In this week’s podcast I talk to Mark Pesce, one of the co-inventors of VRML. Mark and I chat about what drives him to take an idea and see it through to completion. What’s more important for success, the person or the idea?

We also, chat about his new project Plexus – a personal, portable and private social networking tool. Very interesting stuff!

Have a listen and add your thoughts.

Those of you who want to download the podcast, can do so here.

Pollenizer is hiring a Product/Project Manager

Pollenizer is looking to hire a Junior / Mid-weight Project/Product Manager.

Woohoo! Is that person you? See below.

The lucky winner will have to do stuff like:

• Spend half of his/her day in Jira and/or wire framing cool products
• Spend the other half in meetings and Skype calls / chats
• Spend the third half doing another gazillion things

The profile we are after (in no specific order):

• You know your web by heart (Facebook and the other birds)
• You can appreciate a good UI / Product design
• You can jabber English
• You can eat in front of your screen juggling in between a sprint planning and a saturated inbox
• You can run a Skype huddle under your blanky in your bed at 11pm
• You have an entrepreneurial streak
• You can tolerate French, Scottish and Ginger people
• You can handle working while Kylie Minogue is playing on the stereo (in other words; you have a good headset – or you’re deaf)
• You carry the fire

Things that are not required but a nice plus to have:

• You can code a little (PHP and/or Ruby)
• You know your way around Photoshop / Illustrator / InDesign…
• You have some practice with the AGILE methodology
• You can speak Swahili and laugh at dads jokes (would make Mick and Andy happy)

Things we know you don’t know you know we know (huh?):

• We are after a Junior or Mid-weight person. Meaning we don’t expect you to be a rock star at anything. It’s gonna be our job together to make sure you become one
• We expect you to work hard and we will reward you for it
• If you are coming from another planet you will need a visa (We don’t have time to take care of any sort of paperwork for you so it’s your job to organise something. If you can get a Working Holiday Visa then you can tick that one off.)

What we will give you:

• A decent wage based on your hard work, profile and experience
• Front line exposure to the vibrant startup community in Australia
• A great office space (in Surry Hills) buzzing with startups and entrepreneurs
• The chance to work with a team of web veterans
• The ability to quickly get experience in all aspects of delivering a web project
• We will make your Skype window look like a xmas tree

About Pollenizer:
Check out our website, read our tweets, come over to the office for a chat…

How to apply:
So if you’re still reading this you might want to apply.
Well that’s the easy bit, just shoot me an email (pierre-at-pollenizer.com) and tell me what makes you tick. Include a resume, your past experience in similar roles and anything else that you think will make you the woman or man for the job!

Note:
We also have a position open for a Junior Web Designer and we are always on the look out for agile, obsessive and passionated developers in our Indian office :)

“Fantastic, well done. Only 50% of the way to go,” responds the veteran advisor.

We often laugh at this at Pollenizer. It’s something we hear lots of people say when they are starting a new web business, establishing a new partnership, closing a sale or raising investment / venture capital.

The reality is that the last 1% is always the hardest. Signing the contract, getting the money in the bank, that final step is always much much harder than we think.

Yes, in terms of momentum, it does feel like you’re nearly there. But in terms of complexity, work and time, you’re much further away. Why is this the case? A few reasons;

1. There is more detail to go through than we expected.
2. Someone who didn’t want to be involved until it got to this point is now involved.
3. Discussions and enthusiasm is free, but signing the deal is very real and people get nervous.
4. Negotiation can take a lot more thought.
5. (What have I missed here? add a comment and I’ll add it to the list with contribution link)

This shouldn’t get you down. You just need to keep driving. Keep pushing. Don’t stop until the deal is done. Yes, it’s hard, but that’s no excuse. Watch West Wing Season 2, final episode with the talk between the president and the ghost of Mrs Landingham.

Or watch this – coffee is for closers!

This week in the Pollenizer Podcast we chat to the fabulous UX consultant Lisa Herrod, also known as @scenariogirl.

We talk about UX in terms of start-ups and Lisa has some great tips for budding web entrepreneurs out there.

We had some sound glitches so apologies if the quality isn’t quite perfect, we’ll have it sorted out for next time.

For years we have been preaching focus. It aligns your team, simplifies most things, combines your energies in one direction and generally makes life better. This applies to us as much as it does to the companies we work with, and now we’re further tightening our focus.

Our goal: Invest our team and money in 10 web startups by June 30, 2011.

Pollenizer’s focus is on:

• Startup, pre-seed web businesses,
• Located in Australia,
• Targeting consumers,
• That are commercially focused (not ad driven),
• That need an experienced co-founder to invest time and money.

What do you get?

• A majority shareholding.
• A co-founder committed for two years.
• A team of 15 in Australia and 55 in India across technology, marketing and business at your disposal.
• Experience building over 80 web businesses, in ten countries, 100m users and $100m in revenue (portfolio).
• A network of experts on call.
• Access to our exclusive founders and friends discussion group.
• Connection to Angel investors in Australia, Europe and USA (we’ve helped raised $5m in seed and angel investments in the past 12 months including Spreets).
• Founder minimal viable income (in certain cases)

What does Pollenizer get?

• 20% shareholding if you contribute some money.
• 40% shareholding if you do not have any money.

Why Pollenizer?

• We have a strong, committed team.
• We have a reputation for integrity, action and results.
• We are uniquely positioned between technology, entrepreneurialism and investment.
• Our companies have already employed over 100 people.
• We have made more than 14 investments, many outlined in our startup portfolio.

What is the process?

1. Starting Up

• You come to a Startup Bootcamp. Held every few months.
• You propose a partnership.
• Pollenizer conducts basic due diligence on you and the business.
• We sign an agreement and are co-founders for two years. (It’s all ‘we’ from here.)

2. Customer Development

• We continue customer discovery and validation until confident.
• We build out a minimal viable product and keep iterating until traction.
• We get the company and ourselves investor ready, including pitch training.
• We pitch the company until we raise capital from the right investors.

3. Growth

• We put the team in place to grow the business towards profit.
• Pollenizer transitions into advisory roles if required.
• Exit or return on investment options are pursued.

Next Steps

If you’d like to talk to Pollenizer about being a co-founder in your next web business, come to a bootcamp or contact us here.

If you’d like to invest in some of our web businesses, please contact us here.

So this week we chat about the newly launched Pollenizer Bootcamp. Since we’re selling our own wares we decided this would be called the steak knives edition. My cold also gives me a great infomercial lilt to my questions. There is some useful info in there though, so don’t be deterred – I think I would fail at selling steak knives! :-) Also, keeping it real – the background noise (and the final comment on the podcast) is courtesy of my kids.

Please have a listen and give us any feedback. We’re happy to take suggestions about things you would like to know. Maybe you have a question for someone in our team, or would volunteer as a guest yourself. Let us know.

At Lean Startup Circle Sydney, a number of the people were concerned about having to go talk to customers as a part of Customer Discover and Customer Development.

“Can we use a buddy system where someone else goes out and does that and we focus on what we do best?”, one asked the group.

“Yes you can,” I replied, “but you can’t be the founder/CEO/Driver of the business, and you make life much much harder.”

It is very difficult to build a product that customers care about, love, value and desire without talking to customers. You need to understand them, listen to them and care for them.

And I don’t mean emails, feedback tools or twitter. I mean face-to-face. Yep, actually looking them in the eye and talking to them.

Not negotiable.

Why do I have a strong feeling about this? Because you need to see how they feel, how they react, delve into the problem, understand how important it really is, know how it would fit into and change their life.

Yes, for an introverted, shy, sleep by day and code by night developer, this is tough. But if you are starting a startup you’re not just a developer anymore. You’re an entrepreneur. And the best entrepreneurs are the best sales people in their company. They have to be.

You have to sell to;

• Yourself to quit your job, mortgage your house, mortgage your mother’s house and pursue this with vigour for ten years.
• Your family who have to put up with living in a caravan and going without until you change the world.
• Your team members so they turn up each day with electricity beaming from their eyes and shooting from their fingertips.
• Your suppliers who you won’t pay for the first 2 years in lieu of ‘future massive returns’.
• Your first customer before you’ve even got a product and the first 1,000 customers after that.
• Your salesteam who will very rarely out perform you, and certainly not until you’ve shown them.

Don’t think it’s a dirty thing to do. It’s not used car sales. You’re solving someone’s massive problem. It’s a good thing.

Here’s a quick story that my friend Ben Hamilton told me long ago to illustrate it.

Many years ago a man dared to walk tightrope on a wire across Niagara Falls. It was high, wet, windy and dangerous. A lot of people doubted and one journalist particularly. The journo said ” I don’t believe it. I don’t believe you can do it.”

The tightrope walker did it. Walked across the wire.

Everyone said wow, except the journo. “That must have been luck. I still don’t believe it.”

So the tightrope walker grabbed a chair, and asked his assistant to climb up and sit in the chair as he held it above his head. Then, with one hand holding up the chair, he walked all the way across the wire again.

This time everyone was aghast. They all thought it was amazing.

The journo walked up to the tightrope walker and said, “…. OK, I believe. I do. I really, really believe in you.”

“You really, really believe in me?” asked the tightrope worker.

“Yes, absolutely,” replied the journo.

The tightrope walker smiled, and pointed “Then get in the chair.”

Being an entrepreneur is a participation sport.

Get in the chair.

In the first half of the 4 hour workshop we worked on customer discovery (micro-segments, customer values, creating 10 X value). We iterated on this process to create a focused customer development plan. See below. We then pitched the concept to a group of colleagues who liked the idea. That evening we ran a fun market validation exercise around the original business concept – Dares for Dollars. Mick copped a few cream pies in the face.

Customer Development Model

On Monday Chris and the team arrived ready to refine the model above and get cracking on an implementation plan. Within the first hour, the workshop ended. Chris had the weekend to think about his business and changed his mind. He decided he didn’t want to pursue the Pledgespace idea any further.

He failed. This is a good thing. For the modest cost of a Pollenizer focus workshop, Chris has saved himself time and money  building out an idea ‘to spec’ as he originally envisaged and one that he wasn’t passionate about.

Chris has gone through a valuable experience and it highlights that starting a web business and learning to be an entrepreneur requires an enormous head shift, discarding old mental models to learn new principals. It can feel a bit like you are in kindergarten all over again.

What did Chris learn about this experience? You can read below.

From Chris Gray, June 2010:

Hi Guys

I have had some time to think about stuff and reflect on the process and what I have learnt from meeting you guys in Sydney.

To be honest I found the entire process overwhelming.  This would be quite personal as I think it has allot to do with my background, environment  and support network as opposed to the process itself.

I understand the process (as much as I can after 1 weekend) and immediately saw the mistakes I had made along the way. I can still see the value in the concept but can also see the risks and challenges that would need to be mounted along the way and am not prepared to take them.

It comes down to what I said on the day, I don’t know or feel confident enough that I have a strong enough platform on which to build. If I had a history of activism, daring and change facilitation then it would be a different story.

The positive things (things I did like)

1. The feeling that there is MORE to life and the ability to actually make stuff happen
2. The importance and value of having a network and utilising that network
3. The awesome people (Mick, Luke, Jo, Lesley-Ann, Rob Antulov, Wayne Bosley) who I got to meet and talk to
4. The excitement and energy that the process gives you (you guys will never get bored J)
5. The idea that a business is about being dynamic, learning, pivoting and iterating.

The negative things (things I didn’t like)

1. The willingness to “Burn people” in order to learn.  I do understand this but am not entirely comfortable with the “smoke and mirrors” approach.  I like to be 100% transparent as a rule
2. The idea that you put yourself out there to be judged knowing you are wrong just to learn.  Again I understand now why it is necessary and love the fact that this is dynamic and exciting. But at the same time I don’t like to do stuff that I know is wrong, even if I can get something out of it.  It comes back again to the fact that I am transparent, genuine and honest. (Or at least I try to be J)
3. The feeling of being on the outside looking in.

Next steps for me …

1. Find some other people, build a new network that contains more successful, dynamic people such as yourselves
2. Find a concept that I know (not just love) and make it happen
3. Follow through on my ideas… too many times I have gotten almost to the “tipping point” and then bailed out

I would like to thank all of you guys for your time, input, honesty and feedback.

As far as my venture into the web startup world, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it immensely and definitely feel I chose the right people to talk to in Pollenizer.  I can see what you do, understand your approach and how you will continue to be successful.

Given an opportunity I would love to work with any or all of you in the future.

I hope to encounter and meet all of you in some capacity again

Regards

Chris

Mick Liubinskas’ reply to Chris:

Thanks Chris. Fantastic email. Greatly appreciated.

A quick note on ‘burning people’. It sounds worse than it’s supposed to. I guess the key principle here is that we know we’re not going to be perfect day one, so we might have to disappoint or not satisfy some people. There is a tendency to hold it back until it’s right, but the dilemma is that we won’t work out if it’s right until we get it out there in front of real customers.

This relates heavily to points 2 and 3 below.

Looking forward to your next venture and I hope we can work together in the future.

Thanks,
Mick Liubinskas

This week Pollenizer launched Startup Bootcamp to help people like Chris learn the principals of web business startups.”Focus or Fail, it’s that simple”…

Failure if part of life and business. As a community of new and experienced entrepreneurs, why don’t we start sharing more of these stories with our own community and see what happens.

Big thanks to Chris for being willing to share his experience with our community. If you are involved in the startup scene in Perth, get in touch with Chris, he’d love to hear from new and experienced web entrepreneurs.

You can contact Chris Gray on chris@madicus.com.

Today we speak to one of the CTO’s here at Pollenizer, Bruno Mattarollo about the challenges for engineers when building lean start-ups.

We don’t get too technical and if you’re a developer and thinking about building a start-up, I’d say this is a must-listen.

Let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear about.

We’ve had a few iterations of start-up based podcasts here in Australia, some of which I’ve been involved in, but since there are none that we know of at present, we thought we’d fill in the void with the Pollenizer Podcast.

In this first podcast, Phil Morle and I talk about lean start-ups, a term coined by Eric Ries.

Have a listen :-)