There Is No Spoon

The economy is horrible. Well tell me something I don't know. I have been effected by it as much as the next person. So how do you get funding for your company in this climate?

Realization: There is no funding.
Realization: There is no spoon.

Just like in the Matrix - when you realize that there is no spoon you can bend it anyway you would like. Recently, I realized that since there is no funding - I need to utilize the resources that are available to me and get this company started on knowing that there is no funding for someone like me. Small, limited resources, limited time. This gives me tremendous freedom to bend the spoon anyway I like.

So here is the plan. Gather my very eager students into small teams of 4 or 5. Provide the tools needed to build a game. Have the team present concept documents, vote on what to build. Since I don't have money to pay them, give them equity in the game they build. Basically, they work for a percentage if the game makes money.

Let's see if this works. If the games don't make money then at least my students get shipped games on their resume. I expect that some of them will hit and some will miss. Just like life.

If The Shoe Fits

Sometimes it doesn't and you need to move on. Let me explain.

Recently I had a funding opportunity presented to me. The deal was to work with a preset team of people (with research, marketing and sales skills; note here that there are no programmers but myself on the team) to launch an online business. Each team member would own an even cut of 49% and the funding source would own 51%. My cut would end up being about 8% of my own idea. It seemed a bit lopsided to me but, funding is hard to come by so I presented the companion website to my book, Calculated Leap. What I discovered was - as soon as I presented the idea, it was liked but everyone on the team wanted creative control of the idea and immediately wanted to change it.

I thought to myself, I guess I can give up some creative control and I continued down the path. As the team worked on it the idea it started to become something else and I began to see that I was not going to be able to recognize it soon. I started to realize that I wasn't just giving up some creative control, I would ultimately have to give it all up. At that point the 49-51 split (which to me was really a 8-92 split) started to feel too steep of a compromise and I pulled out of the proposal.

What I learned was, not every funding shoe fits and you need to find the right one for your project.

Get To Market

Get to market. It is a mantra in my head. It has Bill's voice.

Ok Bill - this is what I have done this month. I published my book, launched a Valentine's Day special for the Unspokens, worked on the Calculated Leap website, talked with Columbia College about building a community game for the XBox this fall, hired my student (who is an awesome game designer btw) to work on the community game for the fall and worked with my three students to flesh out more of the design for the Toxic games. It has been a busy month. Lots of sweat equity.

Just getting to market takes an effort but the market also needs to know you are there. So what can I do to make my presence known in the market?

1. Calculated Leap book: buy distribution package, get the first phase of the companion website done. When I have more to talk about (the website), I can start contacting schools and trying to get speaking gigs.

2. The Unspokens need a viral campaign. What that would be is still eluding me.

That is it for now, I need to get my slides ready for Pecha-Kucha night. It has a good turnout, it will be fun and it is a chance to let my presence be known in the market.

Focus. Always Focus.

Welcome Back

I haven't blogged in a while because I have been working on my book. It is in the hands of the graphic designer now and I am gearing up for the semester. Now that the book is pretty much done I have been thinking about what I would like to do with this blog.

I have decided that it would be most helpful to others if I chronicle my efforts to get my business funded and the other start up issues I am facing. It is a bit scary because it is like letting everyone see what is in my underwear drawer but the issues and problems I am facing will be typical of everyone trying to get a business started and this might be helpful to someone else.

ok - So what have I done so far?

• I have an LLC - it is registered in the state of Illinois as Toxic Interactive, LLC.
• I have a vision and a mission statement that are solid and that I can stand behind. http://www.thetoxicinteractive.com/about.html
  
• I have an entertainment lawyer that I found through Lawyers for the Creative Arts. http://law-arts.org/
  
• I have an accountant that I found through a graphic designer friend of mine who specializes in creative professionals.
• We filed the trademark for Toxic for games. http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=6ovm2s.6.42 - Looks cool huh? The strategy was to have one trademark and then use it for all the games. For a start up this is a common and very practical strategy.
  
• The trademark has been rejected because of Toxic Software - they make hardware and the government thinks it will cause confusion in the market.
  
• I have hired 3 of my students to help put together game design documents for my first 3 games. We meet approximately once a month to touch base and determine the next milestone.

So what is next? My friend and mentor Bill Lederer (former CEO of art.com) says to me "Get to Market."

So how do I get to market? Where is the low hanging fruit? It is important to note here that I am self made and my resources are the same as anyone in the middle class. My choices and resources will be similar to just about everyone embarking on this journey.

My resources:

1. My technical skills
2. My unemployed daughter who has technical skills
3. My students who want to work on games
4. Columbia College
5. My network

Possible projects that can get to market easily with sweat equity and minimal funding (with funding things can go faster)

1. Calculated Leap website
2. Community Game
3. Shopping cart on Toxic Interactive website
4. Unspokens marketing
   

Projects that need major funding

1. Game company (that is all I am willing to reveal for now)
   

ok so my work is cut out for me - what do I do first? remember if you have velocity and no direction you will spin. I am great at spinning.

The first choice I need to make is whether I am going to go for the sweat equity projects or funding. I am inclined to say both but I need to be smart about that so that I don't spin.

Here is a possible list of activities that will help me get to market:

1. Calculated Leap website, I can use my daughter to help me build it.
2. Propose a class for the summer to put together a design document for the community game.
3. Propose a class for the fall to build the community game.
4. Continue an online marketing campaign for the unspokens (here is one for Valentines day: http://unspoken.theresadevine.com/valentine)
   
5. Keep working on Toxic Interactive funding pitch.
6. Work on Calculated Leap funding pitch - this might be attractive enough to get funding for it all by itself.

For today - my activities are:

1. Send new trademark idea to my lawyer
2. Get ready for the classes that I am teaching
3. Get Calculated Leap website (partially done) set up in VSS so that it can be worked on by more than one person.
4. Call designer to see what the progress is on the book
5. Go the Open-node meeting tonight.

I feel focused now.