Who You Calling a Jesse?

Looking back at 2011, ahead to 2012

If 2012 is anything like 2011 for me I better get ready for a wild ride. The year started off with a pilgrimage to Lambeau Field to see the Packers defeat the Bears and enter the playoffs (thanks @tsand), then lots of good things:

• my third kid was born in time to watch the rematch of the Packers and the Bears on tv for the NFC championship (then they won the Superbowl!),
• my startup (TribeHR) went from a project to a business over a couple months then to a VC backed business ($1 Million) by mid-year,
• raised a $1 Million donation to the University of Waterloo’s VeloCity program from a 23 yr old in March with another $1 Million from the Ontario Centre’s of Excellence in July,
• the 3-pitch softball team I am on actually won a game and had a great season overall! go #abat!
• put a plan in motion for VeloCity’s workspace program to go from 1000 sq ft to 6700 sq ft (opens this winter),
• helped dozens of startups get off the ground,
• taught my son how to skate and decided to help coach with the hockey fundamentals program he is in which meant getting back on skates for the first time in a very long time,
• in November VeloCity was recognized with a Tech Impact Award from Communitech which is something I held as a big goal — building VeloCity into something that has a big impact on the local tech community is something I am very proud of,
• TribeHR was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2011 Junior Business Spirit Awards as well as earning Judge’s choice at Under the Radar in Mountain View,
• and finally my co-founder was on stage at the Canadian Innovation Exchange with TribeHR being one of Canada’s most Innovative companies.

None of the above list would have been possible without my family, the people in the community – startup and otherwise, and the amazing people I have had the pleasure to work with. Thank you all for the awesome year.

The oddest thing that happened was when a car leapt off of the road and tried to enter my dining room only to flip over and land on my friends Jeep. The pictures are just crazy.

A sad point was leaving the University of Waterloo after just over 10 years there (started there the end of May 2001 in the Information and Public Affairs department) and recognizing just how burned out the last year or so has left me. After all that time in one place (go back to 1997 if you count my student time with a short break working with small businesses and the web in 2000) it will likely be more difficult than I think it will to mentally break away from that identity but it is a healthy thing for me to do.

2011 was a year of learning, change, and growth… 2012 will be about my family and what to do with all the knowledge and experience I have gained personally and professionally. Specific goal of the year: be happy.

In closing… the fun part of having a blog for a long time is the old posts. A look back 5 years ago brings back a lot of good memories.

Understanding burnout

Something I believe all entrepreneurs must face every day as they push to build something from nothing is the spectre of burnout. Put simply, burnout is physical and/or/as-a-result of mental exhaustion. Everyone can suffer from it from athletes to stay at home parents to big company executives. People want to do the best they can at whatever they are doing but at some point they hit a wall.

The idea of burnout is not something far from people’s minds as we enter the final push before the holidays. This is a stressful time of year where people joke about shopping or family fatigue. That makes burnout particularly newsworthy this month as well. For example:

• High levels of burnout in drone pilots
• Burnout in athletes mentioned more than once.
• Canadian Mounties in BC are burning themselves out
• Nurses and other medical professionals are showing signs of burnout
• Researcher takes on ‘empathy fatigue’ in the workplace

What makes the problem a very complicated one is that Doctors don’t think they can diagnose burnout. It could be the diversity in how burnout shows itself that leads to the inability to recognize it in themselves or others. Upon some self-reflection I believe I might have some personal experience to offer that may help others.

Recognizing burnout in myself

Over the last 4 months I have struggled to come to terms with why I was so unhappy given I have so many positive things in my life. In general I could see some odd things that I didn’t like about myself:

• I didn’t remember the last time I had a dream that I could remember. I was sleeping so badly that I don’t think I did dream.
• Short tempered.
• I didn’t take care of my house – I really use to enjoy working around the house, keeping the back yard clean, growing tomatoes, etc.
• I didn’t go fishing hardly at all last summer, I haven’t been snowboarding in years!
• I never felt like I was getting anything done even though I managed to attract some significant capital to the two projects close to my heart and see steady growth in both.
• I didn’t believe anyone thought what I was doing mattered or that anyone cared.
• Overall I was a grump.

I knew something was up in August of this year but I struggled to find a way to deal with it. My first thought was to just step back a little, look forward to bringing on some amazing new staff, and try to start a new term with a new attitude. What I failed to realize was that I was circling around the total burnout toilet bowl.

The first self-realization moment of things needing to change was when my son started hockey; he couldn’t skate and he didn’t want to learn. As a Canadian and a parent I felt like I failed my son as I didn’t take the time to teach him how to skate and have fun while doing it. I decided there and then to buy skates, helmet, and a stick. I then found any open ice time I could and took him out. My kids had to be more important than any work I felt I needed to do. The boy now loves hockey and the fun we have on Saturday mornings at the rink is something I truly cherish.

Around the same time something happened to a good friend and my co-founder (startup spouse): his wife gave birth to his son at 26 weeks in San Jose while on a business trip. At first it had an impact but then in mid-October I went down to see how they were doing and see if I could help. At that point nothing else mattered but the health of that tiny baby that was fighting to some day face burnout himself. He is doing really well now.

Those situations, along with my family and a number of conversations with people I deeply respect helped me start to realign my priorities and thinking. It wasn’t an instant fix. It is something I need to work on. I am lucky though, I didn’t collapse and hit a debilitating stage of burnout.

Looking back and times of high stress

In the last 10 years I can think of three different occasions when I was in a similar situation. The first time I started doing my Msc to find value and purpose in my work. The second time I had a very different kind of manager that recognized the signs early and did something about it. I also had a ton of positive re-enforcement from my family and the community to bounce back. This third time though, I let myself be isolated from coworkers and others for close to the last year. I thought that if I stopped doing the things I enjoyed but were time-consuming (like participating in the community) it would help, it didn’t. It made it far worse.

Next time (and there could be a next time although I am going to put more effort in to avoid it), I need to keep my perspective and make sure I find joy in what I am doing. I also need to take more time for the people in both my personal and professional life. Throwing myself at my work does result in achieving amazing things but at the same time, balance is needed in order to enjoy those accomplishments.

In trying to understand burnout my message to entrepreneurs is that you need to recognize when your behaviour or attitude changes. No one is immune to it and just because you haven’t hit physical exhaustion yet you might be reaching the point of mental exhaustion. Encourage feedback from your friends and family just like you would from customers or advisors on your startup. Listen, adjust based on the feedback, and grow.

Further reading

How to avoid or deal with burnout, collection of articles that are worth a read.

Kitchener-Waterloo Turkey drive: Every family deserves a Christmas dinner

The following is my public service post of the season…

The Kitchener Conestoga Rotary Club believes every family should have a special Christmas Dinner, including a turkey. Five years ago, the Club decided to help make that a reality and has since raised $732,000 in support House of Friendship’s Christmas Hamper Program, which shares the gift of food with local families in need at Christmas time.

What are the facts?

This Christmas, House of Friendship anticipates the need for turkeys and Christmas Hampers will increase – that means 3,500 turkeys and 4,000 food hampers to feed over 10,000 people!

What will that cost?

The Kitchener Conestoga Rotary Club’s 2011 Turkey Drive goal is $275,000 to purchase turkeys and food products. We know this is a big goal, but we believe if we all pitch in a little, we will reach this goal, and more importantly reach thousands of local families. For as little as $20 you can sponsor a turkey. Or you may choose to sponsor a food hamper with a turkey for $80. All donations over $20 will receive an official income tax receipt. How many turkeys and hampers will you sponsor?

How can YOU help?

You can sponsor turkeys and food hampers rather than Christmas or corporate gifts; honour your clients with a donation to the Turkey Drive. Sponsor turkeys and food hampers and encourage your family and friends to do the same. Better yet, ask them to volunteer with you to pack or deliver hampers and turkeys.

How can I talk turkey?

Donate securely online at www.turkeydrive.ca or drop me an email to jrodgers at uwaterloo.ca.

Why I think Higher Education should experiment with an incubator model

In Canada the rise of the incubator choices is quite noticeable. The success of the Y-Combinator (YC) model is hard to ignore, it seems to be the accepted way to grow young tech companies at the moment. However, it isn’t clear if the model works anywhere but YC and TechStars, these programs cost a lot of money to run so does the math hold up for everyone?

How many companies make it a big enough exit (assuming you need a $30 million exit per incubator) and in what time frame? In Canada there is a trend that shows some crazy growth in exits but how many are in that ‘big enough’ range or more that haven’t been around for 5-10 years or more? I think one maybe two. It isn’t just Canada though, how many exists are there in a year for any tech startup anywhere? Likely not enough to sustain the current number of incubators globally.

The talent pool is half empty

The limits on size, depth, and overall health of the talent pool is a problem for incubators if you assume that they simply tap the current talent base and help them be successful faster. If the number of exits isn’t currently there then you have to look at ratio of incubators to exits and figure out how many companies it takes to fill the gap (what is the current market and what do you have to create? Yup, it is basically a product you are creating). At a guess, the current level of incubators needs to create a lot of brand new entrepreneurs from those that would normally go work for someone.

There is talent out there but they aren’t being developed in any sort of formal educational process. A VC backed/run incubator might not be the best place for young guys and gals to receive this education for the first time. Not saying it couldn’t work, I think Y-Combinator was initially successful not because of the money or location but because an educator runs the program. In 2008, Mashable was claiming that “Y Combinator is the premier university of Internet startups.” I agree. What motivates YC though? Paul Graham’s comment on my post in StartupNorth offers a bit of insight as well (also with a bit more on why in his Why YC post).

When we started YC, the returns seemed completely unpredictable. (They still do actually.) What allowed us to do it was that we didn’t care if we made money.

An incubator that is about educated the ‘student’ is a lot like higher education and should not be about profit. That might be a values based statement but it is something I believe. If you are measured by the success of the student and not by the profit margin, the student has a better chance at success.

Herein lies the opportunity for Higher Education. Not unlike engineers or scientists, there is a demand for entrepreneurs (or if you are Richard Branson you want intrapreneurs). It isn’t good enough that students have the technical chops, they need to be creative and look at solutions to problems in a way that is willing to take more risks. This is soft skill development we are talking about — you can’t engineer an entrepreneurial process. Being entrepreneurial pretty much requires you laugh at the limitations or restrictions and find a way to succeed. You can engineer an education process that offers some perspective on that but that requires some entrepreneurial thinking to design and implement.

Higher Education needs to look outside of courses and modules, entrepreneurs shouldn’t be measured

Traditionally to address a skills gap in a student a course would be created and the student would receive a credit. This just increases the cost of education for students and if you have been paying attention, there is a bit of higher education bubble according to Peter Thiel. What I have seen from students is that they absolutely are against another course that is outside their specific discipline for various reasons. Enter the incubator model in higher education (or in VeloCity’s case the dormcubator).

Create an environment where innovation, networking, competition, and experience is shared as well as celebrated. Create it  outside of the traditional academic course model. Support it institutionally so the quality and knowledge is passed on (doesn’t disappear when students graduate). Then try to connect it back into the classroom. Leverage institutional Alumni networks for mentors and other forms of support. Don’t be afraid to fail a few times.

There is no set way to execute on this model but you need to try, iterate, and keep going. My belief that in order for higher education to remain relevant it needs to experiment with these different ways of learning. Students will not only appreciate it, I bet they will have a better experience and years later the institution will benefit by having them re-engaged.

Footnote: the incubator model

For those unfamiliar with an incubator or accelerator model, the easiest way to explain it: an incubator is where a group or individual provides resources (money, mentorship, space to work, expert services, a network of people) to an early stage company in exchange for equity or another arrangement. Generally it is always equity but in Canada we have publicly backed models (the Accelerator Centre for example) that charge rent for services or in the case of VeloCity you pay what you pay anyway to live in residence and it is a service offered to students.

The entire explanation of the VeloCity model is another post.

More on incubator in Higher Ed: To Be or Not To Be: University Incubators

Incubator Math thought

Last week I had a guest post over on Startupnorth about trying to understand incubator math. It generated a bit of interest but most notably was on Hacker News where Paul Graham shared a comment:

As in startup investing generally, the expected value comes mainly from a small chance of a big hit, multiplied by lots of investments. You’re hoping that if you invest in 100 startups, one will be a Dropbox or Airbnb.

For this to work, you have to (a) invest in a lot of startups and (b) they have to be drawn from a pool that could include big winners.

The latter could actually be a problem, if you’re not founders’ first choice. If you lose the big winners, your returns might be orders of magnitude smaller, even if you get everyone else.

Yes, you do have to invest for years before you end up in the black, even if things go well. That’s also true for startup investing generally.

When we started YC, the returns seemed completely unpredictable. (They still do actually.) What allowed us to do it was that we didn’t care if we made money.

What I have been thinking all along is that beyond the obvious “good for the community” argument (which I think has more to do with highlighting activity then building real companies) an incubator is a numbers game. The most important thing might that although they should be about making money no one should start one thinking they will. Do it to have fun and see where it goes.

More thoughts to come…