Our 7 Whys of Bimotics

I am an avid follower of David Cumming's Blog on Startups. Any entrepreneur with a technology startup can benefit from a quick read of his posts, especially if you have a SaaS. The content that posts each week is both easy to read and often timely. Recently, there was a post on the questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves frequently. This is how Bimotics answered: 

1. Why are we doing this?

@Bimotics our mantra is shine a light on the path that leads to that "Good to know!" moment. We truly believe that we can strengthen and improve small and medium sized businesses by giving them real-time analytics and information about their activities and operations- what we in the industry call business intelligence software. Our developer tools enable big data analysis as well.

2. Why is now the right time to do this?

The time is now for Bimotics because non-technical people have begun accepting and using cloud technology in their daily lives. Cloud technology has finally evolved to the point where thousands of people can access extremely vast amounts of data at lightning fast speeds. These two conditions make it the right time.

3. Why are we going to win?

We built a solution that seasoned developers said was impossible. We now have a track record of proving our naysayers wrong. We have a growing list of businesses that are signing up for our service even when others said that it would never happen. We are listening to these customers and steadily improving our product line. With our persistence and support from a highly qualified team, we are going to win.

4. Why aren't we doing even better?

Fund raising has been slow; and we need to sharpen the way we communicate our offering. We are improving how we reach the right people but we can do it better.

5. Why do employees want to work here?

Our team is excited about our position on the leading edge of innovation. They are also good people who believe that a robust and profitable business can flourish while maintaining a positive mission statement and the highest standards of ethics.

6. Why is this the right product?

From the very beginning, our analytics software has been tailored for the small and medium sized business specifically. We didn't simplify a product that was built for enterprise needs.

7. Why do customers love us?

Our customers have said that Bimotics has become an invaluable tool to them in their day to day business. That's "Good to know!", and we couldn't be happier!

Our 7 Whys

I am an avid follower of David Cumming’s Blog on Startups. Any entrepreneur with a technology startup can benefit from a quick read of his posts, especially if you have a SaaS.   The content that posts each week is both easy to read and often timely. Recently, there was a post on the questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves frequently. This is how Bimotics answered:

1. Why are we doing this?

@Bimotics our mantra is shine a light on the path that leads to that “Good to know!” moment.  We truly believe that we can strengthen and improve small and medium sized businesses by giving them real-time analytics and information about their activities and operations. Our developer tools enable big data analysis as well.

2. Why is now the right time to do this?

The time is now for Bimotics because non-technical people have begun accepting and using cloud technology in their daily lives. Cloud technology has finally evolved to the point where thousands of people can access extremely vast amounts of data at lightning fast speeds. These two conditions make it the right time.

3. Why are we going to win?

We built a solution that seasoned developers said was impossible.  We now have a track record of proving our naysayers wrong.  We have a growing list of businesses that are signing up for our service even when others said that it would never happen. We are listening to these customers and steadily improving our product line. With our persistence and support from a highly qualified team, we are going to win.

4. Why aren't we doing even better?

Fund raising has been slow; and we need to sharpen the way we communicate our offering. We are improving how we reach the right people but we can do it better.

5. Why do employees want to work here?

Our team is excited about our position on the leading edge of innovation. They are also good people who believe that a robust and profitable business can flourish while maintaining a positive mission statement and the highest standards of ethics.

6. Why is this the right product?

From the very beginning, our analytics software has been tailored for the small and medium sized business specifically. We didn’t simplify a product that was built for enterprise needs.

7. Why do customers love us?

Our customers have said that Bimotics has become an invaluable tool to them in their day to day business. That’s “Good to know!”, and we couldn’t be happier!

5 things we are looking for in our next employees

Since the beginning of the year, Bimotics has made significant progress towards catching the attention of people from different backgrounds and skills who would like to join our startup.  This is in stark contrast to just a year ago, when we were greeted with encouragement but far more skepticism. Since we are growing, we are looking for team members both on the business and marketing side as well as the technical developer side. Aside from the specific expertise desired, here five common themes we will be looking for in our next employees.

1. Passionate about innovation: our team members need to have a burning desire to learn new ways of doing things or new technologies that can propel Bimotics forward.
2. Good natured: we want teammates that are are not “jerks”.  We want people who are both nice and respectful inside the office and out.
3. Self-propelled: startup culture requires people to be extremely self-motivated while working to create something as a team that the world has never seen before.  Our new hires will always find active ways to be helpful and productive.
4. Fearless: being at the forefront often requires getting out of your comfort zone and expressing yourself.  Bimotics employees are never afraid to bounce ideas off one another.  We need you to be able to risk failing and learn from it when you do- we will get where we need to go faster. Fearlessness should not be mistaken for recklessness however.
5. Economical: Like other startups, we have a tight budget and need our team to be prudent and clever and achieve results in a cost-effective way. Treat the company’s money like you would your own.

Do you have these traits?  How would you apply them to our team?

Defining culture

There has been a lot of literature lately about creating and defining startup culture from the beginning.

Many seasoned entrepreneurs and famous founders talk of regret for not cultivating an organizational personna from the outset of the endeavor. As a startup, Bimotics is currently a handful of people that enjoying working together. As we grow, we are bound to face challenges to maintaining the productive and enjoyable atmosphere that we cherish.
What do you think?  I’m excited to find out and equally excited to be a part of a culture like this!

Looking ahead, Roberto and I set out to define the core principles and values that are the cornerstone of Bimotics. The following is our first attempt at a cultural policy.

0. Have fun!  You should enjoy doing your job!

1. No jerks allowed, be humble

2. Do no evil, business decisions should not bite us back

3. Don't spend money if there is a similar service for free

4. Teamwork, no decisions are made in a vacuum

5. Innovation, automation and ease of use are a priority

6. Business processes should not interfere with policy #2

7. Explore new concepts and actively share them

8. Bring your personal passions and interests, what drives you?

9. Don't be afraid to fail, take educated risks and learn from mistakes

10. Speak up!

What do you think?  I’m excited to find out and equally excited to be a part of a culture like this.

The true bottom line

What is your bottom line?  

That is the question most everyone running a business is asked. But the exact meaning is often misunderstood as gross profit. Indeed the bottom line is actually net profit or net profit on sales. It is the company's reported income after everything is taken into consideration- taxes, normal operating revenues and expenses, extraordinary charges, and  financial income. Owner value increases as net profit increases by adding to the company’s retained earnings.  At the end of the day net profit is the key metric to answering the question “what’s in it for me”?.

Because net profit represents the bottom line, all business factors drive this number. When analyzing your operations, it is essential to figure out what is impacting your bottom line. Experts have actually recommended that incentives not be based on the net profit metric because they say the average employee (not the CEO) cannot easily tie their day to day tasks to impact on net profit. Since it is an aggregate it blurs individual contributions, it is not meaningful in explaining what one task needs to be done better and thus doesn’t seem controllable. The bottom line should always be reviewed as the roll up of what it happening.

How Bimotics can help:  Your company’s bottom line is easily accessible through Bimotics if you use Quickbooks accounting software. Since we connect directly to the application, bringing in this metric to your dashboard is as simple as selecting it from the Bimotics analytics gallery.  As a summary or roll up metric, you need to look at this metric quarterly.  Analyzing trends your net profit and profit margin on a quarterly basis will give you and your shareholders a good idea on how well you are paying out.

Delegation in Startups

As a woman founder of a technical startup, I had the privilege of attending my first mentoring session with Femgineer lead by Poornima Vijayashanker.  This particular session addressed the topic of delegation for entrepreneurs with early stage startups.  The discussion could not have come at a more timely, as this week it became increasingly clear that I needed to manage my team more effectively.  

Since my startup is still developing our first sellable product by bootstrapping, the “employees” on my operational team consists of three four part-time professionals that can donate only a few hours of their expertise a week. Because at this time I can’t pay them I have not felt comfortable pushing nor aggressively enforcing deadlines.  This has sometimes set us back or otherwise burned me out as I tried to pick up the slack.  

The mentoring session started out with the fundamental question to ask every perspective person that your work with: “Are you interested in my business idea?”.  In my case, most would find the B2B software space compelling as there is a lot of potential.  The next excellent points included:

1. Always be clear on what they will be working on whether it is a project or a specific task.
2. Start by asking if they can commit to 5-10 hour a week on a non-paid basis? Because if they can’t they may not be interested enough. And, they may not have resources to give 20 hour resources on a paid basis.
3. Make the first task very basic and see if the person takes charge. Note founders  don’t have time to check in with everyone everyday.  
4. Layout the expectation that you will only be checking in only once a week- unless of course if they are stuck them more frequent dialogue is fine.
5. Always attach deadlines to tasks. Ask the person to first give you an estimate.  Let them set the deadline.  Assess whether you think they are giving you an aggressive deadline or a doable one.  Ask what part of the task will be most at risk of not meeting the deadline. Then hold the person accountable for meeting the deadline.

Overall, the discussion was helpful.  In many ways I have already known these management skills, however, hearing them from another entrepreneur brought me back to basics.  

As for the shyness of being a good leader because I’m not able to pay for help at this time, I need to remember that we are really building a good thing that takes time and dedication.  All the pieces of my business plan make a very compelling argument for success.   And those that are there at the beginning and working because they believe in the vision and business idea need me to be a strong leader that demands delivery.  Those that stick it out also know that they will reap the reward as we grow together.