Cameesa - The Blog

Imagine this:  you are a beer enthusiast and can’t stop thinking about beer.  You love the way it smells, tastes, the way it is brewed and the entire process.  The problem is that there are no websites out there that tell you EVERYTHING you want to know about beer.  Once in a while, you go on a rampage researching a specific beer for days.  Last week, you spent four straight days researching how to brew a Guinness Draught, and perfected it.  Your friends tell you that you have a problem, and you agree.  You just can’t get over beer facts, it’s composition, smell and taste….if beer was a woman you would not be single any longer.

How is this related to writing your first web application? Well…..solve your own problems first.

So let’s visualize a little more. 

If your dream beer website existed: how would you want it to look? how would it smell? how would you use it?  why would you need it? how would it scratch your itch? why would you love your website?

My dream beer site:

Would be simple (like Google search) with a tan background (the color of beer), and would smell like a Guinness (it’s my favorite beer).  I would want to go onto the website and type in any beer name in the search and get EVERY detail about that beer.  I would need it because I could learn everything about any beer on one site, instead of spending 4 days researching beer on different sites.  It would scratch my itch by having all the information I ever dreamed of.  I would love my website because it would be simple, informational, and community-driven.

So the solutions mentioned above sound like a beer-wiki if you ask me.  So there are your answers of what your website should do and how it should look.

So, in chronological order, this is how you write your first Web Application:

1. Define your own problem (beer love)
2. Solve your own problem (write a web application that scratches your beer-love itch)
3. Try not to do too much (after defining your dream application, launch with only 3 features, don’t try to take over the world just yet)
4. Write your web application (should take a few months to launch)
5. Find people that are like you (other beer lovers)

In summary, you have to find your own problem, solve it with a web application; then, find people that are like you to use it.  Notice that other people don’t come into the equation until you have written your application (Step 5).  So, you should be focusing on solving your own problem and launching it with a few features, and then getting user feedback.  The main point is that you are not asking “what will people use?” from Day 1.

This advice is slightly based off of Jason Fried’s advice to solve your own problems first.

p.s. I’m not a beer enthusiast, although I do like beer, but here are some cool websites:

Beer Advocate

Real Beer

Rate Beer

I initially started to write this post in praise of Founders at Work as a sort of book review outlining the important points from the book. However, in the middle of writing I realized a lot these ideas I’ve accumulated from experience and a myriad of other books. So instead I’ve outlined my ideas in regards to Entrepreneurship while citing some examples from the book as I feel it is an excellent resource. I can probably write a book around this topic. However, I need to make it into a blog post and keep succinct and informative as possible. I probably failed on making this post brief.

Founders at Work is a book by Jessica Livingston, a founding partner at Y Combinator, outlining the early days of various successful tech start-ups through a series of interviews with their founders. The book covers around 30 start-ups some notable names include: Adobe, Apple, Blogger, PayPal, Hotmail, 37Signals, del.icio.us, Yahoo!, Flickr and the list goes on.

1. Be passionate about your chosen endeavour

This is by far the most important thing that I’ve learned not only through “Founder’s at Work” but in all my studies and endeavours. This book has re-enforced my belief in the importance of this factor. If you lack passion your idea or start-up will not get very far. Part of this passion derives from solving a problem or developing a product you have intimate knowledge of. Examples include 37Signals and the development of Basecamp and Joshua Schachter’s creation of del.icio.us.

David Heinemeier Hanson described how 37Signals created Basecamp in order to solve a lot of organizational problems surrounding client work. 37Signals knew the problem intimately. They knew they needed an easy to use, lightweight web-based tool that would allow them to effectively communicate with clients and manage projects. They also knew exactly what they wanted in this tool. Due to this focus in tackling problem the tool itself is not only useful to 37Signals but to other small business that faced similar issues in managing projects and communicating with clients.

Similarly, Joshua Schachter started del.icio.us to manage his 20,000 bookmarks in a centralized location through the use of tags. By solving his own problem he managed to solve this problem for everyone else. I knew I found it painful to have bookmarks in multiple places (at work, at home, etc.) until I found del.icio.us.

It is easy to be passionate about solution you know a lot about and are interested in. Plus you will be putting a lot of energy into making the happen. If you are lukewarm about the idea then there is no point in wasting your energy on it.

2. The initial idea is not paramount

The comment I usually hear from most trying to build a business around a particular idea is the strength of the idea. I do believe that the idea must have some basis in solving a problem for a particular market segment. If you follow guideline number one then you should be on the right track. Some examples from Founders at Work that illustrate this concept are PayPal and Flickr.

PayPal started off as a company that produced cryptography software for palm pilots, then moved to payment transactions between handhelds before finally focusing on secure payments online.

Flickr’s start is well noted in many books and blogs. It started as an online lightweight video game called “Game Neverending” with a social networking focus. Photo sharing was a feature of the game. Caterina Fake and her team saw the potential of the photo-sharing feature and spun it out into Flickr.

The idea doesn’t have to be perfect. It can evolve and change. However it is important to get out there and build something around your idea in order to test its viability. It also important to build a team of individuals willing to execute the idea which leads me to point number three.

3. The importance of an excellent team

I strongly believe that an A team with a B idea will beat an A idea with B team. The reason: The A team is an intelligent unit that can evolve the idea and find ways to adapt to keep moving forward.

Joe Kraus, an Excite co-founder had an interesting remark in regards to his five-person team of Stanford graduates:

“We decided to start a company together before we had any idea of what we were going to work on. But we were so committed to the idea of starting something together we knew were going to figure it out.”

Although this is an extreme example many start-ups could not have survived without strong committed teams. The examples are too numerous to mention.

I’m grateful that we have a solid team here at Cameesa: Andy, Qasar, Justin and Kamil. The team is the major reason we are able to accomplish so much. This leads me to my next point…

4. You can’t do everything by yourself

It is extremely important to realize your strengths and weaknesses. It is better to magnify your strengths then to try to improve your weaknesses. The chances are you will not be able to bring your weaknesses to a level where they’d be valuable. The other downside is that you’ll sacrifice magnifying your strengths. Plus improving your strengths is less stressful than improving on your weaknesses.

The solution is to find team members that compliment your skill set or outsource or hire the skill set.

5. Execution is crucial

I don’t have to write much on this point. If you don’t go out and do something nothing will happen. Everyone has ideas. I have about three or four notebooks full of them. Many other people probably do as well.

A notable example from Founders at Work is the interview with James Hong, the founder of Hot or Not. The reason I cite this example because it’s a relatively simple idea that many claim to have had. Which in all fairness they may have rightfully had but James did something about it. For those who don’t know (I’m sure most people do) Hot or Not is a web site that let’s you rate the attractiveness of a person based on a scale of 1 to 10.

6. Persistence

Starting a successful company is not an easy task, there is a lot of learning involved and things don’t always go as planned. There will always be obstacles and challenges and “persistence” is what keeps the momentum moving forward. Many successful entrepreneurs and CEOs cite this as the number one reason for their success from Michael Dell to Ron Gruner.

7. The willingness to take risks

Risk aversion is not conducive to starting a company or growing a business. Tough decisions will have to be made in order for your idea and company to become a success. There will be a point in time where you may have to invest your life savings, leave your day job, etc. No risk, No reward.

8. Embrace constraints

I will illustrate this point with a link to a chapter from the 37Signals book “Getting Real” as they do an excellent job of elaborating on this point: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch03_Embrace_Constraints.php

If you haven’t read Getting Real and your business involves building stuff for the web I highly recommend you read the book. The above link is related more to building software, however most start-ups are faced with a wide array of constraints and will always need to focus and be creative in the way they solve problems.

9. Outline goals for your business

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This applies in life as it does in entrepreneurship, your career or anything else for that matter. You need to setup goals to work towards not only to keep you motivated but also to keep progressing. It is extremely hard to work towards something if you do not have clearly outlined goals.

“And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
-Khalil Gibran

The only way you can be successful is by finding a vocation you love and are passionate about. Otherwise it will be very difficult for you to achieve high levels of success. If you do not know what your true calling is, it may be beneficial to stop everything you’re doing and lock yourself in a room until you find out. Spending a week locked in your room is nothing compared to wasting years engaging in meaningless activities.

I feel entrepreneurs possess the willingness to pursue the things they enjoy as they are extremely motivated to take risks and initiative to get their businesses off the ground. It is not work, but a labor of love.

Being part of a startup, we are introduced to new people and new companies every day. I was recently introduced to the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center’s fashion program manager, Stephanie Niedospial. From the beginning, Stephanie was very response, enthusiastic, and eager to learn about Cameesa. She was determined to help us succeed in our entrepreneurial experience. Thanks Stephanie.

Moreover, Stephanie described the Stitches Fashion Program (within the CEC) as “a FREE business resource for fashion entrepreneurs.” The Stitches Fashion Program has been beneficial to Cameesa and is an excellent resource for fashion based start-ups in the Chicago area.

If you’re a fashion entrepreneur in Chicago, make sure to check out http://www.stitchesfashionprogram.com/.

If you enjoy reading about fashion and emerging styles read the Stitches blog at http://www.styleexpose.com/

Here at Cameesa, we are creating an online community to connect apparel designers and design lovers. However, we STRONGLY believe in the value of real human relationships.

Many web-based companies rely on tools like Google Ad-words to get the word out about their company. There are even companies who will help you to figure out the best way to utilize the money you spend on Ad-words.

All of this feels insincere. Like, you don’t really know your intended audience, but hope that if you throw enough money at Google, they will figure it out for you.

Rather than throwing money at Google, I would prefer to take those ad dollars and spend them on creating REAL relationships with people. When was the last time you heard someone say: “Once I saw that ad in the right column of the search page, I knew BusinessX was a great company“. But you can imagine that after meeting a company face to face, you might walk away being an instant brand ambassador.

Pictured here are two of the Cameesa street team best, out and about in Austin, TX for St. Patty’s Day. (Notice the random Cameesa business card found on the telephone pole.) Thanks for sending in the pic Jeff.

There are obvious limitations to this “old school” approach, such as time and reach, but this is how Cameesa is interested in reaching and educating the public. Although we are web-based, we are fortunate that a real community exists in the world today, who we are simply bringing together. We would like to meet them, too.

And it might already be working. That Cameesa business card found on the telephone pole above might have been the reason for the extra number of signups today.

That’s viral. That’s guerilla. My friend, that’s downright orangutan. That’s something that you just can’t buy.

Literally. Yes, that is his leg.

Here is Qasar working on a super top secret document. Actually, it is just our investor deck.

At any rate, I have repeatedly been told: “you must remain agile and flexible in the early stages of your company”. Qasar obviously took the advice the wrong way, but I have found it to be incredibly true. You need to be able to move quickly, and change the way you do things, even your entire business model.

That is the true advantage of a startup over a massive company: the ability to react and move quickly.