The event was a success with over 40 attendees discussing startups and entrepreneurship on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The day included over a dozen talks, book and subscription giveaways, planned and impromptu pitching, and coconuts.
Photographs
StartupBCS photos are now up on Flickr (thanks @yuvalararat).
Speaker Notes
These notes from the event are taken from the shared Google Wave thread.
@josephrenzi
Recommends 7 habits of highly effective people
2nd best thing is life is knowing you can do whatever you like. The best thing is actually doing it
you can request a copy of the presentation through josephrenzi.com
@tjoosdude
Ways to Fail:
1. Being a single founder.
2. Having no technical team members or people who can technically build it.
3. Outsourcing Development - don't outsource core of business.
4. Idea: Sticking with original idea. / Don't spend so much time stressing on the business model. Few startups that implement original idea and become successful.
5. In-depth market research. / A google search can do this. Test product without building it - beta newsletter signups, google ads which click through to a construction page.
6. Build something that is nice to have. / Hard to sell something 'nice to have'. Pick something passionate about, or it's a real problem for people.
7. Be in it for money. / Being in it for making meaning; as meaning makes money - money without meaning isn't good.
8. Don't talk to people about the idea. / The more people you talk to, the more feedback you'll get about it, and refine the idea. Having no competitors is a bad idea.
9. Don't Network. / Networking gives feedback about product, strategies, builds community.
10. Look for money before you've started. / Don't look at money until you've started, prove success and customers. If you're not willing to put money on the line, then why would other people? Funding - you really need to go after it and business suffers.
11. Don't quit your day job. / Traps in working a day job mean you don't need to be sucessful, so you won't be. Your time to market is longer if you're doing it in spare time; and miss out on market. Believe in what you do - be hungry, because you need to be.
12. Funding / Don't start a consultancy to support the main business - then you're starting two businesses, not one.
13. Make it perfect before it launches. / The first 400 people who see it and have a bad experience is nothing to the 1 million other potential customers.
14. Make sure it's scalable / ignore it.
15. Loads of features.
16. Give up when you hit barriers.
17. Don't talk to customers ins
18. When you build it, they will come.
19. Hire bad coders.
20. Growth Phase: don't worry about business model.
@benjaminranck
1) Get your first customer on board immediately (don't write any code first unless you have to, find someone with their hair on fire)
2) Use cash only to get to a customer. Make sales
3) What problem do you solve? Be super clear
4) "All we need is some sales people"? Wrong. Founders need to be closing customers during market validation.
5) Sell non-existend products with mockups
6) Get ideas by doing one-pagers, talking to potential customers, setup revenue model. State library has access to great statistics databases
7) Set a plan, eg in 6 month if we don't have 30 customers, then this idea is dead.
GradConnection
Building a StartUp - Making Sales from Cold Calling.
Sales cycle might take a year between hearing about it and buying. So telling people about the product before it's launched cuts that time down.
Know what you're saying and that you're worth listening to. Goal of a phone call is a meeting. Second goal: invite to call them back at a later date.
"Send me an email" is a rejection. Ask to call them back at a more convienient time.
Tues - Thurs are the ideal phone days. Occasionally Friday morning.
Timing of the year is really important for certain organisations.
PhoneShy: Call a friend to practise talking on the phone. Listen in to each other's cold calls - gives confidence and feedback. Time: it is hard but gets easier.
FollowUps: followup even successful phone calls or meetings. Always get permission to call them.
Sales is about relationships and reading people. Over the phone, it's harder to read people.
Some big companies send emails before calling; for smaller companies it's just seen as spam.
They use Zoho CRM - important to have a good CRM. http://crm.zoho.com/crm/login.sas
BuzzNumbers
DDsD: 2.3 Million Australians have created their own blog, 1.6 Million regularly update it. (wow) #startupbcs
Open Source Business:
CMS:
Wordpress
CRM:
VTiger Opensource-> SugarCRM offspring.
Original Invite Template
The text below from the original event may be useful for helping to plan future events.
A special startup-themed BarCamp is being held this weekend to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. It's an excellent opportunity for startups to discuss new industry ideas and trends, or for anyone with interest in entrepreneurship to check out the Sydney startup scene.
What: A mini-barcamp for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009
When: Saturday 21st November 2009
Where: ATP Innovations, Australian Technology Park, Redfern - http://www.atp-innovations.com.au
Time: 10am-5pm
Theme: Startups
Directions
5 minutes walk from Redfern train station as described at how to find the ATP Innovation Centre. You can plan public transport via CityRail or Sydney Buses. Drivers should note that parking is $20 in notes or coins.
What Is BarCamp?
A BarCamp is an informal, free and open 'unconference'. Anyone can present and talks are scheduled based on audience interest. Presentations often encourage audience participation.
This is a mini-BarCamp, which means that it doesn't include the same level of sponsorship or an official BCS number. The good news is that there will still be a bar tab for after the conference ends!
How To Attend
(Attendee list removed after event).
What To Bring
Yourself and any ideas for talks. A laptop and charger can come in handy, along with mobile internet in case the wireless fails.
Presenting is easy and great for developing your public speaking skills, so why not brainstorm a few ideas now? You're able to present with projector and laptop, or on your own.
Spread The Word
Let people know you're going by tweeting under the #startupbcs tag. Why not post something along the lines of:
Just signed up for Startup BarCamp Sydney this Sat 21st for Global Entrepreneurship Week at ATP. http://tr.im/startupbcs #startupbcs
On The Day
- A public Google Wave thread has been created to collaborate on notes. Simply search for with:public #startupbcs
- Food and drink will be available from the cafe.
Add To Calendar
Sponsors
