Category: Uncategorized

Speed

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

A friend and I were discussing an imminent launch I am working on. There’s a lot of nervous energy. There are so many factors, reasons to hesitate, be cautious, ensure everything is tight. On the flipside, reasons to zoom ahead.  

He came up with a great analogy for any start up. It’s like the movie Speed.

Speed Movie Visual

You can’t drop below a certain speed or you won’t stay alive. You can’t go too fast or you might crash on a difficult corner. It’s a real balancing act of momentum & due consideration.  

At some point we all approach an unfinished bridge and we just have to go for it!

MBA

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Once upon a time I thought it would be a good use of my time doing an MBA. I was quite into my ‘career’ and thought that this would enhance it.

It still can in enhance career prospects in some organizations. But before you embark on upwards of a $30,000 investment and 3 years of your spare time consider this. MBA’s are only a ticket to the ball game, and if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur this ticket is not required.

Graduation

The fact is MBA’s were designed for management with a non business undergraduate degree to enhance their business acumen. They are essentially undergraduate course work regurgitated. Add to this the fact that everyone in conglomerate X already has one and the point of difference it once provided has disappeared.

In a web 2.0 world marketing & entrepreneurship are moving so fast, University course work simply can’t keep up. I think we’re better off following todays leading thinkers (all of which have blogs) and taking a vocation of business related learning. If you really want to stand out, learn another language, learn how to build an e-commerce website, be a leading thinker on social trends

By the way, the name is a giveaway: Master of Business Administration, not Master of Business Strategy… and who wants to become an administrator?

Flux

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

My previous entry We Need espoused the virtues of doing rather than planning. I do not bend. However, you will ‘need’ to do certain things at certain points. Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking all your needs can be achieved symmetrically. A pre-launch desire for symmetry will kill you before your start.

A world of flux will cause a never ending planning cycle….A world of flux will cause a never ending planning cycle…..A world of flux will cause a never ending planning cycle…..

Who funds who?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

We have discovered we need $500K to fund our project. So far this has proven to be our biggest obstacle. We haven’t the cash ourselves. To investors we are asking for too little to be taken seriously. This is what you get by being diligent. Forecasting to the dollar, and finding innovative ways to produce and promote your business.

VC’s incorrectly believe that the size of the opportunity is proportionate to the size of the capital required. They are stuck in the post war TV industrial complex . Heard of Google? They started in 1996 with $100K USD. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to put a $7 million advertising launch campaign into the financials. Thereby boosting our cash requirements to $7.5 million. Would the VC’s then stand up and look? If they do, you don’t want their cash. They simply don’t ‘get it’.

Business funding in Australia can be place into 4 categories:

  1. Family & Friends ($50k – $500K)
  2. No Mans Land  ($500k – $1m)
  3. Angel Capital ($1m- $3m)
  4. Venture Capital ($3m+)

Attitudes vary significantly by category. We realized quickly that we were not in traditional VC territory. Only in no mans land can you invent your own funding rules. However, you need to move up or down the funding food chain to make it happen. You need to ask if you can ‘bootstrap’ the idea with less cash, or sell the dream to some hardened investors. Also, not to be underestimated is the ‘close knit consortium’. Topic of the next blog.