Showing posts with label Entrepreneurship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entrepreneurship. Show all posts

Monday, June 27, 2011

Un nouveau chapître

Il y a quelques 18 moins, j'ai choisi de devenir un entrepreneur à temps plein, consacrant mon temps et mes ressources financières au développement du service AnotherSocialEconomy. Cela a été une expérience très riche en enseignements.

Ceux qui me connaissent savent à quel point il était important que je sois vraiment maître de mon destin professionnel :
  • Développer un outil qui offre une vraie valeur à son groupe d'utilisateurs.
  • Baser les décisions sur les faits et leurs conséquences sans laisser places aux interférences politiques (tellement immobilisantes dans les grandes entreprises).
  • Utiliser la technologie pour servir d'abord les usagers, puis pour construire les services et faciliter leur développement. En ce sens, la méthodologie Lean Startup et son principe Build-Measure-Learn offre un excellent cadre de travail.
  • Utiliser la méthodologie Agile (sans oublier les outils de XP) pour développer une application de grande envergure.

Avec mon associé Steven, cela a été très intéressant de définir mes propres objectifs, mon organisation de travail, et diriger le développement de l'entreprise.

Mais il y a un mois, principalement à cause de l'absence d'une perspective de revenus stables dans un futur proche, je me suis mis à la recherche de contrats et de postes permanents. C'est sûr que c'est déchirant, mais l'outil est en production et je peux le faire évoluer dans mon temps libre. En appliquant donc un principe de Lean une fois de plus ("Failure to change is a vice!", Hiroshi Okuda, Président de Toyota Motor Corp.), je replonge du côté salarié.

Finalement, après plusieurs entretiens, mon choix s'est porté sur la compagnie MEI qui développe une plate-forme Web pour aider ses clients (des producteurs de biens de consommation emballés--consumer packaged goods) à suivre leurs campagnes de promotion. Jusqu'il y a deux ans, MEI offrait principalement son service aux grands manufacturiers. Maintenant, dans une offre SAAS, MEI développe une nouvelle version pour les producteurs petits et intermédiaires, sous la marque TradeInsight. La synergie entre mon expérience (Java, JavaScript, cloud, mobile, Agile) et l'équipe est indéniable.

Au fait : MEI embauche encore !

L'aventure d'AnotherSocialEconomy continue, à temps perdu de mon point de vue et dans mes interactions avec les groupes de la communauté technique de Montréal (NewTech, Android, NodeJS, etc.). Pour plus d'informations quant aux partenariats possibles, veuillez prendre contact avec Steven.

A+, Dom

Thursday, April 14, 2011

State of the AnotherSocialEconomy Initiative

When my partner Steven and I started our startup adventure a few years ago, our main goal was to demonstrate our ability to convert an idea into a live project. As we used our experience to build a viable product, we knew it would add value to our resume.

Over the months, the project evolved slowly:
  • The core idea is: help the consumers who look for a specific product to find the retailer who has it in stock, and help retailers to connect with consumers online and drive them in-store. Our moto: the missing link between shopping online and buying offline.
  • The proof-of-concept was made of screenshots, live Twitter accounts, and a piece of Python code connecting those accounts together. This material allowed us to be among the semi-finalist companies of TechCrunch50 in 2009!
  • The first implementation of the engine connected consumers and retailers, each of them interacting with the system with direct messages (DMs), sent  from their own Twitter account. At that time, the tool was named Twetailer.
  • Later, we figured out Twitter was too geeky and we added a connector to accept and generate e-mails. Since then, the engine has a XMPP (instant messaging) connector, another one for Facebook, and a plan for VOIP (with Twilio).
  • At one point, we were approached to start an experiment for golfers: usually avid golfers have to spend a lot of time on the phone to get three buddies to play with and to book a tee-time. In two months, we created ezToff.com, developed an embeddable widget to ease the creation of a tee-off request, and developed a Web console for the golf course staff. The experiment was shut down because of a lack of traction...
  • Recently, we started another experiment in the used car market, under the name AnotherSocialEconomy. Our market researches found that the average time to buy a used car is six weeks in Quebec. Typically, consumers start on the Web, grab listings, and call dealerships one after the other. In the Montreal area, there are 300,000 pre-owned cars bought per month: ⅓ from dealerships, ⅓ from wholesalers, and ⅓ from individuals. Dealerships control 45% of the market value.
  • So far, this experiment has been a partial success: we get demands from consumers and forward proposals from used car sales people. We helped our first customer finding a car in only two weeks! But, as the dealership staff is not used to new technologies (sic), we manage the service for them and it's very time consuming...
What's next?

We are very happy with consumers trusting us. We work hard to continue to improve their experience, on our landing pages and in our communication by e-mail. The priority is to have them qualifying more their demands upfront.

Our focus right now is more on the retailer-side, in order to have sales people in the dealerships interacting with the system by e-mail too. If around 80% of them agree to work with us to serve our users, we have to prepare the proposal details and to reach them out for approval. For the business to scale, they should prepare and post the proposals themselves.

For now, we need more data to determine trends. This is a prerequisite for used car dealers to adopt our methodology. It is also possible that will lead to another pivot.

Lessons learned?

The first one is an obvious one now: nobody can be as committed as the founders! Since I left the company Compuware to become a full time entrepreneur, Steven and I have met many people we expected to work/partner with: a technology company CEO, a former manufacture owner and now real estate agent, a UX designer, a few VCs, a marketer, two successful startup founders, etc. If we sometimes got excellent feedback, none joined us.

The second one is related to the product development: two techies are not enough to make a great product! They can talk about their product at length, but they don't know how to convince decision makers. They need the help of a marketing genius!

Another one is related to the importance of the contact network. If you don't know the right people, very few will listen to you. Having a large address book or friends with deep pockets definitively helps a lot.

And the last one: developing a tool for the general public is difficult! Following the Lean Startup process can really help. Check Ash Maurya's blog, for example.

Technologies learned?

I continue to find Google App Engine an awesome environment. The recent addition of the Channel API which allows the back-end logic to push asynchronous notifications into Web consoles really improves the user experience. On the maintenance side, I appreciate the Java Remote API which simplifies the development of maintenance and data extraction tasks.

Web console side, I've started upgrading the code to Dojo 1.6 and its new HTML5 compliant syntax. I don't use the AMD loader yet, but I'm waiting for the one coming with 1.7. I have recently started to use Selenium 2 for my smoke tests and I really like it!

Mobile side, I wish to have more spare time to update my Android application for ezToff and to benefit from the Android Cloud To Device Messaging (C2DM) API. But I'm also thinking of building application with the awesome dojox.mobile.

To develop our customer base in the used car experiment, we have created two AdWords campaigns: one for each language, both in the Montreal area. Using AdWords and optimizing the campaigns was very instructive. There are many concepts to master: long tail, auto bid, average CPC, conversion rate, landing page quality score, etc. I know understand why so many people choose to become an AdWords certified partner ;)

    Thursday, January 6, 2011

    Wrapping up 2010, preparing 2011

    2010 Summary

    2010 was an interesting year for me professionally. Inspired by similar lists online, I present what I did (or can remember at least):
    1. Left Compuware and joined my partner Steven at Milstein and Associates inc. end-of-January, to focus 150% of my time on AnotherSocialEconomy (formely known as Twetailer).
    2. Adapted the Amazon Flexible Payment Service (FPS) library to the App Engine environment—freely available on github.
    3. Refactored the communication layer to be able to send details e-mails to customers, in addition to short ones sent over Twitter and Instant Messaging services.
    4. Built the first Web consoles for Golf players and Golf courses staff, based on Dojo and using the freshly delivered REST API—check ezToff.com.
    5. Built the first Android application for Golf players using their GPS & Address book to ease the tee-off booking process with AnotherSocialEconomy—freely available on github.
    6. Helped preparing pitches to Golf Canada representatives and to Golf staff members and owners.
    7. Developed the AnotherSocialEconomy widget, ready to be embedded in participant websites and loading the AnotherSocialEconomy wizard on demand
    8. Reviewed the book Google App Engine Java and GWT Application Development.
    9. Continued to develop my open-sourced library offering tools for globalizable generic resource bundles (TMX)—on github too.
    10. Developed a prototype of a Facebook application.
    11. Augmented the AnotherSocialEconomy engine to support the used car dealers: buyers don't buy immediately, but collect car information and offers for a while before committing with one dealer => the engine work flow has been adapted to support this slower path of interaction.
    12. Attended presentations to few car dealerlship owners.
    13. Attended meetings with various mentors and potential investors.
    14. Attended meetings of Montreal NewTech, Android Montreal, Augmented Reality Montreal communities

    I’m pretty happy with what I have done so far and am looking forward to doing even more.

    New technologies

    It was also fun to play around some hot new technologies:
    • Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10
    • Android 2.2 and push mechanism on my HTC Desire
    • App Engine 1.4.0 and channel api
    • Node.js and WebSockets

    2011 Goals and Plans

    2011 is going to be critical for AnotherSocialEconomy. The application runs and passed usability tests. The focus point is now on the business development!
    1. Concentrate on one domain (used car market) and get a significant traffic in the Montreal area.
    2. Gather customer feedback (consumer looking for second hand cars and used car dealers), tune the system, and increase traffic. Repeat until 100% satisfaction ;)
    3. Once the system is proven by the traffic and testimonies, involve investors and/or partners to 1) expand the business to other areas or 2) to target another domain or 3) both expand geographically and vertically.
    4. Develop data mining tools for retailers.
    5. Develop domain oriented interfaces for consumers (Web/HTML5 for tablets and PC, native apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry).
    6. Add more communication channels (like voice messages with Twilio, for example).
    7. Offer my services as Software Architect & Developer consultant on designing & developing highly scalable and highly available applications on Google App Engine and mobile applications on Android.
    A+, Dom

    Monday, September 6, 2010

    Update business-side

    It's been a long time since my last post. The summer went by so quickly. With my partner Steven Milstein, we have focused on building a generic tool for golfers and golf courses. This post summarizes the latest developments.

    The product name

    The product name Twetailer is now AnotherSocialEconomy.com. Twetailer was chosen when Twitter started to become mainstream and was made of a combination of Twitter and Retailer. The project Dretailer (more in a future post) was name from Android and Retailer, and we thought about having a variation per connector type.

    AnotherSocialEconomy.com is better because it really illustrates that our offer is about a business platform in a global economy, with social networks involved, in a new way of connecting people—and it is not tinted by any service du jour. More information on Steven's blog post The Twouble with Twetailer.

    ezToff.com: a dedicated implementation

    AnotherSocialEconomy.com provides a generic multi-channel communication engine, conveying messages among consumers and retailers according to the given location and some search criteria. Whenever we explained what's the product is about, potential consumers understood but were blocked when it was time to formulate one of their needs... We knew then we needed to offer a very simple interface where users can post demands without thinking twice about it!

    At one point, we met Marc Bienstock who offered to help us building such an interface for golfers! According to Marc:
    • When a golfer has a chance to play (because his wife gave him the permission ;), he usually calls his buddies to find three of them who are free too.
    • Then he has to call a golf courses to book a round at the agreed on time, maybe with one or many pull carts, one or two golf carts, etc.
    • If the booking goes well, he calls his buddies to give them the golf course coordinates.
    • If it does not work, he calls another club or calls his buddies with the time of the available rounds.
    • Way too many phone calls to be able to spend a minimum of $200 for 4 players!
    • On the golf course-side, they have to deal with so many phone calls; some of them have a system queuing calls up to 50!
    • Average time spent on the phone per caller is too long, and many are useless because they cannot screen them.
    • When a round stays free, it's an average of $200 lost.
    So end-of-July, we launched ezToff.com which allows:
    1. One golfer can submit a request for a tee-off from one central place and it will be broadcasted to all participating golf courses around the given location. The golfer can specify the e-mail addresses of his buddies so they'll be cc'ed for all exchanged messages.
    2. Golf courses are provided a Web console which displays all requests posted in their area. According to their schedule, they can propose rounds—the price per round and the total cost should be documented. Golf courses don't have to watch the console indefinitely as ezToff.com can notify them by e-mail, SMS or tweet.
    3. Proposals are sent back to request initiator by e-mail (his buddies receive a copy if he gave their e-mail addresses). At this step, the golfer can wait for more proposals to come. If he wants to book it, a simple link in the e-mail will generate a response to be sent by e-mail to ezToff.com.
    With ezToff.com, golfers can get tee-off proposals with just few clicks. Golf courses get all demands electronically and can focus on the ones they can propose a round to (others are simply declined). Buddies of the golfers are notified at each step of the process automatically. No more infinite phone calls ;)

    We interviewed many golfers and they confirmed the golfer's pain. With some visits to golf courses, we've confirmed the courses' pain too. The difficulty we have is that we're not sales people and it's hard to close a deal with golf courses... Knowing that the season is almost finished here, that our business model is probably too expensive for the golf courses, that we need good marketing materials, we're going to tune the offer and be ready for the 2011 season.

    The AnotherSocialEconomy.com reseller and influencer programs

    The ezToff.com project has been beneficial for us on many points:
    • With the widget, we have another way to reach consumers: influencers (bloggers, Facebook groups, associations' site, for example) can embed it into their webpages.
    • If dedicated Web consoles are available to golfers and golf courses, all operations can be done with e-mails, which is the most pervasive communication tool.
    • The original messages produced by the engine were short to accommodate the Twitter limitation of 140 characters per message. These ones were cryptic to too many people. The variation of these messages for e-mail are now much friendlier and contains links ready to forward the readers' response.
    • We'll simplify the pricing model thanks to the received feedback.
    But the most significant development is the offer of the influencer program:
    • Each influencer will receive 25% of the revenues generated by consumers confirming demands posted with their copies of the widget.
    • An influencer can propose one or many widgets anywhere on the Web he reaches his/her community.
    • We'll work with influencers to customize the widgets for his/her community.
    In parallel, we developed the reseller program to share 25% of the revenues generated by retailers proposing goods or services with AnotherSocialEconomy.com.

    It's possible that some well organized enterprises will be their own reseller (cut of 25%) and will drive requests with their copies of the widget (another cut of 25%) but that's fine. We'll make some money if they make some, and they'll have a good discount if they help driving more traffic (which means more business to them).

    Next steps

    On business side, Steven and I are looking for resellers that will help to bring ezToff.com to the next level. We are also trying to develop another domain specific implementation, another skin on the top of the AnotherSocialEconomy.com engine.

    On the technical side, if everything works perfectly for the ezToff.com users, I need to document the widget usage and the REST API used by the Web consoles. I need also to enable the Facebook connector for influencers to communicate on this platform as they can do on Twitter. There's also the Android application (project dretailer mentioned above) to update to benefit from the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (c2dm) mechanism and then to push notifications asynchronously. Still a lot to do but no road block ;)

    A+, Dom

    Friday, May 28, 2010

    What motivates us?

    One year and half ago, I wrote the blog post Career Advice '08. The key idea was about encouraging people to develop their own expertise to be successful in their career. Don't wait for your management to give you something exciting, do it yourself!

    Two weeks ago, I wrote another blog post Work around the general laziness. In some ways, I reported on my disappointment of not seeing enough autonomous experts, and that entrepreneurs have to compose with variously skilled teams.

    I finished my second expose by mentioning the Twetailer's work-for-attribution offer. I explained that many people liked the concept and that few of them have committed to deliver something with their own schedule. Each one at its own pace builds an extended skill set.

    What are the commonalities between the contributors?
    • They have a regular job so the money is not an issue.
    • They are performers and have a high level of satisfaction.
    I was such a contributor when I started working with Steven, before jumping on the entrepreneur-side to help developing the business from the inside.

    I had not really identified the sources of my motivation until I saw Dan Pink's illustration of "What motivates us", for a talk given by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (theRSA.org).
    The three factors that lead to performance and personal satisfaction:
    • Autonomy
    • Mastery
    • Purpose.





    I strongly encourage you to look at that video, part for the fun of viewing Dan Pink in action, part for the delivered message. I encourage you also to share your experience as a comment below ;)

    A+, Dom

    Tuesday, May 18, 2010

    Work around the general laziness ;)

    This blog entry is primarily inspired by a rant from Jason Calacanis, during the episode #47 of This Week in Startups (full show, or directly starting near 5:20). During that show, Jason goes against the Generation Y people who are usually lazy and want everything before actually delivering...

    Another source of inspiration is Mark Suster, the co-host of This Week in VentureCapital, with a series of posts culminating with The Long-Term Value of Loyalty.

    What's their point-of-view?

    Jason is mostly focusing on a group of people, a group that has been educated with a different mindset from his own one. Gen-Y people have more concerns about ecology in general, for example, they are used to getting free or cheap digital goods, and many of them live with their parents longer than before...

    If I can agree on the fact that many Gen-Y people seem lazier than the the Gen-X or the baby boomers at the same age, I think the key differentiators is their relationship with money: the Gen-Y people think they need less money, so they don't work that hard to get always more!

    In his first post of the series, Mark pinpoints job hoppers, employees who can resign anytime, without much respect for their commitment or for the situation of the company. If Mark readjusts the context in the second post by writing that “quitting a job because it's a mess is OK”, Mark still thinks that being “loyal” is important and everyone should stay loyal for long term benefits...

    I can agree with Mark that working with such individuals is risky, that developing a business with not-so-loyal people is tough. However, I think that building a business with people from different mindsets and backgrounds is more valuable. To me, diversity, if you can manage it, is more important than loyalty!

    Is laziness a syndrome limited to Generation Y?

    Before becoming an entrepreneur, I was an employee like many others. In France, I worked for a very small company and then for a multinational corporation before immigrating to Canada. My first job here was for a medium Montreal company which was later bought by Oracle. I quitted Oracle to go with IBM Rational, which I quitted to go with Compuware. In addition to my professional life, I've been involved in many non governmental organizations.

    Along my life, I've always been curious, interested in learning new subjects, debating around them, and trying to implement the best ideas, especially when I'm passionate. I've been lucky to team up with great people (note that I learned a lot too from the failed partnerships) and I've gotten excellent mentors. When I write “lucky”, I mean “I worked hard to consider myself as lucky.”

    All in all, I can honestly say I haven't seen a lot of people working very hard at work, not that they are lazy, just that they have different priorities, different motivations. Although I've already proposed many times to be a mentor, to give lunch-n-learn talks, to organize specific trainings, etc., -on my own time, for the only benefit of the recipient- only few people have followed.

    I've observed the “good enough” attitude with any types of people: old or young, men or women, immigrants or native country, Europeans or Americans, etc. In Western countries, we don't have to fight for a shelter or to find food, so the sense of urgency is blunted. Why would people with already enough (enough money, enough responsibilities, enough social involvement, etc.) go for more?

    Maybe the Gen-Y people are worse than the others,because their “good enough” level is lower than before. IMHO, they are just like the common crowd, just normal people in our modern world.

    How to deal with the general laziness?

    As mentioned before, I think the diversity is important. Trying to stay in closed vacuum with the elite can help a bit, but not for a long time. The key point is to compose teams with top elements and less skilled ones. The newbies can learn from the experienced people and more help around them will reduce the “single point of failure” risk.

    For sure, you cannot reward the in-learning people as you do reward the top team members. As I explain to my kids, there's a consequence to everything! If you work hard, if your help is valuable, if you go beyond your tasks, the system should reward you accordingly. If it does not come immediately, it should be clear that it will come eventually if everything goes well. If the hard workers don't get a tangible ROI, I think it's normal to expect them to slow down or to quit... (to expect them slowing down ?)

    To me, the key factor in a successful project is the commitment of the participants. It's not that important that this intern has a lower velocity than an experienced engineer because we can plan accordingly. What's more important is that you trust that he's going to deliver as expected, or if he has some troubles that he's going to report them as soon as possible.

    In the case of software developers evolving in an Agile environment, measuring their work progress is not really an issue. If the team is correctly equipped, everyone is accountable. In the peripheral teams (product managers, marketing, sales representatives, etc.), commitments are more difficult to get, and the more sources of non-productivity there are, the fewer chances of success you get.

    A real case, please!

    My partner Steven and I have developed the concept of work for attribution. Because we're a startup, we cannot offer salaries in exchange to work. However, we offer to attribute back the work to the ones who have delivered it. Immediately, contributors can use our environment as a lab to test and develop new ideas. We have a working product and it's up to them to adapt it, to make it better.

    If our projects are successful, if we can cash them at one point, the contributors will be part of the success and then we'll try to reward them. If a big player wants to acquire us, top contributors will be probably part of the deal.

    So far, many people have liked the concept and a few of them have committed to deliver something specific. Some of them are Gen-Y people, some are immigrants, and everyone work at different rates. If I can rely on people I trust, on people who are going to deliver what they have committed to, whoever they are, it's very cool!

    A+, Dom

    Thursday, March 11, 2010

    Ladies and gentlemen, here is !twetailer

    On Tuesday March 9 evening, my partner Steven Milstein and I attended a Montreal NewTech event. As three other companies, Steven pitched our project !twetailer to a crowd of 30-40 people. After few closed presentations, it was our first public pitch and it went very well! Read Steven's blog post for the details.

    Background

    I met Steven while working for IBM Rational. He was the Business Analyst while I was the Software Architect for the Web client of the Rational Portfolio Manager product. When Steven came to me with the Reverse Retailing idea, we agreed to develop it as a proof-of-concept for our own expertise.

    We worked so well that we submitted our project to TechCrunch50 (TC50). If we were not among the 50 finalists, we passed the first selection round on 1000+ applicants and we had the chance to present it to Jason Calacanis during 15 minutes last August.

    Boosted by the appreciation we got from Jason, we continued to focus on developing user stories and the corresponding code. We were ready to demo the full cycle early this January. Two months later, after many tests and fine tuning, we are opening !twetailer to broader audience!

    Presentation

    !twetailer first objective is to “connect supply and demand”, specifically “connect consumers to retailers” in its first version.

    Look at this original presentation to get the sense of !twetailer ;) We made it months ago but it's still very accurate. Don't miss the part describing the hub, starting at 3:00.

    After the presentation, we got many feedback from the audience and most of our interlocutors got it right. Here is the interpretation of Max Maheu, the presenter of the SolidWild company:
    • Max: If I register my company and listen for the tags “3d printing prototype logo”, all people using !twetailer will get to me?
    • Me: Exactly. All demands posted with one or many corresponding tags in the Montreal area will be forwarded to you, will be routed to you for free ;)
    • ...
    • Me: At this stage, it's possible you'll get unrealistic demands, many of them with the #demo tag. But if you respond to them, that means if you propose something, your message will be routed back to the consumers and your business information will be displayed to them!
    • Max: It's like advertising my business then! Cool.
    What's next?

    As mentioned by Guy Kawasaki in Montreal in March 2009, we have chosen to "launch early and to correct progressively". If all the delivered features are fully functional, there is still a long road to go in delivering the full feature set.

    At this step, we need to get users, that means consumers and retailers, playing with the system and giving us their feedback.

    To collect the information, we have organize the community site twetailer.cyn.in, implemented with the excellent social software from Cynapse. To value the contributions, we have setup a Work-for-attribution protocol: any community member that makes a significant contribution will have his/her work publicly recognized. Any volunteer?

    We need also to work on the marketing side:
    • The brand !twetailer seems too tightly related to Twitter, while using Twitter is just one among the various set of connectors taking to our engine.
    • If !twetailer initial targets are consumers and retailers in a public market, it can work with closed markets, where wholesalers communicate with manufacturers, for example. This aspect needs to be documented and illustrated.
    • To ensure a vibrant life to !twetailer, we have plan to open its API to third-party developers, a bit a-la Twitter. Closed friends have already accepted to develop clients (under the Work-for-Attribution CLA) that will exercise it, but we need a stronger communication there too.
    Thanks a lot to our families and closed friends for encouraging us on the entrepreneurship path. Thanks to anyone for the feedback because they help us improving !twetailer.

    Call to contributors

    !twetailer is a big project with a development still growing, so there's a lot of room for anyone to showcase their knowledge!
    • If you're a developer with Java/JavaScript skills,
    • If you're a tester with automation experience,
    • If you're a UI designer & Interactivity specialist,
    • If you're marketer with a Web 2.0 & Social software experience,
    • If you're a simple consumer in touch with a vibrant community,
    • If you're a business owner looking for new ways to reach your customers,
    • Etc.
    Don't hesitate to contact Steven (Steven@Twitter or Steven@Twetailer.com) or myself (Dom@Twitter or Dom@Twetailer.com) and we'll exchange on our community site at twetailer.cyn.in.

    A+, Dom