nickler

3d Digital design, CNC manufacturing with laser and router machines, and we still depend on a lot of skilled and talented people on the bench.

So much of my time in software project management has been an asset here.

For energy efficiency it seems to be the industry standard these days. Most builders I work with hold it in high regard.

It's not the only challenge the city has, there are a myriad of forces at play, and some are positive. Best way to fix it is to get more startups earning more customers and growing locally. Nothing stopping them from doing that, just wont be as fast as SV is all.

Just had a convo with a NYC venture friend who was raised here in Vancity and his quote was revealing. He said the stink of the VSE resource pump and dump era is still prevalent.

I've been approached by 3 different groups trying to list us pre launch here in town. When that's the culture of the investment scene, it's tough to make anything great.

We are, however, woefully under-represented with experienced seed stage investors, as the author states. The few that are here have abandoned seed and pre seed and are exclusively VC, mid to late round investors. Can't blame them, either, as the wins are still few and far between.

Vancity seems to excel at bridging H1B visas for large firms hoping to cycle them into the US once they've cleared. Candidates get here easier and quicker.

We're also a cost effective labour farm, and our devs are happy for the work to help pay for their ridiculous mortgages.

Great city to live in, worst city to fundraise, good place to launch and validate, and really nice for avoiding the noise.

We'll see a unicorn or two in the coming years. They'll just go a much different path than the typical SV startup.

I wrote a couple pieces on this at startupathlete.com.

Protip: millions of $ =/= success. Ask any millionaire what they would wish for and it's not another million $.

That being said, one of the best questions to ask when someone is in a rut is, 'if money was no object, if you had millions in the bank, what would you be doing'. The follow up, 'why aren't you doing that', will always have some excuse about money, which is bullshit. It's about fear, security, and risk tolerance.

The happiest people I know have the stones to risk their pride, lose all their stuff, and live with mistakes. The saddest people I know spend their later lives regretting the risks they never took.

Wish you both the best of luck.

I've been cheering this innovation, but have yet to see it done well, even by e la carte and its other top competitors. People will always be the most powerful differentiator in foodservice, and tablets aren't there yet.

This speaks volumes to me of how Applebee's thinks of it's guests.

I read a great study 10 years ago that talked about the ratio of entrepreneurial minds to management minds in companies. The interesting point was how tweaking the balance could influence growth, while another could influence profit. This leads so any companies, motivated to increase share prices, to tip the balance toward a managerial mindset to squeeze profit, creating friction on growth.

I couldn't agree more. I've built 5 successful businesses that all required entirely different definitions of success (and more that haven't made it). All of them were bootstrapped and were the product of partnering with exceptionally talented people.

Fair point, they didn't scale, and i'm working on that with my main project, however they've added multi-millions to the economy annually, employed dozens, and those employees have gone on to open their own businesses (dozens of them). I'm damn proud of that impact on the local economy, and I'm not rich from it, not by a long shot (disclaimer, I'm flat broke).

Investors want to participate in high growth, not necessarily high impact. Some can do both, (paypal mafia, I'm looking at you), but most only succeed in making all the participants a healthy living, training the next generation of entrepreneurs, and keeping the money flowing in the local economy instead of to a corporate head office.

I think those are pretty good outcomes.

Honestly, my instinct is to avoid learning a new program for such a particular use case, and just continue to use MailChimp, is there a value prop I should be aware of?

I could see small businesses using it if you could automate the data capture. Example, adding the capture to the point of sale at time of transaction, automatically sending a follow up email 24 hrs later, with the merchant needing to do nothing except the original setup.

SMB operators are taxed on time, adoption requires a significant overall time reduction in the value prop (imo)and convincing them of that will get trials.

I like where you're headed with it, keep it up!

Thanks for the honesty and 'chin up', it's appreciated.

Baby steps...

I think I probably blast this shit out to help manage the voices, and talk my way through it, thanks for reading!

Looking forward to taking it for a test drive.

Funding decisions should always be about goals. What are the goals for raising the money here?

VC's want to see how a 1x investment turns into a 5x return. If you can't communicate that now, it might be a rough pitch.

It sounds like you're on the right path, see if you can squeeze a revenue stream from advertising and continue to iterate on that. If you can prove (to yourself, first) that an investment in advertising your site will significantly change those revenues then you can start considering VC capital.

I would suggest reaching out to partners that can help you with traffic first and foremost, a VC will want to know that you can manipulate the growth levers, not just organically.

In the meantime, keep up the hunt for an angel who's as excited about the space as you are, they're the best fit because they'll share your vision, invest in infrastructure, and be a little more patient.

Remember, funding means added pressure to perform, and milestones that need to be hit. Make sure you're ready for those pressures before you take the check!

Good luck!

Last I talked with these guys this is their secret sauce.