JohnThoughts

In a community that I’m apart of, I mentioned to one of the members of the community (we’ll call him Steve) that I’d sent a text to another member of the community (we’ll call him Dave). There wasn’t much to it. I basically just sent a text to Dave that said, “Are you coming tonight?” However, I was completely shocked by Steve’s reply to me saying I’d sent a text to Dave.

Steve asked me, “Dave is such an attention whore that he came out after you gave him some attention?”

I must admit that I was complete blown away by this comment and still am today. As I thought about it, I realized that Steve was right about Dave enjoying attention. However, that wasn’t the intention of my text at all. I just wanted this person to attend and so I sent the text to encourage their attendance. I’ll admit that I don’t even understand the thinking that someone wouldn’t do something as simple as sending a text because they didn’t want to give someone attention.

This idea really came together when I saw a TedXDesMoines video where Angela Maiers talks about the idea of showing people that “You Matter.” Watch even just the first 5 minutes to get the idea:

As I thought about my experience with Steve and Dave above, I realized that all my simple text did for Dave was say, “You Matter.” Plus, Steve wants to know he matters almost as much as Dave, but Dave is just more vocal about it. However, I wonder how many people avoid showing other people around them that they matter all because of some idea that they’re feeding someone’s need for attention. It makes me sick to think about.

Let’s be honest. We all have a need to know “You Matter.” Who doesn’t like to feel appreciate for something or wanted? We all do.

I think Angela Maiers is on to something with “You Matter.” There’s a real power to showing people that they matter to you. Time to look for more ways to show this quality in more aspects of my life. Even if it’s something as simple as a text message.

Today I was reading a post from one of my favorite VC bloggers, Brad Feld, in which he included a really inspiring video (embedded below). In this video Steve Jobs is responding a pretty caustic question from the audience. Turns out that the question doesn’t really matter, but Steve Jobs offers a fascinating insight into the idea of developing with the customer in mind first as opposed to seeing how a technology can benefit the customer.

I love ideas like this that provide a new lens for looking at a business. I am quite sure that as I talk about ideas for businesses with people I’m now going to regularly ask them about the customer experience they want to achieve. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure a number of the responses to that question will go something like, “Umm…Yeah…Ummm…That’s a good question. I just really love this simple technology that’s able to do XYZ function.” Helping them understand the customer focused approach will be a challenge.

I hope others hold me accountable for it too.

I was reading some random blog link I got on Twitter that had the great title of “Premature Scaling Kills Startups – The Startup Genome.” At first I thought it was going to be a post about the Human Genome. I guess my recent post about the Human Genome and EMR might have influenced that thought. Turns out, the post was talking about the “genomic data” of a startup company. Something I actually love more than the Human Genome.

You should go read the whole post, but his list of bullet points at the end hit me:

• The team size of startups that scale prematurely is 3 times bigger than the consistent startups at the same stage
• 74% of high growth Internet startups fail due to premature scaling
• Startups that scale properly grow about 20 times faster than startups that scale prematurely
• 93% of startups that scale prematurely never break the $100k revenue per month threshold

He also provided 2 summary items which help you get the most out of the bullet points above. I’d describe them simply as:

• Scale Consistently
• Constrain Your Scaling As Long As Possible

Great advice!

I always love when people ask me what I do. I use to give all sorts of convoluted answers, but now I just simply say I’m a blogger. After they close their gaping mouth, they then start trying to ask questions which basically ask the question, How do you do that?

Of course, the real issue is that most people don’t understand the type of blogging I do. Most of them just think of their wife’s blog or a family blog that they might know about. They don’t realize that blogs have an amazing power outside of just sharing stories about your family.

The other assumption that people make is that as a blogger I JUST write stuff. While I guess at it’s core, writing blog posts are essential to blogging, there’s so much more to creating a successful blog.

I’ve been pondering on how to share the knowledge I have with other people that want to do what I do. At first I considered teaching a summer course, but finding a location and the right pricing model made it so I never did it. A few recent happenings have prompted me to basically create a new premium blog that will teach someone how to blog.

It will probably take me a few months to create, but here’s an off the top of my head outline of the topics I want to cover:

-Choosing the Right Blog Topic (Passion)
-Key Points to Setting Up a Blog (plugins, hosting, platform, etc)
-Creating Great Content
-Marketing the Content
-Monetizing the Content

There are a whole lot of sub-topics under the above topics, but you get the idea. I think it shows the real core of what you need to be a successful blogger.

My approach is different than many other people. I won’t be claiming any get rich quick scheme. In fact, I’ll do quite the opposite. Blogging is the epitome of slow and steady entrepreneurship. However, done consistently over time it can have amazing rewards!

I just wanted to put this out there. More details to come in the future. If this interests you, let me know in the comments.

TechNevada Honors is an annual event to celebrate those individuals and companies that have greatly enhanced the growth and prestige of the technology community in Nevada. Considering many of the great things happening with Vegas Tech and particularly this great list of Las Vegas Startups, I hope that we see a bunch of those startup companies featured at the Tech Nevada Honors event.

Qualifications for the awards are outlined on the nomination form (PDF). Nominations must be made in the following categories:
CIO/CTO of the Year
Tech Company of the Year
Tech Entrepreneur of the Year
Tech Transplant of the Year
Tech Educator of the Year
Tech Start Up of the Year
Tech Star in the Public Sector
Technology Hall of Fame
Green Company of the Year

Tech Nevada Honors is hosted by Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN). The Awards Banquet will be held on the evening of October 19, 2011, at the Springs Preserve, 333 South Valley View Boulevard – Las Vegas, NV 89107. Limited seating & Sponsorship (PDF) are still available if your company is interested in sponsoring this event.

When reading this post by Brad Feld, I was reminded of the challenge that is being an entrepreneur and leading a company. In Brad’s post he talks about a couple of strong, capable entrepreneurs that were starting to have self doubt. Brad suggests a way out of this self doubt using inquiry. Go read his post to learn about that.

What hit me about his description of self doubting entrepreneurs was how much of a challenge it is to be an entrepreneur. As the founder and leader, you’re constantly walking the tight rope of humility and confidence. You have to be humble enough to not compare yourself to others (and other companies), while keeping your confidence for the rest of the team.

Both of those characteristics are hard to manage.

I think by our very nature we want to start comparing ourselves to other people. If it’s not in our nature, then it’s in our culture. Either way, the ability to not compare yourself to others is a challenge. When you talk to other entrepreneurs you rarely get the whole story. They only tell you the exciting and wonderful parts of their business. They seem to avoid telling you about their fears, anxieties, pressures, stress, and even failures.

Since all you’re hearing is the great things about other companies, it’s not even fair to compare your business to another. Even if you do hear the challenges of another company, there’s still little value in finding your self worth in your company being better than another company. Guess what? It doesn’t really matter.

Related to the above challenge is the entrepreneurial challenge of remaining confident for the rest of your team. There’s a reason that a coach is so great for an entrepreneur. It gives them someone to share their deepest fears that they’ve kept bottled up from the company because they want to maintain the culture.

I’m not talking about lying or misleading people in your company. You should always speak frankly, honestly and openly with the people who work with them. However, the best CEO’s know when is the time to keep your fears to yourself and when is the time to share those fears with the company. Often some things are better kept unsaid.

Thus the dual life of an entrepreneur. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this challenge. How do you deal with it? What have you seen?

As I posted a couple months ago, I was part of the organizing committee that brought the Startup Weekend event to Las Vegas. By all accounts, it was a huge success. The sold out event was completely packed and full of great startup energy. It makes me wonder how many more people would have come if we hadn’t sold out.

We even got a ton of great media coverage over the course of the weekend. The RJ did a great article on Startup Weekend Las Vegas before the event and Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, talked about it on Jon Ralston’s Face to Face (which I embedded below).

Then, during and after the event we had news coverage from the RJ, ABC Channel 13, Fox, CBS Channel 8, and I’m sure I missed some others. It was really great to have all this coverage of tech startups in Las Vegas.

However, more important than all that coverage was the buzz that happened within the tech and startup community in Las Vegas. The connections that happened thanks to Startup Weekend is what I really wanted to have happen because of Startup Weekend. I wanted startup companies and internet startup minded people to have a chance to meet and come together. That happened in spades during startup weekend.

Whether any of the ideas that were started this weekend at Startup Weekend will continue after the event really doesn’t matter to me. What I do know is that many of the relationships and connections that were made at the event will endure for many many years to come. This is why I call Startup Weekend a raging success.

I was also really excited by the caliber of judges that we had on the Startup Weekend judging panel. I think it was best summarized by a tweet from @JonMumm:

http://twitter.com/#!/JonMumm/status/85166515996999680

No doubt, it was an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs in Las Vegas to be able to present and interact with the likes of Tony Hsieh, Kevin Rose, Tom Anderson, Josh Reich, and Ryan Carson. Not bad to have founders and investors from a number of billion dollar companies on the judging panel.

I think the weekend is nicely summed up in a quote of mine the RJ published:

“We learned that Las Vegas has enough tech companies to actually have a tech scene, but none of us knew about each other,” said John Lynn owner of Crashutah.com, a website creation and marketing business in Las Vegas. “This event was the start of bringing those companies together so Las Vegas can begin to build its tech scene.”

Certainly this was the start of something and not the end. The question is, Where will we take it from here?

There’s no one individual that’s going to make it happen. Instead it’s going to take a little bit of effort from a whole lot of people to continue to grow the Las Vegas startup community. I’m committed to continue doing my part to grow the community. I hope everyone will do the same.

I love the quote that says, “Many hands make light work.” That’s definitely applicable to growing the tech startup community in Las Vegas. Let’s all help grow the community.

I know I’m kind of crazy to admit it, but one of my hobbies is to read venture capitalist and startup entrepreneur blogs. Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to go after VC money for a startup company of my own. I haven’t needed to do so yet, but maybe one day. Until then, I’ll continue to enjoy it as a hobby.

As I mentioned in my last update, I’ve been doing what I can to help grow the internet startup eco-system in Las Vegas. As I continue to meet more Las Vegas entrepreneurs, I see all sorts of challenges and issues related to the Las Vegas startup eco-system. One of those issues is having more Fall Back Las Vegas Startup Companies.

This is one of the powerful features of a city with a strong startup environment. The numbers are against every startup company. If I remember right, it’s something like 9 of every 10 startup companies fails (and that might be being generous). That means the majority of new companies that are created are going to fail. We need more Las Vegas startup companies so that if and when a startup company fails the founders and employees of those companies know they have other companies they can go and work for.

One beauty of silicon valley and other startup hubs is that the culture accepts companies failing and there are other opportunities if and when it does fail. Certainly even in silicon valley they aren’t happy when the company they’re working for fails. However, at least when it does happen, they have a lot of other companies that will hire them. They don’t have to go start parking cars to pay the bills, but can move on to another startup company. Rinse and repeat.

Ok, I may be oversimplifying it a little bit, but the ability of a city to absorb talented people who worked for a startup company that’s failed is something I’d love to see happen in Las Vegas.

Creating a list of Las Vegas startup companies like we’ve started to do is the first step. Events like Startup Weekend Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Jellies are another step. Little by little, we’ll get there. The strip wasn’t built in a night. A Las Vegas startup eco-system won’t be either.

I guess I should have made my post that I published earlier today about my Father since it is Father’s Day. Although, as I thought about my father, I think they my previous post about all the amazing things I’m doing really just might be the best Father’s Day present I could offer my father.

You have to understand that my day has the entrepreneurial bone in his body. Well, maybe not the bone, but he has it in his head. The desire to be an entrepreneur has always been my father’s dream and it’s always alluded him. He’s tried over and over and never really succeeded at it.

I still remember as a young child sitting around listening to my dad talk about this business or that business. Inevitably he would use a line that went something like this, “If I only have XXXX customers paying $X.XX a month, then I’ll be set.” It didn’t matter if it was Amway, Investing, Life Insurance, or some other company that my dad tried to do. I was always there to sit there and listen.

I think even as a young child I would challenge my dad on his assumptions. I really wanted to learn how it was going to work, what the commission structure was, and how he was going to grow the business. Obviously, I’d inherited that same entrepreneurial bone. I’d ask him hard questions like “How are you going to get XXXX customers.” And the always popular, “What if you only get X customers?”

I certainly was a precocious young kid wasn’t I? I guess I still am. Just ask any entrepreneur that I’ve talked to. I never enjoy people that say “That sounds good.” or “I really like that idea” when I ask them for some feedback on something I’m doing. I prefer someone who’s going to ask me the hard questions and help me to be able to answer them.

So while my Father’s unfortunately never reached his dream of entrepreneurial nirvana, I hope my Father’s proud of all the entrepreneurial success I’ve had. The reality is that without my father I wouldn’t be nearly the entrepreneur that I am today. Not only did I get his genetic traits, but I also learned incredibly valuable lessons from his experiences that made me who I am today.

Thanks Dad!

The last month or so I’ve been extraordinarily busy. Actually, much busier than I like. However, I love all the projects that I’m working on and so I keep driving them all forward. Here’s a quick summary of what I have going on (in no particular order).

I’ve helped organize Startup Weekend Las Vegas (happens this weekend…Woot!). I’m happy to say that Startup Weekend Las Vegas has sold out. I can’t wait for this weekend.

Along with Startup Weekend, I’ve grown this new passion for trying to do some small part in helping to grow the number of internet startup companies and internet startup entrepreneurs in Las Vegas. I even launched with the help of a number of other people a new blog called Las Vegas Startups. However, the most rewarding part of it all has been the number of interesting Las Vegas internet entrepreneurs that I’ve met since doing these things. It’s a great feeling to be connected to so many interesting and amazing people. I can feel that it’s laying the ground work for something special in Las Vegas.

Many of you probably don’t know of my love for Ultimate Frisbee. Well, it’s real and fantastic. I always say my addiction to ultimate frisbee is my key to staying skinny (or at least relatively skinny). Lately, I’ve been helping to keep the Las Vegas Ultimate frisbee community organized. It’s a completely selfish desire since it’s hard to play ultimate frisbee without other players. I even organized a Las Vegas summer ultimate frisbee league which starts on Monday. We exceeded our registration goal and so life is good.

On the blog side of things, I’ve grown the Healthcare Scene blog network to 14 EMR and Health IT related blogs and still growing. Almost every site in the network is growing and improving in all the important metrics. I think we’re up to 9 people blogging across the network. I certainly couldn’t do it without all their help. July 1st, I’m changing the way I handle ads on the various websites. Let’s hope that the change goes well. Each day I’m in awe at the power of blogging and the influence blogs can have.

The Pure TV Network is doing really well. Pure DWTS, Pure SYTYCD and Pure America’s Got Talent are all killing it with amazing readership (and amazing writers that help me) and we even launched Pure X Factor. I’m lucky to work with the dozen or so writers that participate on those sites. After reading this post, I think they’ll realize why I haven’t had as much time to post myself.

I also just got put in as Scoutmaster. I’d been an Assistant Scoutmaster for the past couple years, so it hasn’t been all that much different. Just getting to know some new leaders and help them understand how scouting works. I love the impact a Scoutmaster can have on these fine Young Men. I can’t wait until July when I’m going up to a high adventure camp for a week. Certainly there’s some level of service required to be a Scoutmaster, but honestly I’ll probably have as much fun at this camp as the boys. Although, don’t tell my wife I said that. That’s the only bad part about scouting, being away from my wife and kids.

On that note, I’ve saved the best for last. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with my kids lately. Mostly because my wife took off for a week to go on a Sister’s trip. It’s been pretty exciting watching the kids for a week. We’ve had some good time to bond. I’m sure I couldn’t do it all the time like my wife does, but I’m glad I had time to enjoy my children. I’m even happier my wife got a break and some time away from the children. Needless to say, I’ll be very happy to have my wife back.

There’s my update. As you can see, I have one or two things going on right now. Not that any of you really care, but I started writing and just couldn’t stop. There’s something therapeutic about getting it out in the open.