I have an idea about providing support for pre-investment & pre-revenue product development which I’ve been discussing with various people in Brighton for over a year now. It’s called BootCycle and it’s an approach to mashing up some of the best bits of Y Combinator, BarCamp, OpenCoffee, Coworking & Hack Day to help people launch products. I ran a session at BarCamp Bournemouth to get some more feedback and it again came up in conversation at Open Hack London this weekend. I felt it probably about time that I stuck it in my blog…
Wouldn’t it be nice if more people building new products could gain easier access to many of the non-financial benefits of being involved in Y Combinator or Seedcamp? If you’re not familiar with either of these organisations they invest small amounts of cash in groups of 10 to 20 early stage technology companies at a time through one or two annual funding cycles. The amount they invest and the amount of equity they ask for in return is much less than traditional investors and they don’t expect a business plan. They invest in smart teams with good ideas and make funding decisions very quickly. It’s not all about the money though, the teams benefit most from gaining close ties to other start-ups and raised profiles that lead to useful connections with partners, customers, investors and the media.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to interview for one of Y Combinator’s funding cycles in April 2008. I did not secure funding as a result of the short application form and 10 minute interview but I did gain some really interesting insights into how Y Combinator works. During the 10 days I spent in Silicon Valley I made some great connections with various teams that have been funded by Y Combinator and others around the edges of the Y Combinator community. The one thing that blew me away was how well connected people were and how easy it was to make new connections under the single highly respected Y Combinator brand. I’ve since started to see similar things happen around the Seedcamp brand in Europe.
In a world a little removed from the Y Combinator / Seedcamp startup scenes, I’ve been involved in the BarCamp unconference community since attending BarCampLondon2 in February 2007, the OpenCoffee networking community since founding OpenCoffeeSussex in June 2007, the coworking community since opening The Skiff in November 2008 and the Hack Day developer community since participating in Hack the Government Day in February this year. These communities have flourished over the past couple of years. Being a part of them creates a common language through which interesting conversations can be started, useful connections can be made and brilliant projects can be delivered. However, none of them get close to creating a community as productive as Y Combinator is for turning ideas into investment or revenue ready products.
The key thing I want to make happen with BootCycle is for a group of teams working on technology startups to work together towards a common goal over a fixed period of time. That common goal would be similar to that of Y Combinator’s Demo Day, the first day on which people outside the group get to see the things that have been built. The time period running up to the demo day would be 10 weeks which is the same amount of time Y Combinator works within. The benefits of this would be:
1) Collectively they would be interesting enough for key investors and members of the media to come to see them. They won’t have to waste time looking for investors & media contacts on their own.
2) They could work together to solve common problems that can often be a big distraction from a startup’s core businesses. They won’t have to waste time on legal and financial stuff.
3) By meeting every week for the 10 weeks they would motivate each other to keep going even through the low times. Learning at a similar pace to when attending a BarCamp, maintaining productivity levels similar to that of a Hack Day and making great connections like those which can be made through coworking and at an OpenCoffee.
I’m primarily interested in making this work with people who are bootstrapping their startups by working on them part-time. This is because it’s the situation I’m in. I also think trying to secure funding to make this work any other way would take too long and add loads of bureaucracy that will again distract people from actually getting their products built.[1]
I’d like BootCycle to operate in a very similar way to the BarCamp movement, avoiding having anything to do with cash and depending instead on sponsors to provide a minimum level of direct support. I also want to be clear that I’m not proposing the creation of any kind of investment organisation, equity will not be taken in the startups that are supported. If the approach works and can be refined through an initial cycle where I am in Brighton, UK I’d be very happy to see other people replicating it where they are.
I’m very keen for this to be primarily about peer support, there are always loads of people that want to be mentors for these sorts of things but it’s difficult to choose those that would add real value rather than creating more distractions. I would bring in a handful of experienced people to speak at the weekly events that may also provide some mentoring. I’d also organise a couple of more open networking events to help people make a few extra connections.
I’m running a meeting to gauge interest in BootCycle from teams and individuals with pre-investment or pre-revenue products or ideas and the development skills to get them launched. It will take place on Tuesday 26th May from 7:30pm at The Skiff in Brighton. Hope to see some of you there!
It would be wonderful if you could share your thoughts with a comment below.
[1] This said, if any of you have £100K - £150K you’d be willing to invest across 4 to 8 very early stage companies please drop me a line (jon@inuda.com). You’d need to commit to putting all the money in and choosing where it goes based on little more than a 10 minute conversation with each team. You’d also need to be happy with giving each startup a valuation of around £250K based on their team and idea alone. I’d guess that 20-30% of the cash would probably need to be spent on legal stuff with the rest going towards living costs for the product developers and some expenses.
Two fantastic organisations that helped me on the way to starting Inuda and that continue to support the business’s growth have asked me to write case studies of my experiences. I’m not known for being a great salesman - particularly when it comes to selling myself - but as a first step I’ve created an updated version of my bio. With all the procrastinating that went with writing it I’ve ended up updating the theme of this blog and moving another out-of-date website, jonathanmarkwell.com, to live here too.
You can read the bio on the ‘About‘ page of this site. I’d really appreciate any feedback.
I’ll post the finished case studies here once they are done.
At the beginning of January we posted an update giving the highlights of 2007 from Inuda Innovations. Check it out here: The Inudian - Looking Back On 2007
I’ve really neglected this blog. It’s been nearly a year since my last entry so it seems like as good a time as any to look back on what I’ve been up to.
NCGE
Last summer I took part in one of the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship’s Flying Start programmes at the University of Reading. I learnt loads of great things about the nuts ‘n’ bolts of business but, more importantly, met some fantastic people which I have continued to work with since.
First Contract
Selling my wares for the first time last July was unforgettable. Before I did it I somehow couldn’t believe that someone would be happy to pay me more that £15 for an hours work.
d.construct 2006
Although I’d lived, studied and worked in Brighton for 6 years d.construct 2006 was my first introduction to the incredible community of web technologists in Brighton.
Networking
Business really is all about who you know rather than what you know. I’ve been to more networking events than I can remember, some to meet like minded geeks/engineers others to meet the broad spectrum of people in small and medium sized businesses. Some of the events I’ve been to include: Beermat Monday, Ecademy, Pizza On Rails, Chinwag Big Summer ‘07 and the London Mixer.
First Large Contract
Inuda Innovations secured it’s first (relatively) large software development contract in October. We developed a collaborative system to assist some of the back end processes for the British National Formally, a part of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
IET Younger Members Committee
I joined the Younger Members Committee for the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Sussex. It’s been extremely insightful to have regular contact with engineers that are mostly based in large organisations. I think there is a huge amount of potential for more collaboration between the IET and the small business / start up community.
ESRC Enterprisers
In January I returned to the Enterprisers programme for the fourth time. The University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning again invited me back in the role of facilitator. This time we ran a four day intensive entrepreneurial development programme at the University of Durham. The 64 participants included a wide range of ESRC funded Phd students working alongside Microsoft Research and American Express employees.
Taking on Inters
I conducted my first set of interviews to take on two student interns via the Shell Step programme. It was very different experience being on the other side of the table but we managed to find two exceptional University of Sussex students.
BarCampLondon2
I had my first experience of an unconference in February. BarCampLondon2 was a gathering of geeks like none I’d experienced before. I came away from it having learnt far more than I have at any other 2 day conference. As well as this I met far more, highly talented and sociable engineers than I have at any other event.
Future of Web Apps
I attended the extremely well positioned Future of Web Apps conference for the second time and was particularly glad to be involved in a lunchtime debate about the start-up scene in the UK.
Sussex Innovation Centre
In March Inuda Innovations moved into offices at the Sussex Innovation Centre after being a virtual tenant for about 4 months. It was fantastic to get some good value space away from home and a bonus to be back on the University of Sussex’s wonderful campus in the South Downs.
Collaboration on Art 2.0 Start Up
Inuda Innovations started a collaboration to develop a web application that would provide a more social experience to people visiting art exhibitions and museums.
Healthcare Web 2.0 Start Up
Inuda Innovations started work with an angel funded start-up to develop a web based collaboration platform for for doctors.
IET Egg Race
I assisted with the organisation of the annual IET sponsored Egg Race. This was a challenge that brought A Level students from across Brighton and Sussex to the University of Brighton. With just a few electro-mechanical components the students had to build a device that would safely transport an egg to a specific location. It was great to see young people continuing to be passionate about engineering and technology, despite the skills shortage doom and gloom we hear in the press.
The Brighton Geek Scene
I discovered the Brighton ‘geek scene’, now excellently covered at Sussex Digital, events I’ve been to include the Brighton Ruby Users Group, the £5 App Meet, the Geek Wine Thing, the Coding Dojo and the Brighton Farm.
Enterprise Thursday
I spoke at the final Enterprise Thursday of the year at the University of Sussex. Following on from Sean Phelan, Sussex graduate and Multimap Founder, I gave the perspective of a more recent graduate exploring, delivering and enjoying technology and business development.
The Inuda Network
Inuda Innovations launched the Inuda Network and built up a community of over 100 people passionate about making a difference through technology innovation. The aim of the network is to connect up a range of resources and activities to help more people learn about business and technology, build great things and enjoy the experience.
Microsoft Enterprisers
In May I again facilitated on the University of Cambridge’s Enterprisers programme. This time it was exclusively for 32 employees from Microsoft and we ran it in a commercial setting away from universities. It was a very different experience than previous versions of the programme but early indications are showing it was just as successful, with a host of enterprising projects already in the pipeline.
Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group
In June I was invited to speak at the SEEDA funded Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group (HEEG) conference at the University of Reading. I gave a student/graduate perspective on the teaching of enterprise and entrepreneurship at universities, highlighting areas that had been particularly useful to me.
Make Your Mark Connectors
Being involved in such a wide range of networking and connecting over the past couple of years I was invited by Enterprise Insight to become a Make Your Mark Connector. They are creating a network of networks that can support one another and ultimately continue to effectively spread the spirit of enterprise.
OpenCoffeeSussex
The Inuda Network teamed up with Ian Ozsvald, the co-founder of ShowMeDo.com to put on a new regular event in Sussex for people interested in conversations about business and technology. OpenCoffeeSussex was inspired by the OpenCoffee Movement but was particularly aimed at getting the companies based at the Sussex Innovation Centre to communicate more. The result is that we’ve had a wide range of business people, academics and developers from across the region join us.
Shell Step Midterm
Having taken part in the Shell Step programme 5 years ago and now running a business with interns of its own, I was asked to share my experience with this year’s participants at their halfway point. It was really impressive to hear about the projects they were all working on and how similar an experience they are having to my own. They are definitely the ones to watch amongst today’s undergraduate population.
1 Year of being an MD
July saw Inuda Innovations first birthday. In our ‘One Year On‘ blog post we talk about it being our year of exploration… it certainly has been.
Coming up
It’s going to be a busy month ahead, I can’t even imagine what I might be looking back on in a year’s time. Here is just a snapshot of the things I’m planning on doing:
Am I mad? Well a few people have said I must be crazy to link my business to a blog called Mad Motive. It’s a phrase probably most commonly used in describing axe murderers.
However, in the context of this blog M.A.D. means Make A Difference. It’s what motivates me to do the things I do. I’m most happy putting lots of work into a project if it can lead to me making a positive difference to people’s lives. Now some people would call that a crazy motive, particularly those primarily motivated by power and money. I’m quite happy for them to call me Mad. It’s my belief that if I do what I do in a sensible way, I may be lucky enough to get some money and maybe even power as a result. 
Nearly two months ago I put the following on an application from for a business development programme in answer to why I wanted to start my own business:
I have a passion for making a difference. As an engineer I gain the greatest satisfaction from making new things that help people go about their day-to-day lives. This can conflict with the need long-established organisations have, to balance the development of radical, high-risk, high-impact ideas and innovations with the maintenance of their market position and brand.
I believe that by starting my own business I can lead people, to create a culture that gives them greater freedom to develop and make the best use of their skills and abilities. My most celebrated successes have originated from developing a vision into a working model. I have demonstrated this ability while leading smaller projects within the businesses I have worked and through my work independently developing student societies and academic projects.
I enjoy constantly learning new things, working with and meeting new people. I believe that starting my own business will be the ultimate learning experience both in technical skill and business know how.
Through this blog I hope to expand on this, sharing my views on my M.A.D. (Make A Difference) Motive. It will also act as a record of my progress in developing Inuda Innovations, a company that I am setting up with my business partner. You can take a look at his side of the story on his own blog: Challenges For Engineers
