Q3 was all about building product...again. To say that we are behind is an understatement. But fortunately, while we have not completed a lot of items, we made a lot of progress on many of them. Q4 will be all about closing. As I started looking at all of our deliverables for the rest of the year, I realized that many of them had a long lead time. And so I had to start working on some of them thinking about elapsed time to still hit them by EoY. Unfortunately that meant that some of the easier short term things didn’t get done.

In addition, I focused on developing the app for our Partner program so that creating content would be much simpler. I believe this is the right strategy as demonstrating the power of the marketplace, will be critical to customer success and getting top quality content. It is clear that we can’t create it all. We added some functionality specifically so content creators will have an easier time crafting Missions.

Objectives

Tech Development - Could not be happier with both functionality and aesthetics. There is so much capability and flexibility that I think people will really be impressed. We are 95% complete.
Mobile Unit Construction - Behind schedule. But we ran a test and things worked as planned which is a good sign that this will work. We also ran an IoT controller test and I am confident that this will also scale.
Team/Network - I have come to realize that we don’t need 3 people full-time (like a traditional startup), but rather we need about 12-14 people at varying degrees of part-time-edness. Over the past quarter, this group is starting to come together. We just need a few more pieces to the puzzle but this has gone well.

Progress

So overall I grade me a C and the business a B-. We certainly sacrificed in this quarter in the hopes of delivering more in Q4. As we used to say, slow down to speed up. It never materialized before, let’s see if I can make it a reality.

Failures

There were some small misses on design, missing a few fields here and there in the table structure, but overall nothing major in the tech.
I reached my limit with the crappy brand/logo and that needed to be fixed (see successes).
VC outreach. This is going to be hard. I met with several potential investors and so far, no one sees the scale play. I’ll have to work on that and generate some data to back it up.
The damn magnetic skin-logos for my new truck. Who knew the stupid thing was PLASTIC?!?! UGGGGHHH. I am so annoyed with this one.

Successes

We have a new mascot (see above)! The Mace is still our Spiritual Advisor, but Goose is the full-time product representative. I mean come on, look at that face, you have to love us!
Logo design. Felipe = Genius. I knew I would need to do this last quarter, I am so glad I pulled the trigger. Having professional looking materials, is a huge win.
Studio. Can’t wait to start recording videos
Decision to find a space. This one is on the DL. Announcement hopefully soon.
Team. In the past 3 months I have met with some amazing folks in my network and gotten some great feedback. This is hard for me to do, but the responses have been awesome and I am getting more comfortable with making the ask.
With help from Whitney, I figured out how to completely integrate with the OODA loop… blog post coming soon!

Jury Is Out

I am a little unsure of whether the design for creating content will work. I skimped a little here going all out for a back-office process.
Can we generate creative content? Will it be engaging?
Can we generate revenue in Q4. THIS WILL BE CRITICAL, for several reasons. I really don’t want this thing to end before we get started.

Q4 Outlook and Objectives

Formalize team. While I am sure this is the biggest reason I won’t get into Techstars again, I like my format and I have an idea how to instantiate the relationships.
Open site. This is happening. Get ready for a grand opening!
Finish product development. Can’t wait to do a full product demo. I think everyone will be impressed.
Begin Marketing. A lot needs to be done here for content, funnel and a plan. I might need some more help. I have an idea so we will see how this shakes out.

Even my Q3 update is late, but better than never. In Q4, I intend a much healthier stream of communication. Keep your eyes open…yes I know I am 31% through the quarter already…shut up:)