tmetzner

Seriously... that's a "radio voice" if I've ever heard one!

Super interesting. Looks like you think there are a wide-range of potential use cases (https://www.getstructure.io/use-cases) but will be curious to see who the early adopters are... thoughts about who jump in first?

Seriously great summary (love seeing stuff like this rooted in real world experience/examples). Thanks for doing!

Predictions on how quickly adoption grows after 1.0?

Two quick thoughts: 1. still fairly wordy on several slides (I know, it's REALLY hard to whittle down more) 2. you only hint at how you might make money: biz model should be very clear (you do a good job explaining how you'll spend $, but not make $)

I'm a big fan of transparency. I'd explain the situation and let them know that you believe what you now own is valuable, but that you're happy to give them the first rights to (whether they hire you or not).

Could offer it as a deal sweetener if they do work with you, but also just offer to sell it at a reasonable price if not. Truth is today it's prob not much more valuable than what you paid for it, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to get at that price.

Totally agree. While getting our company off the ground, my co-founder and I regularly played basketball together a few nights a week. After a long day of the grind, it was a welcome change and I definitely think helped us in the midst of several difficult decisions/questions.

As icing on the cake, we also met what would become one of our first Angel investors while playing!

Really is a head scratcher: paying more money for worse coffee. Understand that convenience is a major factor, but kinda crazy it's enough to justify...

I think you need to get more detailed in your ask. Your answers are probably going to be significantly different if you're talking about white labeling a physical good (like Coffee or something) vs. software.

What are the core needs that a spreadsheet can't solve for small operations?

Very easy to lose sight of this, great reminder! "...most startups are run by complete amateurs (remember the first company you started?), tackling a space they don’t understand..."

I always remind folks that if you're really doing something awesome then competition is inevitable, and in fact serves as validation that you are onto something.

Lots of good feedback already, but one thing I'll add is that you'll also need to be a hell of a recruiter, which can eventually also take a bit of the pressure off (assuming you're surrounding yourself with people smarter/better than you)

Great point--doesn't necessarily have to be an original problem you're solving, nor does it need to be the ONLY way to solve the problem you're addressing.

thanks!

Very cool--beats the hell out of my summer job working at K-Mart when I was your age. Good luck!