LessConf 3010 Day Two

Originally posted 2010-05-23 20:35:21

The folks at Storenvy cooked us breakfast: pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and bacon pancakes. Lots of buzz about the bacon pancakes. My love for Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddles drew me to the bacon pancakes. I took an eager bite, a charitable nibble, and gobbled a chocolate chip pancake. I’ll keep my bacon and pancakes separate in the future.

Alex Hillman, cofounder of IndyHall, grabbed the podium first and strode forcefully into a presentation sans slides. He should have used slides, or he should have had less to drink at the party last night, or something, because he abruptly faltered, looked blankly at the crowd, confessed that he was stuck and stumbling, and turned pleading eyes to Steve Bristol. Bristol tossed some prompts from his seat (\”You were saying that . . .\”, \”Talk about . . .\”), and Hillman tried to leap on them, sputtered a bit, then said, \”Steve, I’m dying up here,\” so Steve bounded onto the stage and co-presented.

The presentation was on coworking, which responds to people who work remotely, alone, but need some sense of community to produce and maintain sanity. Hillman has created a physical plus virtual community where people can come every day or drop by on occasion and do their remote work. You can be a lone worker without being alone. The community commands 5,000 square feet of office space in centrally-located Philadelphia, and you can pay $275/month to have a permanent desk or $25/month to drop by occasionally. They started with 1,800 square feet, furnished it for about $4,000 with IKEA desks, got profitable, moved to larger digs, and got profitable again. All the profits have been plowed back into the company, and Hillman consults to pay his bills. He spent the year before opening the business attending technology meetups, meeting tech people, throwing events, holding \”cream cheese\” sessions (everyone descends on a cafe for a day to cowork), and building an audience before opening the doors to their coworking offices. The company is four years old now and thriving.

For awhile, you suspected that Hillman’s swoon was an act to underscore the importance of coworking–the presentation suffered until Bristol vaulted onto the stage and they co-presented–but no big flash and polish appeared to say, \”See! We’re proving the message!\” Afterwards, Hillman tweeted this: \”Thanks for enduring that train wreck. Apologies to @lessconf attedees, @lessallan, and @stevenbristol for totally psyching myself out.\” So I guess he was really dying. The presentation worked pretty well, though, so kudos to Bristol for jumping in and helping him along. Together, they conveyed the IndyHall message, and it’s a good one that should work to bring together creative communities in any city.

The next person to take the stage was Peldi Guilizzoni, founder of Balsamiq. He entertained on stage as he did at lunch the previous day, and his enthusiasm drove me to action: I bought Balsamiq while he presented. Some of what he presented rehashed things he’d told us at lunch, but some of the other highlights:

• The product took off right away. His business plan called for 150 customers after two years. He’s not quite two years in, and he has over 20,000 customers.
• He reads all the time. Three books on his bedside table are Crossing the Chasm, Rework, and Growing a Business.
• He displayed his pantheon: an array of pictures of his heroes, the people he learns from and reads everything they write and that he tries to emulate. He recommends that we all do the same. Jason Fried was on his pantheon, so he expressed relief that Fried had left the day before, or he’d have felt awkward.
• As a business owner, your job is to do email all the time unless you take steps to avoid that.
• He maintains a \”write-only\” text file of business ideas–he closes his eyes, opens the file, types in his new idea, hits enter, and closes the file. He doesn’t want to look at any of his ideas right now because he doesn’t have time to do them.
• He showed a clip of Steve Martin: Be so good that they can’t ignore you.
• Put your product above everything else (support, blog, et al).
• Be brave about asking your customers for money. You need it to stay in business, and they want you to stay in business so you can support them.
• He named the product after a condiment because the original vision was a plugin to Confluence. Like a condiment, Balsamiq makes Confluence and other apps better. He says Balsamiq is spelled like the vinegar, but with a \”q.\” His father jokes that if his success continues, they’ll say that the vinegar is spelled like the software, but with a \”c.\”

Go buy Balsamiq!

Clay Hebert, founder of TribesWin, took the stage to wrap up the conference. Clay studied under Seth Godin as part of a 6-month \”Alternative MBA\” program in 2009–see Clay’s comment below, and thanks for the clarificiation! Seth Godin has authored several books, including Purple Cow, Tribes, The Dip, and the new Linchpin. I recently purchased Linchpin on my nook, though I haven’t read it yet, and they gave us a hardbound copy at the conference. Hebert’s talk bumped Linchpin to the top of my \”next read\” list. He made me squirm as he attacked the \”factory working\” status quo, where people learn to obey and keep their heads down and check off lists and trade greatness for following instructions. He pulled out a baggie of 400 nickels and said that the nickels represented the scope of human history, and that a single nickel represented our current economic setup of having jobs and going to work for someone else. No one used to be unemployed because no one used to have jobs!

The educational system trains us for a factory world of obedience and cooperation. When you obey and comply, you are replaceable. Linchpins, on the other hand, don’t obey the rules or check off someone else’s lists. They make the rules. They’re more human, more connected, more mature. They do emotional labor, rather than physical labor. They’re artists. They don’t rely on resumes, which are tickets to being average–sheets of paper that sit on HR desks while you hope you’re picked.

Hebert showed a picture of a squirrel, and confessed he’d rather use a real squirrel in his talks but can’t figure out the logistics. He talked about the squirrel’s lizard brain, which makes it hungry, horny, and scared. The lizard brain, which we also have, scares us and makes us back off. We must overcome our lizard brains to become great, to become linchpins.

If you haven’t felt roused or challenged by my account, the fault rests entirely with me. Hebert’s presentation was amazing. Go read Linchpin.

The LessConf folks outdid themselves, and rewarded me far beyond the time and money I spent to be there. I hope they never change the single-track format, nor do they compromise their standards on who they invite to speak. They targeted greatness and brought it. I met some amazing, passionate folks, and felt inspired to be amazing myself. I have pages of notes to read and digest, websites to go to, tools to try, books to read, and practices to implement. I’d better hurry–I have only a year until I’m back at the next LessConf to learn more!