

How I Found a Co-Founder, Built a Prototype, and Raised $5M in Less Than 4 Weeks - mpc
http://brianbalfour.com/post/2813742577/core-groups

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law
This is an outstanding article. The idea of a core group containing people
genuinely interested in all members' success is absolutely compulsory to
launch a great product. The whole thing is true honesty and openness; you have
to be able to completely trust, on many levels, the people in your group.

My group contains friends I've known since college, from a variety of
unrelated majors. We all work on different projects, but we keep in constant
contact and offer to each other the brutal honesty that members of our
respective teams could not otherwise offer. Additionally, we use each of our
unique experiences to identify new problems, and new areas that might be worth
pursuing. It's an incredible feeling.

Actually, for a long time, I've been thinking about creating a site that
facilitates pairing people together for this purpose. I've been throwing
around a few ideas for it, and have a pretty decent idea churning in the back
of my mind. How interested would you guys be in a site like okcupid for
entrepreneurs?

~~~
netmau5
I'm working on a site that is, in part, attempting to help match entrepreneurs
with one another based on mutually beneficial skills. We're still in alpha, so
there is a long way to go yet. I think not having a real life connection makes
these relationships take longer to cultivate online, if it is even possible at
all. I'm hoping that having a material goal, a startup idea in our case, will
energize people to start the bonding process though.

~~~
law
Perhaps the hardest problem is addressing the issue of trust. As a culture,
we're inherently wary of people we "meet" online. While the problem is indeed
technologically feasible, it's overcoming the cultural differences that would
make or break any solution.

Moreover, the idea of "start-up" itself is too abstract -- would you focus on
tech start-ups mostly? How would your site handle funding? What about
scammers? It's an idea I'll probably think about for a couple months, and
hopefully write some more about soon.

~~~
netmau5
The working together part comes first, then the connecting. Purely doing
matchmaking is too hard and inaccurate imo, it is easier to find things that
people find mutually interesting and get them engaged together through it.

My site is largely unconcerned with funding right now, there are already
excellent resources to get it. And scammers would be wasting their time: much
like most startups, lots of people try really hard and get nothing out of it.
Why scam the guy you will have to work hard to help and will probably get
nothing?

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chaosmachine
I thought for sure this was a joke headline from DanielBMarkham's linkbait
generator: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2112277>

~~~
sk_0919
Sure, but it's a great and insightful article...probably one of the best I've
read on HN in a while

~~~
bbalfour
Thanks for the compliment. Really appreciate it.

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kadavy
I find having core peer groups (I like to call them "cronies" just for kicks)
to be invaluable. We share with each other information about our businesses
and challenges we face that we wouldn't share with others. We check in with
one another and hold each other accountable.

I like to think of it as like being investors in each other's companies, but
with no money exchanging hands, and no complicated term sheets. Each success
for one of us results in more success for all of us.

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zasz
So if you add in the time it took to find your Core Peer Group who could make
all that happen in four weeks, how long did it really take you?

~~~
bbalfour
I knew the Betahouse crew for about 3 - 4 months prior. But from conception of
the idea for Viximo to completion of the three items in the title, it was
actually less than 4 weeks.

I view the core group as a long term investment for whatever you are working
on. I didn't build the core group just to execute the particular idea for
Viximo. In fact, if I think you go into it with that mentality, you are
setting yourself up for failure at the beginning.

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g0atbutt
I have found this exact thing to be true. I launched my first (fulltime)
startup this past summer, and the insight of my "core group" was simply
brilliant. I ended up asking 3 of them to join my board, and they have not
only helped me avoid mistakes, but steered me into a profitable direction as
well.

Great article Brian, the breadth of this article is fantastic.

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messel
What the author didn't dig into was the selection of core groups, and how we
choose a group that best serves us as individuals and that we can best
contribute to.

How does one move between core groups, how many can you be an active member of
at once?

~~~
bbalfour
I actually have a follow up post exploring that. I felt like having them
combined was waayyyy too long.

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vannevar
Key sentence FTA: _I had previously started a few companies with angel funding
and a couple small exits, but certainly nothing of scale._

He didn't raise $5M in 4 weeks, it took years of laying the groundwork.

~~~
bbalfour
Vannevar,

If you asked my investors about my history prior to Viximo, they wouldn't have
a clue what I had done. It didn't matter. In any case, the point of the
article isn't the exact timing of these things, it was a demonstration of what
core groups can do. I spent a lot of time evaluating how/why what happened,
happened (including my personal history). And I can honestly say, this was the
one thing that was 90% of the cause.

~~~
vannevar
With all due respect, you don't just waltz into someone's office with an idea,
no matter how good it is, and get $5M. You absolutely have to have connections
to even get the meeting. Whether the connections were yours from your past
history or one of your partners, the point is that it was not the instant
success the headline makes it out to be.

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flashgordon
Great article on things you would/should generally do as an entrepreneur, but
Id have actually seen bit more of a break down (daily perhaps) on actually
work done towards the particular app/product.

