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this is where I try out: she's geeky (part 2)

She's Geeky - Day 1, Session 2
Moderated by: Mary Hodder, Dabble

Panelists:
Patricia Nakache, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Jodi Sherman Jahic, Principal, Voyager Capital Team

VCs and Women in Tech: A Brainstorm with Women VCs and Entrepreneurs


This panel turned out to be AWEsome. I was waffling around whether to go to it or not, since I can't really envision myself ever pitching to a VC, I break out in hives when I have to deal with forecasting spreadsheets, and I think finance is BO-ring. For whatever reason, I ended up in the session, and it was so valuable.

Things I learned:

• "Venture Scale" = an endeavor that has the potential to provide a 5x-10x ROI over a 4-6 year horizon. If you can't show how your product/company is going to achieve this, you are either looking for a different kind of funding, or you haven't adequately completed your homework.
• Speaking of homework, sound advice: Do. Your. Homework. When you are asking someone to give you 6 or 8 figures, you should at least know who you are meeting with, what is his or her background/market specialty, what is his or her role in the fund. Bonus points for having some shared connections (alumni of the same school, shared acquaintances)
  
• The goal of your first meeting is to get a second meeting. You are not going to get a check at the first meeting.
• How do you get a first meeting? Network - get an intro. Very unlikely that you'll get a meeting based on a cold call or email over the wire. Making the effort to reach and know influencers in your community is a sign of ambition, savvy, and social skill - all good qualities when you're asking for the privilege of spending someone else's money on realizing your dream.
• Like many relationships, if it isn't going to work out, VCs may not be completely forthcoming with the reasons for declining your request. VCs & entrepreneurs have a symbiotic relationship - if you turn someone down in a way that puts them off, maybe they don't offer you the opportunity to invest in their next venture? Likewise, if you're a jerkface when the VCs don't write you a check, good luck getting a meeting for your new company. Also paralleling other relationships - it's not a bad idea to circle back after some time has passed and ask why the partner chose not to fund you. She may be more candid at that point, especially if you come at it with open & good intentions: to improve your pitch, to figure out what's flawed in your business plan, to better yourself, etc.
• There are 4 kinds of risk that VCs will assess against you, your company, and your product:
• Technical Risk: Can it be done? Does the technology exist or is it being created? Are the technical underpinnings proven or experimental? Technical risk is often assessed by asking an expert to perform "due diligence"
  
• Financial Risk: Can you do your thing with the amount of money they're willing to give you, or will you burn through their cash and become an "accidental non-profit"? Is your idea "venture scale"?
• Execution Risk: Can YOU do it? Do you have the right people, expertise, and materials? Do you have a demonstrated track record of success and of responsibly managing a business or line of business?
  
• Market Risk: Who buys your product? Is there someone else likely to get there sooner and take your market? Can you take down whoever is in the space now? Will consumer tastes or preferences change while you're off executing your vision? Do you really have a grasp on who you're trying to sell to, and how you are going to reach them? Do you have 2-5 potential customers that the partner can call, who will emphatically insist that they can't live without your "whatever", and would write a check for any amount in order to get their hands on it? Don't discount this as a method of supporting your market assessment - real people are very powerful.

So, taking this all on board, my question was:

"All other things being equal, would you be more likely to invest in:

a) a company with a killer idea - the best you've seen in ages - but with a spotty track record or potential interpersonal problems, and try to fix the people

OR

b) a group of people with a track record of successful execution, but whose product needs a LOT of work or may not be viable."

The answers, paraphrased:

• Of the four kinds of risk, three can be proactively managed: Technical, Financial, and Execution. You can only respond to Market risk.
• "Bet on the jockey, not the horse."
• In short, take a good team, work with them on their product. A lot of the time a great team has to tweak their product anyway (sometimes fully shifting to a different product or model), but knowing that a team has a track record of pulling through, and demonstrates the ability to get along during what will inevitably be tough times, is key.
• Along the lines of 'choose your team wisely' - this especially applies to choosing your board members. Board choices can be decisions you will have to live with for quite a while, so make it count.

There was a ton of additional discussion around different financing options (angel investors, small business loans), whether or not you should wear a suit when you go to your meetings (consensus: wear what makes you feel like you rock -but do know that appearances matter), whether VC is all just an old boys network of Harvard and Stanford MBAs (kinda, but it's changing), etc... but the above was the value I took from it. I walked away still feeling like I'm not in any rush to do the Sand Hill Road Gauntlet, but that should it become necessary, it's not out of my reach. Which I think was the point.

(cross posted from my personal blog: Confabulari)

this is where I try out: she's geeky (part 1)

Notes from She's Geeky.

Day 1, 12:00pm:
Arrive at the Computer History Museum and proceed upstairs to registration. My registration got fouled up - I suspected it had. But I know my payment cleared even if my name's not on the list... and without any proof of said payment (y'know, like the freakin' receipt!), they give me a badge and wave me through.

I have a mild anxiety attack, wondering who the hell I think I am ducking work for 2 days to come to a conference when there is a metric ton of work to do back at the office. I get over it. I decline a request to enter the "Geek Confessional," mostly because I am suddenly not sure I belong here. It's not called She's Nerdy, after all. And we all know there are vast differences between Geeks, Nerds, and Dorks. I am squarely in the middle category.

ANYway... I help put tablecloths on the tables until I see Minnie and Liz arrive. I can't get my wireless connection to work and in my lame attempts to troubleshoot end up uninstalling the wireless card all together. Oh wellz. Lunch is served - compost-able flatware & plates, delicious veggie and meat options, cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (FAVE!), and a little opening speech by the conference organizers. High on sugar and estrogen, it's time for session 1.

Session 1: User Experience Design with Kaari Peterson & Dee Adams from Yahoo!

I immediately like these ladies. They're set up in the space, playing Madonna on the iPod as we filter in. Kaari starts us off giving examples of User Experience, in contrast to design and style. User experience is everything, EVERYTHING, your customer experiences from the moment they become aware of a need or desire for your product to the day they dispose of it or discontinue its use.

• Good Experience: Apple products carry a consistent user experience from advertisement, to online presence, to the packaging in which your item arrives, to the item itself. Even the shipping materials stick with the program. No shabby styro peanuts here!
• Nice Try: Pontiac Aztec. The design team did extensive research into what people said they wanted from their vehicles, then proceeded to cram every last one of the suggestions into this fugly monstrosity. I shared the story of Mitch's parents, who had the misfortune of being assigned an Aztec as a rental car for a roadtrip from California to Colorado. After spending two weeks with this beast, they decided that they *loved* it. They bought one a couple months later, and immediately ordered the vanity plate: Fuglee.
  
• Bad Experience: I forget.. oh, yeah! There is a set of doors on opposite sides of a skywalk between the Adobe buildings in San Jose. The doors on one side push in, but the set on the other pull out - so apparently noobs are always thinking they're locked out or doing the push-me-pull-you thing.
  

I think this was the segue to Kaari's case study of Adobe Acrobat 5. The main reason folks might use Acrobat is to create a PDF file, but it turns out that in this particular version, nobody could find the 'Make PDF' button. D'oh! She walked us through the process she used for identifying the issues with the menu structure (user observation, polling customer support to determine the top call generating issues) educating the development team about the difficulties users were experiencing (taking them to usability sessions and letting them observe users first hand), and how the team ultimately streamlined the experience putting things in 'task based' clusters vs. the traditional Adobe approach of 'tool based' panels. The updated interface also effectively eliminated the "I can't make a PDF" support calls, providing adequate cost savings to the business, and permitting further User Experience Design activities.

Handoff to Dee, who is charismatic and intelligent, and gives humorous commentary to the different expectations of "designers" in tech cultures. Dee does an excellent job of articulating the difference between UE design, UI design, branding, and style. I don't recall as much of the particulars (her style is very conversational), but the gist was know your business case, apply design liberally and style sparingly. Don't think because it has rounded corners and a bubbly font that it's a great user experience, or even a good design. If you're serious about a career in UE, look for programs through CMU and other certification programs - there are a lot of wannabee designers out there (myself included...).

Tomorrow I'll post about Session 2: VCs and Women in Tech: A Brainstorm with Women VCs and Entrepreneurs

(cross posted from my personal blog: Confabulari)