One month ago, the TechStars Boulder 2011 program concluded with Demo Day, an event held at the Boulder Theater where the twelve participating teams pitched their businesses to a room full of investors. While the teams still have a ton of work to do despite the program being finished, my role is ending. The experience, however, was tremendous. I worked with the nicest people, aided in and witnessed the growth of innovative new startups, refined my own work, and made invaluable connections for the future. Now that summer is coming to an end, I thought I’d take some time to share what I learned during my time in TechStars Boulder 2011.

A Few of the More Important Lessons I Learned

Boldness is key.

Whether you’re a startup or a freelancer, making the right connections can make or break your success in the startup world. It follows that you need to be bold enough to make connections with those who might be of benefit.  If it turns out that they can’t directly help you, they might at least be able to introduce you to someone who can.

Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses, and learn those of others.

In a fast-moving environment, trying to tackle a project that’s above your head can eat up valuable time.  There’s no reason to attempt to do everything by yourself.  Instead, see if someone else is better qualified or if they can at least help you learn what you need to finish the job.

Don’t just be busy, be productive.

I would have to say that this is the most valuable lesson I learned this summer and one that others I’ve worked with need to improve upon the most.  In any business, it’s important to execute fast in order to get new product out, receive feedback from users, and fix the problems (i.e., use an iterative design process).  However, many seem to interpret this need as an obligation to always be doing work.  While it’s important not to be slacking off everyday, the type of work you accomplish makes a difference.  For a successful iterative design process, don’t waste time with small subtleties.  Focus on the features on which you need feedback and finish those.  After all, many smaller features might not even make it into your product because product evolution may prove them to be irrelevant.

Execution is more important than the idea.

Apple wasn’t the first to make an MP3 player, and Google wasn’t the first to build a search engine.  What I’m saying is that success is based less on the idea and more on how you execute it.  Team dynamics, product development, and every small or large decision you make all are a part of this how.  With that said, it’s important not to get overconfident about your idea and overlook the importance of the execution.

What I Learned About Myself

I still work best in coffee shops.

For some reason, even given my own desk in an office, I still work best in coffee shops.  I seem to do horribly with absolute quiet because it makes me want to fidget.  Coffee shops give me just the right amount of ambient distraction, as well as sunlight, to be able to delve into code for several hours.

I suck at networking, and it’s probably what I can improve upon the most.

Above I said boldness is key.  It really is.  Unfortunately, I’m a bit shy and really suck at it.  I was able to make a few connections, and those got me introductions to even more useful connections.  However, if I had reached out even more at the beginning, I would have made exponentially more connections, and who knows what other options I’d have on the table.

I love ping pong.

Pretty self-explanatory.  Whenever we needed a coding break at TechStars, the ping pong table was right there, and it grew on me throughout the summer.

Here is a handy little helper function that will truncate a string to the word closest to the set limit (in other words, it won’t truncate in the middle of a word). Even though it’s pretty simple, I’ve already used it in a few projects, so I thought it would be worth sharing. Feel free to improve it and/or rip it apart. If you see a change to be made, let me know by leaving a comment.

function truncate_str($string, $limit)
{
	if (strlen($string) <= $limit)
	{
		$string = $string; // Do nothing
	}
 	else
	{
		$string = wordwrap($string, $limit);
		$string = substr($string, 0, strpos($string, "\n"));
		$string .= "...";
	}
	return $string;
}

Update: Here’s an updated, condensed version of the above code.  It shortens the function and gets rid of some redundant lines (i.e., $string = $string).

function truncate_str($string, $limit)
{
    if (strlen($string) > $limit)
    {
    	$string = wordwrap($string, $limit);
      	$string = substr($string, 0, strpos($string, "\n"));
      	$string .= "...";
    }
    return $string;
}

With the coming summer days, along comes a bit of revolution, as well. Not only am I launching this new website, this summer I’m leaving home to go on a new adventure.

ericmagnuson.me

The first big change that’s coming is this new site, ericmagnuson.me. I wanted a nice centralized spot where people can get to know me. Here, I’ll be able to share my thoughts, post my photography, and give people an easy way to get in touch with me. While the site is finally up and running, I still might be polishing up a few spots as far as design goes. It’s my goal to get on a design showcase such as CSS Mania.

Europe 2009

Along with the new site, I am going on an epic journey to Europe this summer where I will spend two months. I’m actually on the plane as I’m writing this! While I’m across the pond, I’ll be traveling through England and France, stopping to stay at hostels and with friends in London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, and Vinon-sur-Verdon. Between cities, I’ll be traveling alone with nothing more than a backpack full of a week’s worth of supplies that will have to last me nearly eight weeks. Also in my pack is all my camera gear and my laptop on which I’ll edit photos, write new posts, and communicate with friends that I’m staying with. There will even be video posted here during my trek, so make sure to check back often for updates!

If I didn’t get a chance to personally say goodbye, then I hope you have a great summer. Even though I’ll be thousands of miles away from the States, I’ll still be reachable, so feel free to get in touch with me using the contact form on the About Me page.