Patrick Riley, co-founder and CEO of Modern Survey, will share his experiences on bootstrapping Modern Survey into one of fastest growing companies in the Twin Cities. Patrick has nearly twenty years of experience in enterprise technology space and is an expert in emerging web technology trends. His industry expertise has been tapped in the past by organization such as National Public Radio’s “Marketplace,” the Star Tribune and Talent Management Magazine.
Patrick’s leadership and vision have been on display for years in his many contributions to the arts and to his community. Patrick is an accomplished filmmaker and musician. He has played in rock & roll bands, worked as a writer and producer in the film and television industry in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles and at the Sundance Filmmaker’s Lab, and has volunteered his time and energy to the Interact Center and Center for Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment. Patrick earned his BS degree in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
This is an excerpt from this interview with Matt Cameron of Corporate Catapult by Gareth Rose of iPitch. Matt highlights the value of the connections that he made at several Bootstrappper Breakfasts.
When I reached out to Gareth to get his permission to use this excerpt I asked him what iPitch was and he said “IPitch is an online community which educates and connects Australian entrepreneurs to help them startup and grow their businesses.”
Hat Tip to Ron Fredericks of LectureMaker for splicing together the excerpt.
We did some brainstorming at a recent breakfast about events and co-working facilities where you can meet other potential co-founders or look to join an early stage startup. Here is the list that we came up with.
Hacker Dojo costs $100 a month and will give you access to the co-working space and a chance to meet a lot of other founders on a informal basis and compare notes.
PlugandPlay is another space that has a lot of entrepreneurs, it’s more expensive but has several hundred teams either on-site or affiliated.
Hackers and Founders is a meetup devoted to founders. It’ a chance for informal conversation about technology and business subjects.
Startup Weekend is also an event worth attending when they come back to to the Bay Area, it’s a 54 hour “stress test” that let’s you see how folks perform under a small amount of pressure.
FounderDating is devoted to helping folks find co-founders
Startup2Startup is another group focused on getting early stage technology entrepreneurs together for a talk and networking.
The Founder Institute runs a structured program for entrepreneurs that is getting a lot of positive recognition. They run a four month training
SVASE runs Startup-U events several times a month with speakers who address startup issues, they would be an opportunity to network with attendees for co-founders
The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab runs monthly events that attract a lot of early stage technology entrepreneurs.
George Grellas posted the following in answer to a question on Hacker News about deferring legal fees. Like all of his writing it’s well thought out and based on a wealth of practical experience. It’s posted here with his permission
Be cautious about deferred fees in dealing with lawyers. These have their legitimate role in the world of startups but, as with any other form of “easy credit,” they can wind up costing you far more in the long run than if you simply negotiate good rates or fixed fee amounts for work you have at hand.
For example, this piece discusses fee deferrals up to $30K. How would this work?
A typical deferred-fee deal provides that a startup will get corporate legal services of up to x amount that are deferred for some fixed time (say, 6 months) or until the company does its first funding at some minimum amount (say, $1 million), whichever comes first. In exchange, the startup gives the law firm a small piece of equity for the credit extension. If the startup fails in its business, the founders are not personally liable for the cost of the legal services and the law firm eats the loss (this is the credit risk it takes for which it gets equity in exchange). If the startup does not fail, the bill comes due in time and must be paid.
Now, a few observations from one who has done such deals many times over from a lawyer perspective:
The deferred-fee deal is a beautiful fit for the type of go-for-broke, hope-to-massively-scale company that will depend heavily on VC funding. You team up with a few co-founders, set your company in motion, and let it fly. You get heavily diluted up front when the VC funding comes in at $5 million and up, the burn rate for the company is high, and you go all out with a prestige team to build that billion dollar company (or at least hundreds of millions). You hire a law firm that bills $500/hr and up even for green attorneys and that works in teams. A simple company formation is $5K and up; your convertible note round is $5K to $10K and up; your Series A round is $50K to $60K and up. And, if it all works, all this gets paid from VC money. If it flops, you owe nothing. In a way, then, this is a risk-free way as a founder to go for broke in launching an ambitious venture.
Now consider a bootstrap venture or an angel-funded venture where the founders delay outside funding until they can build a credible pre-money valuation in hopes of minimizing dilution. Unlike the VC-funded case, you will here want to be much more cautious about what the legal services will cost. In most such companies, it is easy to get through the first 6 months of the company’s history (a typical deferral period) without coming anywhere close to spending $30K on a legal budget. Company formation can easily be done in the $2K-$3K range for the vast majority of such companies; bridge notes for $3K or so; Series A often for $5K to $10K. Maybe you also need Terms of Service and other miscellaneous items (e.g., trademark applications). Thus, if you add up all the typical legal needs of such a venture, you might get up to the $10K range in the normal case if you spend your money wisely.
The temptation, then, with a deferred-fee deal is to spend on legal matters with greater abandon given that you are using “easy credit.” This made sense historically under the VC model. It makes less sense under the modern angel model and even less sense for a company that is going the purely bootstrap route.
When it comes to deferred-fee deals, then, it is important to count the real cost. It may be a good step for your company but make sure the fit is right for your venture. A decade ago, this was a near-ideal arrangement for most startups with quality founding teams. Today, it makes sense for some but probably not for most quality startups.
Bottom line: if a deferred-fee deal looks attractive, then, by all means do it. Just don’t treat it as an axiomatic good. Like most easy-credit arrangements, the ultimate cost to your company (even if not to you personally) may be quite a bit higher than what it might otherwise be if you focus purely on the market cost of the services.
Watch your dollars and especially when someone offers you something that seems to be all upside (when it is not).
He writes a companion blog at that also has good advice for bootstrappers. One recent post on “deadlines and lists” at
is particularly appropriate. Some excerpts [with my comments in square brackets]:
One of the key differences between the people at the top and the “also rans” is consistency and aspiration.
Set goals with strict deadlines: Whether it be a competition, an academic exam or an arbitrary date selected by you, having deadlines is one of the surest ways to get things done. Set goals that are a stretch. When you have a large task to accomplish (write an opinion, launch a product, achieve a sales quota, design something) there is nothing more effective than breaking this task down into mini-milestones that have strict deadlines. [Note: A Goal Without a Deadline is a Wish]
Make yourself accountable: If you don’t have an external deadline for a task or objective (eg your daily mini-tasks), then do what I do and tell someone else what you are going to achieve. [Note: this works both within your own team and taking advantage of groups like Bootstrappers Breakfast.]3) Make a checklist: There are some things that we have to do on a repeatable basis and as you gain experience, you will figure out what the best steps are. Something I did very early on was make a checklist of things to do.
Prepare Your Own Provisional Patent Application for Software Entrepreneurs
Workshop Feb-24-2011 in San Francisco
This workshop addresses the basics of patenting and how to prepare and file your own provisional patent application. Attendees will learn how the basics of patent law, how to use patents to protect an invention, and the minimum requirements for filing a provisional patent application.
A hands-on approach to preparing the written description and drawings will be used. Guidance on the proper way to file a provisional patent application will also be included. A syllabus is here:
The instructor, Mr. Pete Tormey, is an experienced patent attorney who has founded 7 start-up companies. He provides unique insight as both an attorney and an entrepreneur.
Date/Time: February 24, 2011 from 8:30 AM to 12 noon. Location: 201 Spear St Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA Cost: $149 ($124 with discount code “Bootstrapper”) Register:http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1270968501 More Info: info@YourOwnPatent.com
We have seen a number of teams form or add co-founders as a result of discussions at or introductions from a conversation at a Bootstrappers Breakfast. The small group setting (8-16 folks around a table) doesn’t put introverts at as much of a disadvantage as having to speak to a group of 30-100 does. One facilitated conversation means that everyone gets a chance to be heard and to contribute, and the networking takes place after the event when everyone has some context from the prior discussion to be able to start a conversation.
While our primary purpose is to help entrepreneurs compare notes on common challenges related to organic growth, we have seen that these same discussions also foster a number of co-founder discussions and introductions. If you attend a breakfast in Silicon Valley we will allow you to post a brief (100-150 words) description of your startup and what you are looking for in a co-founder to our newsletter that is sent out to about 800 bootstrappers. There are a number of events in Silicon Valley that support co-founder matching in different ways: each has a different format that has its own strengths and weaknesses:
There is an even longer list of on-line only sites but I haven’t personally heard of much success from that approach. I think it’s because there is something about a face to face conversation–it communicates an order of magnitude more information that’s private and directed–that makes it hard to replicate on-line. See also last year’s “Round Up Of Co-Founding Events“
Matt Bauer, Founder of Pedal Brain LLC, will give a brief presentation regarding his experiences in financing and building Pedal Brain at the Thu-Dec-16 breakfast in Minneapolis.
Pedal Brain is an iPod and iPhone ANT+ accessory that manages your training log and acts as a coaching platform. Second, it’s a complete training log. Third, it’s a coaching platform. Every time you ride your performance data is uploaded in realtime to the web where coaches, teammates and friends can see it–if you allow them to. You don’t have to do a post workout data upload or print out your workouts before heading out–they are always available on your iPhone or iPod.
Join us 7:30am Thursday December 16, 2010 at Maria’s Cafe on 1113 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 for what should prove a very interesting conversation.
We have three Bootstrapper Breakfasts this week in Silicon Valley: the Dublin/Pleasanton breakfast was re-scheduled a week earlier to avoid falling on Thanksgiving.
RT @dorait: Social media is fragmenting into social platforms that are best of breed for a certain kind of social engagement. http://t.c ... #2012/02/02
