While we are on the topic of awards & recognition – don’t forget to nominate yourself for the Telstra Australian Business Awards! There is a fair bit of work involved in completing the business evaluation as part of the submission, but I think it would also be of great value for you to do and get an idea of where you sit along side your Australian counterparts!

Telstra Australian Business Awards

Prestigious and coveted, the Awards program celebrates the country’s entrepreneurs and innovators. It offers a unique chance for small to medium businesses to be recognised for their hard work, commitment and of course, success.

The Awards operate in every state and territory and are open to all Australian small and medium businesses to enter, offering five Award categories.

Businesses that enter the Telstra Australian Business Awards receive a 70-page report evaluating their business performance against independent benchmarking of core business indicators. These include business planning and performance, customer and financial management, HR, sales, marketing and product development. The Business Health Check helps entrants to grow their business knowledge – growing their business tomorrow by knowing where it is today.

Finalists and winners are catapulted into the spotlight and can win a share of $500,000 worth of prizes. New business opportunities flow as your public profile increases and you network with other leading SMBs.

All finalists and winners join the Telstra Australian Business Awards Network, allowing continued networking in a private and exclusive online environment.

So with great national exposure, a competitive advantage and an opportunity to grow your business world, there’s a lot to celebrate.

2012 Nominations are open. Entries open Monday 6 February 2012 and close midnight Monday 2 April 2012.

Are you running a fast growing or innovative start-up? If so, you need to enter the StartupSmart Awards – the premier awards ceremony for start-ups in Australia.

The submission deadline for the awards is 1 March, 2012 so don’t delay!

At StartupSmart we are passionate about discovering and shining a light on new ventures that are destined to be tomorrow's leading businesses.

The StartupSmart Awards for 2012 will be judged by some of Australia's leading entrepreneurs including Philip Weinman, Fred Schebesta and Amanda Gome.

As well as gaining the recognition of customers, suppliers and even potential investors, the fastest-growing start-up will win a $10,000 Private Media advertising package, to be presented at an awards ceremony in Melbourne in late March.

The awards include a list of 50 of Australia's fastest growing start-ups. The number one ranked business will walk away with the top prize.

Separate awards categories include Best Online Strategy, Best Product, Best Service, Best Green Start-up, Best Young Entrepreneur, Start-up Hero, and, for the first time, Best Start-up Investor.

There’s even an award for those of you still in the planning stages of setting up a business. The Best Start-up Idea winner will have their business plan analysed by industry experts.

Each of the top 50 and category winners will be profiled extensively on StartupSmart. Our sister publication, SmartCompany, will also cover the awards.

Our awards are easy to enter and will take just 10 minutes to fill out. Just by entering, your business will be mentioned in the popular StartupSmart Daily Newsletter in the lead-up to the awards, with a link back to your website.

Entries close 1 March, 2012. What are you waiting for?

Today I am pleased to officially announce BizSpark Plus, an extension of the Microsoft BizSpark Program in Australia. This program allows accelerators to offer each of their startups, up to $60,000 worth of Microsoft Windows Azure compute and storage over a 24-month period, at no cost.

In Australia a number of accelerators, have joined the BizSpark Plus program, including:

· Angel Cube

· Blue Chilli

· Founder Institute

· Fishburners

· PushStart

· Startmate

· StartPad

· York Butter Factory

These BizSpark Plus partners were chosen for their exceptional ability to impact the Australian market through their influence in the entrepreneurial community and their proven success with early-stage startups.

The goal of the BizSpark Plus program is to help startups grow their business by offsetting cloud computing costs and enabling startups to spend time and money elsewhere so they can focus on solving their business challenges, learning from their users, hiring more developers, investing in marketing and promoting their business or gaining new customers.

Since its inception, the BizSpark Program has expanded its community to reach over 45,000 startups worldwide to help accelerate their success. BizSpark members gain access to a growing global network of over 2,000 partners that assist startups through financial and legal assistance, mentoring, networking and business advice.

Over time, we will be extending additional offers through our BizSpark Plus Partners. For more information about the program, visit http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus.

Today I am honoured to have a guest post that s a little bit different. It’s from a female non technical founder, who shares her experiences as a “Mumpreneur” as she worked towards launching her Business Art Buds. I met Anna when I presented at the Social Media Women event last year, and am particularly honoured to see some of the tips I gave to the attendees beings ones that she has also taken on board & mention in her list below.

Anna mentions some great places to look for support/events/advice in the Startup community here in Australia. In addition to those she mentions I always suggest Startups join some of the great online communities we have here in Australia to Support startups such as  http://www.the-entourage.com.au and the online discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia - these are a fantastic way to connect with other local startups and hear about upcoming events. The Anthill Online Magazine is also a great resource for keeping up to date & getting great tips for your business: http://anthillonline.com/  and www.TheFetch.org is a great source of all the events happening in your local city.

Thanks Anna for sharing your personal experience and lessons learnt – I hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did – and be sure to check out http://shop.artbuds.com/ to pick out some amazing artwork for the special little people in your life!

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I think running a start up business is like having a baby. There's a lot of build up, preparation, anticipation and excitement until the actual birth/launch. Hopefully a beautiful afterglow and sense of achievement follows. Then there are lots of compromises, troubleshooting, lack of sleep and stress but somehow love and passion keep you going. The rewards do feel worth it if you are consistently nurturing and dedicated.

Yep, it’s definitely a real up and down path, full of challenges and accomplishments. There is a lot of advice and support available, but in reality nothing is set in stone. You take bits and pieces of information from a range of sources and you learn as you go. Common sense also goes a long way…

So as a mother and start-up entrepreneur of ArtBuds – Contemporary Art for Kids, (http://shop.artbuds.com/) I’d like to share my experiences of running an online business with a toddler in tow.

#1: Who am I - now?

Let's start with the 'before' baby and running a business persona. I have always thought of myself as a great multi-tasker and action woman. If I had a goal I would generally achieve it. This included realising my teenage dream of living in Paris, to leaving my comfortable life and long term job to move interstate, to running my own brand insights consultancy whilst undertaking a Masters in Art Therapy. I also moved to Madrid with my Spanish husband and created a job for myself in a market research agency, despite not speaking Spanish or having a professional European network.

But this was all in my own time, in my own office where I had choices to work in silence or with music, have lunch or work through, stop and start at my own pace. Even working within the constraints of professional deadlines doesn’t quite prepare you for skills required to negotiate nap time, the level of patience for toilet training, the anger management needed when dark red lipstick is applied to cream carpet, texta on the walls…Now I have to multi-task around my toddler’s needs and routine which is generally much more noisy and unpredictable than you can ever plan around.

But just as kids are not robots, the online world moves so rapidly that we have to be agile and keep abreast of the trends, or more importantly create the trends.

My lesson: Giving birth is life changing, so my life and attitudes have also had to change. Whilst being goal oriented is necessary, it can be a bit rigid. It feels more liberating and productive to let go of what “used to be”, and focus on the now. I prefer to live in the present and adopt a broader forward thinking approach.

#2: Wanting quick success (AKA maintaining anxiety levels)

Although I would love my business to be further along its life cycle, it’s still really in the early stages. In the short 5 months since launch we’ve been tackling SEO and all its permutations, social media, content creation, video production, product development, PR and marketing angles, networking, market research and partnership opportunities.

There’s still so much to learn, and I think it’s realistic to say the business is at the same developmental stage as my toddler. Toilet training! It's a bit daunting, anxiety provoking, potentially a bit complex but a necessary and natural step we need to master so we can mature and advance. It really is time based and could take a few weeks or months, but we'll move onto the next stage when the time is right.

My lesson: It's all about being adaptable and flexible and dealing with the situation at hand, which sometimes changes tack without warning. Rather than getting anxious it’s also about being patient and remembering to celebrate the small steps that will help to maintain momentum when it gets a bit overwhelming.

#3: Working against the biggest challenge: time

My daughter goes to pre-school 5 days/fortnight. This roughly equals 10-15 hours of quality block time to work, sans any noise and toddlerville antics. Except for public holidays, school holidays or if she is sick, where those 10 hours a week can easily dwindle to no hours of clean lovely quiet time.

My priority has always been to put my daughter's needs first, otherwise why be a parent and why work from home to be with her? This is easier said than done! I am also conscious not to overuse the TV as a babysitter... so it's always a fine line providing a quality parenting environment and getting my work done to a decent level.

My lesson: Aim to work more efficiently and smarter not longer more stressful hours. It's taken a while to really learn this, and remains an ongoing challenge.

#4: Managing Workload

Whilst my husband and I take responsibility for all the important aspects of our daughter’s development and wellbeing she also spends time absorbing knowledge and new experiences from various people. She goes to pre-school, my mother helps out and on occasion we get in a babysitter or friend in, so we can remember why we got married in the first place.

Similarly, as it was advised to me early on, it's best to keep on top of all the important aspects of the business, and get support for the smaller tasks. I now delegate some tasks to a small team of uni students, but the important parts, like the finances and customer contact I retain direct responsibility.

My lesson: Don’t be too precious, delegate and get help wherever possible, so I can focus on the key aspects of the business. It’s also nice to feel like part of a team.

#5: Maintaining Big Picture Focus

It is amazing how innately babies and children are programmed to know what to do. When my daughter was about 5 months old she started to rock on all fours. She would do this movement every night for about 2 months, avoiding sleep at the excitement of preparing her little body for the bigger reward – crawling, then walking.

It's so easy to have high expectations with the immediacy of social media. Through social media, you may have great buzz one day but the next day it’s another story receiving attention. My mentor warned me about this at our very first meeting. There might be spikes of interest along the way, but it’s about finding strategies that build and sustain these levels of interest.

My lesson: Keep focused on creative ways to build online marketing strategies that incorporate social media, but do not only rely on this for PR and marketing traction.

#6: Being Too Emotionally Involved to be Objective

As a qualitative researcher I've spent many years talking to consumers, and advising companies about their brands, products and services. Think I could do this for myself? No way! It's too personal, I'm too close to it and I don't have the skills or expertise at this early stage.

My lesson: Get a mentor! You don't need to do it all, there are lots of experienced people who can help you. PushStart are fantastic and free.

#7: Trying to do it all

I believe the ‘supermum’ ideal is a farce, no matter how many successful mothers appear to “have it all”. I’m still unsure what that means…but it’s just not possible to give quality parenting time, focused business time, not to mention partner time, domestic affairs and general life - without something giving way.

It’s almost a no-brainer that to fit in quality time why not work at night after the kids are in bed, or at obscenely pre-dawn hours, to get it all done. Well I did do this, for about three months. Then I got really sick with a terrible virus but still kept trying to do it all, until I eventually broke my big toe and got mouth ulcers and infected gums. Charming. Then under strict medical orders I had to rest for 2 weeks without doing anything, or risk serious illness…a really excellent situation for parenting and running a business.

My lesson: Make health a priority, without feeling guilty for taking time out to exercise and unwind. It provides crucial headspace and clarity. Some of my best ideas are from walking along the beach in the morning. It’s so obvious but also quite difficult to remember and action this.

#8: Feeling connected offline

As a new mother, when your baby cries a lot it can feel really debilitating. With sleep deprivation and no previous experience it can sometimes be hard to cope. Fortunately in Australia there are so many great organisations, nurses, doctors that can help during this time. Unfortunately, many mothers aren’t aware of them, or don’t want to appear helpless and suffer unnecessarily.

Similarly, as a new start-up with no previous experience, it’s impossible to glide along without any hiccups. There are so many organisations and experts willing and ready to offer support, and generally at no cost. It can also get overwhelming and sometimes isolating if you’re working from home. Reaching out to some of the numerous experts and general start up community by attending industry events and meetings can be so enriching and normalizing. Some great (Sydney based) ones include:

http://socialmediawomen.wordpress.com/

http://pushstart.com.au/

http://www.meetup.com/cities/au/sydney/

http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-fastBREAK-innovation-networking-BREAKfast-talks/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/BuzSpark_au

My Lesson: Get out to as many networking events as possible. You meet inspiring people, make great contacts, learn a lot and/or feel reassured you’re on the right track, and make potential friends in a similar situation. It feels good to get out and wear some heels too!

#9: Getting the parent vs business balance

This is the trickiest one of all for me. Drawing from my art therapy experience (http://shop.artbuds.com/pages/meet-our-team), transference and counter transference (http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/6/1/57.full) is evident in any relationship we encounter. It's impossible not to get stressed as a parent, or running your own business, but projecting this anxiety, anger and potentially resentment onto a little person can have serious long-term ramifications. Their formative years are so crucial to shaping how they behave and who they become. I am reminded by the expression, "give me a child till he is 7 and I'll give you the man".

Just in case I lose my way, as can easily happen being a first time mum and new to online start-ups, my daughter guides me. Recently I had a lot of tasks to complete. I was feeling under pressure and my patience was being tested. I did many things that I shouldn't have: allowing too much time watching Cinderella and other Disney films, and losing my temper too often. Putting all this together - she said she was Cinderella and I was the stepmother! (NB: no offence to blended family stepparents).

My lesson: I love my business, but my daughter will always remain my best creation. Getting this into perspective has really allowed me to be a better mother and strive towards more efficient time management. As Zappos entrepreneur and motivational guru Tony Hsieh (http://about.zappos.com/meet-our-monkeys/tony-hsieh-ceo) advocates, find the happiness medium and success will follow. I know I’m on the right track when my daughter says, “Mum, you’re not the stepmother anymore, you’re the mummy and I love you”.

Nokia Workshops - Syd: Feb 16^th & 17^th, Melb: Feb 20^th & 21^st and Brisbane Feb 23^rd & 24^th

Be what’s next, register here for the Nokia series of workshops and learn how to create amazing Windows Phone apps and games that delight and entertain.   Over the course of two days you’ll learn how to evolve your existing .NET development skills and become part of the lucrative mobile revolution.  

The workshop is free of charge and you’ll have an opportunity to show off your creative development skills and be in the chance to get your hands on a Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone handset with a great App Challenge.

Nominate your Apps to be Featured

We know that having apps featured on the Windows Phone Marketplace helps drive downloads and your success.  If you have an app that you’d like to nominated to be featured then head to http://wp.livews.net/pages/eventdetail.aspx?mt=B29FE415-756D-4926-8091-0BA29EDDA8A5&eid=aa62acf6-dc9d-4606-b4c4-0ed31f846774 .

Please note this offer is made to Australian based developers who registered in the Marketplace under Country/Region Australia. 

Refer a Developer Buddy

If you have an Australian based developer or designer buddy you think would be interested in Windows Phone development then please refer them to http://wp.livews.net, they can request free Windows Phone Marketplace registration and devices for app testing. 

This is your opportunity to network with Australia's largest community of young entrepreneurs, while rubbing shoulders with the speakers, panel members and investors...

Click here to watch a video of the last Unconvention!

Australia's top entrepreneurs, investors, top tier business brands, government officials and 400 high-growth companies are all coming together for what is Australia's largest event for entrepreneurs under 40.
So why do you need to make sure you're there with us?

1. Hear from Australia's top entrepreneurs including Larry Bloch who sold NetBenefit for  £153 million and founded Netregistry, Andrew Thomas the 2010 E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year doing $50 million a year, and Liz Atkinson one of Australia's leading female entrepreneurs
2. Mix and mingle with 400 like-minded people exchanging business cards, idea's and opportunities
3. Pitch your business to the panel of speakers and audience of 400 to win a $6,000 Business Accelerator Package
4. Liaise with some of Australia's top business brands including ANZ, Netregistry and Servcorp
5. Speak with investors and potential mentors about your growth path
6. Take advantage of many giveaways throughout the day!

All of the Unconventions held in 2011 were sold out well before the event date, and these events are now under 3 weeks away...

CLICK HERE to see the details for when the event is in your city!

5 Half-price tickets for BizSpark Developers to attend next Monday’s Cofounder Speed Date event in Sydney!

They've almost hit capacity for the Cofounder Speed Date event on Monday 20th, but we've manage to get our hands on 5 half-price Tech Founder tickets to give away to BizSpark developers!

Niki Scevak of Start Mate has been confirmed as the guest speaker, and there will be free beer and pizza at the event.

In other words – its going to be AWESOME so if you are looking for a Co-Founder be quick & register now!!

To get the half price tickets, go to www.cofounderspeeddate.com.au  and use the promo code "MS212". Be quick, there's only 5 discounted tickets, so it's first-come first-served.

CoFounda Launched

I was invited today (yes on Valentines Day) to the Launch of a cool new app called CoFounda that is designed to match you up with your Startup Soul mate!  

“One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face is finding the right cofounder for their idea or project, the process can be a long, arduous and demotivating task, our goal is to change that” says Dan Filmer, CEO cofounda.
 
New Smartphone app cofounda is set to change the way people connect with each other both locally and globally to share ideas and work towards making them happen. It’s currently only available on Android & iPhone – but the Windows Phone version isn’t too far off!
 
Cofounda combines Geo location technology and instant messaging to assist members to connect with potential cofounders, consultants, resources and services that will assist in making their startup journey successful. Users are able to chat in real time with those that have complementary skillsets and interests vitally important to their ideas success

Congratulations to Mat, Angela, Dan & Jarrod on the successful launch!

Ever had that problem where you ordered a Taxi & keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting? The guys at Go Catch have had that happen to them 1 too many times and so have set out to solve that issue for us all!

We first met Ned and the Go Catch team (then know as Taxi Mate) at our Sydney Azure & Phone 7 BizSpark weekend, that they went on to Win with their App using an Azure backend created across the weekend….

Since then we have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Phone 7 Application & in great news – today is that day!

So get your hands on this top little app that will help you the take the stress out of booking your next taxi!

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-AU/apps/d76b0eb5-bad6-429f-b99e-0ce85d953f93

Congratulations guys, the app looks great!

I have noticed a marked increase in BizSpark companies that are interested in or focusing on game development or computer interaction so I thought i would remind everyone in case you missed it that the Kinect for Windows Sensor & Software Development Kit are now COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE! Whooohooooooo!  For just $296.00 you can have one of these hot little kits in your hands.

Microsoft Kinect for Windows

Kinect has changed the way people play games and experience entertainment. Now, Kinect for Windows offers the potential to transform how people interact with computers and Windows-embedded devices in multiple industries, including education, healthcare, retail, transportation, and beyond.

The release of the Kinect for Windows sensor and software development kit (SDK) for commercial applications opens up the limitless possibilities offered by Kinect technology. Together, the hardware and software offer a superior development platform for Windows and a higher quality, better performing experience for end users.

• Utilize Kinect skeletal-tracking, sophisticated microphone array, and other sensor technologies

• Explore the limitless opportunities to transform products, processes, and businesses

• Link computers to Kinect devices running Windows 7 and Windows 8 Developer Preview

• Run applications built with the Kinect for Windows Commercial Software Development Kit (SDK)

• Use the Kinect for Windows SDK (download at www.kinectforwindows.org) to build applications with C++, C#, or Visual

Studio Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Product Details:

The Kinect for Windows sensor unit is intended to be used with the following:

• Kinect for Windows Commercial SDK (download at www.kinectforwindows.org)

• An application that was developed using the Kinect for Windows Commercial SDK and associated runtime software.

Note: The sensor unit does not ship with any software, and will only operate with an application developed for Kinect for Windows.

What’s in the Box

• Kinect for Windows sensor

• USB/power supply cable

• Manual

Hardware Requirements

• 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) processor

• Dual-core 2.66-GHz or faster processor

• Dedicated USB 2.0 bus

• 2 GB RAM

OS Requirements

• Requires Windows 7 or Windows Embedded Standard 7

Need a cofounder for your startup? Want to work in a startup, but don't have any ideas of your own?

A common challenge that we see in the local Startup community here in Australia is the difficulty in finding a good cofounder for your startup. This year, we will be working with the guys at CoFounder to run regular "speed dating" style networking events to connect tech founders with business founders.

Whether you're looking for a cofounder to help with your startup idea, or you want to find a startup to join, Cofounder Speed Date is the fast and fun way to meet cool people with the skills you need to build a successful startup team.

You'll get to meet 13 potential cofounders and listen to a guest speaker from the tech startup community. Beer and pizza is also included. For details and tickets, visit cofounderspeeddate.com.au

Microsoft BizSpark are proud sponsors of the Startup Weekend events – and this upcoming one in Adelaide looks sure to be awesome! I’ll be heading down to visit Adelaide & be on the Judging panel on the Sunday evening. Hopefully I can get my hands on some Kinect SDK kits too so there can be some uopportunity for development with all the goodness of Kinect NUI and VUI happening! I am also hunting around for some cool prizes to give away, so watch this space.

Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets - primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people - to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

More information: http://adelaide.startupweekend.org
Buy a ticket: http://adelaide.startupweekend.org/tickets/

Imagine if your idea could change the world

Do you consider yourself a gaming entrepreneur? Or maybe a software design aficionado? Or perhaps creating viral videos is more your thing? Well, at Imagine Cup 2012 we've got it all — and more! Join the world's hottest student technology competition! This is the competition of competitions. The opportunity to share your creativity with the world. There are several Aussie Comps and Online Challenges you can enter - all increase your chances of nabbing a spot at the Worldwide Finals.

Alternatively, do you know any talented young student developers, or other science, technology, maths, design or business students? Let them know about Imagine Cup! The world’s hottest student competition gives tertiary students the chance to combine inspiration with technology to tackle some of the globe’s toughest problems and compete for cash grants and other prizes! If you know any young minds who fit the bill, forward them this: www.microsoft.com/australia/imaginecup/ and encourage them to enter Imagine Cup 2012.

Jason Cartwright, the founder of BizSpark startup Contructiv has written this post (also listed on his blog) about some of the lessons he has learnt with the first year of starting his business Contructiv. Thanks Jason for sharing the good the bad & the ugly of this first 12 months!

The idea

Just over 12 months ago I had the idea for Constructiv. It was around 1am when I woke, I knew if I fell back to sleep I’d likely forget it, so I got up. I grabbed the nearest exercise book and started writing. Designs, workflows, feature lists were all amongst it. Around 7 pages and 2 hours later I fell asleep.

Constructiv is a chance for individuals to be recognised for ideas and an opportunity for business to see them. I quickly fell in love with it. The idea quickly became like a virus, consuming almost every spare second I had. My active mind was constantly thinking of building the product.

Building it

After thinking through some early details, I decided to go for it. There was really only two potential avenues to execute on the idea, get someone else to build it, or build it myself. I decided to get a local developer to help out as my background was in multimedia and UI, not the back-end programming that would be required. As a married guy with kids, life understandably got in the way, but the process cost a couple of months. I’m thankful he was honest and admitted it wasn’t going to happen at the time rather than it drag on and delay for any longer.

Living in Albury Wodonga the talent pool isn’t exactly deep and I did my best to get the word out amongst friends to help me find an alt. I wanted local as I want to build a relationship with this person who could potentially come on-board as a co-founder if things worked out and it became a business.

The internet is an amazing resource and I always take the approach that I can learn anything I don’t know. I often look at people and other roles and question, what is it about them that makes them so special that I couldn’t do that job. The answer is almost always nothing. Sure there’s some natural talent when it comes to physical things like sports, but if you’re willing to put in the hours, you can learn anything online.

Bizspark

Early on I decided to build on the Microsoft stack, it had a large developer base internationally so I figured that many people can’t be wrong, right? Fairly soon after deciding on Microsoft, I looked into Bizspark, an initiative from Microsoft to help out startups. If you’re application is accepted (mine was), they provide access to their MSDN software catalogue for free. They also provide a base level plan of Azure for free. This was a fundamental turning point in the creation of Constructiv and is the reason I have a beta site working today. WIthout it, it simply wouldn’t have been possible, certainly not in the timeframe. I am concerned about the cost of Azure once the free period ends, I’ll need to get creative about how to finance that.

Bizspark requires an ABN, so I registered online, for free, then shortly after had my ABN.

One of the key ingredients from BizSpark was Visual Studio 2010, something I’d never used before. Coming from Dreamweaver it was a bit of learning curve, but a quick course on Lynda.com with a free voucher and I was comfortable with most of the concepts.

Learning

As a front end develop, I had extensive knowledge of Adobe’s Creative Suite, but very little experience as a programmer. I was potentially embarking on a journey that would require tens of thousands of lines of code. While I look back now, to build it from scratch would seem like a daunting task, it never felt like it at the time.

Breaking a large project into smaller digestible chunks was something I was good at. I often found that when I focused on a specific function of the site, that created more questions (and development) than it solved. Ultimately this extra development resulted in a more functional, usable site, so constant scope evolution is a great thing.

I spent the next few months teaching myself ASP.Net C#. There were many times where I needed to make decisions like WebForms vs MVC, often stumbling into a religious war that I find ultimately irrelevant. I’m laser focus on the end goal, so I want to build a beta of the site that does what I envisaged, how that happens is almost irrelevant. Sure one programming technique over another may result in scale issues down the track, but if it works out, investment or revenue will afford extra developers to rewrite or fix it.

I decided to go with WebForms as it had the visual UI that I was used to, along with the programming in code behind I would need to build the functionality required. While covering technology on techAU, I heard of and been sold on the idea of Microsoft’s Cloud architecture Windows Azure. That would soon power the back-end of Constructiv.

Transparency

I remember watching Foundation Episode 3, where Kevin Rose interviewed Phillip Rosedale, better known for creating Second Life. He explained his philosophy of being open and transparent about building a project and suggested that the benefits would far outweigh any potential downsides. I completely agreed and registered a Squarespace blog and began writing about the project.

Shortly after I grabbed the domain Constructiv.co from Hover and the site was live.

Motivation

I’m not going to lie, building Constructiv has been crazy. Remember I’m building this around a regular 9-5 to pay the bills, my Australia technology blog – techAU.tv, flying around the country to press events, holding down a girlfriend and occasionally seeing friends and family. Most day I get between 4-6 hours sleep.

Something that has been lodged in my brain is Garry Vee’s saying of “you can cause a lot of damage between 9 and 2”. Most ‘busy’ people still go to bed around 10pm, but to get this built and learn at the same time, I’ve needed to put in 18 and sometimes 20+hour days to fit everything in.

You may think I’m crazy for working these gruelling hours, the fact is I love it. I’m seriously addicted. When I’ve taken time out for the movies or the like, it’s actually a horrible feeling. It’s like the time is ticking by and I’m wasting it.

Watching TV now happens via the Slingbox Player on my desktop (if you don’t have a multi-monitor setup, get one). While a lot of late nights and alone time can be isolating and lonely, it really doesn’t have to be in this ultra-connected world we live in. I’m also rarely doing a single thing at once. I constantly watch This Week in Startups, This Week in Venture Capital, Foundation and a number of other startup-related podcasts. I find it’s incredibly motivating to see the amazing products and services other guys are building around the world.

I love to watch Gary Vaynerchuk presentations on YouTube, he’s one of the most passionate, honest people I’ve ever seen and hope to one day meet. He’s like the Tony Robbins of our generation, but not rehearsed rubbish, genuine motivating, thoughtful discussions.

I’ve also watched The Social Network more times than I care to admit.

Something else that provides constant motivation is the thought that someone else out there is working, harder, smarter and faster than me and tomorrow they may be my competitor. When my head finally hits the pillow, I love the feeling of ‘today, I kicked that guys ass’.

I know that I would never make it as a production line worker. I love new and exciting challenges, then solving them and getting that feeling of achievement. It turns out, programming aligns really well with this problem solving creativity. Having small wins along the way is critical in motivation long-term.

The most recent example of this was getting Facebook Login working tonight, a problem I’d worked on for days. Overcoming that challenge was an important milestone in the development. From day one, I knew having the largest identity provider supported was a must-have feature.

Health

Pulling these insane hours isn’t great for your health, but as someone who’s about to turn 30, I take the approach that I’d much rather work my ass off now, than when I’m 60. So I push the body to the limit, I’ve replaced my chair around 3 times in the hope I could have long coding sessions without having back and neck pains. Even with the latest addition of a $550 chair, that still happens.

I hate to think of the amount of cans of V I’ve consumed during the year, pushing your body to and sometimes past its limits means you have to do crazy things. There’s been days where I’ve had 6 cans, which is about 3 times the recommended daily intake.

Exercise is almost non-existent other than social time with friends. It’s not because I’m lazy, but because I know my body craves rest to rebuilt muscles after a workout, sleep time I couldn’t afford. So I ditched the workouts. Thankfully I still only weigh 95kg, ok for a 6’3, 30yo male.

My eyes constantly amaze me, there’s days where I’d spend less than an hour not looking at some kind of LCD display and they seem to have adapted. I don’t wear glasses (yet), but the only time they do complain is around 2am when I’m tired and don’t blink as often.

Finances

After starting the business, I created an account and transferred $1,000 into it. I also created a Pledgie donation and added it to the side of the blog. A few passionate early fans helped out with $120 of donations. It turns out the great thing about spending your own time building something is that you have a very low burn rate.

There’s been a few costs along the way like hosting and domain names, business cards etc, but there’s still more than $1,000 in the account. The downside of course is the time it takes. Had I taken the money, hired developers, I would have burnt the cash and had no knowledge for future product development. More importantly, knowing what I know now, I can have intelligent conversations with additional developers that come on-board in the future.

I never had 20k to throw into this project, but what I did have, was time. So that what I invested and I’m over the moon with that decision.

Mobile

The past week I’ve engaged the services of a friend locally to help build the Windows Phone app, which will be the first mobile version of Constructiv. I’m incredibly impressed with the speed at which he takes my designs and implements them. The funny part is I told him about the idea shortly after I came up with it and he seemed unconvinced. After seeing a full working site, he seems to understand the concept now and is getting on-board. He’s not being paid, I offered, he’s helping out for free.

The Future

I never knew I was cut out for startup life, but with around 12 months of busting my ass, I love it. Working towards a product that can potentially change lives and improve the products we all use, it’s an amazing feeling. I’ve got no idea if, but what I do know is I’ll learn from it either way.

In the short term, I’m knocking over a few final must haves features, but then will get to work on a marketing strategy to gain attention for the site. I’ll take the feedback from the beta and constantly evolve and iterate the service as the users need. It’s 12 months on and I’m more in love with this idea than ever.

My theory is, Constructiv doesn’t exist because its not an easy problem to solve.. that’s motivation to go build it. At the end of the day, I wanted a service like this to exist, it doesn’t so I went and built it.

Today Domenic shared his insight and expertise on  raising Capital for your Business. He covered these slides – take a look through them and feel free to contact Domenic with any questions you have. Domenic also mentioned the exciting partnership between Future Development and Network Partner Blue Chilli where there will be 2 new Incubators starting up soon: http://anthillonline.com/domenic-carosa-invests-in-bluechilli-to-launch-two-new-australian-incubators/ as a result they are looking for companies that may qualify for funding so be sure to take a look at the slides & contact Domenic if you have any further questions.

We have locked in the final agenda and judges for this weekends Azure BizSpark Dev Camp. Its going to be a cracker of a 3 days and I can’t wait! This event is going to be an opportunity to not just get hands on technical training but with the added bonus of learning from Industry figureheads as they share their great business sessions, technical assistance for experts, and the chance to also network with representatives from Incubators, Investors, university, Government and Industry.

Will this be our biggest event yet?

Agenda

Day 2

Day 3

Speakers

Steven Nagy

Senior Consultant- Readify

Steven joined Readify in 2008 and has been working in the IT industry since 1999. With a Bachelor in IT and a Masters in eCommerce, Steven has performed in a variety of IT roles before making the shift to development, a life-long held interest that was discovered at the age of 9.More recently Steven has become a technical specialist in the Windows Azure Platform. Steven began .Net development in Windows Forms and hand held devices before moving into ASP.NET and associated web technologies. He has worked as a Lead Developer twice before joining Readify and is passionate about people and processes. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional, a Certified Scrum Master, and in 2010 was awarded a Microsoft MVP in Windows Azure, one of only two in the southern hemisphere.

http://azure.snagy.name/blog/

Timothy Sheehan

Queensland University of Technology Innovation Space

In Tim’s own words:

“I have been lucky enough to have had many interesting jobs my limited lifetime, but nothing as exciting as my current position as the Managing Director of Vera Biotech. The company, which spun out of the Medical University of South Carolina, has a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit. I collaborate with the Queensland University of Technology Innovation Space where I help creative people develop influential pitches. Presenting is more than my work; it's my hobby. I present weekly to the Rotary Club and fortnightly to Toastmasters too. Opportunities are all around us and the right pitch is sure to open the right doors”

Tim will provide great insight into what it means to pitch as a start-up and how to capture the hearts and minds of potential investors and accelerators.

Chris Collet

Director- Queensland University of Technology Innovation Space

Chris Collet is the Director of the QUT Innovation Space, set up to provide support to develop and progress initial concept ideas towards real-world products or services. QIS offers opportunities for people to expand their commercialisation and creative skills. Chris is also the Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, CELS Portfolio (Chemical, Earth and Life Sciences) in Cell and Molecular Biosciences. Chris spent over 30 years researching the molecular biology of organisms as divergent as microalgae, bananas, marsupials, birds, fish and fruit fly. During his years as a research scientist, Chris saw many innovative discoveries progress no further than the laboratory bench. This prompted Chris to develop an entrepreneurship education program in biotechnology that targeted graduates to the commercialisation and technology transfer sector. In recognition, Chris has received two University and three national teaching awards including a prestigious Teaching Fellowship from the Australian Teaching and Learning Council. Aims of the ALTC Fellowship are to examine best practice examples of entrepreneurship education programs in non-business schools and to distil skills requirements in different innovation contexts. Chris provides an interesting view on innovation and entrepreneurship and the processes of which a Start-Up must go through in order to be successful.

www.qutinnovationspace.com

Colin Kinner

CEO- I-Lab

Colin is the CEO of I-labs, a technology incubator that helps new technology start-ups become successful businesses. Colin has over fifteen years’ experience in the formation, financing and growth of technology-based start-ups Australia and the UK. His experience includes strategy development, business planning, raising equity capital and providing training and mentoring to entrepreneurs.

His career has included roles in big-four consulting firms, corporate finance/capital raising, and early stage investment as Head of Funds Management at Imperial College Innovations in London, where he managed a seed fund with a portfolio of 36 early stage investments.

Colin has also spent several years working with entrepreneurs in the local research sector, having held senior roles in companies that specialise in commercialisation at The University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology. He has been a director of a number of successful technology-based start-up companies, including UK-based laser imaging company Holoscan Limited and Brisbane-based hydrogen storage company Hydrexia Pty Ltd.

Colin joined ilab as Chief Executive Officer in May 2010 and holds a BSc (Hons) and an MBA. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Colin will provides unique insight into what an accelerator or potential investor is looking for in a Start-Up.

http://www.ilab.com.au/

Judges

Steven Nagy

Readify- Senior Consultant

Steven joined Readify in 2008 and has been working in the IT industry since 1999. With a Bachelor in IT and a Masters in eCommerce, Steven has performed in a variety of IT roles before making the shift to development, a life-long held interest that was discovered at the age of 9.More recently Steven has become a technical specialist in the Windows Azure Platform. Steven began .Net development in Windows Forms and hand held devices before moving into ASP.NET and associated web technologies. He has worked as a Lead Developer twice before joining Readify and is passionate about people and processes. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional, a Certfified Scrum Master, and in 2010 was awarded a Microsoft MVP in Windows Azure, one of only two in the southern hemisphere.

http://azure.snagy.name/blog/

Sharon Schoenborn

Microsoft- State Director for QLD, NT and Pacific Islands

As State Director, QLD/NT/Pacific Islands, Sharon Schoenborn is responsible for driving Microsoft’s overall business in the region. With a team of more than 70 staff based in Queensland and the Northern Territory, Sharon is responsible for meeting the needs of Microsoft’s customers, which include governments and businesses, as well as engagement with Microsoft partners developing leading edge technology solutions based on Microsoft’s platform.  Prior to her State Director role, Sharon was the Enterprise Partner Director for Microsoft Australia, overseeing Microsoft’s engagement with global alliance and system integrator partners helping customers realise the value of their investment in solutions based on Microsoft technology.   Ms Schoenborn joined Microsoft in April 2001 as an Organisational Consultant focused on leadership development, change management and corporate acquisitions.  Prior to Microsoft, Sharon led the international leadership development program at Great Plains Software, based in the United States.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Master of Science Degree in Leadership Development from Minnesota State University. Sharon lives in Brisbane with her husband Robert.

Mark Fludder

ICT Business Advisor- Information Industries Bureau

Queensland Government

Mark Fludder has spent the last 7 years working for the Queensland Government’s Information Industries Bureau, as an ICT Business Advisor offering mentoring for start-up and emerging IT companies. With a Master Degrees in Marketing and Information System, Mark specialises in business and revenue modeling, development of marketing strategies, and brand development. Mark provides great insight into the industry, potential export opportunities, marketing and potential markets for Start-ups.

Colin Kinner

CEO- I-Lab

Colin is the CEO of I-labs, a technology incubator that helps new technology start-ups become successful businesses. Colin has over fifteen years’ experience in the formation, financing and growth of technology-based start-ups Australia and the UK. His experience includes strategy development, business planning, raising equity capital and providing training and mentoring to entrepreneurs. His career has included roles in big-four consulting firms, corporate finance/capital raising, and early stage investment as Head of Funds Management at Imperial College Innovations in London, where he managed a seed fund with a portfolio of 36 early stage investments.

Colin has also spent several years working with entrepreneurs in the local research sector, having held senior roles in companies that specialise in commercialisation at The University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology. He has been a director of a number of successful technology-based start-up companies, including UK-based laser imaging company Holoscan Limited and Brisbane-based hydrogen storage company Hydrexia Pty Ltd.

Colin joined ilab as Chief Executive Officer in May 2010 and holds a BSc(Hons) and an MBA. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Colin will provides unique insight into what an accelerator or potential investor is looking for in a Start-Up.

http://www.ilab.com.au/

Chris Collet

Director- Queensland University of Technology Innovation Space

Chris Collet is the Director of the QUT Innovation Space, set up to provide support to develop and progress initial concept ideas towards real-world products or services. QIS offers opportunities for people to expand their commercialisation and creative skills. Chris is also the Associate Professor
Faculty of Science and Technology, CELS Portfolio (Chemical, Earth and Life Sciences) in
Cell and Molecular Biosciences. Chris spent over 30 years researching the molecular biology of organisms as divergent as microalgae, bananas, marsupials, birds, fish and fruit fly. During his years as a research scientist, Chris saw many innovative discoveries progress no further than the laboratory bench. This prompted Chris to develop an entrepreneurship education program in biotechnology that targeted graduates to the commercialisation and technology transfer sector. In recognition, Chris has received two University and three national teaching awards including a prestigious Teaching Fellowship from the Australian Teaching and Learning Council. Aims of the ALTC Fellowship are to examine best practice examples of entrepreneurship education programs in non-business schools and to distil skills requirements in different innovation contexts. Chris provides an interesting view on innovation and entrepreneurship and the processes of which a Start-Up must go through in order to be successful.

http://www.qutinnovationspace.com/

There has been much focus on the application development over the last few days so I guess I have been overly quiet on the blog posts but the good news is that things are going well.

We have once again completely redesigned out back end and now have locked down the design for our back end accessible data points and have updated versions of the iPhone/iPad app & Windows 7 app working! Whoohoo!! We are just finalising the testing loop now. I expect that this will be finished in the next few days.

In the interim we have also been working on an updated PR piece that is way way way too long (who knew we had so much we could reference around our app that made for interesting stories – such as the projected increase in Childhood obesity, the increase in instances of Adult depression, the stats from the Cancer Council proving that (some) active time outside is actually really really good for you! ). We are now looking at consolidating that into an aggressive PR kit to use once the application is available on the iTunes & Zune marketplaces.

I also today attended a seminar held by Marcus Tarrant of http://www.businessplanninghq.com/  where we learnt about the value of a formal business plan and followed a surprisingly simple “wizard” that to be honest allowed me to create a much more professional and comprehensive Business Plan in the sessions than I did in the hours and hours I spent with my initial plan that was overly vague and missing massive chunks. I’d love to share the document with you – but I don’t think Marcus would overly appreciate that – so here is a snapshot of the sample document he provides to show what you get at the end… Well worth setting aside the time to do.

Beside the benefit of meeting other early stage companies and sharing the ideas, questions, businesses with each other (I cannot iterate enough HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS!) I picked up a few great tips for my app around adding a geocaching feature, creating a targeted app for golf courses and an introduction to someone looking to help with PR. Another valuable tip came from one of the attendees who shared during the lunch discussions a tip he was given which was that: “A good photo in your press kit can mean the difference between a page 43 listing & a page 3 listing! “. I am now thinking off all the interesting photos I can add to the press kit!

We have a finite timeline to work towards now with the upcoming Anthill Awards – so am not going to add too much more tonight – as we make our next milestone… you will hear about it!

I also want to say a special thanks to Gary Twomey of IMC for our recent Guest Post on the key Government programs for Startups! Check it out here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bizspark_au/archive/2011/11/16/launching-a-startup-mobile-app-in-australia-guest-blogger-gary-twomey-outlines-the-key-government-funding-programs-for-start-ups.aspx

Gary & the team at IMC have sponsored the last two Startup Weekend Events and are a fantastic support to our many startups in BizSpark. Gary has kindly put together the below advice on the Funding support available to Startups in Australia.

Innovation Management Consultants Pty Ltd (IMC) is a professional services firm with extensive experience in providing high quality management consulting services. They assist their clients to grow by accessing government assistance programs to help them plan, research, develop and commercialise their technology. A summary of the key government assistance programs that they assist clients to access are listed below. Further information is available upon request.

Event Questions

This is a unique opportunity and places are limited – please register immediately.

If you have any questions, please contact Catherine Eibner at caeibner@microsoft.com.

The event is specifically targeted to BizSpark companies, however developers that are not part of the BizSpark program are more than welcome to attend to gain access to this valuable training event.

Event Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

BUSINESS-PLAN-IN-1-DAY (Sydney): Create your own 40-page, Investor Grade business plan in one day. Need to raise capital, get a grant, get a loan or just work out where you are going?! Get it done in one-day at this incredible, dynamic event! (76 business builders can’t be wrong!)  http://www.antmart.com.au/?p=3569

I am registering for this! Although I already created a business Plan for Picknic App – over the last few weeks the goals have changed & adapted – and I want to revise the business plan. For $295 this is incredible value!

The first thing I want to point out here about the upcoming posts is that although I am going to mention some of the toolkits & great helpers I have used for the development of the WP7 app I do not consider myself a professional developer anymore so this is NOT a how to build a Windows Phone App Tutorial. I am not going to waste your time by talking about the details of building the actual app as that isn't one of the goals of this series either. There are more than enough already in existence (that I have reused code samples from!). There are some upcoming in person events & webinars that you should tune into if you want to learn more about Windows Phone development: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bizspark_au/archive/2011/11/04/windows-phone-training-workshops-webcasts-and-application-clinics.aspx

I am busily focusing on building the application at the moment so there isn’t too much new to report except that we are looking for a few more iPhone users who would like to test the beta version.

I expect to have the Phone 7 version ready for beta testing late next week (as I am disappearing offline on leave from Sun – Wed).

In the development so far I have used the following very helpful resources & Tips that you may also find useful:

Map your development machine keyboard to the Phone 7 emulator:

• Note: The Windows Phone Emulator supports mapping of the keyboard on your development computer to the hardware keyboard on a Windows Phone (by default is not enabled). To enable the keyboard in the Windows Phone Emulator press the PAGE UP or PAUSE/BREAK key. To disable it, press the PAGE DOWN or PAUSE/BREAK key. For more information, see the following article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ff754352(VS.92).aspx.

Bing Maps Development

Get Started with Bing Maps development:

Pasted from <http://www.microsoft.com/maps/developers/mobile.aspx>

Windows Azure Toolkit

The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone really saved me a lot of time. I have mentioned it before but I want to re-iterate the value once again. The set up wizard put all the connections, and architecture in place so all I needed to do was define the functionality specific to my application. http://watwp.codeplex.com/

OData:

There is a great video here on setting up Phone 7 (and other apps) to utilise oData from SQLAzure: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=083d55f4-c0d4-4309-8996-49d63ce14c60

The oData Client for WP7 is here: http://odata.codeplex.com/releases/view/54698#DownloadId=161862

SQL Azure Security Requirements

I also ran into some trouble where my application suddenly stopped working when I was working on it in the office. It turns out that we have a pretty thorough firewall setup in the office so the ports I needed access to to access SQLAzure where locked down. Check out the ports you need open (such as TCP port 1433)  to work with Azure / SQL Azure before you spend a day debugging an application that isn’t broken :/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394108.aspx