[ “ The Junction is an open house for entrepreneurs. Any active entrepreneur (regardless of his/her idea) is welcome to join, be a part of, and work at The Junction ” ]

Imagine a place where amazing developers, marketers, creative, designers and biz-dev working on their own cool startup. This is The Junction, a great place for startups to do their magic and make their dream come to life. Working here for two months made me realize that we have a huge opportunity laying under our nose – each startup is built by people with very different background but at the end of the day, our path to success looks very much the same

We all need the power of creative thinking, the right-brain of a graphic designer, the analytical mind of a developer, the wisdom of a marketer and the experience of a biz-dev. No matter what you’re working on, you need it. Why not blending our strength by helping each other out to push everyone forward?

1/90 was born - 1 day out of 90 days, which is The Junction cycle (3 months per startup).

What happened here:

1. We created a shared excel file (Google Docs) stating per startup: name, current phase, what we need most, what can we help with.

2. We met at 09:30 and did some quick lottery of the startups. Then, by number, the startup’s members explained what they need *now*, trying to be as *specific* as possible, in 3-5 minutes. People in the “audience” raised hands, if they matched the need, and we paired them together.

3. We split forces and in the next 20 minutes tried to explain each other, with some details, what exactly is needed (what is the desired outcome). At 10:15, people started to work for others, creating logos, thinking of UX/mockups, thinking of strategic marketing options and creating some working web applications. The best moment, from my perspective, was when Dany (creative @DoubleSpread) said – “it’s amazing how you take a JPG I made and transform it to a working web site in less than a day, that’s crazy!” and Effie’s (dev @Mealway) replied “no, what’s crazy is how you can create beautiful JPG in 2-3 hours from ideas I can hardly explain”. Beautiful.

4. We ended the day afternoon, where every person said what s/he did, who s/he helped, who helped her/him and how was the experience in general. The vibe was great and people really felt much more connected to each other. It was not only blending of stratups but also blending of people and friends.

I believe there is huge room for making this “event” even better in terms of productivity but I loved the fact that the team (~25 people) decided together, by themselves, how to do it and gave their heart to it. Everyone liked the idea and asked to do it at least 2-3 times per “wave” of people (so maybe it should be called 2/90 or 3/90 ).

I feel that I was part of something great, thanks to amazing group of talented, hard working and generous people. Cheers!

Our alpha version of MadLike is at the AppStore for a month now and I had the time to reflect on our learning and where we want to take our product from here. I’m writing it as it comes to my head, so the data here will be pretty raw but very authentic, based on *real* data that we gathered and *real* feedback we got along the way.

1. Proof of Concept != Minimum Viable Product != Minimum Viable Experience – It’s very easy to mix these 3. When you’re strong in terms of execution, it’s dangerously easy to release something raw and consider it as MVP/MVE. It’s not and it’s okay, as long as you learn the things you want to learn. We sometime released something we thought will be “kinda MVP”, only to discover it’s far from it (people didn’t get it or used it as we thought). If you’re at the phase of understanding need/usage – constantly remind yourself “it’s not MVP but rather a learning step to it”.
2. If you’re building an app for “best friends”, you better have great coverage from day one – a lot of people loved our idea and saw the need but immediately responded with “we don’t have iPhone” or “out of my best 6 friends, only 2 have iPhone”. That’s a buzz killer and it making it difficult to test user’s “clique” based on it. We’re working on a few ideas to make sure *everyone* could use our app, having iPhone or not, while acting smart about it in terms of development time and go-to-market.
3. It’s all about the user experience – seriously, UX is not something to “keep to the end”. We’re trying to give it as much thought as we can while designing the product and thinking of the entire flow. What was changed for us? we’re now more willing to delay precious go-to-market time on making sure the experience is great. It’s not that we’re planning to sit for months without going out, it’s simply matter of releasing small things that are well thought of, instead of a mash of technical solutions/features.
4. Money/People(equity) will not only make things go faster, it will change everything – We were willing to wait with raising money and increasing the team much longer but we came to realize that money and people open possibilities for us to release something *drastically* better to the market. Branding, creative, design – all of them are not cheap and each can entirely change the company we’re building and the experience our users will get at the end of the day.  We now understand much better our weakness and figuring out how funding and potentially joining people with equity will make our vision a sweet reality, instead of a lame “we’ll solve it one day” experience. Relying solely on our technical skills just won’t cut it.

Alright, back to do some #brogramming, have a great weekend y’all

What an insane month! We managed to achieve so much and yet it feels as if we need to move X20 faster. Every day has the weight of a month in terms of goals, pressure and the need to learn and adjust. I love it!

In less than a month, we managed to release MadLike (alpha) to AppStore (waited 10 days for Apple to approve it) and gain very helpful user base. We got a lot of feedback from people @TheJunction (where we sit), friends & family. The feedback was great and we integrated a lot of it into our future plans.

(image taken from http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/blog/)

Something *big* happened this week which I’m very proud of – we went to the mall at Herzelya (7 stars) and talked with potential users to understand what they’re doing today without MadLike. We looked for young women going out of stores with iPhone and asked them 2 main questions:

(1) “Did you happen to *avoid* buying or doing something *last week* just because your spouse or friends wasn’t there with you? ” (if “yes” – “tell me about more it”)

(2) “Let’s say you’re at the store, trying to buy something but you need your friends opinion, what do you do?”

We were amazed by the amount of people pulling out their iPhone and showing us a “question” they did via SMS or how they depicted the options over the phone. It made both of us smile and it made them super excited to see our application (we did a quick demo).
Put aside their feedback, our skills as story-teller and being accessible is crucial for our success. Every time we’re going out there to sit with people I can feel the change in myself and in my vision. Talking with people makes me more optimistic than ever about the magnitude of solution we’re bringing to the table and keeps me awake at nights, thinking how we can improve the experience for our users.

Where are we standing so far?

We’re working on the basic pain startups must validate first: activation and retention (based on Dave McClure’s startup metrics for pirates). We want to see lower % of people registered and having 0 questions. It should be easy and clear how to create questions and even more important – asking questions that happen on daily basis (shopping is hardly the case). We’re going to roll out a version this week to improve these areas. I cannot stress how happy I am to see things rolling out so quickly and how I enjoy looking at real-time data. I created some “lean” report (always open on my iPhone) to see how things going, everywhere I go. I promised myself to avoid vanity metrics at all cost so the report is holding 2 things:

1. % of people with 0 questions / total users (goal: 5% and below)
2. avg. of questions per user per week (goal: 3/user/week)

I hope that until the end of the month we’ll see these numbers reaching the goals we’re aiming for. It’s imperative for us to nail activation & retention so our entire focus is there and we’re actively collecting feedback and looking at real data. If all goes well, we’ll shift our focus toward distribution (we have some solid features planned) as part of the application usage.

Shit happens, we need to deal with it

This week our graphic designer decide to focus on her own company and told us she’s leaving. This was a real blow for us. She’s a very talented designer and great person but I could feel she’s following her dream, just like we do, so we wished her best of luck in her journey. This week we’ll need to focus on finding someone to replace her and help push things forward. We already did a few calls and I’m confident we’ll find another superstar. We cannot afford not to.

This week is going to be awesome! cannot wait to start it already…

“Does your solution offers a painkiller or a vitamin to your users?”
“Hmm… from that perspective, vitamin, I guess, but…”
“You must pivot then!”
“Hmm… what? But…”

Unlike medical/military/financial startups, where the pain, urgency, market size and even business models are usually very obvious and immediate, in the consumer startups side, things tend to be more vague and fuzzy. Who can promise you that a 140-chars status is a worthy venture? That renting my car or my apartment for a few hours or days will reach critical mass? That yet another Q&A site for developers is really needed?

I believe that in today’s world, the interesting questions rise from behavior/usage patterns and market size. It’s not an immediate must-have versus nice-to-have, it’s about “how common”, “by how many” and HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CHANGE IT that can bring a difference to the world.

Take a look at Foursquare. Clearly far away from being a painkiller, they managed to take the usage pattern (you usually visit at least 3-5 places a day) and market size (everyone can do it at work-places/restaurants/pubs etc.) and made a difference. Spicing it up with some virality & stickiness aspects such as “Mayor of [place]“, some crazy badges like “Mr. Bill” and freebies as reward, Foursquare made it easy for people to spot new places. Instead of calling your friends, asking boring questions, you can simply see what’s popular from their interaction with the world.

Don’t be afraid when someone says “it’s not a painkiller”. Instead, quickly get out there and measure real world behavior & size of the problem. Maybe you’re on to something by making it simpler and more engaging.

 Making something simpler for millions of people *is* a painkiller *to the world*.

After 4 years at Sears Israel (previously known as Delver), I felt like I’m ready for my next big challenge. These four years were the best years of my professional and personal life (got married to my amazing wife Shahaf). Professionally-wise, I grew and learned tremendously about myself, ranging from technology, business, team building and setting the “right culture” to be a part of. I was playing with the notion of starting my own startup for almost a year now, trying to imagine how it will be like, who will be part of it, what are we going to change in the world and how we’re going to get there. Reaching this decision wasn’t easy but surprisingly enough, it wasn’t hard as well. Why?

Predictable Worst Case

One of the earliest things I did was talking with my wife about this possible change. What does it mean financially for us? How many months can we live without an income on my side? What does it mean about our time spent together? What about re-location (if needed)? What about the right time to have our first child?

We tried to create a predictable worst case. Is it perfect? Do we have all the answers for all possible scenarios? Hell no! Both Shahaf and I are extremely nervous but also super excited and willing to give it a try. I did the same process with my best friend & co-founder Aviel Lazar (@aviellazar). We are 50-50 in everything and as such, we talked about the big questions: what kind of company are we trying to build? When should we raise money? We hit hard many other questions that made us as shaky as a drug addict (I recommend Lior Gorssman‘s Co-Founders Expectations Alignment).

Talking with my wife and my partner about things that scare us most, doesn’t mean we got it all figured out. We need to work as hard on our relationship just as we’re working on our dreams. It’s matter of setting expectations and having the willingness to work hard, on a daily basis, to make it work. Doing this mental and verbal work made my predictable worst case something I can understand and cope with now.

 Unknown BEST Case

Who can say where this journey will take us from here? Just thinking of the idea that millions of people will use something I was part of makes me smile like a silly teenager at the mall. The up side of this bumpy ride may lead us to amazing places such as:

1. Meeting interesting people I could never approach or fully understand till now.
2. Making an impact on the world, having real people enjoying things I envisioned and crafted.
3. Nice ex$t.
4. WHO THE HELL KNOWS!!

 How can afford myself to let go this opportunity?

Learn More About Myself

We’re 2 people right now, so it’s us against the world baby! There is no backing off, no one to point a finger at, no one to wait for. I love the pressure and the urgency the startup world comes with and I would love to see how I will shape my thoughts and believes around it. Can I bounce back on my feet after a failure? Can I hire the right key players? Can I make the right business/technological/marketing decisions? Can I learn new skills-set quickly? Can I make the people around me better? Can I convey the vision I have?

Both Aviel and I are focused on these questions, trying to support each other and stay honest. There is no better way to learn about your true-self other than putting the pressure and constantly shifting reality. I might not like what I will see, but this is why I picked great partners in life to balance me back.

Building the company I always dreamed of

Since the age of 23, when I joined Delver, I dreamed of building a company. I constantly thought about the attitude, the structure, the people, the process and what we are trying to achieve. Five years from now, if one of my employees will leave our company to open his own startup and thank me for his time at the company, man, I WILL BE SO HAPPY! Building a company that will spawn other companies is something I will be extremely proud of. Thank you Delver for being such a company for me!

The dream of my life is starting now, wish me luck ;)

p.s – join our private invite list, we’re launching soon! http://Maddit.com/?ref=lnb

We just had our 1st Pizzability at Delver. There were 25 of us, from development, QA, HR, Project and even Marketing. We basically ate pizza and saw a few usability videos made by real users at Delver.  The goal was to have fun and allow people to sit back and relax (between each bite) while watching how people are using our product. This, I hope, will help connect even further “the makers of Delver” to our users. Bon appetit!