Listening to your startup Jignesh M. Patel
University of Wisconsin
© Jignesh M. Patel 1
Trajectory
1997 • Ph.D., The Paradise system
• Paradise -‐-‐> NCR/Teradata
1999 • Assistant Professor @ U. Michigan
2007 • Co-‐founded LocomaHx. CTO à CEO
• Associate Professor @ U. Wisconsin
2013 • LocomaHx -‐-‐> TwiOer
Powering Big Data for Mobile
© Jignesh M. Patel 3
4
Where can I get coffee?
Lat/long
Lat/long Lat/
long
Lat/long Lat/
long Lat/long
Lat/long
Lat/long
Lat/long
Lat/long
How do I sort through
all this?
Shows the current location of the user
Shows the trails of user so far during the day
Shows the trails of user for the past week
Need to match many high-‐volume live streaming data sets to user many needs in REAL 9me
… need to also run real 9me analy9cs …
Need an agile and scalable loca9on infrastructure
Imagine 1M users in SF with 10 checkins a day è 7K checkin checks/min
Each checkin = 1M checks.
With some non-‐trival smart spaHal indexing = 1000 checks à 7M checks/min
Today the cheapest Oracle tpmC is $.54. Assuming perfect scalability would cost ~ $3.75M over 3 years.
A single LocomaHx server does > 10K checkins/min and deploys for less than 1/10th the cost
Reference Apps
© Jignesh M. Patel 5
Reference app with: 1: People finder 2: Madison bus alert 3: Geo-tagged messaging 4: Mobile coupons
Photo from madison.com
© Jignesh M. Patel 6
Location and Text Analytics
20 hottest startups Mobile Beat, July 2010.
Top 16 Innovative Startups
CTIA, E&A, Oct 2010.
Top 16 Innovative Startups
CTIA Wireless, March 2011.
© Jignesh M. Patel 7
Awards
What worked
What did not work
Good fun!
Met great people!
Could make quick
decisions/pivots
Great team!
Lost customer
opportunities due
to no VC funding
Learnt the
business-side the
hard way
Grueling roller-
coaster rides
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Solve a Big Technology Problem • Forcing function to take a broader view • Simplicity is preferred over complexity
Passion • To make a difference • Be bold, but remember to fail-fast!
Become a Better Professional • Learn to ask the right questions (quickly) • Learn to be more efficient with your time • Become a better mentor and network
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Why do a startup?
Life Cycle of a Startup
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ADULT TEEN INFANT
Rev
enue
! Working Business Model!
Exit?
New Business Model!
Revenue stagnates
Re-pivot
Exc
item
ent
Time
Start
The Three Crucial Ps
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Powered by passion and a real need.
Product Talent is key.
Easy to hire. Hard to fire.
People It’s not only OK, it is
required!
Pivot
Pivoting
Revenue • New
monetization strategy
• Changing customer needs
Competition • Product
features • Market needs • Competitors
pivoted
© Jignesh M. Patel 12
© Jignesh M. Patel 13
A long, long time ago … in 2000
1 2
3
Common Mistakes
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… chase a customer, and loose the product focus
… fall in love with the technology, ignoring the business model
… no independent feedback
… fail to listen to your customers
… not leading by example … check big egos at the door
… hold grudges
… measure = funding management time/$
… take the “wrong” type of funding. Are your goals aligned?
Location -‐-‐ Madison
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Photos: U. Wisconsin, Communication
1000 miles to New York
Other tips …
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Focus on your long-term goals
Stay in Shape Deal with it gracefully
Frustration The original startup!
Family
Summary
Stay hungry!
Focus on the business model.
Pivot if needed.
Take care of your health.
Remember your family.
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• My family (my original startup J)
• My co-founders and collaborators @ Locomatix
Karthik Ramasamy, Sanjeev Kulkarni and Chris Kellogg.
• The University of Wisconsin
© Jignesh M. Patel 18
Thanks!