Welcome to our ChatGPT quick start guide! to using ChatGPT, your digital assistant developed by OpenAI. If you’ve heard about ChatGPT but haven’t used it or if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like having a personal personal assistant helping you with everything from writing poems to brainstorming ideas for a new product, you’re in the right place.

ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can assist with a wide range of tasks. It’s like having a copilot who can help you navigate unfamiliar disciplines, brainstorm ideas, review your work, and even give advice from different perspectives. It’s a tool as broad as Google, but instead of just viewing information, ChatGPT allows you to communicate with it, almost as if it’s a person.

In this blog post, we aim to demystify ChatGPT for a broad audience. Whether you’re a high school student looking for help with your homework, a professional seeking assistance with a project, or just curious about artificial intelligence, this guide is for you.

We’ll start by explaining what ChatGPT is and how it works. Then, we’ll guide you on how to use it effectively, providing examples of prompts you can try out yourself. We’ll also discuss the value of ChatGPT and how it can assist you in various tasks. Finally, we’ll touch on some common concerns about using AI tools, such as inaccurate information, ethics, content ownership, infringement, and data privacy.

By the end of this post, you’ll have a solid understanding of ChatGPT and how to use it to its full potential. So, let’s dive in and explore the world of ChatGPT together!

Understanding ChatGPT

ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is like a super-intelligent computer program that can carry on a conversation on many subjects, almost as if it were human. It’s designed to generate human-like text based on the prompts it’s given. Think of it as a highly advanced chatbot that can understand and respond to a wide range of inputs in a conversational manner.

The magic behind ChatGPT lies in its training process. It’s been trained on a diverse range of internet text, learning patterns, structures, and information from this data. However, it’s important to note that while ChatGPT can generate responses based on its training, it doesn’t actually know specifics about who trained it, nor does it have access to personal data about individuals unless explicitly provided in the conversation. It’s like a parrot that can mimic human speech but doesn’t understand the personal experiences behind the words.

Despite its impressive capabilities, ChatGPT has its limitations. For instance, it can sometimes write incorrect or nonsensical answers, especially when dealing with complex or highly specialized topics. It’s also sensitive to the input phrasing, meaning slight changes in how you phrase your prompt can lead to different responses.

Another important thing to remember is that ChatGPT doesn’t have beliefs or opinions. It generates responses based on patterns it learned during its training, not on personal experiences or biases. If it says something that seems opinionated, it’s simply because it’s mimicking the style of text it was trained on.

In the next section, we’ll dive into how you can interact with ChatGPT and get the most out of this powerful tool.

How to Use ChatGPT

Interacting with ChatGPT is as simple as having a conversation. You provide a prompt, and ChatGPT generates a response based on its training. However, there are a few tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of your interactions.

• Be Specific: The more specific your prompt, the better ChatGPT can generate a useful response. For example, instead of asking “Can you help me with my philosophy homework?” you might ask “What is love?”

• Guide the Conversation: If you’re not getting the response you want, try rephrasing your prompt or asking in a different way. Remember, ChatGPT is sensitive to input phrasing. In the philosophy question above you can ask “How does love work? Explain it to me like I’m 5.”

• Set the Stage: For more intricate tasks, you can give ChatGPT a role to play. For instance, you might start by saying “You are an assistant that speaks like Mickey Mouse,” and then ask it to write a poem about love.

Now, let’s look at some examples of prompts you can use to interact with ChatGPT. Go to https://chat.openai.com/ right now to try them out. Sign up for the free version to try it out.

Here are some prompts to try:

• Summarizing: “Summarize this webpage into 1 sentence. “ ___ then paste in a webpage like the Wikipedia page of Sam Altman. Just like human’s, ChatGPT has a memory limit and if a webpage is too large you’ll have to break it up or use other techniques that I’ll cover later.
• Explaining Documentation: “List and number the steps for fasting from this document” ____ then past in instructions like the WebMD instructions for fasting. You can also ask follow up questions like “why is step 3 important” or “how important is step 2” or “could I do ___ instead of step 5” and things like that.
• Writing: “Can you help me write a poem about my mother who is _____ and always ____ and who helped me _____ ?”
• Learning: “Can you explain the Pythagorean theorem in a simple way?”
• Cooking: “What’s a simple recipe for a vegetarian dinner?”
• Brainstorming: “Can you help me brainstorm ideas for a new product I can launch at a low cost from home?”
• Reviewing: “Can you review this email for clarity and grammar? ” (for this one paste in your latest email)
• Role-Playing: “From a legal perspective, how can I defend against a parking ticket?”

Remember, these are just examples to stimulate your mind and show the variety of tasks ChatGTP can help with. The possibilities with ChatGPT are nearly endless. Try the above examples, ask follow up questions, and give follow up instructions. In the next section, we’ll explore more about the value of ChatGPT and how it can assist you in various tasks.

Value of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is more than just a chatbot. It’s a versatile tool that can assist you in a variety of tasks, making it a valuable asset in many areas of life and work. Here’s how:

1. Understanding Unfamiliar Disciplines: Whether you’re trying to grasp a complex concept in medicine, legal jargon, or the intricacies of software development, ChatGPT can help break down these subjects into understandable terms. For example, you could ask, “Can you explain how a vaccine works in simple terms?” or if you don’t know how to write software you can paste in code and ask what does this software do or you can say “Help me write a Chrome browser plugin that will keep track of how long I’ve been on a webpage with a timer in the upper left corner.”
2. Brainstorming: If you’re launching a new product, planning a conference, or trying to energize your team, ChatGPT can assist with brainstorming. It can generate ideas based on your prompts, helping you think outside the box. Try asking, “What are some exciting vacations we could take? We’ve been to ___ and ___ and would like to go somewhere that is ____. Our budget is ____”
3. Reviewing: ChatGPT can offer insights when reviewing your work. Whether you’re writing a blog post, drafting a business plan, or creating a presentation, it can provide feedback and suggestions. For instance, you could ask, “Can you review my resume clarity and coherence? I’m applying for _____ at ____ which is a ____ company.”
4. Drafting: From writing emails to crafting social media posts, ChatGPT can help you draft various types of content. You could prompt it with, “Can you help me write a birthday message for my colleague? They helped me with ___ this year and I value their ___ and ___”
5. Role-Playing and Advising: ChatGPT can role-play from different perspectives, which can be useful in understanding different viewpoints or explaining complex ideas. You could say, “Explain the democrat and republican values to me like I’m a 5-year-old,” or “From a legal perspective, what would the issues be with this contract?”

The value of ChatGPT lies in its versatility and adaptability. It’s a tool that can be tailored to your needs, whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone looking for a bit of assistance. In the next section, we’ll address some concerns you might have about using ChatGPT.

What to Watch Out For

In the realm of AI technologies, such as the language model ChatGPT, it’s crucial to understand a number of significant concerns. Topics like AI hallucinations, ethical considerations, data privacy, data ownership, and liability might seem daunting. However, breaking them down into digestible sections can make the intricacies of AI more manageable. This article aims to provide an accessible breakdown, whether you’re new to AI or an experienced user.

Understanding AI Hallucinations

Before venturing into ethical considerations and data privacy, we need to grasp a critical concept: AI hallucinations. AI models like ChatGPT sometimes “hallucinate,” producing content that seems credible but is entirely made up. This is not a deceptive action; instead, it arises from the AI’s inability to truly comprehend. The AI is similar to a parrot, parroting human language without grasping its meaning.

The potential for AI hallucinations underscores the need for user vigilance. While ChatGPT can be a powerful aid in generating content, it’s prudent to verify the information it provides. This is especially significant for tasks where accuracy is key, like schoolwork or professional projects.

Ethical Considerations

Venturing into the world of AI goes beyond comprehending the technical and legal aspects. It also demands adherence to ethical principles. A key part of using ChatGPT, or any AI, involves recognizing the difference between right and wrong. Your intuition plays a pivotal role here.

For instance, using ChatGPT to craft a rap about a friend in the style of a famous artist can be harmless private amusement. However, monetizing a service that uses a celebrity’s name to generate similar content might cross ethical boundaries. This could feel morally questionable and potentially expose you to legal liability.

Conversely, removing the celebrity’s name and designing a service to generate a rap about a friend could be ethically sound and entertaining. The golden rule is to be transparent about the source of the information and avoid misleading representations.

The Ownership Conundrum

As per OpenAI’s Terms of Use, users are responsible for the content generated by ChatGPT, subject to OpenAI’s conditions. Users maintain ownership of the inputs provided to ChatGPT, while OpenAI transfers its rights over the output to the user.

Yet, a significant caveat is that the rights transferred only encompass those initially owned by OpenAI. Given that AI-generated outputs can overlap and many users might receive similar outputs, the issue of original ownership rights, potential dilution of these rights, and future usage rights becomes complex.

AI-Generated Content: Who Is the Legal Author?

In the US, patents and copyrights necessitate human authorship, creating a quandary for AI-generated content. Despite efforts to recognize AI as an inventor, current regulations consider human involvement essential.

However, recent guidelines from the US Copyright Office state that works involving AI-generated content can register for copyright if they disclose the human author’s contribution. As a result, AI-assisted creations that meet certain criteria can secure copyright protection. Those wholly generated by AI, like ChatGPT’s outputs, cannot. They could be treated as derivative works or enter the public domain.

Infringement: Who Bears the Burden?

Users are responsible for the outputs generated by AI models like ChatGPT. This brings up potential issues of copyright and patent infringement. For instance, if ChatGPT closely replicates another’s work or creates a derivative work using copyrighted material, who will face the repercussions?

In the patent realm, AI could infringe upon existing patents if it produces an item or executes a process that is protected. The liability in these situations remains ambiguous, as does the potential for ensuing legal conflicts.

Confidentiality and ChatGPT

OpenAI’s terms do not guarantee confidentiality for users of ChatGPT. Users are advised against sharing sensitive information, as interactions may be reviewed for system improvements and policy compliance. Therefore, any confidential data provided to the AI model could potentially be disseminated by OpenAI, increasing the need for user discretion.

Can ChatGPT Be Used to Create Intellectual Property?

Despite these legal intricacies, ChatGPT can be a valuable tool in generating intellectual property. However, users must be aware of its limitations and potential inaccuracies. The content created by ChatGPT should always be scrutinized for accuracy, and prospective patent creators should refrain from using it to draft patent claims and specifications to avoid the risk of premature public disclosure.

In the rapidly evolving world of AI, understanding these concerns is essential. As technology continues to progress, navigating this landscape with knowledge, respect for legal norms, and ethical considerations becomes increasingly vital. By remaining informed and considerate, users can make the most of the opportunities offered by AI while avoiding potential pitfalls.

Remember, knowledge is power. The more you understand about these issues, the better you can use AI technologies like ChatGPT. If you want to learn more, you can check out OpenAI’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. And remember, if you’re ever unsure about something, it’s always a good idea to ask a trusted adult or reach out to OpenAI directly.

Recap: Unleashing the Power of ChatGPT

In this blog post, we’ve covered a broad range of topics related to ChatGPT, a powerful AI tool developed by OpenAI. We began by understanding what ChatGPT is and how it works, highlighting its ability to generate human-like text based on the prompts it’s given. We then delved into how to use ChatGPT effectively, offering practical tips and examples of prompts for you to try.

We also explored the value of ChatGPT, emphasizing its versatility and adaptability in assisting with a variety of tasks, from understanding complex concepts to brainstorming ideas. However, we also addressed some potential concerns when using AI tools, such as AI hallucinations, data privacy, data ownership, and liability, encouraging users to remain informed and considerate when using AI technologies like ChatGPT.

Now that you’ve learned about the power and potential of ChatGPT, why not give it a try? Head over to https://chat.openai.com/ and sign up for the free version. Use the examples provided in this post or let your creativity guide you. Remember, the possibilities with ChatGPT are nearly endless. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone looking for a bit of assistance, ChatGPT is here to help. So, don’t wait, start exploring the world of ChatGPT today!

Starting Your Adventure with ChatGPT: Your Digital Assistant was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Preamble: This blog post was created as an experiment, with GPT-4 generating the text and Midjourney generating the images. Both technologies showcase the incredible potential of artificial intelligence in content creation.

In the rapidly advancing world of artificial intelligence, staying updated on the latest developments is crucial. As someone with a decades-long fascination with AI and having spent countless hours exploring it over the past 8 months, I’ve found that AI is on the brink of revolutionizing our world, much like the industrial revolution. Today, I’ll take you on a journey through my discoveries on the OpenAI Discord server, where I stumbled upon the powerful GPT-4 SuperPrompt and the excitement it brings to AI exploration. Intriguingly, I decided to test SuperPrompt by using it to create this very blog post, showcasing its effectiveness in generating engaging content.

Discovering SuperPrompt

My adventure began on the OpenAI Discord server, where I joined other AI enthusiasts in discussing various AI-related topics and experiences. Here, I found a user named Quicksilver sharing an ingenious structured Q&A style prompt builder called the “SuperPrompt” in the prompt-library channel. Designed to work seamlessly with GPT-4, SuperPrompt enables users to create prompts that automatically summon the necessary expert roles based on the desired output. The process involves iterative collaboration with ChatGPT, allowing for reference use and fine-tuning to achieve the best possible results.

Diving Deep with SuperPrompt and ChatGPT

Embracing SuperPrompt’s structure and guidance, I collaborated with ChatGPT to generate this blog post, incorporating various expert roles. The iterative process facilitated adjustments to the expert roles and their skills, ensuring the most engaging and accurate outcomes. Utilizing SuperPrompt unlocked GPT-4’s full potential and optimized its performance, delivering a more immersive and captivating AI experience.

Success Stories and Expert Insights

Many users, including myself, have achieved remarkable success in harnessing GPT-4’s capabilities for a wide range of applications. Maxwell Timothy’s blog post, “How to Use GPT-4 on ChatGPT Right Now,” offers an in-depth guide on accessing and employing GPT-4 through OpenAI’s platform. Additionally, Twitter user WifiYoda (@WifiYoda) developed SuperPrompt and contributed to the process I’m currently using, exemplifying the creative potential of AI-generated content.

Conclusion

My voyage into the OpenAI Discord server and collaboration with ChatGPT using SuperPrompt has uncovered new AI possibilities and demonstrated GPT-4’s potential for creating engaging content. By leveraging expert roles and iterative processes, AI enthusiasts can optimize their AI-generated content, staying ahead in the rapidly evolving world of AI advancements.

Read the interaction that created this experience.

Unlocking GPT-4’s Secrets: My Voyage with the SuperPrompt and AI Innovation was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Steve Blank will answer your questions to help your #startup come out of this crisis strong, ready to hire, and growing again!

Join Tapan Kataria, Amanda Lewan, and me Monday while you eat your lunch!

RSVP now.

Haven’t heard of Steve? I’ll tell you why I’m excited in a 40-second video.

Here is a nugget of Steve’s advice:

“To begin adjusting the culture to this new reality, communicate these business model and operating plan changes to your employees. Offer relentless optimism for survival, but ruthless cost-cutting (starting with the CXO salaries). Let them know that as CEO you are going to be micromanaging for survival and expect each of them to do the same. You’re going to be relentless, direct, and clear that once decisions are made, there are no disagreements. And remind them that together you are all working to save the company and their own jobs.

At some point this crisis will run its course. Running this five-day playbook will help your business survive so when the recovery does come, you’ll emerge stronger and ready to hire and grow again.”

Learn more here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/steve-blank/

I’ll see you tomorrow!

— dave

Ask Steve Blank your Startup Questions Monday at noon! was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Email me dave@davidsilvasmith.com or tell your friends.

I want to connect with 1 founder today was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I know failing doesn’t feel good. Sometimes, like in the story I’m about to share failure hurts my feelings.

Even though I don’t enjoy failing at the moment it happens, now I look forward to a level of failure in my life. When I’m failing I’m trying new things. I’m learning. I’m getting better. If I haven’t failed in a while I haven’t been trying hard enough.

When I had startups I failed, a lot :)

I’m going to share a recent big failure and what I learned from it.

First I’ll share some backstory though.

I Want to Help Lansing Founders

In November, a few months ago, I decided I wanted to be less of a bystander in the Lansing startup community and do more.

Sitting at a Startup Weekend Lansing pitch day, I realized there is a whole team of people organizing these events. I attend each event, but why don’t I do more than just attend? Why don’t I volunteer and help out? I made a commitment right there to volunteer and help more.

I started something with my friend Jerry Norris, but that’s a story for another time.

This story starts when I saw the Spartahack V announcement. I saw it and decided to volunteer instead of passively attending and checking out the demos as I’d done the year prior.

I emailed them and blocked off the weekend on my calendar.

My First Failure

As the event drew closer I was trying to make personal plans I didn’t know the schedule and had trouble planning. A week or so before the event they asked for my availability and I specified essentially the whole weekend.

The day before the event, Thursday, I got my schedule assignment and I was assigned Saturday and Sunday. I was happy I didn’t have anything on Friday. I had personal troubles brewing but figured things would be OK.

Saturday morning, the first day I was scheduled, I realized I wasn’t going to keep my commitment. I needed to attend to some personal matters. I checked the schedule and saw other volunteers were covering and I emailed the organizer saying I couldn’t make it today.

Volunteering Gave me Ideas

Sunday I thought about bailing again to deal with some personal issues. I felt awful about it and decided to keep my commitment and show up for my shift.

I checked in, found out I was judging and did my best to judge and engage with presenters.

I also took photos and connected with a couple of the organizers.

I felt excitement flow through me! Spartahacks was great! I’d arrived in a sour mood, but I felt like this is what community is about, awesome people doing it, putting their work out there. Plus my mind got spinning……..

Many founders I meet with are looking for technical co-founders. Here at SpartaHack V, in my own back yard, were hundreds of potential technical co-founders. Better yet, they’d demonstrated their technical acumen by building and launching a tech product! I saw machine learning, machine vision, natural language processing, all kinds of awesome projects!

My mind kept spinning. I started thinking there was a divide between the rest of the Lansing tech community and these students. I didn’t see any other community members here. It was all students and sponsors, who were trying to recruit them. I decided I wanted to be more involved next year. I wanted to try and bridge these tech wizards with other Lansing tech gurus and startup founders. I thought that would be a good thing for Lansing’s startup community and for the Spartahacks attendees.

I met with two of the key organizers. I realized they were busy with their event so I asked them to meet up after. They told me “Dave, that sounds great.” I realized I didn’t know much about this group. Before pitching them on my ideas I wanted to learn more about the attendees and what their goals were and if there was a fit with what I had in mind. Do they want startup help, mentors, jobs, etc? I had no idea, and I wanted to find out.

On my way home, feeling high from the event, I shared some of my highlights on Twitter and LinkedIn and shared my photos in their Slack channel.

Post Event Work

I reached out to the two organizers I’d met. One responded on Slack and LinkedIn, one did not.

I help organize some other startup events. As I mentioned above, I loved many of the presentations. I posted a link in the SpartaHack #random channel saying hackers could apply to demo at DemoCamp Lansing.

The only feedback I got was a positive thumbs up on the link.

A week later, late on Tuesday, February 5th, I posted a link to Startup Weekend East Lansing, saying it was a great event for SpartaHacks attendees to keep their project momentum going.

Banned

Wednesday morning I opened their Slack to see if anyone asked questions about the event. I was surprised to discover I was logged out of my account. I spent time fumbling around have multiple slacks, trying different emails, passwords, Slack’s forgot email password link, then finally somewhere in this process I got a message saying

“Your account was deactivated.”

Weird I thought… I didn’t get banned without warning for posting other startup events in the #random channel, did I?

But what else could it be — they probably didn’t shut the whole slack down.

Later that day I messaged one of the organizers, asking if he’d be at Startup Weekend Lansing. I decided to go out on a limb and just ask him if I got kicked.

He said, “Yes Dave, posting other events is against the rules.”

I immediately shrugged off his response, “oh well’.

I didn’t expect what happened next.

I realized I felt hurt I’d been kicked out.

I don’t know exactly why. Maybe disappointment? Maybe feeling like I didn’t belong? Maybe hurt at the way it had happened? Maybe feeling unwanted? Maybe embarrassment at my conduct? Maybe they didn’t like how I bailed last minute and this was a reason to give me the heave-ho?

I decided to step further out of my comfort zone. I wrote the organizer back telling them how I felt.

So what did I learn besides I don’t like rejection?

Three Things I Learned

1. I will Proceed more cautiously in new situations. Look for ways to try things and mitigate risk instead of diving in all the way.
   I wish I hadn’t volunteered for the whole weekend. I wish I hadn’t canceled. Part of it was the unknown. I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. If I’d volunteered before, or new some of the organizers I could have helped more.
2. I will work to treat volunteers for my events better.
   I’m sure in the past I’ve left volunteers hanging the way I was hanging, not knowing my schedule until just before the event. Now I know how it feels, and the stress it creates. I don’t expect I’ll be perfect, but I know I’ll try and be better.
3. I don’t understand online communities as well as I thought I did.
   I’ve never been booted before. I have had awkward conversations with moderators before, questioning my intentions, but never banned or booted. I haven’t been successful at engaging well in online communities and I think getting booted helped me realize I don’t understand them as well as I thought I did.

What do you think I should learn from my experience getting kicked?

P.S. Thanks to Rick Mason for reading an early draft.

Learning From Failure was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’ve written about one investment I made, critiqued a pitch deck, and startup sales.

So far the article you seem to have liked most is “How My Fears Doomed My First Startup”, which is about my struggles with sales and customer engagement 9 years ago.

I have a couple of dozen startup articles drafted up, but I’m curious — what would you like me to write about next?

— dave

What do you want me to write next? was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Founders often ask me: “Dave, I’m pitching next week, what do you think the judges will ask me?”

I remember feeling nervous about pitching when I was an entrepreneur doing some of my early startups.

Just the thought of me submitting a pitch, and then anxiously wondering if my idea is good enough, or will it be laughed at, was enough to give me sleepless nights. It seemed like the worst part, but submitting wasn’t the worst part for me.

My anxiety went to new levels after being accepted to pitch in a competition.

After being accepted to pitch I realized I was about to put my hopes and dreams out into the world. Out in the world where people can say “It sucks!,” “You suck!”, find mistakes in my work, or tell me “Dave, your idea is awful!”

I know part of that is newness. When I’ve never done something before I don’t know what to expect. My mind will turn it over and over wondering about it.

The past few weeks founder have been picking my brain about is, “Dave, what will the judges ask me?”

What will judges ask me?

I agree with my friend Rick Mason, “The questions judges ask are unpredictable and highly personal.” I tell my friends to prepare talking points that paint themselves in the best light. I advise to always answer the judge’s question and then work to pivot into your talking points.

Judging panels here in Michigan usually include sponsoring organizations like:

• Economic development organization members
• Bankers from the commercial lending department
• Intellectual property lawyers
• Accountants

The other two types of judges I often see are:

• Investors
• Entrepreneurs

As Rick said, questions stem from the judge’s backgrounds. I expect lawyers to ask about patents, contracts, or other legal matters. I expect economic development members to ask why doesn’t an existing company do this, or how do you scale this.

Sometimes I’ll hear a judge ask an off question — like in a pitch about Uber for college students who want beer, an accountant might ask about the fermentation process. In this case, I find usually they have a personal experience, for example, the accountant might be a home brewer or own a brewery.

If you can research the judges to get an idea of what they’ll ask about.

Ok ok ok, so now I’m going to tell you my three favorite questions to ask.

What is your revenue over the last 12 months and what was your revenue last month?

If I don’t see a revenue chart in the presentation, I’m most curious about revenue. I want to have a rough idea of the size of the business and growth. Hearing the answer to this question gives me both.

12 months revenue gives me an idea of the size of a business. 1k,10k,100k sized businesses are at very different stages.

The reason I want to know their revenue for the last month is that I get an idea of their growth trajectory. For example a team with 100K 12 months revenue, but 20K last months revenue is on track for 240K revenue over the next 12 months. That is almost 3x year over year growth! On the other hand, if a team has 100K 12 months revenue and 7K last months revenue, they are on track for 84K over the next 12 months. They are going in the wrong direction.

What do your customers love about your product instead of your competitor’s solution?

Being as good as a competitor isn’t good enough to grow quickly. For example, I love Uber compared to public transportation and taxis.

I love that

• I can pull out my phone and have a car coming to zip me off in under a minute
• Uber works the same at home as when I’m on the other side of the country
• I always have a good idea of my estimated time of arrival at all points
• the payments are frictionless

Often times I see startups competing on price: we are cheaper. I don’t like that answer. I want to see we are cheaper and we are 10 times better. Going back to Uber, getting someone to use an app just because it’s cheaper is a tough sell. Unless customers are spending a significant percentage of their income on the app the savings are meaningless.

Another answer I hear often is we are better because we use blockchain, machine learning, etc. I don’t like these answers either. I want to hear what customers love about the product. How does it empower them to do something they couldn’t do before, or make their experience 10 times better.

How are you going to get your first customer?

When a startup pitches me and they haven’t sold yet I ask them how they are going to get their first customer? At the idea stage, a startup is theoretical. The founders have a lot of ideas about how their product will be used and how customers will love it.

When a customer swipes their credit card or writes a check, that is when I see startups going from theoretical to practical. I have an easier time talking to founders with customers because their answers are based on what they’ve experienced.

Those are my Three Favorites

I’m an investor and those are my three favorite questions.

1. What is your revenue over the last 12 months and what was your revenue last month?
2. What do your customers love about your product instead of your competitor’s solution?
3. How are you going to get your first customer?

The answers help me determine if I should learn more about the startup to assess their investment potential.

P.S. Thanks to Rick Mason for reading an early draft of this.

Judging Pitches: My Three Favorite Questions was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In 2010, I doomed my first startup from the beginning. I never gave it a chance. Through reflection on my failure, I grew and became empowered to sell a product before I hadn’t even started building.

If you only read one thing and skip the rest of this article, here is my biggest takeaway:

Startup sales is about understanding and solving problems. Customers buy solutions, not features. Tweet This

Learning to Sell

I figured what better way to learn about sales than to do it as a job. I had no idea how to switch from working as a software developer to working in sales, but hey, at least I had a goal. In September 2010 I successfully landed a 20% sales, 80% software development job at a friend’s new company. I worked hard. I learned a ton, and after 1 grueling year, I felt good about my sales numbers, process, and close rates.

Discovering a Problem

I’d also become a podcast junkie. When I was doing dishes, mowing the lawn, driving, walking, I was listening to podcasts. One of the podcasts I listened to was Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income. Each episode he shared interesting knowledge for entrepreneurs. Two ideas were particularly interesting to me: preselling products and earning income from websites.

When I like ideas I want to try them. First I decided to try building an income generating website. I built and tried to market a website where I shared bitcoin investing results: win, lose, or draw.

I realized creating websites in 2014 was just about as hard as creating them in the 90s. Everything was more complex now. I wanted a lightning fast website, load times under 1 second. Being a software developer, I used a nerdy open source project called Jekyll and I proudly had sub-second load times. On the downside, editing websites was difficult. Actually, editing is probably a bit of a stretch. I was coding my website.

I had a feeling from talking to business owners and manager over the years that many of them wanted better experiences too. I thought wait a minute, why don’t I build what I want to see in the world?

I think many small business owners only have one person managing a marketing website that is a pain in their neck. I think they would gladly have something simple and easy to use.

This time though I didn’t want to build a product no one bought. This time I wanted to make sure people would use the product I spent time coding.

Prospecting the Presale

I called up a good friend who had been complaining about her website for a while. I asked her if it was hard to edit, I asked her if it was annoying that it didn’t look right on mobile, didn’t look good when shared on Facebook, etc. She said yes yes yes! All those things! I hate our website!

I asked her if I built a product that fixed those things would she buy it for $2,000? She said, “Absolutely!”

I called another friend and had the same conversation with the same results.

Two phone calls and two highly interested customers. I felt I was on to something. Now could I build what I was talking about?

Could I Actually Build it?

I wondered if I could really build my solution. I thought I could, but I wanted to be sure. My mission was to prove out the riskiest part of the business — that I could build an easy to use editor front end to the tech stack I was using. I saw the next Startup Weekend Lansing was in two days. I signed up, figuring the time constraint would give me the pressure I needed to code up a minimum viable product.

That weekend I didn’t get much sleep, but by Saturday night I’d created an easy to use editor that I could use right away for my own websites.

Now it was decision time. Should I sell something I haven’t actually built? What if it didn’t work well? What support issues overwhelmed me? Will my friend hate me if I fail? I remembered another lesson I learned from 4 Hour Work Week, and I thought about the worst thing that could possibly happen.

Then I realized what I’d do if everything totally failed.

I would apologize and refund my friend’s money!

Closing the Presale

I called my friend back and told her I had built an early version of the software to solve the problems we talked about last week. I told her I wanted to show it to her and have her sign a contract if she was still interested.

That Friday I had a signed contract in hand and my most successful startup to date.

Startup sales is about understanding customer problems and offering solutions. Most customers don’t care about how things work. They just want their problem solved. To buy from you they need to be confident you can solve their problem. That’s why it is easier to sell a product that exists, a customer can be shown here is the solution to your problem. Selling a solution before it exists is harder, but it can be done.

4 Steps for Product Presales:

1. Know the space you are working in. The options available, the pros and cons of the options, the price-points of those options, etc.
   I had 20 years of experience working in and understanding the web development space.
2. Talk with potential customers about their problems.
   I called potential clients who I thought had the problem I was describing and talked with them about it.
3. Create a plan in case you can’t deliver.
   I put aside my fears of failure by creating a worst case scenario plan, I would apologize and refund all their money.
4. Get commitment.
   I got a verbal purchase commitment at a specific price point for solving the problems we’d talked about before writing a line of code. After writing my prototype and showing it to the client I got a signed contract before building out the product.

Thanks to Rick Mason for reading an early draft of this.

How I Sold a $2,000 Product I hadn’t Built Yet was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I loved the idea of creating a software company people would read about in the papers. I loved the idea of building software that helped millions of people around the world. However, I didn’t want to change, sacrifice, or grow to make that happen. I wanted to do what I was good at. To stay in my comfort zone and just have success rain down on me. I was so scared, I didn’t even think about the challenges I’d face in trying to build a hyper-growth massive company. Deep down I was afraid if I tried something new, it would be hard, I’d suck at it, and I’d fail.

By avoiding the uncomfortable, by staying in my comfort zone, I never gave my Startup a chance.

About 2010 David Smith

Flashback to 2010. I was an unbelievably nerdy software engineer. I wrote code for fun. When I wasn’t writing code, I liked reading books to improve my code writing. For vacations, you are probably thinking Florida or something, right? Not me. I liked to go to software development conferences like CodeMash, devLink, Ann Arbor Day of .NET, etc. I admired code the way Picasso admired and drew inspiration from art.

I arrogantly believed if an engineer, like myself, made a great product, people would buy it.

Side Note: Now that it’s 2019, doesn’t mean I’m not still nerdy, I just don’t read software development books any more :)

My Dream — Build it and They Will Come

I had dreams of building a startup. I was a deeply technical computer programmer. I’d developed a fascination for how computers worked at a low level and this enabled me to solve some problems that almost no other programmers could solve. When software crashed, I could load up memory dump the machine took as the software was crashing and I could determine the cause of the crash. I was building a piece of software, uncreatively named “Dave’s Debugger”, to make crash determination easy, just a few button clicks. Load up the memory dump file, click analyze and Dave’s Debugger would print out a nice message to the monitor saying why the other piece of software crashed.

I loved working on Dave’s Debugger, I dreamed of how it could help people. Unfortunately, it never stood a chance to help a single person. No one except for me ever saw this software. I focused on the technical architecture. I was proud of the software patterns I used. I was proud it could run as a windowed piece of software and from a command line, all from the same codebase! I took pride in the beautifully crafted software I’d built.

After a few late nights of coding Dave’s Debugger worked too! It helped users quickly diagnose PC blue screens.

What did I do after solving the problem? I kept working. I thought of ways to improve it technically. I thought of more features to add. I did what I loved. I coded and crafted.

I avoided what I didn’t know. I avoided what scared me.

I avoided selling my product. Heck, I even avoided telling anyone about it. My software couldn’t help anyone, not one single person, because I never shared it. I wouldn’t face my fears of talking to other users and facing their rejection of something I loved. By burrowing my head in the sand I was able to dream that my software would do great things. By burrowing my head in the sand I also doomed my software to never help a single person.

Eventually, I got tired of marveling at my technical creation and stopped work on it.

What I Wish

What I wish I would have done, and what is hard for me to do now is to engage with potential customers. I wish I’d swallowed the butterflies in my stomach, ignored my sweaty palms trying to avoid dialing, and called people I’d never met before. I wish I would have grown and at least tried to figure out who hurts the most from software crashes? How do they solve that problem now? How much do they pay to solve those crashes? Who has critical software crash on them the most?

After understanding the problem I was solving it, and who I was solving it for, then I wish I’d built a beautiful solution that solved their needs. Maybe they didn’t need any software at all. Maybe they wanted an expert to come in onsite to diagnose the problem. Maybe they wanted to upload their memory dump files and have me send back the report.

I have no idea. I stayed as I was. I didn’t go outside of my comfort zone. I spoke with 0 customers, I made $0 in sales. I was the only person who ever used Dave’s Debugger.

My first startup had zero impact on the world because my fears doomed it from the start.

Thanks to Rick Mason for reading an early draft of this.

How My Fears Doomed My First Startup was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I wanted to build a software company people loved. I wanted to help millions of people by building something they loved.

This time wouldn’t be like my previous failures. Software that no one else ever saw, let alone used.

This time was different. I have a working Minimum Viable Product, MVP, this time. Other people have seen what I’m doing. They think I’m crazy, but they just don’t get startups. Right?

Something was missing though. Users weren’t flocking to my app. I felt I just needed to raise money. That’s what I saw news stories about. Yeah! That would get me there. I just need to get a venture capitalist to write me a check. Then I’ll use their investment to build my product and increase the user base.

One problem…. I didn’t know any VCs. How would I meet with them?

I thought it was a David and Goliath story. Me being David and the VC being Goliath. I thought if I could just get them to understand the potential of what I was building we’d have a shot at building something used by millions around the globe.

I was completely wrong, however, I was successful in getting that meeting.

Today I’m going to tell you how got my first Venture Capital Pitch Meeting.

What was I building?

In 2011 I felt overwhelmed by email. I’d get up around 5AM, work on emails until about 7AM, go to work, work on emails throughout the day, get home, and after my 4-year-old son went to bed I’d pound out more emails.

It was too much!

I noticed managers missing emails.

I decided to do something about it. I decided to build software that would help reduce the time spent on email. I had grand ideas of analytics. I decided to start small something I could build in a couple of days and launch. I realized many emails shouldn’t be sent in the first place. I thought — hey if email recipients can say what they want to get, and it shows in the sender’s email client, then that could reduce the amount of email received!

Here’s a demo video I made to try and drive sign-ups.

Many people, myself included, felt overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive. Messages from clients, relatives, business opportunities, went unanswered for long periods of time. I thought the best way to help was to reduce the amount of email sent. I built an MVP in a couple of weeks. It was a Chrome extension that would allow the owner of an email address to let people who were about to send an email, what type of emails they would want to receive and what not to.

I pitched the idea at Lansing Demo Camp.

I shared my project with my bosses and coworkers.

I told my friends about my idea.

I emailed founders of competitive companies to see if there were collaboration opportunities.

I showed the software at our company lunch and learns.

Basically, I told everyone who would listen about what I was working on.

In early 2012 I felt I was as ready as I’d ever be to pitch a VC for the first time. I wanted to raise money and turn this project into an impactful high-growth company.

Getting the VC Meeting

I’d found the best way to connect with people I didn’t know, was to meet them in person and make a specific ask.

I’d had some success with cold emails, cold phone calls, etc. but I’d also spent a lot of time there and had a LOT of failures.

I’ve had 100% success in having the person consider what I’m asking when I meet them in person.

In late 2011 I knew of one Michigan-based VC firm, Detroit Venture Partners.

I poured through their website learning who worked there and what they were looking for.

In a few weeks, on a Wednesday, I saw they were hosting a meetup! Perfectly enough it was to meet the firm. Perfect!

I decided to make the 90-minute drive there, meet their managing partner, and ask for a meeting.

This would be my shot. I felt it would be my chance to face someone who could turn my project into a startup bursting with happy customers.

That Wednesday I drove over to Detroit. I spotted their managing director. I introduced myself and told him I had a prototype I was working on and that I wanted his feedback. Our interaction was over almost as soon as it started. He gave me his business card and said call me.

It took me a week to get the courage up to call him. I’d built this up so much in my mind and told my friends about it. I didn’t want to hear a no and feel like a loser. I also didn’t want to let this slip. Finally, 7 days later, I swallowed my nervousness and dialed.

We had a quick phone call. I told him I wanted to show him what I was working on and get his advice. He told me to email him with some dates for the week of February 20th. I emailed him this cringe-worthy email the next day.

Amazingly, that email with a rambling first paragraph, that put the scheduling effort on him worked!

Why would such a horrible email work? I met him in person.

That’s my advice to you:

1. Build something, preferably a working prototype.
2. Meet angel investors and VCs in person
3. Get their contact details
4. Follow up with a meeting request to get their advice and feedback.
5. DON’T immediately pitch them! Ask for advice. Develop a relationship.

Give it a whirl and let me know how it works for you in the comments.

P.S. Thanks to Rick Mason for reading an early draft of this.

How I got my first Venture Capitalist Pitch Meeting was originally published in DS Does on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.