Tim Berry

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• My team run a tech startup company in africa with freemium options. No developer/programmer amongst us. Getting the right people to do the job locally is messy, and outsourcing to foreigners is costly. Should keep running our ideas through ready made scripts?

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    I think you’re saying you don’t have a choice, right? No programmers among you and you can’t get programmers because it’s too messy or too costly. So I guess you’re stuck with your only option, and good luck to you.

• I'm about to launch a Beta Web Project next month. What are the most important issues to monitor at this point? Is customer feedback or technical resources?

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    Sorry, both, with emphasis depending on what happens with the beta program as you get going.

• We are a team of three professionals with 10+ years of success in traditional corporate environment - some good areas like Development, NPD and Consulting. We are earning enough money to bootstrap ourselves. But we are also locked into 9-to-5 (more like 8-to-8) work day. Not enough time to work on our idea and too many responsibilities to drop so we could join a usual accelerator program. I bet there are thousands of people like us wanting to join the start up movement. Any advice for us?

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    Be honest with yourself: if you are locked into 8-to-8 work days, then no, you aren’t earning enough money to bootstrap yourselves.

    Develop a plan-as-you-go business plan, not a big formal document, but a good short specific practical plan including key points of strategy, metrics, review schedule, basic numbers, and milestones and responsibilities. Use it to manage your transitions, one by one, from wage earner to entrepreneur.

• What sort of team best suits working with licensed technology from universities? Have you ever seen them include undergraduates?

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    There’s going to a natural bias towards theoretical and academic, which one would hope gets compensated by having a team full of practical business experience.

    I may have seen one of these teams with undergraduates, but that’s going to be the exception, not the rule. And exceptions are fine, everything in startups is on a case-by-case basis.

• Do you feel startup also means a group of people which fulfill all roles in development, marketing and product management as such. If any of these roles are not satisfied somehow by hiring other with founders or via one super human fulfilling multiple roles, will startup survive in general? How much would be success rate for such a scenario?

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    There’s a significant difference between covering all the key and critical roles, on the one hand, and covering all roles in development, marketing, and product management on the other. Most startups survive the early stages by making compromises between what’s ideal and what’s possible.

    Use good judgement. Distinguish between must-have and nice-to-have. Very few startups have everything right from the very beginning.

    You can’t wait until all the street lights are green before you start driving.

• How easy is it to attain a software patent? I understand that in the U.S. once a patent as been filed, it may take 1-4 years before it is granted. What kind of intellectual property protection am I given during the 1-4 years when it is still being filed?

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    You’re asking the wrong person. I look at the area of software patents and I see repeated abuses by patent trolls taking advantage of patents that should never have been issued for stuff that everybody is using. I think the patent system is broken because it doesn’t protect real inventions and it feeds the trolls.

    So you should ask this one of a patent attorney, or search it on the web.

    For the record, I programmed Palo Alto Software’s early products by myself, and then I was still doing a third of the code when we first launched Business Plan Pro, and I have no patents. Trade secrets and copyright are what we’ve got in this business, in my opinion.

    But beware, I could be giving you really bad advice. This is something I don’t know. I don’t want to give you the impression that I think I do.

• Should we reinvent the board meeting?

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    I don’t know about that. I’d say fix the ones that aren’t working, and the things that aren’t working about them. There’s nothing per-se wrong with a board meeting. I think it’s like any meeting for any company: some companies manage meetings well, and make them work, and some don’t.

• I want to be an Entrepreneur, should I study the MBA?

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    I’ve posted a lot on this topic on my blog:

    http://timberry.bplans.com/2011/03/whats-an-entrepreneurs-mba-degree-really-worth.html

    http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/09/mba-as-wasting-time-and-money-with-apologies-to-dentists.html

    http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/04/read-this-before-getting-an-mba-degree.html

    http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/04/mba-or-start-my-business.html

    And for more, the category “business education:” http://timberry.bplans.com/category/business_education

• So, like alot of other people i've got a great idea for an app that would help solve problems for Large/Small businesses or even individual people. I'd like to develop it, but right now i've got to learn the more popular format for apps IOS and seems like its going to take a year or two to do that.. Any suggestions on how to seach out like minded entrepreneurs?

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    I think you start searching relevant keywords in Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and Google+ and when you find people who seem to be talking about these topics (meaning posting, updating, or tweeting) follow them and connect with them. Read the links they post, see what’s interesting. Find blogs you like that cover these topics and read the comments.

    It’s a delightful new possibility that we didn’t have in the old days. Social media is so powerful for this, I’m just amazed. Enjoy the new world.

• I have an idea for a website and need a programmer to partner with that will do it for equity in the concept? Any thoughts on how to find someone?

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    I answered this question in more detail about an hour ago. I say don’t give equity to a programmer until you know her or him well and want to work with her or him forever. And — slightly different from what I answered earlier — think of it as dating and have a cup of coffee together before you spend the night. Which in this context means cough up the money and pay a programmer for at least a milestone or two, preferably more, before you’re offering anything long term.

    As to how to find somebody, I suggested 99designs earlier. I’m really impressed with how they do contests to connect entrepreneurs to designers and developers.