by jenn on February 8, 2012
You’ve probably read that part of the secret sauce at Southwest Airlines is selection of markets. If a city has a lot of snow, or fog, or an old, crowded, high-traffic airport, they skip it – that’s too many factors that have the potential to interfere with their model, which calls for planes to be turned over in 35 minutes rather than the industry-standard 90 minutes.
We think of our Upstarts in the same way. For us, the right startups will enter our program with a combination of factors that will enable our team to refine and launch the company quickly.
Here’s what we are looking for (at the highest possible level):
A Business
At Upstart Labs, we’re investing in businesses – not just products and entrepreneurs. If you can’t (yet) articulate your revenue model, it’s time to hang back for a few months and get that sorted out. Having a customer or two lined up is a plus. Not all VCs and startup incubators will ask you to be able to demonstrate how you plan to make money – there are plenty of firms willing to fund the development of a killer product in the hopes that a business model will follow. That isn’t our model.
Commitment
If you aren’t taking your business prospects seriously, why on earth would we? This doesn’t necessarily mean that we expect you to quit your day job before you first pitch your idea to us – having a “real” job that gives you the flexibility to hack in your spare time is an excellent way to bootstrap your V1. One of the reasons why we’re focused on technology startups is the low cost of entry. Technical founders reduce that startup cost even further, and help us accelerate time to launch – we strongly prefer startups with a technical founder. Regardless of the skill set of the founder(s), acceleration only truly happens when there is commitment to the project. You will be expected to be committed to your new business full-time once you enter our program (even if you haven’t quit that day job in advance of being accepted, you’ll need to before you become an Upstart).
Professionalism
We’re looking for entrepreneurs that are resourceful. One of the best ways to demonstrate resourcefulness is to package up your business (the combination of your product, your revenue model and yourself) in a way that makes you look like “a real company.” Start with the way you look. If you don’t have a friend who is a graphic designer and willing to help you out, you can source a decent logo at 99designs.com for a few hundred dollars. Turn your new logo into business cards for under $20 at uvcards.com. Make a super-professional web site yourself (seriously, you can do this) with Squarespace. And, for the love of Pete, have someone who spells well flip through your deck before you start shopping yourself around. One “you’re” instead of “your” can shut down an audience’s brain to the rest of your pitch.
A Deck
Speaking of pitch decks, we expect you to have one when you meet with us. Guy Kawasaki wrote what’s still probably the best advice on tech startup pitch decks more than six years ago – if you haven’t read it yet, please do so now (here is another nice reformatting of his advice). You may think you’re “keeping things casual” when you come in without a deck, but keep in mind – we’re betting on your ability to sell your company to investors along with our bet on your business. Take the opportunity to show us what you can do.
Send us a note when you’re ready to come in – we’re looking forward to seeing your deck.
by bryan on January 26, 2012
In our first few months at Upstart, we’ve been fortunate to work with some incredibly talented people on a number engaging projects. I’m thrilled to see Menuish and Sell Simply building so much momentum, and I’m just as excited to see some of our services work come to fruition.
We’re hitting the ground running this year, and we’re ready to add to our team.
To that end, we’re looking for a senior front-end developer to take the lead on a variety of projects. We need someone to help lead our prototyping process, build fantastic mobile apps, and provide expertise to the next round of startups who come in the door. We’re hoping for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for all things mobile and digital.
Someone a lot like this:
- You have solid JavaScript skills. You can whip up a prototype with jQuery in no time, but you can also architect a mobile web app without any frameworks
- You’re an expert with CSS. You know how to craft a site that can work on a wide variety of devices but deliver CSS3 goodness when needed. You know when to bring LESS or SCSS to the party.
- You have experience with and a passion for mobile web development. Mobile devices aren’t an afterthought.
- You’re not entirely afraid of native or hybrid app development on a platform or two
- You thrive working in a team environment. We’re not an agency, but we are fast-paced and focused on high-quality output.
- You may not love automated testing, but you prefer it to spending an afternoon fixing regressions
If that sounds like you or someone you know, we’d love to hear from you.
by greg on December 16, 2011
I hate the term “serial entrepreneur,” but starting companies is in my blood. Upstart Labs was formed from this passion for new ventures. I’ve been a part of six startups over the past 15 years. I’ve seen tough times, but I’ve also been fortunate to have some wins along the way. At Upstart Labs, I’m combining this experience with a team of incredibly talented, enthusiastic co-founders to help other entrepreneurs turn their ideas into real companies.
We envision Upstart Labs as a new breed of startup accelerator. We’re more than investment capital, and more than office space (though we have those things, too). We invest ourselves into the Upstarts with which we partner. Our team has significant experience in the design, development and marketing of web and mobile products, and we are well-versed in building lean, profitable technology businesses. We’re looking for passionate entrepreneurs with great ideas – entrepreneurs who are ready to get in the trenches with us and build great products.
I’m proud to announce our first two Upstarts – Sell Simply and Menuish.
First up, Sell Simply (sellsimp.ly) which enables businesses and consumers to buy, sell and transact directly on Twitter. The application enables Twitter commerce, direct payments and fundraising through the first frictionless Twitter transaction service. It’s very cool stuff, and we have a lot more in store.
And our second portfolio company, Menuish (menuish.com), helps restaurants quickly build and publish mobile- & social-friendly menus. Designed to work on all mobile devices and for seamless integration with the Yelp, Google Places, and OpenTable mobile applications, the Menuish platform enables every restaurant to have a professional mobile and social web presence.
If you’ve got a great idea or an early stage mobile or web product and you’re interested in becoming an Upstart, stay tuned – we’ll be announcing a formal startup application process soon. In the meantime, contact us at info@upstartlabs.com or follow us on Twitter @upstartlabs.
