Tag: philippine startups

The Shy-Guy’s Guide to Awesome Networking, Part 2

Peter Cauton

(This post is the second part of a two-part series. Part one can be found here.)

5. Remember, there is no template

No, you don’t need to be THIS GUY to be able to network effectively.

Like in part one, I’m starting this segment with a psychological hurdle. We often have a perception of what a networker is – someone extraverted, someone who is oftentimes the life of the party, someone with 4,839,234 friends in Facebook. A natural gift of gab certainly helps, but it doesn’t mean your destined you can’t network well if you aren’t. Some of the very best networkers I’ve come to know are mild-mannered and unassuming. This is important if we want to grow into mega-networkers: it CAN be learned and it ISN’T necessarily tied to our personality.

Like in growing any skill, however, you have to be able to practice it often.

6. Build, but also remember to maintain

It’s relatively easier to build a network versus maintaining it. Maintenance is hard work. Maintenance means keeping tabs, sending emails, grabbing lunch together, doing Skype chats and all that. How do you do this if you want to maintain say, 500, quality relationships?

Segregate.

Quick and dirty strategy: choose 50 (why 50? try googling path.com’s original strategy) relationships which you find very critical to your objectives. Be sure you have face-to-face time with them regularly. The next 100, perhaps a face-to-face meeting every 6 months or so. The rest? Email correspondence. Build up a system like this (the actions and the numbers are dictated by how much time you can free up), and remember, you can move people up or down your hierarchy.

The most basic way to maintain a business relationship? Keep promises.

They say a relationship takes a lifetime to build and a moment to ruin. Your network of “quality contacts” is a web of relationships. A single broken promise can ruin not merely a singular relationship, but your entire reputation.  Don’t let people down.

7. To sell, avoid selling

This is a very interesting irony I’ve seen happen time and time again. Most of the time, we network with people with the particular intention of selling. The thing is, most people, especially in events/occasions where the person isn’t there as a buyer, are immediately turned off the moment they sense a sales pitch coming. And the feeling is, “I’ve been had!“

SWITCH OFF that paradigm that you are there to sell. Instead, make friends. Allow your genuine interest in people to take over. Focus on building a relationship.

Once the relationship has been established and you are talking, trust me, the conversation will naturally flow into what you are peddling. The person will then buy from you if she is interested. Sometimes this process I just described can happen in one conference, or it can happen across months.

8. It’s not about you

Always remember the double-edged sword. Rather than always thinking “what can this guy do for me?” Always think,  “what can I do for this guy?” You’d be surprised at how much more helpful your contacts can be if you are proactive with helping people out.

What are some easy concrete ways you can do this? Send people articles you’d think they’d appreciate. Introduce people to one another if you think it would be mutually beneficial. Give free referrals. Be a mensch.

Dive in! What have you got to lose?

Bonus tips!

– Always have business cards in handy. Put some in your wallet and in your car.

– Blog

– If you find yourself all awkward in networking events, ask yourself, “What have I got to lose, and what have I got to  gain?”

– Contribute. Don’t be a lurker.

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The Shy-Guy’s Guide to Awesome Networking, Part 1

Peter Cauton

I have always found it easy to speak before a crowd, but I’ve always been a little bit on the shy side when it comes to one-on-one meetings with strangers.

It’s funny that I never really saw the value of effective networking when I was in Human Resources. As a startup owner though, I gradually found out how extremely critical it was to network effectively. Clients, suppliers, co-startup founders, mentors, friends, advice-mongers – you name it, I’ve found them all in networking.

We all know the cliché, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I used to scoff at this when I started working, having the image of a social butterfly in mind. I have discovered though, that it’s not like that at all. To be effective in business you NEED to have a good network.

The following tips are from my own personal experience on how to grow a network effectively.

1) Forget the “user” paradigm

This was my first hurdle – it was psychological. I had to get rid of the notion that I was trying to get to know a person because I wanted to “use” the other party. Of course, it’s partly true. The thing to remember is, it’s a two-edged sword. Yes, you want something from the person, but you are also trying to offer something of value to the other party. If establishing a great business relationship could be mutually exclusive to both of you, then why not?

2) LinkedIn Rocks!

I have always found that LinkedIn is miles away from Facebook when it comes to business networking. Isn’t it much easier to invite strangers (or accept invitations from strangers) than doing the same thing in Facebook? It’s because LinkedIn is an accepted business tool for networking with strangers. Three important things to remember in LinkedIn:

A) Reflect your accomplishments

LinkedIn is wonderful because it’s essentially your online resume – so when people visit your page, they know exactly what sort of value you can give them. Don’t give them a hard time guessing what you do. Say it straight. Use 2nd person. (3rd person sounds a bit too Lebron James) You’d be surprised at how many people will reach out to you through the social network once you’ve established your expertise.

B) Be a person

When inviting people, say something like:

“Hi, my name is Peter. A goal of mine is to network with great people in the industry, so I hope you don’t mind this humble invitation to connect. It’s my hope that you find some value in my own profile. Cheers!”

instead of the robotic template “I’d like to add you to my professional network – Peter Paul V. Cauton”

C) Above all, do not spam!

3) Think of quality AND quantity.

I’ve always been told something like, “10 quality contacts is better than 100 informal acquaintances.” Agreed. For sure.

You know what trumps 10 quality contacts, though?

100 quality contacts. 500 quality contacts trumps a hundred, too.

Yes, quality contacts are crucial, but with the advent of the internet and mobile tools, you can now establish and maintain a wider network of quality contacts.

How exactly do you get to that many quality contacts? Here’s a very important paradigm to take:

4) Be a conscious networker

This is a very important tip, and it’s helped my networking a lot. Networking needs to be a choice – something you allot a specific time of the week for. For example,  I have one hour in a week dedicated to just finding good contacts to network with in LinkedIn – so I easily add 10-15 people in my network through this.  Also, every week, I resolve to have at least one opportunity-seeking coffee talk. I usually ask old friends if we can have coffee, or someone I’ve had online exchanges with, or even a current client. These meetings can usually mean the start of an acquaintance becoming a “quality contact.”

Pay for the coffee. It’s worth it.

I’ve paid Starbucks a small fortune over the past few years. In fact, I was mildly amazed that last Wednesday, I was in three Starbucks shops (and ordered each time) in a span of 5 hours. Yes, the expenses creep up a bit, but when I think of it, ALL my ventures in the last 4-5 years started in a coffee shop. It’s all worth it.

Continued here!

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Don’t Put Parrots In Customer Service

Peter Cauton

A few weeks ago, I was in the hospital passionately arguing with an HMO officer who was insistent on applying a policy which was so evidently not applicable to my own particular case.

“If we implement this policy, instead of the insurance paying for my fees, I would be paying YOU – it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Ganoon ho talaga.”

WHAT?! I was furious. But I understood what was happening. The person on the other line was trained to placate customers and explain policy, but no true power to interpret or be flexible.

This is inherently why customer service sucks in so many companies – most customer service personnel are simply given a script and if-then scenarios. Invariably, there WILL be cases which won’t fall under any of the planned scenarios – a lot of them. So what happens?

“Ganoon ho talaga.”

“I’m extremely sorry sir, but that’s policy.”

“Let me work on this sir, I’ll put you on hold.” (I’ve had a service put me on hold before for an hour)

A friend of mine told me before that the root cause of this was structural – the product management group is oftentimes separated from the group which does customer service. It gets worse in this outsourcing age – the customer service group can be in an entirely separate company. Structurally, customer service would NOT have easy access to information, nor would they be in a position to make any calls about how to interpret a policy for a specific customer incident.

The problem is, customer service IS a part of the product.

This is why I love Citibank Phone Bankers – I can feel a real difference with how empowered and well-trained they are. In my years phone banking with Citibank, I’ve yet to have a problem they couldn’t solve by themselves in a span of a few minutes, or give me a number where I can talk to a person who can solve my problem. I also know they are paid well and are taken cared of – it’s tough to pirate them. Good job Citibank, you’re putting your money where your mouth is.

Any business that has customers will automatically have to think about customer service. How is your business treating its customers? Do the people who manage customers directly have the power to solve unforeseen customer issues? Or are they parrots with a script?

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To ensure success, go DEEPER not wider

Peter Cauton

Okay, so you are a startup owner.

Chances are great that you have limited resources. Understanding that you cannot be everything to everyone, you identify a niche and concentrate on that.

I am now getting more and more convinced that the niches we think are specific enough are STILL oftentimes too broad. We have to go deeper.

When STORM was originally conceptualized, we wanted to be a technology firm which specialized in HR. Soon enough we found out that was too broad. So we thought of specializing on benefits. You know what? Still too broad. This year, our big decision is just to concentrate on ONE thing: Flexible Benefits. See all those other products in our website? We shall soon be pulling all them out. We realized we needed to focus ALL our resources on ONE problem: getting Flexible Benefits right. We want to solve this problem with all we’ve got. We want to solve this problem better than anyone else in the world.

This boils down to the decision if you want to do one GREAT thing or merely good things. Spreading your limited resources across many things increases the probability of making a lot of mediocre products. Just remember that mediocre doesn’t have a shelf life, being great does. Look at Apple. ONE phone at a time. ONE tablet at a time. They just make that ONE thing the best there is.

Got an idea? Know who your target market is? Here’s a suggestion: segregate this market further and choose to niche even more. (Of course, you have to walk the tightrope here a bit and ensure you have a big enough market)

Creating a tablet application for children? Pick a specific age group, say 5-6 years old. Then do heavy research on the developmental aspects and mental acuity levels of children 5-6 years old. Then release a product specifically for children 5-6 years old. If you are a parent, and you have a 6-year-old, wouldn’t you want to buy a product specifically created for your child instead of getting a “for 8 years and below?”

Designing a clothing line for mommies? It might not be specific enough. Then research on the style differences between women who are 20-25 and everyone else. Focus your marketing and sales activities just on this demographic. Ignore the rest. You know what, not only will you capture the 20-25 market, but also the women in their 30’s who want to look younger.

And for all those people creating software houses? For goodness sake, pick a niche. Learn that niche. Yes, you will get offers to develop other stuff outside your chosen niche. Resist the money and decline. You can make that money up once you begin dominating a more specific niche. And no, “mobile” isn’t a good enough niche. Go deeper – pick an industry, a vertical, or an even more specific platform. Think about your specific customer and then sell specifically.

Go deeper.

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Assemble Your Avengers! An interview with the best startup recruiter there is, Nick Fury

Peter Cauton

A JUAN GREAT LEAP EXCLUSIVE: An interview with General Nick Fury himself, credited with starting two very successful startups: SHIELD, where he now serves as Director, and more recently, The Avengers.

Peter Cauton: Uhm, thank you very much, Director for allowing us an audience. The Juan Great Leap community is ecstatic for this opportunity to learn from you.

General Nick Fury: Good for you this is part of the community service sentence they gave me, you know, when it was found I had something to do with the destruction of New York. Let’s get on with it, son.  Nice hairstyle.

PC: Uhm, thanks. Anyway, sir! All our startup enthusiasts want to know, sir, how exactly did you pull off this recruitment coup with the Avengers?! I mean, what an amazing, kick-ass haul of founders!

GNF: Thank you.

GNF: Well, to be honest with you Cauton, the first thing I thought of was the problem I chose to tackle. I told myself, Nicky, if you wanted to protect the whole g__amned world, who would you enlist? This was what created SHIELD decades ago. I got the best agents from the CIA, the FBI. Got a lot of applicants as well. And you know what, we were fine. We kept the peace.

GNF: Until all these different E.T.’s decided, let’s phone their freaking homes! Then suddenly you had Aliens of Mass Destruction, throwing around my SHIELD guys like ragdolls. I became desperate. Very desperate. So this was my new problem: how do I protect the whole freakin’ earth from freakin’ alien invasions? With an emphasis son, on the S.

GNF: In. Vhay. Shon. SSSS.

GNF: This was the scope of my problem, son, and I knew I had to create a new startup to tackle it. I had to assemble a team of highly talented people. The creme de la creme.

PC: Any insights or recruitment tips for our readers on how to find highly talented people like these?

GNF:  Well, for starters, it’s mighty hard to find them. You gotta do the heavy research. We found one guy frozen at the bottom of the ocean. I recruited one girl from the competition. One was hiding in India. One just sort of fell from the sky. Tough to find them.

GNF: Then you have to evaluate them. We passed on a lot of other potentials before selecting this group. You can’t settle. Selection is everything! For example, we almost hired this brilliant guy who was dressed like a bat, and was a cross between Stark, Hawkeye, and Widow. But I felt, you know, that he wouldn’t have been much of a team player. So we dropped his ass. Here’s his application form. He’s a bit more impressive in person.

GNF: Anyway, once I zeroed in on who I wanted, I switched on the Fury-charm and tried like hell to get them on board. I followed them around, one by one. Flat-out stalked them. Had one on one talks with them, coffee with them. Me. General Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. In Starbucks. But you gotta swallow some pride when you are interested in getting the best of the best.

 PC: Any suggestions on founder composition?

GNF: Balance. If you notice, I got people whose talents complemented one another. When Thor said yes, for example, I quickly called Hercules to say, “Look kid. I don’t have time. To wait. For you. To ask. Your father! You’re out. Fury out. “

GNF: We didn’t have expertise redundancy.

PC: Uhm, but what about Hawkeye and Black Wido…

GNF: Can Hawkeye seduce male dictators to get information?

PC: Well, no bu…

GNF: There you go. Let’s move on. As I was saying earlier, balance. Another thing I did was to ensure we had technical founders who had different specializations. In this time and age, getting on the tech bandwagon can be crucial, whatever your chosen startup field is.

GNF: I also got someone whom I knew would have the potential to lead someone from the ground, since I got general stuff to do. Wait, but not general as in standard stuff, mind you, but general as in GENERAL Nick Fury stuff.  I needed a COO to my CEO, a Sandberg to my Zuckerberg. Is my point clear?

PC: Crystal. Did you have trouble making them get along?

GNF: Did I have trouble making them get along? DID I HAVE TROUBLE MAKING THEM GET ALONG?! YOU CAN BET YOUR ASS I DID!

PC: …

GNF: Sorry, it’s a bad habit.

GNF: Anyway, you should have seen what happened when all them met in a room. They were at each other’s throats. Being the master psychologist that I am, I KNEW this was what would happen if you brought great people in one room. One very important role I have is ego-management. There should be enough room for all the egos.

PC: So what did you do?

GNF: I did some uh…motivational tactics designed to show them that the vision was so much more important than their individual goals. That they had to put their differences aside to work on the common goal. I also ensured they had bonding time outside work so they could get to know each other a bit better.

PC: Did it work?

GNF: Do I have one eye?

PC: Uh…yup.

GNF: Case closed. Fury out. (disappears into basement)

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My Post-surgery Paradigm

Peter Cauton

Last Friday morning, I was wheeled into an operating room. They strapped my arms in crucifix position. (yep, apparently they strap your arms). Then the doctors came in and introduced themselves to me.

They were about to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy. I was having my gall bladder removed due to stones and a polyp.

“Hi, I’m Dr. _____ assisting me is Dr. _____. Your anesthesiologist is here, Dr. _____. In a few seconds, you will fall asleep, by which time we will proceed to cut you up”  – yup, this is what basically happens 🙂 

One doctor explained that she was now introducing the anesthesia through the IV, and that I would soon begin to feel drowsy. I instantly remembered this scene from one my favorite movies last year. A gas mask was then propped over my head. Then…

…

The next thing I knew, I woke up in a busy room full of people.

I was told I was in the recovery room and that I should get some rest.

When I was wheeled back to my room and I was bit more into it, I started noticing the differences:

There were four white bandages on my stomach. They were painful.

My throat was very dry and sore (I was told I was intubated).

I felt very weak and couldn’t move around much.

I couldn’t move my left arm at all! (Apparently, I belong to the small percentage of the populace who have a bad reaction to an intramuscular injection. My shoulder muscle became so swollen, I couldn’t lift my left arm)

It was really hard to get up from bed. (Try getting up using no abdominals and only one arm functioning)

All I wanted to do was rest.

I spent the next 3 days mostly in bed at the hospital.

Since I really couldn’t go online (too much trouble with one hand), 80+ channels became boring fast, and my sleeping patterns were destroyed, I did a lot of thinking, instead.

I always tell people that in the times I get really sick, I get to feel very human. Each episode got me reacquainted with my own mortality.

This experience was something more specific than that. It made me feel old.

I imagined that growing old was like that – when parts of my body would begin betraying me. The difference being, instead of my body recovering over time, it deteriorated over time. Slowly but surely, I would lose control over the only thing in the world I had complete control over. Worse, I would be keenly aware of the things I used to do, of what I’d lost.

What I felt after all this thought?

I just wanted to go back to work right away. I wanted to be productive right away.

It’s now Wednesday night, and I write this with still some pain in my wounds. I still cannot sleep on my side. My left arm is still limited. I still cannot get up from bed in less than 5 seconds. My arm and my stomach shoot pain waves to my brain when I carry my children. Worse, I can laugh, but not heartily. No one would blame me if I stayed home.

However, I insist on going to work tomorrow.  I have dreams to fulfill, and I want to go out trying to fulfill them in my prime, at the height of my powers. Each day counts. 

Being productive is easy to take for granted. The problem is, there is a finite window to productivity. We all grow old. We become less and less productive after an apex.

Don’t waste the most productive years of your life.

Think strategically. Won’t it be logical to build your dreams – presumably stuff that’s pretty hard to do – during your prime? During that point in your life when you have the most energy and will to take it on? Wouldn’t this ensure the highest probability that your dream happens?

No need to wait for that mid-life crisis.

Interested in $25,000.00 funding and the chance to go on a US-based 12-week accelerator program?

Peter Cauton

Hey people! Got a tech startup? Need funding and guidance? This might be interesting… 

Ohio-based Launchhouse is launching the Launchhouse Accelerator Program.

The LaunchHouse Accelerator is inviting the world’s brightest entrepreneurs to participate in a 12-week Accelerator program. Selected teams will receive $25,000 in funding and will be surrounded with experience-based lab sessions, world-class mentors from their specific industry, an innovative work environment, dinners with successful entrepreneurs, and networking with mentors.

To apply, entrepreneurs need to be in a tech-related field with a team of two or three co-founders. Ten teams will be selected for the 12-week program in September.

Teams will relocate to Cleveland, OH for 12 weeks to work in LaunchHouse’s 23,000 square foot Silicon Valley-esque space. Its furniture and colorful, collaborative work space promotes genius and impromptu brainstorming sessions, day or night, with awesome, like-minded people.  Accommodations will also be sponsored by LaunchHouse.

The LaunchHouse Accelerator program aims to help entrepreneurs take their ideas to validation during the length of the program. LaunchHouse’s development methods are customer-centric, meaning that from the very beginning you are engaging your market. At the end of 12 weeks, each team will present to local and national Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors on our Showcase Day on November 28.

Entrepreneurs can apply here. 

Philippine startups represent! 

Generate Startup Ideas Using Tourist’s Eyes

Peter Cauton

When we are travelling for the first time in a foreign location, time seems to slow down, and we get to absorb all the juicy details.

There is no little thing which escapes us:

how the air is different

what clothes people are wearing

how the food tastes

how people greet one another

how clean (or dirty) things are

what people listen to

how people drive

how people eat

how the architecture is different

Isn’t it interesting that we are suddenly ultra-aware of the things around us. We find our heads and eyes ever-circling and observing, trying to take all the detail in. We look at the world with wonder. We figuratively (and depending where, sometimes literally) stop and smell the roses.

Contrast that to being in a place which is very familiar to us. In very familiar places, we can walk with our heads down and get to our destination. We can even drive very familiar routes almost unconsciously. We take things for granted and miss details. There is no wonder.

We miss opportunities. Sometimes right under our noses.

ALWAYS observe like a tourist. Look at the world with wonder, even when in the familiar.

You’ll be surprised at how many new ideas you can come up with.

Humble Pie is essential to the Entrepreneur’s diet.

Peter Cauton

We all know that confidence and having cajones is a big part of being a successful startup founder or entrepreneur. You simply cannot make the leaps and bold decisions necessary without that certain confidence.

What I am discovering more and more though is that confidence’s seeming polar opposite, humility, can be just as critical.

Here’s why:

1) Humility Enables Learning

Learning is the new metric for growth. The faster you learn, the faster your startup develops. If you are able to create an internal system which systematizes learning, then you are halfway there.

Take a look at Facebook’s 2005 interface:

This old version is now completely unrecognizable. The 2012 version is infinitely more user-friendly and intuitive – an incredible social media experience. How did they get from point A to point B? They must have gone through hundreds, if not thousands, of iterations, small and large. How did they know what to iterate and how exactly to improve it?

They learned.

What is the pre-requisite for learning? That acceptance that the present condition is flawed.

This requires humility.

2) “I was wrong” is a way of life 

When starting or running a business, making mistakes is a absolute given. You will make mistakes. A lot of them.

Startups are usually small organizations, so it is plainfully obvious when a bad decision is made. Usually, it is pretty easy to correct. Just tweak and move on, right?

Well, to correct a bad decision, you first have to admit you made one. Here is where the trouble begins for some people. Don’t we all know of people whose pride is such that they never admit a mistake, and worse, blame everyone and everything before they take accountability.

For a startup, time and energy zappers such as this could be fatal.

For a startup, creating a culture of ownership, accountability, and yes, admitting mistakes is vital. When driving culture of course, everything starts from the top.

The startup CEO has to quickly admit when he is wrong, and then quickly pivot the firm towards another option. The faster this is done, the faster the company can get to the right option, the lesser the strain on resources. He has to walk that line between powerful conviction and the ability to admit mistakes quickly.

This requires humility.

3) You have to hire people better than you

After the founders, the first employees you hire set the tone for what happens after. If you hire awesome people, you create an absolutely great foundation. A great team is everything. To ensure this, you have to be prepared to hire people who are better than you.

This takes BOTH confidence and humility.

Confidence, because you need it to bury your insecurities regarding questions like: “Will they outshine me?” or “How will other people still regard me?”

Humility, for simply the acceptance that there ARE some people better than you and that you NEED them.

(Moreover, great people can easily distinguish a blowhard from someone with authentic confidence. Who do you think they’d prefer working with?)

4) Hubris kills

Left unchecked, excessive confidence can lead to hubris. Hubris can lead not only to the fall of large corporations (see Enron), but startups as well.

Overconfidence can lead a to a great many things which can kill startups: unilateral decision-making, not listening to customers and partners, a false sense of entitlement, resting on one’s laurels, excessive self-rewarding, refusal to accept the real situation, denial of probable consequences, and so on. This has led to the splitting of several founding teams I know – when one or more of the founders falls into the hubris trap.

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