Mike Casey :: Random thoughts on Startups

One thing that is becoming more apparent as I move slowly through the world of entrepreneurship is that I often have to present in front of a crowd either to promote what my start up does or to give others tips and ideas on starting and progressing a company.

What I have noticed is that I am generally okay with presenting in front of a crowd, but I would like to be more articulate than what I am. Just like on the phones, the only real way to do this is with practice.

When a promo girl came up to me the other day and asked if I could be apart of the Mitsubishi ASX promotion, test drive the car and then record a video about what I thought I jumped at the idea. Perfect chance to lose the comfort zone and get some much needed practice.

Here is the end result : http://mitsubishiasx.com.au/mike

Please let me know what you think. I say “Ah” quite a bit, but that is because its unscripted. If you could vote for me too that would be great!

Mike

It seems I am developing a bit of a knack for encouraging people to start companies, which to be honest, I am kind of proud of.

I used to coach Tim Robinson in underwater hockey back in 2002 - 2006 when he was in high school and I was slacking my way through my university degree.

When I was in Wellington a couple of weeks ago I saw him randomly in a car park and ended up having a quick 10 minute conversation about starting companies. It turns out he knew a bit about GradConnection from our advertising in New Zealand, so I was stoaked about that.

To cut a long story short, he was thinking of taking the plunge himself. So a couple of days later I sat down and gave him a crash course in how to run an online company. This crash course involved

• Google (SEO)
• Google Analytics
• Google Adsense
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Woopra
• Wordpress

My advice was simple. Release something straight away, whether it be a blog or a splash site. This way google can find out about it sooner and will increase your google love when the time comes to release it properly. To summarise, this is how I would do things in Tim’s shoes

1. Register a domain
2. Release a splash site
3. Start a personal blog
4. Install Analytics / Woopra
5. Start cold calling
6. All the other admin crap like registering a company, getting a TFN (These are important once you have something, but don’t get bogged down in this stuff until you are certain you are going to have something valuable)

Good luck Tim, I know you are going to nail it.