Inbox VIP: Getting the busy and famous to reply.

In the past six months or so I have had Brad Feld, David Heinemeier Hansson, Joel Gascoigne, Dan Martell, Martin Bryant and Eric Ries speak at my event series VIP VoIP, where we connect global stars from the tech community with local ecosystems via VoIP.

The question I get asked at every event is

But, as David Heineimeier Hansson said during his talk…..

So perhaps the more pertinent question is:

How did I get these people to reply to my email in the first place?

I have no relationship with any of my guests, (prior to the event) and all of them received a cold email from me as our first point of contact.

So what’s my secret?

I don’t have one.

In fact, anyone can get a reply by following one simple but extremely important rule.

Contact people how they wish to be contacted.

Nearly all of my guests express what the best way is to contact them, it really is as straight-forward as that.

(Hint: It is often short and to the point)

Recently, I reached out to Paul Graham, Founder of Y Combinator to ask him to be a guest.

Go over to Paul’s site and you will find the following:

So, How do you get a reply from Paul Graham?

Contact him how he likes to be contacted, in this case, a two-line email.

Although unfortunately Paul declined my request, he got back to me almost immediately, undoubtably because I followed his instructions as to the best way to interact with him.

When you want someone to do something for you, you have to figure out the best way to ask them, the same applies with email, the good thing is, most people spell it out for you, all you have to do is listen.

This is so straight-forward, that I really should not even be taking the time to point out something that is common sense, but the reality is, that the majority of emails/requests that people receive still don’t follow these guidelines as people don’t take the time to discover, read or act on them, and therefore, understandably, don’t get a response.

Get your email replied to by showing you have taken the time to respect their wishes, then they will take the time to respond to yours.

My preferred method of contact is Twitter, you can find me at@neilswmurray

The Art of "Tweetstorming"

Tweetstorming is the act of sending a number of quick fire tweets expressing an opinion around a particular topic you are passionate about.

Tweetstorming became a “thing” around the end of 2013, but has been popularised in the tech world this year by Danielle Morrill Tweetstorming around various topics, most recently on retargeting and advertising.

As I read the stream of Danielle’s Morrills my mind can’t help being drawn to the style of my favourite writer, Jack Kerouac.

Kerouac referred to his writing as spontaneous prose, he wrote what came into his consciousness purportedly without edits, based on his own experiences, sound familiar?

Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, the most concise is Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, a list of 30 “essentials”.

Reading these, there are a large number of “essentials” which could have in-fact been written about Tweetstorming.

8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind. 9. The unspeakable visions of the individual. 13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition. 15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog. 16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye. 17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself. 21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind. 23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning. 24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge. 25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it. 28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better. 29. You’re a Genius all the time.

The reason why Kerouac is my favourite writer is by employing this style he allows his real thoughts to flow and it’s possible to get a real sense of who he is and what is important to him.

Twitter has become so popular as it allows you to get the real thoughts from people you are interested in hearing from and provides you with instant reactions and opinions, instead of careful manufactured responses which are both boring and fake.

Tweetstorming is a natural step in progressing this quality of Twitter even further, and I suspect by the end of 2014, there will be one hell of a storm brewing.

I wrote this post as part of my I will write every day in 2014 challenge. You can subscribe to my future posts here, follow my blog here, and find me on Twitterhere.

In the spirit of #CPHFTW, should it be Government FTW?

As of the first day of this year, Entrepreneurs in Denmark are able to start a company with just 1 Danish Krone in capital, marking further progress towards the Danish government supporting entrepreneurship.

Previously 80,000 DKK was needed in capital before you could register a limited company. However, from January 1st you can now choose to set up an “entrepreneurial company”, which differs from the traditional limited company and avoids the previous financial obstacle.

The most impressive aspect of this, is the recognition that startups are not businesses in the “traditional” sense, and more often than not, they start with next to nothing, with a steely determination and unquestionable ambition all they have to fall back on in order to get their dreams off the ground.

This barrier being removed will surely see a big increase in entrepreneurs in Denmark taking the risk of starting something up, and is in fact the latest in a series of recent developments that demonstrate that the Danish government is beginning to realise the part they need to and can play in terms of helping Danish startups and Entrepreneurs succeed.

The most significant of these was announced at the end of 2013 with the news that the Danish Ministry of Business Affairs and Growth stating that a a new loan system for entrepreneurs would be effective ahead of schedule.

“We have sped up the system so that entrepreneurs now have better access to financing. These entrepreneurs who have started their business, and have the opportunity to accelerate their activities further, are very important for growth and jobs in Denmark. So I am very pleased with the loans now being launched ahead of schedule.” 

“We estimate that around 50 entrepreneurs per year will benefit from the new scheme. But it may well be more, depending on how diligent banks and businesses are to take advantage of the new opportunities.”

These loans will go a long way in terms of supporting those looking for finances in order to take their businesses to the next level, and provide another potential avenue for them to find cash in addition to the Angels, VC’s and Accelerators. 

A little less tangible, but interesting nonetheless was Startup Weekend Borgen, held in Danish Parliament back in October.

 To kick off the event, there was a debate between Danish politicians (and Thomas Madsen Mygdal) about how innovation and entrepreneurship could help address problems in society as well as discussing what more could be done to encourage entrepreneurship in schools and how to create more entrepreneurs in general.

Although this event does not provide any long-term benefit to the ecosystem in terms of Government assistance, by having the event in this location and having politicians form part of the debate, it provided welcomed attention and recognition for the importance of startups and entrepreneurs in Denmark.

Not long after the event, one of the politicians prominent in getting the startup weekend to happen within Borgen; Uffe Elbæk, founded Alternativet a new political party. Alternativet have pledged to have a big focus on entrepreneurship and startups.

Uffe has certainly got his supporters in the entrepreneurial world, with my own Twitter and Facebook feeds regularly being taken over by my network “liking” and “following’ the parties social media presence since their inception, but it is a case of wait and see as to whether Alternativet can or will deliver on this promise, but the intention and message is certainly welcomed.

These are exciting times to be an entrepreneur in Denmark, and having the Government on the same page can only help the cause, these recent developments are only small steps and there is still a lot of room for an improvement in the collaboration between the ecosystem and the Government, but there has certainly been a move in the right direction over the last twelve months, and this is reason enough to believe there are better days to come.

I wrote this post as part of my I will write every day in 2014 challenge. You can subscribe to my future posts here, follow me on here, and find me on Twitter here.

"Snog, Marry, Avoid" What to do with your "darlings"

The start of the new year is a perfect time to assess where you are with your “darlings”, or side-projects as they are more literally known.

It can be hard to figure out whether to keep going through the motions with them or to dump them once and for all, but playing even further on the analogy, we can play a little game of “Snog, Marry, Avoid” to figure out which are worth your time this year.

“Snog”

These are the side-projects that provide you with a excitement in the short-term, the ones that get your fire going, whether it by making you a quick buck, a boost for your brand, or just a little fun and distraction from your daily grind.

These side projects are worth having a quick fling with, but should be seen as exactly that, and once you have had fun you should toss it aside, and concentrate on the ones which do more good for you in the long-term.

“Marry”

These are the projects that have the potential to turn into something more than a quick fling. They fit strategically with your future plans and could lead to something serious, either by being profitable or strengthening your brand.

These side-projects take a lot of energy, work and require commitment but will be worth it. These are the side-projects that you should be spending the majority of your spare time on.

“Avoid”

These are the side projects that are no longer fun, are costing you money and no longer have any clear benefit as to why you should persist with it other than the fact it can be hard to say goodbye.

If the side-project is taking more from you than it is giving back then it is time to dump it once and for all.

How do you decide what to do with your darlings? Let me know on Twitter

I wrote this post as part of my I will write every day in 2014 challenge. You can subscribe to my future posts here, follow me on here, and find me on Twitter here.

Forget investors, early users are the biggest risk takers

When it comes to early stage startups, apart from the team itself, investors involved in the project are commonly accepted as being the main risk takers.

Naturally, investing their time and money is a risk they are gambling on in return to potentially be part of the next big thing, and of course, in most cases, they have done this before, so they know what to look for when examining the risk vs. reward.

The thing is, there is another big risk taker at the beginning of a startups journey who is often overlooked, one which does not have the advantage of knowing what to look for in a successful startup or who has the benefit of potentially getting a big return on their investment:

The user.

So, what exactly does the user risk?

Their Time

This is what every user gives when using products. If you take a pivot or cease to exist, or even stop focusing on a particular feature, then the user has sunk costs in terms of their time.

A users time is a commodity whose value should not be underestimated especially when there are so many competing services fighting for exactly this.

By simply using your product they give you their time, and if things do not work out between you then this is something that they will never be able to get back.

Their Money

If you are charging for your service, then of course, the user will also have invested a little of their money in it.

By investing their money, they are really taking a chance on you, and believe that you are offering real value to them.

By paying you for your service they are expecting that you give them a worthwhile return on it.

Their Network

Often the way to a product getting traction is built-in virality and the success of the product relies on users inviting their friends to become users in order for them to get the most out of it.

This involves the user risking their network, as if they convince someone to change their existing service or habit in order to join them on this new service they are using and there are subsequently problems with it then their network will be a little less inclined to join them on future products they invite them to.

Their Data

The users are also trusting you with their data, and in light of recent revelations and accusations, users have to be incredibly careful with who their share their personal information with.

By agreeing to sign up to the service, they are demonstrating they trust that you will use their data in the correct way.

They then have to trust that you will protect their data at all costs no matter what the future holds for the product.

Early stage startups are understandably concerned that they must reward their investor(s) for taking the risk with them at the beginning of their journey, but they should not forget that they are also indebted to reward the biggest risk taker of all; their user.

I wrote this post as part of my I will write every day in 2014 challenge. You can subscribe to my future posts here, following my blog, and you can find me on Twitter here.

In 2014 I will write every day

One of the things I enjoyed most about 2013 was rediscovering my passion for writing. So, as I sat and thought about what I wanted to achieve in 2014 and what habits I wanted to form, despite a strong flirtation with the thought of learning another new language, I decided that in 2014 I will write every day.

I’m not going to set myself word limits, or even publish something every day, although everything that I do write will be published during 2014.

But, why?

One of my personal highlights of 2013 was the success of my blog post JUST GO HOME.

Over 30,000 people have now read the post, as well as it being translated into Spanish and Japanese by readers who emailed me stating they believed it important that it was translated in order for non-english readers in their countries to understand the message I had conveyed.

This really humbled me, and encouraged me to continue with my writing and that perhaps some of the ideas and thoughts I have are worth writing down and sharing with others, even if just one reader finds value in it.

And, where?

I will be publishing all my posts on my blog, and will publish ones which I consider to be suitable on Medium as well. I also plan to use some of my daily writing to publish quality answers on Quora, and to write an e-book on “How to get your first 100 customers”.

About what?

I will be writing predominantly around startups, tech and entrepreneurship. Topics that I am particularly passionate and knowledgable about include startup communities, productivity, writing, life hacks, customer acquisition.

Check out my previous posts here for a flavour of my writing.

Inspiration from others

I have been partly inspired to set myself this goal by following several others who have experienced success in blogging and writing regularly.

I closely followed Ryan Hoover’s writing in 2013, Ryan wrote over 100 essays, and his writing was subsequently featured in The Next Web, Fast Labs and others. This journey began for him at the start of last year in a deliberate effort not too dissimilar to what I am planning for this year.

It was actually through Ryan’s Startup Edition that I came across David Spinks, who committed to writing 100 posts in 100 days. It was this challenge that first led me to begin thinking that perhaps it was possible for me to write something every day that would all publish in 2014.

By the time I came across Stef Lewandowski’s post on “Higher Resolutions”I had pretty much decided that I was going to set myself a task of doing something every day for 2014, and it was just a matter of deciding exactly what, and of course I eventually settled on my own higher resolution:

I WILL WRITE EVERY DAY.

What about you?

If you have also decided that 2014 will be the year you write every day or even more regularly then let me know so we can support and encourage each other.

You can keep me accountable and receive my posts by joining my mailing list here, I can also be found on Twitter @neilswmurray

Copenhagen For The Win #CPHFTW

Ever since I became a part of the Copenhagen startup community at the start of this year, I have insisted that in terms of quality, innovation and successes, Copenhagen is easily on a par with many of the so-called big guns in Europe, and that the only thing stopping Copenhagen from being mentioned in the same breath as Stockholm, London and Berlin was the fact that we are not as slick at promoting ourselves and talking about what is going on here.

Seventy members of the ecosystem came together to determine one common identity for us all to share both internally and externally to help us unite and to help spread the word of what is going on in the Copenhagen startup scene.

After a very democratic process of elimination by voting (What do you expect? We are in Scandinavia) we were down to two options: #MadeInCPH or #CPHFTW and in a closely run head to head, #CPHFTW came out on top.

So there we have it, a common identity for ourselves and for others to refer to us by when we and others are talking about what is going on in Copenhagen.

But, what do we have to talk about anyway?

Well, more than what you might think at first thought.

Although now based in London, Just-Eat is actually a Danish startup which has gone on to achieve International success just as Zendesk, Tradeshift and Podio have gone on to do in recent years.

And although many countries insist that Skype is it’s own, Denmark has just as strong a claim as anyone else, with the Co-founder Janus Friis being a Dane.

We can also lay claim to the guy who created the framework for what half of the internet is built on in David Heinemeier Hansen, who has had major success with Ruby on Rails and 37 Signals.

As well as other internationally renowned entrepreneurs in Jesper Buch, Thomas Madsen Mygdal and Morten Lund.

We have a sparkling heritage with an even brighter future, which includes startups such as Airtame, which has recently been a runaway success on Indiegogo, and is on course to be one of the most successful Indiegogo campaigns ever, as well as others such as Trustpilot, 23, Conferize, Drivr and Endomondo who are all set to grow even more in 2014.

We have co-working spaces who have built up solid communities around themselves such as the established Founders House, which hosts exciting startups like Everplaces, IconFinder, Opbeat and Hello World Mobile as well as the up and coming Rocket Labs who can boast the promising startup Linkfire as well as housing the number one digital media in Denmark in Trendsonline, both houses have managed to create a community feel within their walls, as well as opening up to the rest of the community as venues for events, and serving as access points to the rest of the ecosystem.

From April next year, we will even have NEST a co-living space for entrepreneurs!

Silicon Drinkabout the after work drinks every Friday for startups and entrepreneurs is now taking place in 8 locations round the world including Sao Paulo and New York with even more to follow next year, as it seeks to establish itself as the global go-to place for startups, but Copenhagen was the first expansion outside of its birthplace London, and has served as a place for entrepreneurs to gather every Friday to swap stories, failures, successes and to have a drink together.

We also have chapters of successful franchises Startup Grind and The Lean Startup Circle who both attract guests of the highest calibre who give their time in order to give back to the community.

Yet despite all of this, since an article in The Next Web at the end of 2011 about how Copenhagen is a startup City to watch, international media coverage of the Danish scene since has been sparse, although there has been a slight increase in recent weeks with BBC news writing an article on TommyAhlers and Tech.Eu mentioning Kiloo, Podio and Falcon Social in their post on what else is going on in Europe outside of the major hubs.

We partly have ourselves to blame for this, due to the reluctance to shout about what we are doing, and to just do it instead. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, and is in fact a great principle to operate by, however, we also have to be aware that in the world of tech and startups, you sometimes have to generate your own hype in order to receive attention and traction in such a crowded field, where more and more hubs are being created across European Cities.

We are hopeful that the identity we have given ourselves will not only enable us to communicate better with each other, and come together but will also allow us to talk more about what we are doing here and receive the international attention that our startups and entrepreneurs deserve and allow us to clearly demonstrate to the rest of the world that Copenhagen really is here for the win.

#CPHFTW

Bootstrapping your Brain

We have become accustomed to bootstrapping our business resources in order to stretch them as far as we can.

However, when we think about bootstrapping in order to optimise what is available to us, we often neglect to apply these practices to the most powerful resource we possess; our brains.

In order to get the most from mine, here are some things I am doing to bootstrap it:

Routinising

Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are all known as being advocates of routinising your day to day.

The reason President Obama does this is in order to limit the amount of decisions his brain has to make on a day to day basis. By eliminating the mundane decisions, his brain has more power and resource to act more effectively on the important ones.

As human beings, we have a limited daily mental capacity in terms of decisions and although I have yet to go as far as wearing a “uniform” à la Zuckerberg and Jobs, I have started to get my clothes for the next day ready the night before, as well as standardising what I eat for breakfast and the order in which I get ready.

Ideas

Every now and then I get a killer idea, the idea that will change the world, an Einstein moment.

At least that is what I think at the time.

I am now keeping an idea journal to capture my ideas on paper and then reviewing it on a weekly basis. If I feel they are still worth exploring after a week then I will invest the time into exploring them further.

Tasks

We all have to-do lists and Trello boards with an unenviable amount of tasks that we must complete, today, this week, this month.

Even if we have a list of ten things we need to get done in a day, the reality is we will not get round to all of them, and if we have it is because we have cut the corners on some of the tasks.

I now limit myself to the three most important tasks in a day.

If I get those three done then I consider it a success.

By limiting myself in this way, I find it easier to concentrate, and to execute on the tasks that actually matter.

Optimising the tools and resources available to us are essential in terms of bootstrapping our businesses and in turn our lives, it is vital that we remember to maximise the most important one at our disposal.

What about you? How do you bootstrap your brain?

Let me know on Twitter @neilswmurray

Alternatively you can join my mailing list here where I write about customer acquisition, productivity and startup life.

You're not a hero for inbox zero

I was hoping it was a passing fad, yet more and more people are declaring “war” on their inboxes and then shouting when they achieve victory.

Bizarrely, this is especially popular in the world of startups and tech, in which the focus is typically on getting things done, achieving something tangible and using quality metrics.

We talk a lot about the importance of looking beyond vanity metrics, but “achieving” (and I use that word in the lightest possible sense) inbox zero is the biggest vanity metric of all.

With email, the achievement is not in reaching zero, but rather in determining which ones need replying to in the immediate future and which ones do you need to come back to reply to when you have time.

I have nearly 2000 “unread” emails in my inbox, but the fact is they are not unread.

Reading emails is like when you meet new people for the first time: You make instant judgements and can often make your mind up within thirty seconds.

Either using notifications or allocating a specific time to quickly glance over my emails allows me to judge whether they are:

A) Worthy of opening

B) Worthy of reading

C) Worthy of a reply

Basking in the “glory”

Anyway, what happens after you hit inbox zero?

All these people to whom you’ve just responded are going to reply back!

And even disregarding that, the fact is that in five minutes you are going to receive a promotional email from Pizza Hut or another service that you have forgotten to unsubscribe from.

Are you now going to be a slave to your inbox and deal with every email as it comes in so you can continue to bask in the glory of inbox zero? No,of course not.

So, what, that couple of hours you spent doing this task resulted in an upside of five minutes?

And you think that this is worth telling all your Twitter followers?

What is your take on Inbox Zero? Let me know on Twitter @neilswmurray

You can subscribe to my mailing list here for exclusive content and free content from my e-book “How to get your first 100 customers” due 2014.

How Does it Feel to Make the Front Page of Hacker News?

And have 50+ people a minute read your blog post....

There are a fair few posts on “How to get on the front page of Hacker News” but not so many on how it feels if you achieve this.

Firstly, the reaction to my post was genuinely unexpected and overwhelming, it was an entirely new situation for me, as the highest amount of people that had ever read something that I had written before were 600 or so that read How to Hack your Commute to Have More Ideas

Judging by the reaction this message certainly appeared to strike a chord with people.

Within 24 hours of being posted it had:

This level of exposure was alien to me and led me to experience a strange array of ensuing emotions that appeared to take on four stages.

The Elation

30 minutes after posting it received a couple of up-votes.

At this point, I was delighted. I didn’t expect anyone to really notice the post and I was pleasantly surprised.

Little did I know what was to come…

All of a sudden, I realised the post was on the Front Page, and that’s where things really got interesting.

At it’s peak, the post was being read over 50+times a minute!

I excitedly watched as the post reached

1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 views.

The excitement and adrenaline I felt watching this is hard to describe, but I felt happiness and pride, and wanted to shout it from the rooftops.

Which leads nicely into the next stage…

The Ego

After the initial feeling of humbleness, the monster in me came out.

All of a sudden, I wanted more.

MORE views, MORE up-votes and MORE recommendations.

I was not content with the front page, I wanted the top spot.

To be Numero Uno.

A couple of hours previous I would have been over the moon that 50 people had taken the time to read something I had written, now I feltdisappointed when the rate dropped below 50 views a minute.

I reached out to people asking for up-votes.

I gave page view updates to friends via Skype.

I sat at my laptop and permanently pressed refresh on my page view stats and on Hacker News.

I became insufferable.

The Comedown

The initial elation started to dissipate, as my post slowly started moving down the HN front page.

I realised that I would probably never write something so popular again.

I felt shame and embarrassment by my previous excitement and attempts to acquire further attention for the post.

I felt like a hypocrite.

I wrote a post on productivity, and said post resulted in me doing no work that day.

All of a sudden I felt naked, exposed and vulnerable.

The Reflection

This stage is ongoing, although my intention is for it to conclude with this post.

My main takeaway is that you have to take the rough with the smooth.

If you open your writing up using Medium, Twitter, Hacker News etc then you have to accept the fact that there can be negative as well as positive consequences.

It has certainly opened up my eyes to the power of these tools, if you hit the right note with your writing then it has the potential to be read by thousands of people.

These tools enable more and more people to go through this experience with their writing.

Be sure that this is something that you are comfortable with.

And don’t take it all so seriously.

You can subscribe to my mailing list here for exclusive content and early access to my e-book “How to get your first 100 customers” due 2014.

And you can find me on Twitter @neilswmurray

JUST GO HOME.

In my previous life, I worked at a couple of large corporate companies.

Procrastination was the dominant activity in both.

Employees filling their time surfing the net, making coffee, checking Facebook, and worst of all; pretending to be working.

3.47, 4.16, 4.49…….. Waiting for the clock to hit 5.

I now work for myself.

I no longer have to sit at my desk pretending to complete tasks, as the only person I am cheating is myself.

When I am not feeling very productive or I am struggling to focus, I go for a walk, a run, to a cafe, or home to play with my son.

I then pick up a task later that evening or even the next day, when I am fresher and back in a more productive frame of mind.

This increases my productivity ten fold and allows me to get things done rather than pretending to.

Don’t work because you feel you have to, work because you want to.

So, next time you find yourself scrolling down your Twitter feed or checking Facebook for the umpteenth time instead of completing that task you need to get done, do yourself a favour, turn off your laptop, pack up your stuff and……………

JUST GO HOME.

I would love to hear how you deal with your unproductive days, let me know on Twitter @neilswmurray

You can subscribe to my mailing list here for exclusive content and early access to my e-book “How to get your first 100 customers” due 2014.

How to deliver the perfect pitch to investors

The perfect pitch

Pavarotti was said to have the perfect pitch, which in musical terms is the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone.

This is a great analogy for when we are trying to remember how to present our pitches.

The two most important things you need to do in order to achieve a perfect pitch are to include the KEY content and to find the right NOTE with your delivery

The format

These two things come above everything else, so don’t get too hung up on the format you use to deliver your pitch. However, there are a few important things to keep in mind. You need to show your product, whether physically, through a screenshot or through a demo.

Showing your product is vital whether you are using slides, video or just using visuals.

If you are using slides then make sure they are not filled. Do not use too much text, and use pictures/visuals as much as you can and talk around those. Too much text will distract and disengage your audience and it makes your pitch really boring.

The Content

There are five key questions you should answer in your content, and they should be used in this exact order as they provide a natural lead into the next answer. By using the answers to these questions as the skeleton to your pitch you can ensure that all the key content is covered.

Who’s the customer?

What is the problem you’re solving?

What makes this unique?

What’s the market opportunity?

What’s your route to market?

Delivery

By telling a story you can interact with your audience and help them immediately identify with the problem you are trying to solve. Storytelling is an extremely powerful and effective way to communicate your product and one that can ensure you deliver with impact.

One thing that people often overlook when they are pitching, is that they are pitching and not presenting. You have an end goal in mind and by pitching you hope to achieve that. Have that end goal in mind whilst you are pitching and remember what you want and stand to achieve from getting this pitch right.

Be confident, be engaging and think big.

Final tips

The opening thirty seconds and the closing thirty seconds are key. When spending time working on your pitch, these are the parts that you should focus on as these will make or break your whole pitch.

And of course practising your pitch is important, but if you know it word by word, then your delivery will suffer. It will sound monotonous when you should be sounding inspiring.

So, as crazy as it sounds don’t practice too much.

Finally, good luck!

I would love to hear your feedback in terms of what you think the perfect pitch looks like, let me know on Twitter @neilswmurray

You can subscribe to my mailing list here for exclusive content and early access to my e-book “How to get your first 100 customers” due 2014.

How to hack your commute to have more ideas

Instead of feeling stressed and wasting valuable time on your daily commute, here are three simple hacks you can deploy to use it as a creative time in order to generate more ideas.

1. Inspiration

“Another sunny afternoon, walking to the sounds of your favourite tunes”

As enjoyable as this is, as you dance your way through the hoards of people, you could instead be consuming invaluable advice, first-hand experiences and inspiration directly through your earphones instead by listening to a podcast.

To help you out and to save you time searching through the iTunes store I will recommend three of my favourites for you that help get those creative juices flowing:

Product People

Exactly what it says on the tin. This podcast focuses on great products and the people who make them. It has a high calibre of guests who always give an honest and blunt insight into their mistakes and successes with the products and startups they have been involved in.

It also offers a wide range of topics which I find refreshing, including self-publishing an e-book, building MVP apps on Wordpress and interviews with people such as Hitan Shah, Dan Martell and the guys from 37 signals.

Ted Radio Hour by NPR

This really is an inspirational podcast, focusing on fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions and new ways to think and create. It is of course based on existing TED talks, but what is great is that they catch up with the original speakers to get more of an insight into their talks. There is a theme each week which brings all of the talks and speakers together, not only does it possess great content, it also has a great production.

Silicon Real

Silicon Real is about the people in London’s technology startup scene. Every time I listen, I always pick up a new nugget of information I didn’t know previously, as well as being fascinated by the stories of the people who make up Europe’s hottest startup scene.

I never fail to feel inspired by listening to the above shows, and constantly feel stimulated throughout the duration of listening, and my own ideas usually start flowing thereafter!

2. Perspiration

“Those who think they have no time for exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness”

I know that for most people they have no choice but to use various modes of public (or private) transport to get to and from the office each day, due to the distances that they live from home to office.

However, instead of looking at your commute in its entirety, break it down into smaller sections and you might find that instead of taking the tube four stops to get to the train which actually takes you home, you could actually walk (or even run) this part of the journey.

Exercise plays an important part in stimulating our ideas, and allowing yourself some time to switch off from the hustle and bustle of the traditional morning commute, by walking or running you can allow your brain to operate more freely and give it the chance to explore and think more creatively.

Take a look at your commute and see whether you can walk, run or cycle part of it, and instead of looking at it as something which will take you longer in getting home, see it as valuable personal time that you are using creatively and productively.

3. Captivation

“The good ideas only come when you least expect them”

So, what do we do when we get these amazing ideas on our commute? How can we ensure that we are able to capture them well enough in order for us to able to act on them once we get to the office, well, of course, there is an app for that…

I use Elevatr which not only captures ideas but use categories that help you capture the necessary information to determine whether this idea could be worth exploring as a standalone feature or business.

This is so much better than just capturing a “note” as it enables you to explore the idea and play around with it immediately, meaning not only can you have ideas during your commute, you can even begin to plan the execution of them, as well as sharing them, to get instant feedback!

These three things have worked really well for me, and have become an important part of my day, I now look forward to commuting rather than dreading it!

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"Sales is the best form of funding"

I did a talk for the members of the Copenhagen Lean Startup group earlier this year on Sales Hacks, and the first of my hacks was about prioritising sales in your startup and I want to expand a little on that in this post.

Being in a startup means that you need to be able to sell whether you like or not.

The good news is though, is that sales no longer needs to be done in a pushy, hardcore or “traditional” way, and that the most effective sales methods of today are customer centric.

This fits perfectly with the fresh thinking approaches that startups employ, and therefore means that sales needn’t be something that you are scared, embarrassed or ashamed of doing or talking about.

A lot of the most successful startups and entrepreneurs have already realised this.

Morten Lund (Skype, Tradeshift etc etc) coined the phrase “Sales is the best form of funding” and believes that startups should concentrate on selling their products rather than seeking investment, and this comes from a guy who has invested in over fifty startups.

The reason he believes this is the same reason I do, is that by prioritising sales, you can generate revenue, gain validation and gather feedback all in its rawest form, and therefore achieve the most valuable results you require all through one single process.

It may not be the most sexy part of being in a startup, but ultimately, selling your product or service is still the most important factor in any business, and will be the key to whether you succeed or not in the long term.

So, put sales at the forefront of what you do, give it the prioritisation it deserves and make it a habit by attempting to sell your product or service every single day.

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Batch your life changing events

October 2012

I became a father for the first time.

February 2013

Started my company sussd.it

March 2013

Moved from the UK to Denmark.

The last ten months have been draining, scary, hard and challenging.

They have been the best ten months of my life.

These life events that have taken place for me over this time are monumental.

Having children, starting a company and moving country are ranked as some of the biggest life changing events which you can experience.

Most people struggle with undertaking one of these events in a year, so how have I coped with undertaking three within such a short time of each other?

The answer is surprisingly well.

“A man needs a little madness, or else… he never dares cut the rope and be free.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis

Instead of it being harder tackling all the challenges presented by these events all at the same time, it has actually made things easier…

By having these experiences simultaneously you get a sense of freedom as you feel less restricted by the everyday realities and adrenaline and excitement propel you day to day and ensures that you keep moving ahead positively.

You are living in a bubble of constant uncertainty but instead of this overwhelming you as you might expect, this bubble helps free you from the restraints of the fear of failure.

The Benefits of “batching”

These life changing events take their toll mentally and physically but by batching them closer together we can actually limit the amount of times that we need to go through the inevitable upheaval that they bring into our lives.

It is a similar approach to the way we approach daily tasks just on a grander scale. All the research in terms of productivity tells us that we should always do the most difficult task, and the one we are fearing first. This way we get it out of the way, and we feel a happiness and accomplishment which allows us to have an even higher productive rest of day.

So, why not apply this to a larger time scale, and look at the period of your life rather than just a day.

Well, by tackling your daunting life changing events in one go you can achieve a similar sense of accomplishment on a much larger scale and by facing them head on and doing as many as you can in one push, it can enable you to live your life in a more productive, efficient and most importantly, less stressful way.

Applied learning

These simultaneous experiences can also help you deal with each of them on an individual basis more efficiently, as many have similarities with each other and you can apply lessons learned in one to another with ease, whereas these lessons, experiences and feelings will be harder to recall when you need them in the future.

During the first couple of weeks of a child's life, they are unable to provide you with any feedback and interaction is limited. It was hard for my partner and I to know whether we were doing the right thing or not for Alfred at times during these first couple of weeks. However, we knew that within time he would have the capabilities to provide feedback and after a month, he would smile when we did something for him that he liked.

This patience I acquired through this process, of persisting without receiving feedback and therefore not knowing whether to continue down the path you have gone, served me extremely well in the early days of my business when feedback is scarce and you only have your gut to rely on. I knew to be patient and that feedback would come once people were ready to provide it to me, and to trust my instincts in the meantime.

The deepest of deep ends

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

Niccolo Machiavelli, “The Prince”

Throwing yourself in the deep end is said to the best way to learn a new skill, and it is is the same with experiences.

So, the next time you are thinking of introducing a dramatic alternation to your life, why not make things easier for yourself and take on a couple at the same time!!

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The power of the startup community

Six months ago, my young family and I took the decision to go and live in Copenhagen.

Instead of being overwhelmed at the prospect of moving country, as well as recently becoming a father, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to start a business idea I had been working on (In many ways, doing these life changing acts in such a short time made them easier to do)

I had previously been working in a corporate company in London, however I was exposed to the tech startup scene around Silicon Roundabout due to a previous venture that I had explored in my free time. I was a member at TechHub, attended the odd event held by3Beards, made a couple friends and I also made the decision that when I left my corporate company, I would never work for someone else again.

The thing I loved best about the tech startup world was the creative and free thinking atmosphere, and the fact that people loved their jobs, loved their work and believed in what they do. This was a culture shock from the corporate world I was inhibiting at the time.

And everyone was so welcoming! The atmosphere was so inclusive, that even when I turned up on my own, within minutes someone would have taken the time to talk to me and make feel a part of this incredible community.

But hang on a minute….

I was moving to Copenhagen, so after finally freeing myself from the chains of the corporate world, I was not going to get to experience the joys of being a fully fledged active member of London’s startup community.

I was going to a City where I knew no one.

Most worrying was that I didn’t even know where to start looking for anyone. I had no idea if there was a tech startup scene in Copenhagen.

I quickly did a little research into what was going on over there and came across an article on The Next Web about how Copenhagen was a startup city to watch.

A week before I was due to arrive in Copenhagen, I decided to email a couple of the founders of some of the places and startups that were mentioned in the article, explaining how I was moving to the City and could we meet for a coffee when I arrive. Guess how many said “yeah, sure”?

All of them.

I experienced the same welcoming feeling that I got the first time I went to Silicon Drinkabout, and I realised then that it is the people who make up the ecosystem that determine its success.

Wait, there’s more!

I started attending a couple of events here and there and gradually met more people in the Copenhagen startup community, however I was still looking for a place to work from.

Then about a month in, I was grabbing a coffee with someone I had a met at one of the events, and I explained that despite there being a good number of co-working spaces in Copenhagen, they were all a bit out of my budget as I had literally just started up and couldn’t justify the cost of office space at that moment.

His response? “You can have a desk here for a while, until you get yourself up and running properly”

What could I do?

After being the recipient of such warm and welcoming acts, I decided that I wanted to give something back to the startup community of Copenhagen.

I thought back to that week before I came here, and how I was looking to find out what was going on over here in Copenhagen, and I thought about, what if people were not comfortable with reaching out to strangers via email like I did, how would they be able to meet like-minded people and others in the start-up scene and get themselves up and running?

And finally I thought about how I first met people back in London, at a weekly drinks event for the startup community!

That was it! That’s what was needed in Copenhagen, a place where people would know they could go to meet others like them, a place where everyone is welcomed, a place where you can start to meet people and get involved in the scene, a place where you could go and have a drink…

I tweeted 3beards and told them that they had inspired me with Silicon Drinkabout and that I was setting up something similar here.

This was the start of a dialogue which led to the first official expansion of Silicon Drinkabout outside of London and I am now a proud founding organiser of Silicon Drinkabout in Copenhagen.

I have been running this for three months now with the help of fellow startup community lover Michael Reibel Boesen and the fantastic support of 3beards.

People have started to say “thank you” to us for holding this event, which shows that the importance of a regular and consistent event for the community should not be underestimated, even if fundamentally it is just meeting for a drink and a chat.

The bug

After having such amazing experiences in London and Copenhagen it has really pressed home the importance of community to me and I work hard to create initiatives and events that benefit not only existing members, but people who are looking to get involved in this area.

As well as setting up Silicon Drinkabout, I have set up an online platform through Podio for the entrepreneurs of Copenhagen to colloborate, created a blog which features startup communites from around the world, and even arranged for Brad Feld to give a talk for the Copenhagen startup scene via Skype in October.

I want to do for others, what others have done for me, and that is an incredibly strong motivation to have and one which I hope stays with me.

If I had never been made to feel welcome at Silicon Drinkabout or if no one replied to my emails when I moved to Copenhagen, then it is possible that these events and initiatives which I have added to the community here would not exist.

And it is possible that I would still know no one, but instead because I was made to feel welcome by the people involved in the Copenhagen scene I know feel like I have 1,000's of friends and that is the power of the startup community.

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