Investing your expertise, credibility and network for an upside.

(Note: SweatInvestors are welcomed to make posts from interesting events, especially if the events are “invite only”. Both to share their access as well as to share their unique perspective on the event.)

Live Notes

I’m sitting at a Google launch event with no idea of what will be launched…(for full live blogging notes, go to my personal blog at www.WalterRoth.com.)

A Few High Lights

10:13: Marissa Mayer jumps onto the stage… She outlined 4 major focuses of Google…

10:18: Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering appears on stage… Trends:

1. Computing: Moore’s Law
2. Connectivity: More connections from More Devices
3. The cloud: access to huge resources
4. Mobile devices: video, speakers, gps, camera, etc.

By themselves, these sensors on this android phone are not so special. But within context to the cloud, its much more. They becomes eyes and ears.

Location…wants to make an integral part of all products. In Japan, everyone always hangs on to their mobile devices, always within 1 meter. Same here.

Making “Location” a first class object. (I’ve worked at a Location based company before, I’ve seen this coming, and its huge.  Looking forward to seeing how this rolls out and how it relates to all the GIS/LOCATION/ETC companies that are starting to be introduced to the market. Its just the beginning.)

GoogleGoggles - lets you use a picture as the query. Gives eyes to the internet…

Why is this product in GoogleLabs?  Because we are just in the beginning. Still lots of room to improve…. We are at the beginning of the beginning… 10:43

Amit Gundotra arrives on screen to make the big announcement in search, but first, a little history… The history of information flow:

• Kids asking grandpa, “Should I eat those beans?” “no, they are poisonous”…
• Then the printing press…knowledge spread around the world a lot quicker…
• Servers: billions of documents available to users via search engines…(crawled the info every months, indexed it and then published monthly…then faster, now crawls every few minutes…in today’s world, that is not fast enough…the world updates info every second, twitter, blogs, etc. Info is being created at a pace that we’ve never seen before. Seconds matter).

Announcement: Google Real Time Search Google relevance technology meets the real-time web. Relevance, Relevance, Relevance.

11:03 - Talks about the huge amount of work that goes into making this Had to develop dozens of real time technologies to make search real time…

Query hotness, probability of relevance, author quality, tweet quality, language model, topicality, Query volume fluctuation, etc…

We at Google will not be satisfied when the speed of light is the only barrier between you and your information.

11:07 - Back to Marissa…. Facebook will be providing a live feed from public pages, and will be included in real time search. Same for MySpace.  Twitter is already in there.

Marissa Concludes: last year we laid out our vision of search (the 4 modes). Now we talk about adding eyes and ears in real time. We did a lot in just one short year.

Q: Can you disclose the financial details of these partnershps? Or at least if there are details?

A: we can’t disclose the financial details.

Funny back and forth, as expected, no comment. Interesting implications either way, great question…after the event as the guy from Myspace, picture right, was leaving, as if rock star, people paused asking Marissa questions on the side of the stage, and everyone, including Marissa, directed their attention and questions to him:  can YOU comment on any financial components to the google/myspace deal?  No comment, of course. But could have been straight from a movie screen play.

My Wrap-Up Comments

Today was a great glimpse of what its like to Live Blog with the fishes (i.e., big media).  We’ll see where 2010 will take me and how many “back stage” access events I will find my way into. I look forward to any pointers from readers who are knowledgeable of the press circuit. Google no doubt is an amazing company with a lot of smart folks.  Their focus on search is incredibly smart, especially because it clearly has become the most important component to any application.  Or rather, in my opinion, is 80% or more of an application if done right. Answering the question of whats important to a user right now, right where they are (i.e., here), continues to become more more valuable as the number of object types, contributing devices and real time updates grows and is indexed by Google…done right, navigation controls are less important, and the user is simply provided with a search results page (maybe with special presentation or refinement controls).

On a personal note… One of my goals for 2010 is to set the foundation of getting press passes to unique events to meet and interview innovative people.  So, I’m giving Live Blogging its first go. I’m wiredless up and ready to update live. If there is anyone out there that is knowledgeable about obtaining press passes, or has advice on how to make live blogging, please comment below.

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I’ve started to consider leveraging the Ning community I started to set up awhile back for SweatInvestor. I’m not sure what role it will play, but I’m impressed with its continued feature enhancements. I originally thought I might make it password protected, but I’m playing around with what the public version might look like. If you’d like to sign up and get approved, please follow the link below.

SweatInvestor Invite on Ning

Please note early on it will be in constant change, so please don’t spend much time other than trying it out, filling in basic info and then sharing how you think we best use it as part of the SweatInvestor distributed platform.

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We are looking to create the simplest way to establish one’s SweatInvestor profile.  Below is the current template that requests an image, summary paragraph and a few bullets under each section header (example profile).  At some point, once we create a few standard topics and formats for SweatInvesting, the SweatInvestor Expertise and Milestones will be more standardized resulting in interesting search, browsing and matching features.

The current template is summarized below (a profile picture is also highly recommended).

Summary

A short paragraph that summarizes your background, much like the format used by LinkedIn.

Key Milestones

A few bullets to highlight relevent things you’ve accomplished that are related to your SweatInvestor expertise.  Companies looking for guidance on achieving these milestones may find you this way.

Corporate History

Bullets to the companies you’ve been involved with would be helpful, or you can simply link to your LinkedIn profile (e.g., http://www.linkedin.com/in/walterroth)

Sweat Investing Expertise

We’ll be working to standardize this section as much as possible, but for now, this sections lists generalized ares of expertise based on your milestones and experiences.

Interests

Lists bullets of your personal interests.

Education

Lists bullets that contain any formal education such as high school, college or any special training (please include links).

Sweat Portfolio

List the company name as a link to their website for each bullet. You can add a quick one liner in brackets for each line stating what type of sweatinvesting skills you’ve mainly invested for that company and/or link to the “SweatSuccess” report that describes the company, what you invested and the results.

Preferred Contact

Give the best way for potential portfolio companies to request your consideration.  It could be a link to your personal blog or profile on your preferred social network. It could also be an email address or on to comment on one of your SweatInvestor posts on this blog. We’ll be refining this asap.

Other Links

To optimize SEO in Google, add SweatInvestor type key words and links to your profiles across the Internet and link to them here.

• Facebook profile (e.g., http://www.facebook.com/walter.roth)
• LinkedIn profile (http://www.linkedin.com/in/walterroth)
• Google Profile (http://www.google.com/profiles/walter.roth)

Note: This is a first draft. At some point we’ll get permission from each SweatInvestor to make public.  Until then we’ll just be collecting these and refining the process and templates.

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Goal: Refine the Tagline for SweatInvestors in a meaningful way that reflects the SweatInvestor opportunity at its essence.  Please give feedback to the latest iteration:

Board level value creation and compensation; when your portfolio can’t afford to live without it.

* Thought process: It may be a bit to complex, but each part of it has meaning. The use of the words “Board Level” addresses how this is not about consulting where you get rewarded for time.  You get rewarded for value creation.  Targeting opportunities to make board level contributions maximizes the value you can create in the least amount of time.  Compensation is key, as its hard to know how to structure or even decide when to give stock. Part of the problem is that SweatInvesting can occur or at least start long before a capital table is formally written up.  Addressing the compensation challenge is a large part of the goal of SweatInvestors.  The idea of building a Portfolio is also central to the SweatInvestor mission.  It helps SweatInvestors enjoy the “J-Curve” and reduce their risk across a portfolio. It also helps them establish a track record of having the best people, from the most promising start-ups, want their help. Ideally over time SweatInvestors will build up a portfolio that will have a tangible return. Finally, the timing.  SweatInvestors impact companies the most when the company simple can’t afford to live without their help, but are not yet in a position to pay someone to do it.  This maximizes SweatInvestor’s return.

Feedback and suggestions are welcomed!

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Summary

Walter R. Roth has over 10 years of experience founding and funding technology startups, with experience on both sides of the funding table as a venture backed CEO and as an entrepreneur in residence at a Silicon Valley venture capital fund. He has had various roles within executive management, board management, business development, sales, recruiting, product development and marketing and fund raising.

Key Milestones

• Closed $5M VC financing (02.03.00 & 08.15.00)
• Manged executive team and board for start-up during product launches, financing(s) and growth
• Re-started sales and generated first $1M for start-up
• Identified and closed large anchor tenant (United States Postal Service & State of Florida Turnpike)
• Established key strategic relationships
• Advised and helped prepare CEO’s for successful rounds of financing
• Formally trained in sales at Oracle
• Set up inside sales organizations

Corporate History

See my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/walterroth

Sweat Investing Expertise

• Setting up Sales processes for Start-ups
• Raising venture capital
• Team building
• Product marketing
• Selling enterprise software
• Selling new media

Interests

• Traveling Abroad
• Running
• Cycling
• Reading
• Surfing
• SweatInvesting

Education

• Oracle Sales Training (based on Sandlers Sales Systems)
• University of Wisconsin at Madison (B.S. Engineering)
• Punahou High School

Sweat Portfolio

• Silver Tail Systems
• Watercooler-Inc
• United Technologies (Acquired: Enforma Diagnostisc)
• …more to come…

Preferred Contact

• Comment on one of my posts on the SweatInvestor blog (SweatInvestor Profile Post: walter.roth)
• Follow up may be a comment, new post, email and/or 30-60 minute phone call to assess if there is a match for further SweatInvesting

Other Links

http://www.facebook.com/walter.roth
http://www.linkedin.com/in/walterroth
http://www.google.com/profiles/walter.roth

Note: This is a first draft. I will be tweaking the format of the SweatInvestor profile and then will start adding more of them.  Please feel free to send in suggestions/feedback.

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I’ve been working on “packaging” my Sweat on various topics. One topic is on “cold calling for startups.”

The concept alone makes a lot of sales and non-sales people shudder.  “I’m not a sales guy. I hate cold calling, I hate cold callers…I could never do it…”

My reply to this type of initial response is always simple. “But do you like revenue?  Are you entrepreneur?” “Yes, of course” is the answer I typically get and thus the journey begins, to becoming hunters who feed the tribe against all odds, going up against the scariest of beasts hiding in the deepest of the darkest forests and around every corner…

I know for myself that cold calling is one of the hardest things to do in the world. Equipped with the right tools, attitude and value proposition it can be enjoyable…because closing is fun. Winning is a kick.  With a full pipeline of qualified opportunities, you will close if what you have or eventually find a real value proposition.

Over the past couple of years,  I’ve come across many startups that have no idea where to start or how to begin.  Interestingly, being entrepreneurs they usually are 80% of the way already there. The rest is just attitude, technique and practice.

I’ve worked with a number of start-ups to get sales started, and I’m creating this “SweatStart” to reduce the amount of time it takes for me to help these entrepreneurs and technologists.  I’m also doing it to get exposure to this particular kind of sweat I have to invest, which will increase my deal flow and its quality.

I’m in the process of formulating how I’ll do this. Still kind of defining the best approach.  A few great resources I’ll be referencing:

Close the Deal - A great book with example scripts and techniques to cold call and sell (part of the training that I received at Oracle).

Innovators Traction - A great salesman blog written by Steve Browne (a sweatinvestor) who refined his sales approach at companies like Oracle, IBM, etc.  He started as as developer so he is the poster boy for anyone who starts out with the notion that technologists or entreprenuers can’t put on the pure sales hat when they need to, or when they want to triple their salary. His no non-sense approach is great showing how you can avoid the biggest sin in sales, “wasting time.” I linked to my favorite post of his above, which walks someone through his 10 Steps of the sales process and forecasting.

..more to come…

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Thanks Kli for sending this.  Great read to think about, and review multiple times.

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As we try to define what exactly is a “SweatStart” I’ll continue to post links to what seem like good examples to model it after. Here is one that I often hear quoted by many smart folks in Silicon Valley: Guy’s Kawasaki’s PowerPoint presentations titled The 102030 Rule.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html

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Ok, so you’ve filled out your SweatInvestor profile, now how do you set yourself up for success without investing a lot of time?

There are many ways.  One of the ideas I’m starting to solidify is the idea of The Deck, which we’ll call a “SweatStart”.  A 5 to 15 slide deck that “productizes” a bite size piece of the board level value you have to offer someone that requires very little of our time.

A deck that you could link to or send to anyone that needs your help (i.e., doesn’t require your time, scales) or that you could send and then present over the phone or in person between 30-90 minutes (i.e., when you see an opportunity that is worth investing your time).

I’m working on a Sales for Startups deck that I’ll later use as an example. We’ll also create a SweatStart workshop to get more feedback and to refine the idea.

Walter R. Roth

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