Strap » out-of-town

founder institute session 2

cheez80 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:32:51 +0000

we had some interesting talks this week about basic market research — it opened my eyes to the legwork that we still haven’t done (and still need to do). i’ll be sitting down this week and doing the research that we need to do to make sure we can pitch Receet effectively and cogently.

one of the presenters was Joe Betts-Lacroix, who was the former CTO at OQO, which made cool stuff like the OQO 02 UMPC. they fell into the deadpool back in may, but i always wanted one of their UMPCs. too bad.

after the session, we swung by the bar at the hyatt (michael’s, if i’m not mistaken) and had some drinks with everybody else and the mentors.

anyway, like last week, i’m looking forward to next week’s session.

FI meeting 1

cheez80 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:42:04 +0000

last night was the first meeting of adeo ressi’s founder institute (san diego extreme edition). richard and i picked up a fellow founder in fountain valley, then we schlepped it to san diego. we got there super early, so we wasted an hour at the utc westfield. we were the first at the venue, cooley’s offices in san diego. i tried to describe receet to adeo before the session started, and he volunteered us for the founder’s hot seat, which is something that’s going to happen every session, apparently — selected founders get their ideas torn apart by the mentors and other founders at that session.

we had a some interesting mentors last night — adeo talked about nurturing and idea, jordan greenhall (former ceo of divx) talked about vision, mission, brand and culture, and neil senturia (vc and funny old jewish man) talked about the hallmarks of entrepreneurship (i can’t be 100% sure, since he put so many jokes in there and i was too busy trying my hardest not to let my head hit the table ’cause i was so tired). the talks were great, but there really wasn’t a common theme — it seemed to me that there wasn’t a coherent plan between the speakers before they presented. either way, the presentations were very good and helpful.

then they did the founder’s hot seat. receet was picked (so i volunteered to go), and so was the guy we picked up in fountain valley, so we spent the next 15 minutes getting torn apart by adeo, jordan, and neil. i wasn’t as articulate as i should have been (rich told me i panicked, haha), nor was i prepared, but i thought i did okay for being completely blindsided, as i wasn’t prepared to make a presentation that night. still, the criticisms that the mentors gave were helpful. this taught us that we need to work on our presentation skills and the ability to articulate our idea. good things to know.

after that, we split into working groups. apparently we all have to meet up at least once outside of the planned tuesday class, so that means i’ll be driving out to the daygo twice a week. crap. gas money is going to kill me, haha.

we went to the hyatt regency down the street after that and had some drinks and talked some more. rich and i had a good conversation with adeo, who offered us the reassurance that we had a good idea. it’s good to have some validation, especially from someone who’s as accomplished and experienced as he.

anyway, i’m looking forward to this saturday’s working group meeting and next week’s regular meeting. let’s hope my car doesn’t have any mishaps on the way!

back from cambridge!

cheez80 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:50:24 +0000

so the vc conference was really good: well organized, with interesting speakers, and a good crowd. i think the biggest thing i realized is that the boston-area entrepreneurs and vc’s are interested in a different sort of product. things like bio-tech, green tech, life sciences, etc. seem better represented and our web 2.0 nonsense seems out of place.

it was a good trip, though, and we saw snow on the last day. it was really beautiful, like a scene out of a christmas card. we visited quincy market and had some chowdah, took a tour through harvard, and walked through harvard square.

we’re really excited to get back to work again, after a few week long hiatus. hopefully we’ll be able to begin an alpha test around new year’s. i’ll keep everybody posted.

charles