INTELLIGENCE VOL.

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Fall 2012 Edition Featuring great minds from 500px, Bank of Montreal, BetaKit, TalentEgg, CoralTV, Jet Cooper, XMG Studio and Facebook.

THE PILLAR TO SUCCESS

BUILDING EARLY

Photograph by Fidelity Format

Often, we hear from entrepreneurs that their major piece of advice is to build early, fast. I remember thinking to myself, Gee, I really need to learn how to code. But thats not the fastest route to building something. Picking up code is by no means an easy task, and you may not be too passionate about learning up 4 different languages to build something. So what if youre not techni-

cal or interested enough in code to build something? Is it something you can give up? It gives you confidence to be ready for everything, says Evgeny Tchebotarev, founder of 500px. Were seeing students where when they graduate theyre not ready for real life. So, its important to build. What can you build, as a non-technical entrepreneur or artist?

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MINIMUM VIABLE PROJECTS

Build something that you can test with customers as quickly as possible, advises Vidyard founder Michael Litt. When we consider what it means to build, or to be involved with a startup, or to practice lean methodology, we can apply this in everything from an iPhone application were building to a theatrical play that were putting on in a local concert hall, says Satish Kanwar thoughtfully. The ability to build something rests inside the core competency and specialization people have. If youre in theatre or writing, perhaps you can create a minimum viable script or draft of a piece of work, and share the concept with your potential viewers (usually friends and family), and then revise it. If this is your first project, the key is to make sure its at a scope which you can sprint through in a couple of weeks (at most).

HACKATHONS
Hackathons and appathons are typically 24hour, 48-hour, or 72-hour periods of time where participants code and create something as a series of teams. Using this same constraint, entrepreneurs or artists can do the same thing; push through a couple of days (often on very little sleep) to create something awesome over a very short amount of time. This can then serve as a minimum viable project or product for something in the future. It can also help entrepreneurs gain a better understanding into the entire process of creation, and how it feels to finish something under a tight deadline. [Editors note: I never really observed my own capacity for work until I set a tight deadline for my own minimum viable project.] Essentially, this is the premise of programs like StartUp Weekend but if youre persistent enough and if youre willing to take a weekend out to do nothing but create something awesome on your own or with some friends, you

Photograph by Fidelity Format

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may be surprised with what you can come up with. (Make sure you dont get distracted ban all unnecessary screens from the creation area.) Ray Sharma knows a thing or two about hackathons: he currently runs the Great Canadian Appathon, which is a 48-hour period where students in teams of 4 build the best game they possibly can. If you need to do brute force work thatll just take you weeks and weeks to finish, thats clearly something that makes it impractical, says Sharma. But in the case of software writing, or anything thats artistic in naturemy thesis is that anything artistic can be done in a hackathon model. If you need help staying accountable to yourself, check out this post about how you can make things inevitable, and check out a service called StickK. Basically, you are betting on yourself, and you lose your bet if you dont complete something on time. This added incentive may be more motivating than you would expect.

other entrepreneurs. Take advantage of this by creating something online. I didnt really know how to code, I learned in the MySpace phase and I taught myself, explains Casie Stewart. But if you dont know how to code, and you want to make a home for yourself online, go to Tumblr go to Pinterest there are enough free services out there, you can go and you can create something for yourself. I saw a rsum that was done all over Pinterest, I saw someone do storytelling on Twitter. You can make a blog that showcases your portfolio on Tumblr for free which is super-easy and its a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of editor. You dont have to be a computer whiz. If you plan to commit to a blog or website, make sure you post frequently fresh content is the lifeblood of any website. An editorial calendar may help you out with this challenge.

COMMUNITIES
One idea for a project could be to connect with other like-minded individuals for fun. Before refining it and having an entire team to support it, Tchebotarev built his own photo community, 500px, originally as a LiveJournal group and curated the content with his cofounder Oleg Gutsol. Casie Stewart and Erin Bury helped shape and

BLOgS/WEBSITES
The internet is a huge place. The majority of employers now search names of candidates in order to filter out potential employees. Similarly, so will investors, strategic partners, and

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lead GenYTO, a group dedicated to connecting young professionals in the marketing and tech spaces. GenYTO made use of widely available technology, like Twitter and Tumblr.

do you need to go to acquire delegates? Who can you partner with, given your limited funds?

Rallying your community can be a very helpful thing to do for everyone else, and will definitely expose you to great networking opportunities. Kunal Gupta first started Impact in 2004 by simply organizing a conference out in Waterloo. At the same time, the best part is that you can start building something today. (Whats stopWhat kind of community can you either help ping you?) to lead, or can you form a group around today? Were naturally social creatures, and we know we can get more done as a collective than individually. How can you connect with other likeminded people that are also passionate about the same thing you are?

NON-TECHNICAL ROLES IN SOfTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Of course, the most traditional way of building still has to do with creating something from nothing using software. However, non-technical co-founders or members of the team now have an evolved and much more defined role:

Weve shared three very concrete examples of how you can rally the community together. Now, its up to you to replicate it in your own way. If youre starting a LiveJournal group, what is the perk going to be for members that join? (For 500px, it was beautiful photos every day.) Or, perhaps you want to organize local meetups (like GenYTO). Who will host your meet up? How will you find attendees? Who do you want to help you lead this? How will you get funding? Maybe you want to start a conference for the subject youre studying. How are you going to find sponsors? Who do you want to speak? Where will your conference be located? Where

Were no longer at a time where its just a question of, Can we build it? Its not a feasibility question, says Satish Kanwar. But its a viability and desirability question, meaning: Should we build it? and, How should we build it? It doesnt take the designer or developer to answer those questions, it takes a customer or non-technical mind to relate to the potential users and addressable market and to answer those questions that inform the technical pro-

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cess. The strongest combinations are no longer necessarily two engineers its an engineer and a customer mind. That mind may come from a business or economics background, or that mind might come from another vertical where theyre working in, where someones got a drama or communications or political sciences background, and theres a software product that can address a need in that market.

will be much more ready to take on when they graduate. Similarly, Litt shares his ideas on building things. Build things that are easy and create value. Thinking too big is inhibitive to execution youll get caught up in the complexities of execution. Im too stupid to think too much that might be my biggest strength. Its great to think big, but often times our smallest wins end up evolving into something much larger than we could ever imagine it to be. Make a decision to start something today, and shorten the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Kanwar summarizes the changing idea behind building very succinctly: The definition of a startup or the definition of building something was limited to building something like a technology application software and a lot of what we see today is individuals (especially young entrepreneurs) applying that same mentality to all areas of business and all areas of life.

SHORTENINg THE gAP

..my skillset as a finance graduate wasnt where I could be really confident dealing with issues being taught there, says Tchebotarev. Doing financial analysis, for example. In class cases? Perfect I got honours in all my classes. But real-life things, where you can actually put real money on the line? And do some financial analysis for some real companies that will pay you? I dont think anybody will be ready without the help of a bigger firm that will cover their mistakes and make sure theyre fixed before the reports are published, or whatever. It takes a lot of guidance. If somebody were to start early, and get most of the mistakes fixed, or a lot of the steps completed, then they

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