This episode also features some candid words on the state of West Michigan startup culture and the need for more startups, more peers and more experienced partners.
Links:
downstream app
the factory (coworking in Grand Rapids)
Momentum MI (seed accelerator)
[...] the newly launched Startup Stories vlog did their first vlog post on Schaap and his Downstream company (honestly who else would have they done their inaugural story on?… Carl Erickson and Atomic [...]
Ben Yoskovitz on the Lean Startup Process
What the Converati Team is Implementing from The Lean Startup Conference (founder)
Ryan Montgomery of Chext On Learning to Ask The Right Questions (founder)
Software_Index: We think Olark is one of the most recommended live...
Dug Song: Wow, great coverage of the event! Sorry I was so e...
Jon Lim: Short and sweet, very cool story. Customer develop...
Josh McHugh: Great stuff, Dan. Keen insights. Keep it up!...
I’m so thankful that someone is collecting and sharing what’s happening on the startup scene in GR. Superb inspiration and perfect first choice for the first video.
Thanks for the kind words! We have some exciting stories we’ll be sharing over the coming weeks. Our goal is to be a resource for the entrepreneurial community here in West Michigan. So we’ll obviously cover mostly local stories, but we are also planning ways to capture stories from the broader startup culture that might help get us where we need to be.
Great piece, thanks for sharing. The questions is: are his companies making a sustainable profit or is he another start-up fail? Anyone can start a business, few can make a profit.
Thanks for the comment Tim. Your question is a good one and it’s one of the motivations for starting this project. I think we can learn a lot from each other and our collective experiences. Aaron address this issue further in some detail during the interview and I may post a few more short excerpts in the future… I just didn’t think too many people had the patience for a 15 to 20 minute initial piece
I think one of the most important things your audience wants to hear from these interviews is if this company is in the black or red. So, if you only have 5min it should be at the top of the list. You could called it the Black or Red question or Section etc…
Good suggestion. Personally, I think it might all depend on the space a startup plays in. For instance, twitter probably isn’t in the black but few doubt the long term potential tied into all those users… Maybe in some situations, getting someone like Aaron to share user numbers… I’ll start asking both questions and see what happens.
Hrm – it’s a bit disappointing if the main thing folks are interested in is if a company is profitable or not. Is that is some sort of qualifier on the validity of this persons message/lesson’s learned?
Also – if a company has been funded and is looking to become profitable in “x” months/years, but is able to pay all of their bills and all their employees, do you then wait to listen to them until they’ve hit that point of profitability?
There’s different plays for different types of business models going after different types of markets. Making a profit at the end of the day is important (don’t get me wrong) but defining when that point is or defining what profit really is in the stage of different companies feels a bit foolish.
Note: one company could be considered not profitable from one perspective but does yielding advantageous returns or results for another company or individual from another perspective.
Guys- Thanks for the responses. You have valid points and I can see where you are coming from.
At the end of the day, making a profit is what this is all about. To say, let’s not talk about that just yet or if you look at it this way then; doesn’t really work. If you’re not making a profit than are you losing money? Is this just a learning experience? Whomever is funding a project is more interested in making a profit than your message…
With all due respect, this is all great, but lets hear some success stories.
Never fear, we will be telling lots of stories of proven success. But this enterprise is about shared learning and I think we can learn from both success and failure. As a result, we will not shy away from sitting down with startups that have nothing but potential. If they crash and burn we’ll do our best to track them down and try to learn as much as we can from the process.
Learning about what happens before a company approaches profitability is much more important to aspiring entrepreneurs than how to keep the numbers in the black. I’m much more interested in several local startups with great potential than i am about one or two stagnant business models that are profitable right now. Focusing immediately on profitabilty would be the demise of most startups. If I wanted to be profitable from day one, I’d open a lemonade stand, but i’d much rather see someone try to use those lemons to make something other than lemonade. Anyone who thinks startups should focus on profitability over execution need to put down the business management 101 book and jump into the shark tank to really see how dynamic and resourceful one needs to be. If you only want what you consider to be success stories, then check out the next episode of “lifestyles of the rich and famous”. Losing money is part of the learning curve and dynamics of a new business model…these aren’t stories about lemonade stands.