However, much has happened in the last 14 months. My company has gone from a startup that literally *just* survived bankruptcy to a company now that employs 27 people and has thousands of clients all over the world. We have completed two rounds of VC funding in that time, and have gone from being unknowns to being featured in Wired, the Financial Times and TechCrunch many a time. I’ve gone from being a very hands-on product/sales/testing/operations person to having to learn to delegate and now focused on strategy, international business development and leading and motivating a diverse group of people. I find myself more satisfied and excited than I ever have in any professional capacity, but also working harder and more intensely than I would have ever thought healthy.

So, I thought it might be time to resurrect this ol’ blog of mine, and continue to share some of my thoughts, learnings and experiences.

Part of my strategy was to keep my burgeoning company name a secret, to build anticipation and a community around my soon-to-be-launched website. This strategy partly worked: a small following tracked my progress, and I could be delightfully honest about my experiences. I was no-one, and my company didn’t exist yet, so I was frank and vulnerable in all my posts. Look back and read if you are interested.

Then, I launched my website, moved to London, and threw myself into the entrepreneurial scene. I became relatively known, and my website started to be known. I started seeking VC funding, and needed to demonstrate how capable I was, and how great things were going. I found my blogging compromised, as I could no longer share my vulnerabilities, mishaps and hopes, on what had become my company’s blog.

A great deal has occurred in the last few months, which I have covered in what is now to be my company’s blog. I want to reclaim Birth of a Startup now, to return to being my personal blog, where I write honestly, with both vulnerability and hopeful pride, about what it is to be a female Australian tech entrepreneur, living in London.

So please, if you want to read about my businesses, delete this blog from your RSS feed. If you are new to this blog, add it to your RSS, but make no effort to find out about my businesses. It is best if we keep the two separate. Of course, I may have achieved nothing but stirring your curiosity, but I hope that you respect the spirit in which this blog reinvention is made. Welcome to Birth of a Startup!

So, give it a try, and please take a moment to tell your friends about Skimbit. Sites like Skimbit really make it when their community of users take pride in telling other people about it, so please help us become known and loved. We built Skimbit to really help and be useful for any sort of internet research or decision-making task, so keep us in mind whenever you are doing any research online, or are trying to decide on something with a group!

I have been back a few days from my Web Mission expedition to San Francisco. It’s taken me this long to recuperate and take stock of everything that went on.

I’m still in a state of shock and awe. It was a beyond successful week, exceeding even my overly ambitious expectations. Pretty much everything I’d hoped would happen, did happen.

What, you ask? Well, firstly, and most importantly, forming strategic partnerships with bookmark aggregators like Gigya and Add to Any. They were both San Francisco/Valley based, so I managed to set meetings up with them while I was there, and I can joyfully report that both companies completely understood my business, Skimbit, and agreed to include our ‘Skim this!’ badge in their bookmarking buttons.

I then managed to meet the team from AddThis.com at the Web 2.0 conference I attended in San Francisco, and managed to get them on board too. This is a huge win for us, and puts us on the same playing field as Digg and Delicious, though with a different enough focus and target market to compete effectively.

Then, potential customers for our white-label service, Skim-in-a-box… I had hoped to get leads for new clients, but as I didn’t have any meetings booked, my expectations were low. However, I was introduced to several incredibly exciting and high profile web entities, who you will all know, and they expressed not only interest, but a serious intent to partner.

I won’t spill the beans yet on who these companies are, but they will totally make my business when they come through. Understandably, I’m pretty chuffed.

From a funding perspective, my expectations were also very low, as I’d been repeatedly told US based investors won’t consider UK based companies. However, I had a meeting with a high profile seed investor, who said the distance issue – although challenging – is not insurmountable, and they are currently considering investing in Skimbit.

I had hoped WebMission would attract a lot of very much welcomed media exposure, and to my glee, this also turned out beyond expectation. In the last week I have been TechCrunched, on the BBC, the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and soon to be in The Telegraph and Spectator. Not bad for a tiny little start-up!

But I would have to say, without a doubt, the best outcome of WebMission was the networking, interaction, and bonding that went on with the rest of the WebMission team. What really stood out to me is how innovative, supportive, and ambitious us Brits (well, I’m an Aussie, but you know what I mean) are, and that although going to the US was helpful and educational, we should be darn proud of what we have back home.

So now, as I deal with the avalanche of work, leads to follow, deals to execute on, and investments to finalise, I am buzzing with joy and elation that I’m on the right path, and the light at the end of the tunnel is bright and beckoning.

And when I found out I was accepted, although I was pleased, I do have to admit I had a fleeting moment of thinking “Well, I bet not many people applied, its not such a big deal…”

So imagine my surprise when I found out that over 100 start-ups had competed, and only 20 were selected! And that the judging panel included Doug Richard and Mike Butcher! And that there is huge press coverage of the event: Skimbit even managed to appear on TechCrunch US!

And looking at the agenda, I now totally realise what a fabulous opportunity this is! I’m busily trying to organise meetings with potential partners in the Valley and San Fran (if you are one, or know of one, let me know!), and am meeting with some US-based PR firms to help my ‘launch’ in the US. Very exciting stuff!!

So please check it out and let us know your thoughts. Better yet – become a featured skimmer by telling us about the clever ways you use Skimbit.

One interesting piece of feedback I received from the ex-Dragon’s Den judge – Doug Richard – was that I should not market Skimbit as an all-purpose research and decision-making tool (because people don’t realise they need this), and instead market it as a solution to very specific problems, and to pick a few of them. For example, its a service for organising group holidays, planning weddings, and making important purchases. And then, he says, to make this the primary message of the homepage, and indeed the whole application.

Interestingly, quite a few other people have come back with similar feedback, so its definitely something I will factor into the next version of the homepage, and definitely something I will do with my forthcoming PR and advertising campaigns.

It is fascinating operating in this web environment having come from a software development background where development lifecycles were 6 months long, and if you changed your mind about a requirement, you had to wait 6 months to request it. These days, with web applications, it is not only easy, but necessary to make rapid iterative changes to design and functionality, to see what works best. It is indescribably difficult to take a step back sometimes from something I am so intimate with, and see what will work and what won’t, so chatting to new people who hear about Skimbit and visit the site is a highly educational and useful thing to do.

So I hope you like the new homepage, and find it communicates better what Skimbit is all about, especially to those not-so-technical people out there. Bit by bit we will work our way through the whole site, so it eventually will glow with brilliance (we hope!).

Up until now, Birth of a Startup was about my experiences creating Skimbit over the last year and a half. But things are different now… our operations have moved from Sydney to London, I have funding from the bank, I have a fantastic customer for my Skim-in-a-box product, and there is starting to be a bit of buzz about what Skimbit is all about. So it made sense to revamp the blog into something vaguely appealing.

Let me know what you think of the new design… created by the brilliant team of Jason and Stéphane of Research & Development.

So, now I just need this post to inspire other influential bloggers, and this buzz to drive customers to the site and potential clients knocking on my door… So if anyone is reading this and owns a blog… be a mate and start the buzz!

read more | digg story

After 5 weeks though, I realised that I just needed to move forward with or without the funding. I was achingly aware of how incapable I was of doing it all on my own. So after consulting with various people, I decided to put an ad on the Gumtree. I couldn’t afford a proper recruitment consultant, or expensive advertisements. Gumtree is a fantastic place to get employees – its very cheap to post an advert, you get massive numbers of people responding, and the calibre of people is excellent.

I was swamped! Within 2 days I had over 30 applicants, and I was in awe at how good some of them were, considering I had posted what I was going to pay and it wasn’t a huge amount. I short-listed 5 applicants and set up interviews for the next day.

Now, I am a terrible interviewer. I never know what to ask, because the things that are important to me: initiative, ingenuity, intelligence, are hard to ascertain from interview questions. I like to think I am quite intuitive though about people, so I just find a way to keep them talking, and try to pick their personality from answers to mundane questions about almost anything. I guess I also want to be sure I connect with the person I’m hiring – a perfect worker is not enough, I have to feel they will augment the soul of my company by their presence.

Anyway, funnily enough, I knew who I would hire before I met any of the short-listed applicants. One candidate’s experience was exceptional, and her email communication revealed a wonderful sense of humour and understanding of what it was to work for a startup. She had worked in San Francisco for big PR consultancies, with some of the biggest companies in the business, and had just moved to London. I just had a feeling she would be right.

I interviewed the other candidates, and felt quite overwhelmed as everyone I met had something really appealing about them. I was perplexed as to who I would hire. The final person I interviewed was Leslie, and all my doubts disappeared. She had the fire of wanting to achieve in her eyes, and she spoke with intelligence and imagination. I hired her on the spot.

So, Skimbit has its official first employee (well, if you don’t count my team of developers and designers scattered around the globe)! She is my Marketing and PR Manager, and has already done a sterling job.

The only downside is that Leslie will be doing work that up until now simply was not done in Skimbit, which is very needed and valuable work. Unfortunately she probably won’t be taking any workload off me, so I’ll still be as frantic and overworked as usual… but at least I’ll have someone by my side, helping me in this journey that, thankfully, despite the exhaustion, I truly love.

• developing a stronger bond with my fantastic team of developers in Bucharest
• investigating the venture capital market in London
• researching the wedding and travel market further

I do not think I could ever have anticipated how successful my trip would be on all fronts.

Meeting developers
I had read blogs and start-up advice that stated categorically the importance of building a strong relationship with your developers, particularly if they are based off-shore. I always knew in my gut it was important: many many a late night talking via Skype with my team does accomplish a lot, but nothing can replace what an intimate face-to-face encounter with your team can achieve. I spent a week in Bucharest, almost all of it with Emi – the owner of Brainient and my project manager – and his family. I got to meet his beautiful fiance Denisa, her lovely sister Anca, her charming fiance Adi, and Denisa and Anca’s entire extended family. I spent 3 nights at Anca and Denisa’s mother’s house in the country, celebrating Anca’s upcoming nuptuals. We ate and danced and played games with the neighbourhood kids. Not your usual business trip, by any stretch, but I built an amazing relationship with Emi through this process, and that means the world to me.

I spent several days in the office, working with the whole team, celebrating with them, sharing the stories of what I had been up to, what I am planning, all with the goal of making them feel part of what I am building, so they are motivated to make it work. I also believe in sharing the success, and have since arranged for the team to have a piece of my business if we achieve our project goals over the next few months. I am achingly aware that the success of my business lies – to a large degree – on the enthusiasm and dedication of people that I do not see and that do not officially work for me. Its tough, but I’m lucky enough to have Emi involved who is as fully engaged and dedicated as any employee could ever be.

Venture funding
My plan was very simple: go for a long boozy lunch with my good friend Craig and see what he thought about things. Craig is a fabulous man, who used to be the CEO for a successful mobile services company in London, plus had his finger in lots of interesting business pots. I thought it might be worthwhile to get his thoughts on my business. I could never have anticipated the outcome…

I explained what Skimbit was about. He literally exploded with excitement! He said “Oh my god, fate has brought us together!” Turns out he was pitching some mobile services to a certain wedding portal, and he saw the possibilities that entailed. “What if you slightly change your service so it can also serve as a plug-in for portals?” To cut a long story short, we explored the idea, and it made sense. Craig arranged for me to present to the wedding portal. I then had 4 days to prepare a presenatation, talk to my developers to build a demo, prepare financials and a new business plan… but miraculously, I got it done. I presented to the wedding portal, and a miracle then occurred. I say a miracle, because in business, this just doesn’t happen, normally.

They loved it. They said they wanted it. They agreed to my timeframes and my budget. They booked a flight that day for their head of technology from Poland to see me the following week.

I was in a state of blissful shock! Could this be the break I have been yearning for? Could this be finally the reward for all the work I had done?

I had a week to prepare for my next meeting. In that time I met with many of my friends in London who are connected to the seed capital market, who are starting their own start-ups, who have contacts in the web application space… and I started to build a new life for myself…

The final presentation to the wedding portal went perfectly. I presented to 8 people, including the Managing Director and head of Finance. They all loved my proposal and agreed to my plan. I couldn’t believe it… but a part of me felt that this might just be my destiny, that all my hard work and loneliness and risk-taking and sleepless nights might in the end be worthwhile.

So, in the space of a few weeks, I have decided to dramatically change my life. I am moving back to London to live. I am going to work exclusively on my business. I am going to have a two-pronged attack and build my business as both a stand-alone web service for the general public and as a plug-in fully customisable service for portals. It will mean a lot of hard work, but the thought of finally being able to work on my business, and make it the success I have always wanted it to be, makes me giddy with excitement.

Of course, its also terribly scary. I am about to live in the world’s most expensive city with very little savings and no regular income. I am relying entirely on my ability to get a business loan and secure seed funding quickly. Risky endeavours by any assessment.

However, my darling Craig has been my saviour once again. He has introduced me to seed capital investors and has convinced them to support me. So I now have someone assisting me to get a business loan and a firm intention to get me well funded. It seems so unreal, its like some angel on high has said “You know what, this month, we are going to make everything work out for her” and whoosh! everything is working out.

So I am taking this incredible gamble: that everything will continue to work out, that I will get funding, that I will be able to lead my business through to successful delivery to this wedding portal, that I will be able to secure further clients of that scale, and that I will be able to develop my stand-alone business so it becomes successful. Its a big call, but what do I have to lose? I am single, no mortgage, no debt, and burning to make this work.

I returned from my holiday mid-August. I return to London mid-September. In that time I have had to pack up my entire life: sell all my furniture, my car, give up my flat, pack up all my belongings, close all my accounts, redirect mail, farewell my friends and family, plus I have had to work a full-time job to try and save money and work every night on my business with Emi and his team. Quite startling really. It stuns me to believe how quickly everything can change… to put it another way: isn’t it glorious how life can still totally surprise you!

So there you go! Wish me luck everybody!

Lot’s of I’s. I this , I that, …
Why not use the readers of this blog for a pre-launch and ask *them* for instance if the obvious flaws are acceptable or not. bottomline, ask for help to validate a go-live.

I was so scared of releasing my baby into the world when I wasn’t sure it was mature enough. I am like a strict Mediterranean mother unwilling to let her 17 year old daughter out past 10pm, as she surely isn’t ready for that kind of exposure. (and yes, I was that 17 year old, surely I would have learnt!)

But the truth is, releasing to you – dear readers – is the equivalent of letting my 17 year old daughter out with a trusted chaperone. So, I think I can cope with that.

So, with a little fanfare (ta-daaaaaaa), here is my baby given birth.

Its called Skimbit – www.skimbit.com

I’m dubbing it a social decision-making tool. Its a web application geared to helping you make group decisions, like organising a group holiday, picking bridesmaid shoes for a wedding, or deciding which plasma TV to buy.

Instead of copying and pasting URLs of sites you like into an email and sending it around to friends for feedback, Skimbit automatically skims the best bits (thus the name) of a site you like via a bookmark or button in your browser. It does this by grabbing the title, description and picture from a site (you can alter the selections), and then allowing you to input the decision-making criteria, ie. price, location, number of rooms, etc.

Skimbit then automatically builds a webpage for you with all your research results presented in a manner that makes it easy to analyse and compare. And we provide tools to help you with this, ie. you can sort your findings by price and location, or you can filter your results to show all findings that have 3 bedrooms and are pet-friendly, for example.

When you are ready to share with friends, Skimbit will email your friends inviting them to give feedback. There are four ways friends can give feedback to your project, you can pick one or more of them. Rating (1-5 stars), ranking (1st, 2nd, 3rd..), polling (thumbs up or down) and comments. Friends can also add to your project, thereby helping you out with research.

Skimbit then aggregates the feedback, and graphically represents it. So ratings are represented by different sized stars, the bigger the star, the higher the average rating. Rankings are represented by a horse race, the horse closest to the finish line is the one with the highest average rank. And so on… its a fun way to help make a decision, in a fair and equitable fashion!

Finally, Skimbit offers a set of tools to help you act on your decision. The default tools are a notepad (for writing notes, instructions, bank details, etc), a tasklist (packing list, to-do, invite list), a map (for plotting where something is) and a MeeboMe IM widget for instant conversation between friends working on a project together. You can also add other widgets that are relevant to your project, ie. a YouTube video of something related to your project.

So thats it! Its working pretty well, but still some emails addresses don’t receive emails, it hasn’t been fully tested in Safari, a few other biggish bugs… and its pretty slow, we are still optimising things further so they run faster. But if you like, give it a go, and tell me what you think. Is it ready for release yet?

I have lots of good news though to finally impart. Although not yet launched, I am now in what I call the ‘soft launch’ phase of my business. The site is live, and I have invited friends and those in the industry to have a sneak preview, to give me feedback on what needs refining. The process has been excellent, and I have gotten very useful criticism.

The first area of criticism was the writing. Now, I write business requirements specifications for a living, and I like to think I’m reasonable at creative writing. However, I have come to accept in the last few weeks, that I suck at marketing and instructional material. The content is excellent, but I write WAY too much. Emi – my technical lead – giggled at me incessantly as I wrote it, because there was an awful lot there, but it was after 5 different people said it was the worst thing about the site, that I realised I had to do something about it. Luckily, my sister has vast experience in copy writing, having in her past had to convert thick government policy reports into one pager documents for police men to understand. So she is currently going through the Tutorial, FAQs, Help pages, etc, condensing and simplifying.

It was a huge bitter pill I had to swallow. I spent days writing that material, and its effectively all being chopped to pieces. But for the love of my business, I accept its absolutely the right thing to do.

The next area of fault – and I knew this was a weakness – was the Homepage. Not having a creative design background has made creating a Homepage difficult. Its too simple, and doesn’t sparkle. Again, I have friends and family to the rescue: one of my best friends is kindly putting together a Flash animation for the Homepage, and my brother-in-law has been giving valuable input and direction. However, what I am still lacking is a diagrammatic representation of ‘How it works’… lets see if I can find someone to help me with that for a good price (ie. very little!).

The good news is that people love the concept, and are impressed with its functionality. This makes me happy – everything else can be worked on, but if its not an exciting idea that people feel they could use, then I am truly lost.

Some people conveyed concern at how I would market the concept once its fully launched. As it doesn’t really appeal to the nerdy types, who traditionally are the ones that make or break a new web 2.0 start-up, how can I make it popular? Well… I have thoughts on it. The business is inherently viral, and there are exciting marketing opportunities inherent in the nature of the business which I hope to capitalise on. Apologies for being vague… I haven’t properly launched yet!

And so, you may ask, when do I launch properly?
Once the Homepage and copy is improved, and the main bugs are resolved… I give it another week or two. Rather exciting actually! Its all finally happening!

Of course, no one will probably ever read this entry, as by the time people become interested in my musings, this blog will be relegated to the archives, where no one goes deliberately.Nevertheless, I will take this opportunity, even if it is to the ether, to state my plans for this blog. More detail of my journey to this point will be included in my About me section, but in brief, it will log my learnings, experiences, challenges, and advice as I progress through the process of launching my start-up.

The process really began 6 months ago when I began to develop the concept, wrote the specifications, went through one potential business partner after another, sourced a provider, sought capital, and conceived of an interface design… but I am still many months from launching my site, and – I am realistic here – many more months from building a respectable customer base and income stream, and I plan to muse retrospectively (oh joy, I hear you cry), so there will be plenty of juicy titbits of entrepreneurial experience for me to write about, and hopefully, people to want to read about.

Of course, I cannot let on just yet what my business is all about. I intend to tease. I want you hanging on, with bated breath for my every post, eagerly scouring my words to see if I let on any clue as to what I will be launching (hopefully late-March). And if that makes you desperately keen to visit my site once it launches, and become an avid supporter of it out of loyalty to this blog which has inspired and amused you on a daily basis… well, that’s marvellous.