Not Gonna happen...

Stoked! It's Startup Weekend here in Evansville! Woo-hoo! However, my idea did not get picked, nor could I recruit anyone, nor does anyone want me on their team. I did want to get something out of this weekend even if my idea didn't get picked. Oh, well. Sooooooo, back to square one working on this idea alone (of course I've still got Shaun). I don't know what to do.

**edit: This was on Friday night when I was having a pity-party for myself! Before I decided to take advantage of the weekend anyway and work on Students2U anyway. Also, before I met all the people that encouraged me to continue, gave me advice, and before I got to help and have input (even if a small contribution) with others' ideas. So, yeah, more to come about all that in another post (I'm hoping tonight!).

Your Very Own "Sneak Peek"

Yes, I'm aware it's been a while since I made a post. Again, yes, I'm aware that I promised that I won't fizzle out on this blog. But, would you believe that I've actually been working? Didn't think so. So I'll prove it, I even have non-photo-shopped pictures and everything!

Let me begin by saying, I am not, I repeat, I am not, a programmer, designer, or web-developer by trade. I did take one class in high school and that was plain 'ol html. I've since "learned" cascading style sheets (css) to help me be a better designer. However, I have always been good at art, good with numbers and structure (ie markup and coding), and generally internet savvy. So there are my credentials for starting a web-based company. Ha!

Moving on. I won't go into the gory details of why I am embarking on starting a web company focused on college students, if you want to know the genesis of it all you can find it here. I've done the typical things you can find on the internet about starting a "start-up".  I've found 2 or 3 mentors in different stages of business careers with vastly different businesses and backgrounds. I've talked to people about my idea and gotten feedback. I've, partially, worked on a business plan. It's even true that I have recruited a partner for the endeavor. But, what I have been really lacking is the format of the business itself. If it were a retail store it would be like not having the building, sign, or merchandise! Well, no more, at least on my local machine anyway! I have created the "front end" of my "coming soon" landing page. (Meaning: it looks good but isn't quite functional; I need a programmer! Feel free to email me or contact me through the comments if you'd like to be part of our team!) All in all, I'm proud of the work Shaun (my co-conspirator) and I have done thus far.

So without further ado, here is the screenshot that I have been holding back:

Okay, pretty simple eh? Well I tried to operate under the KISS methodology: just Keep It Simple Stupid! So there it is, for now. I will continue to engage in learning more html/css markup and work on my programming skills to help nudge this project along (seriously if you can help me let me know!). 

Finally, I'm glad I have something accomplished. StartupWeekend, is this weekend! I really feel that having something to give a "face to the name" of my project can go a long way when I get to pitch my idea. I'm hoping to recruit some technical people and really get this idea off the ground, not to mention win the contest!

Whelp, that's all I got for ya! Hope that you aren't rotfl too hard right now.

PS: I'm planning on writing about the upcoming StartupWeekend in the next day or so so look out! Also, I will be tweeting (@LucusP) during the event. And, I'm going to attempt to capture some of the event and my team with some digital video!

Cheers!

First Things First: All About A Different Company

Okay, so I have few posts under my belt. I thought I would share a condensed version of the story of how I came to write, All About a Company (Students2U), rather than All About a Different Company (Inthequad.com). 


So here goes,

I've had ideas bouncing around in my head for quite some time now, dating back to my undergraduate collegiate days (about 4 years ago). I had an "epiphany" while in business school, the way certain things work in a college/university often times stink (now I'm true to my Alma mater and not bashing them specifically so read on and you'll get the point). Without getting into specifics, I'll just say that the way things are done are just plain outdated in many ways. So, I noticed a group of my peers (accounting students), coordinating their schedules together. This may seem normal on the surface, but while being around them for some period of time I noticed what they were working out was, a way around purchasing every single text book needed for the courses; they were trading and borrowing! So what pops in my head? A peer-to-peer textbook buy/sell/trade website! What did I do about it? Nothing. Read on.

So, I graduate from college (yipee!) and go to work in the corporate field learning the ropes in a huge company. This company just so happens to basically offer employees the ability to go back to school to continue their education, ie for me a masters in business. So I went back to school (yipee?) to gain the critical "150 hours" of course work to be able to sit for the CPA exam. Through a couple of classes I attended I met an intelligent guy (I'll hold the names to protect the innocent ;) let's call him Dave), whom I decided to pitch my idea to. Dave loved it, so I brought him on board and we started brainstorming like crazy at what else was missing for college students. Turns out their were several! So we incorporated, In The Quad, Inc., and bought a domain name inthequad.com. The basis for this name was we would be a virtual campus "quad" where students could connect, share, etc. Keep reading!

So after fleshing out many ideas (which I can't share them all here due to intellectual property rights), I started to learn/look for development help. Through this, however, we learned that we both wanted to run the company and had differing visions for the direction. Dave wanted to push the company toward an entertainment genre, while I wanted to focus on the students services aspect of our niche. We had some, text message, debates and actually found that we could not reconcile our differences. Now that may sound harsher that it really was, but what we decided to do was "spin-off" the student services into a different company, with each of us owning reciprocal interest in each others' company. We also decided on who could take what from our brainstorming sessions (hence the IP disclaimer above). We agreed on a number of other things, such as board seats on each company, regular meetings/brainstorming, etc. In other words, it was a peaceful departure (I have a post planned for more details on the "split").

In a nut shell, that's how I got to writing about "All about A Company."

"Do More Faster" aka the DIYer

So I received a book, a great book, for my birthday last November. The book is titled, "Do More Faster," by Brad Feld and David Cohen. The premise of the book is basically to quit making excuses on why you don't start capitalizing on your idea and do it, fast.

(Well, I have conflicting views on this book, because as I stated earlier, it's a great book! However, if I'm supposed to be doing all I can to get my company off the ground, why am I sitting here reading this book! Ah, a paradigm at it's best, but I digress. )

Anyway, so this prompts me to stop actively looking for a lead developer for my company and start becoming the lead developer. Whoa?! Come again? Yes, I have had some previous, although limited, training in the world of HTML and CSS, and am now delving into the world of MySQL and PHP. "Oh, boy," you say? That's right, there are plenty of free materials on the web nowadays that someone looking to honestly and wholeheartedly create a start-up now has access too and really no excuse not to learn some of this stuff.

Here is a link to a great website that publishes hard-copy and e-book formats of many of their development books: http://www.sitepoint.com/. There you will find many resources, but the best part is: you can receive free portions of many of their books. I've been using the one for php & mysql and it's been great. I do intend, however, to upgrade to the full version and will let you know how that is.

Did I just promise a book review? Wow, I guess I am turning into a "blogger." Scary.

Until next time.

Blogging Commencement: "Students2U"

Okay, so I've tried blogging before and never really had anything to say so I usually quit after a post or two. Then I read an article that I found on twitter via the local Social Media Club (@SmcEVV that you can find here), that basically summed up the "7 Reasons Why Blogging is Still Important in 2012", as it's appropriately titled, that tells me to "start a blog!"

So my initial reaction is, "uh, um, eh, oooookay, because if I want to get my business/website going then I need to 'write about it'." Knowing full well my former attempts were all for not. But, then I had a revelation (mostly from the article) that I "successfully" run a twitter account which is "micro-blogging." I spend much of my time writing several "DM's" and posts explaining, promoting, and talking about my project: Students2U (here is a shameless plug: follow me on twitter @Students2U).

So I made a list of things that I would "blog" about. And it turns out that there are tons of stuff to write about. I'm not sure who cares, but I'll put it down anyway. So look for a post or two a day about life in a start-up company. I'll mainly talk about Students2U, but also general business stuff that I come across as well.

So I am actually excited about this endeavor and look forward to your feedback!