- livingthedash.tv

A good friend of mine, David Heller, is in the process of launching an internet startup called Supplier View. He has shared his experiences with me over the past several months and I have found his startup journey to be pretty fascinating. David recently sat down to answer some questions about his startup and life as an entrepreneur.

What is Supplier View?

Supplier View is a solution that allows companies to evaluate their supplier’s performance in ways that aren’t done today. Currently organizations send out surveys internally to gauge supplier performance, get the scores back, maybe talk to the supplier about the results and thats it. Repeat next year or maybe you skip a year. Suppliers are one of the absolute keys to any organization’s success and their getting top notch performance is required. The procurement industry isn’t doing a very good job up to now of managing those relationships. The software providers that tout SPM solutions aren’t providing very good ones in my opinion.

How long did it take to move Supplier View from an idea to development? Were there any challenges or roadblocks that kept you from starting sooner? Is there anything that inspired you or prompted you to take your idea to the next level?

I’ve been thinking about the concept of SPM 2.0 for over a year. This was one of many ideas. I always kept coming back to the Supplier View idea. The reasons I didn’t start sooner are common: lack of true commitment and other priorities. I believe that lack of money and time are just indicators that you haven’t committed or prioritized whatever you are putting off. That being said I’m glad I kept thinking about it, working through the business model, jotting down notes and then coming back to it over and over again. I don’t have it all figured out at all, but I’m much better positioned now to deliver this than I was a year ago.

There were a couple of things that triggered me to really throw myself into Supplier View. The first was attending events promoted by the startup community in Houston. Hearing other people’s experiences was a great motivator. Being able to bounce ideas off of other entrepreneurs is invaluable. I’d recommend to anyone thinking of starting a business to find other small business owners and entrepreneurs and interact and socialize as much as possible. You’ll learn more than you ever will just reading about it.

What are some things that you have learned about entrepreneurship and small business since you launched your start-up?

It’s scary sometimes. I don’t have a partner in this so every decision is mine, every penny that gets spent is mine. Thats what I wanted by having my own business but there are moments when you realize that there is a lot at stake on your decisions. By the way I am still looking for a technically minded partner in case any of your readers want to get in on the ground floor of this opportunity.

The learning process never really ends though. You have to be so versatile because there is no one else. Yesterday I was trying to get some basic Apache web server knowledge because my developers were unavailable. You can outsource things but in the end you are just figuring out a way to get things done with your resources. Sometimes that means learning it yourself, which I like.

You work for one of the largest companies in the world and you now own and operate a small start-up company. That is an interesting situation to be in. What is that like?

It takes discipline. When I’m at work at my “day job”, I’m at work. There are times when I want to go do some research for Supplier View or work on the elevator pitch or something like that but I can’t. I have responsibilities to that company, my management and my team. It means lots of nights and weekends are dedicated to Supplier View.

Your start-up has benefited from some connections that you made online via social media. Can you tell us about that?

I absolutely love Twitter (@yankeesfan70)! I reconnected with my developers through Twitter, the guy that did the logo I found on Twitter, I have other entrepreneurs and procurement industry people that I have been introduced to through Twitter…I can go on and on. Linked In and Facebook are nice but there isn’t that connection that you get with Twitter.

I blog too. I don’t get as much feedback through blogging as I would like but it takes time. It’s therapeutic too. Sometimes I have things I want to talk about and maybe no one wants to listen, thats okay. It helps me get my thoughts in order.

I don’t want my social media connections to just be these virtual friends, which sounds kind of weird. I enjoy meeting people face to face. Blogging, Twitter and other social media are just additional ways of getting introduced.

Thanks for sharing David!

The Go Big Always blog has a nice post about the ‘naysayers timeline of technology in the workplace’.

And a great follow-up post about ‘Norman Naysayer’. You might know a ‘Norman Naysayer’ or two or maybe you work with a whole team of ‘Normans’.

The ‘naysayers’ said…….

• there is no way email will work in the workplace

• we can’t let employees have internet access at work

• eCommerce? too risky

• Instant Messaging is too distracting for the workplace

And now, those same ‘naysayers’ are saying that there is no place for Social Software and Web 2.0 tools in the workplace.

My prediction…..

• Blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts will become a large part of internal corporate communications.
• Twitter-like tools will be used by groups of employees and project teams to keep everyone informed of what others are doing.
• Basecamp-like tools will be used by project teams for organizing, managing, and collaborating on projects.
• Some type of Facebook-like, LinkedIn-like tools will be used for internal networking.
• Employees will have personalized, customized home pages like iGoogle and Netvibes. Employees will be able to add modules/widgets to their home page that contain enterprise information, data, charts, and graphs that are tailored to their specific job function.

It won’t happen overnight. But, I promise you, the ‘naysayers’ will be proven wrong……again.

I just signed up to hear Guy Kawasaki speak at the Houston Technology Center on April 23rd

Thanks to Entrepreneur In Training for pointing out that Guy is coming to Houston

Here are the details

I will try to take some notes and post them here around on the 23rd or 24th

Do you get lost when you hear terminology like RSS, Twitter, and Wiki?

Or maybe your like me and tools like Google Reader, Twitter, and Wikipedia are a part of your daily life, but you have friends and family that think you have gone crazy.

Either way, you might benefit from these plain English explanations from Common Craft……

• RSS In Plain English

• Twitter In Plain English

• Wikis In Plain English