Lets create a Startup Incubator in Second Life

[Wili Clip]

I am interested to meet people with various knowledge & experience from the business world with interest of setting up a startup school / incubator in Second Life.

It would be a place in SL where people with ideas & various skills, knowledge & experience meet, learn together & network.

Its aim will be to help scale up or increase sales for existing SL creators & help them reach next level of growth.

I have long had an idea of creating such place in a virtual world SL. I am inspired by a story of how Silicon Walley came to be as a result of Frederick Terman, the legendary dean of Stanford engineering school during the 1940s and 1950s. He created the tradition of Stanford faculty starting their own companies.

It is all about creating a space and a climate of positive, friendly, creative and growth inspired people who seek to achieve technological breakthroughs, progress and growth. Builders. I believe SL can become such a space on an international scale. If we make it into.

I have been doing business in SL now for 10 years, ever since my student years. Everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned through SL by actually doing things & learning from experience. I did everything 1st on a small scale and then kept learning how to make it bigger.

With my 1st ever "big" project in SL and upon introduction of my business plan I've been laughed at by then SL community on SL Universe forum. Now SL Universe with most of those people is gone but my 1st big project on which I was able to learn to then make even more projects which were more successful still runs successfully. Now if ever anyone laughs at me I am ok with it and it doesn't affect me as its just a reflection of that persons inflated ego or even ignorance.

With like minded people I would like to create an environment that will encourage people starting something new and learn ( even a project that fails is a learning experience ). A place where people with new ideas are encouraged to learn to execute them and find like minded, similarly highly driven friends who can help with their knowledge, experience, connections towards growth and new breakthroughs.

The reality is that most people never start anything because they are afraid of failing. Most people are afraid of taking risk and settle for comfort zone (that never leads to growth and new learning experience). Also failing leads most people into self doubt that can lead to depression. Because that is what we are all taught in schools.

Schools were not designed to produce people who are comfortable thinking outside of the box. Although some teachers and professors are amazing at adding that component in their teachings. Most unfortunately don't.

The tight online forum communities that are always looking for their next laughing target are not helping making the world a better place and one could argue that its even a form of online bullying (I am sure we'll have some of it in this topic too). This demotivates many people from trying to break through their comfort zone and innovate. Why would anyone enjoy at bringing other people down emotionally? (Some people are just like that because it boosts their self esteem as they are lacking their own or seeing others succeed makes them feel bad about themselves so they want to prevent it if its in their power). I've learned to move away and ignore such people. It is an important part of becoming confident as an inventor, innovator, entrepreneur and not only that but also it helps you be a better person.

After 10 years of learning and growing in SL I have reached a point where any additional work input no longer leads to increased growth output. I have so many projects and active daily user base in SL is currently only at 50-60k.

I realized that any new successful game product I create in similar fashion as I did before would cannibalize on all my others. This is also why I paused my next project massively multiplayer game specifically designed to work in SL environment just before 1st ALPHA release. I don't currently find it worth investment of my energy and time. I believe it similar with many other people with strength and skills set to potentially develop the next big product or killer app for in SL that would positively affect Second Life's user retention rate and number of concurrent active users daily.

I am not primarily motivated by money. Since I studied economics I see it as a tool to build. Money for me is capital. I already have enough to live comfortably being with my income in within average of top 25% programmers in US (stats from 2019). When I was a student 1st year I quit IT university because being a programmer was not what I saw myself in the long term. I switched to economics - business school but been learning about both IT, economics and many multidisciplinary fields.

I am not the best programmer because I actually write code very slow & sometimes it takes a lot of effort for me to do it. But I have managed to earn more with my programming work than most programmers that are way faster and time efficient at solving algorithmic problems. It is not about how I program but it is all about what am I programming. I learned what works best for average consumer/player in SL. I am a CEO that most often does customer support work himself (it is a very good way to get most valuable 1st hand information about how your  product is doing to be able to surgically target investment into product improvement that will have the highest impact). A lot of implicit knowledge is needed from various fields (psychology, sociology, economics, neuroscience...) to be able to innovate in tech industry. (But even if you are highly educated and with PhD you are not going to perform and actualize your potential if you don't take risks and stay within your comfort zone. Many people who are highly educated are afraid of loosing reputation and are afraid of doing anything and they stop growing).

I have been successful in Second life as a programmer creator but now after 10 years of every day hard work and while in the eyes of many I am seen as successful I feel like a failure because despite good income I stopped growing. I realized few days ago that in all that time I could do so much more if I had a whole team of highly skilled people at my hand. But for that I will need a startup that I can raise investment capital with.

Since 14 days ago I started purposefully pushing myself out of comfort zone and started doing things I've been afraid of doing and starting to do before. My life has improved. I keep reaching for newer and higher goals.

A day ago I've decided to instead keep working hard its time to start working smart. I have sent an email to Linden Lab's VP of product management Patch Linden with a (detailed product description) of a new game system I plan to base my startup as a joint-stock company. So that I can raise investment capital to set up a team and develop 1st and then many more projects. Before I can make the next step I will need a formal approval of my product design by Linden Lab. So 1st step has been already made with sending formal request to LL and now waiting for reply.

My goal is to keep doing what I am good at. Inventing games in SL and keep gamifying SL to make more people want to spend time in SL for. But this time on a much larger scale with more risks and larger rewards for everyone involved. With a backing of US corporate-venture capital instrument. But in the long run I want to become investor and some day support life extension research. To me that is best investment anyone who reached the top can make. As results benefit everyone.

I've been learning and running business for 10 years I am ready to take the risk. I am an ex competitor in martial art judo. I Iive to compete and reach new bigger goals. I work all the time and last year I even moved my office into a kitchen (it just made sense to be close to water). I hope I can create a success story of SL and inspire other content creators and that maybe we can join our efforts either through joint investments or direct cooperation to move Second Life forward.

I want to set up a startup incubator organization in within SL with like minded people from all over the world. I want that we create a highly innovative and encouraging environment that will make it much more easier for young developers to develop and reach their true potential faster. To be able to launch companies that can reach multi million valuation a lot more skills, knowledge and connections are needed than 1 successful individual content creator can have. Especially because when you are creating content you need to be focused on it. We need an incubator that can make growing business from within SL easier and faster.

We are organizing in a SL group called:

SL Business Consortium

Its open to join.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip
Grammar

[Silent Mistwalker]

SLU isn't gone. It's VVO now. 

You had my interest up until you started blasting people and then continued doing it. That whole paragraph about SLU was unnecessary. It wasn't something anyone needed to know. It had nothing to do with your proposal. What it shows is that you hold grudges for years. No, thank you. I will pass. 

[Wili Clip]

26 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

SLU isn't gone. It's VVO now. 

You had my interest up until you started blasting people and then continued doing it. That whole paragraph about SLU was unnecessary. It wasn't something anyone needed to know. It had nothing to do with your proposal. What it shows is that you hold grudges for years. No, thank you. I will pass. 

 

O.. O I don't hold any grudges. Just an experience I had in past and from which I learned something. There are good and positive people and there are people who prefer to view everything in a negative way. Its always better to be positive. Positivity makes new things possible and is a constructive, enabling force  while negativity is a destructive, disabling force.

That is just the way it is. Its really up to every and each individual how they prefer to be. It takes more energy and courage to be a positive person and its admirable. \O.. O/

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip

[Luna Bliss]

30 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

What it shows is that you hold grudges for years.

 

[Garnet Psaltery]

It seems that you cannot grow your current business any more, because the number of people in SL is not growing - I take it this is to do with your advertising business.  So, you want to find a way of starting a business that will grow, and for that you need a team of talented, ambitious people to work with you.  You dress this up as wanting to provide a facility for their benefit.  I could perhaps believe your story if you had not displayed unprofessionalism in your rant about this forum and the previous one, and said so much in praise of yourself.  I am not convinced one bit by your sales pitch.

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, Wili Clip said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that quote, as I beat my head against Blender atm....lol    Failing is GOOD yes it is    

[Luna Bliss]

cues up the banjo song from Deliverance...."we don't like no straaaaaaaaangers round hare"...

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

2 hours ago, Wili Clip said:

I will need a formal approval of my product design by Linden Lab

Uh oh! What if you don't get their approval? Would your innovative new product design then be against their Community Guidelines?

[LittleMe Jewell]

Is there a TL;DR version?  It is a rough day at work and so my attention span here is limited.

[Wili Clip]

30 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

Uh oh! What if you don't get their approval? Would your innovative new product design then be against their Community Guidelines?

In that case I will redesign until it can get their approval. Already did that 6 months ago and we got a green light. Just re-submitted it now because I added some things on top of it since then.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip

[Winston Chandrayaan]

5 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Is there a TL;DR version?  It is a rough day at work and so my attention span here is limited.

Summary:

Some project they want people for.  Amazingly vague once you wade through the word salad and realized nothing is really said.

Lots of self-pimping.

They thinks SLU sucks.

 

[Wili Clip]

29 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

It seems that you cannot grow your current business any more, because the number of people in SL is not growing - I take it this is to do with your advertising business.  So, you want to find a way of starting a business that will grow, and for that you need a team of talented, ambitious people to work with you...

I believe that currently the number of people in SL is growing as is the number of active players in my games but that is due to the virus as there are lots of people who either lost their jobs or can not go out and do their usual things. In normal conditions SL has a high drop out rate of new registered users who register account and then they leave soon after as they don't find anything that they find interesting doing in SL.

So everything that is developed in SL that gives people the reason to keep logging in SL is good for SL.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip

[Winston Chandrayaan]

15 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

cues up the banjo song from Deliverance...

Didn't realize you played the banjo.

[Luna Bliss]

1 minute ago, Winston Chandrayaan said:

17 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

cues up the banjo song from Deliverance...

Didn't realize you played the banjo.

Didn't realize you're such a scaredy-cat that you can't post under your known avatar..

[Wili Clip]

34 minutes ago, Winston Chandrayaan said:

Summary:
...
Lots of self-pimping.



 

 

That is just the type of personality I am. I try to self motivate myself anywhere and everywhere, I don't mean making anyone feel any lesser for it. I am sorry if it made you feel like that. It was not my intention.

I don't think publicly saying that you're less good of a programmer from most of the other programmers really fits your narrative about self-pimping.
(saying I am the best programmer and there is no one better now that would justify your comment).

My way of communication is different because already since many years ago I stopped being obsessed with what other people think of me or what they would think of me if I did that or said that or said that same thing in a different way...

Through growing up from childhood I didn't let myself live because I was worried what other people would think of me. And today I think most people spend so much energy into creating their public representation of themselves and are so anxious about it that they forget to live their lives and they don't do things they really want and in a way they would really want it.

I just speak freely and want to freely express myself. It has given me ability to do things in a different way and outside of box of expectations of other people.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip

[Luna Bliss]

Ok, I am de-stressed....time to get back to Blender!!

Good luck with your project, Mr. Clip....

[Wili Clip]

5 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Ok, I am de-stressed....time to get back to Blender!!

Good luck with your project, Mr. Clip....

Tnx Luna. Lots of creative success in Blender to you. \O.. O/

[Tatiana Lapis]

Good luck

[itoibo]

I like your idea, Will.

Through your products you have shown you know how to make things happen.

[animats]

I ran into a new user in SL recently who wanted to make a co-working space where people working on projects outside of SL could work together. I'm in Silicon Valley, where such places exist in real life. (Or did; I miss Hacker Dojo and TechShop.) So I showed him a co-working space someone else had built. But no one goes there. I explained how you could subdivide a parcel and have local talk zones so people could use voice chat within their zone without bothering anybody, or go to another area, or the common area, and chat. I showed him a few office spaces in SL, including the SYZM Tower and my own workshop.

But he never built anything. I was disappointed.

It's a reasonable idea during the epidemic. Something someone in the SL landlord business might consider. Has anyone ever built a successful one that gets used?

[Talligurl]

It seems this sort of thing would suffer from two issues. First the issue that plauges all SL relationships. The various schedules in RL of the various parties and the difficulty of getting everyone available at the same time.

Then it seems like this would be a great opportunity for less creative individuals to rip off the ideas of others who are more creative. Someone proposes an idea, someone else talks to them about it. Then the second person goes out and does it and leaves the creative person out in the cold. I can easily see those with more technical skills than creativity ripping off those with creative ideas who lack the technical know how to impliment them.

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

One of SL's key features is that it's a collaborative building platform, unlike the Train Simulators or Flight Simulators where you build off-world in isolation and then upload it for others to experience. The collaborative experience is what really made SL for me.

To the OP, I think you should just go ahead and do it inworld instead of discussing it out-of-world, forum discussions often take a particular path as you've noted. Talking about something is always going to invite all sorts of responses, all quite valid, but there's nothing beats going into SL and actually doing it.

I would suggest first you visit somewhere like Builders Brewery to get a feel for how they're doing things.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Profaitchikenz Haiku

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 hours ago, Wili Clip said:

 

O.. O I don't hold any grudges. Just an experience I had in past and from which I learned something. There are good and positive people and there are people who prefer to view everything in a negative way. Its always better to be positive. Positivity makes new things possible and is a constructive, enabling force  while negativity is a destructive, disabling force.

That is just the way it is. Its really up to every and each individual how they prefer to be. It takes more energy and courage to be a positive person and its admirable. \O.. O/

ok. I may have misread what you wrote. Not necessarily anyone's fault. I just happen to have the misfortune of being in some pretty severe pain from a frozen shoulder so that probably had something to do with it. I'm sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I'm glad you got something positive out of it! 😊

[Wili Clip]

Startup Incubator would basically be a place in Second Life where various business educational meetings are carried out by the people who know what SL is and what its virtual business needs are as they've been part of it for years. For example:
- how to successfully run business in SL
- how to create a brand
- how to do marketing in a virtual world
- how to increase sales
- how to cooperate with other content developers - success stories, pitfalls
- what to be careful about
...

But most importantly a place where we network, make friendships and find ways to cooperate with each other or invest in each other or co-invest together.

Also the most important how and where to incorporate when you manage to grow big enough in SL to do that. Who are the investors that are supportive of virtual world business endeavors. I am now only starting to learn about setting up a startup and there is no place where I could go in Second Life and get all the support I need for my business idea from  incorporation and then raising capital, hiring - costs structure and so on. I have to do all the research and find a way how to do all that on my own. It is taking me much more time than it would if the support structure already existed.

To make a move from small to middle business into trying to grow a large business enterprise is stressful for anyone. The idea of Startup Incubator in Second Life is to create a support structure to make this transition easier and to make more content creators to decide for real life incorporation of their virtual businesses started in SL in a form of a shareholding companies. Currently most successful content creators in Second Life are happy as they are in comfort zone. If we want to extend the life of Second Life as a platform we need to start doing larger waves.

If I went to any RL business incubator in my own country they would just look at me weird as they don't even know that such thing as Second Life even exists. If to any business incubator in US they would probably not even be interested in anything built in within SL because its too dependent on Linden Lab.

If we are to start building companies from within SL who start from small virtual businesses by creative people that might grow millions of USD in valuations because users of those products will want to co-own shares we will need team effort.

In a way SL Startup Incubator's goal would be to create an industrial cluster like they are known in automobile industry.

For example my plan if I successfully incorporate a shareholding company will be to use the investment capital to develop systems and products in SL that will make it easier and faster for other content developers to develop higher quality content in Second Life. I am specialized in creating games so I envisioned a system or more a platform in within which we will develop APIs, open source scripts and integrations to make it relatively simple for 3D designers and other programmers to create new games in SL.

Now all those things (creation of new tools to make it easier to develop content in within SL) probably is or should be primary mission of Linden Lab. But reality is that Linden Lab is a big company and for big companies its generally known that they struggle with innovation. We can see for example how Firestorm Viewer has been relatively more successful at implementing more things that SL users actually wanted than official SL viewer. Why is Firestorm more successful despite it by TPV agreement not being allowed to change the user experience from the main viewer? Its because Firestorm has a large and very well organized support community.

It is easier for smaller companies to innovate. So my idea is basically to bring innovation to Second Life from within in similar fashion as this happened in case of XSTREET that became SL Marketplace.

I believe Linden Lab could become supportive of such new smaller and more agile companies that would be set up and funded by most successful content creators in SL and their supporters from their  communities that are from all over the world to bring new innovation to Second Life. In case if any such company is starting to become very successful or at any point Linden Lab can simply co-invest in the company and later buy out.

I am willing to take all necessary risks to make this happen and I am prepared to set up and incorporate 1st such shareholding company probably in Delaware and raise capital. If I am successful I want within the SL business incubator help other most successful content creators in SL to do the same transition from small to middle size business into a larger enterprise. Second Life Business Incubator is in that sense a learning organization to enable formation of a virtual business cluster set of many businesses that co-own and help each other to together create industry wide breakthroughs.

I have a friend that is one of the best 3D model designers in SL and she told me that she can not cooperate with other content creators in SL because she can not trust them. Enforcement of any agreements (like split shares on products developed) within SL is totally impossible. So the cooperation that could happen is not happening. Recently I successfully cooperated with french programmer and she modified her chessboard so that I could develop a traffic system on top of her chessboard. We programmers can cooperate without trust but for designers and 3D models that is not possible.

About 5 years ago I lost my business partner designer who we cooperated amazingly together. She left because she started to think its not possible to really make it in SL. We need to retain the extremely skilled and talented people but to be able to do that it needs to be possible to make startups of which successful creators can grow million dollar businesses and have an exit strategy and ability to sell the business to someone else.

Our industry is virtual world and rather than compete against each other in a constant or sometimes shrinking pool of consumers we should cooperate, co-own each others market shares and work together to make Second Life get and retain more people from all over the world.

In automobile industry the case is such that most automobile companies co-own each other.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Wili Clip

[Garnet Psaltery]

So you want to make something and hope LL like it enough to buy it.  I see where this is going.