It was a really fun night with heaps of interesting people to chat with. We were back at the Order of Melbourne again – we actually had our very first event back in January 2008 on the rooftop there but last night we were on the second floor with capacity for the 150+ people that came.  

Here are a few notes that Nick Foster shared in his review:

• You have to be able to turn technology in to product.
• Don’t go to any trade shows unless you are carried there by a large player.
• Tell people about the problem you are solving.
• Don’t perfect the technology – launch and develop through feedback.
• Ensure you have disciplined due diligence and documentation – really makes you look professional and together.
• Forecast your financials – use Excel – you don’t need to pay an accountant.
• Employee few people – he said one person can do all the ‘CXX’ roles. The downside is your believability suffers with customers (especially large). You can counter this with high quality people.
• Remove any passengers – especially people you are paying – this is something which comes with experience.
• If you have to decide between intellectual property (IP) and the business choose the business!

If you haven’t joined us for an event yet you really should sign up and get along sometime – and if you missed last month as well you can see my notes and the podcast with Peter Williams from Deloitte.

Related posts:

1. Peter Williams talks business at The Hive
2. The Interesting* and Hive events
3. How To Be Interesting

Here are my notes from the night:

Ideas. Have lots of them. Be passionate, but be prepared to step back and question them.

Timing. We were 2 years early with anti money laundering service.

Scale. If you want to get rich, you need to have scale. How can I turn this into a 10 million dollar business? 100 million? It’s the thought process that matters.

Partners. Who can I hurt and who can I help? If you can scare the people you can hurt, they can turn into your best strategic allies.

Think. Do. Think. Do. Don’t walk by. It’s about taking the next step.

Share. Talk to people around you. Make body contact and see what you can make happen.

Get diverse feedback. You guys have a couple of red wines and you are going to take over the world. Get people who think different to you.

Intrapreneurship. Get lots of ideas. Filter. All the infrastructure is already in place. What is the logical next step?

Prototype (pulls card out of pocket). This is the Emue prototype. The first card didn’t even work, but you could hold it in your hands and imagine it working and say “what do you reckon?” I could put it in your hand. It’s hard for people to know what you are talking about, especially if it is unique or it has never been done before.

Test it. Does it work? Get to revenue fast. Do it cheap.

Investment. People don’t like funding ideas, they like funding businesses. You need momentum. You need to try to get the dominoes to wobble so that one of them falls.

Mentors. Learn from other people as role models, but be yourself. You can learn from dumb people. Look at everything other people do and then decide who you want to be.

Business Models. I don’t think out of the box, I create new boxes. Try, test. I get scared when businesses come to me with a detailed pricing model when they haven’t even launched yet. Think of a model, try it out with a few pilot customers, if it works do it, if it doesn’t work change it.

What are you best at? I want to go, sell, think, do.

Be honest. Don’t get too fucking smart. Never do a business deal you are not proud of. It’s a waste of your money.

Related posts:

1. The Interesting* and Hive events
2. Silicon Beach Melbourne
3. Infrastructure failures a win for community