Investing in ideas

Adam Kalsey — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:14:05 +0000

I often hear would-be entrepreneurs who have an idea for a product or a company and are looking for investors. My advice is always the same. Build something before you start looking for money.

Ideas are cheap. Everyone has them, and most have more than one. The ability to make something work is a whole different matter.

An investor’s job is to balance risk and reward. The risk to an investor is that they’ll put in money and not see any reward down the line. The reward is some return on their investment. Institutional investors want a profit. Angel investors generally want a profit as well, but may also find their reward in non-monetary ways; the satisfaction from helping young entrepreneurs, for instance.

An investor mitigates risk by investing in things that have a great chance to succeed. All other things being equal, the farther along a company is, the greater their chance of being a success.

If you have a prototype to play with, you at least know that the entrepreneur is capable of building his idea.

If you have actual users using the prototype, you know the entrepreneur is capable of building something others want.

And if you have any paying users, even if they aren’t paying much, you you know the entrepreneur has been able to build something that people want bad enough to pay for.

Each of these steps is a reduction is risk.

The more risk an investor has, the less likely they are to invest. And if they do invest, the more expensive their money is going to be. Anyone willing to invest in just an idea is going to want a lot more of your company for their investment, because they’re absorbing a lot more risk than the entrepreneur.

Note that this isn’t a universal truth. The less sophisticated an investor is, the less this holds true. Your mom probably loves your idea and is easier to convince to invest than a VC at a top-tier firm. Friends and family money is usually invested on the basis of your personal relationship with the investor. They know you, they believe in you, they’ll invest with a lot less assurances than an outsider.

Before asking investors to commit to you, have something you can show them. Show that you’re willing and able to accept some risk. Show that you’re capable of executing on your idea. Show that they’re not committing their money to a dreamer, but committing it to a doer.

Technical Writer Product Analyst - Travidia

Adam Kalsey — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:56:43 +0000

TRAVIDIA, the leader in Internet marketing services for newspapers and advertisers throughout North America and Europe, is looking for a Technical Writer / Product Analyst. This is a unique position which functions as the nexus between developers, technology, product management, production, marketing, and sales. Visit Travidia.com to learn more about us. This is a wonderful opportunity to join a growing company, living in the vitality of the university town Chico, CA with the beauty of the Sierra Mountains and affordable living.

Key Responsibilities include:

* Designs, develops, and edits product documentation including product release bulletins, user guides, online help, functional specifications, and technical specifications for a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.
* Develop on-line training materials for end users, sales, and marketing.
* Coordinates graphics for all documentation
* Work closely with a cross-functional team (UI design, developers, marketing, and product management), eliciting business requirements, drafting functional specifications, aiding in design documentation and UI mock-ups.
* Maintains version control on documents.
* Thoroughly understand products through product use, interviewing developers, marketing and sales team members.
* Recommends content, fixes, improvements, functionality, and features for products.
* Apply an understanding of the inherent limitations of existing tools and technologies and, when faced with conflicting or impractical business requirements suggests appropriate trade-offs consistent with the overall business strategy.
* The ability to collaborate with peers in engineering and marketing as part of a development team, and to thrive in a challenging, fast-paced environment.
* Management of assigned software development projects.

The ideal candidate for this position should have the following:

* Able to recognize and implement documentation needs as they arise and to quickly assimilate new technologies.
* Ability to write clearly and succinctly about technical concepts.
* Develop technically accurate documentation that is consistent across subject areas.
* Understanding of the software development cycle and ability to coordinate and manage projects.
* 3+ years experience with the software development cycle: product specification, design, implementation, qa, release.
* Experience working with product management in creating intuitive and cutting edge Web 2.0 interfaces.
* Must be experienced user of MS Word, Visio, PowerPoint, Excel, and SnagIt (or other screen capture / image edit program)
* Knowledge of HTML and XML a plus.
* Bachelors in a related field, or equivalent experience.
* Perform all tasks with an awareness of business requirements and timelines.

Interested candidates should e-mail their resumes in Word format to Developer_jobs@travidia.com.
All resumes must include salary history.
Please indicate where you learned of this opportunity.
No recruiters or contract candidates.

SacStarts - Product

Investing in ideas

Technical Writer Product Analyst - Travidia