Also, if you write a post, take pictures, video, etc. please use the tag #phxsd. Thanks!

After talking with quite a few people, we’ve settled on having the first Phoenix Startup Drinks in Tempe at Four Peaks Brewery!

When

2nd Tues: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 from 6-9pm
Last Thurs: Thursday, July 30, 2009 from 6-9pm

We’re trying to have it twice a month on different days to accommodate more people. If this format doesn’t work, then we’ll change it and let you know

About the venue

Housed in a historic brick building dating to 1892, Four Peaks Brewery is a staple of Tempe nightlife. It’s won many awards over the years for it’s unique beers and was recently awarded the 2009 Critics’ Pick for Best Local Brewery from AZCentral as well as the 2009 Readers’ Choice for Best Pub with Grub.

Four Peaks Brewing Co
1340 E 8th St # 104
Tempe, AZ 85281
Map

What do you need to do?

Simply show up, participate and have fun! That’s really what it’s all about, right? If you’re really nice, let us know you’re coming in the comments, by email (curtis@flatterline.com) or through Twitter (@curtism).

Looking forward to seeing you there!

I’ve heard talk from multiple people in the last few weeks about independent initiatives for creating something similar to this, but why not use what already exists? Even better, they have a CrunchBase API, so, if you want to build on top of it you can! Of course, first glance at the API seems pretty sketchy at the moment… However, I’m sure you could get a beta invite and help them work out the kinks

There’s also a location based search, so if you were worried about that, take a look at this map of Phoenix companies.

Fill in a form and bada-bing your company is submitted to CrunchBase, so why not do it now?

HT @ChrisTingom for reminding me to talk about this.

Enter Flatterline

And as one door closes another is opened. Chris Chandler and I have started a Phoenix web development company called Flatterline. Our preferred niche is assisting startups in the initial development phase. We’ll certainly consider other opportunities, but we prefer to work with startups

Our clients

We’re currently working with 2 amazing Phoenix startups to create the first version of their product. These startups are founded by passionate and talented people with the ability to execute. As we’re allowed to tell more about them we will. We believe in the startups we’re working with and want to promote them to help them succeed.

What now?

We’re extremely excited to have this opportunity to create a new venture in Phoenix. Especially one that can help entrepreneurs in Phoenix, and elsewhere, realize their vision.

This has all literally happened in the last 2 1/2 weeks. We barely have an LLC let alone a website, etc., however, you can reach us through curtis or chris at flatterline.com.

So, here’s to new beginnings, we look forward to hearing from you!

To date we have over 23,000 listings in 17 states. We’re excited about the progress made on Freebootr and hope that 2009 continues the progress we’ve made in waste reduction. We hope you’re excited too! We’d love to hear your thoughts or ideas about Freebootr, so please send us your feedback.

That’s why I’m happy to announce the launch of

The Idea

Freebootr is an idea hatched at Hacknight by Chris Irish and me. It provides a place for people to easily and quickly find free items in their area as well as post free items they no longer want or need. We hope that this will result in less landfill waste and reduced cost to consumers. We believe this type of service should be free and open to the public and that’s exactly what we’ve done. What’s more, we believe it should be fun to use, which is why the site is pirate themed! Why, you ask?

freebooter |ˈfrēˌboōtər| noun

a pirate or lawless adventurer.

That’s right, a freebooter is a pirate, so naturally we themed the site after these denizens of the sea. Arrr!

The Journey

Freebootr has been in the works for about 8 weeks at Hacknight. Chris and I have put in about 40 hours each throughout that time and set a goal to release the first version of the product today, on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. We also took a 2 week hiatus to implement the Hacknight website. It has been a fun, and somewhat bumpy, ride to get here, but we did it.

The Rest

Now the real work begins, for us and for you. We want… nay, need your feedback to make Freebootr.com a great, useful site. So check it out and be sure to call us out when we suck (and occasionally when we kick ass).

Now go out there, me hearty, and become a Freebootr!

It got me thinking about what it means to be an entrepreneur. Merriam-Webster defines entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” I think that the role of entrepreneur is more difficult than that short definition implies. It’s not enough to be the one who has an idea and organizes the company to realize the idea. As I have been finding, there is a social aspect to being an entrepreneur that takes you on a roller coaster of emotions, from depressed to uplifted, frustrated to satisfied, empty to fulfilled. It is the job of the entrepreneur to push past those feelings of depression and inadequacy and focus their energy on the task at hand.

There have been several times when I thought I should throw in the towel and get a “real job”, as my parents so eloquently put it. It took the advice of an old friend who I recently reconnected with on LinkedIn to put me back on track. He is also trying to start his own company called Webographers, but he’s a few steps ahead of me. Sharing his own experiences with me about his company helped me to reaffirm my intention of making my venture work.

While it is good to get many opinions about your venture, be sure to surround yourself and keep in close contact with people who will renew your focus and ambition. It is easy to quit something when it becomes tough, in fact, our society almost encourages it. It is far more rewarding to persevere in the face of adversity. As an entrepreneur we must not only steer the company through rough waters, but we must fend off these dark thoughts and emotions that creep in from time to time. Only if we do both successfully will we have a real chance to succeed.

It seems that most of the budding entrepreneurs out there are single males. Not many that I’ve seen are in a committed relationship. This may be a benefit if you are spending all of your time working on your startup and devoting no time to social pursuits. However, I think there are benefits to being in a committed relationship as well. I also believe that my accomplishments would be less fulfilling if I didn’t have someone to share them with. This entry is about the benefits of starting a company while in a committed relationship.

My suggestion to all entrepreneurs in a committed relationship is to involve your partner in some way. Your partner can be your greatest strength while on this very hard road you’ve chosen. Even if it is as simple as talking with them at the end of a long day about what you accomplished or what frustrations you encountered. Can they join the site? Let them be one of the first to join and contribute. Encourage them to be your biggest cheerleader. Often that encouragement is all you need to get a second wind.

When you are working long hours trying to build your company it is easy to forget that you must also spend time building your relationship. Just because you are committed doesn’t mean the work ends there. That’s like thinking that as soon as you get funding it will be smooth sailing. Really, the work has just begun at both of those points.

I have definitely been guilty of neglecting my family at times. However, I make a conscious effort to take time out to spend with them. It might be as simple as taking a walk before dinner, which we’ve been trying to do. Recently, I took a half day to go to a train park in Scottsdale. It was a great time, but in the back of my mind I knew I was missing out on six hours that I could be working. Ultimately, this time is definitely worth spending.

My wife has been very supportive through this process. Scared? Yes, but supportive, too. She has really helped to ground me so I don’t get my head too far in the clouds. I know that I can always bounce ideas off her and get an honest, sometimes brutally so, opinion. She helps me through the hard, depressing times and she is also there for the happy, celebratory times. When I launched the first alpha, she even made chocolate cupcakes with little computers on them so we could celebrate after dinner.

I think it all comes down to what is important in life. Building a great company is a great goal, but if you don’t have people to share your success with, then does it really mean anything? For me, the most important and rewarding aspect of this journey is sharing it with my family. I hope that the coming year will allow me to share even more success with them!

I hope your new year will bring you happiness and success, too.

Anyone else out there starting a company while in a relationship? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I found that I already knew a lot of what was being taught in those classes through my experience at my former companies: Project Technology, Inc. (acquired by Mentor Graphics) and Raytheon Company. Some of it was also common sense. However, common sense is not always common practice.

One of the things that I thought I understood well was the concept of vision. Communicating your idea about a product as a whole; what it is and what it will become. As you carve up your vision into manageable chunks, or projects, you define the project scope. That is, what portion of the overall vision is addressed by this particular project. Vision shouldn’t really change much, whereas scope may be more fluid and adjust as needed.

So now that I am shifting into the entrepreneur’s seat, I see parallels with this line of thinking and the business entity itself. I realize that not only do I have a vision for this particular product (a niche social networking website), but I have begun to shape a vision for the company that will create the product. This vision includes ethical and moral codes of conduct that are modeled after my own personal thoughts and feelings on the subjects. I have thought about how the business entity should conduct itself when dealing with members, clients, etc. I have also thought about employees and the culture I would like to see in the company.

All of these thoughts happened subconsciously and then bubbled up to my conscious thought. Maybe it is all coming about because of my pursuit of the business side of the company in recent days. Regardless, it is comforting to know that my brain has already thought about and formulated an opinion on these topics that I can use as the basis for building a solid company.

• I learned the Ruby language and the Rails framework. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I am far enough along that I’m feeling comfortable in my ability.
• I created an executive summary for the business. This helped me to nail down just what I was thinking for the site and got me to focus on how the business would work.
• I created a depth-first prototype of the site. Of course, being a prototype it was hacked together, but contained about eight major features that I would like to see in the real site. Not pretty, but functional…mostly.
• I successfully released an alpha version of the site and gathered a group of testers to try it out. Based on their feedback, I released several minor releases for bug fixes and improvements. All of this served to improve the site.
• I successfully released a second version of the alpha containing bug fixes, improvements and one new major feature. This is currently being tested by my group and I have already received some good feedback.
• I have compiled a large feature list to be implemented on the site and I am progressing steadily toward the next version.

I have been having a great time working on this. I have learned an enormous amount in a very short time and discovered a language that I enjoy very much. I have told myself from the beginning that, if nothing else came of this site, I would learn a lot in the process. Now that things have gotten so far along, I don’t want knowledge to be the only thing I get from this. I want to see this site be used. I want to see the membership grow and the community thrive. I want it to succeed in it’s purpose…

To tell you the truth, I am almost at the end of my rope financially. I am worried that I will not be able to see this through to the end that I would like. That’s why it’s time I seriously pursued venture capital…

I believe I am in a good position to attain some level of funding, but the world of investment seems so foreign and mysterious to me. I have read a lot about funding, but I still regard it as a strange and wily beast. However, I am going to try in earnest. I believe that having a functional site will help. It shows that this is more than an idea and I have taken serious steps to make it a reality.

Tomorrow begins my focus on capital. This means that the site will take a backseat for a couple of days so I can get down to business. Please share your advice on pursuing venture capital in the comments. I would love to hear other peoples experiences.

For some startups out there the targeted user is…well, anyone. They might be able to spray-and-pray, hoping they attract enough users from the massive ocean of potentials to make the site either profitable or attractive for acquisition. My case is slightly different, though.

For my startup, I am targeting a specific niche market. I know exactly who will use the site. Chances are that nobody else will use it because it would not be of interest to them. I’m choosing to focus on the US market first, see how it goes and then expand as necessary. In the US there are around 30 million potential users. Not a pond by any means, but not an ocean either.

So, does knowing who your users are make it easier or harder to attract them? I guess this is something I will find out soon enough. Here are some random thoughts about it though:

• The viral effect could be more rapid as the market is smaller and therefore likely to be a tighter group in the real world. However, the smaller potential user base could also be detrimental as it may not have the critical mass necessary to actually go viral in the first place…
• With a smaller group who may actually know each other in real life, a single misstep could spell disaster. However, there are currently few offerings in this market and those that exist are poor. That is, expectations might already be low…
• I know who they are and I know where to find them. In fact, there are several “hubs” which could be central points for locating potential users and spreading the word. However, the domain is far from my expertise, so a straightforward approach may not work best. I have access to addresses, email, phone number, etc. of the “hubs” and could get in contact with them in any number of ways. I think I may need to approach groups of these “hubs” in different ways and see which approach gets the best results.
• I strongly believe that if I build a better site with the user’s interest in mind then I will not need to worry too much about getting the users. That is, I won’t need to sell them on the idea. They will want to use it because it fulfills a need in a useful way. My naivety on this subject is going to be tested…

Let me know if you have any other thoughts or opinions on the matter.