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12 Days of Christmas gifts for your favorite RV’er

When you’re living in an RV full-time, you’re constantly making choices about the things you bring into the limited space you have. It goes a little something like this:

“Is this essential?”

OR

“How can we nest this with something else?”

OR

“Paul, do you really need another gadget? (Answer: NO.)

So, if you’re thinking about biting the bullet and moving into a tiny home, or if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the RV’er in your life, here is a list of our hottest holiday gifts ideas for 2016.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

12- Sea to Summit X-Pot

Sea to Summit X-Pot
Sea to Summit X-Pot

Most RV’s (or at least ours) has 1 large drawer in the kitchen & 3 burners on the stove, so multi-purpose kitchen tools are paramount.

Also, as you travel things bounce around *a lot* so the compact design and securing lid helps prevent breaking while you’re in transit.

11- USA Travel Tracker Map

USA Travel Tracker Map
USA Travel Tracker Map

Who doesn’t love a good map to showcase your conquered destinations?

Also, this is a great project to get the kids involved! (Fun fact: we’ve lived in 40 states this year.)

10- ENO Double Nest Hammock

ENO DoubleNest Hammock
ENO DoubleNest Hammock

Seriously, everyone needs a good hammock — trust me on this. All you need is two trees and you’re all set.

We opted for the XL straps which gives us a little more flexibility, —for the extra $5, it’s worth not having to worry about limiting your options.

9-DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter

DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter
DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter

As most of you can tell, I’ve spent a lot of time documenting our travels over the past year and the one regret I have is that we didn’t invest in a drone. iPhone photos are great. DSLR photos are great. But the perspective that you can get from a drone is rare and handheld cameras barely capture the big picture.

Hey Mom, if you’re reading this, we want a drone for Christmas. *cough*

8- Amazon Echo and Dot

 

Amazon Echo & Dot
Amazon Echo & Dot

Honestly, when Paul brought our Echo home I thought this would just be another gadget that would eventually retire to my parents house, but I’ve quickly become obsessed with having her around.  Partially because she’s made me way more efficient and partially because we no longer take our phones into the bedroom at night.

Need to order paper-towels? Just ask Alexa to send some to the house. Want the latest news updates? She’s got you covered.  Need to shuffle your Spotify playlist but your hands are full? Not a problem, she’s got it.  She’s basically like an electronic assistant that’s always happy to help.

Now only if she could do laundry…

7- iRainy Silicon Wine Glass

Silicone Wine Glass
Silicone Wine Glass

YOU GUYS. WINE GLASSES. THAT FOLD UP. OMG. #brunchallday

Ever had the opportunity to ride in an RV while in transit? (Hint: not a good idea for your body or anything else breakable.) It’s like riding a horse and I have no idea how any of our stuff stays in one piece while we circle the globe. Anything that’s practically indestructible will be a huge hit for RV’ers.

Bonus: Apparently you can fold these into your back pocket for a quick wine roadie after a long hike 🙂 #TeamPana

6- Magma 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware

 

Magma A10-360L 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware, Gas, Electric or Ceramic Cooktops
Magma A10-360L 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware, Gas, Electric or Ceramic Cooktops

Space, space, space + options, options, options.

There is a fine line between being ultra-practical and then feeling like we’re living like college students.

One of the huge benefits of traveling with our home is that we never really feel like we’re not at home. For me, having all of the tools to make a homemade dinner high priority to make sure we don’t get homesick, and having all of these nest into one makes this a win-win.

5- Coleman Cooler Quad Chair

 

Coleman Cooler Quad Chair
Coleman Cooler Quad Chair

Collapsible chair + cooler. You’re welcome.

4- Beats Solo2 Wireless Headphones

Beats By Dre
Beats By Dre

Beats. Bears. Battlestar Galactica. (See what I did there?!)

When you live in <200 square feet with your significant other *and* build a business together, it’s nice to be able to tune someone else out. (Love you, Paul.)

3- Joby GorillaPod Tripod (Large & Small)

 

Joby Gorilla Pod Tripod
Joby Gorilla Pod Tripod- Large and Small

Ever wonder how we’ve managed to snag a ton of amazing photos this year? It’s because we hang our $5k camera (or iPhone) from anything we can wrap this tripod around.  Plus, it folds up perfectly to fit right on the side of our backpacks.

 

2-  Yeti Rambler

Yeti Rambler
Yeti Rambler

One word: Roadie.

1- Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker

rjtechtour-bosered
Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker

Everyone needs a soundtrack to their adventure and Paul & I *love* our Bose system.  We don’t own this exact model, but the addition of the waterproof case would have made us feel a lot better about taking this wherever we we’re exploring this year, rain or shine.

Plus, Paul loves anything that’s red.

For our fellow RV’ers out there, what are we missing?

-d 🙂

 

Midwestern community leaders need to think bigger.

It’s not just the founders that are thinking small, it’s the community leaders too — especially around the Midwest.

It’s the same everywhere we go:

The local entrepreneurs are just trying to build their businesses. The local elected officials are trying to figure out what tech companies actually do. The local community leaders are trying to figure out how to get things organized — and how to pay for it all.

Here’s the thing: no one’s ever a big deal in their hometown, especially community leaders.

If you really want to make a difference in your hometown, start thinking about how to build a network across the entire Midwestern startup scene. Let everyone else play the local game.

It doesn’t matter whether you run a non-profit for the tech community, own a coworking space or run an accelerator, focus on meeting your peers in other cities.

Get on stage, make introductions, add value wherever you can — especially outside your home town. Build a inter-city network across the Midwest because that’s what’s missing.

Not only will you build a bigger brand for yourself and help countless entrepreneurs along the way but you’ll likely end up making a bigger impact in your hometown in the process. Win-win-win.

Friday roundup: hardware as a service, learning from your own mistakes and what founders should worry about.

Happy Friday.

It’s been three years since I’ve been to Columbus, OH and things seem to have come a long, long way. Between the accelerators, coworking spaces, code schools and venture firms (big and small), it seems like it might just be one of the easiest places to start your business.

On a couple of personal notes:

If you’re new this week, these are the top 10 clicks across my tweets this week. You can always get the full firehose here.

  1. “From now on, I won’t be building any more native apps.” [Link] [Tweet]

Less apps, more businesses. Kthx.

2. “Consumers might object, of course. But they might not.” [Link] [Tweet]

I’ll admit that I’m not well-versed in hardware / IoT companies — mostly because the cash required to get off the ground is more than I generally have to invest at the early stage.

That being said, the idea of selling hardware / IoT as a service is worth a deeper dive. I know I’d be much more likely to buy them.

3. “Want to really change the world? Be brave and start your next company in the Midwest.” [Link] [Tweet]

Having visited 41 cities this year, I couldn’t agree more. You don’t need to be in Silicon Valley / NYC to build a meaningful company.

4. “Just say no to grabbing coffee” [Link] [Tweet]

If your only excuse for not starting something — even on the side — is not having time, you’re lying to yourself.

5. “What I see, consistently, very few companies raise a Series A after a Seed. There’s always another Seed.” [Link] [Tweet]

If I had a penny for every time a founder said “we’ll be profitable in six months,” I’d never have to work a day in my life. Welcome to the real world:

What I see very consistently is second Seed rounds. Financing is not a dot, it is a line and it is part of your job as a founder and a business leader to keep the capital coming in. If it was a world with just Seed, then Series A and then Series B, it would make everyone’s life easier.

6. “Start a company, and start learning from your own mistakes.” [Link] [Tweet]

Here’s a challenge: next time you have a question or idea, take the first step at figuring it out before you start asking other people for advice.

The alternative is what most people do: they start by asking other people for opinions — which are usually useless (or, worse, wrong).

7. “Ultimately the interim, or even ultimate, valuation of venture-funded companies is not what matters.” [Link] [Tweet]

My hope is that a re-focus on realized returns by financing round will help us return to more capital- efficient investing and management. Shouldn’t we celebrate the entrepreneurs and VCs, for example, in an investment that generates a 15X return on a $200M exit more than we do an investment in a Unicorn that generates a 2X return?

I find it fitting that unicorns are mythical creatures while the Triple Crown is real. Unicorns are overrated. Triple Crowns are better.

8. “Startup communities around the world are leveling up.” [Link] [Tweet]

Talent and ambition seem to be equally distributed around the country — access to capital and functional expertise is what’s missing. I’m going to start testing a couple of ideas to help fix that gap. (If you manage a coworking space or accelerator, please email me. I’d love to run a quick idea by you.)

9. “A resume is ineffective at finding the best employees.” [Link] [Tweet]

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that’s said, “you should see this resume — it’s amazing.”

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to worry about your resume. Instead, you should be thinking about what people are finding about you when they Google your name.

Do interesting things, write about them and keep repeating it.

10. “I’m a big advocate for revenue first, fundraise later.” [Link] [Tweet]

Most startups die because nobody wants what they’re making. This is the existential threat early. If they get past this, they die from lack of execution, so team matters big time.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh.

-P

What ‘power’ means today.

A thousand years ago, power belonged to those people that owned the dirt. So, if you owned the dirt, you could say, “Hey, you can use this dirt and I have the power.”

Then, a hundred years ago, power belonged to the people that had all the money. If you wanted to build a business, you borrowed money someone and they had power over you.

Ten years ago, power belonged to people who knew how to use technology. If you knew how to use email (seriously), you could easily get a job in some IT field and have power over others.

Today, power belongs to people that understand that we live in an attention economy.

When you get a 30-minute meeting with somebody today, you don’t get 30 minutes of attention. You have to earn all of your attention every 30 seconds. And then you have to re-earn it every 30 seconds.

It’s the unfortunate truth of the reality we all live in today.

We’re all busy. Even the investors you’re trying to pitch. Even the employees you want to hire. Even the customers you want to sell. (As a reminder, that’s exactly why investors outside your hometown don’t take your calls.)

Never forget that.

When you decide to pitch anyone, make sure that every word coming out of your mouth is something that grabs their attention.

Early stage investing is emotional.

I’m a big believer that the soft skills of fundraising are far trickier than the hard skills of fundraising.

If you’ve ever worked in a sales job, you now that FOMO and greed are great drivers to get any sale done. It’s the same with fundraising for your company: you want to create FOMO and, especially for investors, understand that greed is important.

Don’t get me wrong: your product, your market, your team and everything else in between matter… but only to the extent that you talk about them and move on.

OK, let’s quickly talk about definitions:

  • FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
  • Greed. Again, exactly what it sounds like.

When you’re talking to any investor, it’s ultra important to keep the conversation focused on business growth because it’s FOMO and greed that will get your deal done.

In order to do that authentically, you need to do a couple of things:

  • Have a business. We’ve talked about this already but you need to have some sort of traction to justify a fundraise these days.
  • Fundraise full time. You can’t half-ass this. Building a company is hard. Getting people to invest in that company is harder. If you’re serious about fundraising, you need to keep the company growing and then carve out a month of your own time to setup meetings. If you want to raise $500K, plan on setting up 500 meetings.
  • Keep the meetings tight. The goal of the meeting is to focus on business growth, try to avoid spending too much time on pleasantries and other unrelated things. Don’t let the meeting go long — in fact, try to end the meeting early and casually mention that you need to get back to work. Better yet, casually mention that you have another investor meeting scheduled and you want to respect everyone’s time.

If you find yourself talking about anything other than business growth with an investor for more than 50% of the allotted time in your meeting, your deal isn’t going to happen.

If you’re raising money from someone else, your goal is to build the biggest / best company within your vertical. If you agree with that, then you have to agree that business growth is the only thing that matters.

If you find yourself trying to rationalize your investment opportunity in your investor’s mind, it’s just not going to happen.

Investing in early stage startup companies is emotional, not rational.

Why investors outside your hometown don’t take your calls.

I’ve spent the last few years on planes, trains and my Airstream. The conversation with entrepreneurs in every city goes a little like this:

Entrepreneur: “My local investors just don’t get what I’m doing.”

Me: “OK, so why don’t you start reaching out to investors in other cities?”

Entrepreneur: “Well, I have been. Every time I get on a call, it seems to end pretty quickly and the conversation dies off after that.”

Me: “SO STOP USING DINNER PARTY ETIQUETTE IN A BUSINESS MEETING.”

Entrepreneur: “…”

Let’s say you’re calling an investor in New York City who wants to invest in companies, right? You know they’re active because you’ve been tracking them on AngelList. There’s no doubt this investor is active.

That New York investor is probably taking 10 pitches on the same day you call. And, while you’re on the phone with them, they’re thinking about 60 other things simultaneously. They’re thinking about their kids. They’re thinking about their next meeting. They’re thinking about the awful coffee they had this morning. They’re thinking about everything but you.

And then you call. And you start saying stuff like this: “Hey, how’s it going? Hey, so, where are you from originally? Hey, so, what do you like to see?”

You’re using dinner-party etiquette in a business meeting, and then you’re surprised when the business people are like, ‘I don’t have time for this.’”

DON’T DO THIS.

Traction is credibility.

If you have any traction at all, lead with it. If you find yourself talking about the product more than the traction, you’re done. The deal’s never going to happen.

 

Friday roundup: the ultimate growth hack, trusting your gut and emphasizing distribution.

Happy Friday.

DC’s been an interesting (read: weird) place this week: Trump’s motorcade rolled into the White House yesterday. I’m still processing.

If you’re new this week, these are the top 10 clicks across my tweets this week. You can always get the full firehose here.

  1. “the ultimate growth hack is a love for your craft, and a willingness to immerse yourself in the details” [Link] [Tweet]

When you’re starting something new, you’ll know if you’re going to fail within a few weeks (even if you don’t admit it to yourself) but you won’t know if you’re going to succeed for years.

If you meet anyone that’s successful, you’ll quickly notice that they’re always in it for the long haul and they care about the details. It’s the why of the thing that drives them, even if they can’t articulate it themselves.

2. “The people who live in these places aren’t stupid.” [Link] [Tweet]

There’s a lot about this election that doesn’t sit well with me (more on that in a later blog post) but this piece sums it up: each side never took the time to listen to the other. It was far too easy to just assume that the other side was dumb, disconnected and just plain wrong.

If you can spare a couple days in 2017, join us on the tech tour. You’ll quickly notice that the vast majority of Trump voters aren’t racist, misogynists and homophobes that finally found the candidate that said what was on their mind. In fact, they’re hard working people that feel so disconnected from the rest of us that they were willing to look past Trumps misteps (and there were many) to finally have their own voice heard.

3. “It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.” [Link] [Tweet]

Why not leave the country? But despair is no answer. To combat authoritarianism, to call out lies, to struggle honorably and fiercely in the name of American ideals—that is what is left to do. That is all there is to do.

4. “When somebody calls, I can usually tell within two or three minutes whether a deal is likely to happen or not.” [Link] [Tweet]

Trust your gut. Then do your homework.

5. “Startups are overdosing on ambition these days.” [Link] [Tweet]

If more founders would start with the goal of making $1,000/month in revenue, the better off they’ll be in the long run.

In the worst case, they’ve got an extra $1,000/month to spend as they see fit and a side project to showcase their talent. In the best case, they’ve got the base necessary to scale to $10,000/month or more.

Focus on making your first buck, then add a zero. Then repeat infinitely.

6. “On the Internet, no one really cares about you when you’re small.” [Link] [Tweet]

Distribution of your product is probably more important than the product itself.

7. “One of the odd aspects of modern air travel is that it’s not really getting any faster.” [Link] [Tweet]

I grew up in Northern Virginia watching the Concorde takeoff and land at Dulles Airport. I miss those days.

8. “Deep inside a Silicon Valley unicorn lurks a time bomb.” [Link] [Tweet]

The only people that want (and need) unicorns are VCs with huge funds. Everyone else, for the most part, is just trying to build something important.

9. “The tricky part isn’t the technical stuff… it’s the customer stuff.” [Link] [Tweet]

One of my favorite investments on the tech tour was a company that sold ten customers a product before they wrote their first line of code.

I wish more entrepreneurs would think like them.

10. “there’s nothing quite so rare or sexy as proving your product market fit with decent traction.” [Link] [Tweet]

I met Mac during our stop in Knoxville, TN last month. I owe him a call still (sorry Mac!) but he took the time to write down all the things we talked about during office hours.

Firehose

You can get the full stream of the things I read, it’s all on Twitter — follow me: @paulsingh.

-P

Traction is credibility.

If you want to raise money, you need to have small but measurable usage. No one funds ideas anymore.

You don’t need hundreds or thousands of customers (though, that won’t hurt), but showing investors that someone is actively using the product often and/or paying for it shows them that you’re building something that people want.

Traction gives you credibility. Credibility gets you meetings. Meetings are where the magic happens.

Once you get the meetings though, don’t screw it up.

Actually, I’ll spare you the pain: there’s something you should never EVER say:

“We did all this through word of mouth.”

OR

“WE HAVEN’T SPENT A SINGLE CENT ON MARKETING!”

Ugh.

When you say that, the investor is thinking, “Shit. We’re going to bleed money on this next round, aren’t we?”

If you want to raise money, you have to always be proving that your goal is to build a business. A BUSINESS.

In today’s age, that’s easier than ever: exploit the shit out of online distribution channels.

You’ve got access to 1B+ people via Facebook ads. You’ve got even more access to people via Adwords. And don’t forget about LinkedIn ads, Quora, Pinterest, Twitter, Android, iOS and other networks. Show investors that you’re testing distribution models on those channels.

That doesn’t take a lot of money (most ad platforms will let you test with as little as $25) but it does take some effort. SHOW INVESTORS THE EFFORT.

Stop talking about your idea. Stop talking about your product. Stop talking about changing the world. There are too many other startups saying the same thing. Just prove that you’re trying to build a business.

Just talk about your business. And, in order to have a business, you need to stay focused on the traction.