At Web Directions South, Australia, http://lanyrd.com/2011/web-directions-south/shyrh/

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making conferences work

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The New Shiny

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accidental
entrepreneurs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

4. Lanyrd.com

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$US 1.4 million

6. Casablanca
August 2010

7. Casablanca
August 2010

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People who Professional
use Twitter Events
Something interesting

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Private Beta

10. Bootstrapping on Twitter

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Tips on beta testing
Launch in beta first
... but not for too long
Keep the beta testers after launch
Make sure beta-only features obvious

12. Lanyrd.com Tom Coates

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@lanyrd attending #wds11

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15. Lanyrd.com

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"We'll scale it live!"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

17. Read only mode
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

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El Jadida
September 2010

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Learn from our mistakes
Don't over-engineer... but...
Do plan for at least a small spike in traffic
Don't miss out on users because your site is too unstable

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Launch early, launch often

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Community support
Any contact from a user is a chance to turn them into a
fan, no matter how grumpy they are
It is not the bug that reflects you, its how you deal with it
140 characters in public is not the best forum for
discussion
Let people know about their pet features

22. Lanyrd.com
Community support
Any contact from a user is a chance to turn them into a
fan, no matter how grumpy they are
It is not the bug that reflects you, its how you deal with it
140 characters in public is not the best forum for
discussion
Let people know about their pet features

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Watch how people use your site
Have an activity stream, even if it is just admin only
Data is a symptom of design. Watch for duplicates and bad
data: these bugs are important to fix quickly because they
affect the quality of your data.

24. Marrakech
Lanyrd.com
September 2010

25. Marrakech
Lanyrd.com
September 2010

26. Marrakech
Lanyrd.com
September 2010

27. Lanyrd.com

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Cairo
September 2010

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http://ycombinator.com/atyc.html

30. Luxor
October 2010

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YC application
What substitutes do people resort to because what you
plan to make doesn't exist yet?
What do you understand about your business that other
companies in it just don't get?
How will you make money?

32. Mountain View, USA
January 2011

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Y Combinator
$11,000 (+$3000 per founder) for about 7%
$150,000 follow-on investment from Start Fund
'Office hours' meetings with YC partners for advice
Weekly off-the-record dinner with invited speakers
'Demo Day' after 3 months

34. Mountain View, USA
March 2011

35. Demo Day

36. Lanyrd.com

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2 minutes, 10 seconds
You'll be lucky if investors remember
a single noun from your pitch...
so make sure it's the right noun!

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Investment

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Reasons startups die
1. Not making
something people
want
2. Fundraising
http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

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"Raise money or Bootstrap?"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stawarz/3526784136/

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"How much should I raise?"
Raise enough money for 18 months
You'll have to start fundraising again after 12
How much of the company are you willing to give away?

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Valuations
If you can convince someone to invest $1,000,000 for 10%
of your company, your valuation is $10m
(Actually it's $11m post-money, and $10m post-money)

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"Equity or convertible notes?"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dicknella/2145511833/

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Convertible Notes
Also known as "bridge loans"
Investor can give $100,000 now as an advance on your
future equity round
When you raise the full round later, they get $100,000
worth of stock at whatever the valuation is
They get perks for investing early (a cap and/or discount)
http://martin.kleppmann.com/2010/05/05/valuation-caps-on-convertible-notes-explained-
with-graphs.html

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"Angel investors or VCs?"
Angels invest their own money, usually $5k-$50k
Frequently exited founders themselves
Not necessarily looking for a massive exit
VCs invest other people's money
Looking for the big 10x hits, to make up for losses
You can raise money from both

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Ask for more than money
Have a hit-list of skills you wan't to find in investors
Marketing?
Internationalisation?
Hiring?
Growing a company from 2 to 10 to 100 people?

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What you'll need
Executive summary
Elevator pitch
Pitch deck
The phone number of a really good lawyer
Answers to common questions

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Common questions
Where do you see your company in five yours time?
What's your TAM - your Total Addressable Market size?
How are you going to spend the money?

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Finding (the right) investors
Introductions are essential
Ask investors for intros to more investors
Look at who they have previously invested in

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Investor meetings
Good investors decide quickly - just one or two meetings
... but it takes a LOT of meetings to fill up your round
Meet with less exciting investors first, to practice
At the end of the meeting, ask for the money!

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Closing a round
A VC will offer you a "term sheet", outlining their proposed
investment
Show it to a lawyer!
If you're lucky, you'll get more than one offer from
different firms. Then you can negotiate.
Even when you sign it, you'll still need to round up the
other investors and negotiate on the full legal documents

52. Lanyrd.com
Raising money takes longer
than you expect, even when
you take that in to account

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Lawyers are translators
VCs are professional negotiators - you aren't
Your lawyers can translate the legalese, and tell you what
terms are standard and what terms aren't
To negotiate, you need reasons
Investment is full of strange etiquette - good lawyers can
guide you through that as well

54. Lanyrd.com
Runway
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15545136@N06/5891705931/

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Announcing your round
It's a free news story, time it well
Don't share your valuation
Do say who your investors are, how much you raised and
what you are going to spend the money on
Give the exclusive to one publication, follow up with
different angles to subsequent publications if you can

56. Hiring

57. Lanyrd.com
London
October 2011
photo by @bfirsh

58. Lanyrd.com
Have a Vision

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It may look like a glamorous life
... but it's not all sunshine and daisies!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21680590@N06/4654423909/

60. Lanyrd.com
Lanyrd app for iPhone

61. The emotional roller-coaster
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattylagera/

62. On top of the world!
Everyone likes us!
Why would I ever want a
real job?
Oh crap!
The world is ending,
Servers are down,
Bad comments on twitter
Maybe I can still get a real job?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattylagera/

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It's a tough job!
You don't get to go home and stop thinking about work
You will have no idea what you are doing - but nobody
else does either, ask a founder!
You don't need to be born an entrepreneur
... but you do need to find a great co-founder

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Would we do it again? ... Yes!
You have something that is yours
Knowing that you are improving peoples lives, even
slightly
You get to build the company you want to work for

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There are many
ways to do a startup

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Make something
people want

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Thank you!
http://lanyrd.com/shyrh

68. Lanyrd.com
Any questions?
http://lanyrd.com/shyrh