Time-constrained ...

Sorry for the lack of updates. That usually means progress, and I'm too busy to write. Sometimes, however, it means hopelessness. The software startup is progressing well, the six-month startup had some rough patches but is back on track this week. I'll share more when I have more time. In the meantime, be sure to follow the @iterinc twitter feed. I do post there more frequently, especially when time is lacking ...

Small-business email and mistyped addresses

Just got off the phone with a potential supplier who I had spoken with last week about the six-month startup. I had promised to send him some specs. Why hadn't I sent them yet? 

I was surprised. I had sent the email, and was wondering why he hadn't responded. Was I being blown off because we are too small, or is he not that responsible about following through?

Turns out that there were two problems. I had mistyped his email address when he gave it to me over the phone, so he didn't receive it. But his company's email server should have immediately bounced my message as undeliverable. It didn't, so I didn't even know I had made a mistake. Frustration and impatience were the results on both sides, although the phone calls helped clear up the situation and get things back on track.

The moral of the story: If you are a small business owner with a dedicated .com domain for your email, make sure it is properly configured to handle email problems, and notifications are sent out to anyone affected by or responsible for missent emails or email outages. Really small companies may not have a dedicated IT staff, but there are consultants out there who can troubleshoot and fix problems. Many other people (myself included) have our company email hosted on Gmail through the cloud-based Google Apps.  

Quickbook alternatives through Google Apps

One thing that many startups are forced to do is run on a pretty tight budget. Both of the ventures I'm involved with use free, cloud-based platforms when possible. Google Docs for spreadsheets and PDF storage, Yammer for project collaboration, Gmail for email (including the Google Apps version, which lets us easily use a .com domain within Gmail), Adium for instant messaging ... you get the picture. But one thing that kind of scared me when I first heard about it at a small business accounting seminar was the high price of QuickBooks. This is the industry standard application for keeping track of expenses, revenue, purchase orders, and other common functions. It's not cheap: More than $200 for the Mac version. The high price is not surprising. It's an Intuit product and QuickBooks has a lock on the market -- with a lack of viable competitors, and industry standard acceptance among customers and accountants, QuickBooks can pretty much charge what they want. What alternatives are out there? I checked the chatter on Hacker News, but nothing promising popped out. But then I noticed through Google Apps that there are a bunch of free options -- small companies and products that I had never heard of, but had offerings that could replace Quickbooks for companies on a budget. I tried myERP, based on the fact that it seemed pretty comprehensive (ERP, accounting and CRM functions) and it was free for two users, and the Google Apps user ratings were mostly positive. But after activating the app, I was very surprised to discover that there is no tutorial to use this somewhat complex product. The "How to use myERP" was literally a list of features, as this screenshot shows:

I hunted around for a video tutorial, but no dice, even though I saw that other users had asked for them on the support forum many months before. This was very surprising to me as a founder and someone who has dealt with online design and help pages many times throughout the years -- videos are extremely easy to make using QuickTime or other easily available tools, and assuming people on myERP's staff are familiar with the product, it should take more than an hour or two to create a basic "setup" video or videos showing common tasks. But what convinced me to uninstall myERP was lack of support for a very common expense -- mileage reimbursement. The support forum suggested a workaround, but it was convoluted and not a long-term solution. I tried Yendo next. Only one free user for the trial version, but Yendo is much better with tutorials and support, as this video shows: I'm still working through the setup now, but if it can handle the basics I am looking for now -- expense tracking, simple entries, and basic accounting reports, I'll be happy.

Sole founders

Heard a story yesterday about a tech startup with a problem:

Only one founder.

This is #1 on Paul Graham's list of 18 things that kill startups, and as someone who is currently trying to get two startups off the ground, I can see why. If there's only one person, ideation sessions will be weaker, the founding team by definition will be weak in a few key areas because

• There are no complementary skill sets
• Things will take longer to get done
• Quality will suffer because no one else is vetting the work
• There is no moral support when bad days arise
• Investors will be skeptical

I've heard that the founder is pretty much consumed with raising money. His capital needs are actually much higher, because he's also a non-technical founder running a software startup. He can't code. As a result, everything has to be outsourced, which is just killing his funds.

Of course, it's not too late to bring on another founder, but he's got to move fast.