Hustle has gotten me a long way in life. I hustled my way to play basketball at a Division 1 school. I hustled my way in my first job as a liquor salesman. I hustled my way back to be able to walk again from being paralyzed. What couldn’t hustle solve? That’s right, my startup that I was working on with my best friend.

We had a big idea to solve the way people make friends. After saving up some money I decided to leave my well paying job as a wine & liquor salesmen for E&J Gallo and pursue it full time. Truth be told, my foot was already out the door and had been for a while at Gallo anyway. We had moved into NYC a while back into a one bedroom apartment to code all day and night only of which to be broken up by eating and working out. 

Will had been programming for quite a while, while I on the other hand had just really started. I could barely hack things together a lot of time was spent with Will teaching me various things and me trying to figure out stuff. I figured I would just hustle and learn as much as possible to build our product and then go from there. 

The “Plan”

We white boarded a stripped down version of what we wanted to build (MVP) and since my programming skills were limited Will handled most of the product building. I would help out where I could and also try to 1) get as many users as possible. After we got users, 2) we would apply to an incubator and/or raise money, 3) keep iterating on something we love and take over the world. The big idea for Social Blendr being we would introduce people online first using conversation based games then set up in real life meetings where they could then use the rapport they built to grow friendships.

Get Users

1) Our first idea for acquiring users was to email/text pretty much all my friends and try and get them to come out to events. Our second step for acquiring users was to make “partnerships” with different bars. We would bring the people to the bar, the bar would advertise the event for us on their respective social media outlets and we would offer our users discounts, deals, and of course, a good time.

THURSDAY! We are hosting our first “Social Blendr: Meet the Party, Before the Party” event at Angels & Kings… fb.me/T0iaQLOE

— Angels And Kings (@angelsandkings)

March 19, 2012

We’re psyched to for our first party with @socialblendr tonight also!Join the fun!socialblendr.com/turtlebay

— Turtle Bay NYC (@TurtleBay)

March 7, 2012

To make these bar partnerships I literally spent a whole week going to different bars pitching our idea, trying to get them excited about it, and asking for drinks specials and promotion. A lot of the bars I talked to were pretty excited about it. The hustle seemed to be paying off. 

Next, I quickly learned how to use Mailchimp API and put together these awesome emails to send to all my friends to let them know about the events that we had put together. 

It hurt every time I saw one of my friends unsubscribed from these emails. 

Meanwhile, Will was hustling to put together these online pregames, I was helping where I could and texting friends to come out to all these events that we had set up. So how did these events go? Let’s just say the turnout was less than stellar. We were trying to promote people to come to events while at the same time encouraging them to go to our website and play these online pregames that we had built. It was a big ask for our users and as such we were only able to get a few people to meet online and even fewer to come to the events in real life. 

Get Into An Incubator / Secure Seed Investment

2) We had built some cool games and were tying desperately to get some traction and users and were quickly running out of money. So while in addition to trying to get bar partnerships, throw events, get users, I was also applying to almost every incubator under the sun. We spent a decent amount of time going to TechStars happy hours, working on various applications, and keeping the incubators updated on our “progress”. Think in total we had two interviews with incubators, one of which we bombed, the other one we did well on, but apparently not well enough. We also started trying to raise money so I began to reach out to friends that might be open to introducing me to people who might be interested.

I put together a pitch deck, then was told to put together a financial pitch deck. I ran the deck by whomever would take a look at it. I met with the New York Small Business Services - which was very helpful, and sent it to every mentor that I could reach out to. After about 7 different versions of the deck I started showing it around. I used my resources scored a meeting with a few VC firms and some angel investors. I drove to Boston for a day to meet with an VC firm, drove to Greenwich, CT for a meeting - basically whomever would meet with me. The overwhelming response was that we didn’t have enough traction but keep up the good work. Well, the good work would soon have to stop because we were both going broke. Then Hurricane Sandy hit and well, you can read about Will’s version of the rest. 

Take Over The World

3) The whole take over the world part is still in progress. In my mind, everything we went through is all part of the learning process. I put a lot into Social Blendr and really believed that we would “make it.” 

Looking back on it, Will and I put our heart and soul into Social Blendr and hustled our ass off. Some of the ridiculous (in retrospect) things we did to hustle and fuel start up:

1. Lived in a one bedroom, slept in a hallway of a room and then to save money had another friend of ours move in with us
2. Took day trips to Boston & Connecticut to meet with potential investors
3. Somehow we scored a meeting with THE David Tisch when he was still running Techstars NYC and we were just starting out. He innocently asked for a pitch deck prior to meeting with us - a very reasonable request. We hadn’t even ever thought of making a pitch deck and when froze and then scrambled and stayed up basically all night for the next 4-5 days making and remaking a deck based on feedback from Reece Pacheco.
4. That time Will stayed up for 50 hours trying to make a superlative conversation game a couple of days before an event. We had our users play that game, we compiled that data by hand and a few hours before the event printed out sheet by sheet individual results for each user. I was at Kinkos, Will was at home emailing the sheet and I would open the document and print each page. meanwhile Kinkos was after hours so the guys were getting pissed at me for still printing things out.

So what were my main take aways from this whole thing?

Work Smarter Not Harder

Will and I certainly had no shortage of effort we put into Social Blendr. Doesn’t mean in was effective or smart. We were kind of like chickens running around with our heads cut off.

In retrospect we were just trying to do our best and were figuring it out as we went along. Faults of a first time entrepreneur. We could have been a lot of smarter in how we tried to build the app and about how we tried to get users. Trial and error didn’t really work out.

Focus Inwards Not Outwards 

We thought that if we got into an incubator that would solve all our problems. It would be like a magic wand that would make our startup succeed. While incubators do offer a ton of resources and a definite leg up my feeling is that they just speed up your startup. So if you were heading down a failing path, you’ll just fail faster and vice versa. That being said, we put way too much focus on trying to get into an incubator and not enough focus on building a great product and getting a ton of users. We were building a product for the incubator and not for it’s real use. 

Sometimes Life Forces Change - Pay Attention to The Signs

The way things happened with Social Blendr, we had no choice but to let it go. Will and I are both fighters and I think we would have kept trying to make it work, but we literally couldn’t. 

(Our taped up apartment after Sandy)

We probably should have started winding down Social Blendr when we first ran out of money but we kept it going. Our hope was to overcome it with hustle and for us the thought of giving up was less than cool. But if we really paid attention to the signs we might have done things differently. That being said, I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason and we learned some valuable lessons from the entirety of the experience.

So hustle hard startups, but be smart about it, because hustle alone won’t cut it.

So it’s been quite a while since I last blogged and it took a #BlogSoHardChallenge to get me back to blogging. For those unfamiliar, #BlogSoHardChallenge is a thing @willwashburn and I did to try to stay consistently blogging and pump out at least one post between the two of us per day. And now this post is to kick off the month of May Blog So Hard Challenge.

A lot has changed and happened in the past 6 or so months. The main takeaway from it is how important a positive attitude is and also being adaptable to change especially unexpected change is a must. 

What kind of change?

1. Apartment ruined due to Sandy
2. Startup “Failure” -> will explain this in a later post and why it’s in “”
3. Signing for an apartment then losing an apartment and almost being homeless 
4. Looking for a job in web development
5. Finding a job in web development
6. Moving in with my girlfriend

Through all of this can’t stress how important it was to have a positive attitude. When things don’t go according to “plan” it is easy to get thrown off but with a positive attitude getting right back on track is a lot easier. 

So with that, here’s to a successful #BlogSoHardChallenge. Stay tuned…

#reminders

I graduated from college with a major in Communications and a minor in Business. I immediately went into sales and quickly realized that while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t what I ultimately wanted to do. I had always been into computers and always had ideas for websites so I decided to take the dive and learn how to code and have been learning for the past year and a half.

I haven’t been reading books or taking classes. In fact, I wish I had studied CS in college. What I have been doing is building, or attempting to build. I often say, “the best way to learn is by doing.” With the resources on the wonderful Internet I really believe you can almost teach yourself anything, especially how to program and build a website. 

By no means am I a good programmer but I think at this point thanks to Google, StackOverflow and my co-founder Will Washburn who is also self taught I could learn to build a lot of things. 

So what have I learned since I’ve been learning how to code?

1) Attention to detail is of the utmost importance

I saw a quote somewhere that says “the problem with a computer is that it will do exactly what you tell it to.” Simple mistakes can cause complex problems. Missed comma here, forgotten semicolon there would cause me hours of frustration trying to figure out what was wrong. Trying to do something too quickly is not the way for me to program successfully. Moving slow and methodically is the right way and saves me plenty of time in the long run.

2) Patience is a virtue

Along with number 1, having the patience to painstakingly go through each and every line of terrible code I had written was very necessary if I ever wanted to get it working. Coding can sometimes feel like you’re banging your head against the wall and requires taking a deep breath, getting up for a second, then going right back into the trenches. But a valuable skill I have learned is to be patient with myself. As much as I want to curse myself and call myself stupid for writing something incorrectly I have to remember that it is a learning process and I am getting better.

3) StackOverflow is the best thing ever

Well first, let me say I had to graduate to be able to use StackOverflow. I started with W3 Schools to learn the basics and get my feet wet. There is no better feeling than struggling with a problem, inputting that question into Google, and finding the exact answer you need on StackOverflow. Usually there is some kind of explanation there as well which is absolutely glorious for learning. The great thing about the programming community is that someone has probably had the same problem I had and is willing to share their solution. “Each one teach one” seems to be the mantra and I love it.

4) Don’t be embarrassed

Sharing my code sometimes feels like showing a piece of my soul. However, the only way to get better is to learn from others and get critiqued on what I’m doing. Taking critique isn’t always easy and takes a good deal of swallowing my pride. It is very tempting to try to defend the things I wrote and rationalize it but sometimes the best way to learn is to shutup and listen. I’m lucky that I’ve been on a team so my code has to be shared and so that was a fairly natural process. But sharing code also entails putting it on Github and contributing to StackOverflow. I was reluctant to join Github because I was so embarrassed of what I was doing before but I have gotten a lot better now and I still need to give back to the community and contribute to StackOverflow. 

5) Don’t be intimidated

The great thing about coding is that there are plenty of frameworks and tools out there that can aid your development. The tricky part of that is taking the time to learn how to use them and understand it so it can actually make your life easier. Something like Vim Text Editor at first seemed super confusing to me, but once I got into it I definitely saw the benefit. By no means am I flying on Vim but it certainly speeds up things I’m doing. Same goes for understanding of Git. I think having a no fear attitude when coding is a necessary thing and gives me the confidence to try to break things down to understand it. Just because something might seem confusing at first glance doesn’t mean it’s impossible to understand once I actually sit with it and study it.

Looking back, I’m extremely glad I learned how to code and nothing beats that feeling when I get something to work or figure out some problem that has been plaguing me for days. I often note that taking a break from something is the best way to figure it out. I would go to the bathroom, and by the time I was back from the bathroom I had figured out the answer. 

Thanks for reading, I’m working on Social Blendr with Will Washburn. Feel free to check out my sparse (but growing!) Github profile.

Will Washburn and I decided to take time off from our work at Social Blendr to volunteer  at Techstars’ demo day. Why? Well, because the NY tech scene is vibrant and what better way to check part of that out than Techstars? “But Khaliq, isn’t this the same TS class you and Will applied for and didn’t get in to?” Well….yes, it is, but regardless, we figured it would be a great experience to see demos of great companies and experience some of that energy and take some notes. However, at 5:15AM when my alarm went off I immediately regretted that decision. By the end of the day, however, I knew helping out and experiencing it was definitely the right decision.

I’m not going to break down every single company, but let me just say that I was overwhelmingly impressed by every single presenter on stage. Tisch, Adam and crew do a great job. But we all know them and see them all the time. The people that even more so impressed me, really running the show were Nicole Frand & Alex Guttler. To have such an extensive operation as Demo Day go through flawlessly is extremely impressive and as a volunteer I was able to see just a small fraction of the work they did.

Random Observations

- All the companies had introducers that gave a preview and endorsement of the company that came next. Some seemed to be mentors, some were investors. Most common phrase used by almost all of them was “without further ado.” After the first one I began to take notice and am pretty sure every introducer ended with that phrase.

- The tech world is small. I recognized a few people that I had no idea were even in tech. One from high school, one from college, and one I interned with. Tech must be where all the cool kids are heading.

- Reading about companies is A LOT different than seeing and hearing them. Admittedly, I yawned after reading about some of the companies. But after experiencing their demos and seeing their energy first hand, those same companies I was yawing at, I now wished I could invest in. Too bad I’m broke running my own startup…

Take Aways

- The companies that best told a story were the ones that I remembered most. 13 companies are a lot and without a compelling story, sometimes no matter how impressive the company it can be easy to get lost in the fray. I still remember some of the companies pitches because they were centered around a story, or a beard in some cases.

- Techstars has a huge and impressive network. The room was packed with hungry investors and there was a perceivable buzz around the room after each presentation. The existing investors and partnerships some of these companies had were amazing and I’m sure TS had some help in that.

- New York is where you want to be. Now, obviously I’m biased because I am in fact, in New York, but it seemed everyone was there. I kept recognizing people that I had only seen in twitter pictures previously. I also saw a bunch of former Techstars teams there in support which showed to me how strong the Techstars family is.

Adam and Tisch kept thanking us for helping out, but I really should be thanking them for allowing us to be there. Seeing Demo Day first hand sent me home fired up to keep working on our startup and inspired to continue to chase our big vision.

I find the part about Toni Kukoc hilarious

It’s been 10 minutes and no one has said a word, but no one has noticed. From an outsiders point of view the scene has to be weird. Four people sitting at a table together, not saying a word but frantically tapping away on their iPhones. The four at the table are too engulfed to talk to each other, let alone the observers at the restaurant giving them glances.

—————-

While I’m making this scenario up, it doesn’t seem too far fetched. Ten minutes might be a long time but it’s definitely happened to me and friends for a brief period and it’s only something that I think will get worse if not checked.

Physical > digital and that is something I try to remind myself of often when meeting with friends or at dinner. It might be habit when I feel my phone buzz to immediately reach for it and answer, but I’d like to break that habit. I would like to cherish who I’m with at the time and wait on answering my iPhone. 

I try to be accessible and quick to respond to emails, texts, Kiks, Whatsapp etc. but I think that should be to a point. As technology becomes even more integrated in our lives, I hope to remember to keep that fine line intact and remember to stay present in the physical.

• Writing is therapeutic
  Writing something down makes me collect my thoughts and really reflect on how I feel about whatever I’m writing about. Sure, I might have thoughts that are floating around but the process of writing them forces me to sort them, organize them, and present them in a way that makes sense. After I’m done blogging I feel much better and can let my mind move on to the next topic.
• My editing skills need work
  As my girlfriend politely points out, “you need to proof read your posts!” The sad part is that I usually do proof read my posts but apparently I wasn’t checking close enough. If I did I probably would read what I wanted it to be or thought it should be and not actually what was really there. This is important to remember especially if I’m writing copy on our company’s website. 
• Sometimes people do actually read what I write
  Rarely, but judging from some comments, it seems that I received a small amount of traffic to my blog. Nothing to shake a stick at, but it also helped to post it to Twitter, Hacker News, and I’m thinking about posting it to Reddit sometimes too. Obviously the more I blog the more readers I maybe could get, as long as I’m writing good content - which I’ll try to do!
• Being “real” is best
  If after writing a post I feel a little vulnerable, I know I was being real in that post. Not surprisingly those were the posts that received the most responses. Part of blogging is putting a bit of yourself out there. Not only do you have to be confident enough to do that, but secure enough as well. That in itself is a positive take away.

So definitely lots of positive from the #BlogSoHardChallenge and Will and I have agreed individually to blog at least twice a week from here on out. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed our challenge as much as we did.

Black in America. It’s something that is talked about a lot and can be/usually is a very charged subject. Let me know throw this out there, I’m black - just wanted to make sure I cleared that up for you before I moved on.

I remember growing up my Dad talking to me about being a African American male and how I might be treated differently. When he told me that, I couldn’t help but think how long ago slavery was and wonder how that could still be the case. I don’t think I have ever been the victim of explicit, overt racism and if I was I was probably to naive to realize it. But there are a few things that I’ve noticed growing up and now that I’m an “adult” (using the term lightly here):

• Basketball
  I grew up playing in a lot of the top basketball tournaments around the country ever since I was 10 years old. I was always encouraged in my academics and often on these basketball trips I would bring along my summer reading (I was nerdy, so what?). Needless to say I was the only one who did that on my all black team and as a result was relentlessly made fun of for it. Obviously this is probably a natural reaction by young boys to someone who is doing something different but I think there is more to it than that. I was also made fun of because I spoke “properly”. Granted I didn’t speak with a Southern drawl like most everyone else but again, reading and speaking correctly wasn’t cool. 
  
  
• Token Black Guy
  That’s usually me at a bar or party. I live in NYC and I can’t think of a time when I’ve been to a party that was an equal amount of black and white people at it. I’ve been to majority all black parties and majority all white parties, but haven’t been to many that are in between. I don’t mind being the token black guy at a bar and most times I don’t even notice it. I just wonder why it is still the case that parties are seemingly “segregated.” I grew up in Atlanta and when I went out down there the partying division was even more apparent. NYC is a little better than ATL but I still see room for improvement.
  
  
• White Girlfriend
  My wonderful girlfriend is from Norway and is white. Clearly, I have no problem with that. It seems by the looks that we sometimes get that others might. It isn’t often, but on a few rare instances we have noticed some little bit longer than normal looks. Growing up, I did feel some slight pressure to date “within my race.” It wasn’t explicit but rather when family and friends spoke about specifically black males athletes dating white females - they said it with disdain as if he “sold out” or something and is deserting his race. I don’t think you can control who you love or fall in love with and I don’t think succumbing to peer pressure is a good way to find love either.
  
  
• “Acting Black” 
  Has Hip-Hop become so engrained into American culture that acting black means baggy clothing and speaking ebonics? I’ve heard people say to me before, “Khaliq, you don’t act black” or “Khaliq you lost your black card” (not the Amex). What exactly does that mean? Is there a certain way I’m supposed to act to maintain my “blackness?” Does being black mean not going to a boarding school, Ivy League school, going to the Hamptons, or skiing in the Alps? Is that reserved only for non-black people and if black people do that then are suddenly not black anymore? If a black person doesn’t listen to Hip-Hop, does that make im or her less black?

Obviously I’m simplifying things a bit, and this is an incredibly complex and complicated issue that I briefly touched on. However, I think it is important to address these things and gradually I think things will improve. I’ll finish with a few quotes that I found interesting:

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

-Marin Anderson

I’m black, I don’t feel burdened by it and I don’t think it’s a huge responsibility. It’s part of who I am. It does not define me.
- Oprah Winfrey

The number of distractions in our increasingly digital society is scary. Everything is so accessible. I can listen to music from around the world, read books from any author and time  period, and read news to my hearts content. Not to mention living in Manhattan where there is always something going on, friends visiting, or some concert I want to go to.

With all this stuff, how the hell am I supposed to focus? It would be very easy to let a whole day slip away not really getting anything done and just sitting on the computer the whole time. (Admittedly I have done that on a Sunday before.) This doesn’t work, and can’t happen. With all the goals and ambitions I have I have to check the distractions. But at the same time strike a balance and maintain enough of a distance from work at times. Well, what the hell? What is the answer?

For me I have to turn off the distractions and make a conscious effort not to get off track. At the same time, splice in strategic breaks where I read an article on Twitter, check Facebook (and quickly regret it), etc etc. I try and set a time limit and make sure I don’t go overboard. Coincidentally, I eat so often that I usually make those breaks when I eat, which works out perfectly. If I didn’t, first off take breaks my mind would wander, but if I took too long of breaks it would be difficult to get back to what I was working on before. It is a delicate balance, that I’m constantly trying to tweak and perfect. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, or work flows that they use please share.

Now, YOU get back to what you were working on, but thanks for reading :).