SO.... We got the funding to start moving and now this is one of my favorite times
KICK OFF
You make a long list of things:
Designers - Check
Website - Check
Copy Writer - Need to find
Cataloges - Need to learn
Accountant - Check
Legal - Check
And so it goes forever, the only difference is that finally you can actually make decisions and not just discuss generalities. It feels so good, everyday you push it all a bit forward.
I basically view my role as a big coordinator or more specifically like the role of Operations Officer in the military - checking up with EVERYONE that all is going according to plan, addressing issues prior to them developing and motivating the troops.
Along the way I am also learning what to do in 3 - 6 -9 months forward.
For instance, last week I met in Boston a cool company called BzzAgent - www.bzzagent.com - they are a Word-of-mouth marketing network working with 600K consumer volunteers and they are helping spread the word fast about ones product - since I have limited resources I thought this can be a cool option and I met them at their office and really liked the guys, which stands together with one of my principals of trying to work with people I like.
This week I am off to NYC for a week and have many meetings aligned there and then off for the summer to San Francisco where I will mostly focus on creating the website and social networks awareness and will learn from the best there
Enough for now
A
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
He who persist wins
It has been ~ 4 months since I last updated my blog, well it is not that I didn't have what to write about but it was basically the fact that the funding, which I expected to close in X months took 3X time.
I had numerous opportunities and pressure to leave this journey and pursue something else if not just to get more stability in life and a steady income - but many friends that I am thankful for supported me and more than anyone my amazing wife was there beside me in sleepless nights and troubling times - and for this I am very greatful.
Well I finally closed the first batch and now the ball shifts to my court and I know that I need to deliver and make the amazing machine that switch fancy slides to actual products and sales. For some reason, and maybe it is just my nature, I prefer to have some control over it and am not too scared (although I know it will be very difficult), I spent the last year talking to countless people, researching the market from so many angles that I feel quite confident (until proven otherwise).
In the last 3 months what I basically done was prepare all of the needed plans - marketing, website, manufacturing, sales strategy, product development etc' - just waiting for the day I will get the funding to turn the switch on and take all of the plans from the drawer.
It gets very lonely and frustrating during the funding phase, and it feels like you are begging at times for money - which no one enjoys and although I feel like I am selling a true proposition it still feels like it. It is also a place where you feel very thankful and appreciative to people that went with you and supported you at that phase - it creates a certain loyalty and bonding that I can remember only from my military days - it is quite interesting but I feel a lot more tight with my investors money than with money of my own and also I really want to succeed for them and not just for me.
Since I was able to raise ~ $500K at this round I am guarding the safe very much and we adjusted our business plan to a lower budget than what we raised to remain prudent and with the permission of our investors kept the round open for 6 more months and $500K more.
In the coming days I am holding all of the kick-off meetings and renegotiating some contracts to adjust to our current funding levels, very soon things will start moving in hyper drive and I can't wait, I am also moving with my wife to San Fran for the summer (she is pursuing her summer internship there is Credit Suisse Private Bank), while I am looking to meet west coast partners and buyers, creative people to help develop more products and educate myself better with regards to using the web to create more awarness to Sabi via social networks, twitter etc' etc' and there is no better place to do so than out in the West, also to connect with some good friends and enjoy living there.
That's it for now - can't wait to start moving and hoping there will be more to update soon
A
I had numerous opportunities and pressure to leave this journey and pursue something else if not just to get more stability in life and a steady income - but many friends that I am thankful for supported me and more than anyone my amazing wife was there beside me in sleepless nights and troubling times - and for this I am very greatful.
Well I finally closed the first batch and now the ball shifts to my court and I know that I need to deliver and make the amazing machine that switch fancy slides to actual products and sales. For some reason, and maybe it is just my nature, I prefer to have some control over it and am not too scared (although I know it will be very difficult), I spent the last year talking to countless people, researching the market from so many angles that I feel quite confident (until proven otherwise).
In the last 3 months what I basically done was prepare all of the needed plans - marketing, website, manufacturing, sales strategy, product development etc' - just waiting for the day I will get the funding to turn the switch on and take all of the plans from the drawer.
It gets very lonely and frustrating during the funding phase, and it feels like you are begging at times for money - which no one enjoys and although I feel like I am selling a true proposition it still feels like it. It is also a place where you feel very thankful and appreciative to people that went with you and supported you at that phase - it creates a certain loyalty and bonding that I can remember only from my military days - it is quite interesting but I feel a lot more tight with my investors money than with money of my own and also I really want to succeed for them and not just for me.
Since I was able to raise ~ $500K at this round I am guarding the safe very much and we adjusted our business plan to a lower budget than what we raised to remain prudent and with the permission of our investors kept the round open for 6 more months and $500K more.
In the coming days I am holding all of the kick-off meetings and renegotiating some contracts to adjust to our current funding levels, very soon things will start moving in hyper drive and I can't wait, I am also moving with my wife to San Fran for the summer (she is pursuing her summer internship there is Credit Suisse Private Bank), while I am looking to meet west coast partners and buyers, creative people to help develop more products and educate myself better with regards to using the web to create more awarness to Sabi via social networks, twitter etc' etc' and there is no better place to do so than out in the West, also to connect with some good friends and enjoy living there.
That's it for now - can't wait to start moving and hoping there will be more to update soon
A
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Journey continues
Well - the new year has started, we went to the West coast for some much needed break (some Snowboarding in Tahoe, Napa and visiting some good friends).
Since this all fund raising process has been going on forever and I have no income coming I had to reevaluate the venture (also got several calls from Head hunters, which always makes you think) - However, I came back from the trip more pumped and charged than ever.
I think a big part was due to a discussion I had with two good friends who said - let's say you are taking this nice lucrative job in X company, then in a year you will probably be in the same position as before, it is not trivial to have a cool idea that you believe in and we would have switch positions with you in a second if possible.
I know it will be a tough road but I am even more convinced than ever that I have something great in hand and that I can make a difference and make it happen.
From the second I came back from the break all I can do is reach out to potential investors, work on the financial models to update some of assumptions, build a secondary model assuming a lower investment sum and fine tuning the product offering.
Many entrepreneurs say that it is always hard at the beginning and in a way it is "You against the world" - well it never scared me before and I am confident I will be triumphant coming out of it...
It is also a good point to mention that it is great to have some investors who believe in me and are still sticking with me although some of the initial momentum has died off - I am really appreciative of it - won't be forgotten.
That's it for now
A
Since this all fund raising process has been going on forever and I have no income coming I had to reevaluate the venture (also got several calls from Head hunters, which always makes you think) - However, I came back from the trip more pumped and charged than ever.
I think a big part was due to a discussion I had with two good friends who said - let's say you are taking this nice lucrative job in X company, then in a year you will probably be in the same position as before, it is not trivial to have a cool idea that you believe in and we would have switch positions with you in a second if possible.
I know it will be a tough road but I am even more convinced than ever that I have something great in hand and that I can make a difference and make it happen.
From the second I came back from the break all I can do is reach out to potential investors, work on the financial models to update some of assumptions, build a secondary model assuming a lower investment sum and fine tuning the product offering.
Many entrepreneurs say that it is always hard at the beginning and in a way it is "You against the world" - well it never scared me before and I am confident I will be triumphant coming out of it...
It is also a good point to mention that it is great to have some investors who believe in me and are still sticking with me although some of the initial momentum has died off - I am really appreciative of it - won't be forgotten.
That's it for now
A
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Focus Focus and Focus
This post is mostly about me scolding myself,
Overall in life and specifically in business I am a big believer in Focus - a company should find what it is good at and push on that front, focus on a product, a kind of customers, a distribution channel and be the best in the world in that.
However, slowly in Sabi I started to diverge and in a way Sabi's focus was ALL OVER THE PLACE. I noticed it yesterday when I was meeting a potential investor, it was less about the investor's feedback (which he actually really like Sabi) it was the fact that I noticed that instead of focus, maybe because I wanted to have ready answers to investors I was catering to waaaayyy too many things.
Well today (which is my birthday Dec. 22nd) since it is as good day as any for some reflection I am taking a look at Sabi and trying to see where do we want to focus on in order to maximize our success.
On another note - The course I structured with Bezalel is getting to his ending and in the last couple of weeks I received some amazing ideas for products. It basically proves the point (at least in my mind) that smart and creative people can come up with tons of good ideas and at the end it is all about execution of the ideas.
Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all
A
Overall in life and specifically in business I am a big believer in Focus - a company should find what it is good at and push on that front, focus on a product, a kind of customers, a distribution channel and be the best in the world in that.
However, slowly in Sabi I started to diverge and in a way Sabi's focus was ALL OVER THE PLACE. I noticed it yesterday when I was meeting a potential investor, it was less about the investor's feedback (which he actually really like Sabi) it was the fact that I noticed that instead of focus, maybe because I wanted to have ready answers to investors I was catering to waaaayyy too many things.
Well today (which is my birthday Dec. 22nd) since it is as good day as any for some reflection I am taking a look at Sabi and trying to see where do we want to focus on in order to maximize our success.
On another note - The course I structured with Bezalel is getting to his ending and in the last couple of weeks I received some amazing ideas for products. It basically proves the point (at least in my mind) that smart and creative people can come up with tons of good ideas and at the end it is all about execution of the ideas.
Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all
A
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
So what do you do all day??
This is basically my mom's question, it took me quite a bit of time to explain to her what is it that Sabi does (which in a way attest to the fact that we need to make the schpill simpler), but everytime they ask me whether the money is in yet - and I respond not yet in a little bit longer it comes up to "SO WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY?"
Although I am 99.9% certain my mom isn't one of the avid readers of this blog (if it has ANY avid readers at all) I figured I might as well write about it...
So here goes, basically I look at the day of the closing as the ZERO day where everything starts moving from, yes I talked to many many people and am working very hard in selling the concept and the idea, but there are budget limitations and also not quite easy just selling a concept without specific products yet.
I am constantly working on refining the plans to this Zero day:
Operational plan - What would be the costs of the products, where will they be manufactured - not trivial - the initial thought was in China, but with the Israeli goverment giving grants to manufacture in Israel as well as specific expertise in some plastics areas as well as the quite limited number of products and quantity we will prepare initially (20,000 per SKU) it might make sense to manufacture not in China.
Design - I found the design shop (after probably meeting 50 shops), and am working with them on insights, research, ideas and work processes. In addition, I launched a course with Bezalel school of design to design products for Sabi - and communicating with the students and the professor can take time as well. Conducting focus groups and brainstorm sessions in different places (Boston elderly care center, eons.com etc')
Financials - Constantly updating the plan to see that we will still deliver on time and on budget.
Board - I am currently finalizing the board composition and will hopefully write about it in the coming weeks (we are almost there).
Reseach - I believe that in the last 6 months I read every book I was able to get my hands on on the senior market (bought tons of them on Amazon) - firstly, most of them are just not good - it is very very tough to read a book which is boring, badly written and with no conclusion only to find a couple of nuggets - Near my bed stand are books such as "Boom - marketing to the ultimate power consumer - the baby-boomer woman" (Mary Brown & Carol Orsborn) ; "Turning Silver into Gold" (Mary Furlong); "Dot Boom - Marketing to baby boomers through meaningful online engagment" (David Weigelt and Jonathan Boehman) to "Groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies" (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff) and "Viral Loop"
Investors - Well it ain't over till the fat lady sings - so I am constantly talking to investors
Legal - Linked to the line above there is always work there until we finalize the round
Networking - Constantly talking to people that can potentially help Sabi - lawyers that can connect to retailers, ex retailers, reps, buyers, people who launched product companies, Sloan lectures and HBS lectures etc' etc'
Well so I am kind of busy...
Although I am 99.9% certain my mom isn't one of the avid readers of this blog (if it has ANY avid readers at all) I figured I might as well write about it...
So here goes, basically I look at the day of the closing as the ZERO day where everything starts moving from, yes I talked to many many people and am working very hard in selling the concept and the idea, but there are budget limitations and also not quite easy just selling a concept without specific products yet.
I am constantly working on refining the plans to this Zero day:
Operational plan - What would be the costs of the products, where will they be manufactured - not trivial - the initial thought was in China, but with the Israeli goverment giving grants to manufacture in Israel as well as specific expertise in some plastics areas as well as the quite limited number of products and quantity we will prepare initially (20,000 per SKU) it might make sense to manufacture not in China.
Design - I found the design shop (after probably meeting 50 shops), and am working with them on insights, research, ideas and work processes. In addition, I launched a course with Bezalel school of design to design products for Sabi - and communicating with the students and the professor can take time as well. Conducting focus groups and brainstorm sessions in different places (Boston elderly care center, eons.com etc')
Financials - Constantly updating the plan to see that we will still deliver on time and on budget.
Board - I am currently finalizing the board composition and will hopefully write about it in the coming weeks (we are almost there).
Reseach - I believe that in the last 6 months I read every book I was able to get my hands on on the senior market (bought tons of them on Amazon) - firstly, most of them are just not good - it is very very tough to read a book which is boring, badly written and with no conclusion only to find a couple of nuggets - Near my bed stand are books such as "Boom - marketing to the ultimate power consumer - the baby-boomer woman" (Mary Brown & Carol Orsborn) ; "Turning Silver into Gold" (Mary Furlong); "Dot Boom - Marketing to baby boomers through meaningful online engagment" (David Weigelt and Jonathan Boehman) to "Groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies" (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff) and "Viral Loop"
Investors - Well it ain't over till the fat lady sings - so I am constantly talking to investors
Legal - Linked to the line above there is always work there until we finalize the round
Networking - Constantly talking to people that can potentially help Sabi - lawyers that can connect to retailers, ex retailers, reps, buyers, people who launched product companies, Sloan lectures and HBS lectures etc' etc'
Well so I am kind of busy...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Full gas in neutral
This is one of these blogs that I just need a place to vent, I haven't written in 20 days since I was really hoping that this post would be the happy conclusion of the funding. However, life does not work like that, so what is the current status???
Overall, I am looking to raise an angel round of $1M, I budgeted it all and was looking for a budget that would allow me to work (assuming zero income will come in) for 18 months and focus on Sabi and not be over busy all the time with fund raising.
I promised my investors that I will only "call" the money when I have the full commitments, what happens is that I currently have ~$750K of confirmed funds and still need the extra $250K. I have quite a few hot leads that I am talking with but nothing concrete yet.
The thing is that it is like a dance sometimes you move two steps forward and one back and sometimes it is the other way around two back and one forward.
What I find very difficult is the full dependancy on someone else, I know I know in sales it is the same story but I can't say it doesn't frustrate me. I am sitting at home in my office, I pushed forward everything I can to the max. Researched and talked to gazzilion of people, set up the operational plan, structured the design process, talked to retailers (which you can do to a limited extent since I don't have the products ready so far), have the legal and structures in place and now just need to put the fuel in the car to get it moving...
This is very much counter my character to stand still, I am literally climbing the walls
BUT I am certain we will get it done and close this round and sooner rather than later and then we will move full steam ahead
That's it - wow I really needed that
A
Overall, I am looking to raise an angel round of $1M, I budgeted it all and was looking for a budget that would allow me to work (assuming zero income will come in) for 18 months and focus on Sabi and not be over busy all the time with fund raising.
I promised my investors that I will only "call" the money when I have the full commitments, what happens is that I currently have ~$750K of confirmed funds and still need the extra $250K. I have quite a few hot leads that I am talking with but nothing concrete yet.
The thing is that it is like a dance sometimes you move two steps forward and one back and sometimes it is the other way around two back and one forward.
What I find very difficult is the full dependancy on someone else, I know I know in sales it is the same story but I can't say it doesn't frustrate me. I am sitting at home in my office, I pushed forward everything I can to the max. Researched and talked to gazzilion of people, set up the operational plan, structured the design process, talked to retailers (which you can do to a limited extent since I don't have the products ready so far), have the legal and structures in place and now just need to put the fuel in the car to get it moving...
This is very much counter my character to stand still, I am literally climbing the walls
BUT I am certain we will get it done and close this round and sooner rather than later and then we will move full steam ahead
That's it - wow I really needed that
A
Monday, November 9, 2009
Funding is like the GMAT...
I just came back (yesterday) from a 10 day business trip to Israel working on several fronts:
I officially launched the joint course with Bezalel School of Design, gave a presentation with regards to what we are looking for and now it is in the capable hands of the two course instructors Yedidia Blonder and Raanan Volk and the ~ 45 capable and creative students.
The main purpose of the trip was the close the funding for Sabi, as I said before it is very difficult to get funding for such a venture in general and at the current market status specifically.
I actually got very warm responses, I believe it also has a lot to do with the great progress we made as well as the fact that this time we had specific products to discuss and share (previously it was just the concept) and if everything works well I really hope that in the next several weeks I will close the round and start really pushing the business forward.
A good friend told me before that until one was able to raise angel money one doesn't know what a hard sale is - well I have to agree, the ability to sell someone on your idea is a great great achievement. As an entrepreneur one is ALWAYS selling but when pitching for money an entrepreneur is in hyper drive.
The analogy I made to GMAT is something I really wish for, when I applied to Biz school the GMAT was one of the hardest hurdles initially, but the second I finished with it (720 after 2 tries for those curious) it became in significant and I was totally focused on the rest of the application - this is what I am hoping in Sabi's case so I could focus on the actual business and move forward and put the funding part to rest
That's it for now
A
I officially launched the joint course with Bezalel School of Design, gave a presentation with regards to what we are looking for and now it is in the capable hands of the two course instructors Yedidia Blonder and Raanan Volk and the ~ 45 capable and creative students.
The main purpose of the trip was the close the funding for Sabi, as I said before it is very difficult to get funding for such a venture in general and at the current market status specifically.
I actually got very warm responses, I believe it also has a lot to do with the great progress we made as well as the fact that this time we had specific products to discuss and share (previously it was just the concept) and if everything works well I really hope that in the next several weeks I will close the round and start really pushing the business forward.
A good friend told me before that until one was able to raise angel money one doesn't know what a hard sale is - well I have to agree, the ability to sell someone on your idea is a great great achievement. As an entrepreneur one is ALWAYS selling but when pitching for money an entrepreneur is in hyper drive.
The analogy I made to GMAT is something I really wish for, when I applied to Biz school the GMAT was one of the hardest hurdles initially, but the second I finished with it (720 after 2 tries for those curious) it became in significant and I was totally focused on the rest of the application - this is what I am hoping in Sabi's case so I could focus on the actual business and move forward and put the funding part to rest
That's it for now
A
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