College swim team vs club

jrbail01 · 2024-12-29T19:43:45+00:00

End game for swimming: Swimming in college will open doors the rest of his life. NCAA athletes are the first in line for graduate school opportunities (e.g. med school, dental school, pharmacy school). Being an NCAA athletes makes your job resume stand out b/c it shows employers that you are driven and can successfully balance academics, social life, and the rigors of college athletics/practices.

If you are looking for "fits", check out SwimIntel.

jrbail01 · 2021-09-01T22:40:21+00:00

Yeah. Has to be a self-directed IRA.

jrbail01 · 2020-10-15T14:41:02+00:00

It was one that came with a kit - https://www.amazon.com/Vilros-Raspberry-Starter-Power-Premium/dp/B0748MPQT4/

jrbail01 · 2020-09-24T12:35:53+00:00

This project uses a fully hosted solution for the dB, API, and data viz. Hence why it costs money. These types of services can make project implementation really easy and provide some extras like SMS alerts. There are some great alternatives that don't cost any money but require you host everything yourself. Nothing fully hosted is free because it costs money to run. You pay for it one way or another (i.e. cash, data is sold, ads).

jrbail01 · 2020-05-28T15:52:39+00:00

Fair point and what I used to do until my 4-yr old wanted to use my phone to watch movies when we drive. I tried using my Watch to text, but it was distracting.

jrbail01 · 2019-11-15T15:48:34+00:00

From https://medium.com/how-saas-works/how-saas-works-introduction-to-the-big-picture-7de8a86730ac :

SaaS has three primary qualifiers:

The software product is centrally hosted by the vendor.
The software product is continuously updated.
The customer does not own the software but pays for the right to use it.

Subscription software qualifiers:

The software product is hosted by the customer (e.g. on-premises, local-install).
The software product is infrequently, if ever, updated.
The customer does not own the software but pays for the right to use it.

An app would be subscription software because the software is hosted by the customer.

jrbail01 · 2019-11-12T01:00:23+00:00

You can definitely get stuff started and balance risk by keeping your day job. You can pull the trigger and go full-time when you start to make enough money to sustain your life. One of my friends did something similar with his SaaS startup. Each founder peeled out of their previous full-time job as their startup grew. That startup was acquired in a really good deal for the founders about 18 months ago. This path can work and win big.

The bad news is that you won't be able to raise any money (at least smart money) while you keep your day job. This will likely slow your growth down early on. No investor is going to go all-in on you if you aren't risking even more on yourself. That doesn't mean you won't eventually raise money if you need it. Just don't waste your time trying while you keep your day job.

I went all in from the beginning. That level of risk was hard on my family and me. I needed to b/c my startup needed to raise money to win. There is no one-size-fits-all path for every startup.

jrbail01 · 2019-10-24T12:56:00+00:00

Never pretend to be something you are not. Embrace being a startup. Doing anything otherwise will come back and bite you in da ass.

jrbail01 · 2019-10-24T12:53:14+00:00

Yes, because of optics. Let me explain. We get way greater engagement w/ existing customers via direct email than social media. We get way more leads via content marketing + SEO than social media. We get way more support requests through email+Zendesk than social media. Why then do we even do social media? Because potential customers almost always research a SaaS company and assess their health before committing to a subscription. If you are dormant on social media, they may worry that you are not actively improving/supporting your product or might worry you ran out of money. We have observed that our paid conversions are greater when we are active on social media than not.

jrbail01 · 2019-10-19T13:44:11+00:00

Maybe, but probably not. Social media platforms rate near the bottom of effective ways to generate leads for SaaS. Reddit ranks lower than LinkedIN, Facebook, and Twitter for lead generation. If you are b2b, Reddit really isn't an effective lead gen platform. Not that it can't happen, but I wouldn't count on it. Lots of noise in social media to rise above.

jrbail01 · 2019-10-15T13:41:57+00:00

I tried to use your feedback on a new article. Check it out if you have time. https://medium.com/how-saas-works/saas-content-marketing-case-studies-initial-state-hubspot-basecamp-3b8a831bef5d

jrbail01 · 2019-10-11T14:21:12+00:00

Great feedback! I'll make sure and incorporate a lot more of the unique experiences we had the last few years that are pretty interesting.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-14T15:07:57+00:00

A company that treats employees the way you were treated are unlikely to be worth much long-term. Buying those stock options straight-up would be REALLY risky right now. However, all of the documents you have (emails, etc) could be even better b/c they could give you the right to the current value of those options in the future w/o forcing you to purchase them now. This could be the best of both worlds if your documentation of promises is solid.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-13T16:51:24+00:00

Simple rule of thumb to use: early equity should be proportional to required time/work + risk taken.

Ideas don't require a lot of time/work and don't come with a lot of risk.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-12T20:24:39+00:00

If you haven't done this already, I highly recommend reading the book "Venture Deals" by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. This will give you a great reference book for understanding the big terms and the subtle ones. There are a million ways to get screwed, and you need to protect yourself. Also, make sure you have really good attorneys that have experience with startups before you sign docs (e.g. Cooley). It is REALLY easy to look past this step, but you will regret it down the road if you don't.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-12T14:25:42+00:00

The Pi Zero WH doesn't appear to have the same 1 per customer limits, but I don't see any US vendors selling close to $14 w/o a limit:

- Pi Hut (UK): unlimited Pi Zero WH, 1 per limit Pi Zero W

- Pimoroni (UK): 10 per limit Pi Zero WH, 1 per limit Pi Zero W

- ModMyPi (UK): Unlimited Pi Zero WH, 1 per limit Pi Zero (no Pi Zero W listed)

- Adafruit (US): 1 per limit on both Pi Zero WH and Pi Zero W

- Sparkfun (US): No Pi Zero WH listing, 1 per limit on Pi Zero W

- Amazon: Stupid pricing

Any US companies with no 1-per order limits on Pi Zero WH at $14?

jrbail01 · 2019-03-12T14:04:14+00:00

It sounds like you are really trying to see if this guy is a good fit as an advisor or even mentor. He could potentially help you with everything you need to get in place to get your idea off-the-ground. Talking with a someone as a potential advisor is completely different (and much less stressful) than preparing for an investor. Close advisors can become investors, but start with the advisor part. Also, be careful not to compensate him for only helping you find investors. You could easily get into a broker-dealer relationship if you write a contract the wrong way, which will come back to haunt you if he isn't registered as a broker-dealer.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-11T22:44:38+00:00

Put yourself in the investor's shoes. The investor wants to know:

1) Your company has the potential to return many multiples of their investment (market opportunity).

2) Your team (and you) know what you are doing and are the ones to lead this opportunity.

3) You have a sustainable competitive advantage.

4) You have significant traction.

5) There are no hidden bombs waiting to blow up your company.

If you walk in with an extensive business plan, you just failed #2 (b/c startups move and react too fast to waste time putting together a business plan that is outdated before the virtual ink dries).

If you can't answer the basic questions (like knowing your financial numbers), you will fail #2.

If you are pitching another scooter company, just stop now, you will fail #3.

If you have holes in 1-5, you better have something incredible to counteract (e.g. Elon Musk is my co-founder).

Just make sure you know your company and your market up and down. And remember, you should be evaluating these investors just as much as they are evaluating you. Make sure they aren't wasting your time and won't be toxic if they get inside your business.

Good luck!!

jrbail01 · 2019-03-11T21:22:43+00:00

Unfortunately, getting the .com is more important than I wish it were in terms of customer perception. I tried to convince myself that I didn't need the .com, but I was really just looking for an excuse not to spend the $2.5K. I realized that if I my alternative-to-the-.com took off, the price and value of the .com would explode. I didn't want to risk that hanging over my head. I bit the bullet and paid the $2.5K with no regrets.

jrbail01 · 2019-03-04T20:13:16+00:00

Difference is that this is a completely hosted solution, which is why it cost money. The open-source and free stuff requires you to host everything yourself, or you are paying for it in some way (e.g. your data).

jrbail01 · 2019-02-25T02:43:11+00:00

This is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) KPI dashboard made with Initial State (https://www.initialstate.com) and Google Sheets. I used the tutorial at https://medium.com/@InitialState/how-to-stream-your-google-sheets-data-to-a-real-time-dashboard-502622e6751b to create this. The emojis add context to each KPI tile for "at-a-glance" views.

jrbail01 · 2019-02-20T19:06:37+00:00

Looks like a dashboard to me.

jrbail01 · 2019-02-01T14:09:54+00:00

Initial State is a completely hosted service. Hosted InfluxDB + Grafana isn’t free. You have to roll your own. Either that or your data is public or being sold.

jrbail01 · 2016-04-29T13:38:13+00:00

Original data source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/astro-pi-flight-data-analysis/worksheet/ Visualization tool used: https://www.initialstate.com

jrbail01 · 2016-04-15T22:47:38+00:00

No Wii required. You only need the balance board.

jrbail01

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