Author Archives: Jason Evanish

I'm a coach and consultant for early stage SaaS startups. I help VPs of Product, Heads of Product, and 1st PMs with their toughest challenges like churn, team turnover, stakeholder challenges, issues with consistently shipping great features consistently, and more. I also started Lighthouse, which helps you learn to be a better manager through our blog, podcast, and training. When not working, I'm an avid reader, athlete, and enjoy lake life living in Austin, Texas.

Some stats on the DevelopersDevelopersDevelopersDevelopers Event

12 December 2010

Last week, thoughtbot and GreenhornConnect announced their event for student developers & designers: DevelopersDevelopersDevelopersDevelopers.org

The goal of the event is to educate these students on why they should work at a startup, what they need to know that they may not learn in school and what opportunities are available in Boston.  We’re bringing in some awesome speakers like Angus Davis of Swipely, Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot and John Resig, creator of jQuery.

Of course, the day would not be complete without introducing them to great startup opportunities, so we’ll also have time at the end for students to meet with a select group of startups looking to hire them as interns or full time hires.

If you’re interested in being one of the companies to meet these students, you can sign up here: http://4developers.eventbrite.com

So you know what you’re getting, here’s a breakdown of our student signups in just the first week of outreach:

79 Registered Students

29 women (37%)

50- developers
29- designers

School Breakdown:

18-MIT

18-Simmons

12-BU

10-Northeastern

8 -Harvard

2 -Umass Lowell

2 -Babson

1 -UConn

1 -Berklee College of Music

1 -Commonwealth School

1 -Suffolk University

1 -SEUA

1 -BunkerHill Community College

1 -Newburybort High School

1 -Brookline High School

1 -Masconomet Regional High School

The Social Network – Review, etc…

10 October 2010

2 Comments

{Note: Do I need a SPOILER alert?  I wouldn’t think for a movie like this but who knows…don’t read on if discussing the movie would ruin it for you?}

I just saw the Social Network and was quite impressed.  It’s very well done story that weaves the lawsuits by the Winklevosses (the Harvard rowers that came to Zuck to make something similar to Facebook) and Eduardo Saverin (his initial business co-founder) into the backstory of Facebook’s early growth from Harvard exclusive site to over a million users.

First…a few things it missed:

1) Fundraising…

They only vaguely touched on it, and basically they suddenly had money, possibly after a stunt of Sean Parker getting Zuckerberg to give the middle finger to an investor.  There was no mention of trying to raise in Boston, which at least around here people talk as if he did.

2) Concept of time…

It was really hard to tell how long went by for Facebook between launching at Harvard and having 1 million users. The movie made it feel like it happened in under a year….and amazingly I just checked and Quora answers it was actually 10 months: http://www.quora.com/How-long-did-it-take-Facebook-to-reach-one-million-users So while maybe it was accurate, it wasn’t easy to track other than knowing there was a summer when they moved to the valley.

3) The move to the Valley…

This movie made it seem like it was totally inevitable and that Mark thought it was the only place to be (possibly partially motivated by Sean Parker).  I’m wondering how much that was the case.  I guess we’ll have to wait for Zuck’s autobiography, but even then…I wonder if he’d have rose-colored glasses at that point.

———————————————————————-

So at the root of the story you have 4 key characters: Zuck, Eduardo, the Winklevosses (yeah, they’re one person or 2 halves…your choice) and Sean Parker.  Despite people freaking out about Zuck being painted poorly in this, I’d argue he did fine comparably… a bit of character noting:

Eduardo Saverin

Oh poor Eduardo. He puts up some early cash and tries to be the “good business guy.”  Unfortunately, he comes off as clueless and worthless to the company.  And it’s not for failing of Zuck trying; he repeatedly asks him to join him in the Valley, where he could have done some good. But instead, he was trying to convince advertisers, which wouldn’t hit Facebook until November 2007.  He seemed totally unqualified to be the business cofounder and also unwilling to do what it actually took to be a good cofounder to Zuck and so it’s hard for me to feel bad for him.   Given his settlement is undisclosed, I’d bet he got a bunch of shares back (note Wikipedia says he has 5%, which still makes him a billionaire).  Meanwhile, his absence in the Valley opened the door for Sean Parker…

Sean Parker

Leach. Social parasite.  Delusional.  All words it seems like would be appropriate for Parker.  Given I’d always heard that Shawn Fanning (of Northeastern!) founded Napster I was a bit surprised to hear his name associated. I tried Googling and while he’s credited, I couldn’t find much of an origin story as to how Sean joined (But I did find this *awesome* post by Don Dodge about Napster).  In the Social Network, he comes off as a party animal who wins the favor of Zuck and gives a few intros while also bringing trouble (his cocaine incident at the end of the movie, it turns out, was also when he was dismissed from the company…but not until after he had 7% of the company).  I find it hard to believe that he accidentally was in the neighborhood with Zuck and instead planned that and the subsequent partying that led Zuck to an opportunity to invite him into the house.  With Eduardo gone, it gave a leach the opportunity to move in.

I’m sure his intros helped and I bet he gave some good feedback from his past startup experiences, but you have to take the bad with the good…and at least in the movie Sean is painted as someone not to be associated with (I wonder how that intern felt about her cocaine charge…).

The Winklevosses

Ah, the essence of Harvard elitism.  Born with a silver spoon.  Gifted athletes.  Powerful families.  Great stature and an expectation that they deserve more and that the powers will protect them.  They had an idea for a site for Harvard. And they got $63 Million.  Must be nice.  I don’t know how you justify it, but I’m guessing Zuck must have done at least a few stupid things when he first “agreed” to work with them that gave them a shred of a case.  I also suspect that Zuck was willing to settle to get rid of the distraction; an underrated portion of this is the fact that Zuck was so committed to his team and even said so flatly to the lawyer as he emphasized part of his mind was on Facebook and not just on his questioning.  As if they hadn’t already hit the genetic lottery being 6’3″ and Olympic-level rowers from a rich and powerful family, they got the $63 million.  Disgusting….but maybe that’s because I’m an entrepreneur.

Mark Zuckerberg

Ah, the best for last.  Mark comes off slightly bitter, a little bit Gen Y entitled and a bit of an invincibility complex (he didn’t seem to think anyone could touch him).   He obviously didn’t treat the poor BU girl he degraded on his blog very well and overally seemed a bit cold to most.  I don’t think he’s the first (and certainly not the last) slightly socially awkward, resentful of the jocks/cool kids, dorky kid who is cold and calculating.  He’s just the first to be the public-facing founder of a startup that had a story interesting enough to justify a book and a movie.

In the end, he built Facebook. Did he lead on the Winklevosses? It appears that way, but he did it because he wanted to beat those elitist houses he didn’t think he’d be able to get into.  I’m sure he knew those guys might be able launch a Harvard site better than him because of their connections, so he strung them along to buy time to launch his version.  As we say in the startup community constantly…it’s about execution and these guys could never be bothered to really build something.

Meanwhile…Mark gave Eduardo every opportunity to be a part of it and he just couldn’t figure it out that he needed to come to the Valley.  He was hung up on making money and apparently had no concept of getting investment to cover costs before they figured out how to make money.  This of course opened the door for Sean Parker to weasel his way in, which had its obvious benefits and drawbacks.

Sometimes you learn more from success than failure and often it’s hard to explain why something succeeded except to combine a little serendipity and good timing. Despite these warts being dramatized and put into film, I believe they all played an important part in making Facebook what it is today.  Startups are a contact sport, so expect to get a little mud on you if you put your hat in the game.

Do you have an inner Pit Bull?

20 July 2010

1 Comment

I have one. Do You?

Not sure what it is? To me, it’s when I get really fired up about something. Much like a pit bull, it’s all about encroaching on my turf or otherwise threatening something important to me.  I can’t help but feel a fire inside that just charges me up to take on whatever challenge comes up.

Now unlike your average fool at the bar, this isn’t about someone bumping into me or looking at me funny; it’s more in actually the business environment.  Nothing quite fires me up like some good competition or healthy negotiation.

I also see a parallel to sports…look at Michael Jordan…he just criticized LeBron for going to Miami and I totally get it. Jordan was pushed his whole career because he always had people challenging him on other teams that forced him to get better.  Kobe has been the same way, working harder than anyone to be the best. Love or hate Kobe for his personality, you can’t argue with how unbelievable his shot was in the NBA Finals (when Ray wasn’t smothering him…).  That fire I think is essential to success in whatever you do, as long as you can keep it under control.

For every Jordan, Bryant, Jobs or Zuckerberg, there are tons of people that let their heads drive them to self-destruction.  So how do you channel your inner pit bull to feed the fire when you need it and not destroy yourself?  I’m not sure totally, but I’m trying to understand it better; in my past I’ve found the inner pit bull has gotten me in trouble a few times but in general has been a net benefit.

The extra fire has helped carry me through many a challenge and luckily, instead of being blinded in rage, it has actually helped me think harder on challenges. Some of my most resourceful and innovative ideas have come while in “pit bull” mode. I think this is because when in “pit bull” mode I’m incredibly focused; nothing else gets in…it’s just me and the threat/challenge in front of me.  With that opportunity of clarity, it’s almost “easier” to come up with solutions.

So do you have an “inner pit bull” or what would you call it?

…Consider this a very open-ended, partially thought out post.  It will be connected to a more thought out blog post on Greenhorn Wednesday.



The smart phone decision: an unexpected choice

6 July 2010

1 Comment

So after much deliberation, I’ve decided I won’t be getting a smart phone after all.  Instead, I’m going to get an iPad. Here’s why:

1) I don’t feel there’s enough missing in my life that a smart phone can do.

Yeah, I want to be one of the cool kids and have a new gadget to show off too, but in the end, after playing around with a few friend’s iphones, I just couldn’t justify it.  I didn’t feel like there were any “killer apps” that would change my life if I had it.

2) The Price

By my calculations, it was going to cost me about $800-$1,200 over the next year to have a smart phone.  Meanwhile, the iPad with 3G for a year would come in at the bottom of that, $800.  And the second year, when I’m not considering the cost of the item in it, it has a significant cost advantage at just $15 for data.

3) The iPad did have the killer apps

After about 15 minutes with the oneforty company iPad, I realized I wanted one.  It has this strange magic ability to fill a gap I didn’t know I had in my life; now I can’t wait to run through a bunch of saved blog posts on instapaper and it feels so much less intrusive to have an iPad in my living room while watching TV with roommates than it did having a full fledged laptop burning my lap.  The giant color screen is also really powerful for displaying everything from websites to simple one to one presentations.

4) The iPad is just an iPhone with a bigger screen

So evaluating things overall, and I see that the iPad can do any of those magical things that the iPhone can do, but with a much bigger screen. I personally cannot imagine using a 3.5 inch screen to read emails or blog posts, so I’m happy to have the advantages of the big screen and none of the stress of needed it to fail at making phone calls.

5) Dumb Phones are still the world’s majority

Want to make a killer app to serve the world? It’s going to be on dumb phones.  Smart phone proliferation is a luxury of the wealthy.  There are billions of people just getting any cellular technology and that will only be on “dumb phones” for some time.  As an entrepreneur, I think you’re at your best when you’re one of your own customers.  Therefore, to keep in mind some of the biggest opportunities, I’m keeping my dumb phone.  I couldn’t find any current statistics I found satisfying to put here, but if I find one that shows the cell phone breakdown of the world, I’ll definitely add it later.

So I doubt there are too many people that are going to be rolling with a LG VX8300 and an iPad, but hey…who doesn’t want to be a trendsetter?

Life I chose or the life that chose me…

5 July 2010

So tonight I got a text from a friend…actual exchange:

Friend: I have big news!

me: Yeah? What?

Friend: We got engaged!

me: With who?!?

Friend: Seriously? My now fiance Brandon

me: Sorry. havent seen u much the last 6 mos. congrats! heard youre headed to grad school too. when are you having a big nite in boston?

This sums up a lot of my life since being “greenhorn” become a part of it and really since I started grad school in sept. 2008.  I have chosen learning about entrepreneurship and building GHC over everything else.  Until I started working at oneforty, I attributed part of it to being broke; I was cobbling together odd jobs and living off savings. But now I have a great job with a healthy paycheck, and I still find myself almost always choosing startup life over things normal 25 year olds do.

In a way, tonight was a wake up. But in many ways, it’s just a blip on the radar.  I have zero regrets. I’m very proud and grateful for how far I’ve come thus far and still feel like there’s so much still to do, so much to learn and still behind where I need to be; I feel like every moment I work at oneforty and work on Greenhorn Connect, I’m learning so much, it’s sooo hard to want to put it down for any meaningful time.

I’m 25. It feels so old and yet so young. Mark Zuckerberg and LeBron James are less than a year older than me. They remind me to stay hungry and realize there are no limits; if they can do what they’ve done, than the trivial things I can do must be easy.

At the same time I realize that maybe I need to “enjoy” a bit more of my 20s; is the relentless pursuit of startup nirvana really how I should leave every moment of my life, or can I effectively pursue it and still be an average 25 year old every once in a while? I don’t know…but I’m going to try.

Greenhorn Needs a Phone!!! Help!

1 June 2010

6 Comments

So I’ve been talking about it for a while and the time has come. Greenhorn needs to enter the 21st century and get a smart phone.

My beautiful, indestructible, it-only-texts-and-calls-but-does-so-better-than-your-iphone LG VX8300 are soon going to end our 2.5 year relationship.  Here’s a loving photo:

My loving phone of 2.5 years

But now the question is…what to get next?

I’ve done a little preliminary research and narrowed it down to 3 possibilities:

AT&T's iPhone

Verizon's Incredible

The Next Great Cell Phone

So I’d love to hear from any of you on what you recommend.

A few final thoughts:

1) I hate AT&T.

I know all about the dropped calls and it really is as close to a dealbreaker as it can get for me. You really gotta sell me on why an iphone is worth it even if I can’t call.

2) I’ve heard that the EVO and Nexus One are both inferior to the Incredible

So that’s why the Incredible is up there. I’ve read from reviews at EnGadget and others that the Incredible fixes a lot of the UI stuff and has a better battery than those other two Droid phones.

3) I haven’t heard anything good about Blackberry.

Blackberry isn’t on the list because I haven’t heard anyone say they “love” their blackberry. I have heard “I can’t wait to get rid of it.”

4) I’m willing to wait.

If there’s something mind blowing coming out this summer, then I’m willing to stick with my old friend the VX8300 another month or two.


Your thoughts on the phone are greatly appreciated! Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts or experiences to share.

Book Review: 10 Powerful Personas By Kevin Vogelsang

31 May 2010

1 Comment

Ever wonder what makes a leader great?  Ever spend time thinking about what the strengths are in your personality or how you might be able to become more like great people around you? Kevin Vogelsang has and he’s written a book to help you answer those questions.  In his just released book “10 Powerful Personas,“ Kevin examines key attributes of 10 different qualities found in leaders. I learned a lot from the book and I’d like to share a few of the lessons here:

1) Leaders come from everywhere

One of the most interesting things about Kevin’s book is the balance in people he uses as examples of different leaders.  He uses everyone from General Patton to his football coach to his mother as examples of the different powerful personas to great effect.  Because of his wide variety of examples, it made me think about who around me, both famous and friend, that exhibited the traits he describes; it was an excellent reminder that you can really learn from anyone around you if you simply raise your awareness and look for it.

<Click here to read the other reasons at GreenhornConnect.com>

Book Review: Mastering the VC Game by Jeff Bussgang

11 May 2010

As a young entrepreneur, it’s not easy to understand how venture capital really works. There are tons of horror stories that spread through the community like urban legends and phrases like “Term sheets” and “Down Rounds” can sound foreign.  Amidst all of these questions is an aura of uncertainty about how the whole system really works. Fortunately, there’s Jeff Bussgang’s book, Mastering the VC Game to help.

This book should be a must read for any young entrepreneur who thinks they may ever want funding. It’s that good. Here’s a few reasons I love the book:

It Answers My Questions:

For a long time, I’ve had a million different questions about how it all works from start to finish and why certain aspects of the investment process are they way they are.  In Mastering the VC Game, Jeff breaks it all down in simple terms that have immeasurably raised my understanding how it all works. He’s also fair to both entrepreneurs and VCs alike, in explaining on how varying motivations can lead to all those conflicts and horror stores we hear about.

Thanks to this book, I now have a basic framework and understanding to build off of should I ever pursue funding.  I thought I was going to have to go to a ton of events about funding to understand venture financing, but this book is much clearer than putting together piecemeal information from events.

Read the other reasons at Greenhorn Connect…

Why Barnes & Noble is going to go out of business and I don’t mind…

29 March 2010

25 Comments

Having finished the last of the books I had stock piled to read, I realized it was time to pick up some new reading material. Since I had a Barnes & Noble gift card sitting around from Christmas, I thought this was a great time to use it. I didn’t want to wait for shipping, so I ventured into the Barnes & Noble at the Prudential Center with the goal of picking up Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think and Jason Freid’s new ReWork. I thought it would be easy enough…go in, find ReWork in the business section and Krug in some type of web development/design section.  Not so much…

So after wandering all the way to the wrong side of the store, I finally found the business shelf…but couldn’t find ReWork. I stumbled across a kiosk, but despite it’s insistence the book was in the middle of the area I was in (note: the kiosk didn’t have the most up to date shelving set up…#fail), I couldn’t find ReWork.  I then figured I’d look for Don’t Make Me Think, but their web development and design sections are a mess of photography how to books and random coding languages jumbled.

I finally grabbed a B&N staff person after about 15 min of feeling like a blind man in a library and they took me to their main station.  Turns out they only give the best treatment to Jason Fried’s new book: ankle level on a special shelf halfway under a table about 2 feet from the help desk…obviously easy to find!  With ReWork in hand we then went searching for Don’t Make Me Think…unfortunately, much thinking was required as we searched the jumbled mess of web and design sections.  But alas…finally we found it.

Then I went to the check out:

Don’t Make Me Think: $40

ReWork: $22

Tax: $3.88

Total: $65.88***

Note: The cashier was kind enough to offer me the opportunity! to pay an additional $25 to become a B&N club member and save 15% on all purchases!!! What a deal! She reminded me, that I’d save $9 on my books today if I got the club membership…ignore that’s still a net extra of $14.

Now: Why Barnes & Noble is going to go out of business and I don’t mind…

If I go to Amazon.com…I can get both of those books with free shipping for: $38.50.  I can also immediately find the books by simply typing in the title or author. I can also see reviews to make sure I really want the books (luckily, both have already come strongly endorsed by my Tweeples).

So let’s see…save over 40% (much more than that awesome B&N membership!), find stuff instantly and deliver it to my doorstep? SOLD.

Sorry B&N…I’m going to use up my gift card $ and not only not come back, but ask my mom for Amazon.com gift cards next year.

Book Review: Founders at Work

18 March 2010

A startup has the most uncertainty in the beginning. You have no customers. Your team may be incomplete. You may not even fully understand what your market is or even your product. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re either in this situation now, or you’ve been there before.

Jessica Livingston’s book, “Founder’s at Work” profiles some of the most famous startups of the past few decades (and some you didn’t know) by interviewing founders and asking them what the “early days” were like.

Despite hearing stories from 32 different companies, ranging from hardware to software to consumer web, there were a few common themes I noticed throughout:

1) You’re idea will change.

Whether it was PayPal, Apple, or 37 Signals, where you start out may not be where you finish.  Paypal originally thought they’d manage transactions on the Palm Pilot. 37 Signals was original a web development consulting firm. Apple thought they’d sell some kits to computer hobbyists.  We all know how all those turned out. Don’t be surprised if your startup experiences the same thing.

2) Not every great business knows how they’ll make money from the start.

Blogger, Trip Advisor (an exhibitor at the Career Combine!) and many others struggled greatly with finding the right revenue model.  Does that mean we should all adopt the Underpants Gnomes business model? No. But it does mean that you should be open to adapting and trying multiple revenue opportunities.  Trip Advisor even went as far as walking away from some deals when they decided a different path was the best model, even though it was unproven and would take longer to bring in revenue.

3) Choosing the right investor is important.

There are a few horror stories of when bringing in investment money was a disaster. Most notably, ArsDigita went from a growing profitable business to infighting and self-destruction after taking VC investment. There were also stories of where investment worked out fine.  I think the key is to remember that the people who you take investment from are you partners for the life of the business. You can fire co-founders, divorce your wife, but investors are forever.  Choose people you feel comfortable working with and trust.

4) Every company has its Dark Days.

One question that Jessica seemed to make sure to ask every founder was if they ever “thought about quitting.”  Most responded with stories of their darkest days, when they weren’t sure they were going to make it, that they had to fire a friend or when a key deal fell through.  Fortunately, everyone interviewed stuck with it, which is why their businesses were successes and they were profiled in a book like this.

I think the biggest lesson I learned from all of the stories was just that you need to be insanely passionate about your business; it’s going to be hard, there will be setbacks and only persistence and diligence will give you a chance* at succeeding.  If you can see yourself not doing your business, then you may want to save yourself the torture of uncertainty and long hours.

If you’re starting a business or thinking about it, this is a great book to give you an idea of what it’s really like in the early days.