Come for the Ride…

I’m not usually a fan of chain mail forwards, but it’s the eve of launch day and my brain is fried. Plus my mother in-law sent this to me.

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At the recent computer expo (COMDEX) in Vegas, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

‘If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.’

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash…….. Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single ‘This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation’ warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask ‘Are you sure?’ before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the ‘Start’ button to turn the engine off.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been talking with a number of startup entrepreneurs, successful serial entrepreneurs and even angels at helping us better define our venture.  Through the various practice pitches, brainstorming sessions, and chats, we’ve received numerous feedback from just throwing the idea on the table.

If a typical person’s attitude towards giant (evil) corporations is jealousy and hostility, the opposite would be true when they are presented with a startup.

From our networking sessions, it would seem the average attitude towards a nameless startup is the sincere desire to help.  If you’re at that stage, make sure you put yourself out there for others to critique.  While I know many are still weary of asking help from strangers and would like to remain in stealth mode, I would venture to say 9/10 entrepreneurs out there would fail if they don’t at least seek some feedback from their social network.  Every bad or great idea needs some tweaks and this is where brainstorming with like-minded people can be useful.

Let’s face it, unless you’re building a real time machine or teleporter, the chances of someone stealing your idea is probably not that great. Even though we have a passion for our project, we’ve definitely encountered more people who could care less about the idea than people who are plotting to clone it.  In the end, you should still be careful who you go to for advice, but if you stick around in the good neighborhoods, you will probably find more allies than frienemies.

As you all know, we are based in Atlanta, GA. As recently as earlier today, we have had multiple tornadoes today touch down in the city and cause some pretty heavy damage. Even my own family saw some damage due to extreme hail and we had quite a weekend of picking up and cleaning up after the storm. Heck, my phone and internet even suffered through the weekend due to this damage. The people downtown were even worse though:

AJC Tornado Damage Pictures

All the images shown are images submitted by readers of the AJC who have sent them into the news paper. I recall a day when you had a staff photographer at news papers that were sent to take all pictures. A majority of all pictures taken still show either the AP logo or some sort of freelance photographer that the newspapers pay for their pictures. However, with the invention of Flickr, Webshots and Google Images Search, it begs the question: why should I pay someone a full-time salary or expensive freelance fees when I can ask for people to send us images with the privilege of having their images show up on the AJC website. For example:

Flickr Atlanta Tornado Damage Pictures

Here’s another example of the recent crane collapse in New York City:

Flickr New York Crane Collapse

Not only are the pictures better than anything I’ve seen on TV or any media website about the accident, they were done immediately after the incident without having to send out a team to get pictures or manage the logistics someone on the payroll.

So… we are due to launch the beta in five days. To be brutally honest, we’re not ready and I don’t foresee us to be completely bug free in five days. However, if history has ever taught me anything, it’s that perfect launches do not guarantee success but hiding in pre-launch mode indefinitely does guarantee failure.

While this website probably won’t meet my personal standard of launch-acceptableness in five days, hopefully by having the website being live will push us to work even harder and faster to crunch the bugs.

On the bright side, the public seems to be pretty forgiving these days with flawed websites and maybe improving the site with the audience instead of for the audience will help build a loyal following.

AlphaLab in Pittsburgh has now joined yCombinator and TechStars as a startup launch program. (We really need one of these in Atlanta!) AlphaLab’s deal is slightly better than TechStars since you receive $25,000 for only 3% equity in the company. TechStars takes 5% equity in your company for $15,000 and yCombinator gives you $15,000 for about 6% if you have 2 founders.

From a pure money standpoint AlphaLab has the best deal. Similar to the other programs, your startup will also receive services, advisers and office space in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Having had a high school friend launch a successful web business from Pittsburgh, it does seem like the city is suitable for these kinds of incubators. However, the program does expect you to stay in Pitt past the six month build period - which isn’t very accommodating for startups who have already established themselves elsewhere. Overall, the location is probably the biggest drawback unless you’re a college student.

The deadline for the Summer/Fall program is March 31st. Program starts on June 2nd.