Perhaps one of my most important lessons learned in the last two years is don’t live your life as a slave to numbers. Numbers don’t always tell the whole story and sometimes you just have to go on that gut check.

Ian Graham

In the picture from left to right are:

Richard Alam – co-founder Blindside Networks, BEng/96, MEng06
Tony Bailetti – Associate Professor, Technology Innovation Management Program
Michael Weiss – director, Technology Innovation Management Program
Jason Daley – President Ucreate Media, BComm/99
Steve Muegge – faculty member, Technology Innovation Management Program, MEng04
Ian Graham – founder TheCodeFactory

I read this on one of the blogs I follow or on twitter within the past few weeks and just wanted to share with everyone. One last bit that goes so well with this:

“In theory there is no difference between practice and theory. But, in practice there is.”
Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut / Yogi Berra.

Best,

Ian Graham

On that note lets begin the Entrepreneurship series.

1. Entrepreneurship
1.1. The Ugly, the bad, the good and the great.
1.2. The Road Less Traveled
1.3. The Bungee Metaphor

2. The Ugly
2.1. The only thing to be feared is fear itself
2.2. Fear of the dark
2.3. Fear of pain
2.4. Fear of Failure
2.5. If fear is the disease, Passion is the cure

3. The Bad
3.1. If passion is driving the cart reason better be holding the reins.
3.2. Fear and Faith (demons from within)
3.3. External pressures (demons from without)
3.4. Persistence

4. The Good
4.1. The harder I work … the luckier I get
4.2. Hard work
4.3. Small victories

5. The Great
5.1. Those who think they can change the world … are often the ones who do.
5.2. I love what I do!
5.3. People

6. In conclusion

7. Enjoy the ride

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a mechanical engineering graduate from Montreal. I currently hold a full time engineer position at Canada Post, improving mail tracking through barcode technology. I have to say I’m a traveller, having spent most of my life in Africa, Europe and now North America. This diverse upbringing gives me a broadview of the world and an open mind, which both allow me to see the “big picture” in projects. I draw a lot of parallel between my life and the tech world. It’s not just one thing. For me, it’s not just tech. It’s also marketing, communication, graphics and originality. innovation is by definition always new. Just like art – actually art takes a huge part of my life (writting and dancing principally).

What is the inspiration for “did u”?
As I said, I was a “montrealer”. So I’m used to spend a lot of weekends there visiting friends and family. I’ve noticed I tend to forget basics things, such as the key to my brother appartment, or deodorant, because my mind is so focussed on my projects. Then one Friday evening, before closing my bag when packing, I thought “you need something that asks you if you did take everything before you close this bag!”. I was tired questionning myself in the bus: “is the frig closed?”, “what am I missing?”, etc. Now since apps are so popular today, it was suddenly natural an app would address my problem, and not just a “classic” to-do or checklist app. No! But rather one that you trigger in action, upon need, and that pops up and ask you the right questions. A real companion! Finally, one day at work, I heard a colleague ask another one “did u… ?”. I thought, it’s really panicking hearing those simple two words from a boss when you can hardly keep track of your tasks. Bingo! I had THE name.

How did you go about developing “did u”?
First, I thought it over, wondering if it was worth it. They are already a lot of to-do and checklists. It’s crowded. But after a couple of days, I realized “did u?” was missing in the landscape because it’s not a “to do” but rather just “did u?”. You use it mostly after in the process to validate dynamically your actions. I’ve talked to some friends and most of them really liked the concept. So I turned to Code Factory and Cocoa Heads who led me to a developer. The guy had already an app selling well, so I was comfortable trusting him. Also, my brother Regis (who’s graphic designer and film animator) got involved and created the GUI and the logo. It took February and March to have a beta. We tweaked it a little afterwards and submitted it by mid-April. It got approved by Apple in only 3 working days! With a crew in Montreal, I worked on putting together the demo you can see on “did u?” website (www.diduapp.com). I even composed the music myself. Marketing is so important. You have never done enough! So “did u?” has been selling since April 19.

Getting an app in the app store is quite a bit of work, what is your biggest lesson learned?
It is sure a lot of work but only a start! The hardest is to make your app popular and stand out in the app store among the other 200,000 ones. So the lesson learned is simple: Don’t think an app will create a buzz by itself! People have to know about it, address one of their problems with it and understand it! Achieving these 3 objectives with a fun app will get people to download and more importantly, like it! So you have to keep all these objectives in mind from day one and any action you accomplish HAS to serve them. If not, don’t take that action!

For your next app what would you do differently?
My next app is really the next versions of “did u?”. More is to come. But in general, I would say, with honesty: Reduce my early great expectations! It’s quite a challenge to give traction to your app. The concept, even when good, is not enough. Not that people don’t like “did u?”. A lot of those who see it, love it. No, the challenge is really about getting them to SEE it in the first place. This is where the work is once you’ve launched it (or even before). Now I’m more aware of that, so I’m planning the next phases of this ride accordingly. It is indeed a ride. Think “long term” here. If success comes sooner, bonus! Do you want to build an app? Do you want it to sale? Do you want it to have traction? Give yourself time and don’t discourage.

Anything else you would like to share?
I think we are going through a revolution here. We should not overlook it because gadgets don’t “look” has serious as PC’s or Macs. They will replace them for most of the tasks in the future though. The apps will even extend the usage of these gadgets far more than we expect. It has started. Each week I’m stunned by discovering new capabilities with another app. Look at “Augmented Reality” for instance. Today, if you know about building apps, it is a lot like if you knew HTML in 1994! I mean you’re still early in the game. A lot of startups in 1995 got succesful (and bought) by simply building websites for clients. In 1999/2000 on the other hand, the landscape competition was everywhere, there was a lot more to know about and money had become scarce. Today is the right time for apps even though it’s hard to earn money. But if you can manage to sustain and play for the long term, opportunities will come and hopefully success!

Ian Graham

For me, one of the biggest revelations that came from reading Seth Godin’s book Linchpin is that getting a better job doesn’t mean quitting.
.
In the fall of 1997 I returned to work refreshed and energized after a year long sabbatical. I was (and still am) eager as hell to execute my vision of bringing telecommunications into the 21st century; in particular, moving a traditional telecommunications company toward a more collaborative, innovative, agile and open environment; one that partners with it’s suppliers and customers to build a better service.

Technically speaking, I’m not in a position of power within my company to actually do any of those things. I’m basically middle management. I started TeamCamp in the fall of 2008 because I was quite frankly bored with the content and seemingly glacial progress I was making at work. I decided to take the matter into my own hands and find other like-minded people that were interested in building web apps and learning about what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

A funny thing happened. Not only did I learn about starting my own business, agile development, minimum viable product, open source, etc., I also got better at my day job: I took more risks, I aggressively pushed my peers, my staff and management to think “outside the box”. I pushed the IT department to modernize the development process, I pushed Marketing to become more customer-focussed, I pushed our Technology team to become more agile, I pushed HR to introduce a better learning and development environment.

Still, I was afraid that if I pushed too hard I was going to piss somebody off and get myself fired. It didn’t happen. I started getting more challenging projects and more recognition.

Then I started pushing more; I cautiously started telling folks at the office about TeamCamp. Again, initially I was concerned that telling my boss and other key executives that I run a group that turns good ideas into startups might end up getting me the ‘boot’. It didn’t happen. Instead, I got put on a team to develop my company’s 2020 vision and strategy.

Suddenly, I feel like I’m beginning to achieve the vision I that had when I first returned to work in 2007. In doing so, I feel good about myself, and I believe I’ve become more valuable. I can also say that I’m proud to work for my employer, MTS Allstream.

The lesson I learned is this: If you’re unhappy with your job then for God’s sake do something about it. If you think there’s a better way to do something: learn about it. Write a proposal. Ask to try something new. If you think you can do something better yourself then try it. Only good things will come of it. Do these things and you will become a linchpin, and you’ll be a hell of a lot happier with yourself.

- Chris

“I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride while you’re on it.”

Ian Graham

1) Hardwork,
2) Enjoying what you are doing,
3) Great people.

Repeat steps 1 through 3 as needed sprinkling in generous doses of humour and persistence, mix well and have fun.

Next post “Enjoy the ride”

Ian Graham

If you are doing what you love and working with great people every day it doesn’t get much better than that. People really do put the GREAT in Entrepreneurship.

Next Post “In conclusion”

Ian Graham