One Doctor's Journey

[Iwokeup]

So as I alluded to in my introduction thread, I'm making the transition from SL with high intrinsic value (Physician) but no control to the FL. I have read quite a few of these progress threads and they are often full of good advice.

I am strongly considering a SaaS solution approach a la' Dane Maxwell versus some sort of distribution model.

I'm planning on using this as an external journal which might (if I am so lucky) garner some external murder-board type of feedback.

Bottom line, please feel free to ignore this but I would welcome any advice or commentary, negative OR positive.

=)

=============

[5.10-5.28]

[x] Decided that I need to get out of the SL
[x] Read TMFL with notes and highlights.
[x] Came up with about 10 potential ideas for FL pathways, some easier to execute than others. Easier ones look to make less per month and less overall potential.
[x] Discussed with The Wife the feeling that we need to get out of the SL. (She is now onboard!)
[x] Read through my employment contract and agreements to ensure that I wouldn't be violating NDA/Non-compete clauses (none found).

[x] Decided that I would like to launch in 8 weeks with "easy project," or 6 months with more ambitious one.
[x] Start reading Scientific Advertising

*** Realized that, as @IceCreamKid says, it's about Loving Others and Helping Them with Their Problems (paraphrase) first, money later.

[5.29 - Friday, 6.3]

[ ] Meet with friends in target industries for lunch, idea extraction, pain point identification.
[ ] Are there actionable targets there?
[ ] If so, could I pre-sell target solution in order to finance the initial development?
[ ] Watch an episode of "Shark Tank" for ideas, understanding, motivation.
[ ] Re-read TMFL in order to reinforce fundamental principles.
[x] Arrange and [ ] Attend meeting with Tax advisor in order to set up LLC vs. S-Corp.
[ ] Decide on a company name
[ ] Finish Scientific Advertising
[ ] Have a plan: 8 week launch versus 6 month, & what financial resources will be needed.

=================

Funny doctor story: Pt comes in complaining of an infection "on (her) stomach." Says that it's been there for a couple of days. She is VERY LARGE (think small moon of Jupiter large) and points to regions below. Oh, and by the way she's about 2 weeks pregnant but has yet to see her OB. So I go to examine her and I have to have two nurses in the room to help lift this woman's HUGE pannus. It turns out that the underside of the pannus is extremely red, swollen, and clearly infected. The kicker is that the underside has several (about 5-) wooden splinters which seem to be the infection sources. I asked her how they got there...


Well, her husband's friends had used a piece of wood to lift up the pannus so that her husband could "do her right" and get her pregnant.

Yeah, that actually happened.

 

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[Iwokeup]

So.

I let him buy me out. Realized that I did not want to pursue this any further. Getting a cash lump sum, plus the above mentioned royalty. We'll see how he does on his own. But I'm free and I made a profit on my first business venture. And I learned a TON. Very worthwhile lesson.

In talks now with another FL'er and going to market test another product for a different (but related space). Stay tuned for that.

Thanks for all of the help and advice folks. The Fastlane Forum University is pretty rad.

 

[Iwokeup]

So the last few days have been pretty interesting (at least to me) and prove again the wisdom of those who have gone before:

o The value (or frustrations) of having a partner
o Action faking, wantrapreneur like actions, etc. versus what really matters (getting paying customers, etc).
o Living life the Ice Cream Way (give give give value and love and it will return to you)

So anyway,the Partner, who comes straight from Corporate America went big guns out of the gate and formed our LLC, went and got us a post office box as our "Corporate address," had business cards printed up, set up our business bank account and has been hounding me to establish a corporate CC.

Of course, as with everything that I've learned here, in good books, and multiple podcasts,none of that necessarily matters until you have a paying customer & sales. But it makes wantrapreneurs feel good, right? I've told the Partner before that none of that is necessary at this point but perhaps not as forcefully because after all, he came from a Real Business background and I'm just a doctor. But now I'm pretty sure that I'm right and he's wrong and it's because he's never been an entrepreneur before and his experience has always been as part of a big, established corporation. And "real businesses" always have all these details in place first because that's how it's done.

As stated earlier, we've found our developer. The operating agreement that the Partner and I have had states that all monies to developers come equally from each partner. Which is the way that it *should* be. However, partner calls me and says, "Well, I've already put X amount into the business (on the aforementioned action faking BS) and I want you to pay the first installment to the dev rather than 50/50." Which really pissed me off. Not the dollar amount (which is nothing, really) but because here the Partner is already swerving away from the operating agreement. Hell, I've probably already spent more than him in cash, time spent working on the company, domain purchase, etc and yet it doesn't occur to me to violate the agreement. This plus the other action faking stuff...it's made me uncomfortable.

Ice Cream...so the Wife and I went to visit her friend/my mentor (the businessman mentioned a while back) who was in the hospital unexpectedly. It was our anniversary but hell, what's more important than giving to others? So we spent a couple of hours at the bedside and man, what a great thing. Mr. Mentor and Wife were extremely happy, I felt great for doing something for others, and at the end of the visit Mr. Mentor started asking tons of questions about the business (it had been about a month since we talked). He had GREAT insights, and totally validated my misgivings about the Partner's actions wrt finances. He suggested a sit down between the three of us where he shares his decades of developing successful multi-million dollar enterprises with both of us. I think this is a great idea. And Mr. Mentor would like to be an active advisor to the company which is great as well.

(I'd also like to add that I've been working really hard lately living the ICK way in my marriage and it's paying enormous dividends. Hadn't realized how selfish I'd been in our marriage until I started to consciously give give give...wow. Results have been amazing. )

So. Going to have a conversation with the Partner on Monday and get down to brass tacks. Time to stop doubting myself as the leader of this little enterprise.

I also want to add that I have a lot of respect for the Partner. Just need to correct a couple of misconceptions.

 

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[Iwokeup]

So today will determine whether I am able to go forward on this idea, or if I'm going to kill it so that no one can work on it. My soon to be ex-partner is trying to get what basically amounts to a royalty on all profits. Hahaha!!

No.

So this morning my strategy is to offer one of the following:

* Pay him a small flat fee and I get all of the IP

* He pays ME the fee and he can try to make it run (doubt that he has the chops or the ability to do it)
[Bonus: I make a profit on this endeavour!!]

* We bury it and I go on to the next idea.




TBH, I'm really favoring either 1 or 3. I've already got other ideas and as many others and Stephen Key said yesterday, ideas aren't your children.

I have learned a lot from this forum (and Shark Tank, and The Profit, and the numerous books that I've been reading) since joining last May:

* Ideas are worthless. It's the execution that matters.
* Most people aren't willing to execute.
* That until you have SALES then you have no idea if the Market thinks that your product is as rad as you do.
* It's ridiculous to give a six figure (or more) value to a company that has never made a sale! (Thanks, Kevin O'Leary!)
* You shall know a Wantrapreneur by the obsession with setting up a MailBox, a Website, filing DBAs and LLCs, and wondering What Color Ferrari he should purchase?
* That you can die from analysis paralysis
* That all the hot air in the world cannot replace ACTION!

Used ALL of these arguments yesterday and basically won the battle.

Either way, it's done today! Can't wait!!

 

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[Iwokeup]

Update:

So a bit delayed whilst working 60h in 5 days for The Man plus travel to/from. But excellent progress to date:

[6.23-1 July]

So this week:

o I was able to connect with someone who happens to have the in with the IT director for a major hospital system. She heard my idea, loved it, and has promised an introduction when I come back to town to work for The Man. Sounds promising.

o Was able to come up with basic mockups for the software project at night after work (over beer and while really exhausted)

o Partner came up with an excellent payment model for us which incorporated hard numbers, seems to validate the ongoing subscription model for our service, and which gives me an excellent set of hooks to use in the marketing campaign.

o Partner also was able to write down in a very clear way our overall strategy going forward. He's an IT project manager in his day job and this skill set is totally coming to the fore.

Very productive meeting today. We were able to:

o clearly articulate our specific technical requirements for a Minimally Viable Product
o I was able to (whew!) offload the UX portion of the deal to someone we know for a reasonable cost.

I do NOT enjoy design, interface design, etc. I read a TON of information last week and, while I understand it far better than I ever have, I realized that I do not have the patience or necessarily the aptitude to do a kick a$$ job on this.

o Decided on a specific marketing strategy going forward - what our value proposition is. And it appears to be a very good one.
o Decided on a business name and DBA

Now we have enough information and a clear path forward. For the next 2 weeks:

[ ] Have a "brochure" a la the Foundation-inspired Clinical Metrics in 14 days and ready for marketing
[ ] Submit the requirements for our MVP to the Devs and get bids.
[ ] Choose a dev and get it going.
[ ] Have a basic marketing strategy going forward:
O Phone script
O Email-able brochure to send leads
O Setup a landing page
O Facebook ads and perhaps AdWords buy to drive traffic to landing page, list building
O Write up a quick e-book (that has actual value) as a lead magnet
[ ] Reserve/get our domain with iterations.
[ ] Call back prospects (old and new) and start pre-selling the product


[x] Continue validation of idea (talk to 100 decision makers in my industry). Goal to be completed in the next 7 days
[x] Complete some sort of primer on software architecture, etc so that I know what I'm talking about with devs.
[x] Update software requirements and resubmit a proposal.
[x] Finish logic tree and data/workflow wireframe for proposal
[O] Set up business structure (S corp v. LLC) so that we can start noting expenses for tax time.
[x] Decide on a company name

Other questions:

? Should we have a funnel like many businesses? Lead magment, tripwire, upsell opportunity?
? Should I blog/podcast/etc to build validation/social proof in a B2B model?


Random doctor tidbit: making a lot of decision leads to something called "decision fatigue."

This is a demonstrable phenomenon, seen on fMRI in which having to make multiple decisions in a short time frame leads to exhaustion/glucose depletion.

Solution: carbs! So there's your excuse for a cookie or a beer, y'all.

 

[Iwokeup]

Partner and I met today and reviewed what we have so far. I'm going to take another spin through the technical aspects and make myself walk through the user experience a couple of more times in order to ensure that we're not missing anything. But it's looking good!

Mockups are underway and should be done in a week (crossing fingers). They're being done by partner's brother who is a whiz at these. I had to get my partner to realize that perhaps if his brother doesn't work out then we should straight hire someone. I don't want the friends and family bonds to get in the way of being able to aggressively ride herd on a contractor.

In any case, following on advice given by Jack Edwards, the next move (in parallel with tech development) is quickly development of the pitch deck and an initial round of fundraising. Plan on generating anywhere from $250_$300K from that round. Want to have that done by September.

So we got our company's domain and registered. We now have an official mailing address with a key (feels really real), and we have a working business phone number.

According to Jack, we have to start planning NOW for nationwide scale once we are able to validate locally. I agree with him and need to start coming up with a training course for the sales force going forward. I know that things will change and that we have yet to make our first sale but he's right. As the Marines say, "Sweat in peace so that you don't bleed in war." And I gotta plug Chet Holmes' "Ultimate Sales Machine" again because he wrote the exact same thing.

Other items :

o Downloaded and started using zen*******' partnership worksheet (GOLD).
o Realized that in our partnership that I am the leader. Partner looks to me for guidance and I gotta be honest, that's exactly the way that I want it. I am Alpha all the way and I want success, failure, direction and decisions to come from me.
.
.
Random doctor note : I had to stick a one inch tube into someone's lung this week in order to save his life. It's one of the scariest and most rewarding procedures that I do. Even though I have done hundreds, it never stops being a little terrifying to perform because the risk of death is Right There. Which made me reflect that in business, there are many terrors for the would be /actual Entrepreneur but that success has GOT to be about moving forward anyway. Look at Mark Cuban, Daymond John. Winners who persevered.

Peace out

 

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[Iwokeup]

Alright, quick update:

* Official word from the lawyer is that I'm free and clear from intellectual property issues! HUUUUUGE relief and I hadn't realized that waiting (in fear that I might be vulnerable) had held me back from going 100%. Lesson defintely learned.

* Officially have a corporation and operating agreement done.

* Our developer is just awesome. The three of us (me, partner, dev) are having really constructive, free-flowing discussions and I can feel that the product is getting better by the second.

* I'm learning a ton about market research and intelligence. Realized that my initial effort wasn't nearly deep enough. Fortunately, the more we dig the better our product seems to be positioned. So very glad that I teamed up with my partner for my first business gig.

* Looks like we can probably get our first meeting with a client COO/CFO in the next week or two. I have to come up with the pitch materials so hopefully this weekend I can get it. Working nights, though....RAWR!!

 

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[Iwokeup]

Quick update:

Just returned from a wonderful family vacation to Crested Butte, CO. Amazing trip in many ways, especially as I was finally able to demonstrate to The Wife that we don't have to live in a certain location in order to make our business grow. I've been talking to a couple of developers as well as having lots of time to think while on the chairlifts and after the kids went to sleep. Bottom line thoughts:

* Partners aren't necessary and in fact may make things harder (for me) at the early stages. I've been relying on my partner to GSD but it turns out that he hasn't and and movement is going to come from me. :/ Can't dissolve the partnership because I believe that the idea is still viable and there's no way he would let go. Lesson learned.

* Going to start making all of the moves on my own. Leadership, baby. Partner can either help or get outta the way. Don't really think that he'll mind as his mind (and other parts) seem to be elsewhere engaged.

* Going to follow @trepine 's advice and learn coding as discussed above. Cannot hurt at this point. Still going to employ a rockstar dev to begin, but this is a long journey and over time I believe that some mastery will make me more valuable.

* Have realized that the idea of having possessions is just dumb for me and the Wife. Rather, the life that we want (raising kiddos in a non-urban area, being able to be outdoors and active pretty much every day) and the experiences that we can have from a location independent biz are incredible. My wife, for the first time ever, stated that what she wants to do is travel to a foreign country and live there with our small kids. Not going to get that working for The Man. We each lost like five pounds on CHRISTMAS VACATION and realized that we needed none of the things that we had thought we would need to be happy. Seriously. Had not realized how being a physician had subtly crept into our heads vis a vis material things. We stayed in a house with less than HALF the square footage of our current place and were immensely more comfortable. That place felt like home in a way that our home does not.

* SERIOUSLY planning to relo to CB or somewhere similar as soon as the teen graduates HS; so 18 months. We're done with the big city...we came back today and our house, which is in a good neighborhood, safe, and clean...you can hear the roar of the freeway in the distance! I had not even noticed; but coming back after ten days away? Totally noticeable.

* She is now more than ever committed to making the software company grow; or failing that, she would like me to consider doing my own brand of ecommerce. Gotta think about that one. Gotta be honest and say that it very well could get me to financial independence (no more working) a hell of a lot faster if done correctly. IF.

* Realized that taking the in-town job is going to mean a complete LOSS of CONTROL over my time and scheduled. Wife and I discussed keeping the out of town job. Gotta decide by COB Weds, but prob gonna keep the locums job for now and reduce the time committment going forward. We're already planning on heading back to CB for 4th of July and next Christmas, and why would I let some corporate goon at the new job tell me when I can and cannot have time off?

 

[Iwokeup]

Followed up on Monday with the CEO, and I mentioned that we're going to look into implementing his suggestions into the MVP. Got a very enthusiastic response back and he's definitely emotionally involved. He even made a point to re-emphasize how much he loved our presentation and obvious competence.

Partner's skill in corralling the Devs is showing. He drafted the MSA with call-offs on Sunday, we reviewed them, and then he sat down with our Dev yesterday. Minor quibbles to be hashed out but I think that we'll be ready to roll soon.

One potential hazard is that our dev is looking to use secure hosting as another income stream and he's been really trying to set that up as his eventual best income stream (we would be his first customer). However, as @mikekob had suggested earlier to me, with HIPAA compliance an issue, Amazon Web Services might be the way to go, especially as the host is just as liable for any Protected Health Information breaches as well. And since those penalties are pretty stiff, our Dev may back off of this for us. We'll see.

Just finished two of my final night shifts at the job that I'm leaving. I cannot WAIT to be done but I'm suffering from Third Shift Brain (TM). It sucks. So in the meantime, I've downloaded the Agile WordPress theme and started to flesh out our web site.

Waiting on the mockup revisions from our Graphic artist. Should be looking better soon.

Had my birthday this weekend so little work got done. Feeling a bit guilty about that and the effect that Third Shift Brain is having on me today. I hate the effect that working these shifts has on my energy, cortisol levels, etc. Cannot wait until I never have to work a night shift ever again.

Ah well, tomorrow should be better.

Going to do some Social Marketing/Cold calling/Validation stuff tomorrow.

 

[Vigilante]

THIS thread.

THIS guy.

This is how you do a progress thread.

He doesn't sit and tell us what he had for breakfast. Nobody cares. He doesn't care.

He :

• is taking action
• is listening to people here
• is acting on what they say
• is providing insight to those who come behind him
• is grinding

This may or may not be the one simple idea that is going to take him over the top. However, this grind can be washed, rinsed, and repeated.

I hope you guys that are following this thread saw the same thing that I did. I see someone who is doing what it takes to push through the obstacles, one at a time.

Speed+ and thank you for sharing your journey thus far. Keep kicking a$$, and keep saving lives.

 

[Iwokeup]

So my nightly "Colic Walks" are turning out to be pretty useful as far as thinking about entrepeneurship. I almost literally had a lightbulb moment when I realized that my major competition is really another sort of entity entirely. Makes the market look completely different and opens up a lot of possibilities.

Thanks baby boy!...now go to sleep fortheloveofGod...

 

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[Iwokeup]

Okay! I was able to get our elevator pitch done this morning. This, coupled with our mockup and demo video means that we should be able to approach that CFO/COO for a meeting!

*butterflies*

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Haha! No. That's if we get there and IF everything goes as it needs to (note that I didn't say "planned" or "should"). We had an saying in the Marines, "No plan survives contact with the Enemy." Which was originally written by a guy named Helmuth Von Moltke.

I care and I don't though. If this thing fails then so what? I just know that I can find some other way to break free of the bonds of slavery. I was talking with a family member last night. I was brainstorming with her ways to get her onto her own FL journey and I remember stopping and saying, "Sorry. I know this must sound like a lot of BS." And she remarked that she loved having these conversations, because she could see how I had changed in the last few months, and that she was inspired enough to finally get your book and had actually started reading it.

Which got me to thinking, other than freedom, why is this journey so important to me? And it struck me that I want to succeed so that I can help those I care about (Friends, Family) reach their own dreams too. I dunno, maybe be a seed investor some day, etc. Not give them money but to invest in them (advice, seed $$, etc). Which I suppose goes back to that other Marine Motto, "Gung ho!" which means "work together." I function and shine best when the whole TEAM succeeds..

I find it humorous that in the Lego Movie, the bad guy is named President/Lord Business...

Your journey is particularly interesting because you are already in a position of creating tremendous value and contribution to society. Many times those things can seem to be enough. However, when it all comes down to it, we all must be in a position where we are FREE to contribute based on free will, opposed to NEEDING to contribute without a choice because there are bills to be paid and mouths to feed.

 

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[Iwokeup]

I find myself getting overwhelmed a lot. Realizing that there is so much to learn and so much to do. It's mentally exhausting and I feel like I'm never going to get it all done. I want to get to a point where I can hire someone to just offload some of the minutiae, but I also understand that I need to learn the minutiae first in order to direct an employee. It seems like the damned mountain is so damned steep and high and I wonder if we'll ever get there. :\

Of course I know that it's just one foot in front of the other, but still. It's damn daunting.

 

[Iwokeup]

Success! More later...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Funny doctor story: Pt comes in complaining of an infection "on (her) stomach." Says that it's been there for a couple of days. She is VERY LARGE (think small moon of Jupiter large) and points to regions below. Oh, and by the way she's about 2 weeks pregnant but has yet to see her OB. So I go to examine her and I have to have two nurses in the room to help lift this woman's HUGE pannus. It turns out that the underside of the pannus is extremely red, swollen, and clearly infected. The kicker is that the underside has several (about 5-) wooden splinters which seem to be the infection sources. I asked her how they got there...
Well, her husband's friends had used a piece of wood to lift up the pannus so that her husband could "do her right" and get her pregnant.
Yeah, that actually happened.

Absolutely disgusting.

Dev meeting this morning went very, very well.

Just to get this straight, you are doing all this leg work while also working in the ER 3 days a week in 12 hour shifts?

 

[Iwokeup]

Okay, lots to update:

First, thanks to @tafy for the recommendations viz hiring a developer. We're not going to end up using the service that you recommended because we ended up finding good dev who'll do the alpha for $7,000. He's got a great track record, knows our space really well, and even if he screws it up, it's not like we've flushed $50K down the drain.

- Our alpha product won't have internet connectivity because we want it to be playable by all of our customers on a laptop without worrying about internet connectivity
- About 75% of the alpha code should be transferable to the beta version
- We're using the following for each of the segments:
o UI: Bootstrap, KendoUI, KnockoutJS, and C
o BLL: .NET framework, C#
o DAL: .NET framework, C#
o Database: SQL server

- Alpha should be one in 30 days! Woo hoo! It's finally getting real!
- Plan is to get 100 pre-sales/early investors so that we can have most of the cost to develop our Beta product. Would like to get the Beta going by the end of January.

(I'll be honest, now that this is becoming something other than vaporware, I'm actually REALLY excited to work on the sales and Marketing plan)

Marketing & Sales strategy:

- So we're going to shoot for customer play sessions/Beta ask in early December.
- I'm going to try and get some speaking engagements for the Fall. Want to get the word out regarding our product and also position ourselves as thought leaders in our space.
- Going to work on the FB page and use that to act as a second blog site
- want to get @Gale4rc 's advice about social marketing
- Is there a venue where we can meet a bunch of potential customers? Looking into this....
- Email our early contacts in order to update them on our progress and to make sure that they don't forget about us.
- Still need to set up a landing page.

Things have been a little rough this week since I got back...baby had really bad diarrhea and we ended up at the doctor's office. All is well now but it was close for a while.

 

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[jon.a]

A great entrepreneur might not make a great CEO.
A great CEO might not make a great entrepreneur.

There's not enough talk about that here.

 

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[Iwokeup]

Watch this. This video is a portion of a larger video which I highly recommend you watch, but the key piece is is the lead in to 11:30 of this video. They literally talk about knocking on 100 doors and what NOT to say.

edit: Your "lizard brain" is telling you "what if no one likes it - what if no one buys?"
Instead, pose this question to yourself:
"What if this is exactly what my customers are looking for? What if they love it? What then?"

Awesome post. Seriously, thank you.

I watched the video and as part of my daily Miracle Morning have quoted a version of that positive affirmation. It's working.

Couple of other updates:

o So our Alpha product is coming along nicely. The Partner is checking in every couple of days and the dev seems to be really putting good thought into the design and UX (for mockups) and it looks great. We're on track for alpha completion in Mid-Nov.

o As a consequence of this, we've started working on our customer focus groups (we're having two to start) in December. The venue should be locked down this week and we're planning the event & catering.

o I've gotten off my a$$ and picked up the phone this week. Cold calling dental practices in the area with the pitch that we're inviting folks to our CFG in December to help us out. Getting emails has been much easier this way versus a pre-sell versus a idea extraction call (I've been split testing). Getting some very positive "I'm interested" feed back which is kind of surprising:

- 50% of calls are giving emails out
- 40% are "leave a message"
---> 25% call backs + interested (giving email out)
- 10% are "really not interested."

So, slowly building our list (which is fine at this early early stage) and getting out there. Who knew that cold calling could be fun? Hopefully going this route (providing value ahead of time) will be a successful "pre-sell," especially as @throttleforward stated, the medical/dental space is really reluctant to part with their $$ for an unproven product. Of course, the only way to know is to continue split testing so that I get enough calls to make the numbers mean something.

o I've also found another competitor who is dipping their toes into this space; they don't appear to do quite what we do but it's good to be aware of them.

o Found and hired our web developer. He's going to also be running our FB page and teaching us how to pre-populate our blog posts.

o Signed and executed the operating agreement after going back and forth about some provisions. Finally feel that the partner and I are on solid, solid ground with each other. It's a good feeling.

o I've realized that what we're proposing to do is so unique that we're going to have to really invest in customer education upfront. Most people are used to dumb versions of what we're doing and so we have to change their perceptions. I hope that this doesn't drive our CAC too high...

 

[throttleforward]

It's just 'easier' to keep doing something the same way.... so make it very simple for them to comprehend how you will help them. (not how you "can"...how you "will")

To build on this, in speechwriting/communications we talk about going to "your audience's truth." When you speak to people, affirm/reassure them that you know what their truth is. Saying things like "now I know many of you here today are reluctant to try a new way to xxx, and as a physician I can certainly relate - it takes a lot of evidence for folks like us to change how we do xxx, even when it seems like changing would benefit us or our patients. Given that, and knowing we are a new entrant, what would it take to get you to consider joining use in a beta test/clinical trial/etc...." could go a long way toward establishing credibility and get people to open up, as opposed to "here is my new doodad, it's better than what you use now, are you interested?"

 

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[Iwokeup]

So I'm back at work for the weekend and then off for two weeks after that, which is a relief. I'm really feeling the "Trade Time for Money" equation these days and it sucks. BUT, I gotta fund the start-up, you know?

Things have really slowed down over the past two weeks (website design, my work sked, waiting for the alpha) so I've spent the time reading, thinking, and considering our direction.

We’re getting almost no success from cold calling.

It just doesn't appear that practices in our space are receptive to cold calling. The people that we're trying to meet are usually working, and the people that you get a hold of aren't as actually receptive/responsive as you would wish. I'm not sure whether that is because:

A) The product isn't as useful to practices as we would like to think that it would be [though to be fair, when we've shown it to CEOs, they LOVE the product]

B) There's a learning curve to customer education in this space and so customers cannot (yet) understand the benefits,

C) The people we have communicated with actually do see the benefit but understand that it could have a negative effect on the number of employees in the business.

Potential solutions include:

- finding away around the current middle managers we've encountered and going to the real decision makers by getting personal introductions, etc. My partner has contacts with a very large in-state health system so we're pursuing that. And I'm visiting with my mentor this week and he has mentioned that he has contacts with the VA, so I'm going to ask him for the introduction. Fingers crossed.

- doing a better job of educating customers. I don't think that I've adequately made the value proposition so overwhelming yet, and that's probably due to a combination of my inexperience and not understanding the psychology of large sales (a la SPIN selling).

- Changing our approach. This could take the form of long form sales letters (direct mail?), long form web copy, in office demos c the alpha version, ad words campaign?

- Leveraging my own network: my mentor has made millions in this space before, and a long time friend of mine has 15+ years of experience in large sales. I'm going to try to meet with him this week or weekend and, since I'm the CEO, I'm going to f-in try him out with our group. Don't care right now whether my partner likes him (cf. previous post); if he can deliver sales then who gives a rat's posterior?

- Improved website and overall improved professionalism: the site's nearly done and I really like what our web developer has done so far. He's working on our FB page today and we're hoping to have re-launch this weekend.

Reading:
- SPIN selling
- Ca$hvertising (again, and reabsorbing lessons)
- Traction (finishing once I get home) <-- Partner and I will go through this week.
- Resources from the Gary Halbert Copy-writing thread (for website copy)
- @Gale4rc's thread, and plowing through the links such as inbound.org. (Gotta admit, it's overwhelming sometimes...where to start?)

Weekly goals:

1. Alpha version delivered COB Friday
2. Web redesign (including FB) delivered COB Friday
3. Use the Traction book to generate ideas for marketing approach for each of the 19 methods. Partner and I to divide and conquer.
4. Partner/staff meetings every other day, 15 min, to make sure that we're pushing forward.
5. Meet with Mentor
6. Meet with Friend with Sales experience
7. Be an awesome Dad and Husband
8. Possibly buy a newer used car as the Honda is about done (229,000 miles!). Going super cheap..may hold off a wee bit longer.


Bottom line:

- Not giving up!
- Going to pivot in terms of marketing and sales approach
- Meet with and get ALL of the team members pointed in the right direction and keep on pushing
- Go ALL IN on the ONE BIG CUSTOMER approach that @mikekob, @tafy, and @throttleforward have all variously suggested.

 

[Iwokeup]

Thanks to everyone for the overt and behind the scenes advice and help. You guys rock!

Quick updates:

* Took the in-town job. Feels GREAT. Will start in March and I expect my stress levels to drop even more. Massive thanks to @tafy, @mikekob, @Bigguns50 for the excellent advice. @Bigguns50 especially. We're of nearly the same age and the time argument really hit home for me. Cheers!

For those keeping track, this is the stress level from making the last two job moves: Massive--> much better --> very agreeable. Bottom line is that while the money was better I was trading massive amounts of TIME to get it, which as we all know is a bad trade. OTOH, I do still have this job as an escape hatch should I need it.

* Met with our Small Business Dev Co mentor and she is proving to be EXCELLENT. Just the direction that I needed at this time. She's really great at going, "Well that hasn't been working for you. Have you tried this thing that I told you about before?"

LOL. I guess that you have to beat this Marine in the head a couple of times before it sticks.

So out of that came:

* Working to find alternative developers: she has two candidates, and thanks to @tafy and @mikekob for your offers. We'll see what shakes out. Holiday season and all. :/

* Time to revisit what I'd planned to do but hadn't followed through on: building social presence in my community and online by leveraging my personal "brand" and the physician/entrepreneur angle. Starting with twitter, my own website, and starting a "Cool Cat MD" meetup group. This is actually something that I have extensive experience in as I've built many very large online/in person social groups before (think www.studentdoctor.net), my medical school class, and a lot others. This ought to increase the brand and hopefully open networking opportunities. As they taught me in the Marine Corps: Knowledge only takes you so far. Personal networks get you across the finish line (interpret how you will).

* Got to start blogging for the company's website as well. All part of, "Wow, these guys provide massive amounts of value."

* Please don't try learning code as it's not a good use of time. Fine, but I'm at least going to have a much better working knowledge than I've had to this point. Back to www.codeacademy.com
==================================

* Now reading "The Founder's Dilemma." Hat tip to @mikekob.

* Can't stop waking up at 4-430 AM EVERY DAY. So, rather than fighting it, I'm just rolling with it. Working out, reading, etc. (Of course, that means that it's lights out nlt than 2100).


Big challenges these last weeks:

* TIME
* Developers
* Being a leader not only with the company but within the family. Leadership is hard and making the right decisions (or bringing the team/family along toward the right decision) takes time, patience, and grind grind grind.

I'll quickly close with TI's "Go Get It." W3rd.

 

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[Iwokeup]

Okay. Time for an update.


I finally met with the Partner yesterday (first time that we had seen each other since November (!)) to go over various things and for me to assess him and whether this partnership has legs going forward.

Let's just say that I left that meeting with the overwhelming feeling that this isn't going to work out anymore. It was exactly like one of those times when you knew at a gut level that you were going to have to break up with someone. The issues:

* We were ostensibly meeting to choose a developer. But he kept confusing the names of the devs involved and the shops that they represented. We agreed on a shop and I woke up this morning to see that he had emailed one of the worst candidates out there and not the rockstar that we had wanted. And just parsing the conversations that we've been having, I'm not sure at all that he realizes it.

* Also at the meeting, I had asked if he had thought about other product lines, marketing ideas, direction of the company, ANYTHING that said, "I think about this all of the time too (Or at least when we're not meeting)." Crickets.

* He suggested paying $2500 for a "clickable demo" that was basically a power point with premade graphics in order to market test? What??? We already have that.

Bottom line is that the Partner adds NO VALUE to this entity anymore. He probably has given up somewhere mentally but it's clear that this relationship is over. Anyway, I've started the unwinding process this morning via email.

GOOD NEWS: I had what I think is a good idea and talked about it with a forum member here. Would line up with the mHealth field and be a good product. We may have a licensing deal in the works.


Stay tuned

 

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[Iwokeup]

Back from working for the Man. Back to business

==========
[6.9 - 6.15]

[X] IE conversation with physician in my target industry today.
[ ] * Work on phone sales pitching skills
[ ] Read Gary Halbert's "Boron Letters" (ongoing)
[ ] Decide on contractor for SaaS project
[X] Listen to @healthstatus's podcast on choosing the right contractor from Elance.
[X] Download MJ's "Saizen" worksheet and get going!
[ ] Obtain email/phone list for other physicians in the area for IE/Pre-selling.
[ ] Continue validation of idea. Goal to be completed in the next 10 days.


Previous:

[x] Meet with friends in target industries for lunch, idea extraction, pain point identification.
[x] Are there actionable targets there?
[ ] If so, could I pre-sell target solution in order to finance the initial development?
[x] Watch an episode of "Shark Tank" for ideas, understanding, motivation.
[x] Re-read TMFL in order to reinforce fundamental principles.
[x] Arrange and [ ] Attend meeting with Tax advisor in order to set up LLC vs. S-Corp.
[ ] Decide on a company name (not as important at this time)
[x] Finish Scientific Advertising
[X] Work for The Man to make living + seed money

* Had a GREAT call with the physician (long time friend who knows me well enough to call out BS/problems) who not only validated my additional idea but independently suggested features which I was already contemplating as being part of the add on!

Can it get better? You bet. (Read on)

* She also suggested widening the net to include other physician types.
* Promised introductions and a list of other prospects (pediatrics, family medicine, optometry, ophthalmology, etc)!
* AND her husband (also a close, longtime friend) works in the Healthcare IT world and has the EXACT (or nearly so) expertise relevant to my project. She suggested we go out for beer this week.

Whoo!! *fistpump*

Now, need to work on cold calling/phone sales skills.

 

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[Iwokeup]

Finding that others in my field are more than happy to return my calls, even days later. Used Chet Holmes' techniques for gettting them on the phone and using his and Dane Maxwell's scripts to get them talking. They're also usually happy to give me their email addresses as well so I'm slowly building my list. Now considering whether building a landing page with an opt-in and funnel (get your free e-book!) would do more to help drive list generation and interest.

**** Need to think of a way of telling each one "thank you" (cheap but not cheap looking gift? Post card? Offer?) as as way of building "brand loyalty" hopefully turning them into disciples (later move).

So far there are at least two medium sized customers expressing significant interest plus I may have an "in" to a very large customer that would absolutely need our product. Finishing up calls today, will meet the goal, and hopefully by Monday morning the partner and I will know exactly what requirements are going to be necessary to get a v.1.0 product launched in 30 days, along with all necessary wire frames.

Once this is done, I have one week to Work for the Man so I'll mainly be unable to work on this directly...however, I'm going to try to see if I can make some unofficial sales calls to various potential customers whilst working.

[/] Continue validation of idea (talk to 100 decision makers in my industry). Goal to be completed in the next 7 days (today)
[X] If so, could I pre-sell target solution in order to finance the initial development? Absolutely yes
[ ] Complete some sort of primer on software architecture, etc so that I know what I'm talking about with devs.
[/] Update software requirements and resubmit a proposal. (Sunday - partner)
[/] Finish logic tree and data/workflow wireframe for proposal (Sunday - myself)
[ ] Set up business structure (S corp v. LLC) so that we can start noting expenses for tax time. (push)
[ ] Decide on a company name (push)

 

[Iwokeup]

So a late night update. Can't sleep (so much to do & consider!), the 2 month old wanted some late night entertaining and so another long late night/early morning walk ensued....which of course proved to be extremely useful in terms of thought organization.


First, random thoughts:

o Now that this thread is on the Inside (thanks, MJ), I can be a lot more open about my project, thoughts, etc. There have been some very real concerns regarding intellectual property, obligations as an employee, decisions to leave the employed position, etc. I'll go through these in some detail in later posts if there's interest.

o I've been doing this for exactly TWO months. TWO! And my perspective has rapidly morphed in only those two months. What's in store for the rest of the year? I have no clue.

o I get incredibly daunted and I constantly have those voices in my head saying, "Dude, are you crazy?! You're not a software developer! This will never work!" Alongside the other voices saying, "Dude, do you want to work for the Man and have NO control over your life? Do you want your kids to see you bitter and unhappy?" I keep going by coming to the forum, talking with other entrepreneurs, and honestly having the most supportive and perceptive spouse EVER. *sigh* One foot in front of the other....

o My project is in the medical field and it has a very high barrier to entry both because of the particular field (getting medical practices large and small to open their books to us) as well as the complexity of what we're attempting (and will!) to do.

o Well executed SaaS projects are not just "easy slap together" things. Quite the opposite! When I first started around here and ran into the Dane Maxwell camp the overarching message seemed to me to be, "Find a problem and whip together a SaaS solution." Of course, the Devil is in the details. And since getting it right the first time means careful planning, requirements definition, and making sure that I have a thorough, gut level understanding, I'm only now ready to have my first meeting with a developer.

o The vision for this company/project is about $100 million dollars in valuation based on a couple of competitors in the marketplace. That goal is very much in mind in everything that we're doing now. However, getting from here to there is where the fun is. Gotta get that first sale!

o You know, I came from a very liberal background (friends, family, etc) and it was usually unquestioned that Business (in the entrepreneurial sense) was:
- pretty easy, any monkey could do it
- took absolutely no intellectual power whatsoever
- was simultaneously EVIL but necessary
- that employers OWED their employees X ("living wage," extensive benefits, time off, etc etc) for what is often times very average work.
- that employers NEVER paid employees what they were worth.

And now, being on the other side I realize how uninformed those thoughts are....
================================

We meet with a potential developer on Friday. He's going to give us his pitch and we'll see what happens. Would be nice to find a solid local dev rather than outsourcing via eLance.

Right now, the project is broken up into the following categories:

- Software development
o Generate accurate requirements
o Select developer
o Get it developed

- Graphic Design
o Sketch out vision for overall design/flow
o Find a great designer

- Marketing (thanks to Ultimate Sales Machine)
o What is our stadium pitch/core story/value proposition?
o Develop extensive research to support core story
o Develop 1- page answers to customer frequently voiced objections
o Plan PR campaign
o Local Charity benefit (especially with us being in health care)
o Trade magazines? Trade organizations?
o Plan articles/sales pitches that can be made into articles for local/national publications (Texas Monthly, local newspapers)
o What national conferences can we attend and develop kick a$$ national buzz?

- Capital development
o Read through all of zen*******'s Capital Secrets materials
o Get Mockup so I can work on the pitch deck for first round investors
o Develop "Friends/Family" list in order to raise first $250-300K (or more) for development.

- Legal/Accounting
o Are we vulnerable to any IP issues? (doubtful, but paying $500 or so to be sure)
o Draft partnership agreement
o Form company
o Retain CPA

- Board of Advisors/Mentors
o Got the first one, looking for others.

 

[Iwokeup]

So we met with our developer today and boy howdy was it ever awesome. I think that we have our guy. Took about four hours to come up with a serviceable demo, understood the challenges, had the heart of a teacher (especially to this doctor non-programmer guy), and is a generally good guy. He's got a great work history and chops, and is excited about our startup's potential. Partner and I bought him lunch and thanked him and conferred afterwards. Probably our guy. Of course for DD sake we should probably interview a couple of more folks to see what's out there. But I've got a really good gut feeling about this guy and his dev shop.

Afterwards the Partner and I conferred and it was 45 minutes of intense, accelerative "Yes! Exactly what I was thinking!" kind of conversation. The kind that flowed naturally and showed that while we're friends, we're also a very good partnership. He has a great understanding of numbers/finances and has a lot of contacts. So anyway, I feel like we're in one of those soap box derby cars. You know the ones that pick up speed as they head farther downhill?

Yeah, that's us. Starting to really pick up speed.

It's totally addictive.

In other news, my wife is amazing and after a long talk yesterday she pointed out that I've been spending too much other energy thinking about other entrepreneurial projects (like starting a small e-commerce biz with the family). She pointed out, rightly, that if I don't focus 100% then I'll never achieve 100% success. Thanks honey!

So anyway, I'm more focused than ever, this project is now, finally, a real thing to me.

Annd...to top it off, an old family friend (and pretty wealthy guy) texted us to let us know that he's in as an investor...we have our first investor! Wow! Now just have to work out the terms. Back to zen*******'s Capital Secrets series for research...

============================
Software development
o Generate accurate requirements
o Select developer (likely done)
o Get it developed

- Graphic Design
o Sketch out vision for overall design/flow
o Find a great designer

- Marketing (thanks to Ultimate Sales Machine)
o What is our stadium pitch/core story/value proposition? (About 75% done)
o Develop extensive research to support core story (About 50% done)
o Develop 1- page answers to customer frequently voiced objections
o Plan PR campaign
o Local Charity benefit (especially with us being in health care)
o Trade magazines? Trade organizations?
o Plan articles/sales pitches that can be made into articles for local/national publications (Texas Monthly, local newspapers)
o What national conferences can we attend and develop kick a$$ national buzz?

- Capital development
o Read through all of zen*******'s Capital Secrets materials (only about 10% done)
o Get Mockup so I can work on the pitch deck for first round investors (Done, will receive Monday)
o Develop "Friends/Family" list in order to raise first $250-300K (or more) for development. (Got our 1st "Yes" today!)

- Legal/Accounting
o Are we vulnerable to any IP issues? (doubtful, but paying $500 or so to be sure)
o Draft partnership agreement
o Form company
o Retain CPA

- Board of Advisors/Mentors
o Got the first one, looking for others.

 

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[Iwokeup]

So after working a bit and then taking a much needed vacation (first one in over a year), the Partner and I met today to go over things. It was an intense meeting covering lots of things and we realized that we are much farther along than either of had realized. The mockup is done and looks great, we have our developer (who's turning out to be even better than we had realized), and we think that we have a general sales approach, basic pricing model(s), and list of target customers. The market is huge and our niche is poorly served as an afterthought.

Speaking personally, this has been a really difficult process. I've had to learn basics of software development, architectural issues (related to the software), have learned about Ruby on Rails and why an Angular J front ends is the way to go, HIPAA compliance issues, etc.

This is all in addition to doing heavy brainstorming with my partner about what kind of company we want to be (Legendary!), where we're going after our initial product offering (which means thinking in advance about other solutions that we might be willing to offer), capital strategies going forward (cash, debt v. equity v. profit sharing), and so on. I'm also learning about intellectual property laws, contract law, marketing and sales... you all get it. It's definitely all new to me (though less so than before I found this forum) and sometimes overwhelming. It's definitely not easy (as has been said before) so I suppose that's a good thing.



============================
Strategic Thinking
o Write Business Plan (me) - Goal is one week
o Write financial plan (partner)- Goal is one week
o How many sales do we aim to close by Dec 31? (Min number)
o What's our plan once we start getting sales?
o How will support be structured?
o When can we afford to hire/outsource sales and basic office staff?


Software development
o Generate accurate requirements
o Select developer
o ********* Get it developed (ongoing) *********
o List of APIs we'll need dev access to (ongoing)
o Get access to those APIs
- Graphic Design
o Sketch out vision for overall design/flow
o Find a great designer
o Design requirements to developer (ongoing now)

- Marketing (thanks to Ultimate Sales Machine)
o What is our stadium pitch/core story/value proposition?
o Develop extensive research to support core story
o Develop 1- page answers to customer frequently voiced objections
o Plan PR campaign (ongoing)
o [Defer for later] Local Charity benefit (especially with us being in health care)
o [Defer for later] Trade magazines? Trade organizations?
o [Defer for later, after first couple of sales] Plan articles/sales pitches that can be made into articles for local/national publications (Texas Monthly, local newspapers)
o What national conferences can we attend and develop kick a$$ national buzz?

- Capital development
o Read through all of zen*******'s Capital Secrets materials
o Get Mockup so I can work on the pitch deck for first round investors
o Develop "Friends/Family" list in order to raise first $250-300K (or more) for development. (Got our 1st "Yes" today!)

- Legal/Accounting
o Are we vulnerable to any IP issues?
o Draft partnership agreement
o Form company
o Retain CPA

- Board of Advisors/Mentors
o Got the first one, looking for others.
o Reach out to Sales mentor (partner) - if we're successful in out local markets, then we'll need to ramp up rapidly for a national outreach (thanks to JackEdwards for this tip).
o Reach out to local/national business startup guy for advice (friend of partner, ongoing)

 

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[Iwokeup]

Yup, walking through the fire will change your perspective as fast as anything.

Congrats on the progression. $100 million dollar companies aren't started overnight.

Haha! No. That's if we get there and IF everything goes as it needs to (note that I didn't say "planned" or "should"). We had an saying in the Marines, "No plan survives contact with the Enemy." Which was originally written by a guy named Helmuth Von Moltke.

I care and I don't though. If this thing fails then so what? I just know that I can find some other way to break free of the bonds of slavery. I was talking with a family member last night. I was brainstorming with her ways to get her onto her own FL journey and I remember stopping and saying, "Sorry. I know this must sound like a lot of BS." And she remarked that she loved having these conversations, because she could see how I had changed in the last few months, and that she was inspired enough to finally get your book and had actually started reading it.

Which got me to thinking, other than freedom, why is this journey so important to me? And it struck me that I want to succeed so that I can help those I care about (Friends, Family) reach their own dreams too. I dunno, maybe be a seed investor some day, etc. Not give them money but to invest in them (advice, seed $$, etc). Which I suppose goes back to that other Marine Motto, "Gung ho!" which means "work together." I function and shine best when the whole TEAM succeeds..

I find it humorous that in the Lego Movie, the bad guy is named President/Lord Business...

 

[Iwokeup]

I feel like this week I put on my big boy pants:

* Partner and I came up with a Master Services Agreement with our developer. Final draft approved today. This was an education for me since I had never done or seen one before. It basically gives our dev ~$125/hr total for 1,000 hours with the vast majority being deferred cash (loan) and economic interest should we ever sell the company. We're not giving away equity at all and at the agreed to rates it works out to a valuation of our enterprise at something like 1.875M, which is totally crazy. We'll have the call off sheet done this week or next, and contract will be effective 1 Sept (when our LLC is officially effective - note that this was done to avoid any whiff of chum to IP sharks).

I've often wondered if we're overpaying...but since we aim to compete in a space dominated by Elephants, I wanted our dev to be Local, Excellent, and Completely trustworthy. I've listened to the INSIDERS call by healthstatus but I just cannot get comfortable (right now) deploying a product like ours via an outsourced dev. At least our initial cash outlay won't be too terrible and the studio has agreed to Net30 terms, which is pretty sweet.

* Business and Financial plans were completed and we had our meeting Friday as I alluded to earlier. Had to work this weekend so little active work was completed. There were a few interesting comments from the docs:

- "Haha, you think that you're going to dominate the world." to
- "Dude, I wish that I had your balls. Don't forget me when you're rich!"

* Set up our basic website. Used a basic (and free) WordPress theme to get started and I'm having to remember how to build web pages. It's been so very long and the landscape has changed dramatically. Inspired by @Gale4rc 's B2B marketing pizzazz and @MJ DeMarco 's popup conversion contest, I'm going to see if I can do similar things with our web page. Would LOVE to harvest a ton of leads. However, I have no clue how to do this so I'm going to have to read in my (minimal) spare time.

* Had a meeting with a specialist physician today and it wasn't so much a sell as a chance to have him tell me how he's keeping a specialty clinic open in this tough (US) healthcare climate. He does procedures so lead generation is huge for him and he's paying an industry player a fair amount of money to do that. It was SO COOL to hear him discuss SEO, conversion rates, lead optimization, etc and EVEN BETTER that I knew what he was talking about. Cool dude. He indirectly also validated our product and our proposed marketing approach in the course of the conversation. He also saw right to the heart of our biggest vulnerability too. I was wonderful to see a physician who's aggressively fighting for independence! I think that when we've got a working product I can approach him for a demo/sale.

**** BIGGEST NEWS ***

We have our first Sales Pitch on Friday at 1030. Scheiße!!!

I've REALLY got to get going this week. I'm scared, nauseous, and super excited all at once!


============================
Strategic Thinking
o Write Business Plan (me) - Goal is one week
o Write financial plan (partner)- Goal is one week
o How many sales do we aim to close by Dec 31? (10)
o What's our plan once we start getting sales?
o How will support be structured?
o When can we afford to hire/outsource sales and basic office staff?

Software development
o Generate accurate requirements
o Select developer
o ********* Get it developed (ongoing) *********
o List of APIs we'll need dev access to (ongoing)
o Get access to those APIs
- Graphic Design
o Sketch out vision for overall design/flow
o Find a great designer
o Design requirements to developer (ongoing now)

- Marketing (thanks to Ultimate Sales Machine)
o What is our stadium pitch/core story/value proposition?
o Develop extensive research to support core story
o Develop 1- page answers to customer frequently voiced objections
o Plan PR campaign (ongoing)
o [Defer for later] Local Charity benefit (especially with us being in health care)
o [Defer for later] Trade magazines? Trade organizations?
o [Defer for later, after first couple of sales] Plan articles/sales pitches that can be made into articles for local/national publications (Texas Monthly, local newspapers)
o What national conferences can we attend and develop kick a$$ national buzz?

- Capital development
o Read through all of zen*******'s Capital Secrets materials
o Get Mockup so I can work on the pitch deck for first round investors
o Develop "Friends/Family" list in order to raise first $250-300K (or more) for development. (Got our 1st "Yes" today!)

- Legal/Accounting
o Are we vulnerable to any IP issues?
o Draft partnership agreement
o Form company
o Retain CPA

- Board of Advisors/Mentors
o Got the first one, looking for others.
o Reach out to Sales mentor (partner) - if we're successful in out local markets, then we'll need to ramp up rapidly for a national outreach (thanks to JackEdwards for this tip).
o Reach out to local/national business startup guy for advice (friend of partner, ongoing)