In the spirit of SXSW Interactive 2013, and being a startup once ourselves 17 years ago, we've decided to provide our web-based timesheet for free to all startups with 10 users or less. We want you to be successful, and we believe we can help. There are three key factors that can affect a startup's productivity that Journyx helps remedy:

1. Identifying time sinks

2. Determining when to outsource or to hire a dedicated employee

3. Analyzing company history and making smart decisions on how and where to scale

Click here for more information. Of course, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can email me at christa@journyx.com.

Enjoy, and let us know how it works for you!

If you haven’t heard the story of Caine’s arcade then stop reading now and go check it out.

Back? Ok, we can get started.

This story has gripped the internet for so many reasons. Young Caine is inspirational, a story of childhood dreams realized. Caine also represents pure, unblemished entrepreneurship freed from the bounds of conformity or the realization that maybe this is just too difficult to accomplish. We are impressed by his drive, the fact the he sat outside that arcade day after day after spending an entire summer building it out of old boxes. His ingenuity and problem solving is similarly impressive; he solves problems with elbow grease, and has “bootstrapped” every aspect of his business.

Interestingly, there are many takeaways from this story that aren’t of the feel good variety. Namely, young Caine has built repeatable processes into his arcade from the beginning, and has automated time consuming tasks wherever he can. For example, take a look at the ingenious way that he validates fun passes. While it would take a cruel-hearted individual to try to scam him, Caine has nevertheless taken the initiative and developed a security system for the fun passes. He has done so by placing calculators on the games and requiring the entry of a number that must then match the square of the number on their fun pass. I’m making this sound way more complicated that it is, (Cain just says, “Enter the number then press the check symbol!”) yet the fact that he already accounted for an issue and instituted a repeatable process to prevent it shows foresight that some million-dollar businesses lack.

Further, Caine shows acumen by taking customer comments into account. He discusses the fact that one of his games was deemed too easy by one client, and shows how he upped the skill level to match demand. This iterative thinking permeates business theory and serves to remind us that, ultimately, we must pivot or fail. Again, if every startup business were to take this idea to heart, they would likely have a much greater chance of success.

So, with all the best wishes in the world to Caine, I hope we can tip our hats and learn something from this clever entrepreneur. He has certainly had his day, and if he continues with the intelligence he has put into the first project, he will almost certainly find success in his future endeavors. 

One of the top viral videos on YouTube right now in the technology space is Leap Motion, with almost 2 million views in two days. Why has this San Francisco startup's video received so much attention? Let's disregard for a moment the hip, visual appeal of minimalistic design reminiscent of Apple and Google products, paired with trendy, relaxed background music. Leap boasts “motion control technology that is radically more powerful and also significantly less costly than existing technology” (ahem, Kinect!). What I've found most impressive is that Leap’s accuracy is so precise that it tracks movement to 1/100^th of a millimeter. You’ll witness this in the video- it’s impressive!

Journyx provides efficient timesheet software for businesses large and small. We have covered many of our software's advantages in the past, from key integrations to small business advantages. One of the topics we discuss the most is the importance of building a backlog of data from which to learn, and we stand behind that. The value of a backlog of information is maximized if the business begins tracking time from the outset. However, many businesses do not realize the necessity of a robust time-tracking tool until much later, relying instead on less sophisticated paper-based methods or simply not tracking time at all. Any startup should definitely integrate time tracking as a core process.

For one thing, the disparity between what the startup founder thinks will take the most time and effort and what actually takes up the majority of a company's time is often quite different. Even if a business is being “bootstrapped” and run by a small number of people, it is incredibly valuable to know what the greatest time sinks are for your company, and where more attention is needed. In many cases, it is not readily apparent that specific tasks are preventing other, more important duties from being performed. A time-tracking tool, and the discipline to use it, will reveal such issues quickly. Startups that can pivot to tasks with a greater ROI are often the ones who find the greatest success.

Another benefit of time-tracking for startups is derived from the first. By knowing exactly which tasks are time drains, you can determine what jobs can be outsourced and which ones require a dedicated employee. Take a company website, for instance. If the team is relatively inexperienced and spending a great deal of time coding the site, it might be a good idea to outsource the project so that they can focus on jobs that play to their strengths. If, on the other hand, the team is struggling with ongoing website maintenance issues, and the site goes down for extended periods of time, it might be better to go ahead and hire a programmer full-time. Remember, both skill set AND time should act as determinants for resource allocation.

I know what you’re thinking: one of the greatest challenges for startups is lack of cash. How can you afford an advanced time tracking solution? Well the good news is that Journyx provides its Timesheet application for free to all businesses with ten users or less. We want you to be successful, and we believe we can help. Get your time under control so you can determine the best path for your business, from startup to mature company.

If you’ve been following my posts on this blog, you may already know this about me: I love, love, love SXSW Interactive. But do you know what Interactive means? Do you know why I think it’s so grand? Let’s take a closer look at what’s behind all the annoyingly bright orange lanyards, outrageously long lines, conference hashtags crowding your Twitter stream, more swag than you could possibly ever use, and a conference that turns major highways into parking lots. Despite how “glamorous” I just made SXSWi sound, it’s actually quite incredible and here’s why.

Hands down, the main reason I enjoy going to these tech events is because of the community they bring. Bringing together the most intelligent, proactive, disruptive-thinking people so they can all interact is electric. It’s kind of like TED – SXSWi has an “Idea Worth Spreading” (pun intended). SXSWi shares similar TED qualities but with lots of wide-eyed entrepreneurs, gaggles of freshly venture-backed startup teams, a sea of highly judgmental venture capitalists and, of course, me!

Here’s a little secret: experiences like this actually happen all the time in Austin. SXSWi just attracts people from around the country to our playground for a week. Talk about intense! I love to brag that I have the opportunity to live in this up-and-coming tech hub. Although now our secret is out and Austin really isn’t “up-and-coming” anymore. It has arrived with fascinating momentum!

This would not have happened without organizations putting in the elbow grease to make this work. It is absolutely necessary to give credit to networking groups like Door64, Tech Ranch, Austin Women In Technology , ATC,  We Are Austin Tech  and, of course, Austin Ventures. All of these organizations recognize the great potential of getting the geeks (and geekettes!) of Austin in collaboration.

Armed with a Redbull, I stopped by the We Are Austin Tech booth at the SXSW Startup Crawl in the gorgeous downtown Omni Hotel for the Interactive kickoff. It was great to meet up with director/producer, Ruben Cantu of We are Austin Tech at their booth.

Let’s keep in mind that it’s all of our responsibility to grow the community. I’ll speak for Austin when I say we certainly have a fun time doing it!