People’s Software Company

Some of the TechStars 2008 companies are amazing. All of them are interesting. Because we’re almost at the end of the TechStars program, we’ve been talking a lot about what we’ve gotten out of it, what we learned, and where we fell short or would have done things differently if there was a do-over. We’ve also had a chance to really see what the other companies accomplished this summer and how their ideas have played out.

Many of them are both impressive and great people and I’ll write about their start ups in another set of posts–what this post is about is how seeing where we are, compared to some of our program mates, makes me think about horse racing.

You see, I think we’re the filly class (along with one other TC company). We’re the small bet that David and Brad and the TC team took on something completely new, with no product, no business plan, no revenue positive idea (not when we started in May 08). INMHO, we got in because a) we have an experienced team, and b) we wanted to solve problems in a category and sector that is pretty interesting and can be revenue positive (those parts of our idea haven ‘t changed).

There are a whole bunch of other TechStars companies I’d say were in the one-year old class-these were the teams that had worked together for six months to a year, had an executable idea, and clearly could go out into the market over the summer. The majority of my program mates fit in this category and it has been great to see the progress–they’re all launching by September, they have new business models to go out with, and everything has come together much more cohesively than when we all walked into The Bunker in May 08.

Finally, there are just a couple of companies I’d put in the two year old class. These companies have teams that have worked together for years, and they came in with fully functioning online businesses that needed an upgrade, better focus, or help in a particular area (besides raising money). Lisa and I look at these companies like they’re the start-up grown-ups, the prettiest girls at the dance, and they’re good lessons for us in how doing a successful startup means being persistent, stubborn and listening hard to both the market and your customers.

For two people as driven and competitive as we are, being in the filly class has been both a wonderful experience–we walked in as two new co-founders of nothing–and walked out with a real company with a problem to solve, a product roadmap, and plans for a market (and, finally, live code)–and a frustrating one (we want to be in the two year old class, tomorrow).

I’d say that two of the most valuable lessons for us, the fillies, have been a) speed can be a great accelerator (we definitely have gone so much farther, faster, than we would have w/o the problem and we learned so much more–useful stuff), and b) you can’t rush everything, everything takes time, and as hard as you can work (and we can work hard), some things have to cook–ie you have to give it time (and have the faith it’s worth the journey to get there.)

So, here we go.