Category Archives: Startup

Start-Up Chile: Want to Make The Cut? Here Are Some Advice

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The 3rd and final round of Start-Up Chile 2011 application is now open. If your startup is still in “alpha/beta” mode, you are highly encouraged to apply (even your startup is not, do apply). My startup, Flvrd (still in beta mode) was one of 154 startups around that get selected in the previous round.

If you are applying or think to apply, one of the questions that usually goes through your mind is: “Is it hard to get into Start-Up Chile?”

Well, honestly I don’t think it is hard based on Flvrd’s application but it is getting tougher from round to round because more and more startups are applying. FYI, Round 1 (329 applications, 110 startups selected) and Round 2 (650+ applications, 154 startups selected).

But there are a few important areas that I think you need to really focus on. So lets go through those (together with my personal advice) by looking into the judging criteria.

  1. Human Capital (weight: 33%): quality of the talent and commitment of the founding team members.
  2. Project (weight: 34% – composite): Strategy, differentiation, and innovation factors of the product/service purported:
    • Product/Service (weight: 17%)
    • Market (weight: 17%)
  3. Environment (weight: 33%): Value of the founding team’s networks for the Chilean entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Human Capital

They are looking for an awesome team. All startup incubators are looking for the best team and not the best idea. So make sure you have an awesome team — good chemistry, work well together, complementary skill sets and some impressive stats about the team members.

In brief, the Flvrd Team: Flvrd has two co-founders (Koekoe and I) with complementary skill sets. We have known each other for more than 3 years and we work together on projects and group assignments during our time in university. We have also participated and won in a number of international tech and entrepreneurship competitions while in university. Bonus: we are a couple.

How about a single founder? Well, to my knowledge there are a number of single founder startups that got accepted. So if you are alone, your Start-Up Chile dream is not dead, never. There are other factors which are more important than this. So don’t worry.

Project

This is all about your idea/product and they are looking for globally scalable ideas/products. If your idea is super local and could not be replicated in other countries, you might want to rethink your idea.

I don’t know how well Flvrd scores under this section but if you don’t have a world changing idea/product — I don’t think this will put you in a disadvantaged position. FYI, Flvrd is neither a world changing idea nor follows the blue ocean strategy. We just do things differently.

But It is important to have a working prototype. It shows your commitment and also your execution. Remember the popular saying? “An idea is nothing without execution”. So having a real product where you and your team have been working on for some time is a huge plus.

A pitch video is also important in the case where the judges didn’t get the picture of what you are doing, a KISS video will help you explain your idea/product. FYI, we spent more than a week working on the pitch video but well worth it.

You are also required to answer questions related to your startup’s execution and business plan. So, make sure you know what you are doing, what is your plan, the market, competitors, etc. You have to do some basic research to answer these questions well — don’t assume!

Side note: The best way to keep up with your market and competitors is to follow tech and startup blogs like TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, VentureBeat, etc.

Environment

This is where they want to know how you can contribute to the Chilean entrepreneurship ecosystem by leveraging on your skills, experiences and your networks. So, it is good to have an established network back home so that you can link them to Start-Up Chile and Chilean entrepreneurship culture/ecosystem as a whole.

Bonus: Make your application stands out and the best way to do it is through video.

So, there you go some tips and advice for startups applying for Start-Up Chile. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions.

Reminder: You have until October 27th 2011 to make the cut. Act now!

Flvrd Joining Start-Up Chile

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Woot! Flvrd (my first real startup project) will be joining Start-Up Chile with 153 other startups from around the world. You can read the official announcement here and Flvrd’s own blog post.

I’m ecstatic. I started Flvrd as a personal project while learning Python/Django. Then, it became a startup project when I decided to make it public. Now with the help of Start-Up Chile, I can make it my real startup sooner than later.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the stepping stone to my life-long entrepreneurship journey. I finally get to experience what entrepreneurs call “the startup culture”. I’m looking forward to meet the other participants from all around the world and those dedicated people behind Start-Up Chile.

See you!

Flvrd and What I’ve Learned

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Flvrd, a project I’ve been working with @koekoecrunch for the last four months has finally launched on May 18, 2011, about a week ago. You can read the launch announcement here. Have been fixing bugs and pushing updates for the past week, so a little delay here. Anyway…

Some History

Before Flvrd, I’ve been poking around with two projects — a casual Facebook game (codename Traveloot) and a location-based looting/scavenging mobile game (codename Lootpop). I abandoned Traveloot because at that time, the Facebook apps platform is very buggy. So I pivoted the concept (of looting “virtual” items) to Lootpop. While working on Lootpop I learned a decent amount of Objective-C and iOS programming but what makes me abandon this project is because it’s a little too much to take for a person who is learning new stuff. My takeaway here is, if you are learning new stuff (programming languages), work on something that is simple and interest you, period.

Back to Flvrd

So, I had this idea… jump straight in and start coding (Why? See my bottom line). The idea of Flvrd has been “refreshed” and simplified several times during the development period. The original concept was about expressing comments without the need of words. You use “flavors” to express your thoughts (what I try to solve is to reduce comments that are rubbish and spam). So, long story short, Flvrd is now what it is — flavoring pictures or videos with flavors using flavicons. Simple yet fun.

What I’ve Learned

After four months of hacking and hustling…

  • Learned Django (and Python) and some Javascript + JQuery.
  • Level up my CSS.
  • Learned and relearn sysadmin stuff (setting up servers, config, etc)
  • Launched a real project/product to the World.
  • Starting a web startup is NOT easy BUT cheap (and I’ve nothing to lose, just my time)

Bottom Line…

So entrepreneur wannabe, if you have an idea, just do it and start hacking! Stop worrying whether your is good or bad, whether there is a market for it or whether the world will use it or not. You can spend time all you want finding the perfect market, writing a 100+ pages of business plan or validating your idea so it could be the next Google or Facebook. BUT, the only thing that matter is your product or prototype. Why? Because you are nobody and just a wannabe. People don’t give a damn about your idea or your sugar coated, well crafted business plan unless you are somebody. Really… seriously. So, don’t waste time worrying, spend time working on it. Need more motivation? Read this.

BTW, you… get flvrd now.