Congratulations to Josh Baer and his colleagues at Capital Factory for mounting a very successful Demo Day on September 7.  A capacity crowd of about 300 in the ATT Center Amphitheater on the University of Texas campus seemed to be about evenly divided between entrepreneurs and investors.  The latter included individuals from around Texas, the West Coast, and Atlanta.  There was enough money in the room to fund all the 22 deals on display, and that’s a very positive mix.  One investor commented to me that this was the best such presentation day he had attended, and I know he’s been to plenty.  The five capital factory graduates were highly polished in their morning 8-minute pitches, and the afternoon gang of 1-slide, 3-minute presenters made for a more interesting format than I anticipated.   They got their points across.

The event was fully transcribed by Launch, so I will focus on the theme that I found particularly dominant during the day.   That theme is having a genuine interest, often called passion, for the core of the business idea.  Just being enthusiastic about doing a startup, or making money, is not the same as solving a problem that is more personal.  I know Capital Factory coached its graduates to open their pitches with personal tales that spawned their ideas, and that resonated with the audience.

One can’t help but be reminded of this great quote from The Godfather:

 "Tom, don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That's what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal Like God. He knows every feather that falls from the tail of a sparrow or however the hell it goes? Right? And you know something? Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult." — Mario Puzo

On that theme, Brian Sharples of HomeAway used terms like having intense curiosity, a higher purpose, and never settling when things can be made better.  He said there’s no better career than starting companies, and he shared the wisdom of some failure on his way to successive wins.  He talked about humility, and he exhibited it on stage.   HomeAway arose from a problem he wanted to solve for his own family travels, and he assembled the team and the capital around that idea to essentially own a market.  He had the smarts and the clout to think a few moves ahead of competitors and potential competitors and truly dominate an area he really cares about.

Bob Metcalfe in his opening remarks took a bit of a different tack but did speak to the very personal skills required to start business – keeping yourself healthy and energetic, being good at speaking and writing, knowing how to sell, and having the ability to plan.  I don’t think he’s a proponent of regular all-nighters fueled by Ramen Noodles that reduce your communications skills to 140 character increments.  

One thing I would add is that it’s really good to have a competitor that you view as your archenemy.   We had one such company during the early Peachtree Software days, BPI actually based here in Austin.  They went public early, but that brand has long since disappeared.   I take personal pride in the fact that we kicked them hard and that Peachtree is still around creating jobs, careers, and happy customers.  

It’s become harder to identify your nemesis in a world where fast, lean startups are appearing by the minute from all parts of the globe.   But, if you can focus on a few competitors that you really want to lick, and you take that mission very, very personally, you will be the better for it.

<photo from The Godfather>