is a driver and my mom works in accounting. We have had bad financial luck and after the big boom around 2004 I decided that finances were something that I'd have to really try.  We'll see where I end up and I promise you, that if I can do it and if you can read this blog you should be able to attain my life's progress.  Let me tell you right off the bat…

I don't think I'm a genius by any measure, however like most people I think I'm smarter than the average bear. My justification for this is I got into college and got my degree. Of course I got a D in statistics and negotiated/begged with the teacher to pass that class, but I got my degree 2 years early and I think that's all that counts. Give me another 2 years and I would improve my 2.7 something GPA though I'll probably never go back.  I hated school so much I wanted to find every single short cut, plus I was convinced it doesn't help with life success. My mentor never went to college and he's made it, he tells me I can too and I believe him, but for now…let me get back to focusing on what this blog will be about.

You see, I always imagined when I graduated that everything would come so easy and success would be handed to me in a briefcase of some sort…I went around telling everyone I'd retire before the age of 25 (of course 90% of people laughed) , however giving a go at start up life I'm finding that you have to work tirelessly to get what you want. I've tried various methods of success and don't feel like any major breakthroughs are happening yet.  I've also come to realize that the term "retirement" should be dead, but I'll write a blog about it later. (you see how my mind jumps around? I'll write a post on that later too)

My business experience in the tech industry was virtually 0 a year and a half ago, but teaming up with my cousin and sister I had created a business and made it profitable. (About 5 dollars a week profitable, which is basically nothing.) Soon after we decided to re-model our business with a stealth idea, but my cousin left to pursue a degree of programming in Berkeley, leaving me and my sister stuck trying to learn how to program. I've interviewed and hired graphic designers, talked to dozens of entrepreneurs a handful of millionaires, went to Start Up Weekend Seattle and negotiated with other companies. I'm currently trying to learn how to program and "find myself" or how I'll survive in life/pursue my start up idea. 

So let us begin…

Today marks the day…today marks the start of my blog. For many years I told myself this is going to be the year that everything turns out amazing, the year I'll never have to worry about anything again and that life is going to be one big vacation from this day on. I'll finally be financially independent…

The plain and simple truth:

I know there is probably going to be a lot to worry about, especially for what I'm trying to do.

 I want to own a software company and I don't care if I break my hands typing, cry my eyes out from looking at the screen or look like a complete idiot if I have to.

So feel free to laugh at my mistakes and grab any golden nuggets, you can hopefully use this blog as knowledge/motivation/ or whatever it is that will give you that edge and we'll see what this turns into and you can see how many years it takes me to reach success or have funny failure stories.

Cheers and thanks for reading.