ProjectX Blog

There seems to be some mis-understanding about Creative HQ offers the residents.

Here are 10 things about Creative HQ from a resident’s prespective.

Creative HQ (CHQ) provides:

1. Subsidised Office space – ie. Internet, Fax, phone systems, desks etc.
2. Discounted rates for key services – Accountants, Lawyers, Employment laywer, business coaches, and media training etc.
3. Mentoring – Every company has a couple of mentors who work with the companies every month to help them accelerator their growth. They get at least 3 hours of mentoring time every month for free. The list of mentor includes previous CEO’s of EDS and IBM etc. They have a wealth of experience their skills covers a wide range of knowledge.
4. Network Opporunities – CHQ has plenty of functions. There is a lot of cross pollination between various business people, groups and associations in Wellington.
5. Access to VC funds – We have access to VC funding networks. Most companies at Creative HQ are at a pre-VC stage.
6. Knowledge share –
   * We have monthly seminars on a variety of topics eg. Funding, employment law, running accounts, tax, HR, company structure.
   * Learning from other companies inside the incubator about the in’s and out’s of running a start-up company.
7. Colloboration – Many companies work together on projects. Eg. LetUseIt and ProjectX are running the CreativeHQ “Summer of Code” for benefit of CHQ, residents and CHQ Alumni. I have met several CEO’s that I am sure that I will together on future ideas.
8. Free stuff – We get the opportunities to participate in seminars and training that benefit the CEO, and the companies involved.
9. Kudos – Getting into CHQ requires a bit of effort that prove the viability of the business idea and the level of commitment of the people. This helps open doors for those companies as they have been “qualified” by CHQ. I can personally say this kudos has helped us with PR and our grant applications.
10. Social side – Its great to have a support network of people who understand the trials and tribulations of running a company. We have a tight knit bunch of companies in here. We have a great time in our journey together in creating our businesses. ( Out of the companies that have graduated over the last 2 years, over 6 of companies that have moved into new premises together)

The focus of Creative HQ is to help people take a smart idea and turn into reality.

IMHO I would thoroughly recommend that any person who has an idea, to come and talk to the people at Creative HQ or (other incubators in NZ). For one, its good practice to have smart people asking the right questions about your business ideas.

In our case, we had difficultly explaining our idea, and this process really helped us to define our pitch.

Paul Allen (who runs an US internet incuvator called Provo Labs) has posted about a TV show on serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban – Mark Cuban on Becoming a Billionaire. (Mark Cuban is one the dot com era winners with Broadcast.com )

Paul highlighted the following insights from the show:

“He reads like crazy and uses email like crazy…” – I think every entrepreneur reads like crazy. I am always on the look out for new ideas, inspiration and different business models. I am a big believer in cross pollenation of ideas from different segments of the business world. Sometimes inspiration is found in strange places! eg. I got an idea for a new auction component from reading the introduction of customers.com! For some strange reason the introductory pitch of the book ampifilied the ideas that were bubbling under the surface.

“He is willing to do the blocking and tackling to build a business…” ie. He’s willing to do the hard yards to build the business. Taking the time to get the little details right can make the difference in creating a unique user experience. Small things do make a difference and you can really build something substancial when you add up everything. At the end of the day, you can’t say that you gave it your best shot if you didn’t give it 120%. A start-up isn’t a 9-5 job, you need to live and breathe it,if you want to be a success.

“Being an investor made him a better business man, and being a business man made him a better investor…” – Absolutely, you need to understand investing to be a better business. You need to understand about investing, if you want to get into the mindspace of a VC.

What do VC’s want in companies? More on that later…

Inspiration comes in many forms. As a startup, we are always facing challenges from every direction. Every once and a while you find inspiration that reminds you that you’re on the right path even though everything around you is crazy. If you have passion and a strong vision then you can change the world.

Tim from Decisive flow has written an outstanding post on vision: stay inspired and have amazing days. Tim has articulated a Zen approach to finding and living your vision.

I am reminded of George Leonard’s book “Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment”. Here is a snippet from the book that to me captures the spirit of Tim’s post.

“Goals and contingencies, as I’ve said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most esssential and enduring in your life.”

In other words, embrace the journey and celebrate the wins along the way. Business is hard and its fun if you only take the time to enjoy it!

I have been catching up on my reading. I have just finished reading this month’s Business 2.0 magazine which had an interesting article on
The 20 smartest companies to start now.

The article details several high profile VC’s (Vinold Khosla, Steve Case and others) who are outlining ideas that they are interested investing in. What’s different about this article is that they are asking for entrepreneurs to pitch their solutions to them! ie. the VC’s have ideas and they are shopping for entrepreneurs ! In its almost like the whole pitch process in reverse. The VC’s have even given an indication of what they are willing to spend and what they want for the cash. The investment areas are quite diverse from software, energy, health services, social / mobile networking and even games.

I find the approach really refreshing. What better to match a passionate VC with a energetic young startup? If any of you have watched Dragon’s Den, you’ll often see that the VC’s have different interests and often won’t invest outside portfolio. (Side note: Is it me or does the NZ version of Dragons Den seem to be giving away more money ? Is it that we have better ideas or are kiwi VC’s willing to take more risk ?)

I wonder if New Zealand VC’s would be interested pitching their ideas to budding entrepreneurs? Maybe that’s some for the NZVCA to think about.

I just thought I’d share some interesting articles on Human Resources.

David Rock

A couple weeks ago, I went to see a lecture by David Rock to MBA students and Alumni. David Rock is a successful entrepreneur and writer that has been focusing on improving businesses through personal coaching. The main focus of the lecture was his work with Jeffrey Schwartz on The Neuroscience of Leadership.

Here are main points of his lecture (borrowed from the Exec summary of the article):

Change is pain. Organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort.

Behaviorism doesn’t work. Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.

Humanism is overrated. In practice, the conventional empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage people.

Focus is power. The act of paying attention creates chemical and physical changes in the brain.

Expectation shapes reality. People’s preconceptions have a significant impact on what they perceive.

Attention density shapes identity. Repeated, purposeful, and
focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.

The lecture was extremely thought provoking. ProjectX have gone through a few HR changes in the last couple of months. I can really relate to the findings. Change is a hard, it requires a concerted effort from all parties to achieve the right results.

Change or Die

There is another great article from Fast company called Change or Die about the observations of Dr. Edward Miller, the dean of the medical school and CEO of the hospital at Johns Hopkins University. Here is piece of the article.

“If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, 90% of them have not changed their lifestyle,” Miller said. “And that’s been studied over and over and over again. And so we’re missing some link in there. Even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle, for whatever reason, they can’t.”

I find this really hard to believe that 90% of people who have been given the ultimatium Change or Die failed. It really makes you think.

Develop your Strengths

David Rock also mentioned from his research that a more successful approach to training was to focus on building your employees strengths. He recommended Marcus Buckingham’s book “Now Discover your Strengths”. (This book is actually cheaper buying locally than on Amazon.)
The book gives the example of that Tiger Woods spend most of this time practising his drive and what is seen as one of his major strengths? His Drive!
The book has a link to an online survey that helps to determine what your dominant strengths. There are 34 different strengths
that range from Communication to Responsibility and Achiever to Arranger.

This approach re-inforces the personal coaching approach. Society is moving toward a more personalised view of services, so why should training be any different. The book is a great investment in the personal development of people. At around $27 per person its a bargain.

I just want to squash a rumour that is currently floating around.

ProjectX is still owned 100% by ProjectX. Trade Me has NOT brought ProjectX contary to the rumours floating around.

We provide map services to Trade Me and several other companies in New Zealand and Australia.

We have over 350 developers using the ZoomIn Mapping System in NZ and we are working hard to provide the best mapping system for all our users.

I have been re-organising my blog subscriptions and here’s what is in my must read folder.

1. Kathy Sierra’s Creating Passionate Users
2. David Seah
3. Hugh MacLeod’s Gaping Void
4. Guy Kawasaki
5. Paul Graham
6. Rod Drury
7. Seth Godin
8. 37 signals’s Signal vs Noise
9. Robert Scoble
10. Tim and Nat’s Simple and Loveable

I recently found this article on entrepreneurship by Marc Hedlund – O’Reilly’s entrepreneur in residence. Its a great article on some of the key things to remember when you creating and building a new business.

I have a couple of pearls of wisdom that I would add to Mark’s list

John

Business week have a nice article on the 8 myths of Software as a service.

Here are the main points:

Here’s my thoughts on Software as a service.

The reality is change is expensive. Software as a service makes it possible to try the software to see if its a fit for your needs. If you have to invest lots of time and resources in some that might work, you have to be prepared to face the fact that you might have brought a lemon.

As the software provider this model works great. We get to focus on the features that our clients actually want. Our focus is on creating value.

Let me know your thoughts on the article.

You can use Zoomin to advertise your business!

You can put the location of your business on our maps and add a description and photos.
It’s free and easy.you can add your business to the maps in less than 2 minutes.

Let me show you how by adding the Projectx office to the ZoomIn site.

1. Go to zoomin.co.nz
   Search for your business address. Enter your address in the search bar and press Find or select one of our suggested addresses. e.g.<a href="http://www.zoomin.co.nz/nz/wellington/te+aro/marion+street/25">25 Marion street Te Aro</a>
2. Sign in with your user name and password into the site.
3. Click on to add a place to the map.
   Enter the name of your Business into the name field and click on Save. The page will refresh with place you have just entered.
4. Click on the Click here to create a description link below the map to add a description of your business.
   
   Enter the description of your in the text box and click Save.
   TIP: You can edit your description again by clicking on the description directly.
5. To add a photo to the place click on to add a photo to the map.
6. You’re done!

Now you have a friendly url to give you your customers to show how they can get to your business.

e.g. http://www.zoomin.co.nz/nz/wellington/te+aro/marion+street/25/-projectx+technology/

We are building the mapping site for New Zealand, we really appreciate your feedback, so drop a email with your thoughts.

John