My Startup Portfolio- The year in review

A year ago I was a creative director. In advertising, to gauge my productivity at year’s end, I would take inventory of the crop of work I had produced that was worthy of a spot in my portfolio. I created dozens of ads a year, but just 3 or 4 portfolio pieces, was enough for a stellar year.

I have been an entrepreneur for a year now. I am trying to gauge my productivity:

I have developed four products.

I launched two iPhone apps, one Android App and a text messaging platform.

I signed a contract that entitles me to compensation every time a user clicks a button within one of those apps.

iPhone and Android App Developed for Puerto Rican Insurance Company. Visit:

I recruited a base of paid-users for each product developed in just eight months.

I did not develop a product that did not have a paying client waiting for it.

Since August, my startup has had the luxury of observing end users, providing real data to measure profitability of each product.

I spent more time in front of customers than building web sites and landing pages.

My products only have about 300 users. But I have emailed with, talked to or met about 65% of them in person.

I have users to learn from, but learning from them is not bogging me down.

They have taught me that certain upgrades that are still in the development pipeline add no value and can be scratched, while others that I invested to deploy were completely unnecessary.

I became a business development lead, one-man customer development lab, project manager, tech support specialist, mailman, beta tester, voice over talent, social media community manager, web master and consultant.

I have felt fearless, I have felt scared shitless; sometimes within the span of the same day.

I have met with more lawyers than I’d like to admit and confirmed my hatred of spreadsheets.

I have tried to bite off more than I can chew. I could’ve been leaner. I could have been faster.

There are plenty of things I did wrong, but plenty I did right.

I have swung for the fences.

After a year as an entrepreneur, I have a portfolio, similar to the crop I added to my web site each year as a Creative Director. But the bar is higher now. I am not looking for case studies or campaigns to add to the CV, I’m searching for a business model to add to the income statement.

This is my foundation. A year of interviews, proposals and spreadsheets has given me a clearer picture of the odds each product has of making it. I will invest my time in 2013 accordingly.

Launching a startup David Hasselhoff Style.

One day, while thumbing through headshots of rejected Baywatch models, David Hasselhoff heard an assistant announce God’s greatest gift to comedy:

“Mr. Hasselhoff, that single you recorded a year ago is now #1 in Germany.”

I’m sure Hasselhoff set out to conquer “Casey’s Kasem’s American Top 40” and hear his masterpiece from convertibles on the PCH, but somehow it ended up on the Autobahn instead.

In the short time I’ve been a part of the startup community, every one speaks of founders with the vision to “change the world.” Luckily, the same people usually speak of the perseverance it takes to see your product, your target, your price and everything in between change a thousand times before achieving the “change” that drives you.

I had been warned. But that doesn’t make it any easier.

The past three months have taught me that I won’t be playing at the Superbowl or collecting the Grammy’s I had visualized when I started this journey, but not all is lost. I’m confident that I can find the equivalent of David Hasselhoff’s infamous concert at the Berlin Wall.

After a customer interview on Friday, I stepped into my car and uttered what sounded like God’s greatest gift to a startup: “I think I’ve found the right way to distribute our product.”

Who knows where my new “Significant Path to Customers” will take me. That uncertainty comes with the territory.

Life as an entrepreneur has already made it common for me to utter perfect quotes for blog posts to myself while I step into my car. I can live with this, but drunk dialing my 3-month old daughter with a mouthful of Carl’s Jr, is where I draw the line.

P.S. Love the term “Significant Path to Customers” heard it on a talk from Ash Maurya, check him and his new book out on twitter @ashmaurya.

Here’s a List of Albums  and Songs from Hasselhoff’s Discography Includes Classics like:

Albums:

“Night Rocker”

“Knight Lover”

“Du”

“David Hasselhoff Sings America”

“David Hasselhoff Sings America Gold Edition”

Singles:

“Flying on the Wings of Tenderness”

“Do the Limbo Dance”

“Hands up for Rock ‘n’ Roll”

And my personal favorite:

“Wir Zwi Allein”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hasselhoff