Berberian's Blog

My Trip to China

I just came back from three weeks in Conghua, China visiting our factory. Here are some pictures. I know, it all looks lovely and idyllic. But remember, with pictures it may look pretty but it may smell (or taste) bad. I have to say - this last trip I began to appreciate the Chinese culture and lifestyle a bit more. If I just had a true non-smoking room and a bed a tad bit softer than concrete, I'd appreciate it even more. Enjoy.

My Hotel

Karaoke Club Attached to My Hotel (aka brothel - floors 1-7)

Sphero Doing a Figure 8 in the Lobby of Karaoke Club (I wrote that macro)

View From My Hotel Room

Arched Bridge at Night

Festive LED Tree Outside Karaoke Club

River Walk

River Walk From Above

Taxi

Liuxi River National Forrest Park

Liuxi River National Forrest Park Boat to Monkey Island

Dave Feeding Monkey - Monkey Island, Liuxi River Park

Food on Menu with English Translation (yum "godmother")

Trip to Shenzhen Electronics Market

Our Factory Lobby (we have a nice CM)

Where We Work

Fire Drill at Factory (they set a fire, evacuate, call local FD, and test all systems)

One Big Goal

Today at Orbotix we finally transitioned from taking reservations to taking orders.

Orbotix is a very different company.

Normally my equation for running a tight business machine (TBM) is:

O - order = roles identified, optimal work environment, ample resources
P - process = task broken down into manageable work units, repeatable, proven and well documented methods to accomplish work
R - rhythm - predictable progress on work, resources operate at known times, work output is a function of resource availability

TBM = O x P x R

Perhaps the military made me value these things - or my mom (I think my mom was a drill sergeant in a former life). Anyhow at Orbotix we have about 80% of each item - which means the Paul TBM score says we should be operating at 51%. But we’re not. In fact in the seven businesses that I have run - this one is getting more done, faster with less resources than any other business I’ve managed. And it all has to do with the extreme focus on hitting the one big goal.

This isn’t a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) - is a very specific point in time with a very specific accomplishment.

Our goal is to ship Sphero in 2011 (for the holidays). Everyone knows this in the company - everyone knows that when the product ships they need to take pride in what we’ve built and feel that the product - while it can be better (everything can) - is pretty damn awesome as is.

Surprisingly this adds order to everything at Orbotix. What we lack in process we make up for in focus. There is no ambiguity in what everyone is working on. No one feels like they are just drifting. The pressure is high, the tasks feel doable but just barely, and the excitement is real. It is a race and the magic date is not now, nor ever was a guarantee - but we are working hard to hit it. And as of last night - the goal is in site and it now feels like the momentum we have built over the last year will carry us over the line.

So while Orbotix is the least on the Paul TBM scale - it is first in getting things done. I recognize this magic is only possible because everyone in the company has signed up to hit the common goal. Once we launch, we will have numerous goals: V2 of the product, support for V1, expanding distribution, building hype, on-boarding developers, promoting apps, customer support - all of which will require more discipline to manage.

But for now, we just have one thing left - ship!

And this picture says it all: Ross, as well as Jim and Gerrad, spent the night (another 5 people stayed until 3:30am) just to make sure the web site launch went smooth and our fans could easily convert to paying customers. As Ross said before he went home to shower, “Orbotix is my life.” Yep - he’s single. I’m proud of our team.

Sleeping on the Floor

As I type this Adam is asleep on the floor in the office next to mine. Earlier this week Ian slept on the couch. They remind me of such fond days of yesteryear...

When Joel and I started Link-VTC in June of 1993 we decided that we would run a global video conferencing call center that was open 24 hours a day 365 days a year - with just the two of us. This meant one of us had to stay at work every night. When it wasn’t my turn to sleep on the floor I would wake up in the middle of the night and call the office to make sure Joel answered the phone. If he didn’t have a chipper voice I would badger him, “You weren’t sleeping - what if JP Morgan Japan calls?” He hated that part of my behavior. When we finished our shift we would work a full day - sleep would come the next night. A year later we brought on two new partners, Jim and Art - they had to take their turns doing the night shift shift as well. It was right of passage, a show of commitment to the company and a badge of honor. The people who slept at work were the most important people in the company.

Ian and Adam, I understand why you sleep at work. Your commitment to this business is as true as a mother’s love for a child. So while I tell you to go home and sleep, only you know when it is time to leave your baby. And frankly I’d be disappointed if you didn’t work so hard. I’m glad you feel so connected to your work that the office is your home.

There were times at Link-VTC when one of us would look over at the other partner and say, “Dude, you are tired go home. You aren’t doing good work.”

Some say we have no work life balance. I disagree completely. I don’t need to time slice everything in perfect proportion. There are times in your life where you can and should work really hard. This is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want folks to be so tired they do a crappy job, but we all can work more than 8 hours a day.

I understand the concept of pacing yourself. Some marathon runners can run at a 10 minute a mile pace others at 5:30. The 5:30 minute guys are generally younger and train harder. They also win the races. You aren’t going to become a world class athlete by taking PE class in high school. You got to work harder than anyone else to rise to the top. Same in business. You need to work harder when you are younger because you can. As you get older, like me, you can taper off a tiny bit.

And my wonderful wife Renee - she get’s it. We make a point to connect several times a day by phone, dinner or lunch when possible and on weekends. Since she knows I’m going to be working hard to get this business going, she has gone back to school to get her degree in film. Our 16 year old daughter is so busy with school, acting and friends that we hardly see her now. That said she sees how hard her mom and dad work and that has translated into her strong work ethic. The best way to lead is by example.

Are we crazy for working so hard? Isn’t life more than work? Most of the impact we have on others comes through our work. Building a family, raising a child, being a great athlete or writer, helping the poor, starting a business - all work. The harder we work the more good we can create in the world.

A robotic ball - where is the good in that? Think of the lives of all the folks who earn a wage in a factory making the ball, and all the store clerks selling the ball, and the hours of fun people will have playing with the ball, and the one child who will be inspired by the ball to pursue a degree in engineering, and the breakthrough in user interface design that this and other devices spark. Who knows where this all leads? But I have never seen anything great that was created with average work, modest commitment, or a dispassionate team.

A founder can love a business like a mother loves a child and through that love will come great things. Ian and Adam I feel the love.

We eventually hired a dude to work the night shift and I haven’t slept on the floor since.

But I still called him in the middle of the night.

Lucky Number 7 - Orbotix

Well it is official - I’m now the CEO of Orbotix (formerly Gearbox) - my 7th company.

Gearbox is a 2010 Boulder Techstars’ “graduate” that I had the incredible opportunity to mentor over the summer. Ian and Adam, the two founders, impressed me so much with their passion and talent that I just found it impossible to stop thinking about their business. We spent a lot of hours over the summer working with each other to focus and refine their idea and during that time we developed a great chemistry. I was honored when they asked me to join their team and today we’re happy to announce that we closed our Series A investment lead by Brad Feld of the Foundry Group.

The idea is simple: we are reinventing the ball. Sounds crazy - so let me explain (mom it is OK if you don’t get it - I tend to make more money on ideas you don’t get).

We all walk around with these incredibly powerful computers in our hands - smartphones like the iPhone and Android. Right now they really only serve as a connection to the virtual world - that is they don’t really control much of the the things we interact with on a day to day basis (actually nothing for most of us). But it seems inevitable that soon - very soon - we’ll be able to control all sorts of things around us. Some things will be common like unlocking doors, changing the channel on the TV and starting cars - but other things - not yet invented, will change our world because we can now separate the compute intensive functions from the physical device. On top of that, the two way communication capabilities will allow us to create inexpensive devices that simply didn’t exist in the past. Think about it - even the most sophisticated remote controls are only one way devices - they send a command and something happens. You change the channel but the remote doesn’t know the channel has changed - it doesn’t even know if it is connected to the TV.

Great so what does all this have to do with balls? Well over the summer Ian and Adam started thinking that simply making your phone a remote control isn’t really a killer app. Most of the apps on the iPhone and Android are games and entertainment - it seems any new device that leverages this powerful computer in your hands will most likely be something that gives the user a new entertainment experience. So they came up with an idea that couldn’t exist before today - they decided to make a robotic ball that is not only controlled by the phone - but now it becomes the object in n number of new games and applications.

It is more than a ball - it is an entertainment platform. We are building an API that lets any app developer control our robotic ball based on what software is running on the phone. Drive the ball through a maze that shows up on your phone but takes place on your living room floor. Then battle your friend by playing a game of sumo on a table top. Play with your cat and have her chase the ball around the house while you control everything from your sofa.

Sounds simple and it should - but it is actually very hard to make on many levels. Basically if we can build and control a ball we can control almost anything.

So we’re just getting going. Checkout our website and blog for progress and follow us on twitter @orbotix.

Now we’re rolling (be prepared for a lot more bad ball jokes).

Mentor and Mentee

At some point in my life - not sure when - I became a mentor. It sounds much more authoritative and accomplished than it is - basically I share my experiences and from that offer suggestions.

For the past few months I’ve been mentoring some of the founders at a couple of Techstars companies. I’ve actually mentored companies every year since Techstars started and invested in several of them. On top of that I’ve mentored folks in non business situations ranging from a school principal to a priest on financial matters.

Now that Techstars Boulder is over for the summer, I started reflecting about all the various mentor/mentee relationships I’ve had over the years.

So what makes a good mentee from a mentor perspective?

Well for one it is not to take my advice without careful consideration. In fact I’d be really bummed if a mentee did everything I suggested. What I really want is for the teams to engage in a dialog that forces them to think about their business.

Making a suggestion or offering advice is an invitation to explore a different angle - it may be a dead end - but it may lead to something better or offer a path to solve a problem.

So here is what I like from mentees and what I try to do with my mentors:

• Regular meetings with mentors - mentees must take the initiative to set a schedule
• Regular updates on the status of the company
• Follow up on things discussed - typically this means researching something, talking to someone or getting more info regarding a critical assumption
• Engage in a dialog about advice - the mentee should be able to explain why they differ or agree. Can the mentee take the advice and make it his/her decision or are they simply trying to please?
• Resolution of conflicting advice - mentees seek to drive consensus amongst advisors - or consensus amongst teammates
• An attitude of wanting to be coached
• An understanding of the market - as a mentor I might rely on the mentee’s knowledge of the market to help guide my suggestions - a good mentor doesn’t need to be an expert on the market (it helps) but rather has similar experiences dealing with the mentee’s challenges

Here is what doesn’t work:

• Not following through on items discussed - wanting to make decisions without data, experience or conviction
• Not willing to defend decisions
• Unpredictable communications
• Argumentative behavior - this shows a lack of desire to be coached
• Inability to accept reality - holding onto ideas in spite of evidence to the contrary
• Unrealistic expectations regarding the market
• Fairytale expectations of sales or the ability to build something in an unrealistic amount of time
• Lack of talent - trying to do something so far beyond the team’s capabilities
• No passion

I’ve experienced each of the items listed above - both good and bad in the past. Mentors are here to help. Mentees you get what you put into the relationship.

One last thought, many of my friends are mentors for young companies and NEVER have I heard one of them say, “Those dudes at XYZ just keep bothering me and asking for advice.” If you have a mentor and you like them - use them. Chances are they are more willing to help than you are willing to ask.

Crazy Airport in Paridise

Well after a 5 days of rain - we had 2 days of sun. Yesterday we got a treat and visited the tower at the St. Bart's airport. It's an incredible airfield where airplanes have to make their approach between two mountains, land at a steep angle, and stop the plane in less than 650m or end up on the beach. The beach BTW is beautiful and there is no fence between the departure end of the runway and sunbathers. During peak season - 200 aircraft arrive/depart from this tiny airfield. Check out the video of a crash that happened in 2009.

Beach Meets Runway

Notice Yellow Buoys to Show Where Not to Swim in case of a Crash

Can't Beat a Bad Market

I’m at my favorite vacation spot in the Caribbean and it’s raining - a lot. Which isn’t all bad - it’s allowing Renee and I to get caught up on stuff and just be with each other.

It is also a good time for me to reflect on the past several months. Since September 2009 I’ve been with Zettasun - a solar panel startup that has some very special optical technology that allows a fixed panel to track and concentrate the sun as it moves across the sky.

My job as CEO (Cash Extraction Officer) is to raise money to build our panel - we did a few rounds of angel money to develop 4 prototype panels and we now need a real Series A. So for the last 8 months I’ve been out telling our story. Here is a list of who we talked to in order of what felt most logical:

• VCs who should invest (they’ve done other supporting type deals, they have enough money to support multiple rounds, they understand our sub-sector of the solar market, and they invest in early stage companies)
• VCs that could invest but their fund size might not be a perfect fit
• VCs that have competitive companies in their portfolio, new to cleantech/solar or are non-believers in the technology
• Strategic companies that want to support the cleantech space like contract manufacturers and material suppliers
• Foreign investors in Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Jordan, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan and Canada
• Private equity/hedge fund guys
• Family funds / Indian tribal funds - but not really hard
• Armenian mob (not really - but close, we looked to go public on the pink sheets)

Well over 30 face-to-face meetings and over 100 in total.

I’ve always believed that if you have a great team and great technology you’d be able to raise money regardless of the market conditions. I now have a different opinion. The solar market has been soured by several high profile deals that after billions invested are still not showing a profit. On top of that, the price points that everyone thought they had to hit in terms of manufacturing costs continue to drop as a flood of cheap silicon panels from China hit the market. It has become the ole “catch a falling knife story.” When we met with potential investors - they all showed genuine interest - but they were preoccupied with their previous deals - much of the new money going into solar in 2009 and 2010 are either inside rounds or for much later stage companies.

Perhaps it is the team or the technology or the stage of our development, whatever the reason the cash did not come in when we needed it. So we made a very deliberate choice - we chose to stop engineering efforts and preserve the intellectual property of the company. We spent the entire month of April documenting everything we could to allow a restart and buttoning up our patent applications. We also left enough money in the bank to see the patents through issuance and allow some business development to continue.

In the end I never got to actually run or build anything - I spent 85% of my time fundraising and redoing presentations. I actually think we were late for fundraising and a bit early with our technology. If we were raising money in 2007 - I suspect we would be funded. Our technology, however, is most likely early for the market - the entire supply chain for our type of panel is still very immature. In a few years, it will either develop and our technology will be even more compelling or it will go away and the notion of concentrating PV will become the HD DVD of the solar sector.

So now I transition from CEO to investor/board member and the founders are keeping the patents alive while looking for a new investor or partner to restart the business when the time is right.

I really wish it all came together - but sometimes the market headwinds are working against you - great team, great technology - bad market. In this case, the right decision seems to just wait for the world to change.

Open Angel Forum Colorado

Last night I had the honor of presenting at the Open Angel Forum Colorado. OAF was created by Jason Calcanis in response to the ever increasing practice of making startups pay to present their business plans to potential investors. Makes total sense - the startups have no money -why should they pay to pitch. I've been asked numerous times to participate in such programs, ranging from €8,000 to pitch in Monte Carlo at the Clean Energy Summit to $15,000 to pitch at the Private Equity Forum in NYC. Now I'm not saying these are bad gigs - who wouldn't love to go to Monaco - but it doesn't feel like a good use of time or money. Think about it - between airfare and hotel - the cost to make one 20 minute pitch could be a month of burn for a lot of startups.

If the event is really worth it - the process will be competitive - the organizers will stake their reputation on the quality of event - and the presenting companies will get the needed exposure to the right type of investors. That's what happened last night.

Happy to be a part of it - just one word of advise to future presenters - don't switch computers for your pitch - use the one they have (I tried the switch and the projector vomited on my MacBook - which really is not a great way to make a first impression. Live and learn.)

Great job David and Jason - thanks for putting this together and thank you sponsors.

An Open Letter to My Mom Regarding Why the Hell I Can’t Get Free Money From the Government

Dear Mom:

First off - I love you - thanks for the call last night during the President’s State of the Union Address. Yes - you are right - there is a lot of money going to green companies. No - I don’t have any yet. Yes - I know I should try to get some. Yes - I heard Obama say he is going to create green jobs. Yes - our company makes solar panels; we have green jobs. No - we don’t have money from the government. Yes - I think we should apply. Mom I heard you loud and clear - I understand - you think we should get millions from the government - BUT PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN.

The government is not giving away money to create green jobs to just anyone. The government is flowing money into new and existing programs that will distribute some of it according to their rules and ability. A lot of it will be eaten up by earmarks where a company lobbies their congressman to say - we want $10M of that DOE program.

OK the rules go like this Mom - if the government gives you money - you need to have money first - in most cases. It is called matching. So if they give you a million dollars you need to match it with a million dollars. Sometimes they just give you money but that is usually through a University or some national lab - we don’t fall into that category. Let me repeat - we need the matching funds.

The government doesn’t have the ability to manage thousands of little investments - they are not a VC. So they give out a few small grants to a handful of companies then they give HUGE grants and loan guarantees to more established companies that can hire 1000 people overnight - like a Dow Chemical or Ford. They want jobs now - not a bunch of technology startups. A company that can hire 50 folks to install Chinese solar panels on roofs in Colorado is more likely to get funding than us because they can hire 50 folks. We can only hire 2 more engineers to help develop our technology to cut solar panel costs in half; but because we are a year or two away from building a factory - we can get no money today from those job creation programs.

We need to get money from R&D programs which have their own rules and politics. Typically you can’t get big money until you’ve gotten a little money first and proven you can handle it. So we applied for $150K - 30 page application for $150K with a detailed budget! So did 300 other jokers. Only 10 got it (4 of the 10 winners had an affiliation with MIT BTW). That process from applying to notification took 6 months. We have to reapply again for $150K - if we get it, then in another 6 to 12 months we can apply for one to three million. Only a four companies got $3M in this recent round.

Also Mom it takes time. If you apply for a grant it takes months before you get the money at best - which doesn’t work for us - our business moves too fast. We need money now. Government money isn’t predictable - you can’t run your business on grants - it is simply in addition to whatever you already raised. It shows up like a lottery ticket or a check from an aunt that remembered your birthday for some reason. Since you can’t bank on it - you simply apply and forget.

But mom I really don’t want the government to be a VC. I’d rather they incent the VCs to make more investments in clean-tech. Or better yet implement policy that puts some sort of price on carbon emissions - that way green energy won’t cost such a premium - it can stand on its own merit.

Mom you know me - if there is a way for me to legitimately milk the system to get something for free I will. We will keep applying for everything that makes sense - but spending 5 days on an application for $150K is bogus. Our government green investment strategy is short-sighted - jobs now. To build a real clean-tech economy we need smart policy not just cash for short lived programs and manual labor jobs. The government R&D funding process is broken too - better to just give all the money to universities and national labs - let the private sector choose which companies will be the winners and losers.

I know it sounds like we should get money in the press - but the reality is the money isn’t for startups - it is for the well funded or more established companies.

OK I got to go.

Love - Paul

My Incredibly Talented Wife

This past August Renee decided to go back to school - she enrolled at the Colorado Film School. As a new student she decided to dive right in and take 4 classes - one was Short Script Screen Writing and the other was Production One. Production One is all about learning the basics of film making - how to use a camera, lighting, different jobs on the set, sound - a broad overview of the process but nothing super advanced. The students learn by hands on exercises - the culmination of the course is the creation of a 5 minute short.

Last night the entire school got together at the Harkins theater in Northfield to view the best films of the summer and fall semesters from all the students - the Academy Awards for the school. The place was packed - standing room only and hundreds of films were submitted by close to a thousand students - only a handful were selected for viewing. Renee's was one of the few that made it to the big screen.

What really impressed me about the entire program was every single film from the first years to the 16mm cinematographer film makers was of extremely high quality from an artistic and storytelling standpoint. The bar was very high. For a first year student, just being selected for this event is an honor. To actually win an award is even better. Renee actually won Best Film for Production One - she also was nominated for best film overall and best writing.

Congratulations Renee - amazing talent - all of the long hours and sleepless nights plus suffering through my complaining about how you're going overboard on your homework have paid off. Good thing you didn't listen to me.

Here is her film: