5 THINGS VETERANS CAN LEARN FROM VETCON: DAY 2

VETCON covers the startup business lifecycle in just 2.5 days--no short task. Friday was a full, 10 hour day, with a lot to ground. Let's get to it.

1: ACCESS WILL BECOME A UTILITY

Access is the future of business.

Every startup revolved around this pitch. So did many non-tech entrepreneurs here. For example, my friend Juane started Rock the Base to provide unique music access opportunities to military bases.

Economists group goods sold into products and services. But access has transformed into an equal. Consider Uber and Airbnb--selling car seats and beds is a service. Yet, they win monopolizing the access users have to those beds and seats.

If you can create access, you have a tech business.

Hearing so many great VC's talk--this is the core problem they're solving. What access does a startup create? And is that access unique enough, and controlled enough, for that startup to win?

2: THERE IS A TECH OPPORTUNITY IN ANY BUSINESS

Hearing a CEO of a billion dollar company say that shook me.

There's the common refrain "when all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail". But in the Valley, tech is the hammer. The problem is different here: Make everything the hammer uses into a nail. It sounds like alchemy, but it's an incredible shift in perspective.

Referring back to Dan Gwak's presentation--only three industries make VC's ecstatic: biotech, media/PR, & software. Listening to the VC's ask hard questions--they're blunt about their purpose in investing. "Pattern matching" is a stock phrase--but they're looking for patterns in problems as much as they look for patterns in solutions.

It could also be the phrase "tech" is just the hammer. It also takes a compelling story, a compelling promise fulfilled, to fashion a nail. Kiva & Streetshares are both micro and small business lenders--but each have a compelling story that never puts them into competition.

Google Glass didn't work--but Snap Spectacles were everywhere during Mardi Gras.

Maybe that startup CEO was right.

3: THERE IS NO HARM MAKING MONEY & DOING GOOD

The military is the prides itself on not making money.

Yet every veteran who gets out has to reconcile how their life after uniform revolves around profit or capital as lifeblood. Implicitly, indoctrination into military culture teaches veterans sales is sleazy.

The warrior who sells his services is a ronin, not a samurai.

But sales is a way of life. Because capital is life--and success comes from surviving long enough to get sustainable conversions and sales.

I'm surprised I haven't met a veteran "Growth Hacker" yet.

A veteran lifestyle entrepreneur can also run a for-profit, and feel good making a profit while helping veterans. Nonprofits helping veterans aren't the only option--they also need to find capital to live. Profit and generosity can exist together.

But no one wins if you don't sell.

BTW--a mentor from Kiva told me that. So it's gotta be right.

4: YOU CAN'T WIN THE GAME AT LEVEL 1

If you could, why play?

5: A GOOD PRODUCT CHANGES YOUR POV

One of the speakers was Mike Maples--a legendary VC who funded Lyft, Twitter, & Twitch. He find and funds companies which fundamentally change how people interact in the world.

A good product changes your point of view of life so much, you can't imagine life before you used it. Consider Uber--there is now a full market for people to never need their own car. And there's a market of people who all they do is rent their cars out, like a personal Zipcar.

Consider Verizon's unlimited data plan--there's a market of people who never need home internet or phone service again. Ever.

Remember when copies were just called "Xeroxes"?

Great products work because they raise our expectations of what comparable products should do. Not only that--they raise our standard for being wowed.

Good products sell--great products shift. And bad products sink.

ENDING VETCON

Saturday is the last day of VETCON. It's been a good experience. But I'll admit--I'll never need venture capital.

Yet the problems startups face gaining traction, are the EXACT SAME problems veterans face choosing life after transitioning. It's the same problem between when a veteran makes the honest choice about whether to stay in or get out, and a startup founder trying to outrun his burn rate so he gets the right cap table.

The same fears, frustrations, and fumbles--carrying different costs and appearances.

Hearing stories from the Valley validates so many client stories--and it reinforces how no veteran is ever alone in any challenge they want to face and overcome.

You can find my review of Day 1 here, and of Day 3 here.

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