
Why I'm running a bootstrapping conference in Vienna, Austria - ahoyhere
http://unicornfree.com/2010/why-im-putting-on-a-bootstrapping-conference-in-vienna/
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MartinMond
I'm from Vienna. I recently started letsannotate.com. It's absolutely true
that role models help extremely.

When my cofounder and I were in the really early stages we often were looking
for inspiration and while we knew very well that lots of US and many UK
bootstrapped SaaS products exist and thrive, we feared their success wouldn't
easily translate to us.

We were thinking "Oh maybe people from the US and UK won't buy from
continental europeans, who aren't native speakers, wo live in a different time
zone, where (in the US case) totally different laws apply" and while in no way
this was going to make us stop, it was constantly nagging in the background of
- at least - my mind.

It has turned out this is not the case. As of today there was exactly one case
where a company from the US told us they'd love to use our product, yet feared
to export their sensitive data to the EU.

But before we knew that from hard evidence we had inspiration: letsfreckle.com
(Vienna), mite.yo.lk (Berlin) and mindmeister.com (Vienna and Munich) exist
and thrive just as well as US based SaaS providers.

And this is IMHO what Amy Hoy is talking about in her blog post: These were
our role models and while I don't think we would have stopped creating
letsannotate.com if we wouldn't know about their success stories, it certainly
helped to know we weren't the first to step into this unexplored terrain of
bootstrapping in continental Europe.

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fbnt
I may be completely wrong here, but sometimes I fail at recognizing the real
ROI of such conferences, especially in terms of knowledge that I don't know
yet. Also, having the speakers being some kind of rockstars (Peldi is been 'on
tour' all summer so far, does he ever work on Balsamiq?) might create a huge
gap between you and them, and this dosen't help creating solid connections in
most of the cases. I'm not sure if the 'you've got to spend money to make
money' motto applies here, but again, I may be wrong. Any real-life
experiences on this kind of events?

~~~
alain94040
As the organizer of a similar conference myself, take my opinion with a grain
of salt.

1\. It depends of course. There are millions of conferences and networking
events. Some are great, some are terrible. You not only pay a price to attend,
you also pay in terms of your time.

2\. I always say that networking events pay off with an horizon of about 6
months to a year. Every time I went to an event with a specific, short-term
goal, I failed. But amazingly, I bumped into people that I actually wanted to
get in touch with eventually. And it helped me later.

3\. Another major thing that pays off is the "buzz". When you go to
conferences, you hear all the latest stories before they get written anywhere.
You are ahead of everyone who didn't show up. Sure, bloggers will cover this
or that rumor, but being there and having heard it all gives you an edge.
Whether that edge will eventually be valuable depends of course.

~~~
ahoyhere
With all due respect, our conferences are completely opposite :)

Schnitzelconf is didactic. And I don't mean how to pitch to VCs. It's an
entirely different worldview, not a networking event, and there will be no
rumors. I doubt anyone will hear anything that is hot news. Just solid advice,
business sense, war stories, and action steps.

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aposch
Hi, my name is Anita. I'm from Vienna too. I started wienett.com and
raumdirekt.com some years ago. I can say it's not only "Angst" that prevents
Austrians from being entrepreneurs but also it' s the political and social
system. many friends of mine - employees - say they would never be so silly
(!) to give up their social security they have being employed. yes it's true,
we need role models and we need changes in our school system (learning
business), in our insurance system (microbusinesses are treated like big
companies) and in our mindsets. I'm on the schnitzelconf mailing list and hope
to be in the second batch of early bird tickets ;-) and yes: I'd love to spend
250 euros to be able to meet new faces and people from abroad.

~~~
ahoyhere
Hi Anita! Nice to meet you! I really hope you'll come to Schnitzelconf, your
projects look awesome! Either way, we should at least meet for coffee
sometime.

For the record, your friends are extra silly. You know that self-employed
people (selbständig) in Austria have social health insurance, pension, and
even unemployment coverage?

My husband is selbständig and he even has a part-time employee, all without
creating a GMBH. (Don't get me started on how GMBHs are superior to the
American LLC!)

~~~
fauigerzigerk
The problem is, you don't simply "have" health and pensions insurance, you are
forced to pay somewhere around 250 euros per month for that insurance,
regardless of your income. During the first 3 years of your first startup it
is less than that. Unemployment insurance (which is a ridiculous idea for the
self-employed anyway) is voluntary and costs extra.

In the UK, the minimum contribution is around 20 euros per month. It gives you
health coverage (no dental) and you are not forced to pay into the pensions
system. In my view, the UK system is hugely more attractive for startups.
Ireland is similar I believe.

~~~
Tichy
I remember being quite surprised in the UK when I heard from a friend whose
tooth broke off that he would have to wait several days for an appointment.
Also long wait times with broken limbs, I seem to remember (forgot the
details). That was 13 years ago, but still, there might be disadvantages to
the UK system.

~~~
fauigerzigerk
Oh sure, there are tons of problems, but the Labour government has pumped
massive amounts of money into the NHS (the national health service) after they
came to power in 1997. The budget was growing at an anual rate of 7 or 8
percent up until recently. 13 years ago the UK spent much less on health care
than the average European country. Now it's about equal.

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schmidp
I'm from Vienna as well and this sounds great. If I manage to get my hands on
a ticket, I'll definitely attend.

And € 250 or € 300 are certainly cheaper than hopping on a flight to london or
the states to hear and meet guys like those announced.

And even if I don't manage to learn anything from them (what I don't believe),
I can at least deliver some feature requests for balsamiq first hand :-)

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ido
Sounds like a great idea, but honestly - I would never pay 250 euros[1] for
attending such a conference.

Good luck though, hopefully I'm just not your target demographic :)

[1] for a frugal Viennese hacker aiming at ramen (knödel?) profitability, 250
euros is almost 2 weeks' living expenses.

~~~
ahoyhere
Yes, I'm very familiar with that party line... and that is part of what's
keeping you down.

If you want to be successful in business, you've got to learn the idea of
investing for returns. 2 weeks' living expenses in exchange for the
opportunity to learn from people who've made anywhere between "a very
respectable living for one person" to "millions a year" seems worth it to me.

You can listen to their stories. You can walk up to them. You can ask them
questions. Do you really think that you're not going to see 250 euros of value
for that ticket?

The question of whether to go to a conference, or spend money on a
professional designer, or hire an assistant, or outsource some copywriting, or
a lawyer... they are all the same question at heart.

To run a successful business, you absolutely have to pay for things. End of
story. You cannot do it all yourself. If you need to pay for something, and
you don't have the money, you figure out how to earn more so you can pay for
the thing and free yourself to earn even more money after that.

Look, I don't care whether you personally come, I'm not making a profit and -
more importantly - there are people lining up for that ticket from Denmark,
France, Italy, and even Serbia.

I just want you to question your assumptions so that you have a chance of
succeeding.

~~~
ido
Well, as I said I'm probably just not in your target demographic.

I would like to give you one tip tho:

    
    
       He not only took his product from spare-time to $2
       million, he's also a true mensch!
    

I think you are using that word the way you would in Yiddish, in Austrian
German referring to someone as "mensch" can sometimes actually be seen as
derogatory ;)

~~~
pistoriusp
I was also confused by a friend who came back from New York and referred to
someone as a mensch.

It means human being or person in German.

~~~
ido
Apparently it means "whore" in Austrian slang [1].

I'm not a native Austrian, but was told several years ago by a friend that I
shouldn't use that word as people might misunderstand what I meant by it...

Might be a Tyrol thing tho.

[1] <http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Mensch.html>

~~~
schmidp
I'm from austria and I've never heard "mensch" used in a negative context.

As a native german speaker I absolutely read it as positively as it was
intended.

~~~
ahoyhere
I'm chalking it up to the fact that Wienerisch can make anything sound dirty.
;)

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Smamol
What a brilliant idea! IT/internet entrepreneur role models were exactly what
I missed out on growing up in Vienna.

Thanks for organizing this, Amy. I'm sure it'll be hugely successful.

(Believe me, I would attend did I not happen to live in New Zealand :-)

Sandy

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dotcoma
>the land of glorious socialism.

as if it were a bad thing not to have to worry about your medical insurance
fucking you up if you get sick...

~~~
ido
I don't think Amy meant it in a bad way.

~~~
ahoyhere
Correct! I love my socialist healthcare. That was me poking fun at the typical
American view.

~~~
dotcoma
ok then :)

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jessor
i so hope i can grab a ticket!

