Long weekend! -- Jul. 6, 2010
Ye olde homework:
- Continue sending invites: first to the three potential partners, then to friends.
- Play along with Andrew and/or Max and/or someone else (at least one, the rest on the weekend!).
- Get the grant stuff together.
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So, what to discuss? A couple of points today, methinks. How's about three "Why?" questions?
Why did I take a long weekend? -- With so much going on, you might say, it was irresponsible for me to take a breather. Well, maybe so. It's definitely a crazy time in YouPhonics' (let alone my own!) life. But I feel that such a time necessitates pause. When you're in the thick of things, you don't get to take the macro view. Which, when you're in the thick of things, is often the most important view to take.
For example, a friend (and semi-advisor) of mine emailed me before the weekend with a few grilling questions re: why we don't yet have a video, and why a specific user flow isn't highlighted. When I responded, I let him know that these issues were being worked on, but we had press attention rising and didn't want to miss their news cycle, so we delayed them until after we got some word out.
This, obviously, wasn't the most efficient/effective answer. But neither was delaying the press and possibly losing our "heat." Being in the middle of a tight situation, I had to choose what I thought was the right answer -- and which I'm happy I made (any decision is, nine times out of ten, better than indecision). That said, while the snap decision worked, I'm sure it wasn't as effective as, say, opening a dialogue, inviting interested parties for a private demo, and offering them the scoop... but on my own timeline.
Why did I miss out on the grant deadline? -- Simple: it was the first close. This grant is still applicable up until (nearly) the end of the year. And, frankly, I'm stretched a little thin as is. It's just cash back -- I can get the cash back now, or I can get it back later. It's not an infusion. It's not investment. It's not sales. It doesn't help prove the business model. And, just as our user base is starting to grow, and we're starting to see increased activity, and we're gearing up to open wide before the end of the month... well, this was a priority that had to be cut. Sorry, wallet. You'll get your action in December, baby.
Note: this may prove to have been a very stupid decision. And I understand that. But only time will tell...
Why am I killing all investment talks between now and September (at the earliest)? -- There is one caveat here: I'm allowing myself a second meeting with one open end, and a first call -- in which I'll be very frank about how I feel about my current investment situation -- with an Angel who recently got back from an extended business-and-pleasure trip.
Anyway, to answer the question: much like the guys in an article I read fairly recently (I wish I could link this, but I can't remember any key words beyond the point I'm about to make), I realized this past weekend that I'm meeting with and thinking about investors at least as much, if not more than, musicians. Which, to me, is flat out wrong.
While I truly hope that any of these three meetings I have result in a commitment to lead an Angel/Seed round, I don't think I really care as much anymore. Some amazing opportunities are opening up this next two months -- including travels to NYC, SF, and Vancouver, a retreat at a cottage North of Montreal, and more or less equal time split between Montreal and Toronto -- and I'm going to use these chances to achieve the following goals:
- Grow YouPhonics as a platform, by getting people to come play along with us.
- Recruit some awesome talent.
- Test for broken user flows, and design their fixes.
- Woo some awesome advisors.
- Seek inspiration in others.
All of these, in one way or another, contribute to making YouPhonics a more attractive investment. More importantly, they directly (and positively) impact my business regardless of whether or not they actually make us more pretty in they eyes of our beholders (and soon-to-be-shareholders).
All right, folks. Think that's enough for tonight!
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Lessons learned:
- Take a breath.
- Don't forget to exhale.
- Repeat.
Tomorrow's homework:
- Continue with strategy-planning -- I should have, at the very least, my recruitment processes and next steps, a dream-list of advisors and how to reach them, and an easy-to-implement marketing idea or two.
- Start preparing the tutorial video we'll be recording -- script it out so the flow is right, and rehearse it.
