Finance and Marketing

Enliven in the news

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:37:00 GMT

In the past couple of weeks, we had some small coverage in the Lansing State Journal, Capital Gains Media and today a great coverage in Great Lakes IT Report. Check it out:

http://greatlakesitreport.com/Article.asp?id=548132&spid=

http://www.capitalgainsmedia.com/innovationnews/enliv0201.aspx

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/NEWS03/801100334/1004/news03

Musings of an Entrepreneur and an aspiring VC...VC?

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:03:00 GMT

Being an entrepreneur can get old after a while. Yes, I am too young to even suggest that I've had enough experience being an enterpreneur to say it's time to move on to the other side of the table. What is that other side? Being "the man". In order to be the man, you gotta have something. It's called MONEY! Cash. Lots of it. When you have it...you call the shots. When you want it (working-Entrepreneur), the shot calls you! and you are NOT the man.

VC = Venture Capitalist, also closely related to private equity investor, angel investor.

Lookup how Wikipedia defines VC. From the definition, you will find that even though getting into the VC world sounds like a good goal...it's not really what you'd think it is (at least for me anyway). It says something like VCs are large....with large amounts of available capital...from where??? Yeah, and I know we're talking like over $50 Million dollars here...riiiight. The Entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) sounds like so much fun though...one of the things that has fascinated me in the past has been acquisitions, but-outs, IPOs, etc. Man, won't that be fun to be a part of such?

Looking more into the meaning of VC, and trying to understand the dynamics of being in a position to be a part of one of those "deals" (don't it sound so good? lol)...I got to realize, what I really want is not to be investing in large, publicly traded companies, using huge dollars from Pension funds, University endowments, Insurance company money, etc that sounds too wall-street like...lots of money to deal with. You are neck deep in the corporate world. This isn't particularly interesting to me.

What is interesting to me is being in a position where I can spot early-stage entrepreneurs, who have a great idea, great passion and great leadership skills....bring my value-add to the table (relationships, experience, strategic help from other firms I'm involved with, some limited funds, etc). In the process, secure a good chunk of equipty. The idea would be to utilize my value-add to take the company to the next level...then get out (or if it makes sense, stay in for a long time). Usually, I would be able to get out through an IPO, sale or merger. This is defined loosely as "Private Equity", as opposed to "Venture Capitalist". Wikipedia's definition of Private Equity more closely aligns with my thoughts and goals on this. It's usually companies that are NOT publicly traded; usually providing some value (in the form of cash, relationships, and other tangibles) to a company for leveraged buy-out, growth capital, etc.

Most likely, my investments will be in technology companies...and the idea would be to keep a portfolio of companies that are strategically related, so they can help each other - for example, by having the same target audience/clients, where they could share leads or marketing campaigns.

Also, the exit strategy in my situation should have a fairly high chance. The tech industry tends to consolidate very quickly. The web makes it easy to know the players...and the bigger players are always looking to take over the smaller players. So, if you can strategically find a start-up company, just for an example (a real one) www.hopstop.com (which is owned by a Nigerian by the way)....and you think about what they are trying to do, and where they currently are (in about 4 cities)....and I'd assume they are small (less than $2 Million in revenue per year)...it means that as an early stage investment...it will be a hot strategic move to position this company to get acquired by somone huge. And guess who that could be? Google! Why? Because of this: http://www.google.com/transit Exactly the same concept! Google is also taking it one city at a time.

What's new?

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 22:22:00 GMT

Things are going very well at Artemis. We are keeping really busy...actually too busy for our own good. We have so much work in the queue right now. The bottle neck seems to be finding talented .NET developers. So, if you have any leads on great Developers, I am actively looking to hire a few people.

Recently, we have had some great additions to the team. In January, we added a full time Project Manager to the team: Ben Eysselinck. Late last year, we added a new Consultant - Mike Conine and a new Senior Developer...This year, we added two web developers: Eric Puidokas and Dan Huddad.

You can see that I have been quite busy heh?

In the meantime, we have a large project going on, which is causing us to research some enterprise based technologies that microsoft provides such as Biztalk, MSMQ and the like. We have to deal with EDI and XML standards with this project, which poses some interesting challenges. One of our team members opened up the 2,000 page PDF specs for the ACORD standard...looks pretty crazy. Almost as bad as HL7, which we have to deal with very soon here as well!

On another note, our IRIS content management system is going gangbuster. We are launching our Clarity Internet Marketing initiative, which I'm sure will be a hot item in the streets.

I am totally convinced that Software Engineering is the most complicated form of engineering out there...maybe side by side or slightly lower than rocket science :) The reason is, I have observed the complexity difference within our consulting firm between when I had a team of 4 developers/consultants, to now, where there is a total of over 25 team members...including consultants and project managers. Everything just got exponentially complicated in a way. We have had to spend loads of time improving our existing processes, including CADIUM to account for resource allocation, prioritization, client updates, etc. Part of this complexity probably comes from the structure of our team. As opposed to the classic consulting firm out there such as EDS, Compuware, Accenture...Artemis business model is very different. Our model uses Consultants as the only interface to clients...then Senior developers for assisting Consultants in staging and executing the project. With the Junior developers and Web team supporting as needed...and in the case of larger projects that may provide gains in efficiency and allow us to add better value to the client's business...we use our Offshore team. As a result of having all Consultants utilizing the same dev team...there is then a need for centralized project management - which poses it's own set of challenges.

Anyway, the good news is that we're working through the heavy queue, the learning process needed to architect a newer process, and all the critical metrics to keep an eye on the heartbeat of the company.

In my mind, I am always reminding myself...we must ensure we don't grow too fast. Growth has killed a lot of companies out there. We must be careful. Eight years is a very long time to watch someone [us] focus on a company at the expense of everything - everything else.

On a good note, we now understand the growth model, and exactly how to get new business in. The next challenge is ensuring there is a good HR engine to retain and attract new talent, constantly - to be able to reposition ourselves...and to add value to the business of our customers - the whole reason that Artemis exists! Remember what Jim Collins said? Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and then the right people in the right roles...then gitty up...it's on!

Development process

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:16:00 GMT

At Artemis, we coined a development process framework that we call CADIUM. CADIUM guides us through the software development lifecycle (SDLC) of all consulting engagements with our clients. This is the mantra that we live by at Artemis! ...and in a minute you will understand why. CADIUM is an acronym for the stages that every software development project must go through. Consulting, Architecture, Development, Implementation, User Training/docs, Maintenance. In CADIUM, the Development stage of CADIUM is iterative (Dev-QA-Show client), very similar to what the Agile methodologies such as Xtreme programming preach. We generally keep our specs very thin - and we are still learning how to do this better...the process isn't perfect by any means!

CADIUM helps us in gaining a deep understanding into the dynamics of a consulting project. Through the insights described in the list below, we are better able to manage our resources, determine resource needs, ensure that every team member is adding value...and most importantly progressively improve our process and business model. Consulting is a tough business mainly because it's a “pay in return for an hour of my time“ business. And you MUST give value to the client for that “one hour“. This means the extent to which you can scale your business is to the extent that you can find more and more clients that would want to hire you hourly...and to the extent that you can keep hiring more and more employees to support the demand created by the clients. The moment the demand slows down...trouble!

A consulting company must understand the skill-set required for various stages of a project - for controlled, efficient scaling of resources. You must know what particular skill you are in need of, at the right time. You must know if you have the hours available to support and pay for the resource you are about to hire. CADIUM helps ensure that the right person is staffed to the right role, for example, you put your best developers in the software development stage, and your best architecture guys in the architecture phase, your staff with a hybrid of people person+biz knowledge+tech knowledge in the consulting phase (talking with clients, gathering requirements, process analysis), your best “picky” person, in your QA/QC, etc, etc. Of course, here I am referring to a consulting company going about it in the Team approach (which we do at Artemis), not the one-man shop...or companies that approach consulting projects by just throwing one person (or two) at a client's project for the project duration. We sell against that type of approach to custom software development all day and everyday. What we claim (which is true) is that by having a whole team working on your project, you get the best product at the end of the day. Because you don't have developers gathering requirements, or developers doing project management on your project. Also, you get scalability...there is no limit to how much we can scale!

Also, from an economics and business model standpoint, in order to make money (the whole purpose of your company, right?), it is very important for a consulting firm to understand the budget distribution factor across the various stages of a project. This will ensure that you are estimating properly, and whenever you go over budget (which happens way-too-often in this industry), you can isolate which stage blew your budget, and make corrections accordingly. Secondly, it allows you to properly do your projections for resource allocation. Thirdly and most importantly, it helps you to determine what you pay your staff in the different roles. For example, you must know exactly how many hours per month of billable time that your developers must work in order to make say $45,000 per year, which is approx $5,500 per month after you figure employer taxes, benefits (single), etc. Or, how many (the value of) projects your Consultants must bring in, manage and deliver per month...or how many developer billable hours per day they must be driving....

Say for your business you figure the current distribution (or goal distribution) is:

Marketing: 3%
Prospecting: 3%
Sales: 8%
Consulting, Architecture, Training: 15%
Project management: 4%
Development: 40%
Overhead: 12%
Profits: 15%

Then, on a $100,000 project for example, you know exactly what the distribution will be, and you can hold a particular role accountable for their piece of the project delivery and budget. I personally believe that having this Consulting Master Value Ratios (CMVRs) on hand, and judiciously comparing what you did, to what you should do...is the key to the success of any Consulting firm.

With the CMVR defined above, for example, you can figure that if you have a Consultant (responsible for Sales support, i.e. pre-sales, req gathering, status updates, keeping client happy, final qa of solution designed to ensure req is met, delivery, training) who wants to make say $70,000 per year...which is say approximately $91,000 after (family) benefits and employer taxes (I think I always use 30% for family and 22% for individual).

Now, figuring they add 15% value to the project, thus they need to drive $606,000 in revenue per year...thus $50,000 in total billed revenue per month...thus they need to me managing 25 hours in billable time per work-day...which results in keeping about 4.2 Developers busy, assuming developers can stay consistently at 75% billable efficiency - i.e. billing 6 hours out of the 8 hour work day.

Basically, with CADIUM as a guide for estimation, logging billable time, payroll calculation (you don't have to pay people on full commission based on CADIUM and the distribution above, but using it as a guide to know which employee is costing you money, and which is making you money is a nice-to-know).

Also, this tool can be used as a “tweaking” mechanism, and to me this is the biggest use. You can effectively do your post-mortems to evaluate where things went wrong...who is making too much money for the value they are adding to the team.

To be continued...

Great opportunities

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:58:00 GMT

We are very excited here at Artemis because: Of all the 10 or so web/software vendors that bid on this particular project, we have been chosen as the preferred vendor to do this very awesome project. We will be implementing the Website and Ecommerce project for the following: LEPFA (Lansing Entertainment and Public Facilities Authority), Lansing Center, Oldsmobile Park, Lansing City Market and the Lugnut Stadium. These projects are great because this will be a great chance to apply the great technologies and tools that we have been using to enhance business performance and productivity for businesses around michigan, to key establishments that greatly affect our community - the City of Lansing.

We will be collaborating with Vision Creative on this project and the first of the sites will be going live sometime in January. We look forward to creating a platform that is visually exciting, professional looking and functionally dynamic. This tool will be a key piece in helping the city highlight these major attractions.

Account Aggregator

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 22:22:00 GMT

This is a problem I’ve had for over 3 years. I have over 20 online accounts: bank, mortgage, credit cards, paypal, brokerage, insurance, cable tv, etc. I needed an account aggregator. I actually was thinking about writing one J

Anyway, finally there is a solution: https://www.yodlee.com/newarch/index.do

They integrate with just about every major bank out there, and every online pay service. The account central gives you real-time status of all your accounts, payment due-dates on all your “bills”…it also gives you access to the last few transactions in each account. Gone are the days where I have to log-in to my 12 account online sites, to check how much is due…or how much I have.

I’ve been using it for 3 days, and I’m happy so far. Oh, and it can even aggregate your emails: yahoo, gmail, etc

This is a must-have.

Disclaimer: this may be a security risk, as yodlee in theory has access to all your information. If you’re not comfortable with this, don’t do it. As for me, I embrace these technologies…at my own risk J Which is probably why someone has been using my Chase credit card to order weight-loss products, that show up at my house. Oh well.

I am now a member of a networking group in Okemos called Business Network International - Okemos

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 21:47:00 GMT

It's a great group. I'm glad to be a part of it. Now I have a complete contact sphere with people in businesses ranging from insurance, lawyers, home interior decorators, auto sales, dentists, florists, eye care doctors, office equipment, real estate agent, etc, etc. If you need any service, you need to call me. Chances are I know a great company that offers that. And because the group is tight-knit, you can be sure that anyone I refer to you will do a great job. We refer work to each other all the time and we receive immediate feedback.

One of the great things about the group is that only one company is allowed in any one area of business so that there is no competition. And the group abides to some strict ethical business standards.

Chris Bachelder of MetaSurge Interactive joins the Artemis team

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 16:51:00 GMT

Chris is an incredible addition to the Artemis team. His focus will be on Internet marketing and Creative design of Artemis' EBusiness offering. Chris was the President and Owner of Metasurge Interactive. It's great having him on my team.

Serial Enterpreneurs

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Mon, 30 May 2005 23:23:00 GMT

I love this little article. A lot! Read more.

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/05/vc_cliche_of_th_2.html

http://www.ragsgupta.com/weblog/2005/05/universal_music.html

If you are a fan of "the apprentice"

Bunmi Akinyemiju — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 07:27:00 GMT

...I was just looking online to see what previous competitors on this show are up to these days. From season one, I was especially curious about Kwame Jackson. Anyway, I ran into his website, you can check it out here. He is definitely up to great things.

He started a company, Legacy Holdings LLC that just landed a 3 Billion dollar deal to build a real-estate/area development project called Rosewood.

I especially like the guiding principles on which the company was founded:

“1. Lasting legacy of African-american enterpreneuralism, wealth accumulation - focus on ownership

2. Catalyst for “second generation” of the civil rights movement - through full participation in global economic system

3. Individual impact social change more direct and expediant via bank account than his/her vote

4. Actively espouse a paradigm shift within the african-american community at large from consumerism to entrepreneurship, wealth accumulation and institution building

5. Realization that every business/career decision is not driven simply by the economic outcome but by an innate desire to control one's own destiny.”

All I can say is I am impressed, and this is inline with my goals. Check the full details out here.