drewshula.com » start-up

Book: Founders at Work

Drew Shula — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:17:28 +0000

Founders at Work, by Jessica Livingston. 2007.

Last weekend I sat down at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica with my friend Justin Brandon for input on my idea for Vverdant. I wanted to meet with him, because I greatly respect his opinion on web related projects. He worked at Google and has developed several great websites, including The Road to Fondwa site for a film he directed and produced. Justin thought the concept for Vverdant seemed pretty solid and told me to go for it. He also turned me on to several great websites including the Four Hour Workweek Blog, and Venture Hacks.

Additionally, he let me borrow a copy of Founders at Work, by Jessica Livingston. So far I’ve read write-ups on: Apple, Gmail, Craigslist, and Flickr. It’s one of those perfectly timed reads and I can’t put it down. It’s amazing to read these narratives of people who succeeded at doing exactly what I’m trying to do: follow their passion, build a company, and create value for people.

Valley of Death

Drew Shula — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:05:53 +0000

Financing for my fledgling business venture has been on my mind. I’m currently in the start-up “Valley of Death,” that part of the financing cycle where you’re investing in yourself and going negative. It’s hard work to pull that curve back into a parabola, but I’m passionate about my idea so I think it’s very possible.

I can ask around, but the liklihood of an angel investor is not good. I could head to Vegas, but I don’t like my odds there either. The surest way to get this off the ground seems to be through diligence, creativity, and a solid belief that taking this risk will lead to a reward in the end. I go to Rick Ross for inspiration….The venture capital will come to me if I do this right.

Starting a Start-Up

Drew Shula — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:18:27 +0000

The green light bulb went off in my brain (and it was a compact fluorescent).

So I have this idea to start a company:

I’ve been thinking about it for a couple months, but the concept is just a sprout. It’s barely started to germinate in my brain. This blog is meant to change that. I plan to write about my entrepreneurial ideas here, both to catalogue my thoughts, and to provide a forum for feedback.

This is the concept:

I want to create a global Web 2.0 platform for the green building (GB) industry. A knowledge center: news, jobs, links, community, calendar. With user generated content. This will be a one stop shop for GB professionals — a resource I would use every day in my profession (I’m an architect), but which does not currently exist. I think this is a big idea because the construction industry is one of the largest in the world, and the entire thing is shifting to green. There is a large potential user group for this site.

My idea is to organize a website by location (similar in concept to Craigslist), so GB professionals can tap into their local networks. I plan to start with my current local network of Los Angeles, and spread to other cities if this is a success. I’m using Curbed as a model of a similar idea that is working for the real estate industry.

Phases:

I: Create GB network for Los Angeles. II: Spread to other cities in the U.S. and globally. III: Apply this model to other professional communities: artists, non-profits, financial executives, etc….

It’s all about scalability:

I think I’ve generated a model that could have a lot of potential. We’ll see how this blog and this idea continue to grow. Stay tuned.