Massive Damage is a Year One Labs’ portfolio company, founded by Ken Seto and Garry Seto. The company has just released their iOS game, Please Stay Calm on the U.S. App Store. They’ve been beta testing it with players in Canada for about a month, and now they’re ready for prime time. Please Stay Calm […]
The $250,000 Funding Trap
$250,000 is a lot of money. Venture investors might not think so, but for most of us it’s a lot of moolah. And for early stage startups it’s often the amount they ask for coming out of the gate (or $500,000 – which seems to be pretty standard as a first, seed ask). The problem […]
Visualize Your Website to Crystallize the Value Proposition and Target Market
It’s quite common for early startups to lack clarity around their core value proposition and target market(s). There’s a temptation to go wide on both – offer lots of different value to lots of different people. But generally that doesn’t work. A focus on a specific, differentiated and compelling value proposition targeting a specific, well-defined […]
7 Tips for Successful Board Meetings
Once you’ve raised funding, your board meetings will likely become a lot more serious. Prior to raising capital your board likely consists of the founders and that’s it. After funding, your investors will want a seat at the table (and maybe more.) Boards are often setup with 5 people (2 founders, 2 investors and an […]
Promises and Platitudes – The Dangers of Low Quality Advisors
Having great mentors can make a huge difference for you, individually, as an entrepreneur. I’ve never had a mentor, but looking back I’m certain it would have been very helpful. Even today. Mentors are there to help you, and by extension (potentially) your startup. But even if your startup fails, or you’re not going where […]
Time to Whack Some Freaking Zombies
No, I’m not talking about killing off zombie companies (although I do think entrepreneurs should do that.) And I’m not talking about real zombies either (although if you see one, please do something about it.) Today, it’s all about virtual zombies in a new location-based MMORPG called Please Stay Calm. Please Stay Calm is an […]
Competitive Research 101 for Startups
Whenever I get pitched by a startup, I always look to see if they’ve properly identified the competition. For starters, I can guarantee you that someone is already working on the same idea. It’s a universal truth. But more importantly than that, competitive research and analysis is one of those areas that is often horribly […]
Designing a Game Incubator
After writing several posts on startup accelerators and incubators, I received an email from Jason Della Rocca. He’s been working on designing a game incubator in Montreal. It’s a good idea, and one that I believe makes sense for the city. As I’ve said before, you have to play to your strengths, and in Montreal […]
An Alternative Model for Startup Incubation
Recently I wrote a blog post on things to think about when starting a startup accelerator. I pointed out that most accelerator programs take between 5-12% or thereabouts for a fairly standard amount of money and time. Year One Labs is a bit different (more money and more time = more equity taken); our belief […]
Help Me Help You – Join the Instigator Blog Feedback Group
I love writing. Although I’ve struggled to write consistently of late, I always enjoy hitting “publish” and seeing the content go up live on the blog. I think the content is worthwhile for people, although commenting has slowly declined over the last few years. I think that has a lot to do with Twitter though, […]
Founding Partner at 