DESIGN DOING

"You can be so bad at so many things… and as long as you stay focused on how you’re providing value..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:56:57 -0700

“You can be so bad at so many things… and as long as you stay focused on how you’re providing value to your users and customers, and you have something that is unique and valuable… you get through all that stuff.”

- Mark Zuckerberg

What a VC is Really Thinking when Turning Down Your Startup

Tue, 29 May 2012 14:51:00 -0700

Yesterday, my post went live on VentureBeat discussing the top 25 ways your startup will be turned down during fundraising.

Most times, however, what an investor says is just scratching the surface of how he/she truly feels when declining to move forward with your company. Many more factors are inputs into their decision process (that have absolutely nothing to do with you or your company) including:

Past Experience
Their Partnership
The Market
Their Investors
The Fund
Industry Thesis
Potential Internal Politics
Personal Situation
Etc.

The VC job is incredibly hard one: being tasked with finding the diamond in the rough amongst many somewhat shiny rocks.

After receiving several messages from investors pouring into my ShopWell email, I got this wonderful summary from a Managing Partner from a very well respected firm (who asked to remain anonymous). He nicely summarized what a VC would love to say to entrepreneurs (based on a VCs internal dialogue). Below is his artful response:

It’s not that I don’t like you, your team, your idea, your technology, your deal terms, your stage, your positioning relative to your competition, or your exit prospects. To the extent I understand them. Which I don’t really yet as we have only spoken once. It is that our venture capital partnership is based on trust, and one of the deals that I had blow up on me in the past, which I had personally convinced my partners to do, had a similar trait as something in your company. I cannot tell you if it is similar to something with you, your team, your technology, your deal terms, your stage, your positioning relative to your competition, or your exit prospects, as then I would be revealing to you something about one of my failed investments of which I would rather repress the memory. But it was one of those. And the thing is, if I try to push your deal through my venture capital partnership, having already lost our investors’ money because of a similar issue as the one of the table, and if I lose their money again, then I will not have the credibility to bring other deals to the investment committee for approval. For ours is not a 3-strike business, it is a “fool me once, fool me twice” business. My ability to bring the next Facebook or Google to them will have been lost. Now I know this is not your fault, and in fact this situation might be completely different, but it is close enough that, in the scheme of things with respect to my entire firm and the way we do business, I just cannot take the added risk.

Entrepreneurs. Above is the real reason for 95% of the rejections. You should not take any rejection as a true rejection, just as an indication that there is a better fit out there somewhere else. Keep fighting the good fight and don’t stop your quest to change the world.

Business Attire Hack: Use Cotton Swabs as Shirt Stays

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:23:00 -0700

Okay, I don’t think that I’m alone here. I was just on a business trip to DC where I had to do an important pitch presentation about ShopWell at a big nutrition conference. I landed, got to my hotel, laid out my clothes (to iron in the morning), and went to bed.

When I got up, I brushed my teeth, took my shower, and began ironing. When I finished, I realized that I had no shirt stays for my shirt. I thought to myself, “Crap…Who needs those anyway, my shirt will be just fine.”

I put my shirt on, and the collar was all bent out of shape. Even after ironing, it didn’t look right. I took the shirt off and went into Macgyver mode.

I began digging through my stuff to find anything that could to do the trick to make me look somewhat professional. Here is what I came up with/steps to achieve a perfect collar without stays:

What You Need:

2 Cotton Swabs
Collared Shirt
Your Brain and Hands

Step 1: Lay out the collar and make sure the cotton swab is of similar length. If not, remove one of the cotton ends)

Step 2: Slide the cotton swab into each side of the collar as shown

Step 3: Fold the collar over and flatten the fabric to resemble actual stays (it should look better than the picture below)

Step 4: Go kill it on your presentation…and look like you actually mean business (sans crazy Trump hairdo).

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for spreading the word. This post was featured on LifeHacker here.

"Credit can only be given, not taken."

Mon, 28 May 2012 09:04:26 -0700

“Credit can only be given, not taken.”

- Jack Witlin

25 Ways Your Startup Will Get Turned Down By Investors

Sat, 26 May 2012 07:29:00 -0700

If You Aren’t Getting Rejected on a Daily Basis, Your Ideas Aren’t Ambitious Enough.

After speaking with a number of fellow “Hustlers” (fellow fundraising CEOs), I was able to amass an awesome list of classic messages people have received from investors after initial contact or initial pitch. As the title implies, below are 25 ways people get rejected from investors.

Maybe I am a bit weird, but I tend to find rejection as a fuel to my fire. When I was in college, I got the Chicago Crains Magazine List of top 300 companies to work for. I hacked the list and mail merged “personalized” letters and applied to over 290 internships. I received over 250 rejection letters but got 3 offers. I plastered the rejection letters over my door and highlighted the part where they told me why I was not a fit. My favorite letter was from McDonald’s (corporate). It had a watermark of Ronald McDonald and friends. I can say that I was rejected from McDonalds. Ha!

In grad school, I kept my 2 rejection letters (I got in the third try) from Stanford pinned above my desk. I found it both funny and motivating.

After going through two successful venture fund raises for ShopWell, I found it fun to create this top 25 list of rejection messages from investors that I, and others in my network, have received. I hope you enjoy as much as I do:

General Lack of Interest or Uncertainty

No response
We don’t see this as a fit at this time (the classic non-answer)
I was regrettably unable to get it over the finish line with my partners.
We are hesitant to invest as the lead, but keep us informed if you get a lead term sheet.
I’m unsure on this one. Let me set you up with one of our associates who has more expertise in this area.

Bandwidth

I am currently overwhelmed at the moment, and can’t spend the time pursuing this any further.

Competitive

We see this being competitive to one of our portfolio companies.
We have concerns that there are not strong competitive barriers to prevent others from doing what you are doing.

Market Thesis

We want to see how [insert portfolio company] plays out before we invest again in this space.
This space is too fragmented at this point for us to see a clear cut winner.
We don’t currently have a thesis on this space yet, and therefore are going to need to pass.

Firm Fit

We tend to invest locally, and you are located too far away.
You are slightly too early for our firm and we can’t see around the curve yet.
You are slightly too late for our firm at this time as we invest earlier stage.
We would invest if you had a local lead investor.
We don’t have more room in the current fund to invest.

Product Market Fit

I just don’t see people doing [insert primary action of your app] as a mainstream activity.
We would be more interested if you included [insert random feature/technology] in your product.

Distribution and Market Traction

We don’t see a clear path to cost effective user acquisition for your company.
We would like to see more months of [insert metric] before we feel comfortable moving forward.

Monetization

We are unsure of your business model and will need to see more proof points before we feel comfortable.
Your market isn’t big enough.

Team

We will feel more comfortable if you have added a/team of [insert hire(s)] to your team. There is too much team risk in this competitive environment.

Company Structure

We don’t like the cap structure of the company.

Other

I left the firm and therefore cannot make investments on behalf of [insert firm] anymore but you should check out my new venture! It is so cool.

I’ll end this post with this classic:

UPDATE: I am honored to say this blog post was re-blogged on VentureBeat here. Thanks for all the supportive tweets I just completed a follow up post highlighting the inner dialogue of the venture capitalist here when turning down a startup.

So...When is the Best Time to Pitch an Investor and More Random Advice

Fri, 25 May 2012 22:32:00 -0700

I saw this question on Quora, and had to answer it. But before I begin, how about a classic shot from the oh-so-realistic show Shark Tank on ABC (since this is EXACTLY how venture pitches go).

About Timing

I have found that my best pitches were less of a “pitch” and more of a “conversation”. These more conversational pitches have tended to be during lunch or at the end of the day (especially on Friday). My experience here may be an outlier, but during these more conversational pitches, I was able to successfully get the investor to like me (first) and then like the company (second). By being outside of the constraints of a one hour time limit (end of day) or at a lunch hour (when people are more conversational), I have tended to be the most successful.

Other Tips to Improve Your Odds:

Try not to pitch by phone
The odds are stacked against you over the phone as an investor is likely multitasking. It is also difficult to truly have the connection you can achieve with an in person meeting. In many cases, traveling long distances may not make sense, but know the odds are stacked against you over the phone.

Try to pitch a decision maker
The odds are extremely stacked against you when you pitch an associate. Associates are even more risk averse than partners. They would rather be wrong and pass on a good deal than recommend a deal that doesn’t look perfect to the partnership. Odds are, your startup will fail…and therefore an associate’s default is to pass with any sliver of doubt. Additionally, associates generally don’t have the track record, experience, gut, clout to spot and push a good deal through. They will need to go through others in the firm to get a deal through (who haven’t met you) and your chances will most likely be diminished significantly. Think of it as a steel gate in front of a steel gate that you will need to plow through on a tricycle. One gate is a pain in the ass. Two gates…well you have the idea. You probably gathered it makes more sense to pitch a partner (with the highest authority possible) who has the highest likelihood of falling in love with you/your company).

Get them to like you first
Forget your company…if the investor doesn’t like you (which they can probably determine within the first 60 seconds), they will figure out a way to pass on your company. Remember, the investor, if they move forward with an investment, will have to deal with you for 5+ years of their life. Make them want to spend that time with you….then convince them that you will bring home the $ Billions…

Now for the gratuitous shot of the Maltese Falcon:

Turn an Old Brick Phone into a Bluetooth Headset for Your iPhone

Sun, 20 May 2012 20:01:00 -0700

Over the years, I have done a number of fun projects as a designer. This one, in particular, I think is a lot of fun and it is fairly doable with a little patience. I posted this several years ago on my old Grooveking.com blog (RIP). I thought I would bring it back for good times with some minor updates.

“The Classic Brick Phone”

Okay, I think I got your attention! Remember the classic brick telephone? Some of you may remember it as the “Zach Morris phone” and others the awesome phone from the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglass as Gordon Gekko.

I remember it as one of the coolest phones to ever come out. Have you noticed that a lot has changed from 1983 since the first cell phones were released? Everything has gotten so small and jam packed with so many features. But some of us, even if we are a small few, find some nostalgia from the classic brick phone - even if it weighs a good 7 or 8 pounds. Nostalgia and technology, how can we marry the two? The classic design with current technology? The brick phone is analog, and will not work on today’s networks that are primarily digital and GSM. How do we maintain all the style and personality from the old and take advantages of the features and technologies of the new? The answer is - make a brick phone into a Bluetooth headset. What? You get the advantages of your current tricked out phone, while having the ability to use the brick phone as a Bluetooth headset. Not only that, why not use the phone battery as additional power for your Bluetooth and it weighs so much you are sure to keep your conversations short! LOL

What You Need to Convert a Brick Phone into a Bluetooth Headset.
We are going to “Geek Out” a little here. To give you a little overview of what you will be doing, you will be taking an existing Bluetooth headset, wiring it up so it can receive charge from the existing brick phone battery (increases the talk time astronomically), and allowing the Bluetooth button to be controlled through the FCN button on the cell phone. I am by no means an electrical engineer and the way that I am presenting is a hack. I can tell you, however, that it works and it is extremely robust.

Well you don’t need an electrical engineering degree to pull it off. Although I don’t want to get into it super technical. I will do my best to get you far along. To start off, you need to purchase a brick phone (easily found on eBay), a Bluetooth headset (preferably the Motorola HS820 for easy modification) and security torx set. From my understanding, back in the day, you would need to have a special license to own a security torx set. This way, people could not easily open up these phones. For the Motorola phone that I opened up, they even added some extra trickery. You actually spin the torx to the left to tighten and to the right to loosen (backwards of normal). Make sure you are aware each screw you take out and where it goes. I sometimes tape the removed screws to a piece of paper with a sketch to allow me to remember how to reassemble the device.

Next you will want to open the Bluetooth headset. Be very careful when doing this. What you need to do once you have opened up your Bluetooth headset is find the microphone and the speaker and extend the wires connected to both. This way you can use the mic and speaker of the Bluetooth (which probably will work better on than the vintage mic and speaker). Finally, plug in the Bluetooth headset into the AC adapter. Cut the cord about four inches from the Bluetooth. This will allow for easier power supply later. This can be seen in the diagram below.

Electronics May Be Easier Than They Appear!
My goal here is to not scare away people who do not know electronics. The next diagram is a simple schematic of how to wire the device to work. For my phone, I placed two diodes in series to prevent the Bluetooth battery from draining into the phone battery. I placed these diodes on a prototyping circuit board and soldered the in place. I connected the Bluetooth cable attached to the Bluetooth headset and wired it to the power coming from the diodes. To power the diodes, I connected the a wire from the power and ground leads of the shell of the brick phone.

Next I cut away at the existing keypad circuit board to allow the Bluetooth to fit flush. The strategy here is to line up the Bluetooth talk button with the location of the FCN (function) button (which was cut away). This way when you close up the whole phone, you can control your Bluetooth headset from pressing the FCN button. This can be seen in the next photo.

After you have mounted the Bluetooth headset on the circuitboard, mount the mic and speaker where you want them (typically near where the previous mic and speaker were located). You can secure the it the keypad more solidly by screwing the keypad circuitboard (with Bluetooth headset attached) back to the front face of the phone.

You probably have noticed by now from the photos that you will need to remove the rear circuit board in order to fit your circuit in the casing. Once you do this, you can close up the phone and it will begin charging once the battery is placed on. But before you close it up, you may want to consider placing a switch somewhere on your phone to prevent the Bluetooth from charging all the time. The Bluetooth headset will not function while it is charging. The simple solution to this is to use a piece of electrical tape to cover one of the leads of the cell phone battery when you want to use the Bluetooth. Remember, I told you my solution was a hack.

Home Stretch to “Bad-Ass-dom”
Okay, now you are almost done. It is time to charge your phone. Notice the slight blue light on the 8 button. This light will go on when you attach the cell phone battery to the back of the phone. When you place the phone in the charger, you are now charging both batteries (the cell phone and the Bluetooth). After about 5 hours, turn off charge mode (by either flipping a switch or by covering up one of the leads on the cell phone battery) and press and hold down the FCN button on your phone.

You should now be able to use the brick phone as a Bluetooth headset and look super awesome! Just pair it with your preferred smart phone with bluetooth and you are ready to buy low and sell high.

"The best startups are like cockroaches. They adapt, evolve, survive, and eventually, at critical..."

Sun, 13 May 2012 08:32:49 -0700

“The best startups are like cockroaches. They adapt, evolve, survive, and eventually, at critical mass, are unstoppable.”

San Francisco’s growing food and tech community gathered...

Sat, 12 May 2012 20:29:15 -0700

San Francisco’s growing food and tech community gathered together to explore the state of the emerging sector at the recent Food Startups Meetup, organized by Matthew Wise, founder of FounderLY. The Q&A panel was moderated by Xconomy San Francisco Editor Wade Roush and featured industry leaders, including:

Andrea Cutright, co-founder of Foodily
Naithan Jones, founder of AgLocal
Aihui Ong, founder of Love With Food
Arram Sabeti, founder of Zerocater
Rob Spiro, founder of Good Eggs
(me) Brian Witlin, CEO of Shopwell

The following painting recreation by Petros Vrellis is an...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:38:13 -0800

The following painting recreation by Petros Vrellis is an interactive animation of Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. It is absolutely mesmerizing.

The artist states: “A try to visualize the flow of the famous painting “Starry Night” of Vincent Van Gogh. The user can interact with the animation. Also, the sound responds to the flow. Made with openframeworks.”

Zuckerberg's 5 core "Hacker Way" values

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:38:00 -0800

Focus on impact: “If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.”

Move fast: ”Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: ‘Move fast and break things.’ The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.

Be bold: ”Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: ‘The riskiest thing is to take no risks.’ We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.”

Be open: ”We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact.”

Build social value: ”Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do.”

via SFGate

Brian Witlin’s ShopWell Demo at Health 2.0 in San Diego.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:51:24 -0800

Brian Witlin’s ShopWell Demo at Health 2.0 in San Diego.

Dinner at Bistro - Oil On Canvas - 2011, by Brian Witlin

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:39:40 -0800

Dinner at Bistro - Oil On Canvas - 2011, by Brian Witlin

"Don’t mistake a clear view for a short distance"

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:23:34 -0700

““Don’t mistake a clear view for a short distance””

- Kevin Kelley, Blogger

emergentfutures: Using Twitter Improves Students’ Grades, And...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:45:45 -0700

emergentfutures:

Using Twitter Improves Students’ Grades, And Other Surprising Tech Usage Facts

OnlineEducation.net made an infographic based on results from a student/technology study.

Full Story: Business Insider

Obsessed with Lytro

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:01:28 -0700

I love disruptive innovation. I also love when Stanford Grads come up with something that truly changes how we think about things. Google took the leap to effectively crawl the internet to create the best search engine out there. The Lytro folks have re-thought the idea of a camera.

Many people, including myself, take great pride in our pictures. I continue to enjoy shots with my digital SLR, pulling them into photoshop, doing edits, capturing moments and creating artwork. Lytro has taken the camera to the next level for pros, enthusiasts, and novices alike. The camera they are developing captures the whole light field using software built into the camera instead of focusing. What does this mean? You can actually focus your shot AFTER you take the photo.

You are probably asking, “Is this some tilt shift trick that someone is using in instagram?”. The answer is no. Check out the examples below. You can simply click on an area to focus. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these cameras when they come out. They will truly revolutionize the way we look at photography. I can’t wait for the results!

Dear Photograph, which has gone viral since it sprung up less...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 08:59:43 -0700

Dear Photograph, which has gone viral since it sprung up less than two months ago, collects past-meets-present photos from readers. There are pages and pages of really cool pictures of pictures merging the past with the present.

"Never, never, never, never give up."

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:07:58 -0700

“Never, never, never, never give up.”

- Winston Churchill

Interview With Craig Diamond, Founder of Diamond MMA

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:48:00 -0700

AS mentioned in my previous posts, I enjoy building entrepreneurs as much as I enjoy building startups. Below is a great interview with Craig Diamond of Diamond MMA. I have been working with him for the last two years getting his business off the ground.

Craig talks about his company and being featured during UFC 133 when Joe Rogan mentioned his company during multiple time-outs.

Listen to internet radio with MMA Gospel Radio on Blog Talk Radio

shivvermetimbers: If Social Media Was Around For The World...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:39:40 -0700

shivvermetimbers:

If Social Media Was Around For The World Wars