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.

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?

I’m writing this post after the tough process of making decisions for Launch Pad Ignition and communicating the good and bad news to the companies that applied.  It was a very competitive process and we had a lot of great applicants, which made the decisions hard.  This year we added an advisory board to Ignition made up of investors – 2 NOLA, 2 NY, 2 SV.  They provided very valuable guidance and feedback and ultimately we made the decisions.

While its fresh, I want to share some thoughts on why some companies did or didn’t get in, so you can be better prepared to apply next year or to another accelerator.

You need:

• Shovel-ready product development - even if you don’t have product yet, we need to have confidence you’re ready to hit the ground running.  If you’re not building or ready to build, you’re not ready.
• Hustle and drive - the best way to communicate how good you are is to show that you are building this company anyway, with or without Ignition.  We had a founder who went from talking about his idea at our info session in December to having a prototype built before he finished interviewing. It was clear he was building this company with or without us, and this communicated a lot about his drive.

Deal breakers:

• All founders not able to attend the whole program - last year we flexed on this a bit and learned why its so important for all founders to attend the entire program.  If you we’re able to commit to being in New Orleans for the whole program, we didn’t let you in.  The value of an accelerator is in being part of it, and if only one founder attends, it leads to companies not being calibrated.
• Uncommitted founders – founders who still are working full-time or have a second company were a deal-breaker.  You may be able to bootstrap a company or self-fund it this way, but its not an appropriate structure for an accelerator or attractive to investors.  You may see it as a safety net, but we need you all-in.
• Unable to communicate vision – several companies left us scratching our heads as to what they did or wanted to do, even after multiple interviews. You need to be able to communicate your vision succinctly.  Practice this with regular people. If they don’t understand it, simplify and refine.
• Kitchen sink approach – take your core value proposition and then layer on everything else you might possibly build. Not a good approach.  Refine your core value to its core functionality. You can build up later. But you must have something core that makes people want to use your product.

We’re excited to be announcing our class Feb 13.  Hopefully this feedback is helpful to applicants who didn’t get in and to those who will be applying next year.

I frequently get emails that say something like:

I have an idea for a product that I want to build, and I need to hire a web developer or find a technical co-founder. Where should I start?

I’m going to try to give helpful guidance that I give to people who approach me with this.  First, I want to give personal context.  I am a mechanical engineer and a partner in a software development company, but not a programmer.  I am much more of a hustler than a hacker.  So, I do understand when people need to find and depend on someone else to build out their vision.

Step 1 – Check Your Ego

• Talk about your idea. Don’t waste people’s time dancing around your pitch. There is a much higher likelihood that you’ll fail for lack of execution than someone stealing it.
• Don’t ask people to sign NDA’s. You’re already asking for their time and guidance.  Now you’re asking them to take legal risk. (Hint: they won’t)
• Your idea is worthless. Until you have a product, and then a business, you don’t have anything of value.  Ask Paul Graham.

Step 2 – Get Perspective

• You are asking for help. Whether you are looking for a co-founder or a consulting firm to build your product, you can’t do it without them.  And you need them more than they need you.  Any engineer you want already has a job, so you’ll need to be persuasive.
• What value do you bring? The technical co-founder perspective may be – “what do I need you for?” Know what value you bring and communicate it.  Be the hustler to their hacker.

Step 3 – Get Out There

• Go to tech meetups. You’re unlikely to find a co-founder on a job board.  You raise your chance of success monumentally if you start attending meetups and meeting programmers in person.  Here are the NOLA meetups.
• Go online. Learn how to approach the conversation by reviewing these resources on Quora and searching the web.
• Go co-work. I gauge how serious people are by inviting them to work at Launch Pad and meet people.  (If you don’t take me up on free co-working and introductions at Launch Pad, then you’re not committed.)
• Go to conferences. Get out of town, go to SXSW, TechCrunch Disrupt, RubyConf.

Step 4 – Value Your Need

• Reward risk – for a co-founder, even after you get them to buy into your vision, you’re going to have to come up with a compelling equity/cash compensation package.  Remember, they are evaluating their opportunity cost.
• Have a budget – if you’re not looking for a co-founder, but you want to talk to a development firm, then you need to know your budget.  If you’re not prepared to spend 20k+, then you probably need to re-evaluate.

Alternative Approach – Learn to code yourself.

If I sent you a link to this post in response to your email, I hope this is a good starting point for you. Good luck.  Have feedback or other resources? Please share in the comments.

My friend Kenny Nguyen asked me for some tips on where to focus his time, because he, like many of us, feels like he’s doing too much. Since I’m trying to do the same thing, I thought about what I am doing to focus. Here goes:

Decide what is urgent, what is important. Separate the way you think about things and prioritize truly important things.

Accomplish one thing a day proactively, not just reactively. Answering emails does not count as forward motion.

Focus on what helps you accomplish your goals – building a company – or whatever it is – and spend the large majority of your time on only that. If you’re doing more than 20% peripheral stuff (ie community service work) then you should probably cut back.

TribeCon is about the community I love, the tech community in New Orleans. Two things have inspired TribeCon for me more than anything else: First, the emergence of the grass-roots New Orleans tech community that picked itself up by its bootstraps on the heels of Katrina and realized that we had the both the opportunity and responsibility to shape this City’s future. This inspiration led to Net2NO, Launch Pad, the SXSW pilgrimage, GNO Code, and so many other groups. Second, after the death of my father, I examined everything I was doing, and decided it was time to follow the old entrepreneurs’ adage – do work you are passionate about.

Driven by these two things, in the back of the bus on the way back from SXSW in 2009 Adele, Tiffany and I had the spark of the idea to do a conference with the Voodoo Experience. We had no idea what we were getting into, but we pitched it to the community and pitched it to Voodoo and six months later were producing our first conference. It’s been such a great run to work with the amazing people involved in this event. Peter, Matt, Megan, Katy, Tiffany, Adele, Molly, Andrew, Melissa and many more people have given their time and energy to make this such a special event. Thank you guys, you are my Tribe!

I felt compeled to share my personal feelings here, if you have other questions, check out the interview on Silicon Bayou News.

Peter and I had the privilege of visiting a new startup incubator in Kazan while we were visiting our office in Russia this week.  They invited us to do a presentation and we did a talk called “How to compete with Silicon Valley from Russia” with a focus on early stage startups and perspective from the incubator/accelerator ecosystem in the US.  We started by answering the red herring title of the talk… don’t try to be Silicon Valley, build a great startup culture in Kazan.  And we drew a lot of parallels to what we’ve been focused on building in New Orleans.  Here’s my favorite “quote” from the talk:

«Мы любим стартапы! У вас, в России, есть прекрасные инженеры, прекрасные программисты, и мы рады тренировать начинающих бизнесменов, рады им помогать», – считает  Крис Шульц.

” We love startups! Do you, in Russia, there are excellent engineers, excellent programmers, and we are happy to train novice businessmen are happy to help them “- says Chris Schultz.

It has been fascinating to watch the startup ecosystem emerge in Kazan.  The IT Park is a beautiful facility that has opened with a lot of government support.  Of course, the energy is in the grass roots, and the collaboration thats emerging on the ground between Flatstack and the many spinoffs created by former employees is really exciting.

Slides and video of our talk below. We borrowed a lot of ideas from Dave McClure, Paul Graham, and Brad Feld, so thanks to them.

Last Friday HB 597, the Angel Investor Credit Program was signed into law by Gov. Jindal.   I fully expect this incentive to have a major impact on the flow of early-stage risk capital in Louisiana, but its important that you understand it and get an early jump in it to be best positioned to benefit. Now its time to figure out what this means for you.

Here are the bullet points:

• A credit of 35% of the money invested by an accredited angel investor in a certified Louisiana business, credit delayed by 24 months
• Credits capped at $1 million per year and $2 million total per business.
• The total angel investor rebates are capped at $5 million.
• Credit is transferable.
• Program effective from Jan. 1, 2011, through July 1, 2015.

Beyond this, I have been getting some questions for clarification so I reached out to Erich Rapp at Kean Miller.  My questions and his responses are below.

1) The company has to be a Louisiana based company – can the investor be anywhere since it’s transferable?

It would appear that the investor could be from anywhere. I see no prohibition on out of state residents investing in Louisiana companies and I would not think that the La DED would object to having someone from another state invest in a Louisiana business.

2) Can the investor credit pass through to angel groups?

The credit can be earned by an individual or an “entity” such as the South Coast Angel Fund or Launch Pad Ignition. It could then be transferred to the owners of those angel investor groups or the benefits might be passed to those individuals automatically depending on the tax status of those entities

3) Does the 5m available prorate or is it first come first serve? What is the most opportune time to file?

The Act authorizes the La DED to determine the allocation method. They are expressly authorized to use a first come, first serve method, but it does not appear they are required to use that method. Anyone that wants the credits should probably get an application in as soon as the state will take such applications.

Have further questions? Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments.

We all know the talent pipeline is critical to the success of the tech community in New Orleans. After the storm Tulane was forced to cut their Computer Science program.  They are now working to bring it back online.  I reached out to Nicolas Altiero, Dean of the School of Science and Engineering to get a progress report.

1. After the storm, Tulane was forced to cut its engineering program, but has since brought it back online and is bringing degree programs back. Can you share a little about the progress and priorities for engineering?

Two engineering departments, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, were never cut. These two departments have continued to offer excellent programs with high enrollment at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and both have very strong faculties that attract a high level of research funding.

There are task forces in place looking into several potential programs, including Computer Science, Geological Engineering, and Human Factors Engineering. Of these, the plan for Computer Science is the most developed at this point.

After Katrina, a new School of Science and Engineering was created and the two surviving engineering departments were merged into that School along with seven science departments: Cell and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology. The new school has continued to grow since Katrina and is now comprised of 160 faculty members, nearly 1700 undergraduate students, and over 400 graduate students. External research funding exceeds $20M per year.

The Department of Physics, which has a strong emphasis in the area of advanced materials, has changed its name to the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics and now offers an undergraduate degree program in Engineering Physics. We are in the process of creating an associated Institute for Materials Science and Engineering that will focus on research and graduate education.

2. What is the current status of the Computer Science program? Are Computer Science classes coming back online in the fall of 2011?

There will be at least two new computer science courses offered beginning in the fall of 2011, two more in the spring of 2012, and additional new courses will be added the following year. At the outset, a program in Computer Science will be established and it is anticipated that an undergraduate “coordinate major” will be available within the next two years.

3. When are you targeting for the first undergraduate CS class? Are there plans for a graduate program?

The longer term plan is for a full undergraduate major within five years. We are also looking at the feasibility of establishing a formal Department of Computer Science within that time frame that offers undergraduate and graduate programs and is highly research active.

4. With the focus at the state level on digital media / tech companies, there is a tremendous demand for engineering / computer science talent locally. How does this impact priorities with the CS program at Tulane?

There are many factors that are driving our efforts to establish a strong computer science department at Tulane and the impact on the regional economy is certainly one of them.

5. What can the startup & tech community in New Orleans do to support your efforts in bringing the engineering school back to capacity and bringing the CS program back to Tulane?

The biggest factor in developing a Department of Computer Science will be resources. It will be very expensive to do it right. Tuition and research funding will be major sources of revenue but programs at private schools such as Tulane are highly dependent on fundraising and endowments. We plan to spend a great deal of time in the coming years seeking support for this program from alumni, friends, and industry and any help that we can get in promoting this effort and in contributing to it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to Dean Altiero for doing this interview.  I plan to continue this interview series with the other major regional engineering programs.  If you have questions I should ask or feedback, please let me know in the comments.

I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Brad Feld speak several times in the last year, most recently at Launch Fest.   One of the things driving our work right now is building a sustainable startup ecosystem in New Orleans and Louisiana.  Brad set forth his premise about the five components required for a successful, sustainable ecosystem at the TechStars Network conference in May. Here’s my summary of his talk.

While small business is vital to communities, the vast majority of new job creation comes from high growth entrepreneurship, and that is what we are focused on in the startup ecosystem.  While there is much focus on ecosystems like Silicon Valley, Brad believes that there are 100 cities in us that can support vibrant long term entrepreneurial communities.  His premise is informed by from his work in and the growth of the Boulder startup community.

Working towards the goal of creating long term sustainable entrepreneurial communities, we need:

1. Long View – a 20 year timeline – stakeholders must be committed to the community for long term.
2. Entrepreneurial Leaders – it must be led by entrepreneurs – cannot be led by government, non-profits, big companies, VCs, lawyers, accountants, economic development, universities.  All of those stakeholders need to be engaged, but entrepreneurs must drive it.
3. Fresh Meat - need new talent all the time – college graduates & people moving in.
4. Engaging Activities – engage the entrepreneurial community from top to bottom – startup to serial entrepreneurs – get all involved – you need a thing that engages all those people. You want really active engagement for a moderate period of time because its impossible to maintain a high level activity by someone on something that is not core focus.
5. Repeat – must have a rhythm with for a long time.  Must have a beat that last through economic cycles. The only way to build a community is to move beyond boom and bust and build something over extended periods of time.

Thanks to Brad for all the support he’s provided us through the TechStars Network.  I’d love to hear what you think is important to the ecosystem.