Recently, Mozilla launched a new programme called Web FWD, where  young businesses are invited to spend 4 weeks in the Mozilla San Francisco HQ building their products.

They’ll have access to Mozilla-spiked resources and, at the end of four weeks, an MVP ready to launch.

Pollenizer’s Phil Morle is a mentor, along with guns from the Mozilla team, VC’s and entrepreneurs. Check out the full list of mentors here.

The program runs on a rolling submission schedule with the first spots opening in August.

You can find more (and apply!) at the Web FWD site.

It’s a great read but page 9 really struck a chord with me.

I get asked a lot, “Your business card format is very simple. Aren’t you worried about somebody ripping it off?” Standard answer: Only if they can draw more of them than me, better than me.

Many entrepreneurs are nervous about sharing their idea at the risk of someone stealing it.

The truth is, they won’t have the passion that you do and that is the key to success. (Or they may not even understand your idea.) No one succeeds at something they do half-heartedly.

This passion makes all the sacrifices, long hours, sleepless nights and hard work worthwhile.

So what is the lesson for this chapter?

Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina.

Do you agree with High’s stance on sharing your idea?

However, Jeffrey Bussgang recommends that these are the kinds of questions you should ask yourself:

• Do you have an idea that no one can talk you out of?
• Do you have a partner you trust with complimentary skills?
• Are you prepared to endure with modest or no salary for a few years?
• Are you bored with your current work environment/life situation?
• Do you perform best in the absence of structure?

If you can confidently answer these, why not apply for Pollenizer’s Startup Bootcamp 2011 (Sydney)?

There are two parts to our application process.

The first is a quick survey.

The second is a brief video pitch – Once we’ve received your quick survey information, we can email the link the video pitch.

Photo by Daniel Broche - Click to view original on Flickr

The Pollenizer team is constantly exposed to a flux of new entrepreneurs with web-businesses ideas. This stream comes to us either via our Bootcamp sessions, Pitches rounds, Investors network or more broadly via the various social media tools our antennae can reach.

This is awesome!

Seeing so much entrepreneurial energy in the Australian web industry is one of the best thing we could all wish for. This energy is fueling us everyday to build more great web products and hopefully shape tomorrow’s web landscape.

However we, too often, hear the same sad stories.

Extracts:

My idea is simply Facebook but better

No it’s not.

You’ll need to sign an NDA first and then I’ll tell you about my idea

No we won’t sign your NDA.

I want to patent my idea

Really? Nothing better to spend your money on?

My project will succeed because it’s highly viral!

Ha ha ha!

My target market is pretty much everybody on the planet. They’ll all love it and pay money for it!

Bye now…

Etc. etc…

This might sound harsh to some but this is the true reality. The quicker entrepreneurs can overcome this secretive / overly optimistic cliche, the quicker they will actually start to walk on the road of success (I love metaphors… ;).

All this was admirably summarized in this hilarious video from James Yu – Check it out!

Let us know in the comments if you think I should be a vegetarian this is the right way to look at it :)

If you need venture capital to shift your startup into its next fast-growth phase then Innovation Bay’s upcoming Angel Dinner in Sydney might be for you.

If you are interested in coming to the dinner, have funds to invest or represent a company that is looking to invest in early stage companies, you should contact the Innovation Bay team on info@innovationbay.com.

“From the last 5 dinners over $6m in funding has been raised as a direct consequence of companies pitching at the dinner.  The dinner enables entrepreneurs to pitch in a supportive environment, in front of an audience of technology experienced angel investors and advisors”, say Ian Gardiner and Phaedon Stough, Innovation Bay co-founders.

1. What: Innovation Bay Angel Dinner
2. When: September 21st 2010
3. Location: Table for Twenty in Surry Hills, Sydney
4. What do I have to do? Submit a 90 second video elevator pitch in any video format and send to info@innovationbay.com
5. Application Deadline: 5 pm, Tuesday 14th September 2010
6. Full details: www.innovationbay.com

See you there!

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.

One of the best thing about the geeky, propellor head Product and Engineering team is that they aren’t just geeks. They’re entrepreneurs, which of course makes them, as Phil’s new hoodie states, Entreprenerds.

This of course is crucial for when you want to start a web business, as you don’t want pure tech guys who don’t think about the customers, the value, the reason to use it or the business model.

So, along with geeky marketing, business and even financial people, you get product and engineering business crew.

* Kudos to Luke Metcalfe for the Urban Dictionary tip.

Although the book mostly markets itself to workers keen to stand out within an organization, there are important transferable messages for entrepreneurs.

In Linchpin Seth introduces a new way of thinking around artistry. An artist, he says, is not just someone who creates works with paint, clay or photos. An artist can be anyone, in any industry. What makes them an artist is the passion and ambition with which they work. If you adopt this artist mindset and approach, you eventually become a linchpin (and, as Seth argues, successful).

Entrepreneurs are, in many ways, artists by definition – wanting to create something new and different. But as we know, there are successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful ones. So what’s the difference? Seth discuss some fundamental attributes:

Artists ship their ideas out early and often
Successful workers don’t get to where they are by being perfectionists. They launch early, fail fast and learn even faster. They aren’t afraid of getting laughed at.

Artists say No to the Resistance
The Resistance (image below) is the little voice in the back of your head which talks you out of doing something. Successful people have the guts to say no to the resistance, and take the leap.

Artists choose to do the work
Artists have control over their work. They’re the ones that put in the 10,000 hours. They’re the ones who decide to make sacrifices in order to get the work done.

Artists give gifts
They know it’s the little unasked extras which make the difference between a good service and a great one. People like extras. They’ll come back wanting more. And one day, they’ll pay for your services, and even wait in line.

Artists do things differently
Artists aren’t cookie-cutter compliant. They respectfully challenge the rules, and dare to live outside the square.

And in the end, this is Seth’s main point. He urges you to stand out. Don’t be scared to be different – from your friends, your colleagues, your family. Give your startup its best chance of success, and put it out there. You never know, you might just succeed.

Have you read Linchpin? What are your thoughts?

And for more on this approach, download Seth’s manifesto Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent from Change This.

If you have even a passing interest then I recommend checking out some of the events! Some of my picks for the week are:

• Mon – Networking Drinks at the Ivy in the city, 6pm-8pm
• Tue – Speed Networking at Australian Technology Park, 4pm-4.30pm
• Wed – Product Development Meetup at Surry Hills  8.30am-10am
• Thur – Open Coffee at Allianz in the City, 8.30am-9.30am
• Fri – Pitchfest at the Powerhouse Museum, 4pm-5pm
• Sat – BarCamp Unconference at Australian Technology Park, 9.30am-5pm

Check out the full event listing here for many more events across Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. Full details on the week at Unleashing Ideas.