Group Mentoring with Llew Jury

Last Friday, I attended the Group Mentoring with Llew Jury, at River City Labs. It was a great event that sent me home with some essential tools. The first one was the correct way to fill out the business model canvas. For me, this was a refresher. Still, it’s always good to remember that your focus should be a problem -> customer - > unique value proposition -> solution before moving on to other things. Many startups make the mistake of either trying to start with the solution and looking for a problem. Alternatively, having problems, solution and customers but not having a unique value proposition.

The other concept Llew Jury talked about was market product fit, instead of product-market fit. I think this is a very venture capitalist way of thinking about it. I have heard Steve Corlett express that he isn’t as concerned about a business’s product beyond it can effectively address the problem for which there is a market. I don’t think inventors and innovators want to hear, but it’s true. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one is willing to pay you for it, you can’t make a business out of it.

The completely new concept I learnt during the group mentoring was the SaaS Mission Matrix. Llew Jury credited Edward Ford’s Advance B2B Blog post on the topic. The matrix posits that the same sales strategy does not work on businesses of all size. You can’t be hands-on and in-person with a small business who have a meagre customer lifetime value. Likewise, you can’t be hands-off and automated with huge enterprises who are injecting millions of dollars into your business. So you need to work out what you are and focus on the sweet spots. I would like to kickoff a SaaS business one day, and I know that marketing can make or break, SaaS. So getting introduced to the SaaS Mission Matrix made the trip to attend worthwhile.

Following the SaaS Matrix, Llew went on to discuss marketing. It wasn’t anything new per se. But I liked how Llew laid it out (see photo). I need to start marketing Start with Tinni. So I need to start thinking about personnas, marketing channels, brand positioning etc.

One of the last things Llew covered was how to raise money. It flew by quickly. But the biggest take away was that sales speak louder than anything. But he also mentioned team building, and once again, personality tests made an appearance. Llew said that his venture firm uses the Belbin model of personalities. I am currently working on writing an article for Medium on personality tests. So I’ll talk about Belbin more there. But it fascinates me how big personality tests are in startup land.

Llew Jury ended the session with some book recommendation. He recommended Good to Great, Scaling Up and Secrets of Sand Hill Road. I will be adding them to be Audible list, Overall, it was a good session, and I would recommend attending the next one!

Careers & Mental Health Conversations Podcast: Anthony Kuhlmann

Anthony Kuhlmann is well known in the Brisbane ecosystem as an expert in sales. I talked about him before, when I attended his lunchtime workshop. So I was keen to hear what he had to say in the podcast. It was an interesting listen with some great takeaways! The ones that stayed with me after 24 hours were,

1. Don’t try to be everything to everybody: which is a lesson that was also hammered home during the MIT Bootcamp. But I think a lot of people misunderstand what the lesson is because the idea isn’t to niche yourself so that you can’t grow beyond a certain market segment. But to conquer one market at a time while slowly but surely developing an identity and reputation. People forget that Amazon started with just books and CDs.

2. Don’t try to attend everything/be everywhere: I think this is very important. Because even in Brisbane, you can easily fill your calendar with events. Not only is there something on almost every night but often multiple competing events. If you try to attend everything and be everywhere, you’ll burn out and achieve little. So I think it is good advice to be a bit more strategic with your time and networking energy.

3. Also, find a tribe of people who can support you: was a very good take away from the podcast!

So yes, I encourage people interested in business in-general to have a listen to the podcast!

The Precinct: Too Many Events!

So I went to The Precinct today because I had signed up for Ignite Ideas Information Session happening in River City Labs. But the packed elevator was full of people who indicated we should get off on level 2, instead of going to level 3 were River City Labs is located. There did seem to be an event in level 2, so I assumed it was the information session. It was not; it was a talk on Quantum Computing!

After thinking about it for a while and consuming copious amounts of cheese, I decided to stick around for the Introduction to Quantum Computing (and where AI fits) by Dr Adam Makarucha. I have a rudimentary understanding of Quantum Computing, but I do not watch the field as much as I probably should. So the talk was fascinating, and I enjoyed hearing about the tools IBM has available. I want to try some of them out and will try to find some time to do so.

As I was sitting there listening to him, I realised that three events were taking place in level 3 of the Precinct, including the Ignite Ideas Information Session! The saturation of events is why we couldn’t make Dev Start Meetup work.. There are just too many meetups, talks and events in Brisbane.

After Dr Makarucha’s talk, I did duck out and listen to what EY representative had to say about the Ignite Ideas grant. It’s interesting. I think I will suggest it to both Abide and Josari, and we can explore the possibility of applying for it.

Brisbane Women in Blockchain: First meetup for me but not for most of the women there!

Quite randomly, I ran across the Brisbane Women in Blockchain meetup announcement. So I tagged along since the topic of the discussion was AI. It was an interesting discussion coming from the panel consisting of Katrina Donaghy of Civic Ledger and Tracy Kay of Axalon. I was especially intrigued by the idea that AI-powered tasks that did something, like decode images, would be harnessed to write blocks.

Right now, writing new blocks on a blockchain is mostly a “make work” function. Algorithms solve a computational puzzle, and the fastest to solve is the one given the right to add a block to the blockchain. The idea is that the “proof of work”, instead of being something a make-work task like solving a puzzle, can be something useful like analysing a medical image. At least that’s how I understood the concept.

Overall, the discussion was too high level. I was hoping for a more a more of a deep dive into the topic of AI. But the discussion was kept at a higher concept level. But I think that was more because I happen to pick a meetup that was doubling as new member recruitment and a retrospective.

Indeed, I gathered this is a close-knit meetup with a fair few women being regular attendees. Given my terrible track record for Women Who Code, I am not sure if I’ll be able to become one of the regulars. But this meetup did intrigue me and reminded me that I wanted to explore blockchain and their application more. So maybe I should spend some time developing a blockchain powered idea and get around building it!

SheEO: Activating in Australia!

Last Wednesday, I attended the Brisbane “activation” event for SheEO. The SheEO model brings together 500 women, called Activator (thus an activation event) who contribute $1100 each as an “act of radical generosity”. The money is polled together and loaned out at 0% interest to five women-led ventures selected by the Activators each year. The goal is to have a perpetual fund that continues, funding women-led ventures.

I think it’s a great idea that borrows from endeavours like the Grameen Bank, which was cited by Monica Bradley the MC for the night. SheEO’s first goal is to find 500 women in Australia, but on the night, they made clear it would great to have 500 women in Queensland alone! I don’t know if they will succeed, but I certainly wish them well. I will certainly keep them in mind in the coming year for possible activation.

The main guest speaker for the night was Carly Brown, Founder of UNE Piece, whose company fits the mould for a venture that can apply to the SheEO fund. Because the SheEO fund has a simple criterion, do you have an annual turnover of $50,000? If so, you can apply. I gather UNE Piece is up there and so can apply.

I like the simplicity of the application process. It really is about the “wisdom of the crowd” or rather, the wisdom of the 500 Activators. I can see pitfalls with the model but overall, it can be better than having “a process”. It sounds weird but I am reminded of a recent tweet by Peter Laurie regarding the “process” of application. I.e. some teams understand the process better than others. But it doesn’t mean they are a better startup then another that isn’t as good at process deconstruction. In many ways that is not too dissimilar to publication or grant applications in the academic world or even Oscar nominations. If you have a process, it can be gamed. So maybe just relying on 500 women with skin in the game, in the form of money, might be the way to go!

Few things make me more stressed than rapidly assessing a startup from an application form and a short video.

Some teams understand the process, some don't. I worry about how well that correlates with quality of the startup.

— Peter Laurie (@pjlaurie) November 9, 2018

So yes, I had a good time learning about radical generosity and how women are elevating other women. Nothing left to say but point out that event was hosted at the BDO offices and they have an amazing view! I understand one of the WeWork Brisbane offices is in the same building, and I am so tempted to sign-up for that office. Alas! I am not in a position to indulge in that type of expenses yet. But I hope that changes soon!