I've Morphed for 40 hours in the past week. That's a full time job just out of delivery driving. Add in the 50 hours of work it took during the day to keep things afloat and moving forward, and that's the work week of an over-achieving investment banker. Maybe even a bit more.
It's been a lot of driving, and all the hours have been a distraction from getting work done that needs to be done. However, it comes with some benefits. I've been getting paid, so I've covered almost two months of rent in the past week's work. I've been listening to some stellar audiobooks (really recommend Chris McDougall's Born to Run. It's epic.) I've made a chart of best parking spaces for every restaurant which I can pretty up and publish for our drivers.
But it's also taught me something: it's time to start hiring. I've driven a few hundred hours this semester, but that should not be my main job. The 5 hour shift can and should be spent on business development, not sustainment. I haven't signed or even pitched a new business in over a month. I haven't made a plan to do so either. Our tech has been stagnant and our business potential is capped at what it was a month ago. I can't blame it all on the amount of driving I've done, but I can attribute a large portion of my complacency there.
We've done our final deliveries for 2015 (unless McAlister's Deli hits us with a few more, which would be great.) 2016 is going to be about growth. It's time to put money into recruitment, and effort into sales. It's time to grow the the point I know we can get to- and time to grow fast.
I am no longer going to be driving unless it's an emergency. I am going to need to get creative about hiring, smart about training, and stay cash-efficient, but not penny-pinch.
Effort, time, cash. I've got those three to spare, and in that order.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Could have been leaner
The concept of 'lean' is learned better through experience than through books. While Eric Ries did a commendable job of putting the concept into 300 pages, there is no teacher better than the real world.
I've sunk a lot of money into Morph. We'll keep it general, but many thousands of dollars have been my own, and no meager amount has come from my faithful family. I've invested financially, committed professionally, and pained emotionally over this company. It's been so fun and worth it all, especially as I learned one major lesson: I could have been leaner.
Our technology works, but is currently sitting and gathering dust. We don't need it, and don't use it. The first 4 months of operation has been more of a business play than anything technological. That right there would have been over $8,000 and a few points of equity saved.
Knowing that I could have been smarter gives me perspective about future actions. This is a lesson in the value of bootstrapping. Having limited resources makes you understand your business model in a way that massive free cash flow cannot. Investment dollars may put a thick green bandage on problems, but never address them fundamentally. Moving forward, I can use this past experience to be leaner, smarter, and faster than before. All of this will serve to put us in an exquisite position once we begin to look for investment.
I've sunk a lot of money into Morph. We'll keep it general, but many thousands of dollars have been my own, and no meager amount has come from my faithful family. I've invested financially, committed professionally, and pained emotionally over this company. It's been so fun and worth it all, especially as I learned one major lesson: I could have been leaner.
Our technology works, but is currently sitting and gathering dust. We don't need it, and don't use it. The first 4 months of operation has been more of a business play than anything technological. That right there would have been over $8,000 and a few points of equity saved.
Knowing that I could have been smarter gives me perspective about future actions. This is a lesson in the value of bootstrapping. Having limited resources makes you understand your business model in a way that massive free cash flow cannot. Investment dollars may put a thick green bandage on problems, but never address them fundamentally. Moving forward, I can use this past experience to be leaner, smarter, and faster than before. All of this will serve to put us in an exquisite position once we begin to look for investment.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Every conversation counts
A year ago, when Morph was Morphood and we were still aiming for an A in Chris Mumford's class, I would walk up and down Franklin street, popping into restaurants to interview managers about their delivery. I talked about that a bit in this post.
One restaurant manager I spoke to was Charlie, day manager at McAlister's Deli. The first time I met him, we talked a lot about their current delivery situation, and what it would take to make it better. A few weeks later, I popped in to see Charlie with some more questions. Then some weeks after that, I showed him our wire frames. We'd chat at least once a month for the past year, as I provided him updates on our build-out and he provided insights into managing a restaurant and dealing with delivery.
In one conversation with Charlie, I learned that McAlister's does a lot of catering orders. Customers place their order online or on the phone, and McAlister's delivers it. Seeing as these are pre-scheduled orders, McAlister's can't send them off to a third party delivery service like Takeout Central. They have one of their managers leave the store to deliver it. So the store is left without a manager for 30-60 minutes as he brings the food to his car, delivers, drives back, parks, and returns to the store.
"How much would it be worth if we were to do that for you?" I asked.
"That would be huge," he replied. "I'd give up most of our delivery fee, if it were up to me."
And so, we began that conversation. First with Charlie. Next with JD, the regional manager. Then with the McAlister's corporate office.
And finally, we've got ourselves our second customer, in a way that my white board plans would never have anticipated. The McAlister's manager emails me dates and times for their catering order. I send a driver over (usually Danny or myself) to pick up the food, and deliver it. And the McAlister's manager can stay in the store to manage it, like he's supposed to.
And so far it's been great. It is all within Chapel Hill, so drives are no more than 10 minutes. Since catering orders are often in the hundreds of dollars, the tips have been fantastic. And, most importantly, McAlister's seems to be happy.
So two lessons learned here. One- it's a startups job to solve customer problems, not to stick to a business model. We're accepting orders (and making money) in a different way than our business model demanded of us previously, but it remains as unquestionable growth for Morph. Two- every conversation counts. If I hadn't walked into McAlister's to meet Charlie a year ago to ask his opinion on Morphood, I could never have had the opportunity to work with them today.
One restaurant manager I spoke to was Charlie, day manager at McAlister's Deli. The first time I met him, we talked a lot about their current delivery situation, and what it would take to make it better. A few weeks later, I popped in to see Charlie with some more questions. Then some weeks after that, I showed him our wire frames. We'd chat at least once a month for the past year, as I provided him updates on our build-out and he provided insights into managing a restaurant and dealing with delivery.
In one conversation with Charlie, I learned that McAlister's does a lot of catering orders. Customers place their order online or on the phone, and McAlister's delivers it. Seeing as these are pre-scheduled orders, McAlister's can't send them off to a third party delivery service like Takeout Central. They have one of their managers leave the store to deliver it. So the store is left without a manager for 30-60 minutes as he brings the food to his car, delivers, drives back, parks, and returns to the store.
"How much would it be worth if we were to do that for you?" I asked.
"That would be huge," he replied. "I'd give up most of our delivery fee, if it were up to me."
And so, we began that conversation. First with Charlie. Next with JD, the regional manager. Then with the McAlister's corporate office.
And finally, we've got ourselves our second customer, in a way that my white board plans would never have anticipated. The McAlister's manager emails me dates and times for their catering order. I send a driver over (usually Danny or myself) to pick up the food, and deliver it. And the McAlister's manager can stay in the store to manage it, like he's supposed to.
And so far it's been great. It is all within Chapel Hill, so drives are no more than 10 minutes. Since catering orders are often in the hundreds of dollars, the tips have been fantastic. And, most importantly, McAlister's seems to be happy.
So two lessons learned here. One- it's a startups job to solve customer problems, not to stick to a business model. We're accepting orders (and making money) in a different way than our business model demanded of us previously, but it remains as unquestionable growth for Morph. Two- every conversation counts. If I hadn't walked into McAlister's to meet Charlie a year ago to ask his opinion on Morphood, I could never have had the opportunity to work with them today.
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