The Blog of Matt Gornick

experiments in building businesses, lifestyle design, and social hedging

Working at a startup (and notes from WashU talk)

This week I had the opportunity to speak with some great students at Washington University in St. Louis.  As apart of "Alternative Career Week", they brought in Aaron Papermaster (Moxie) and I to talk about starting your own company while in college and working for a startup once you graduate.

I've noticed that I keep referencing the same books, videos, and people so I decided to make a page to have all of this information in one place.  

This information can be found at:

Dispelling the Myth of the All Nighter

Productivity_graph

It is that time again!  The time when college students all over sacrifice sleep for studying.  The most likely offender is the 'all nighter' where students stay up for 24-48 hours prior to a final exam, research paper, or final project to squeeze in any last bit of information.  

"[Researchers] found that people who drive after being awake for 17 to 19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent" (via CNN.com - Sleep deprivation as bad as alcohol impairment, study suggests).  DHH at 37signals wrote in "Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor" to "... get more sleep. Stop bragging about how little you got. Make your peak mental capacity accessible."

Personally, lack of sleep causes me to perform at subpar, lack creativity, and create mediocre work.  Most of the time, the all nighter is just a seemingly okay solution to a much bigger problem of time management.  I've found that simply organizing my 168 hours in a week better, you can mitigate the risks of having to pull an all nighter.

If you're working on a startup, studying for school, or working a 9-to-5 please take some time to get some sleep.  Everyone benefits from you putting out the best work that you can.

3 Tips to juggle a startup and school

I've spent 4 years as a computer science undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while being the co-founder of several startups as well as the CEO of my most recent startup, OrangeQC.  Juggling working with customers, building a startup, as well as handling class work and studying can be challenging, but is definitely doable.  Here are some tips that I've used to work on a startup and still do well in school:

 
1. Be smart about classes: Most classes are never set in stone.  Projects, groups, amount of work are all negotiable and all you have to do is ask.  I got the college to approve getting course credit for working on my startup company.  I also sought out classes that would allow me to work on independent projects that I really wanted to work on (like this).  Seek out classes that will allow you to do what you'd like and if they don't exist talk to your advisor and start an independent study course or have it cross referenced with a different course.
2. 168 hours organization: Everyone has a constant 168 hours in each week; how you manage those hours is what sets you apart.  Plan out your courses, assignments, etc. on a calendar (Google Calendar, iCal, Notebook, whatever) and see what time you have that you can allocate to working on your startup.  I've found it very helpful to mark down all my classes and seeing how much time I actually have.  I've used free time to work on my startup, talk to customers, and brainstorm new ideas.  You can't change what you don't have control over, so try to get in control of your time/calendar.
3. Seek out free resources: Many universities have courses and resources that are free to students, but might be obscure.  Many students might be reluctant to start a business because they don't have servers, office space, or materials when in reality they can get most of that for free just by asking.  Universities have become more accepting in student entrepreneurship and thus are much more open to helping students get what they need to get started for free.  I know that we were able to get free servers and office space for OrangeQC just by talking to the right departments and just asking.  
 
I hope you can find some of these tips helpful in starting your business.  Now get out there and hustle!

Guerilla Startup Series: “Rework College” by Matt Gornick, CEO of OrangeQC

From the Illini Entrepreneurship Network:

Guerilla Startup Series: “Rework College” by Matt Gornick, CEO of OrangeQC
We’re launching our new Guerilla Startup Series with the CEO of the Cozad winning company OrangeQC. The Guerilla Startup Series is all about bootstrapped startups and the most useful skills you need to start one. Matt will go over his Rework/37signals influenced work style and how he balances running a startup company with his academic career.

Only the first 25 to sign up will be admitted, please RSVP to attend here

Social Hedging: A Tactical Approach to Life Hacking

2 things I hate:
1. Standing in lines that exceed 3 minutes
2. Wasting time

Yesterday, I was asked to see an opening day movie (Harry Potter) with a group of friends.  I was indifferent to seeing the movie and would normally not have gone if it wasn't for friends going.  As you may guess, the lines at the Harry Potter movies are long and filled with tons of dedicated fans.  I have nothing against people dressing up as wizards, movie characters, etc., but its not my cup of tea so if I can prevent myself from spending several hours waiting in line I'll do it.

(9 p.m. + opening night of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) I needed to fill up my tank of gas.  Show starts at 12:01 a.m. My friends will be getting to the theater around 11:15 p.m. to get tickets for the showing (while waiting almost an hour in a line filled with thousands of people).  I was not entirely sure that they would be able to get tickets at this point as this is a highly anticipated movie with tons of fans: the movie can easily sell out if you aren't in line earlier enough.  At this point, I recalled that I used Fandango in the past when I was in New York City to see the recent Batman movie.  I loaded the Fandango app on my iPhone, purchased a ticket for the movie, and received the email confirmation. 
(9:30 p.m.) I swing by the theater and to my surprise the line for the Harry Potter movie had already started and was outside the theater!  I walked in the regular entrance, grabbed my midnight showing ticket at the Fandango counter and drove back to my apartment.
(11:45 p.m.) I call my friend to find out that they are in line for tickets and they'll get in to see the show tonight.  They mention that I need to hurry up if I want to get tickets.  I left my apartment.
(11:57 p.m.) I arrived at the theater, casually walked in past a few thousand people inline to get tickets, and comfortably got my seat.  At this point, my friends are still in line trying to get tickets, worrying that the show my start without them, and potentially missing the movie.
(12:01 a.m.) Typical movie start
(12:15 a.m.) Moved to where my friends were sitting, watched movie, enjoyed time with friends, etc.

The reason I bring up this story is that so much uncertainty surrounded this event. 
1. If I get there at this time, will the show be sold out?
2. If it isn't sold out, will I miss part of the movie because the line is too long/slow?
3. How early should I get there to get a good seat?

I had made the decision that I will stay at my apartment as long as I could to optimize my utility (getting things done, knocking out email, relaxing, etc.).  I'll go ahead and buy the Fandango tickets not knowing if my friends will get tickets (if the show sold out) and simply wait until either:
a). My friends get in the ticket line about an hour early and do in fact get tickets.  I will drive over to join them.
b). My friends didn't get tickets because the line was too long and now I don't have to waste my time in line but loose the cost of the Fandango tickets.

These decisions are seemingly reminiscent of financial stock options at expiration.  After retrieving the tickets, I had socially hedged my night for either outcome: I am guaranteed to come out ahead or at least protect myself from downside risk (of not knowing what to do or to do nothing).  I try to keep up with the standard life hacking and productivity news, but I feel that combining the right tactics and planning with a mixture of life hacking can be highly effective. 

I'm going to experiment with other strategies as they present themselves as I don't think this is an isolated event.  If you have any other social hedging or life hacking ideas, let me know.