Blogmatic

… you were starting out.

I have received a lot of great advice from many people that I respect and admire in getting TheCodeFactory up and running. One of my favourite gems is the title of this post; “Remember who was good to you when you are starting out.” It was Peter Kemball founder of Acorn Partners that let me in on this bit of wisdom at our very first meeting, even before they had agreed to be a founding partner at TheCodeFactory.

Probably one of the toughest things to do as a start-up and as a new business I consider TheCodeFactory a start-up, is to succeed. Early on when you have limited funds and are trying to get traction it is a tough go. Once you are up to critical mass and “successful” it is a whole lot easier for companies to be supportive and jump on the bandwagon. However, always remember those that supported you early on because they are the ones who believed in you and your idea while those standing idly on the sidelines waiting for success are indeed fickle friends. Good partners and those to which I am genuinely grateful and do business with are the ones that contribute now or in the early going and continue to be supportive on the road to success rather than after reaching “critical mass”.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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TheCodeFactory blog is back on line.

After a temporary hiatus due to switching from one domain name to another TheCodeFactory BLOG is back in action. I expect to start to post on a fairly regular basis there.

www.TheCodeFactory.ca web site should also be live later today. If you wanted to check it please feel free to forward me your comments. Constructive feedback in the spirit of Chide.it is warmly welcomed.

cheers,

Ian Graham

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Have had a number of requests to check out TheCodeFactory location. I will be at 246 Queen Street on Tuesday (11-March-2008) at 2:30pm to show a few people around the space. If you are curious and would like to see what TheCodeFactory looks like today (the before shot) I would be happy to show you around.

 Please feel free to send me a note at ian.graham3@gmail.com to be added to the list.

The space is located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, above the Green Papaya restaurant, next to the Ideal parking lot. CAUTION: there are two Green Papaya Restaurants on Queen Street, make sure you have the correct address.

cheers,

Ian Graham

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This is a follow on post to yesterdays “Leap of Faith – Part II”.

I have approached the cliff, looked down the 150’ drop and decided to take the leap. On Friday, Leap Year Day, the lease for TheCodeFactory was finalized. Leap year day birthday, how cool is that. For those that follow the www.thecodefactory.ca blog you understand the long and bumpy road that I have travelled to get to this point. Anyway after finally getting to the cliff I have leapt.

The range of emotions one feels when taking the plunge is incredible. The initial reaction was one of elation and accomplishment, at long last I have finally completed phase one of TheCodeFactory launch. Next was, “what have I done!” and finally I have a lot of work to do it is time to “gitter done”.

It is in that spirit of “gitter done” that I move forward with a degree of excitement and urgency. Lots to do in a short time, however, I am making my lists and checking them twice and will be in full “gitter done” mode for the next few weeks.

Entrepreneurship is a bungee jump, enjoy the ride!

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to the book “the power of kindness” by Piero Ferrucci. The book was original written in Italian and translated to English. The “thesis of the book is that true kindness is a strong, genuine, warm way of being.”

The power of kindness tag line is “the unexpected benefits of leading a compassionate life.”

The book discusses and examines the case for kindness and breaks kindness down into its component parts.  The idea is that kindness is made up of a number of essential components which include:

Warmth,
Trust,
Patience,
Loyalty,
Gratitude,
And many others.

Kindness is a collaboration of all of its component parts and without even one of these qualities it is less convincing. The author postulates that kindness is the most efficient and economic attitude because it saves much energy when compared to “suspicion, worry, resentment,” and other negative emotions. Kindness in fact requires less effort than those attitudes that fritter away useless energy building unnecessary defences. 

My posts will take the perspective of applying Mr. Ferrucci’s work to the culture and development of knowledge based start-ups. The quote below is taken directly from “the power of kindness” with respect to the philosophy in a corporate setting.

“And what about business and commerce? Here again we reach the same conclusion. Firms that exploit their workers, degrade the environment, deceive the consumer, and create a waste culture, will perhaps gain in the short term, but in the long run they compete less favourably than those that, in their own interests, do not take advantage of employees, respect the environment, and place themselves at the service of their clients.”

The essence of TheCodeFactory culture will be significantly influenced by Mr. Ferrucci’s work.

Cheers and have a great weekend,
Ian Graham

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… are often the ones who do.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.  Steve Jobs

Cheers,

Ian Graham

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I am pleased to announce the first TheCodeFactory founding partner is Acorn Partners. A fitting name for the first partner when you consider the nature of TheCodeFactory Business. Thank you Malcolm, Peter and Andy.

There are also weekly status updates available on www.thecodefactory.ca please feel free to check it out.

cheers and have a great weekend.

Ian Graham 

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It is probably just me but I hear this term and it conjures up certain negative images.  I guess I may be in the minority, however, in all honesty I find the term a bit “look at me” and perhaps coming more from a place that is more ego and bravado than business success. I suppose the people that chose to call themselves “serial entrepreneurs” have earned the right to do so and can wear it as a badge of honour.

Some will say oh you’re just jealous. Well, … no after reflecting on it I honestly do not believe that is the case at all. The first image that comes into my mind when I hear the term is serial murderer, not a particularly pleasant image. I think the reason that I struggle with the term is that it reminds a bit of someone that goes around starting projects but at the same time is always looking for the next new project. I prefer companies with a longer term business strategy than a short term exit strategy and the term serial entrepreneur is heavily exit strategy in orientation.  Personally I believe that true economic value is created through business strategies not exit strategies. More on this in a future post.

I admire Leonard Lee who is an entrepreneur and a builder. Steve Jobs is a builder and an entrepreneur, I don’t know for sure but I doubt if either call would themselves a serial entrepreneur.

And that’s what I think about that.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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Sometimes you just have to do it. There is only so much planning you put into a project, at some point you will have to either pull the trigger or pack up your tent and go home.

How do you know which you should do?

There is no silver bullet or one right answer for this. I took the leap once before when I left a very comfortable space in life to pursue something a little risky, well maybe more than a little risky. I remember doing a whole lot of “What if” thinking when I was preparing to take the leap. My experience is if you are in Telly monster mode and only thinking “what if” then you heart probably isn’t in the project.

The best test I know of for the Leap of Faith is how do you “feel” about the project in your heart or what is your gut telling you. The gut check is the acid test for many great leaders through out history. If you are passionate about your idea, done your homework and feel good about the project, then go for it.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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2007 has been a bumper year for start-ups in Ottawa so it is really quite a challenge to picks just three. The criteria this year is more stringent than last year as well (an update on the 2006 Alumni soon). Not so much in the sense of the quality of the companies but in the definition of start-up. This year early stage means essentially that the companies are fewer than 10 employees and pre-seed funded or earlier. These companies are very early stage businesses just getting ready to burst onto the scene.

Scott Lake and Toby Lutke provide Shopify with the management and world class technical experience for a strong, balanced commercialization strategy. Shopify is the Google of online shopping and an up and coming Ottawa company. By that (Google of online shopping) I mean they are a company with a very strong and positive corporate culture, if you can say corporate and start-up in the same breath. Shopify have a very simple and defensible strategy for corporate growth. For anyone familiar with the book “Good to Great” you will recognize the characteristics listed as Level 5 Leadership, a culture of discipline and the hedgehog concept. Shopify has all the foundations of a GREAT company.

Aydin Mirazee of bOK is articulate, well spoken and personable. He has started his business part time while holding down a full time job and has taken the entrepreneurial leap. bOK seems to me like a company that should go far. You could think of entrepreneurship and start-ups like a horse race, or at least I will try and convince you of that. The entrepreneur would be the equivalent of the jockey and the start-up is the horse. When you bet at the races you can bet on the horse, the jockey or both. With Aydin as the jockey and bOK as the horse this is a bet I would take anytime. In fact I think Aydin is a good enough jockey that he could do well with many different horses. Aydin and bOK are a company to watch in Ottawa.

My next pick is a young and emerging startup that I have gotten to know quite well. In fact thinkRF have been the inspiration for many of my blog posts on entrepreneurship. This is a true early stage business that is going about commercialization in all the right ways. What I like about thinkRF is that they have the makings of a culture of performance and accomplishment. They have a strong and visionary leader that understands the importance of a balanced commercialization strategy.  thinkRF has all the traits of a Great company.

In my opinion the Blogmatic Start-up class of 2007 are all excellent companies and will be worth keeping an eye on in the future.

I will be updating the status of my 2006 Blogmatic picks very shortly.

Cheers
Ian Graham

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