I’d noticed startups got way less done when they started raising money, but it was not till we ourselves raised money that I understood why. The problem is not the actual time it takes to meet with investors. The problem is that once you start raising money, raising money becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what you think about when you take a shower in the morning. And that means other questions aren’t.

(Rest of the article is here.)

At the moment we’re really focussing on building what in the start-up world is called the ‘product’ as we design a new service to help people organise small groups to learn from one another. I have to say I’m really enjoying it. It’s entirely what I’m thinking about in the shower rather than worrying about all the permutations of investment or legal issues.

However, there is a bit of a knack to minimising the amount of time I spent on managing the company. Some of that came with experience – the first time I had to do an annual return for example, I worried about it quite a bit, but the next time it was much less of a distraction. Other tricks are about choosing the right tools – Things has helped me not to have to worry about remembering key dates for company admin and the simple spreadsheet I use for managing cashflow is now very easy to use. There’s also choosing the right people to take boring problems away – having the right accountants and lawyers definitely helps.

I guess that’s why we’re running Accountancy Club – to help people spend less time worrying in the shower so they can think about building exciting things instead.

Fred Wilson has a neat little blog post today called Retooling Stale Businesses which is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. While the car was a pretty smart and lucrative invention on its own, its biggest impact was that it led to suburbia, fast food, and many other completely new social systems – many of them things we now see as bad. But I couldn’t help feeling a little bit emotional watching the Top Gear piece about the decline of British sports car manufacturers, especially the eerily quiet Jenson and TVR factories. But of course the Lotus factory (the other place Clarkson and chums visited) is actually turning out the Tesla Roadster.

There are no shortage of new ideas in the car world, many of them suggesting the model of organisation will change radically. I’d be surprised if car ownership was anywhere near as common as now by 2020. The riversimple guys are doing some of that. Liftshare and Streetcar too. Maybe Better Place will pull some of it off too. And the interesting thing about all those is that they are only possible because of the internet.

For me we’re getting to the most exciting phase of the internet’s development, when it gets beyond novelty and into reorganising society at large. The need to help shape that reorganisation for social benefit is why we’re starting Bethnal Green Ventures to offer support to projects that set out to use the internet and mobile for social good. It’s early days but you can find out more here.

Cambridge Audio Amplifier – bought when my student loan arrived I seem to remember from Richer Sounds in Nottingham in 1996.

JPW Minimonitor speakers – little beauties bought with the amp above. The Technics CD player hasn’t made it but the amp, speakers and cables are still going strong.

Raleigh Kalahari bike – bough when I was 14 I think so now 18 years old. Has had new brakes, a new saddle, new wheels and several sets of tyres. Still going strong though.

Balzano Carmencita stove top espresso – I’ve probably used this 3 or four times a week for 9 years. I bought it from Tinderbox in London fairly shortly after it opened (I think in 2001). I haven’t seen one anywhere else and can’t really find any trace of them online.

Apple Powerbook G4 – Can’t quite remember where I bought this but I think it was in 2004. I did buy a new battery for it a few years ago from eBay but it’s held up remarkably well. I don’t use it as a workhorse anymore – it now really just sits at home and runs Spotify.

Back in December 2008 we picked Ivo Gormley’s idea for Social Innovation Camp – here’s his original application. Over the course of the weekend a brilliant team developed the idea and in the final pitching session the team won. Since then Ivo and the team have got the project off the ground and now I’ve moved to Tower Hamlets I can be part of it.

So after a CRB check, The Good Gym has matched me up with Veronica who I’ll be visiting once a week to deliver some fruit and have a bit of a chat. And as I met with Veronica for the first time this evening the project was featured on BBC London News which was a nice coincidence.

You can find out more about the project here. If you’d like to join or can help grow the project to other areas, do get in touch.

The name Bethnal Green derives from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘happy corner’.

The London Fields Farmers Market on a Sunday morning is very good. The Roman Road market is great during the week.

Museum Gardens is an absolutely gem of a park. Tower Hamlets must spend a fortune on keeping it in good nick.

There are some fantastic bloggers in the area. I found this wonderful one today.

The best coffee shop is Taste of Bitter Love on Hackney Road, Hurwundeki and Climpson and Sons are runners up.

My favourite pub is the Camel – the Wandle beer is brilliant and I’m always a fan of places that only have one thing on the menu and do it well (in this case its perfect pie, mash, peas and gravy). The Dove and The Approach come joint second for me.

The gasometers go up and down much less in the Summer than the Winter.

The friendliest service in the area is found in E Pellicci on Bethnal Green Road. You can also find Dave Gorman in there from time to time.

There’s a tardis like shop on Bethnal Green Road selling hundreds of different type of tropical fish for aquariums.

The cafe in Hackney City Farm is one of the best places to eat during the daytime if you can stand being prodded by small children.

The Film Shop on Broadway Market is well worth joining. Great range and I think better value than Lovefilm and all that malarkey.

First Thursdays on Vyner Street are great for people watching.

Gourmet San is the best Chinese restaurant I’ve been to in London and it’s on Bethnal Green Road.

You can get sushi delivered – hadn’t even thought of it but Demaezushi do it very, very well. A million times better than anything the supermarkets offer.

Best fish and chips is a little walk but definitely Fish House in Lauriston.

The chef at Viajante used to work at El Bulli (I haven’t been yet to find out whether it’s any good).

Square Mile Coffee Roasters are based in the railway arches near Cambridge Heath station. Walking past when they’re roasting is a joy.

In parallel to thinking about what we believe, we’re going through a lean startup methodology, using interviews and questionnaires to identify problems people would like us to solve and the smallest number of features we could build into some technology that would solve them.

The hunch (or hypothesis to use Steve Blank’s word) we’re working with is that people want to learn new things but find formal courses or lessons off-putting and expensive. The idea we have is to help people organise their own small learning groups. You can find out a bit more about the idea and tell us what you think here. Results so far are very encouraging.

Here’s the blurb:

Accountancy Club meets up for lunch at 1pm on the last Friday of each month in Bethnal Green to talk about running small organisations. It’s for people who never thought they’d have to deal with HMRC or Companies House forms and is a chance to share what we’ve learned with one another. There won’t be any of that ‘leadership’ or ‘changing the world’ gubbins, just practical stuff and a good sandwich.

If you’re interested send me an email (paul[at]paulmiller.org). We’ve only got space for 12 people I’m afraid so it will have to be first come first served.

One of the best things about the weekend – which you’ll see in the video – is the help we got from young people. So many events are remote from the people who will ultimately use the services being discussed but that definitely wasn’t the case at Jailbrake. Katee deserves a special mention for managing to pull that off.

Jailbrake 2010 from The People Speak on Vimeo.

“But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”

“Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”

“But the plans were on display …”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”