I’ve been spending much of my time reading and understanding Startups & Venture Capital, especially in the US markets (which was somewhat foreign to me, in terms of financial structuring - being South African, of course). As many of you know, Synthasite has been under development for a while now, and sits smack in the middle of that over-used catchphrase, Web 2.0. For me, it’s been a great learning curve both from a hands-on perspective (with incuBeta having just raised private equity/venture capital from Mark Shuttleworth’s HBD Fund), but also a theoretical one, where I have been trying to build the mental bridge between what an entrepreneur wants, and a venture capitalist wants.
We’re launching Synthasite Version 2.0 on 1 June 2007 and in terms of the rebuild it will have taken us a total of 6 months from concept to deployment, using a core team of 3 full time engineers, 1 QA/Server infrastructure resource & some very agile methodologies (utilizing Basebamp & Rally) to launch Version 2.0. By comparison, Version 1.0 took the inputs of over a dozen people and about 2 years of development to complete. Couple that, in addition to the fact that we were building an AJAX application way before it was even called AJAX, means that there was a large amount of R&D that went into evolving the product, none of which was wasted, and ultimately led us down the new path that we are walking.
We aim to relocate the Synthasite team (6 people in total) to Silicon Valley in the next few months and run Synthasite from there, spinning it off as a separate entity to incuBeta - which as a Group is growing quickly in many areas, hence the reason to apply a more dedicated and focused team to grow Synthasite. I will be leading the company from there and I have effectively taken over as CEO of Synthasite.
Update: Here is the video embedded for your convenience.
Why are we doing the move? Paul Graham’s article on “Why Startups Condense in America” somehow struck a chord with me. Synthasite is South African homegrown technology, but in order for us to grow the business and stay ahead, it seems like the most obvious move is to base ourselves at the center of the the tech world. That’s not to say that you can’t grow a tech business elsewhere, but for most techies & geeks, at some point in your life, you want to be in a startup in Silicon Valley! Also, I had a meeting with Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn back in January and he basically said to me that (admittedly biased), it’s no coincidence that global companies such as eBay, Yahoo, Google & YouTube are all within a few miles from each other - good point!
Why have we done the rebuild? In short, when we started building Synthasite - Internet Explorer had a 90% market share and Firefox was a 1980’s movie starring Clint Eastwood. That was then and this is now - the new version of Synthasite will be cross browser compatible and have a host of other great features. Bear in mind that we’re only going with an Alpha launch in June, with Beta expected sometime around Q3, not everything will be in the first build.
Another good reason for the relaunch was that the market has evolved considerably since the original planning and build phase, and it was good to take a step back and create a vision for Version 2.0 before jumping straight in. Much of what has been done up to now has been trial and error - with great feedback from our Version 1.0 Beta testers. We now know where we are going, and in the spirit of all things “Web 2.0″ we’ve gone back into Stealth mode until June 1st.
So, a bit of advice to other Internet startup entrepreneurs that I have either learnt the easy way, or the hard way (not going to say which!):
- Read Jason Fried’s Getting Real
- Bootstrap Version 1.0 and get it out there ASAP - user feedback is imperative
- Talk to other entrepreneurs who have been there, done that
- Don’t bother the VC’s until you’re really ready with a focused offering - you only really get one shot to do a solid pitch.
- Just do it! Stop planning and start prioritizing. It’s amazing what we can achieve when we focus and take action.
Here are some of the VC blogs that I read regularly - I don’t necessarily know these guys, but trust me, judging from their content, they know what they are talking about - and it’s worth taking a page out of their book, err… blog.
- FirstRound Capital’s Josh Kopelman - RedEye VC - Most notably, his most recent post.
- Crosslink Capital’s Peter Rip - EarlyStageVC
- Hummer Winblad’s Will Price - Particularly this slideshow/powerpoint that he produced.
- August Capital’s David Hornik - VentureBlog
- Guy Kawasaki’s - How to Change The World
- Union Square Ventures’ Fed Wilson - A VC - I particularly liked this post on widgets.
- YCombinator’s Paul Graham
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Comments On This Post
March 14, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Hey Vinny - Congrats and best of luck to you and the team. I must say I’m disappointed to see an immensely promising homegrown operation leave our shores. I completely understand the business sense behind it, but it is still unfortunate that we haven’t yet created an environment here in SA where it would be beneficial to stay. Nonetheless, I wish you guys all the best.
March 14, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Guess i’ll have to start hanging out in Silicon Valley a bit over the next few months, buddy…
Bit further than driving to Sunset Beach…Oh Well, for Vinnyisms, it’s worth it!!
March 14, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Hey Vinny - Congrats and best of luck to you and the team. I must say I’m disappointed to see an immensely promising homegrown operation leave our shores. I completely understand the business sense behind it, but it is still unfortunate that we haven’t yet created an environment here in SA where it would be beneficial to stay. Nonetheless, I wish you guys all the best.
March 14, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Hey Vinny
Really glad to see Synthasite is getting there. I can’t wait for the launch. I really hope it all goes well.
The advice you gave really hit home, especially points 2 and 5. I’ll start working on them and hey, maybe I’ll see you in the Valley in a year or two.
March 14, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Vin, as happy as I am that it is a great opportunity for you, I am going to miss you a lot! Perhaps you can leave Sharlene behind? Good luck but I am sure you dont need it. Find a place with an extra room, I am already coming to visit!
March 14, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Guess i’ll have to start hanging out in Silicon Valley a bit over the next few months, buddy…
Bit further than driving to Sunset Beach…Oh Well, for Vinnyisms, it’s worth it!!
March 14, 2007 at 6:06 pm
[...] March 14th, 2007 My good friend and business partner, Vinny Lingham, who co-founded search marketing company, incuBeta with me a few years ago, today announced on his blog, that he was spinning off one of the incuBeta divisions, Synthasite, and moving to Silicon Valley with a small focussed team, to try take Synthasite to the level he believes it should be. [...]
March 14, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Hey Vinny
Really glad to see Synthasite is getting there. I can’t wait for the launch. I really hope it all goes well.
The advice you gave really hit home, especially points 2 and 5. I’ll start working on them and hey, maybe I’ll see you in the Valley in a year or two.
March 14, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Vin, as happy as I am that it is a great opportunity for you, I am going to miss you a lot! Perhaps you can leave Sharlene behind? Good luck but I am sure you dont need it. Find a place with an extra room, I am already coming to visit!
March 15, 2007 at 9:39 pm
To this solid list of VC-related blogs I would add Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed, which I read religiously:
http://paul.kedrosky.com
Mike
March 15, 2007 at 9:50 pm
You know its funny… This is the second time in two days that successful entrepreneurs from elsewhere in the world have told me that they are relocating to California — Clay Cook, the founder of ineedhits and now of minti.com — is relocating all the way from Perth Australia for many of the same reasons.
March 15, 2007 at 11:39 pm
To this solid list of VC-related blogs I would add Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed, which I read religiously:
http://paul.kedrosky.com
Mike
March 15, 2007 at 11:50 pm
You know its funny… This is the second time in two days that successful entrepreneurs from elsewhere in the world have told me that they are relocating to California — Clay Cook, the founder of ineedhits and now of minti.com — is relocating all the way from Perth Australia for many of the same reasons.
March 15, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Actually, it’s becoming a global trend!
http://nerdtwilight.wordpress.com/2006/08/12/ne...
March 16, 2007 at 1:52 am
Actually, it’s becoming a global trend!
http://nerdtwilight.wordpress.com/2006/08/12/new-boom-in-silicon-valley/
March 16, 2007 at 7:33 am
Vinny, thanks for sharing your VC reading experience. Best of luck with the relocation!
March 16, 2007 at 9:33 am
Vinny, thanks for sharing your VC reading experience. Best of luck with the relocation!
March 16, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Hiya Vinny
One more for your list:
Rick Segal’s The Post Money Value
http://ricksegal.typepad.com
Sarah
March 16, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Hiya Vinny
One more for your list:
Rick Segal’s The Post Money Value
http://ricksegal.typepad.com
Sarah
March 16, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[...] I would also like to wish Vinny Lingham all the best for the up and coming launch in June of SynthaSite, you can read more about this on his blog. [...]
March 16, 2007 at 6:08 pm
[...] In doing our business planing for Synthasite going forward we were lucky enough to be offered the assistance of a great team of MBA students from Georgetown University, thanks to the Endeavor Network. Thanks to Endeavor, we will also be getting the services of a bright young Harvard MBA candidate later this year for 10 full weeks, which we’re very excited about! I encourage entrepreneurs to apply to join the Endeavor program as the support they can offer growing companies is really fantastic. The Synthasite team got to spend a lot of time with the Georgetown team, both in Washington DC in January and also yesterday in Cape Town, where they made the long trip to come and visit us and present their research to us. It was a great experience, and I highly recommend using these types of resources to assist in business planning in particular. One of the tools that they prepared for us was this Excel Spreadsheet, which can be used by startups to plan and structure their financial cost projections and courtesy of Trey Davis, who created this spreadsheet, who has given permission to publish it on this blog and offer it to anyone who would like to use it. (Please do not redistribute it, instead please link back to this post). The costs and calculations for payroll taxes are for California, but can be changed. [...]
March 23, 2007 at 5:39 am
A really good one that I forgot to mention is Feld Thoughts: http://feld.com/blog/index.php
March 23, 2007 at 7:39 am
A really good one that I forgot to mention is Feld Thoughts: http://feld.com/blog/index.php
April 5, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Nice posting… I’m currently at the stage of figuring out how to get from concept to designed and developed website. Never done it before so barely know where to start. Cheers
April 5, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Nice posting… I’m currently at the stage of figuring out how to get from concept to designed and developed website. Never done it before so barely know where to start. Cheers
April 12, 2007 at 11:45 am
Does this mean your leaving us Vin for good?? Or will you be flying around like a mad man…
Congrats for the Silicon valley move, I cant wait for beta
April 12, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Does this mean your leaving us Vin for good?? Or will you be flying around like a mad man…
Congrats for the Silicon valley move, I cant wait for beta
April 12, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Not sure yet. We’re going live on 1 June, based on how much traction we get, it may be a permanent move!
April 12, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Not sure yet. We’re going live on 1 June, based on how much traction we get, it may be a permanent move!
May 28, 2007 at 1:38 am
[...] to ensure that Synthasite will ultimately meet expectations by the time we get into Beta. In my previous blog post on Synthasite, I explained that I will be taking over Synthasite as CEO and spinning it out of [...]
June 5, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Congratulations and good luck with your relocation!
June 5, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Congratulations and good luck with your relocation!
June 30, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I want to comment on this:
“Just do it! Stop planning and start prioritizing. It’s amazing what we can achieve when we focus and take action.”
You are so right! I know a lot of people who spent damn amount of time developing their soft and eventually they were covered under tiny unsolved details.
I heard that you need to launch a start up when 80% of everything is done and fix the rest during beta testing.
July 1, 2008 at 4:06 am
I want to comment on this:
“Just do it! Stop planning and start prioritizing. It’s amazing what we can achieve when we focus and take action.”
You are so right! I know a lot of people who spent damn amount of time developing their soft and eventually they were covered under tiny unsolved details.
I heard that you need to launch a start up when 80% of everything is done and fix the rest during beta testing.
November 6, 2008 at 12:37 pm
First, thank you very much for the video,Vinny. And I must say good luck to you and to your team.
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