Silicon Valley Circus: 500 Startups comes to Vancouver

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It was a little like the circus coming to town for some Vancouver startup entrepreneurs. In this case, it was Launch Academy hosting the 500 Startups roadshow. 500 Startups partner Sean Percival wasn’t directing the audience to take in the stranger acts like the sword swallower, fire breather, or bearded lady. Yet in some regards Silicon Valley must seem like a freak show for those who’ve never experienced it firsthand.

Imagine, where else in the world will you find an accelerator like this? As Percival shared, “at 500 Startups, we’re sort of hyperactive. We’ve done about 1,020 deals so far, deployed about $120 million at this stage. All within the past 4 years. Founder Dave McClure wanted to see if he could fund 500 startups. Originally it seemed like a difficult milestone to hit, but we did it in less than 3 years. The lofty goal is to find and fund to top 1 million entrepreneurs in the world. So far we’ve worked with just over 2500, so we have a ways to go.”

“Dave McClure wanted to see if he could fund 500 startups. It seemed like a difficult milestone to hit, but we did it in less than 3 years.”

As part of scouring the world for top entrepreneurial talent, this was Percival’s second visit to Vancouver. His focus was answering basic accelerator questions like what is needed to get into one. He pointed out that, “we feel there’s a really good tech ecosystem in Vancouver. But it also feels like there’s a lack of capital to a certain extent. In all fairness that could be said about almost anywhere but Silicon Valley, just because there’s so much there.”

The presentation was clearly about helping people understand the opportunities of Silicon Valley. Percival said, “we don’t want to be the vacuum sucking all the best companies up and ripping them out of their home ecosystem. But we do want you to come to the Valley, learn a little bit, hopefully get some money, and then come back home.”

He added that it’s important to “keep engineering at home where they’re safe and can’t be stolen. How’s a startup going to compete when Google is paying their top engineers up to a million dollars per year?”

Percival highlighted 500 Startups’ internal values, and how the same is expected from the companies they accept.

Percival also laid out what gets their attention and opens up the cheque book. “We like businesses that are generating revenue or have a clear path to revenue. We like it when you’re making money from day one. And honestly, good design is now sort of the price of entry.”

“You’ll want to have a live product,” he continued. “An MVP or more is a must. You need to show some initial traction as well. The more traction the better. It makes our decision easier, makes it easier to fundraise.”

Trying to define the elusive question of exactly what traction is, Percival offered some rough parameters. “While every vertical is different, broadly speaking, traction to me is:

Cleanify and VenueSpot are two Vancouver companies who got an early start at Launch Academy, and were then accepted to 500 Startups. While the recruiter’s message is one thing, if you are considering the accelerator route for your startup, learning about the experience firsthand from someone who has lived it is invaluable.

“It’s now all about traction, it’s really the only way to get in. The batches are getting harder and harder to get in.”

Cleanify’s CEO, Justin Potter, shared that “it’s now all about traction, it’s really the only way to get in. The batches are getting harder and harder to get in. For instance, I just talked with some of the founders of the newest batch some with million dollar run rates, or already having raised $1 million plus in funding.” His advice for early stage entrepreneurs is to “talk with other founders, especially those who are a step ahead of you. It’s really helpful learning from their experiences.”

Jerome Ng, co-founder and CEO of VenueSpot, suggested “other Vancouver companies should consider an accelerator like 500 because we have a tech ecosystem, but with 500 Startups you’re actually brought into what the rest of the world really sees, which is the Silicon Valley ecosystem. By getting into it, you’re exposed to all of these other founders from all around the world. You get to see and learn exactly how they run their companies, you get exposed to a huge mentor network, a huge investor network, and all of these things are essential, especially in the early stages of your company when you’re just trying to figure out what to do.”

The competition to get into 500 Startups is global and it’s fierce. For instance, Ng shared that his batch had somewhere between 1,300–1,400 companies apply, with barely 30 being accepted. In Potter’s case over 2,200 companies applied for the batch he was accepted to. Both echoed the sentiment that they’d do it all over again; it was an experience with zero regrets.

If 500 Startups is on your “bucket list” it’s fair to say leave your ideas at home, and be prepared to bring your “A” game.

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Originally published at betakit.com on April 21, 2015.

Musician, Entrepreneur, Author: Riffing with David Usher on Creativity

I was going to make a book in the digital world, I wanted there a reason for it to exist. I wanted it to feel like an artifact , and still deliver a meaningful message.”
– David Usher:  Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything

Sure he’s sold more than 1.4 million albums and won 4 Junos, but that didn’t really grab my attention. When I connected David Usher with being a technology entrepreneur, and that his company CloudID has worked innovative projects for clients like Cirque du Soleil, Deloitte and TIFF, reading an advance copy David Usher’s new book “Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything,” was an easy choice.

The overall design of the book made it easy to pick up. There’s a playfulness to it, highlighted by the wide variety of font styles, the creative use of whitespace, and different paper colours, making for a great visual experience. Even the choice of paper stock made for it being a very tactile experience. It screams, pick me up, open me, bend my pages, and scribble in the margins. It the first book that I’ve picked up in a long time that says, “deface me.”

Talking with Usher, I agreed that the book is a good fit with a couple types of reader. He shared that, “after the talks I was giving about creativity, people were coming up to me wanting to engage with the idea of the creative process; how to get back and re-discover that long forgotten sense of childhood wonder and imagination.”

For someone already doing something creative, but looking to explore the process, this book could give them a different lens on what they are doing. For both the young or the inexperienced entrepreneur, Usher offers some valuable insights. Here are a few nuggets off the pages worth keeping in mind –

• “When you start to see creative thinking as independent of genre or discipline, suddenly you can work on almost anything.”
• “Unpredictability opens the door the the possible”.
• “Talent matters, but work is what delivers you.”
• “Artist or entrepreneur, in my mind we are all hustlers and thieves…”
• “There maybe a few rare geniuses that can pull incredible brilliance out of the air without any prior knowledge or contextual influence. We build off the work of others.”
• “Today, value is measured by attention.”
• “Protecting your idea becomes far less important than your ability to execute them.”
• “When you learn the language of creativity it alters the lens through which you see the world.”

The book is full of some great non-Usher quotes, and this one in particular every startup entrepreneur should keep in mind: “As a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried.” – Ben Horowitz

Usher’s affinity for lean startup methodology weaves its way throughout the book. “It’s a synthesis of those ideas, I think how artists take in their creativity and the process of the lean startup is very similar. It runs in parallel. A lot can be learned by looking back and forth between the two,” he said.

Asking about what sparked his interest in technology startups, it was having a front row seat to “watching the music business implode from the inside out.” Usher added, “I watched EMI, who had been doing the same thing the same way for 100 years, and watched their whole infrastructure, everything that was of value to that company dissipate over a few years. That gives you a choice as an individual; hold onto the old or really go down the rabbit hole for the new.”

With the recent success of Moist’s new album “Glory Under Dangerous Skies”, Usher is preparing to head out on the road for the Summer festival circuit. And with the added focus on this book he admitted that tech isn’t top of mind right now. He indicated that “I have the bug to do something that is some kind of integration with tech for sure. But I’m really looking for something very specific. I think that what you learn from those things that don’t go as expected, is that you get a clearer understanding of what you’re looking for.”

“I watched EMI, who had been doing the same thing the same way for 100 years, dissipate over a few years.”

We circled our conversation back to the book itself. In particular I was curious about his choice of title. Usher talked about how in his own brainstorming sessions, “whether it’s music, interdisciplinary theatre, or tech, we use this technique that’s about letting the ideas (the Elephant) be large. We try to keep at bay the idea of reality. We try to eliminate the word NO. If you put no on all of the ideas outside the realm of reality, by the time you actually get through the grind of the creative process, the idea you have is probably pretty average and already been done.”

Entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity are unquestionably connected, and it’s important to see creativity as something more than an artistic endeavour. Usher wants to make it clear that, “beyond a tiny bit of inspiration, the creative process is wrapped up in a whole lot of structure and grind. As well, it’s not just about building some big project. Creativity exists in the small moments.”

Furthermore he challenges everyone to see that “it’s in conversations, it’s in negotiations. These are all opportunities use creative thinking. Look at the patterns you’re imposing on a situation, and then try to impose a mutation on that pattern to see if you get different results.”

Beyond ideas, and beyond products, the startup business is a human endeavour. “Just like there are waves to building or launching anything, there are also emotional waves within that whole process,” Usher has learned. He knows that “the more complex your structure, the more people involved the more complex those emotions can be.”

In spite of his successes to date, I asked him about managing emotions. “I’m better at the roller coaster now, but even with this book there’s nerves before it comes out. How will people respond to it? What the hell am I doing? But like anything, I’m learning as I go. When this is over I’ll do what I always do; I’ll do a post-mortem and an analysis on my process.”

Title: Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Price: $29.95  CDN

The books are available in the chain bookstores like Indigo/Chapters/Coles as well as your local independent bookstore. Also available to purchase online via amazon.ca / chapters.indigo.ca etc.

This was originally published in BetaKit

photo credit Sabrina Reeves