bobdorf

By Bob Dorf

Almost without a doubt, it’s the largest MVP in history: more than 20 feet long, 10’ high and 10’ wide—2,000 cubic feet and 5,000 pounds in all. What’s more, the huge MVP has already recorded some $305,000 in sales from its first user and half of the seed round for “Block Party Suites.”

I met co-founder Steve Gilman in my full-semester Lean LaunchPad class at Columbia B-School, where I was impressed with his energy, dedication to entrepreneurship, and earlier life as a pro baseball player.

In an “office hours” we reviewed a rough business plan he and co-founders developed to serve the exploding tailgating market, and rough sketches of the MVP itself: a 20’ ocean shipping container converted into a portable open-air party center, complete with luxury furniture, a rooftop deck, big screen tv’s, team logos, and more.

I always admire founders who self-fund, and this team’s limited capital (30K among three co-founders) funded an MVP of the suite that could be easily produced and put to work, soliciting end-users for feedback—just as I’d taught Steve in class: hypothesis/test/learn/iterate, of course. (He got an A).

The MVP taught the team quite a bit: • Sports properties needed upgraded accommodations outside of the stadium to grow with the popularity of pre-game tailgating • Sponsors needed lots of room and electricity for signage • Stadiums weren’t the primary prospects at all; sports properties and event planners were, they control the “street to seat” experience on game day • Nobody wanted to buy the unit; leasing the unit for multiple events was the key • And a huge incremental revenue opportunity: providing catering, beer, and staff

The rest, as they say, is history: a solid pipeline of prospects and contracts pending, and a seed round that’s half-filled in less than sixty days.

For your own private tour in Dallas, TX, visit www.blockpartysuites.com or contact my star student @steven@blockpartysuites.com.

by Bob Dorf Finally, there’s a slight wisp of sanity in the FCC’s view on the proposal to create a high-priced “fast lane” on the Internet. Thursday’s New York Times reports, “Federal regulators appear to share one view about so-called net neutrality: It is a good thing.” While the battle is far from over, for sure, it’s perhaps the first positive sign that there’s hope for startups.<p>Why is net neutrality so important to startups? If CNN and Disney, Netflix and NBC can all pay Comcast and Verizon to “push” their content faster and ahead of companies without zillions, it puts any startup company at a severe, perhaps deadly disadvantage. It’s classic “big money runs big government,” and as undemocratic as life can get.<p>Roughly 60 days ago, on the World Wide Web’s 25th birthday(March 14 if you missed it) Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of “www,” cried out for “net neutrality,” without the prioritization that a recent Federal court case suggested was totally ok. p>Remember January 2011, when Egypt’s struggling government actually turned off the internet to stifle protests? Or China’s choking internet pipes to stifle free speech? Yes, founders, this is far more toxic than slowdowns of monthly users or page views!<p>To understand “net neutrality” just type “avc.com” into your browser, where Fred Wilson shows us exactly what happens.<p>We’re clearly not out of the woods yet. All that actually happened yesterday was the FCC’s agreeing to “open the debate.” This will bring big gun lobbying pressure that maims startups(not to mention oppressed folks striving to be heard. Their budgets are usually even smaller.) As the Times says, “before the plan becomes final, though, chairman Tom Wheeler, will need to convince his colleagues and an array of powerful lobbying groups that the plan follows the principle of net neutrality.”<p> Write Hon. Thomas Wheeler, Chair, FCC, 445 12th Street SW, Washington DC, 20554.