Startupifier Bootcamp

You’d think that starting your own company and pitching a product would take more than a weekend. But to anyone who attended Startupifier’s Startup Bootcamp, this is not so.

Last October, students, professionals and entrepreneurs—with whatever background—gathered in Thomson House for a weekend of intense “startupifying”. On Friday, they pitched their startup ideas; the best ones were voted on and teams were formed. They had until Sunday to show what they had accomplished!

All the while, seasoned entrepreneurs were around to present advice and give talks on startups and their past experiences. We caught up with  two of them: Gary Haran (GH) and Marc-André Cournoyer (MC), CIO and CTO of SocialGrapes.com, respectively, and we discussed all things startup.

If a student wants to make a startup, what’s the very first thing they have to start thinking about?
(MC) The mistake that we—along with many other entrepreneurs—made is to start coding before knowing if it’s a profitable idea. When you are starting a company, it’s to make money. And it’s often something we forget in a startup and we just think “we’ll code and code, and at some point, we’ll figure out how to make money”. So, one thing that is important is to find customers that would buy what you make, or at least agree that it is a good idea for a product before you make it.

(GH) I totally agree with that and would add that you should talk to other entrepreneurs—Montreal has a lot of them who are willing to give some time to help. Talking to them is great when you have an idea; everything starts with an idea, but if they talk to the right people, that idea can turn into something more concrete.

Where do you go to meet entrepreneurs?
(GH) Once a month, Flow Ventures organizes “startup drinks” at various bars across town, and usually at Brutopia. There, you get to meet a lot of startup people, including students who come to find out about the startup scene.

(MC) Even if you are not look for funding for your company, you can contact those people and they will put you in contact with entrepreneurs. It’s a good way to get feedback on your idea as well because they are all people in the field so they can give you good tips.

How many do you have to be in a startup? 
(MC) It depends on what you are doing. A web startup requires very little resources, so you can be alone. But it’s better to be two because sometimes, you lose motivation and it’s nice to have someone bounce your ideas back and cheer you up.

(GH) I agree. Sometimes you have an idea and you are very excited about it and you basically become drunk on your idea.  And somebody around to sober you up is often good. But again, it’s not good to start with too many people.

Now that we have our idea, we met entrepreneurs and we formed a team, what’s next?
(GH) When we started, we knew each other very well from working together in the past. But when we set out to work on this, it was agreed from the beginning that we would split the profits in half and we officialized it on paper within a couple of weeks. It’s important people do that first.

(MC) Sometimes people don’t realize the ups and downs you can go through in a startup. Some days, it goes very good; and some others, it goes very badly. And you can’t predict it. So it’s always better to sign a contract beforehand.

How do you deal with money and administrative issues?
(GH) For our company, Sauté Applications, we deal with an accountant who knows the startup scene. We tried to outsource a lot of the stuff that we are really not good at. And accounting would take us way too long!

How do you fund a startup?
(GH) Let’s take a look at what happened with our product called Talker. Marc André was making money with his very popular e-book (www.createyourproglang.com) and I had set aside some money out of my pay checks. And this money made us say “Yeah, we’ll do it!” But, we still tried to spend as little as possible. We didn’t even pay ourselves a salary during the period we were bootstrapping. And because we built everything ourselves, it reduced our costs considerably.

(MC) We also had to do some consulting on the side (~20 hours per week) to bring more money into the company. If you have the right skills, it’s very easy to get some contracts on the side and negotiate the amount of hours on the contract and then keep time for the startup as well.

(GH) If I had to do it again, I think I would choose to do only 10 hours of consulting per week to give me more time to work on my product. Consulting is more than the hours you charge, it takes more effort.

Should you keep a regular job while working on your startup?
(MC) I think it’s a double-edged sword, because you have the security when you have another job and you can work on the startup as long as you want. But that’s a problem because there are no deadlines and nothing pushing you to finish. So, had we kept our jobs while we wrote Talker, it would have been released a year or so later. But because we didn’t, it was released in 2 months. We were full-time and we also knew that we had so little money left that we had to make our company succeed. We loved doing this and we were very motivated.

(GH) We worked really hard! But, it was fun waking up in the morning on your product and seeing your company evolve and getting good feedback about it. I agree that it drains you, but it’s a worthwhile experience at least once in your life. And even if you failed a startup, your chances of finding a job after are much higher; the experience you gain is so important.

Do you have to register a name for your company?
(MC) Yes, we waited a month before doing it. But we did it before charging money or even signing contracts. However, if you do the work under your own name, you don’t need to register the company. It’s quite straightforwardly explained on the government website.

(GH) The Canadian government even gives free courses on how to start a company. They have a course where they teach you how to do your accounting as well. The banks also help you open a business account.

Would you encourage students to begin a startup?
(MC) Definitely! You have much more energy, even if you have less time.

(GH) If you are thrilled by something, then by all mean, make a startup. Try it. Go have fun. You might make more than just money; you might just end up being a happier person as a result