New Orleans’ Neighborland

I met Dan Parham and Candy Chang last summer at Launch Pad.  It is a familiar scenario for me, Dan had emailed me and asked me if he could come by and tell me about his startup, Neighborland that they were launching in New Orleans.  I was excited about the potential real world impact that Neighborland would be able to have in New Orleans.  New Orleans has incredibly engaged citizens who care about this city and care about their neighborhoods.

So, I invited Dan to speak at TribeCon, our conference about online communities creating offline change.  I could sense the audience being moved by the way Neighborland empowers people to take action on the issues that matter to them.

A few weeks ago, I decided to try it out myself.

I am passionate about the importance of Tulane bringing its CS Department back online so we are graduating talented engineers in New Orleans and building a pipeline of talent.  I posted the idea on Neighborland.  This activated a conversation around the topic that struck me with the intelligence and civility of the discourse and most importantly the desire of people to take action.  It spurred a piece in the local press as well as a meeting with Ram Mettu, a faculty member at Tulane which is spurring some exciting developments that we are hoping to announce at Launch Fest.

Today I’m thrilled to announce that Voodoo Ventures is investing in Neighborland alongside an amazing group of co-investors including The Obvious Corporation, True Ventures, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, and Crunch Fund. My central thesis with Voodoo Ventures is to “play where web meets world” and Neighborland has the potential for tremendous real-world impact.

Last year at Launch Fest, I focused on the importance of local angels in New Orleans to get engaged in New Orleans startups because we can catalyze deals that result in investment by top-tier VC’s. This deal is evidence that strategy works.  Now we’ve all got to keep cranking.

Let’s connect on the issues that matter to us and take action on Neighborland. Together we can make our neighborhood, New Orleans, and the world a better place.

How to be an awesome business co-founder

A few weeks back, I wrote a post about finding a technical co-founder.  I’ve been having some conversations lately with developers who are looking for a business co-founder.   I like the model of hustler & hacker co-founders. Here are some qualities of a great business co-founder.

An awesome business co-founder is:

  • A great producer of work-product – skilled at excel for financial models, powerpoint or keynote for pitch decks, writing for web copy, email updates. By great I don’t mean a resume that says “capable” at those software programs – I mean someone that knows how to create a financial model, builds beautiful decks, and writes really well.  You should be impressed when you see their stuff.
  • A hustler – someone who likes talking to people, has done cold calling in sales at some point, has a knack for getting meetings, loves going to networking events.
  • A leader - has taken a leadership role in their community, organizes events, has a blog, has an opinion, speaks at conferences and events – someone who puts themselves out there.
  • A doer - takes stuff and runs with it.  Sometimes termed a self-starter, I prefer “a doer” because they are going to get it done, whatever it takes. This may mean delegating, outsourcing, or hiring, but it means the job will get done.  You need to be focused on product development, you want a co-founder who makes your life easier by doing stuff, not talking about it.

A bad business co-founder is:

  • A fake co-founder - someone not up to the challenge that you are plugging in just to fill the role b/c you think you’re supposed to have a co-founder
  • An idea guy or gal - someone who thinks they have brilliant ideas that someone else should implement
  • A talker – the opposite of a doer, a talker just talks about stuff that should get done, but never seems to be pulling their own weight
  • A big leaguer – someone who has had a successful career as an executive so they think the daily grind of getting stuff done is below them

Of all of those, the one I look for is the producer of work product.  It’s so important to be able to produce high-quality output.  Just like writing code, a business co-founder should be capable of producing business stuff.  What do you look for in a business co-founder?

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