VC Confidential

1871: Make No Small Plans

The year 1871 holds a special place in Chicago history...it was the year of the great fire that leveled the city. It was also the year that some of the greatest designers, architects and minds came to Chicago to rebuild the city as a beacon for the future. Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the build, said "Make no small plans as they have no magic to stir men's blood".

The city has launched another chapter with the unveiling of a major tech center, 1871, in the heart of the city at the Merchandise Mart. A recent article, Factory Floor of the Future is Here, catches the essence and importance of 1871. Definitely worth a full read.

"Named for the year Chicago recreated itself following a great fire, the new incubator is scaled big to generate energy that radiates from the bullpen of desks across to the conference rooms, where ideas are vetted and deals are done to provide financing to move an idea into a business.

What attracts 400 applications from around the world to space at 1871? Talented people, universities, capital, mentoring and daily programming that brings in successful entrepreneurs and business people — all under one roof. The Universities of Chicago and Illinois, among others; a boot camp for entrepreneurs; and a venture capital company have offices at 1871; 36 workshops and programs are scheduled for May alone."

Matt Moog wrote a terrific blog post on 1871 earlier in the year in which he wrote:

"Why is it called 1871?  Historians will tell you that the story of the Great Chicago Fire isn’t really a story about a fire at all; it’s a story about what happened next. Just after the Chicago fire, the citizens of Chicago and the world came together  in one of the great entrepreneurial endeavors in history, to rebuild Chicago into the model of the modern city.  Today, the digital community of Chicago is coming together at a place called 1871 to build the businesses of our future. 1871 was a unique moment in history, the beginning of one of the greatest periods of innovation the world has ever known. The best engineers, designers and builders came together to revitalize Chicago using the latest technologies, and their work catalyzed decades of innovation. And that’s what 1871 is about: entrepreneurship, digital technology, and innovation in Chicago.

Chicago’s digital technology community has been growing steadily and methodically over the past decade. More than 25,000 people are employed by digital companies in Chicago.  In the last 2 to 3 years, our ecosystem has hit critical mass on the most important measures: availability of private capital, number of successful serial entrepreneurs, proliferation of community organizations, and a new level of government support. We’ve had more than 40 Chicago tech exits of greater than $100 million in the last decade. Since builtinchicago.org launched a little more than a year ago, it has drawn 250,000 users and has more than 7,000 members with profiles. 2011 was a record year with digital companies raising more than 1 billion dollars.  And the truth of the matter is, we are just getting started."

 

Pura Vida -- Life and Entrepreneurship

"[Pura Vida] embodies a philosophy in which communal ties are strong and close; difficulties are overcome with a resilient and happy spirit, where life is enjoyed leisurely and to the full, and where fortune of whatever size is heartily celebrated."  -- Tony Cousins

I have spent the past week in Costa Rica surfing, doing yoga, eating, recovering and relaxing. This is truly a different part of the world, whose charm was captured by my daughter after 3 weeks at an orphanage here. She was surprised how happy the impoverished, parentless children were, how cheerful the staff was and how welcoming the villagers were. They had little material wealth and little opportunity for advancement. It was only upon landing back on US soil, the land of opportunity, that gravity set in again. 

My journey to Costa Rican enlightenment had many more ironic and synchronistic twists and turns than my daughter's. I took a Vinyassa yoga class on my third day to detox and center myself. Unfortunately (and ironically), doing so in 96 degree heat with electricity out in the city after eating something disagreeable, landed me in bed for two days. My efforts to find my youthful surfing zen from growing up in La Jolla resulted (ironically) in badly bruised ribs which made bed that more enjoyable. Additionally, the resort I was at was full of self-contained 5 person families from the US. Half the trip shot and I was really regretting coming down during the "dry season" with temperatures too hot to zipline. To salvage a piece of the day, I went out at 5:30 to surf at sunset. I was definitely not living la Vida Pura but was sore, sick and alone (small violins please).

I should know from my own past posts that this is when the learning begins, and always from unexpected quarters. I was mesmerized by a local longboarder who would hang five (toes) on the front of the board, step on it and rotate the entire board 180 degrees while going down the wave. Eventually, I went in and sat on my board, watching him as the sun set, thinking I should tell him how amazing his surfing was but figured I'd leave before then. Synchronistically, he lost his board just at that moment and it came into shore. I could have let him get it but thought, hey, I could do two acts of kindness by getting his board and complimenting him. My good fortune...not his.

His name was Jochim from a small town in northern Costa Rica, had taught where I was taking surf lessons and now had his own small business selling excursions, renting bikes, etc. I mentioned how friendly everyone was in Tamarindo. Jochim smiled and said that while there was some crime in San Jose (& other urban areas), that generally crime was low and people generally content. Pura Vida (pure life) is the motto of the country. He said that when his friends and he go out, some one is always talking about how grateful he/she is for something, even the smallest things. He said he was Catholic but not a church goer but he would often be out surfing, with a beautiful sunset and he would look up and say thank you for such a wonderful afternoon. Friends would comment about how grateful they were for some development in their life. Because they enjoyed what they had, no matter how small versus what they didn't have, they could enjoy the present. Furthermore, they could be grateful in the midst of setback. Ironically, he pointed out that the temperatures of the dry season killed all the mosquitos so I could be down there without serious concern of airborne disease (while being laced in DEET)...synchronistic lesson right there about gratitude versus complaining. 

Gratitude has always struck me as one of those touchy feely, elusive concepts that had wiggled its way into most major philosophers/religions' core tenants. I've never really gotten it a deep level. At a high level, sure...be grateful for things around you, live a happy life. Ironically, it wasn't until my string of events & a talk with a local surfer in Costa Rica that it hit me. Gratitude is at the heart of resilience and integrity (see quote above)...and the life's blood of entrepreneurship and living a good life.

When things don't go as planned, we tend not to celebrate the small (or large) successes and fortunes of the day but rather what has gone wrong. The attitude and focus we bring to our thoughts/intentions fuses either positive or negative reality into our lives. Focus on the incredible development team you have or bemoan the issue they are having with the code; celebrate how healthy and fortunate your family is or worry about some minor issue; celebrate the large customer that been there always for you or obsess on the one you probably shouldn't be chasing. This is not to say celebrate mediocrity or let your kids gorge on TV and candy (set expectations and help them become their best). However, learn to be grateful. More importantly, seek it out...hunt for it in your every day, no matter how poorly things seem to be going. If you are grateful for what you have, you can live in and address the present versus fearing the future. I'll leave you with one last quote before signing off in Costa Rica to hit the surf...Pura Vida, my friends.

"When we are grateful we do not wish for more than we have, but appreciate that which is already present in our lives.  We do not chafe at the good fortune of others, or resent or mourn that which is missed, lost, gone, or never had.  The desire for more can be boundless and endless."    -- Existential  Buddhist

 

Ask the VC

Erik Severinghaus sent over this hilarious xtra normal video on Stupid Questions VC's Ask that has been floating around the internet. Erik is an awesome, serial entrepreneur and I'm certain has had more than his share of these fine interogations. Since I focus on showing entrepreneurs behind the VC curtain, here you go:  

Stupid Questions VCs Ask - Watch more Tech Videos at Vodpod.

 

Karma Kitchen: Most Intriguing Restaurant

Rishi Roongta works with me at New World and is omnipresent. He is curious and tests just about everything under the sun. He came across a new restaurant that redefines both Paying Forward and restaurants in general. As he writes:

"Karma Kitchen was pretty awesome. I was a “waiter” and served tables for 4 hours.. gives a good appreciation for the job! And really gets everyone that comes into the doors to think about what giving truly means. Every meal ends with a check for $0 so it really makes people think how much they want to give for the next person. Anyways, I enjoyed it a ton and will definitely do it again."

The concept is simple but ground breaking. Every meal has a $0 bill. You choose how much to give towards the next person who eats there. Truly, you pay it forward. It is also a roundabout crowd sourced pricing model. Additionally, you can volunteer to be a waiter there. Thank goodness, there is more traditional control around the cooks:)

The entire concept is built upon people's inherent desire to give back to others...to prove that people are inherently good and caring. I plan not only to eat there but to also volunteer. There is one in Berkley, DC and Chicago.
You can learn more at: http://www.karmakitchen.org/

Talk about a value meal!

Follow Your Bliss -- Finding Joe

Joseph Campbell is the most influential person to have impacted my life. He was the world's leading mythologist and had an amazing capacity to show the common threads that cut across all religions, movies, books and stories. An awesome movie just came out about him and The Heroe's Journey that I have mentioned to everyone I know. Everyone of them has referred it onto their friends. It's that moving and insightful. For anyone trying to launch a business or to find their bliss or in a life transition or..., this is a great movie to see. You can buy/stream it at www.findingjoethemovie.com.  Below is the trailer for it:

 

Matthew's Day Off

I think I need to take a day off to get going on my blog posts again. I apologize for my absence and will work on getting some pearls of wisdom out soon. Lot of travel and deals make Jack a dull (& postless) boy...  In the interim, here is my day off...parody of the great Chicago movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Being the value added VC that I am, this is the extended version not seen on TV...

 

Tim Draper's 8 Rules for Start Up Success

I am out at the annual DFJ CEO Summit. Tim kicked off the event with his eight rules for company success based on 26 years in the business. They are: Eight rules for success: 1) Test your product and get it out into market...see if the dogs will eat the dog food 2) Don't run out of cash 3) Eliminate human friction...one button on iPod, simplicity, simplicity 4) Focus...what is the most important thing to customer and what you can do to uniquely solve it. -- and eliminate items on fin statement like WC, anything not critical to key customer need 5) Leadership: you are the meme...you are on a mission but everyone picks up what you eminate...Sun always used the term Awesome (from McNealy), Job's culture. You are the leader of organization: take care of self, employees will also. You are the brand and heart of culture. 6) Think Big...go after things that count, one life to lead and go after big problem, change society 7) Have fun: get the endorphines firing, lots of little stupid things...leads to creative solutions 8) Partner and work with as many people as possible David Rosenblatt of DoubleClick fame added: 9) Accountability: clear owner of each item who goes to bed focus and worried about it. 10) Transparency: avoid layered bureaucracy and heavy processes that obscure. Keep employees informed of all the company's tentacles, challenges and opportunitities

Favor to Get Out the Vote

I'm looking to withdraw a little from my Karma bank here. My son just led his high school team to the Illinois State golf championship. This is big deal for his small school (60 kids per class). It is the first state title in any sport in the school's 60 year history. He also finished second at Regionals and second at Sectionals. He's worked incredibly hard over the past years for this.

The Chicago Tribune has nominated him as one of six athletes to possibly win High School Player of the Month. He is second right now against others from much larger schools who are getting out the vote across their schools. I'm clearly biased but you can decide for yourself who to vote for. I would love to see as many of you as possible go to the Tribune HS Player of the Month site and vote for Nicholas McCall and help send him past the larger schools (plus his is the only State Championship in the group:). Thanks in advance!!!

Enough With the Gloom & Doom on Groupon

In 2000-2001, I remember reading negative article after negative article on Amazon. It was burning money quickly, e-tailers were going under left and right and brick & mortar stores were re-asserting themselves. People kept a diligent death watch for it after the demise of Webvans ($1b) and others. In reality, what was going on was a rationalization of the e-commerce space, a pruning of the weak. As scale effects kicked in and they offered new services, suddenly the company swung to profitability and the rest is history. Using Google, I can't even find articles from those days. 

I have a similar feeling about Groupon. I have been amazed by the manic swings in public opinion on Groupon that we have seen over the past year. Lately, it has all been gloom and doom. The company goes public at $20/share ($2 above targeted range and trades up 30-50%. First headline I see: "Groupon gets a pop--but not the 1999 kind". Come on guys...enough with the dramatic trash talking.

I'll be the first to admit that I have no crystal ball about the future of Groupon nor an in-depth knowledge of its solvency. However, $700m will certain give them a nice runway to work things out. There are several high level factors that people seem to be ignoring about the company.

1) like all e-commerce spaces, when they rationalize, everyone suffers and, in the end, it is usually the top 2-3 companies that come out dominant. The number of daily deal sites has already dropped from 300 to 180 and continues to fall rapidly. There is scale advantage to being large in everything from online acquisition costs to logistics to call center efficiencies to branding.  These grow with time.

2) everyone wrote off Amazon around 2000 and 2001. Eventually, the company fully leveraged its economies of scale, tightened its cost structure, got to break even and then rolled out new products/services. You now have everything from Amazon stores to Amazon private labeling online service & fulfillment for other large retailers to all of its cloud infrastructure (AWS). Groupon will follow a similar path. It will grow, it will get to breakeven and it will innovate. We have not even seen the services yet that will eventually drive profitable growth for the business in the future.

3) why has no one been commenting on the incredible talent in the firm. First, if you give Eric, Brad and Andrew opportunity to iterate, they will figure out solutions. They are quintessential entrepreneurs. $700m buys a good amount of runway for them. Second, they have hired folks like senior data experts from Netflix to figure out preferential targeting and a former Amazon finance exec as CFO. There is a lot of top talent there.

4) does the world expect 10-15 of the largest, most connected venture firms in the world (as well as the two top investment banks) to allow anything to happen to this company? I think it is safe to say that Groupon is well buffered.

So, enough Groupon bashing and enough Groupon hyperbole on the other side. Let this team innovate, grow and take full advantage of the $700m they just raised. I can't guarantee that things won't end in tears here but I can say that they have a lot more going for them than the press/analysts have been willing to admit. 

Touched by Something Greater

Even in death, Steve Jobs connects us and reminds us of something greater. It is amazing the impact that Steve's death has had. Nearly everyone I know seems saddened almost at a personal level. It's as if we all realized this special, creative presence has now moved on…communal loss. Very interesting. I think some of us almost viewed him as immortal given his many recoveries. Others realized that his creativity and entrepreneurship reaffirmed our connection to something greater than ourselves. Most feel a tangible loss. He was the ultimate embodiment of innovation and entrepreneurship...how it inspires and raises us to a greater plane. 

I've reposted his 2005 Commencement Speech (over 15m views) which I first blogged about 5 years ago. Steve, we'll miss you :(