Super Neural – True Founder Camp IV – Spring 2011

Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of connected nodes or users. With all due respect to Dr. Metcalfe, I think he only got it half right (1). In addition to just the number of nodes, the performance of a neural network is a function of the power of each individual node, the connection or chemistry between those nodes, and the inputs that are fed into the system. Think about your own brain at a normal time vs. a time when you are really cranking and in a zone. Same brain, same number of neurons, but the right brain chemistry, the right inputs, and boom go the neurotransmitters. This is precisely why the True Founder Camp, from which I have just returned, is so powerful.

What is Founder Camp?
Founder Camp is something that True has been putting on for three years now with this being Founder Camp IV (they’re doing more than one a year now for those who are following the math). They pull in the founders of all their startups for 24 hours of activities, speakers, and discussions. The goal is to enable the sharing of knowledge between the founding teams, to bring in world-class speakers to educate and inspire, and to foster better ongoing connections within the growing True family of companies. I, for one, think they are succeeding in a big way across all three objectives, and in the process, creating a powerful neural net of entrepreneurship (please speak that last phrase using you best James Earl Jones voice).

Some Serious Nodes
Part of the growth in effectiveness of Founder Camp is simply driven by the growth of the True family itself. With 120+ founders participating from across True’s portfolio of investments, the crowd was talented and diverse. Where else can you get entrepreneurs ranging from Russell Klein to Jen Bekman to Brian Wong? Where else can you get startups ranging from Urban Airship to Inventables to Assistly? Where else can you talk with the builders of cool products like TypeKit, SoundTracking, and Yobongo? If you’re building a network of entrepreneurs, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better group.

The Right Chemistry
Your brain always works (well almost always), but it works so much better when you have the right chemistry. Shea and the True team did a great job of creating and fostering an environment that really allowed for some inspired interacting and sharing. It started with bowling at Yerba Buena (with some associated drinking games that Hamet Watt seemed to be behind). Then we split up for group dinners, where we got to connect with a small group in a meaningful way. Finally, instilling a feeling of confidentiality and trust for our group discussions on Thursday was essential (As Om said, “Feel free to tweet as long as the tweet is blank except for the hashtag.”). Getting that chemistry right is key. Otherwise, we’re just a bunch of bozos in a room.

A Smorgasbord of Inputs
Bowling, beef tonque, and Marissa Mayer – oh my. Lattes, Steve Blank, and interviewing with higher math. Breakouts, Matt Mullenweg ,and re-targeting for fun and profit. The agenda was jam packed with great dinners (where yours truly got talked into a beef tongue salad because it came with liquid nitrogen frozen horseradish; I mean who can pass that up?), a full slate of speakers including Marissa Mayer and Steve Blank, and sessions run by entrepreneurs including Tony Conrad, Hiten Shah, and Steve Jang, among others. I mean where else can you sit around on beanbags with the founders of Soundtracking, Urban Airship and Yobongo all trading notes and tips on creating iPhone apps? It is true that at times I felt like I was in the brainwashing scene from A Clockwork Orange, but who wouldn’t want all of that juicy fodder dumped straight into your brain?

The Output = Pure Gold
Steve Blank described founding a company as a magic act. Personally, I think its half magic and half engineering. The magic comes in creating an idea, forming things from nothing, and convincing people of your vision. The engineering part is the basics of building a company — how do you hire people, what tools do you use, how you run your processes and operations. The great thing about Founder Camp is it helps with both. It allows you to learn from a growing number of companies about the best practices for building a high performing company. It also give you a heaping dose of inspiration for the magic part of the act. As one founder put it, “I’m leaving with a bounce in my step.” Founding a company is hard, and can be a slog at many times. Its days like these that put a sparkle back in your eye and get those neurons really firing again.

Some Themes from This Year’s Founder Camp
So what did I learn at this Founder Camp? Far too much too summarize here, but looking back at my notes, here are some of my takeaways:
– It’s all about your team. Hiring and fostering an amazing team is the single most important thing you will do.
– Right now, the market is in momentum mode. Don’t go stupid crazy, but speed and growth should be your main focus.
– Mobile is creating some amazing new ways for people to connect (SoundTracking, Pose, Ditto, Yobongo, GroupIn…), infrastructure is booming (MessageBus, Assistly, Urban Airship, Loggly…), and hardware is cool again (MakerBot, Inventables, Sifteo…)
– Apparently you can use re-targeting for just about anything – Marketing, M&A, dating, you name it.
– If you haven’t sold your company in four days, you must need to either pivot, get Barack Obama on your Board of Advisors, or both.
– If you can sell a tongue scraper, you can sell anything.

The (Neural) Net Net
True Ventures is figuring something out here. They started by founding their firm on the premise that venture is all about the entrepreneurs. Now they are fostering and building a meaningful, powerful, and growing network of some of the most talented entrepreneurs on the planet. If you’re an entrepreneur, you should want to be part of Founders Camp V. If you’re at another venture firm, you should be figuring this out for your own portfolio. Thanks True for putting on these events. I think I speak for all of the Founders when I say we “True-ly” appreciate it.

This post was written by Jason Reneau, CEO & Founder of MindBites, a True Ventures Portfolio Company.

(1) Forgive the exaggeration for effect. Robert Metcalfe was actually speaking of the power of a telecommunications network, Ethernet in particular, and not of neural networks in general. (Have to watch what I say since Bob lives in Austin now.)