Startups If you're worried about the GitHub acquisition, here's what to look out for |
- If you're worried about the GitHub acquisition, here's what to look out for
- An Incubator Horror Story...When Pitch Decks Are Stolen from Applicants and Passed on to Portfolio Companies. A Glimpse into How the Silicon Valley Sausage Is Made.
- Launched app for instantly scheduling meetings without the back-and-forth emails - Looking for marketing partner
- Need help selling my academic services to schools/libraries/etc
- Let's hear about your financial projections! (if this doesn't excite you, it better!)
- Where to register our start-up?
- Getting online interviews, Besides surveys since people despise those.
- Got a lot of interest cold calling, now to convert...?
- What's the best way to sell a SAAS product?
| If you're worried about the GitHub acquisition, here's what to look out for Posted: 05 Jun 2018 11:47 AM PDT Today GitHub was officially acquired by Microsoft. Many of the internet's citizens are noticeably freaked out about this. I believe this is unnecessary and will attempt to explain why in this essay. I believe that developers' concerns boil down to two issues: that Microsoft is evil and will corrupt GitHub, and that the alternatives (primarily GitLab and Bitbucket) are independent, and therefore less/not evil. Once I show that neither issue is true, I'll explain what to look out for when the acquisition is complete and the terms of service are updated to reflect the policies that Microsoft would like to enact. Full disclosure: I used to work for Microsoft. This was nearly a decade ago, and I have no idea what goes on behind their walls. All of my connections who worked there now work somewhere else. I figure I should say this now because someone will try to be an internet sleuth and attempt to invalidate my arguments because of that connection. I don't think it plays a role, but you'll have to judge for yourself. Myth: Microsoft is evil and will corrupt GitHub This is the primary reaction I see from the development community. Developers have long hated Microsoft, and this mostly stems from the fact that Steve Ballmer did not know his customers (specifically, his customers who were developers). For a long time, Microsoft did not seem to resonate with developers because they made quite a few flaws: lack of open source involvement, slow or laggard IE development cycles, and tooling lock-in, for starters. Once Microsoft ousted Ballmer in favor of Nadella, this all changed. Microsoft joined the Open Source Initiative. They also joined The Linux Foundation. And of all companies, GitHub admitted that Microsoft was the #1 contributor to open source on that platform in 2017. Microsoft is financially incentivized to not screw this up. They've already invested so much into open source. Let's say, worst case scenario, they were to turn their back on OSS and decide to introduce some truly draconian terms for GitHub. History has shown those kinds of moves completely stall their stock. This is what Ballmer did and the company suffered financially. They don't want to repeat the same mistake twice. Don't forget LinkedIn Microsoft has been involved with a social community before. Nearly two years ago to the day they acquired LinkedIn for nearly x4 more. You know what happened? Not all that much. In fact, the change in terms of service was so inconsequential that LinkedIn noted that they would not be influenced by Microsoft under blanket terms of service:
And I've been on LinkedIn for the last 2 years. I'm neither frustrated nor thrilled. LinkedIn is just as much of a recruiter Zombieland as it has always been. You don't have to trust Microsoft when they say they don't want to change GitHub, but they are not offering any indication that they want to mess with it. Myth: GitLab and Bitbucket are safer options The other issue I see is that if there is an unwavering hatred for Microsoft, that we must all leave for better pastures. The two biggest players in the space that are still independent are GitLab and Bitbucket. Are they really all that much better than GitHub? They're all for-profit businesses The most remarkable thing to me in reading the public's reaction is that people make it seem like GitHub was an open source non-profit company. That because they were the premiere company to publish your open source code, it must mean they were pure in intentions. They're very much a for-profit and primarily make money off of storing private repositories. GitLab and Atlassian are no different! In fact, now that GitHub is part of Microsoft, they're a public company just like Atlassian. Even though the business models for each are somewhat different in how they make money off of the code storage, the fact is each of those companies is closed source, with specific legal terms to designate what is owned by the contributors, and what is owned by the storage company. And they're all trying to make money (and there's nothing wrong with that). You can still deploy your code to mega-corps Even if you go with GitLab or Bitbucket, where are you going to deploy your code? Because unless you plan on buying your own servers and scaling like we did in the 90s and 2000s, you're going to use one of a few big players:
So even if you self-host your code for the sake of using git with your team, you're still handing over your code to another massive company when you go to turn the lights on for customers. And you may have already done that deed with Microsoft. Look at the terms The GitHub terms of service only mention open source in section D.6:
This isn't even in the ownership section, which clearly states:
You can continue to read the rest of those sections, but the real key nugget that you're probably worried about is the legal permissions that apply to you:
The rest of those sections simply state that if you post public code it can be viewed by anyone, if you contribute to a repo it's bound to the repo's declared license, and when you upload code it comes with "moral rights," meaning you have the right to seek attribution and credit for the code you have published. So how does this compare to ownership and IP for GitLab and Atlassian? For GitLab:
And for Atlassian:
TL;DR: you own your code. In fact, if there was one company in that three that I am worried about, it's Atlassian. Atlassian can collect, copy, store, modify, and use your data. This isn't spelled out with GitLab or GitHub. So don't think the alternatives are any better for you now that Microsoft owns GitHub. Assuming it's all good, what can go wrong? So if you're convinced that you don't need to jump ship, the truth is things could go wrong. Here are the things to look for when the deal ultimately goes through and the acquisition is 100% complete:
Is this acquisition a big deal? Yes. Is it a bad deal for you? Probably not. Keep calm and code on, but if the terms change, read them carefully and re-evaluate if they are no longer favorable to your interests. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2018 01:48 PM PDT Imagine you're a grad student who's poured your heart and soul into an idea that could help change the world. You do the hard work of convincing your colleagues to work on it with you and to form a company. You hear about this great incubator who will help you get your idea to market with the promise of mentorship and a little bit of capital. All they ask is that you submit a pitch deck and fill out an application so they can see if you fit into their portfolio. You work hard to get the materials together and press, SUBMIT... Now you wait. On the back end, the incubator is reviewing your material and they see a great idea. This would be perfect for one of their current portfolio company who's been struggling to get their own technology off the ground. Now there are a few paths the incubator could take:
You get a phone call from the head of the incubator. He says he doesn't believe your idea is feasible based on your business plan. You're shocked! You've run this by other smart people at Stanford and they all said you should push through. You don't know whom to believe. Ultimately you need to get paid so you decide to take a regular job because you have a new baby on the way. You're crushed, but you ultimately believe the head of the incubator because he must be smart since he's running it. A few months go by and all of a sudden, you buddy hits you up with the news that one of the incubator's portfolio companies pivoted and is now doing your idea! How could this be? Someone was being unethical. Unfortunately, you don't have much recourse to fight it. If this story infuriates you, you're not alone. This actually happened to a group out of Stanford back in 2014. It's sad to know that this isn't a one-off incident. It's actually happened to some of my friends, but when pressed on why they don't bring it up in public, they tend to believe that their ship has sailed and that it's hopeless for them to try to fight. What a disgrace for all those who just want to build great things and share them with the world. That's why I believe founders need protection when entering into the world of incubators and accelerators. That's why I'm calling for a Universal Code of Ethics created by the tech community and publicly signed by all founders and institutions in the space. Why Bother?For every startup that makes it, there are thousands that fail. I used to believe that this was caused by free-market forces necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff as early as possible. However, after seeing how the sausage is actually made in the Valley, it's not that black and white. For a young founder, it's important to stay alive long enough to understand the process of building a company, establishing a network of high-integrity individuals to learn from, and raise just enough cash to start making your own money based on the merits of your hard work (not just raising money and calling yourself a business). Incubators help you do just that. That's why back in 2013 when I got into a digital health incubator, I was stoked. Who wouldn't be excited to have access to resources to increase my probability of success and give back a multiple on their investment in the process? I was pretty naive to think that. At the end of the day, we're all just people with our own personal incentives. Investors want a huge multiple on their investment and based on the Power Law, only one will make them smile. As much as incubators want to help every company, there aren't enough resources to do that. They have to focus on their "winner" in the portfolio to give the incubator the highest probability of a moonshot ROI. But as humans, this often leads to unethical practices. Here are a few I've seen and heard that happened to some of my founder friends:
I'd say these actions are pretty unethical. What bothers me more are the laundry list of failed companies with founders I know who had the best intentions to help society but lost that opportunity due to cutthroat people who stole their deal flow by pitching technology they didn't have. Look at the filthy stench Theranos left on digital health (and Silicon Valley as a whole). Or how about the way Facebook handled their Cambridge Analytica debacle. I get the sense that we're not looked at in high regard by the rest of the world right now... How about we use this time to set the tone going forward by expelling the bad habits and replace them with our new ethical principles. That's why I'm in favor of a community-generated Universal Code of Ethics for Silicon Valley. This code should be public and signed by all who want to play the Silicon Valley game. We should also institute a third party Ombudsman-type program that can sort out wrongs that have been committed and keep the system flowing with the best-intentioned people and technology rising to the top (preferably made up of diverse, highly experienced founders...The OGs). Forming Our Code of EthicsWhat is a Code of Ethics according to Investopedia? I don't remember hearing or seeing anything about ethics back in my incubator days. I tried my best to follow my own internal compass set by my parents and grandparents: follow the Golden Rule and don't be a dick. But relying on our own upbringing isn't a robust ethical training strategy. I've been to MBA schools and have sat in on their ethics class...all 15-minutes out of a two-year program taught by a teacher who doesn't want to be teaching it. Other disciples aren't any better. Ethics isn't a sexy topic to discuss. When I went searching for an established Code of Ethics for incubators, I went to arguably the top three in the space: Y Combinator, TechStars, and 500 Startups. Here's what I found when searching for "Code of Ethics," "Code of Conduct", and "Principles in Google for each of three incubators. Y Combinator Founding Principles Each one of them has their own approach, but why not standardize this across the board and set the precedent for all the other incubators playing in this space? For example, I like how Y Combinator focuses on the Founder. It helps set the tone for what each person coming in must abide by. In their founding Principles, they outline why they started and what they'll strive to achieve and it's publicly committed by the founding team. TechStars ups-the-ante even more with clear top-level principles followed up with granular statements to drive the points home. They also have each person in their community publically sign it for social proof and include a place to reach out if violations have taken place. Lastly, 500 Startups goes for the light option, which leaves more to the imagination, but at least they have a place to submit a violation. Are there first order ethical principles we can suss out and make a standard we can all publically agree on? With all of the "bad press" due to unethical technology companies, maybe this is the time we make a stand and as a community come together and outline what our new ethics should be. Hell, look at Wells Fargo's new campaign. They seriously blundered with their fake accounts scandal, but instead of hiding it they are "re-establishing" themselves. Maybe that's something we should do too. I envision one document broken into four subdivisions:
Starting Point --- Hopefully You Can Help Make It Awesome!Founder's EthicsIntegrity
Empathy
Trust
Incubator EthicsTechStars truly nailed it out of the park with their Code of Conduct for incubators. I couldn't find much to improve, so I copy pasted it here so you can check it out. Props to you TechStars! The original can be found here. We give first.1. We help others whenever possible. We are all busy, but when the ask is sincere and realistic, we respond and help. We are respectful of each other's time and are clear and focused in our requests. 2. We deliberately create a virtuous cycle. We proactively work to give back to the ecosystem by giving first to others in our community with no specific expectations of return. 3. We appreciate the help of others. No one goes it alone --- startups are a team activity. We express our appreciation for the help of our customers, mentors, and others that make our success possible. We act with integrity.4. We are honest and transparent. If we say something either publicly or privately, then we believe that it is true. We do not intentionally omit important and relevant factual information in an effort to deceive others. We strive to be clear and transparent in our communications. 5. We protect sensitive information. When we are entrusted with sensitive, confidential or personal information we use appropriate measures to secure it. We respect requests for privacy and confidentiality. 6. We communicate with our investors. We will send an update on our business at least every six months and be responsive to their inquiries. 7. If we fail, we fail well. If we are going out of business, we will notify our customers and make their data available to them for at least 60 days. We will advise every one of our investors and provide the chance to discuss what went wrong in a live conversation. If we know the company is going to fail, we attempt to return as much capital to investors as possible. 8. We disclose known conflicts of interest early. We err on the side of too much disclosure. 9. We do not steal assets or content. We encourage and respect independent, innovating thinking. 10. We don't operate under the influence. Distributing, using or being under the influence of illegal drugs (defined by U.S. federal law) is not permitted while participating or engaging in any Techstars program or event. While alcohol may be provided at various Techstars social events, underage drinking is prohibited and we expect everyone to drink responsibly and in moderation. We treat others with respect.11. We commit to non-hostile, open, and welcoming workplaces. We commit that employees, partners, customers, and visitors feel accepted and free to express their opinions, concerns, and needs with an expectation that they will be heard and respected. We communicate professionally and appropriately at all times. 12. We don't tolerate illegal discrimination or harassment in any form.We will quickly fire employees who do this, and train our employees to recognize and address bad behavior. We will ban or fire mentors, investors, employees, contractors and others who discriminate or harass others. 13. We encourage diversity. We commit to seeking diverse perspectives and building inclusive work environments, which we believe leads to better companies. 14. We stand up for others. We appropriately intervene in situations when we witness violations of this Code and report violations. 15. We are reachable and responsive. We will enable standard forms of communication so that anyone doing business with us can have a reasonable expectation of receiving a response in a timely fashion. 16. We participate in both offline and online forums with respect. We don't cause or participate in flame wars online. We participate in respectful discourse in all forums. We do not comment anonymously or with false identities. 17. We respect our legal agreements. We do not attempt to circumvent their intentions. 18. We keep our promises. If we commit to do something, we do our best to do it. If we can't keep our promises for some reason then we strive to make it right in any way possible. 19. We do right by our customers. We strive to deliver products that delight our customers and seek to exceed their expectations. 20. We do not attack others electronically. We don't maliciously attack others using scripts, robots, or similar techniques. 21. We are not spammers. We do not send bulk unsolicited email nor do we scrape contact lists and abuse them. We don't harass prospective customers who have clearly said no to us and opted out of communications. 22. We work for the benefit of our companies. We always work for the benefit of our company, not for our own personal benefit. 23. We encourage professional development. As founders, we do everything we can to ensure the happiness and professional growth of our employees. 24. We avoid gossip. We don't share disparaging comments and rumors about others. We are constructive in our feedback and always provide it directly to the individual or company to which it pertains. Human Promise
Earth's Promise
Put It On the BlockchainFrom Aristotle to our Silicon Valley podcast friend Sam Harris, ethics have been and will always be discussed. I by no means have the intent to force you to live a certain way, but rather, I just want to start a discussion. Hopefully, we can turn this into a movement to help the current and future set of founders have the best shot of realizing their dreams and how those dreams will affect society and the planet. If you're on board with this, it'd be great if someone threw this up on github so people can start inputting their thoughts and desires. Maybe even Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups, or another incubator could take the lead and help make this more than just an idea. Hopefully, we can create a lightweight Universal Code of Ethics that will be signed by each founder and used by each incubator. Heck, maybe different incubators will add their own special herbs and spices based on their needs. The sky's the limit. And since ethics aren't sexy, just throw it in the blockchain and make it immutable. Ethics just became sexy :). [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2018 04:43 PM PDT About the App Service Instantly schedule interviews, product demos, and meetings without the back-and-forth emails. Use cases for sales, recruiting, or giving product demos - to name a few. In all these areas scheduling meetings is the most frustrating part of the job. Works natively with Google Apps, Office 365, and Exchange. Customers share their personal web link with contacts to schedule meetings, rather than suffering through email-tag, gives real-time visibility into the whole team's calendar. Besides the basics - enabling colleagues to self-schedule appointments - the AI engine optimizes multiple schedules, balances personal/work calendars, and guarantees you're never on the hook to drive across town for back-to-back meetings. History This service has been live for awhile with awesome feedback from the small handful of paying customers we did acquire. There are a lot of "free" customers who did not fully activate or make use of the service. There are other apps in this space, though tackling a slightly tweaked subset of the problem and with a different experience. From this I know the market exists, I've just been unable to economically capture it. Growth via Marketing Partner My strengths are more on the product development and implementation side than actually getting the word out. I've tried a few PPC campaigns and gotten low click through rates. I've investigated newsletter and podcast sponsorships targeting specific customer personas (sales, insurance, recruiting, etc.) but haven't pulled the trigger since they feel too expensive without conversion rate or LTV data. Thoughts on how best to find a partner to help truly test this in the market? At this point I've realized the value this would bring and am on board with either a paid resource or even an equal equity/capital investment split. [link] [comments]  |
| Need help selling my academic services to schools/libraries/etc Posted: 05 Jun 2018 03:51 PM PDT I run an online essay feedback and college admissions guidance business. I recently reached out to the local public library system in my area, and they asked for a quote for their service population of 500k people. When working with schools/organizations, I charge $20/essay. We do 3 essays per hour, so revenue is $60/hr, minus $25/hr hourly rate for employees. So essentially we profit $35/hr. I don't have much experience making contracts with large organizations like a library. The biggest school I've worked with had only 50 students who used our service, and we charged a total of $2500. I'm wondering if $20/essay is too low and if I should charge the library a higher amount per essay? Especially as my business becomes more "legit" and starts earning bigger amounts of money, I'll have to deal with more regulations, taxes, background checks, etc... I could also charge a yearly fee for unlimited essays (for example, $500k)... for a large public library system, I don't know if 500k is a lot or a little though, I just don't have much experience in this area. Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Let's hear about your financial projections! (if this doesn't excite you, it better!) Posted: 05 Jun 2018 02:46 PM PDT My company is currently raising $100k. I did all the financial projections in house by myself and found this to be an amazing learning experience. However, we are also receiving some flak as they are not "perfect"- I'm sure I have violated a handful of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles :) . Mind you, we are pre-revenue and these are PURELY projections. Of course, we saved money by doing them in-house as well. So, let's hear about your experiences with financial projections. Who did you use? Why did you choose the service you did? Are there any good "startup oriented" platforms that you have seen? Teach us about your experience with financial projections! [link] [comments]  |
| Where to register our start-up? Posted: 05 Jun 2018 05:36 AM PDT Hi everyone! A friend and I are looking to incorporate our business. We are based in London and Copenhagen and are looking to start in these markets before branching out into other EU countries while staying in Denmark and England. We are thinking to register outside of the UK and set up a subsidiary in London to benefit from the SEIS and EIS program as a friend has done with his firm. With this little information can you guys recommend a country to register our business for tax and other benefits? [link] [comments]  |
| Getting online interviews, Besides surveys since people despise those. Posted: 05 Jun 2018 07:03 AM PDT I have a feeling people don't like surveys.. I can imagine the word survey has a negative side to it. You feel like a lab rat and a one-in-many that's just helping you out. I'm looking forward to having some real in depth discussions with people that would make up my potential target group but how do you reach those if you don't have them nearby? Or in your network? How do you reach people that want to spend 10minutes talking with you without using surveys? Or without having money to pay for incentives? As always, looking forward to your responses! [link] [comments]  |
| Got a lot of interest cold calling, now to convert...? Posted: 05 Jun 2018 09:26 AM PDT I had a great first day cold calling for my startup yesterday (B2B -Walked into store fronts), and am looking to continue to further the connections I've made. I'll be selling a service to realtors. I am very new to CRM. Right now my strategy is to 1. Reach out and thank them for their time yesterday. 2. Try and secure a window of time to speak at one of their monthly meetings. 3. Offer a small amount of service for free to get them sold on the service. Any thoughts or tips? How often should I wait to reach out again to someone who doesn't respond to my initial email? I've downloaded a very basic free CRM app that lets me set custom reminders to reach out to people. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| What's the best way to sell a SAAS product? Posted: 05 Jun 2018 02:58 AM PDT We have been building a SAAS product from quite some time. We only started building it after a little research as well as market study. We went ahead and talked to a possible few potential customers to know whether they would be interested in such product. We almost got 90% of positive response. But, now that we have put some dedicated effort in building the product, we do not see the same level of interest. We did a couple of meetings, send decks to few people, a few LinkedIn and cold emails but we did not get much interest! For a fact, we know that the idea on which we have been building the product, is a pain point for most of the companies (big or small) but they are doing something around it. What you guys think is the best way to reach our customers so that they give us a free trial in the least? [link] [comments]  |
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