The Blog of Matt Gornick

experiments in building businesses, lifestyle design, and social hedging

Recommendation engines are pretty smart

Yesterday, I decided to buy a book on Amazon I have always wanted to read.  Amazon kept recommending other books and topics that "I might like"... and oddly enough they were right!  Amazon recommended several books that I've heard and wanted to read, but had since forgotten about.  Needless to say, I walked away with a slightly larger bill than expected. 

I've been using Amazon and Pandora for a while now and they both seem to know what products I want to buy, books I want to read, and music I want to listen to.  I think there is something to be said for these engines and that they might very well be the norm in the future. 

I don't know the all inner workings of these technologies and collaborative filtering, but I interested in learning more about them.  Time to reread the old lecture notes from CS410 at UIUC.

IlliniCrime.com Helping Students Stay Safe at UIUC via iPhone

As students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we've been noticing a ton of Crime Alerts recently and so Blaine Fahey and I decided to put our computer science and analytics skills to use and help students better understand the crimes that are happening around UIUC and allowing students to take that information mobile via their iPhone/iPod Touch.  Check out IlliniCrime.com

 
Right now we're in beta, but if any UIUC students/faculty have an iPhone and what to try out our app, give us suggestions, and write a review feel free to contact me.
 
Some of the things we're working on are:
1. All the recent crimes sorted by most recent on the iPhone
2. Advanced search between time ranges or locations on the website
3. Possibly a 'heat map' that shows all the crimes on a Google Map where the most recent is 'hotter' than older crimes.
 
Hopefully, people can find use of this app to take safe routes home or seek out public transportation.  Stay safe UIUC.
 
For more information about safety tips visit:
 

(download)

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

3 Tips to Win a New Venture/Business Plan Competition

Recently, the OrangeQC team entered the Cozad New Venture Competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I was very, very skeptical considering the negative connotation with startups in these competitions (see Techcrunch article).  We eventually decided to compete since we were 1. already a new venture, 2. already generating revenue, 3. were looking to expand and we weighted the expected return to be in our favor (didn't have to give up equity, not time consuming, networked with some great people, etc).

Here are some 3 tips that I feel helped OrangeQC win the competition:
1. Have a customer/user: So this might seem a bit backwards to talk with potential customers before you have a product.  In reality, if you aren't talking to your potential customers on Day 0, then you have a very high chance of completely building the wrong thing that no one will pay for.  Since OrangeQC was already a business focused on generating revenue, we were talking with potential customers before we even built the product.  This ensures that 1. someone will actually pay for your product/service and 2. that you build it (almost) correct the first time.  All too often, plans have the profitability as a big unknown.  If you are talking with someone before you build your product you are lightyears ahead of everyone and more importantly have a better chance of building a business.

2. Have a product/prototype:  Having something that can be shown in a presentation is critical.  In our semi-finals round, we barely talked about our product that we built which makes the judges think we had just an idea.  If you have a product, show a video demonstration, bring it in, or make it live so judges can see that you actually have more than just an idea.  Many of the people competing have just an idea, several people have professional looking mockups, and very, very few people have actual products.  If you don't have a product, start building it immediately.  

3. Ensure your team can actually build the business: I've noticed that many of the teams were built with great co-founders.  Be sure that everyone can contribute to building the venture and that you or a co-founder is not just 'the idea guy' (see 37signals post).  If you're in Computer Science, be sure you can sell your product and talk to customers.  If you're in Business, be sure you can build a product and not 'just be the boss'.  Ideas are a dime a dozen in these competitions and the judges are in charge of making the most bang for the buck.  They want to 'fund' companies that have a high chance of being successful and 99% of that comes from the team.

Overall, the competition was a lot of fun and would recommend it to any (already existing) student startup that wants an unbiased opinion on their business, wants to network with great student entrepreneurs and judges, or wants to use some of the winnings to build a better business.  Now get back to talking with customers.

Disclaimer: This was a Midwest competition and not a Silicon Valley competition.  Just as the location chances, I'm sure the game changes for these competitions.  Luckily, if you follow these steps you could lose the competition and still have a successful business!