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There have been some well publicised, and controversial, recent posts talking about the current economy and the ‘Runway’. Jason Calacanis sums up his runway as preserving cash in order to “complete their mission” – in other words, to keep cash in the bank in order to survive a deep recession.
Here at Slipstream Studio, our first challenge, is to stay on the ‘Runway’, while moving fast to deliver on the projects we are working on. We’re moving fast because we are a small company with lots to do, and, where a few months ago decisions came easily, it’s time to keep the pedal down but with a raised awareness of what is happening. This applies to all of our actions, but most of all with regard to our spending.
With big prospects, clients to deliver to, and some (shhhhhhh) killer web apps to build, we’ve got to move quickly, get bigger, employ staff, move into an office and get the tools we need to run effectively.
Our ‘Runway’ is as long as we want to make it, but we are making some key decisions now to give the company the best possible advantage:
- We have changed our office location, at the last minute, as a result of a *great* offer we received from a local provider. Same space, better infrastructure, and a massive saving without a long lease. We’re really pleased to have done this, and feel we have an even better office now. It’s lucky the landlord on the first office took soooo long to decide on a lease (6 years – no thanks) so we had time to consider the new option.
- We’ve used some great web apps in the past, but we’re now making decisions on what we use for our day to day tools. Basecamp (project management) and Accounts software are defaults, they make us work more effectively. Elsewhere there’s some great options to save money. This very site is powered by Wordpress, a great free CMS that can be used for any of our clients. When times are hard we are making it easier for our clients to cut their own costs with our recommendations.
- Staff are essential, and we are recruiting now for more team members to join us. For those who haven’t done it – staff cost money, and recruiting costs even more, so we’ll be looking after our staff well, so they stay with us. We use the best Apple gear, in a nice office, with great coffee, and most of all we’ll be trusting and respecting the team to do their jobs. He’s had to make some tough decisions but we’ve leart a lot from watching Ryan Carson’s team.
- Google. You’ve heard of them, yeah – the search engine. But did you know they’ll manage your email, calendar and documents, for FREE. That’s not a Type. Google Apps Standard Edition is free, and amazing. Great webmail, IMAP, Spam protection, iCal calendaring, and all you have to do is register your domain and manage some DNS. A must have.
These are just a few items from the long list, and we’ll talk more about the company (and maybe some office pics 
) in future posts.
How are you moving fast on your runway – it would be great to read your thoughts.
Dan posted this at 5:53 pm on 15/12/08
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Week 1 of this new company was a week for setting up. A long list was prepared, with design staff to be found.
Right below the ‘Find Designers’ on the to-do list was a new challenge ‘Design Company Logo’. The observant reader will notice that those two points kind of create one issue – no logo. So what to do – take the crowdSpring challenge!
CrowdSpring is a Crowd Sourcing website. You put a job out to the widest audience possible, in this case a design brief to a whole raft of registered designers. With a clear brief, price, and deadline, there isn’t much more to do apart from sit and wait (in this case 7days) for the deadline to approach.
As you can imagine we were nervous of the results. Would we get entries? Was the brief clear? Would the quality be what we are looking for?
The results themselves answer the questions. Yes, we got entries, 202 to be precise. It seems in most cases the brief was clear, though some designers thought the ‘Studio’ meant we recorded music (and for those still unclear, we don’t). And, yes, we got some good entries, at least 10 make the grade, and there will be a decided winner some time this week. Oh, and there are some no-goes to. Please can someone who uses Word art NOT be welcomed into a design community!
Overall we are very happy, and will take, and work with, our new $400 brand. There are some things to remember though, when working with crowd sourcing.
1. It’s not for everyone.
We used crowdSpring because we didn’t, at the time, have the time to run the logo ourselves, but we DID know what we wanted from the brief, and how to decide. That is because we are creatives, and have designers around us to help with the advice and decision process.
2. Feedback is king.
We learnt quickly that feedback is key and helps you get the design you want. We left feedback with creatives who had designed something we liked, and nearly always got a new version within a few hrs. A great way to work.
3. You get what you pay for.
This is the start of our branding process, and whilst it won’t be wholesale changes, we will tweak and amend as we use the brand. The crowdSpring system generates a contract, and we will have EPS / AI files of the chosen design.
Overall, it has worked, but it’s not for clients, it is for the people who know how to brief, manage, and feedback on a project. Because we have been involved in the evolution (all be it on a short time scale) we know where we will go with the usage of the new logo, for cards, web and other applications.
We’ll post the winning logo when it’s delivered, and you can watch how we grow to use our new brand! If anyone is wandering, we probably wouldn’t use it again, but only because we now have our own team, who can themselves learn from this experiment in crowd sourcing.
[The facts and figures are in this blog post because the crowdSpring system is public, so if you can find it, you can review all of the entries received]
Dan posted this at 2:48 pm on 09/12/08
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On Monday Dec 1st 2008 the Pownce blog declared:
Goodbye Pownce, Hello Six Apart
The one-time Twitter pretender is being closed down and rolled into popular blogging platform Six Apart (who make Movable Type, and Vox). As a one time – some time – Pownce user it never really bit me with the ease of use that Twitter proclaims as it’s killer USP. For sure it is useful to be able to post those links, photos and movies to friends, but with the easy set up of Twitterific (with auto Tiny URL), TweetDeck, and TwitPic, these features can be almost out of the box for any savvy twitter user.
Pownce obviously didn’t grow at the rate founder investor Kevin Rose hoped, and the natural route was acquisition of the service, code and the highly talented Django developers, led by Leah Culvey (her of Laser Etched Macbook fame!).
However, and here is the point, Six Apart are closing Pownce (including Pro accounts) in 10 days. Why? Is the cost of running the file storage / code that high that immediate closure is necessary. Is there a cash burn (and therefore, surely, a mistake) we don’t know of? Did the Segway and coloured walls just cost too much to run!!??
Yesterday Jason Calacanis offered the point (ironically via Twitter) – why not leave Pownce, open source it, just do something with it! Surely allowing it to be open sourced would keep it running, and not lose any of the benefits of the code knowledge to Six Apart – they have the developers after all.
Offer it out for $10 and I’d take a pop at it! What would you do?
Dan posted this at 11:21 am on 03/12/08
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The leap of faith to start a new business is big – too big for some. I am here, now, looking at the clock on Day 1 of Slipstream Studio, and we have some great things to think about.
Slipstream Studio Ltd is to be a new Creative Digital Agency, fresh onto the web scene of the UK with some great ideas (and talented people) to serve clients wherever they should be {lets face it, distance cannot be a problem when video conferencing is free!}
With a path of experience covering client-side and agency work, the Slipstream Studio goals will ensure we deliver usable, great looking websites and design pieces that deliver results. And there is the key – our clients results are key, and we will know when we have got there by identifying the goals and the measurement criteria.
We look at each and every client with one eye on the impossible {that we will normally deliver}, and one in the real world, on measurable results. This can be site views, income, or simply growth – whichever suits you, our aim will be to measure the success of the project.
Sitting here on Day 1 we’re measuring success internally – £’s spent and goals achieved. There’s a lot to do with a new business, and we’re well on the way. The internet and our experience means we have a fully fledged company, and all of the tools we need to start working for the client, and not getting lost in our own paperwork, after only a few hrs. That’s progress.
So now it is onto the client work. Meetings to attend, hopes and dreams to listen to, and real products to deliver, and ones that DO deliver. We’ll be opening each client brief with the same questions.
- What are your goals?
- How will you measure success?
If you can answer those questions then we would be well on the way to formulating a successful project.
And there we are, before Day 2 has arrived, we have escaped the trap of looking inwards, and it’s already time to look out, and forward, at the client needs and goals.
Dan posted this at 7:12 am on 01/12/08
