Rising StartUps - A new podcast series about Startups, for Startups, byStartups on ..... (you guessed it) Starting Up

I live & love startups. Like the small of a new car, every new startup has their own unique appeal. A (hopefully) needed possible answer to a real-world problem, or a new market not yet identified. Each founder like a wide-eyed child with their vision of the future, and their startup a part of changing their part of the world.

And every new founder, whether first time out, 'up-at-bat' again, rookie, or experienced professional, is going to have some challenges; actually, lots of them. More than they can yet imagine.

When I broke free from a corporate career in 2004, there wasn't even a startup eco-system in Australia. Now, we have one that is burgeoning, but the stories that I hear are from overseas imports or from long-time-ago successes, most of whom that are way past the early days of their first hires, the challenges of early-stage funding, finding great mentors, and trusted advice, of connecting with co-founders, and mistakes, and bootstrapping and........, ok, you ge the picture.

So way past, that the stories might not yet (and might never) be of much help to the many people who are about to, thinking about, or have just started. (Though they are often inspirational, which is why I continue to go to select meetups to hear them.)

But mostly, I wanted to hear the stories of my peers; their challenges and successes, their gains and pains, their learnings and yearnings. But these stories didn't seem to exist. 

Which is why I started 'Rising STARTupS'.

At Tim Reid's suggestion (yes, Small  Business - Big Marketing -thanks Tim), and inspired by Nathan Chan of Foundr, I decided to try my hand at interviewing. After all, how hard could it be for some-one whose done a few startups already?

And what I found out is, that apart from having 'a good head for radio' (and a reasonable voice for it), it was a natural fit for my style of conversation. 

Before cutting the first of them, we agonised long and hard about the questions, trying to determine just what could draw out the greatest of responses. And I wanted to use a consistant format & questions, so that you, the audience, can compare the answers of each person, and take from each, just what you need.

We've already taped 14- (and have a another 36 planned for this year) which we will be publishing next week.

The first four so far (each with links to twitter) are:-

• Justin & Andre of Vinomofo 
• Troy & Martin of Care Monkey
• Barry Nguyen of SolarX Car Company
• Julie-Anne Black of Be Brilliant Now

And I have to say, they are each unique, all brilliant, packed full of tips, gems & advice; timely, relevant, and helpful.
As well as the 25 min interviews with each founder, we've added a special topic, relevant to the content of each interview, and a review of some of the key points. As well, there will be links to some bonus downloads, cheatsheets, upcoming events and other startup news and views.

So subscribe (above) to this blog and we'll give you advance notice of the podcasts as soon as they are ready to go to air.

And one special request - if you like the interview series, tell your friends (whether by social or word). 

And if you have ideas about how we can improve, or know of a great Rising STARtup whose story is just begging to be told, tell us (there should be links on the right for both).

Do you need a 'lighthouse' or 'a torch'?

Traditional wisdom says that to build a successful startup, that you must put your head down and relentlessly build, create, engage, pitch, compete, push, test, iterate, sell, etc etc, for 3-5 years, until you've achieved some measure of success, and then you can give back to your local startup community.

That is, become a lighthouse - "the shining light on the cliffs", to help others avoid the rocks of their journey.
This premise assumes that most of the people are already out on boats, and 'out to sea', and not walking through rough terrain on the land with no light to guide them. Which is often wrong.

Like explorers of old, entrepreneurs who've already launched their 'ships', have already hired their boats, financed their journey,  assembled their crews, charted their courses on maps, loaded the supplies for the journey and consulted others who've made the voyage before them. They know where they are going, and why.

However, the majority of startup ideas people are still on the cliffs above the shore. They still have all that to do before them. But first, they still have to clamber down through rocky cliffs just to reach the harbour. Most wont make it this far- many will lose their way and become lost in the night. Some will give up and turn back towards home, or lose their grip and fall, with their hopes & dreams dashed on the rocks far below.

Some will end up at the wrong harbour. Others will arrive, with no money to hire the crew & boats that they need; others still will find no suitable boat available, or that the journey they've planned isn't possible, viable or worthwhile. 
(There may be another post in this about pirates, mutinies, and ships lost at sea, but I'll save that for another day).

So I'll come back to this story in a moment.

We are building our startup and you want to do ....'What'?
"Yes, we are right in the middle of the build phase of our startup, and I want to put aside some time to help grow the startup community", was the conversation I had with one of my co-founders.

I had just told him that I had started up, not just a local meetup to help other startups, but also structured it as a 'group anywhere' (to encourage others to syndicate it) AND a LinkedIn group for online collaboration.

In order for our own venture to succeed, we also need as many of our brethren as possible, to reach the harbour, prepared and willing to continue their own journey.

They first need torches to make it down safely from the cliffs, before they need lighthouses.
Not only do we have all the torches we need, but we have torches to share. And to help our fellow journeyman, all we have to hand them out, and light them. (For some of you younger folk, there were torches of a different sort, in the days before batteries).

He looked at me incredulously for a minute..... And then the light went on in him too. 
So are you 'sharing your light' whilst still on the shore, or are you waiting until you've returned from your successful voyage?

If you want to shine your light, and are nearby, join us at Startling Startup Ideas Group Melbourne.

This group is "Q&A for Startups". The first local group (Melbourne) is now live, and we expect to begin planning our first events soon.

http://meetup.com/Startling-Startup-Ideas-Group-Melbourne
It's based around user-driven topics to help you start, launch or grow, so tell us -
-which topics are most important to you and
-which ones that you want first (and suggest others), decided by group voting.
For those of you that are in interstate or overseas locations, there's also an opportunity to join an online conversation, or expand the concept via syndicated meetups, so don't feel left out.
You can join & share the online conversation at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Startling-Startup-Ideas-Group-6669314
Or, if you believe as we do, and would like to expand the face-to-face concept, reach out to me on Twitter @That_StartUpGuy or visit http://www.meetup.com/Startling-Startup-Ideas/
This is an initiative that is being supported by my newest startup, StartUp Foundation, which is 5 Stage venture Accelerator for experienced professionals. 

At StartUpFoundation.com.au, you can find out the 8 success factors which make the difference between massive success & failure in a startup - and they have almost nothing to do with which 'methodology' you use. Lets help you take your great ideas, and use them to help you break free from your day job and make that 'Leap of Faith'.