she Today,
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contents introduction
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her moods
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her story
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quotes new york
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findings
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chats
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introduction
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esterday she has woken up to hope and excitement. Today she just feels like sh*t. She can experience from doubting herself to jumping in joy to bawling her eyes out within a few hours. This is not her monthly mood swings, this is the emotional ride of startup life. She has a business idea and currently trying to pursue it for the first time in her life. No matter how ambitious she is about her new venture, she doesn’t feel confident about it, especially living in a government town with stable, high-income jobs. Her research seeks to document the mindset of being a design entrepreneur, jumping out of the comfort life of being a traditional designer, taking risks to creating great realities. She is interested in understanding the emotions and visions of start-up adventures. Her objective is to capture these findings towards her own entrepreneurial journey, three major points she would to investigate are:
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ow do these individuals weigh the risk of giving up their H normal job and evaluate the prospect of start-up? Does failure mean it’s time to stop pursuing what you believe in? At what point do you stop? Is it relevant and important for creatives to invest in learning about business, or is it just about finding the right partnerships? This documentary journal matters not only to those whom are passionate about start-ups, but to those outside the startup world may not understand what these founders believe in is damned hard work and not a waste of time. She is being offered an opportunity to explore the entrepreneurial spirit and taking it all the way to New York city. She invites you to hop on the roller coaster with her to experience the highs and lows of this crazy start-up ride!
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her moods The purpose of this journal is to document Helen’s life as a designer, her decisions and aspirations of discovering the entrepreneurial spirit.
mood colors Passionate enthusiastic energetic confident Cheerful hopeful comfortable Cool calm at ease relaxed satisfied
The biggest struggle of a start‑up is the psychological aspect. A range of colors represents the highs and lows of running her start-up during the research period. She wants to share a slice of her start-up life by reflecting the events and feelings along the way.
A short description of her emotions.
Mixed emotions confused distracted irritated Depressed sad hopeless discouraged tired anxious
APR
14
MON
Today she feels... PASSIONATE The start of the week is usually a fresh start for me, I feel confident about what I need to get accomplished this week.
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her story Helen is a passionate and enthusiastic freelance graphic designer. She strongly believes design is not art, it is a form of creative communication, it is about use. She has been living in Canberra, Australia for almost three years. Majority of her design work is typesetting for government publications, which is very traditional and restrictive design layouts. She is so bored out of her mind!!!!!! Something isn’t working out, she can’t seem to flourish her creativity. She knows her so-called creative lifestyle must change. The surprised party for her boyfriend’s 30th has changed her life. She has discovered the inconvenience and stress of throwing unique themed parties for grown-ups. She decides to start her first business ever, PartiArti. Launching in September 2014, PartiArti aims to save many party planners the time searching ideas online and physically going to store after store by offering “readi‑to‑parti” box. The second idea is to launch PartiBrains, an online social party planning community for planning, sharing and communicating party ideas instantly. Entrepreneurship just happens when she decides this is the opportunity to pave her very own creative road the way she wants it to be. Yup, f*ck typesetting, hopefully!
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Seinfeld party PartiArti photoshoot
Her designed balloons
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quotes The energy and passion are the seeds of any start‑ups. The wise advice of inspiring start-up individuals helps Helen walk her own entrepreneurial journey facing risks, uncertainties and randomness.
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CO-FOUNDER SEESAW
kyle sollenberger says I don’t think it’s for everyone. Client work can be as rewarding as startup life for some, but there are definite trade-offs. Designer co-founders have a unique opportunity to shape the company and its culture. I also believe that when a designer has more skin in the game, they are more connected to the cause and therefore will create a better product. With Co-Tweet I wasn’t just a designer — I was customer support, product and business and research.
helen thinks Everyday she still wishes she has a stable 9-5 job, living a freelance designer’s life is very unstable. The trade-off is she struggles to find a balance between creative freedom and stable life. Start-up is not any better and definitely not for everyone. However, she does enjoy the advantage of being a designer cofounder because she feels more connected to what she designs and owning it. In her past work, she has been told that she should own up to the designs she created. She is confused with that comment, because when she tries something new she is told not to do this and that because her boss doesn’t like it! So how does she own up to the work when she is told to do it only one way? She will never understand that. But with PartiArti, she completely owns her creation, she knows exactly the direction she is heading with. Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P. 90
APR
8
14
MON
Today she feels... PASSIONATE The start of the week is usually a fresh start for her, she feels confident about what she needs to get accomplished this week.
FOUNDER BEST MADE COMPANY
peter bauchanan-smith says I wish that digital designers would stop trying to think that they can do everything — that using an app will be as rewarding of an experience as going and chopping wood with an axe. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that will ever be the case. To me, the best designs of anything whether they are digital or physical, are made by people who understand the limitators.
helen thinks Sometimes, she is not confident with her party supplies design business and feels that comparing to the tech start-ups out there, her idea is nothing. She pictures people laughing at her some stupid party supplies idea. But this quote gives her a little confidence boost — the best creations have nothing to do with what great technology is about, a simple product can also be the best solution to a problem designed by people who truly understand what the mass population needs. Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P. 102
Today she feels... LOST Her positive energy is pretty much drained out by mid‑week. It’s hard when she doesn’t get recognition for what she does. Her insecurities also come from not having much freelance work these two weeks.
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THU
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CO-FOUNDER SVPPLY
ben pieratt says As a designer, you enjoy building things for other people’s use. Your value is determined by the degree to which you can empathize with groups of people around a given topic. Historically, this relationship has required a large(r) company to act as mediator for the emotional mass-transaction. Companies provide you with an audience in as much as they have customers, and that’s enough for you because you just want to design stuff that solves stuff. The internet kills all middlemen. You now have direct access to the raw vein of popular attention. The pixels you’re pushing have a higher exchange rate than you’re giving yourself credit for. No hounding client payroll, no selling other people’s stuff, no building other people’s wealth, no nephew’s cousins stepping in with the authority to change everything you’ve been working on. If You Build It, They Will Come and Try It; and if you are keen enough to identify the opportunities that are being laid out before you by technology, then there is challenge and fulfillment and success to be had. http://blog.pieratt.com/post/7537191978/dear-graphic-and-web-designers-please-understand-that
APR
10
22
TUE
Today she feels... EXCITED She wakes up feeling pretty awesome. Her balloons designs are sorted and sent off to print! Now it’s only the napkin designs then she can focus on photoshoots!
helen thinks Ben Pieratt encourages designers to step out of their comfort designer roles and explore the start-up world. The internet breaks the barrier between people, designers don’t need to rely on big companies to reach to customers anymore. “If you build it, they will come and try it…” The internet has created an opportunity for Helen to connect her creativity with the niche market. This satisfies her creative bug in being a designer in “building things for other people’s use”. Better to just do it than ponder all day thinking will I succeed or fail?
ben pieratt also says I have no idea what I’m doing… I have zero experience or expertise in building a company. I’ve never worked at a web or product startup…
helen thinks If the CEO of Svpply doesn’t know what he is doing, then what does Helen know? It’s a scary feeling that she doesnt know it she is doing it right. Scary because Helen fears people (she means her dad, who is an entrepreneur, a successful one too), saying “you are a failure and now please go find a real job.” She has told him about her idea and he says, “Are you sure this is going to work? You can try…...” Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P. 90
3pm she feels... BLEH... I hate working alone at home, I basically talk to myself in the head. I am in doubt with what I am doing because I can’t bounce off any ideas other people. 11
ANONYMOUS STARTUP PERSON
alex knight says The truth is that the biggest battle of any startup is the one you have yourself, with your mind. This extends beyond everyday doubts (which to be honest are healthy checkups we play out and keep us motivated) to a sinking sick feeling that wonders with us everywhere. Lying down with us at night. Poking us in those few moments we have alone. I’ve even taken to calling this period my ‘startdown’.
helen thinks Her mind tells her everyday “What am I doing?” or “I should be really looking for a job and not sitting here draining everyday dollar in my account!”… Last night, she was venting about her stress to her boyfriend, and the outcome was adding stress on him as well and ruining the mood for them both the whole night. He suggested her to take time off what she is doing, put on some headphones and let her mind drift off. She told him she CAN’T! Her mind is so occupied by the start-up business, it’s controlling her life. Her mind tells her if she spends time doing other things, that will slow up the process to succeed. How can she find a balance between work and life? http://pollenizer.com/greatest-startup-struggle-psychological-one
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THU
Today she feels... CRAP Not sure what happened, she doesn’t know why she feels so down today. Looking at her bank account doesn’t help, money will run out eventually...
FOUNDER & CEO BLUE APRON
matt salzberg says I do my best to avoid working on weekends, so I have time to clear my head. I also try to remind myself that every long journey is just a series of small steps and all you need to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
helen thinks As a freelance graphic designer, she does’t have weekends or holidays. She feels guilty for turning down jobs to go out, have fun and spend money when she doesn’t have stable income. On top of that, she feels that if she doesn’t work hard for her startup, that’s her own cost of not using her time wisely. She does agree that “life is work, and work is life”. (Duane King) She is proud of herself for being so motivated with what she does, but she is starting to see a pattern of feeling so drained out all the time, grumpy and releasing her stress on others. She hates herself very much at the moment that my boyfriend has to come home to this person who mopes around and doesn’t laugh or joke. Her stress and anxiety is really affecting her relationships with the people in her life. That’s not healthy. Please smile and not take it out on people who love you. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/gehe45eee/shut-down/
Today she feels... CALM It’s the end of the week and the week had turned out to be quite horrible. After reading this, she thinks she will try to take this weekend off.
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25
FRI
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CO-FOUNDER PINTEREST
evan sharp says I’d rather build something imperfect that a lot of people use than something really perfect that no one uses. The best designed things are not always the most interesting or the most successful.
helen thinks Helen is a perfectionist, she has high expectations in everything in her life, whether it’s her personal life or career. That’s probably why she gets so beat up if nothing goes right. She admits she gets so caught up thinking to create a flawless product. Evan Sharp has given her a different perspective that it’s nearly impossible because perfection is subjective and the product can never be perfect until it’s been used by the market. Instead of focusing on the design, understanding what people need and what the problem is the key. The first thing to do is focus on the problem from all angles and design for that oppose to designing for the look. (P.19-20) Designer Founders P.19-20
APR
14
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FRI
Today she feels... AWESOME BALLOONS arrived!!!!! Full of energy! She knows this week will be better than the previous ones.
FOUNDER CRITBUNS | CO-FOUNDER AIRBNB
joe gebbia says It’s an equation that’s gotten me through a lot of rejection. The equation is SW squared (x) WC = MO. It means Some Won’t + Some Will (x) Who Cares = Move on. Some people are going to love your product; some people aren’t going to love your product. But you have to keep going. I thought about that every time I got rejected... I saw the process of how a concept that started in my head got all the way to the shelf in a store. After that, I had all the confidence in the world. When you design a product for a consumer – shoes, a chair, a phone or a medical product – you start by becoming the consumer. Empathy inspires new ideas.
helen thinks She is persistent with what she does, never gives up. However, persistence could also mean being in denial that her idea sucks. She has put all her time and love into her creation; she has found the problem from a consumer’s perspective, it’s got to work! It is very heartbreaking to hear someone say that what you created sucks? She doesn’t want to do anymore typesetting... no more......
Today she feels... I DON’T KNOW?? She actually doesn’t feel much today, She doesn’t feel positive about anything but at least her mind is at peace.
APR
30
WED
15
CO-FOUNDER Y COMBINATOR | CO-FOUNDER VIAWEB (YAHOO! STORE)
paul graham says Even when the startup launches, it will sound plausible to a lot of people. They don’t want to use it themselves, at least not right now, but they could imagine other people wanting it. Sum that reaction across the entire population, and you have zero users. ... You can either build something a large number of people want a small amount, or something a small number of people want a large amount. Choose the latter. Not all ideas of that type are good startup ideas, but nearly all good startup ideas are of that type. When you have an idea for a startup, ask yourself: who wants this right now? Who wants this so much that they’ll use it even when it’s a crappy version one made by a two-person startup they’ve never heard of? If you can’t answer that, the idea is probably bad.
helen thinks So far she hasn’t heard anything from her friends that the idea of PartiArti sucks. They say “It’s awesome!” or “Ya, I will use it!”. Is it? Of course she thinks it’s awesome. It sounds too good that no one is criticising it. There’s gotta be something wrong or someone thinks it’s stupid. http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
MAY
16
6
TUE
Today she feels... TIRED and WEAK She cried. She doesn’t know what she is doing. She has a big list of things to get done but she can’t think. Life sucks.
CO-FOUNDER THE DESIGNER FUND
enrique allen says I became a bit frustrated and jaded by startups that seemed to solve problems around superfluous and ‘cool’ factors with near-sighted outcomes… By using the term ‘designer’ we have a responsibility, even a moral obligation, to intentionally impact people’s lives, hopefully for the better. Unfortunately, the products we design often waste people’s valuable resources and their attention, which is more scarce than money and time. Why is it that there are so many talented people working on shallow problems?”
helen thinks From her many down times from her boredom with typsetting, she tries to brainstorm on creating something “cool” to sell. She thought of it for months and just couldn’t think of anything. Just thinking of something cool to create or creating something that no one needs is not the way to lead to success in start-up. She finally understands what Paul Graham means by “the most common mistake start-ups make is to solve problems no one has”. Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P.175
Today she feels... UMMM....? She dislikes the fact that she can’t feel the excitement of “TGIF!!!” or “IT’S THE WEEKEND!!!!!”. What’s Saturday?
MAY
10
SAT
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INVESTOR HAYSTACK FUND | WRITER HAYSTACK MEDIA
semil shah says The brutal truth is that some people can just raise money by virtue of who they are or who they know. For the rest of us, the signaling mistakes founders often make can set an irreversible tone in short- or long-term negotiations. For instance, if a founder hunts down an investor, and then agrees to a meeting, shows up at the investor’s office or location of their choice, at a time of their choosing, the founder is sending an implicit signal that they want something the investor has. Yet, the psychology of the investor is to sell their wares — not to be sold to. Therefore, if the founder is able to pull it off, the best entry point to an investor is to be working on something that an investor hears about through multiple channels to the point where they come knock on the founder’s door — where they come to the founder’s turf.
helen thinks Unfortunately, the nature of being a founder is requiring funding from an investor, the fact is founders are wanting something the investor has. She would never try to “play hard to get” game with the investor. Reality check is founders have yet to succeed from launching apps in their garages without the help of any funding. ??? http://blog.semilshah.com/2014/05/27/the-turf-signaling-between-investors-and-founders/
MAY
18
16
THU
Today she feels... FRUSTRATED! @%&$!!! Printing designs on napkins isn’t happening!!!! WTF!!! Like she is not stressed enough already? Why is this happening?
CO-FOUNDER SLIDESHARE
rashmi sinha says In terms of raising funding, the biggest thing that you need to understand is how the market views you. Most entrepreneurs think about their product only from their perspective. And entrepreneurs are optimists and real believers, and they need to be. It’s really hard to get into the shoes of the investor and evaluate what value and what promise they see. VCs talk to then people like you in a week. And they look at value and think in terms of whether your business can succeed or not… Talk to other entrepreneurs and evaluate their apps and learn how investors viewed them…
helen thinks Four months ago, Helen knows nothing about startups. She has only been twirling her thumbs due to lack of freelance work. Her entrepreneurial spirit has grown within her from knowing nothing to figuring out how to start her first business to researching about start-ups at the same time, now she is wanting to learn more and more about it. She came across an event, Startup Camp Canberra, and is interested in joining in July. The only way to get her foot in the start-up world is meet people and network, to meet other entrepreneurs and mentors.
Today she feels... CONFIDENT again! After a couple days of solving the napkin printing problem, napkins won’t be printed anymore. Don’t dwell, MOVE ON to the next step. Helen is back on track.
MAY
22
WED
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DESIGN DIRECTOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY
mimi o chun says For those designers looking to join existing startups, they should attend local tech events, meetups and hackathons, join communities or coworking spaces where startups tend to congregate, enroll in classes in user research, interaction design or front-end web development, and ask friends to keep their ears open for opportunities. Most great job opportunities will come through word of mouth, and the startup community, at least here in New York... For those looking to start a product company, I would recommend that they find a technical cofounder, someone whose skill set is complementary to theirs. Having a thinking partner does wonders for keeping one motivated and on track. They should take every opportunity to talk to anyone who will listen about their idea, maybe start a Kickstarter campaign, but most importantly, they should just start making.
helen thinks At first she wasn’t having much luck with contacting big companies, people are too busy, she always wonders why would they want to talk to her about some little project? Luckily, two interviews confirmed in New York! Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P.242
MAY
20
26
MON
Today she feels... LOST. She doesn’t feel like a designer, if her start-up fails, then she is nothing.
DESIGNER HUGE/KINGCOYLE
duane king says We must learn to be open-minded about the art of business... Success dictates an understanding of business, or the success will be fleeting. Ask questions of your mentors and peers, learn about invoicing and proposal writing, read business journals. You must speak the language of a world that is larger than that of the design community alone.
helen thinks One of the main reasons Helen chooses to study masters is to learn about the business aspect of being in the creative industries. Just focussing on being creative doesn’t seem really unpractical. At the end of the day, to be successful is all about making good money. Kern and Burn: Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs P. 213
Today she feels like this... =.= In her head... ???????????????????????? a million of these.
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chats Their hustling stories are an inspiration and encouragement to Helen in thriving her strong passions and beliefs.
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CO-FOUNDER STAGEBITZ | CATHERINE PROSSER
Could you tell us a bit of your background and how you have become an entrepreneur? It was a total frustration with the tools currently available to me, so essentially the whole backstage still writes with pencil on paper. I probably started thinking about it in the late 90s and started doing stuff properly in 2003, although it was different project. It was frustrated with all these technologies but none of them work backstage and catherine prosser also the huge amount of waste I saw, all these things that would get made Co-founder of StageBitz, a that get thrown out because nobody Canberra‑based start‑up. knew how to keep them or knew how StageBitz is a theatre inventory to find to the next person who would management platform which need them. So the entrepreneur side pretty much came for me and that aims to bring efficiency in there must be a better way to do it. sharing production tools and project management assisting I wonder what that would be and I didn’t go into thinking on there’s this with planning, budgeting and software and how to make money. I online communication. saw the problem and I just keep going to find the solution. You just keep discovering the next step along the way and keep following the train.
www.stagebitz.com
How long did it take you to realize you want to go full time? How did you see the potential? Well, it’s not gonna happen if you keep talking or you can do. At a certain point you just gotta make that
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decision. We didn’t have the financial pressure and maybe that made it a little easier for me. For your first start-up experience, did you know what you were doing? What emotions were you going through? Were you scared? Stressed? Not really, it was more I wonder how this will work. So you were more curious? Yah, I think so. One of the things how it got kickstarted was thinking. Well, my ideas are all well input, the only way to test it is to build some software, to actually to have something for people to play with. I can’t develop, that’s not my skillset. I wonder if I can pay some money to get somebody to build a little prototype. I spoke to Ann, whom is referred by my friends, she said her program is perfect for me. I just basically cold call Sydney Theatre company, Melbourne Theatre Company, and said to people, “This is my idea, could you just write a letter of support saying that if the idea is worth exploring, I am not saying you have to be involved, could you just say yes there is an interest in the industry so that kind of put a timeframe around
really getting it started. We got that grant and so that let me get a little bit further. Each time you have one success, you can see what you have to do to the next. It keeps shifting along and keep talking to people about it. If Fred can’t help you, he will tell me Jane may be able to help you. If Jane can’t help you, she said you need to talk to Terry, he will be the perfect person to speak to. So it’s about talking and talking and talking. What are some of the challenges you have faced? From coming up with the idea to building? There’s two phrases that continually come up in start-up land, and that is “Facing the abyss and the value of death.” Because quite often, things always takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you think they are going to. It’s about being persistent. Being able to be open to feedback. I see a lot of startups fail is they think this is the best idea ever and they go out and test out at the market and the market tells them something different and their response is the market is wrong. They will just keep doing it like this until the market will get to it. You just have to listen and have the open mind to listen to the people. Startup is about solving their pain whether its
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CO-FOUNDER STAGEBITZ | CATHERINE PROSSER
boredom in the form of stupid mobile phone game or tracking receipts, you have to be solving a genuine problem for it to work, addressing a genuine need, continuing reassessing what your investors or customers want. If you’ve got what your customers want, It’s constantly recalibrating, you’ve gotta be prepared to do that and it takes a lot of time. So basically a lot of the start‑ups fail because they didn’t take criticisms from mentors or customers? I have seen many times, for example you are pitching to an investor, investor wants to hear Are you the right people to do it? What’s the problem you are solving? How can you demonstrate the need? And all you talk about is how awesome your product is, the investor is like “Well, you are not really telling me what I need to hear.” Stop telling people how good the product is rather than listening to what the customer actually needs. Not listening is being so caught up with the passion of what you are doing that you don’t necessary realise that not everyone is in the same place as you are.
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So even though maybe the product is not perfect, if people need it they would still want to use it. That’s right. I find that people find it hard to let go of the product and get the product out there and validate it really early. People try to work on things until it’s perfect and they go out and discover they have been working on the false assumptions. All feedback is good feedback, even if the feedback is “You idiots, what are you doing? This is ridiculous!” It’s better to fail fast, fail early, because you can make good decisions about how you are going to do it next time and that’s the biggest thing. You have to be prepared to fail constantly, because you will not do it perfectly the first time and make the right decisions the first time. You mentioned “Fail fast, fail early, and prepare to fail constantly”, does failure mean its time to stop pursuing what you believe in? At what point do you stop? Keep asking yourself… Have I got enough cash, passion, time, or persistent? With what I have just learned, “do I have enough fuel in the tank?” Whatever the kind of tank that might be to try plan B for that.
You just have to keep asking yourself that question. Some people aren’t persistent. I constantly hear people talking at the start-up thing and say the best thing and the worst thing sometimes can have is persistence. Persistence is what lets people actually get through this or the valley of death and for startup to be on the other side of successful. Sometimes the business will never get out of the valley of death. Talk to people outside the business who have no idea what’s going on. Getting a few mentors on board and can bounce ideas off. Should we still be doing this and they can lay out a few realities. It’s about being honest with yourself.
can have. Learning about the business side of things also opens up the opportunities for you to think of your products different ways or how you are approaching things or deliberating from a creative point of view. I think if someone only does the creative bit and the other does the business bit, it’s not gonna be particular successful. While does meaningful or positive social impact mean to you?
I think it comes down to things to what people need to what people want. A lot of people at startups I’ve met, they come up with the idea on the basis that I am gonna build something Facebook or Google will buy. The whole startup is based on that it’s gonna Is it relevant and important for be acquired, so they can be making creative to invest in learning something that competitive irritant about business, or is it just about to larger companies, so the larger finding the right partnerships? companies will buy to shut them up I think probably a little bit of both, I or the large company will buy to bring think even you end up with a founder them in to develop it as part of their or co-founder with someone else who market. To me, its just startup for a knows more about the business end sake of startup. Whereas, if you are and you are creative person more than actually doing something that makes the business end, that’s fine, they can people’s lives easier, save money, save do the heavy lifting on the business. time, allows them to do something But you need to have an understanding more substantial. There’s a difference or one way the other, otherwise you between something you need and can’t participate your business and something you want. probably limiting the ideas that you
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CO-FOUNDER STAGEBITZ | CATHERINE PROSSER
I am thinking of going to Startup Camp Canberra. Do you have any advice for going to the event? What to expect or anything I should prepare prior to attending? What is the startup scene like in Canberra? I say just go and be open about it. Join and team and go nuts! Canberra is developing a lot, there’s a lot happening in the last two years and I think there are a lot of actions keep happening. We’ve got so much that has been leveraged in terms of entrepreneurship, we’ve got CSIRO
and the three universities… We’ve got a government, people forget about how innovations come out of the government, I think its good that there’s lot of it is developing… Lastly, do you miss doing what you were doing as a stage manager? Not really — very similar challenges, constant creativity and problem solving, but less late nights and mopping floors!
helen thinks By talking to other people, it does help Helen understand herself more as a start-up character. She feels really encouraged after meeting Catherine because Catherine is very positive and persistent of what she strongly believes in. She has a clear vision and good understanding of the problem, therefore she is able to create something to suit the market needs. What is most interesting for Helen is listening to Catherine’s stories was she could relate some of her own experiences with starting PartiArti. A very inspiring quote that Helen will never forget is “Fail fast, fail early, prepare to fail constantly.” This not only applies to start-ups, but also life in general.
MAY
28
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THU
Today she feels... NERVOUS, BUT EXCITED! She is not a graphic designer today, she is a reporter. This would be great practice prior to meeting people in New York. Fingers crossed!
FORMER LEAD DESIGNER SVPPLY | ALLAN YU
Can you till us a little bit about your background?
allan yu Digital product designer focusing on user experience and user interface. Former lead designer of Svpply, a curated collection of the world’s best products and shops. www.allanyu.net
I was accounting major, hated it and went into design that’s what I wanted to do my entire life. I interned an agency called Gin Lane and then went back to school worked at Gin Lane remotely. I met Ben through… I was putting this lecture thing together, invited him as a guest. Then I started hanging out with him on Fridays, go to his office… He asked me to do some Svpply work and I said Yes! This was in Boston.. then soon enough he hired me. Then we moved to New York. Ben was the lead designer, I was hired by Ben, virtually working on version one of Svpply, the very beginning of Svpply. Then transition was he became the CEO, he was still doing design the entire time but a lot of the design stuff ended up being in my play so I sort of became the lead designer. He was more the CEO. We both shared a lot of design duties. Then a little bit later when we were doing the app stuff. I took pretty much the entire role of the app design, I was the one who was very hands on with it. So that was Svpply. We were bought by eBay, so I worked for eBay for six months and then I left.
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FORMER LEAD DESIGNER SVPPLY | ALLAN YU
I didn’t like eBay very much because they are a very big company. Then after that, I worked for a company for Project Florida, a premedit?? health care company. They had an idea, but they didn’t know how to execute or design it. They hired me. There was a lot of product talking and a lot of arguments, how to define and refine the goal or the objective of the company and the product. I was there for a year and I just left two weeks ago. I was too tired, because I am the only one looking at the thing and making it by myself; there’s no other work I can look at which is very tiresome. So now I am just relaxing a little bit, figure out things. Taking some time off. So that’s my career so far. You said that you left because eBay acquired Svpply, and that just changes the whole culture? Svpply was only seven people, it was awesome. We hung out with each other, even after work sometimes, go get a beer. Not like a work beer, but a REAL beer, make fun of each other. We were a really good team, a very small team we work very well together with each other. There was a lot of trust there, decisions didn’t have to go up so high, so ok this is it, let’s make it.
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Whereas eBay was a big company, the culture was a little different, we all had culture shock. I think they also want to break us up a little bit, and we didn’t want to. Going from small company to big company is weird, that’s why I left. You said on your website that “Svpply is the powered by the most amazing I’ve ever worked with.” So do you think successful start-ups is about working with the right people? Ya, I think that’s very important. With Project Florida, I didn’t have the right team around me, that was also one reason I left. I didn’t have enough designers with me so I can share thinkings with. It was a very health company and I am not the most healthy person. From that level, I knew it shouldn’t have worked anyways. Svpply was the best I’ve ever worked with and we are still friends, when we were hiring the hiring is very challenging as we were very picky. Not only skills, but the personality, we had to find the right person that could fit with the team, click with us. It was a little weird, kinda like a gang kinda thing. Because of that type of hiring, especially Ben being picky with the hiring, we got this best team. Now I know I am gonna work with people
I like, like either work well together with or people I respect or learn a lot from. I don’t mind going through all the trouble of not being able to make the decision because I trust the person above me who is making the decisions. Ben’s inspiring blog post stating that being the CEO of Svpply but he didn’t know what he was doing. Did the rest of the team know what they were doing? Were there a lot of challenges that you guys faced? I don’t think no one really knows what they are doing ever. They know a very rough idea of what’s gonna happen, they know a few steps they are gonna take immediately to get there, but there’s no way in between. I have more of a two-day plan, I have a one-month plan, and I have a rough year plan, I have nothing in between. We have a lot of goals, so we knew what we want to achieve, we didn’t know how to get there, if anyone know how to get there, then anyone could have been successful already. The reason why people fail is because they don’t know what we are doing. In a way we didn’t know what we are doing at all, we knew we were trying to achieve and we have smart people around us so we knew exactly what things to work on and
how to organise it to achieve those goals. Some of the challenges are to get more users, that was tough as we were trying to get users to create new features, thinking that if we made a feature for user, more users would want to user the feature we would get more users. That obviously fell for us, just because you made a feature, more users would use it. If we learned our lessons back then, we would have done it differently to get more users. At the time, we thought the right decision is to make more features. Many designers enjoy being the entrepreneur, owning everything to what they create. By working with the right people and having a close bond with the team, did you feel you “owned” the product when designing Svpply? Yeah when i was designing at Svpply I felt completely in charge of what I was doing. There was a couple of reasons why I think I felt that way. One, I had a great boss who let me own the product, he gave me both trust and freedom which is very rare a lot of the times from your boss. It’s hard to let go of your own product if you’re
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FORMER LEAD DESIGNER SVPPLY | ALLAN YU
the one who started it you know? Two, we had a very small team so each individual person’s efforts and contribution were monumental to the product as a whole. Thirdly, it’s important to see the impact of your actions/designs. The last part is what I think encapsulates the “owning” process. To see that what you did shipped and made a change in someone’s life. Do you recommend finding a job at start-ups will help designers develop the entrepreneurial spirit? Ummm… if you are gonna find a job to be an entrepreneur that you are not a entrepreneur, you are not starting you own thing, so basically on that logic… no. But if I want to be an entrepreneur, I would do two things: I would start my own thing immediately, go out and figure something out and talk to people. Or find someone who I really respect and work underneath that person rather than that company. For example, you work at Richard Branson, regardless of Virgin America or Virgin Record store, doesn’t matter which company as long as you work underneath him, learning directly from that person. Because you are
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trying to learn their thinking rather than trying to do it. I wouldn’t go to the company to learn the spirit of entrepreneurialism, I would learn the workings of how companies work, like the structure and people like developers, designers… etc So when you want to start you own thing, you have the connections ready. Do you have any advice for designers who are thinking about starting something? I think the most important and hardest part is to start, a lot of people just talk about it and never start it. I think that’s a failure, designers kinda start in their head, completes it and say I did it already. You just never really do it. The best advice I have is just start, and this applies to anything, job or for your own company. Start, better than talk. What do you think the most exciting thing about the future design is? Is the future of design entrepreneurship on the web (internet)? I am pretty excited about the direction of design, you can see it now, design has a much more important role than ever. They sort of sit at the same table as the developers, copywriters, CEOs, the
executives because they give that lens. Also, the job market is different because designers actually get jobs these days. At one point, the only companies getting jobs are in agencies and they don’t pay them very well. Because of the internet and startups, there’s a new way for designers to make money. And they pay them more which means agencies also have to compete with that place. That brings everything up and catalyze by the internet. Also the internet is a great way to communicate with people. You talked to me from Australia, and that worked. Do you think the new startup culture has changed its views towards design? I came from a very traditional design background, like graphic, posters, books, typesetting, learned type in school, my dream job in school was work at Paintagram. Now no longer. When you learn from that type of background, the culture was about designers solving problems – designers are problem solvers. It just happens that when design solve problems, a lot of the things are executed visually. The culture now for startups and design is really weird, people segregate things
more, you are this designer, you are that designer, you are UI, you are UX you are visual, you do information architecture. All this stuff they are all the same, you can’t only think about user interface without thinking user experience, you can’t only think about visuals without thinking user interface. I challenge anyone to think about the visual aspect of a website or an app without thinking the interface, you can’t its not possible. I see a lot of culture in startups dividing that up. You are this, you are that… and that’s not really fair to the craft of solving, this is not problem solving. If you can do one way thinking, that type of thinking, you can’t solve any problem. So do you think design is more exciting now comparing to traditional design (typesetting, book design)? Yes. I am curious if anyone is learning type these days I was teaching at Parsons and I knew that sophomore years, I don’t think anyone is taking type class yet. There’s a clear study of web design now and graphic design. Everything today is still very classic design, the hierarchy of text and the harmony of using diff typefaces. A lot of
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FORMER LEAD DESIGNER SVPPLY | ALLAN YU
websites aren’t clicking websites, they are long, scroll websites. Take out scrolling, look at it from afar, it’s a poster on screen. The old type of learning never even left, it just shifted a little bit. But those are the same principles that exist for years and there’s a reason why they exist and we still use them because it works. There’s a lot of meet ups and networking events in New York, how have these events impacted design entrepreneurship?
really high impact. Most designers I know want to do things themselves, entrepreneurial designers have a lot of power to anything they want, because they are the ones actually executing it, so there’s a lot of power in that. One of my concerns going to these events, talking to people and there’s a risk people stealing my ideas? Do I share my ideas?
Always share your ideas. I always share my ideas, always share as much as possible. First, a lot of things lost I think they bring us a very positive in translation, you imagine something way, they bring us together closer, and execute something will always be the way it impact entrepreneurship different, no matter what, to another is you meet one designer who person. If you say it, it will always be encourages another designer, so different to another person imagining you are in a room where a bunch it. For example, Jack interpret a of people share ideas and then Tweet one way and Evan interpret it at one point, you are gonna have another way. It was the same thing something like someone hates their but they had different philosophies job, then another hates their job... and approaches to thinking about fuck it, why don’t we do our own what that is and that could either thing together! So then they will make or break a product. The idea just do their own thing, because all just gets lost in translation because it happened was people being in its on paper. So always share, the same place know each other because you can always hold your that can spark something. I think idea back and no one can give you that’s what the meetups provide, the feedback and also its’ hard to start opportunity for people to meet and things. Just because you share your those moments spark. So yes, it’s a ideas, they may not start themselves.
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Also if its your idea, its something you are passionate about, and not something they are passionate about so there’s the math. Also if you hold your ideas back, it makes you stale. Facebook is not even an original idea,
neither is Twitter and Instagram, they are perfect execution with different execution. If you share, people just like you. Wow that person is nice. I always share my ideas.
helen thinks New York is pretty amazing, no doubt eveyrone says that. What she means by amazing is she finally sees it with her own eyes and really feel it with her own heart. This is definitely the city that never sleeps, she is completely moved??? by the people and the surroundings. It’s her third time to NYC and twice it was just from the eyes of a tourist. However, this time the true engagement with the locals is the most influential experience ever. Allan has opened up a different world of design to Helen, possibly a very futuristic vision of design. His enthusiasm and passion towards design has really moved her, the way he was telling her really excites her. It makes her realise that she has completely lost the meaning of being a designer, typesetting in Canberra is just freelance jobs here and there that pays the bills. After the interview, she keeps thinking back to her life in Canberra, everything is stale there. The design culture seems so far behind, thinking of going back feels like traveling back in time. What’s also interesting is Allan and Ben actually met through his academic lecture and invited Ben as a guest speaker.
Today she feels... ENERGETIC Meeting a New York based designer, the former lead designer at Svpply. Super grateful for this opportunity, when will she ever have chances like this?
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TUE
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STRATEGIST FUELED | ELIE BALLAS
Can you till us a little bit about your background? What is your role at Fueled?
elie ballas Strategist of Fueled, New York City’s award-winning app developer company. www.fueled.com
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I got into Stanford, Silicon valley of course. I graduated one year ago. First year I did economics, then I took computer science and I was open up to a whole new world. I took computer programming and wanted to understand how it works, it excited me. I major something called symbolic system, which is combination of computer science and philosophy, psychology and math. It was super cool. Honestly, the reason I chose that is the successful entrepreneurs have taken up before, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, the founders of Mailbox, the mail application of dropbox was sold 100 million dollars, it had a crazy stock that day. I want a startup bunch by then, and just being in the valley. Everyone is so passionate. How does Fueled evaluate the prospect of a start-up idea? Are all start-up ideas only about solving problems? Startup ideas are about solving problems, that’s essential, really essential. When you build a company, what problem are we solving? The first
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thing investors want to hear, what’s the problem and how are we gonna solve it? What’s the product that’s gonna solve that problem? We are an agency, we build technology to startup, we build technology for big brands, but we are not involved in the process of building the company. Of course we would like to only work with the most engaging and world-changing ideas that come to us. At the end of the day, the reality is we are an agency, we haven’t raised any venture funding, we need to make money, when we have steady revenue stream, we take on projects that are still worth doing, but not necessarily revolutionalising, we are not creating something completely new. We are creating something that’s been proved in a different market, we are creating something that’s been proved in the same market, it’s just all over the place. The thing that excites us the most are startups that are doing something we have never heard of and it’s rare.
If a client propose an idea that the Fueled team doesn’t see the same potential and value as the client does? What’s the approach on that? Our approach is generally every idea is worth exploring and worth getting a whole team of people together to figure this out. So I may have my two cents on an idea, but even if I think it’s bad, its still worth bringing in a developer, a designer, a product manager all together in a room to really brainstorm and see what we can come up with. Because initially it may not be the best, but maybe there’s something there to work off, so it’s always worth conceptualising. So how involved are the clients in the procress, especially for someone who doesn’t know anything about web and app development? It depends, it ranges. In the beginning, very very involved, first couple of weeks, a lot of meetings with the clients, a lot of back and forth. Once we have a sense of what we are doing, we will touch base once a week to review what we have done so far to make sure everyone is on the same page.
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STRATEGIST FUELED | ELIE BALLAS
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Can you explain what the whole process of building an app/website is like? From the beginning of an idea to the end product?
Since there are a few platforms to choose from, what is the thinking behind choosing from the best platforms to used for the products to be on?
It all begins with a whole team in a room, a team of 8 people, 2-3 developers, 2-3 designers, 1 product manager. Product manager is responsible of what the app looks like, what it does. Project manager makes sure everything is on time and budget, they are the ones interface with the clients, they get together they figure out what we are building. I come to you I want a dating app at a higher level, so the client has their own ideas. The team Fueled has their own ideas and we want to bring those together and really flesh out what the product is look like. Then we literally list out all the features along with the user stories with each features broken down and developer use the code. User stories along with user experience and mapping out all the screens and how it all connects. Once we all have those stuff together, we all start development of design simultaneously. The timeframe is on average is 3 months total.
There’s iOS and Android. We generally do a demographic analysis of what our target users are gonna be, who is gonna be using this product and get an assumption of that. Generally, iphone users are more willing to spend money, and they are more willing to try new things. We have a bias towards iOS. Fueled Collection is considered the coolest workspace in NYC, how does it differentiate from other co-working spaces? It’s got a really nice sense of style, unique craftsmenship, a lot of independent designers from Brooklyn. Its’ also really spacious and each desk is a lot of room. If you go to WeWork, it is the most popular space in New York, 10 locations, cheaper, $400/month, Fueled is $750/month, but WeWork is very cramped, no space, very tight. In my opinion, space is the most important.
Being in the start-up world is about constantly talking to people and sharing ideas? How does Fueled Collective encourage the collaborative culture? What about being innovative? Within the company, we have an internal messaging system, called Honey, employee share whatever they think its cool, share stuff. Fueled Collective, everyone is in the same space, its inevitable that everyone talks about their idea and bounce of each other. Every few weeks we have a cocktail party.
What’s important for individuals to look for when choosing a coworking space? Price, other companies the ecosystems, amentities (free liquor, ping pong table, comfy couches). Startups can be very stressful, you want to be in a comfortable environment What are some of the biggest benefits of coworking? Just learning from each other, everyone hears each other.
helen thinks Prior to the interview, Helen struggled to think of the list of questions to ask as it’s not really related to the emotions behind start-ups, but Helen still finds it very helpful because she sees the importance of co-working and collaborating. She feels very lonely working and studying alone in her little apartment in Canberra. She wonders when Canberra will have co-working offices? Another reason she wants to interview Fueled is learning about the process of creating an app, how to execute an idea into an actual product.
Today she feels... OKAY... Helen doesn’t really feel like talking today, quite a bit on her mind.
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new york The city where Helen will meet the many talented and brilliant start-up professionals. The city where she will find her answers. The city where she can eat the real black and white cookies!
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CO-WORKING SPACES
helen thinks One thing she hates being a freelancer is working at home, and yes, she works in her comfy pajamas all the time. She has no reason to dress up at home so why bother, right? She feels like the biggest slob on earth and doesn’t feel motivated at all. She really misses working in a real workplace where people can just talk to each other. It would be awesome if Canberra has cool coworking spaces like here in NYC. The various co-working spaces, they are all very unique in their own way. Tomorrow is her first day at NY Media Center, she shall see what happens there.
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MON
Today she feels... JETLAGGED!!! So much to absorb today but she has been really looking forward to meet her classmates!
FEASTLY DINNER
Peter Calva
helen thinks Feastly is an online marketplace where passionate cooks offer homemade meals to hungry eaters served in cooks’ homes. Helen sees this as a brilliant concept which encourages a community-driven notion based on collaboration. Basically, a start-up utilising another start-up platform to solve each other’s problems. A collaborative startup intends to resconstruct a community into a new, sustaintable workforce. https://medium.com/@thomaspichon/what-is-a-collaborative-startup-or-the-rise-of-a-new-capitalismf30c40ed1122
7 pm she feels... CONFUSED... Still can’t believe she is in New York, confused which time zone she is in. But it has been a pretty good day, now she just wants food in her belly!!! Also very curious of how Feastly really works as a platform??!! 43
RANDOM CHATS
helen thinks It was one of those grabbing a coffee office chats as Catherine mentioned to Helen. It happened! Helen was just washing her hands coming out of the restrooms, and the guy behind her was asking her if she was new to the co‑working space. His name was Anthony, he was the marketing person at NY Media Center. So they started chatting, and she was telling him about her project about start-ups and design entrepreneurship. Then he told her about this video he watched the other day about a program teaching design entrepreneurship. Yup, that really happened! It’s true, talk to people, talk to anyone! She immediately contacted 30weeks to line up for an interview, hopefully they will reply!
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TUE
This morning she feels... CHILLED First day working at the co-working space. Pretty cool to be able to see the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge from the window.
INTERVIEWS
helen thinks Two interviews lined up in New York, one is the former lead designer of Svpply and the other is the strategist at Fueled. She is hoping to talk to designer entrepreneurs at the co-working space she is in, but NY Media Center doesn’t seem like the space with the right people she is looking for. Makeshift Society may be a more suitable to find designers. She has emailed over twenty individuals and only a few are interested in sharing their experiences. For this documentary, Dan Mumby, CEO and founder of Startup Foundation in Melbourne, suggested to speak with start-ups that are 6-18 months into the journey. Helen hasn’t had any luck with that at all.
The past two days she felt... GOOD Tired but excited because she still can’t believe that she is in New York and meeting up with people she tried to contact a month ago.
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THU
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STORY TOUR: FOOD START-UPS
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THU
Today she feels... IRRITATED Not really interested in the tour and stressed about the project. She also just remembered she still needs to order the missing partywares for PartiArti. SO MUCH TO DO when she gets back to Canberra.........
STORYTOUR: FOOD START-UPS
helen thinks Helen was told by one of the staff of the story tour that the storytellers of the tour are all professional journalists, which is interesting because she originally thought that any random person can do this job. Apparently, the journalism industry is dying down due to abundance of irrelevant and inaccurate content on the internet. The internet has allowed anyone to be a journalist, hence nobody knows which story is true anymore. Because the downfall of the industry, it really pushes people to creatively think of how to create a new market for each other. Without any expectation, the first word that engages Helen to the story tour was “in-betweeners”. She is an in-betweener herself, she doesn’t feel she belongs anywhere, whether in her personal or career life. The story begins with the journeys the start-ups that are situated in in-between the populated areas of Brooklyn, therefore “the in-betweeners”. The former pharmaceutical factory, Pfizer Building, looks nothing interesting from the outside, but the inside is where many food start-ups are born. The second engaging point is these founders are risking their stable job as lawyers or chefs, they all want an adventure, regardless of the risks and uncertainties, start-ups are fun stuff to them! The co-founder of People’s Pops David Carrell said that start-up is like being a on jet ski, you can steer any direction you like. The fire and passion within these founders are evidently expressed through their confident voices as they speak proudly of their stories. Helen can relate to that as she has a clear vision of what she wants for her start-up. Helen’s conclusion from the story tour is start-ups is about having fun and doing something you have great passion for. It may sound really cheesy, but don’t be hesitant about it and just make it happen, and that’s what the people she has been telling her as well. Just do it.
15 mins into the tour, she feels... EXCITED The tour is actually really interesting, because Helen can relate her own experience to the founders. This is exactly what she needed research for her project. Glad she came! 47
PARTY STUFF
helen thinks Today she went to check out a store called Party City, this is the online site where she purchased her party supplies products from. The store is huge and offers full of every color of supplies and any children party themes you can think of. Being in the store makes her realise that PartiArti may not be as successful in US market; the inconvenience issue can easily be solved. While in Australia, you can buy cheap partyware at dollar stores but with limited options. As for the party themes, PartiArti focuses in offering hard-to-find party themes supplies for grown-ups, not children, so it may slightly be different than Party City. This is something Helen needs to re-assess when she gets back to Canberra.
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This morning she feels... CHEERFUL She is really looking forward to going to Party City, this is great for market research for her business.
MAKESHIFT SOCIETY
helen thinks So glad she has the opportunity to work at MakeShift today. This is exactly the kind of co-working space she is looking for. She doens’t like NY Media Centre at all. She can’t get any work done there, it’s dark, it’s noisy. It is unfortunate she wasn’t able to choose the space after all the visits. Helen never really thought of choosing the right co-working space is actually very important, the work environment really influences the way you work and the way you think. The people around you make a difference as well. Sitting at Makeshift typing away at the moment, here reminds her of her old office, working in a space with all natural light is very essential to her as a designer.
Today she feels... CONFIDENT She hasn’t been thinking too much about PartiArti as she is focusing on her documentary. She has learned a lot about start-ups and the founders have really inspired her to not give up with what she is doing.
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START-UP FAIL
helen thinks Her classmate, Amy Phillips, has shared a really inspiring blog post about the founder & CEO of 99dresses, Nikki Durkin, speaking her true feelings about her start-up failure. Throughout this research, all insights are very positive and the key is to be persistent. Yet she hasn’t read much into start-ups that actually fail. Nikki’s experiences has given Helen the very dark side of start-ups. It’s so true that there are very minimal stories about start-ups that fail. Perhaps if Helen ever fails, she would document about that then. https://medium.com/@nikkidurkin99/my-startup-failed-and-this-is-what-it-feels-like-c5d64b3ae96b
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TUE
This morning she feels... PISSED. The photos for PartiArti looked pretty awful and the photoshoot costs 350 bucks. She doesn’t know what to do. Sighs... Argh.. deal with it when she gets back.
START-UP NETWORKING EVENTS
The Phat Startup
Startup Socials
helen thinks Helen went to event called Digital Hustle: Monetizing On You Idea & Efforts with Jason Calacanis last Tuesday, organised by The Phat Startup. She didn’t really learn anything from him, and he tried too hard to be funny by swearing. She didn’t stay for the networking afterwards and left early. She was talking to her classmate, Tanya, about it the next day.. and apparently her friend has told her that the speaker has known to be a dick. Ok... at least Helen isn’t the only one who feels that way. Tonight she went to another networking event called Startup Socials Mixer New York June 2014. She was iffy about going by herself, but it turned out really fun! At first, she felt a bit awkward as she didn’t know anyone. However, people really take initiative to go up to each other and introduce themselves. That really amazes Helen, so she has learned to be more open. Also, it’s pretty good feeling handing out so many of business cards all at once. She actually met someone whom is really interested in her project as he went through the exact same experience as her.
Tonight she feels... HOPEFUL Although she has mixed feelings at times, but being in NYC has really encouraged her motivation in making PartiArti happen. Hopefully she can keep up with this attitude in Canberra.
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findings After three months of research, her curiosity about her transition from a graphic designer to design entrepreneur is finally making sense.
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now and then.. 3 months ago... Helen has a start-up idea, but felt very clueless with what to do. Helen feels grumpy and moody all the time.
Her documentary research began. Originally, she wanted to learn about how to start a tech start‑ups. She started reading many interviews about famous founders for companies such as Pinterest and Slideshare.
Helen still feels very confused at this stage, but she found the interviews quite fascinating as they all relate to her own current experiences.
?
What the hell is wrong? Dunno..
??
2 months ago...
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1 month ago... Helen is gradually seeing a pattern of her thinking and behaviours the past months. The readings are very useful in understanding herself as a start-up character, which makes her feel more calm and in control of her mind. The uncertainty and risks for start-ups is incredibly energy draining.
1-2 weeks ago... Helen has come to the conclusion that the best start-up ideas is based on problem discovery. Another factor is most start-up founders are dissatisfied with their jobs. A summary of findings are categorised as:
Stress affects her psychologically, emotionally and physically.
Emotions
It’s normal not knowing what to do, it is part of the start-up process.
Strategy
Attitude Ideas
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critical findings emotions No one ever knows what they are doing, if they do, everyone will succeed. Having big mood swings are normal. Don’t let your stress out on your family and friends. Passion is how start-ups start, don’t forget that.
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attitude Be persistent, don’t give up after one failure. Be open-minded and prepare to fail many times, learn from your mistakes. Stay healthy by doing other activities, go out with friends, go exercise, don’t let start-up life eat you up. Just do it, you have to try in order to learn how to be an entrepreneur. Start-ups are about having fun too!
strategy T alk to people, it’s about talking and talking to everyone.
ideas Your idea may not always be awesome, accept criticism from mentors and the market. Always share your ideas. Get feedback. Create something that the world needs, not what the world wants. Even if the product is not so perfect, if people need it, they will use it.
S tart-up is about solving people’s pain. Think of what the problem is. F inding the right people to work with is important for a successful start-ups. I nvestors don’t want to hear how awesome your product is, they want ot hear why people need it. L earn more about the the business aspect of being an entrepreneur. D on’t get caught up by making the product perfect, validate the product as soon as possible.
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after thoughts It sucks that Canberra will never be like New York. It will never be glamourous, it will never shine. Being in New York has been the most beneficial experience to Helen academically and professionally, the study tour has prepared her mind in facing the hardships for her start‑up. Although she still doesn’t know what she is doing, and there’s a sh*t load of things to figure out for PartiArti, but at least she has a better understanding of what is ahead on this ride. The greatest struggle is trying to keep calm and not let stress turn her into the most hated b*tch on the block. It is jumping out of her comfort zone in the Big Apple that makes Helen ever feels so inspired and moved, she is further encouraged to join the upcoming event, Start-Up Camp Canberra. While the amazing NYC trip has come to an end, nevertheless her start‑up journey has really just begun.
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story & design layout by sheishelen