Part 2 - The Laid Off Founder - The Birth of BalconyTV - a startup without a business plan

June 2006

By the age of 23 I had finished college and was working a bar job in one of Dublin's classic haunts - The Dawson Lounge, Dublins Smallest Bar. The hours were long, and I was struggling to find much energy to do much of use with my free time.

In college I had chosen to study film - my life's passion, which while I did well in (making a successful short film called They're Made Out Of Meat), left me a bit lost once I emerged into the big bad world. I was torn between a desire to follow my film making dreams, and a necessity to get by on my own two feet.

I did have some ambition and self belief. These traits came from my father who appeared to believe that anything was possible in his own life. Hugh O'Regan was mostly known as successful publican who was instrumental in changing the face of Dublin in the 90s. But that description hardly does him justice as his interests and involvements were much greater. Where there was a will there was a way was this motto. He believed that no obstacle was insurmountable and that ultimately hard work payed off in the end. My father's huge character and bravado were such that I developed a certain ego and cockiness myself. Looking back these traits actually masked a nagging inner self doubt and shyness which I had from the moment I was born. I was faking it to make it - certainly in my outward personality. It was an approach that would prove both useful and problematic for me in the long run and I now wonder my was father the same way.

My father was quite brilliant in the way he went about things. There was endless creativity in what he did. But ultimately he was pragmatic. He primarily wanted to be successful and make money. He wanted to make money doing great things sure. But making money was crucially important. I may have missed the memo on this part of the equation. Or perhaps he failed to to write the memo correctly.

Tiring of the repetition of the bar job, I developed a natural urge to create something myself. I knew had to be my own boss somehow just like my dad - I had a need to be in control of what I was doing. I wanted to be an entrepreneur like him. But I needed a eureka moment.

And that moment came in June 2006. At the time I was living in an empty space high above one of my dads bars - The Oak on Dame Street, Dublin. On one particular morning I came out into the messy apartment with a heavy hangover after more than a few afterwork drinks the night prior.

Our balcony high above The Oak pub on Dame Street, 2006

My flatmate Pauline was there with my friend Tom who would call over often. I had met Pauline at the bus stop on my first day on the way to college when I was 18. Pauline was much more down to earth than me. And in a way thats why I liked her. Since college she had been working in Golden Discs on Grafton Street. Tom on the other hand was a very colorful character. I met him Tom working in the Dawson Lounge. Tom would work there on occasion, but more absurdly would stage jazz nights in the bar. As it was Dublins smallest bar there was only ever enough space for the band. It was silly. Tom had unique dress sense, like something out of 1970s Woody Allen film. He was also always busy, running around Dublin doing all manner of money making schemes. He was a wheeler and a dealer and always seemed upbeat and positive.

Pauline and Tom were both musicians - Tom a double bass player playing regularly around the city and Pauline a cello player in a band uniquely named - Alan Alda - who I always felt had huge potential.

Back to the day in question - the remnants of the previous nights session was scattered around - empty beer cans and overflowing ashtrays. I was dying and needed air. I headed for the small balcony door. We never would go out on our balcony, and just used the space for some discarded junk. It was tiny square space. About a meter and a half by a meter and a half. It took up the corner space of our top floor apartment on the corner of Crane Lane and Dame Street.

As I gasped for air trying to calm the shakes I took in the view of Dublin. Across from our apartment was Dublin Castle. You could look a long way down Dame Street. The cars and buses went up and down the street, and you could see the pedestrians busily running around. You could see the Olympia Theatre and you could see the crossroads of Georges Street and Dame Street. You could even see as far down as Trinity College. It was in its own way the most fantastic view of Dublin City Centre.

Coming back inside I said "You know, we really have a great view from that balcony. We should go out there more. We should do something funny out there. Poetry readings or somethings."

"What about a television station," said Tom.

I don't know what made Tom say that. He knew I loved film and media so perhaps he was just fueling my interests.

"BalconyTV" I said. "BalconyTV.com"

It had some ring to it.

Not giving it much more thought, the following day I found myself sitting with my uncle Declan in L'Gueuleton on Fade Street. Declan was also a successful entrepreneur and restauranteur and due to this was always breaking conversation to take an important phone call. Returning from one I told him about the BalconyTV idea which really had been no more than a passing conversation the morning before. As I was articulating the idea, it actually felt good as I was saying it. As I was telling him the idea it actually started taking a full shape in my mind.

That same day I was back in my apartment with my 14 year old brother Adam. Adam had only recently taken up playing guitar and now it never left his side. He took it everywhere. Music was Adams new identity. Not only did Adam have the guitar, but he also had the hair cut and clothing to go with being a rock n'roller.

As Adam was strumming I was rambling around the apartment looking for a little microphone I owned. Once I found that I scrambled around in drawers looking for some masking tape.

Check. Check.

I crudely stuck the microphone to the outward opening door of the balcony. And with that I plugged the microphone into my modest camcorder which I had mounted on a tripod. I faced the camera out towards the street.

"Adam do me a favor. Just get out on the balcony there and play something."

"What do you want me to play" said Adam who had miraculously become so gifted that he could pretty much play anything.

"Anything. It doesn't matter." I responded impatiently.

With that Adam made it up on the spot.

"Can you feel the beat

On Dame Street

Can you feel your feet, get the heat.

BalconyTV

BalconyTV

For you and me

BalconyTVeeeeeeee"

That would do. I quickly checked the sound quality. It was passable. And passable was all I was really looking for.

Excited by basic set up I called Tom and Pauline and told them to invite over some friends that evening. I told them I wanted to film the first proper episode of BalconyTV. They both had pretty much forgotten the conversation we had had the day beforehand and were a bit miffed.

That evening were a bunch of people in my apartment I had barely met in the past. I wanted this to be quick. I told them to all squeeze out on the balcony. I had bought a bottle of cheap champagne and handed it to Tom. I wanted him to present the show, introducing the world to BalconyTV. I can't express how small the balcony was but I thought that would make for the charm of the concept. And it did indeed look absurd when packed with a few revelers and Tom at the centre of it. All I wanted Tom to do is explain the concept, and pop the champagne. I wanted it to be like an old fashioned television station launch night. As we were about 5 floors up, I became concerned about the champagne cork going over the side and killing a passing pedestrian, or worse, hitting a car and leading to mass carnage.

"Relax Stephen its fine" Tom said popping the bottle with gusto. The whole show lasted about 2 minutes. It was one shot. It was rough around the edges. But it was absolutely fine. I wanted it to feel DIYish.

In my mind, we would do a new show on our balcony every day. It would be a simple unique snapshot into Dublin via our balcony. But I knew in my mind it had to be incredibly simple to produce. If it took much more work, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

The following day I met a graphic design friend - Sue Patterson. Sue was really talented. I wanted a very simple landing page which would host the daily video - with the minimalism of Google with perhaps a bit more flair.

The main problem was, how we were going to get the video online. At the time the best options were to use a QuickTime or RealPlayer. Both seemed to be a pain in the ass.

Sitting next to Sue in her graphic design studio pondering the options I was thinking out loud.

"I saw this thing recently called YouTube. I don't quite get it."

Sue had never heard of it. She typed YouTube it into her search engine and quickly looked it over.

"I think this will work. You just upload the video there, and you can embed the video on the homepage."

"Perfect. Lets do that."

The next day we launched BalconyTV officially with our little launch video of Tom popping the champagne. It was sweet. It was colorful. It had a certain charm. And to be honest it really hadn’t taken much work to get going.

I had bought the BalconyTV domain from GoDaddy. It cost about 10 Euros. I bought an email account to go with it. Another 10 Euros. That was the primary email I would have until my layoff 12 years later.

There was literally no business model in our concept. We never once discussed how we would or might make money from it. There was no research and development that went into it. I was far too impatient to do anything like that. There was no A/B testing. I would only learn what that was years later. There was no market research. We just had the idea one day, and within a couple of days it was born.

What was great about BalconyTV was that it was fun to make. I felt I was being creative again. I was doing something that I could enjoy and be passionate about.

Our earliest shows featured my flatmate Paulines band Alan Alda, and some other acquaintances who were also musicians. The musicians would just play one song with an intro and outro by either Tom or Pauline presenting. My brothers first band - The Revolts played too. But on days we were stuck, I would simply film the traffic going up and down the street and pop that online as the daily show. One day I remember just filming a bird that was perched on the edge of the balcony. We also featured some a couple of local comedians, and a local bellydancing outfit.

I’d love to say that within days of our launch that BalconyTV became a huge hit. But nothing of the sort was true. The audience we attracted was in the low hundreds - hardly a smash success. That said, the people that had seen it began to spread the word and requests quickly started coming through to come and play on our balcony.

I decided early on that my attitude to it all would be to play it down. Keep it low key. But in the back of my mind, and I didn’t really tell others, I couldn’t help but visualize the possibilities of where it could go. There was megalomania underneath my outward humility.

BalconyTV required some daily maintenance which I undertook myself. This mostly involved shooting, editing and publishing the show, and some email correspondence. Oh and some social media. That was just MySpace back in 2006. Twitter and Facebook were not really on the radar at the time. YouTube was only just making a name for itself.

The email correspondence became addictive. I didn’t have to work hard at it. I didn’t need to dedicate time to it. But I wanted to. I felt I was building something.

Two weeks into the mini venture, I was back in the family home. It was a beautiful sunny day. Sitting out in the garden with my father and a colleague of his, without invitation the colleague offered up his thoughts on BalconyTV.

“It’s a nice idea, but it will never work,” he said.

“What do you mean?’ I replied, my little excitement jolted.

“It will never work in the long run.”

“Well, it’s just a fun idea. We’re not trying to make it work,” I responded defensively.

“Well then why do it?”

Why do it indeed. Why do anything?

“How are you going to make any money out of it?”

That was the first time I heard the question that would come back to haunt me again and again.