A LEGENDary tribute

This afternoon my wife and I visited the recently opened Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.  All the exhibits are great, however, there is one exhibit that consumed the majority of our time (and of other museum goers as well). No, it was not some complex hard to figure abstract art. It was the simple ”Legend (a portrait of Bob Marley), 2005″ by Candice Breitz.   

Here is what Candice Breitz put together: In March 2005, 30 different people were filmed at the Gee Jam Studio in Port Antonio, Jamaica singing a capella (no instrumental accompaniment) of a compilation of Bob Marley songs.  All 30 shots are then played simultaneously on a 30 channel installation viewed through 30 different flat-screen TVs (one person per TV screen).  The coolest thing about this, is that even though it looks like one giant movie screen from afar,  you get a spatial effect of the sound (the sound comes directly from location of the person on the screen) . That is simply because there are 30 different TVs with speakers right next to the each screen, so the audio comes directly from the location of the TV screen.  I definitely sat there for more than 30 minutes (I could have watched all 62 minutes and 40 seconds of it) because, first I am a huge Marley fan and second it was fascinating watching these 30 individuals sing these legendary songs. They were not perfect singers, did not necessarily hold a tune and did not necessarily know the words to the songs.  However, I was captured by expressions; their facial expressions and their body expressions both when they knew the words and when they were clueless.  I loved the simplicity of the whole concept.  

This is a great exhibit to check out when you are in Denver, especially if you are a Marley fan. Be warned that this exhibit is pretty loud (which I think may annoy some people).  The voices of these 30 individuals echo through the whole museum.  If you are a Marley fan, it’s a great sound track while you check out the cool exhibits that they have at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.

Filtrbox is hiring

At Filtrbox, we are on a quest to create software that helps people “know what they don’t know”.  How do we go about doing that, you may ask.  Well, if you want to know how we do that, come and join us because WE ARE HIRING. If you meet the following requirements, you have an opportunity to be part of the best software development team in Boulder, Colorado:

*Solid Java skills
*Solid web application development skills
*Experience with Natural Language Processing concepts (a plus)
*Actionscript 2 or 3 (a plus)
*System administration skills, Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL (a plus)

*Must be energetic, motivated and creative

Send your resume to jobs at filtrbox dotcom

Advice for TechStars applicants

TechStars has announced that it is now accepting applications for 2008. I was part of the inaugural TechStars 2007 last year and here is my advice for TechStars applicants:

Apply
My first advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is simply, apply to TechStars.  It’s a great opportunity if you are looking for help with your start-up idea. Applying to TechStars was one of the best things that we ever did at Filtrbox.

Team
Your idea is important but the team is even more important.  Putting together a team that can effectively execute on the idea is of paramount importance.  The reason for the team being more important than the idea is that during the course of the summer, your idea may change a number of times, so it is important that you have a solid team that can deal with the changes and effectively execute on the changes. While it is important to put together a team with complementary skills, in my opinion, I think that it is far much more important to  have a team that is execution oriented and that has great chemistry. Keep in mind that TechStars is making a investment in you in the form of $15,000.00, they are not going to make that investment in a bunch of buddies with a great idea but who cannot deliver.

Prototype
Have a body of work to show to TechStars to complement your application. I am making the assumption that your odds of being accepted to TechStars are far much better if you have a working prototype or a full blown working application altogether because I believe all the teams that were chosen to be part of TechStars last year had some body of work to show. For some of the teams, the body of work was a prototype manifestation of their idea and for some, it was work that they had done in the past.  If you do not have a prototype, I would suggest, you get busy and start working on one right now.

No part timers
TechStars is a full time gig. If you currently have a job,  be ready to quit your job. I did.  TechStars is a grueling summer, it will be dificult to do it part time.  The only thing that you can afford to do part time during TechStars is sleep; be prepared for only a couple of hours of sleep a night and all nighters especially as you get closer to Investor Day.

On a serious note, I think that it is important for you to realize this now so that you can prepare your loved ones for the fact that you may have to leave your current job or school if you get accepted into Techstars.  It’s not easy leaving your high paying job or your degree program, both for you and for those around you, so you might as well let those around you know today that in the event that you get accepted into TechStars, you may have to quit. Most importantly, I would suggest that you plan your finances now.

Some of you might be saying to yourselves “Why do all that? What if I don’t get accepted”? If you are asking yourself this question, in my opinion, you are not a TechStar. Pessimism is definitely NOT a characteristic that they look for at TechStars.

Relocation
Be prepared to relocate to beautiful Boulder , Colorado or surrounding areas.  Like I said in 3., TechStars is a full time job, it is important that you are willing to relocate to Boulder.  My primary reason for this suggestion is that it makes for a much more cohesive team.  Once you get accepted, the team is no longer limited to the list of people that you submitted in your application.  The “team” increases when you get into TechStars because it includes all your advisors and all the people who are not necessarily your advisors but are simply rooting for you to succeed; your cheerleaders.  You need to be able to schedule coffee, lunch, dinner or whatever with your “team” and interact with them.  The great thing about Boulder is that the tech community is pretty much concentrated around Pearl Street so you have easy access to everyone.

Last year, we had teams that had team members relocating from as far as Sweden.  For those of you who are used to working in geographically dispersed areas, this is an opportunity to meet for the first time (the team with a team member  from Sweden literally had their first face to face in-person meeting at TechStars). I cannot understate the valuable team building benefits of a team working in one place.  A better team is more likely to build a better product.

On a more important note, you need to realize this so that you can let your loved ones know that relocation to Boulder may be the one of the consequences of being accepted to TechStars.  You also need to start preparing yourself financially for the relocation.

Advisors
If you are not a person who takes advice well, I would suggest that you do not apply.  While TechStars does not force you to take the advice of the array of advisors that they have lined up, attending TechStars and being unwilling to take advice defeats the whole purpose.  At TechStars, they like to say that it’s a “hatchery” where individuals with great ideas can get advice to help them turn the ideas into meaningful products and the individuals into viable companies.  So TechStars is all about being able to listen to other people’s opinions and taking some advice from seasoned entrepreneurs.

I have written a blog post in the past on Seth Levine, our awesome advisor at TechStars. Advisors do not come in any better quality than people like Seth, so be prepared to take advantage of them.

Presentation skills
Practice your presentation skills. This might not seem to be all that important but if you think about it, as an entrepreneur you are going to HAVE to make pitches, a lot of pitches, so you might as well hone your skills now.  With respect to TechStars, at one point you are going to have to pitch to TechStars before you get accepted, so improving you presentation skills can only help your case.  If you have a great idea, spend the time to make sure that you can communicate the idea effectively in order to make sure that everyone else realizes how great your idea is.

Note that not everyone on your team has to be a great presenter, however, you need at least one person who can effectively communicate your idea.

Idea mutation
Don’t be married to your idea.  Be prepared for the fact that your idea MAY change significantly during the course of the summer.  Not all ideas will change, ours did not change significantly. However, some did change significantly and for the better.  For those who are married to their idea, keep in mind that the opportunities in the tech industry are very fluid and as an entrepreneur sometimes you have to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Take for example, during TechStars 2007, the Facebook Platform was released which opened up a lot of unanticipated opportunities. The Techstars team that abandoned their original idea in order to take advantage of the new Facebook Platform was ringing in some revenue by the end of TechStars and are now the proud owners of one of the premier Facebook applications. 

Burritos
Be prepared to eat lot of burritos. Lots and lots of burritos.

I hope that these tips help aspiring applicants.  I am in no way part of the TechStars organization so please take the above as my opinion, and, my opinion only. Good luck and I hope to see you in Boulder this summer.

That software may be around for a very long time….write it well.

During the holidays I was surfing the web and discovered forums dedicated to software that I wrote almost a decade ago. It felt really good discovering that there are hordes of consultants out there being certified on architecture, designs and API that I conceived and developed (There is nothing like discovering that people’s passing of a certification hinges upon them knowing the meaning of a phrase or term that you coined).  

Feeling proud of myself and maybe even a little boastful, I decided to anonymously answer a question in one of the free forums since I would “obviously” be the final authority on such matters.  As soon as I posted the “obviously correct” answer to the question, there was a response from one veteran consultant who indicated that I did not know what I was talking about, I had it all wrong and he proceeded to teach me the correct usage of the part of the software under discussion. WHOA!!! Wait a minute!!! But, I created the software!!! You can’t tell me the “correct usage” of my own API. It turns out that after so many years of consulting on the software, many consultants have come up with very creative workarounds and ingenious uses of the software.  I tip my hat to them because they are now doing things with the software that I did not even imagine at the time that I designed and developed the software.  I was both proud and humbled after reading the response from the consultant.  

This experience reminded me of the importance of architecting, designing and developing enduring software because you never know how long your code will be out there making a difference in people’s lives.