Startup To Enterprise

Loudcaster - turning internet radio upside down

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:54:00 -0500

One of the biggest decisions an experienced professional can make is to take a speculative role giving back to the industry they’re in. The second biggest decision is take an operative role again!

I’m delighted to say that I’ve joined one of my clients: Loudcaster.com. We’re going to turn internet radio upside down.

Loudcaster is going to turn internet radio upside down. Literally.

I’ll be using this site to make observations about startups - still. What’s going to change about this blog? Nothing. I’m still going to make observations about startups!

I’ll be blogging with my Loudcaster co-founders here:

Loudcaster blog

Cheers!

Dear Google...

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:04:15 -0500

We’ve heard about your broadband efforts and are in complete support of them. We believe Newburyport would be a wonderful anchor city. A quintesential colonial town on the seaside, filled with a diverse population. We broadband.

Please note that we have Verizon FIOS installed right up to our city’s border only to be stopped due to some petty manager’s decision.

We’re a progressive city of approximately 19,000. So much so, an indelible mark of progress is seen in our wind tower, which can be seen from Interstate 93, we have North Shore Web Geeks that meet monthly and everyone drools over the various pubs here. A great time is had by all when they come!

We’re on the edge of the chasm, just waiting for the right vehicle to take us forward. Will it be Google? We hope.

If you would like more information, just ask!

BTW, Wave ROCKS! Buzz ROCKS! Yeah!

A Geeky Valentines Day Idea using Twillio

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:18:00 -0500

My wife, Sherri and I have been married for 23 years. I’ve always tried to do interesting things on our anniversary or Valentines day to make things a little special. Here are a couple of examples: Money was tight on our tenth anniversary so I just bought her some jewelry but I was resolved to do something great on our 11th. With the help of a friend, I flew her to Vegas and had a limo pick us up for renewal of vows at the Little White Chapel. It was great! Elvis sang to us and we came away laughing as always! A couple of years ago, I blindfolded her and took her to a lighthouse for dinner. I drove all over the place to end up about one mile away from our house. We had a great dinner.

This year, I’m doing something COMPLETELY GEEKY! I’m going to use Twillio!

I’ve got a server (or not going to tell you where.) I’m going to get an 866 number from Twillio. I’m going to take their sample code (PHP) and put in love messages. I will be launching URLs with the text message and it will SMS her with a phone number. She dials the number and gets the luv message. Fun, huh? I’ll tell you how it goes. Hopefully it won’t be spam love, just sappy… Check them out!

If you’re thinking about what to do, here are some great technologies that you can use:

Oneforty.com has tons of great apps including 8 for apps and services for dating, crushes, flirting, missed connections:

· Flirt140 http://oneforty.com/item/flirt140

· Plenty of Tweeps http://oneforty.com/item/plenty-of-tweeps

· Misd.me http://oneforty.com/item/misd-me

· My Tweetheart! http://oneforty.com/item/my-tweetheart

· twittypop http://oneforty.com/item/twittypop

· Flirtings http://oneforty.com/item/flirtings

· Crushtweet http://oneforty.com/item/crushtweet

· HotTweeters http://oneforty.com/item/hottweeters

Happy Valentines!

Spinning Plates and Crayons or PowerPoints and White Papers

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:00:19 -0500

A friend who’s the global head of sales for a large software company told me that today, he’s bringing out the spinning plates and crayons instead of the traditional PowerPoint presentations and the White Papers that accompany them. Due to their business and typical audience, they typically focus on their technical value propositions.

Here’s the way I looked at the differences - in the eyes of the customer type:

Have you thought the differences in your startup? Maybe this table will help you tease out the notion a bit. What kind of presentation do your target customers respond to?

Do you always spin plates when the customer wants white papers? Perhaps vice versa? How do you distinguish between the two?

Stinkin' Thinkin' Startups: Don't name your stuff Alpha or Beta

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:31:58 -0500

The terms alpha and beta to describe a startup’s launch product are simply wrong. Last week, I wrote about so many startups failing to launch and many of the sites are in “beta” mode. Alpha, beta, bronze, silver, gold, it’s all stinkin’ thinkin’. Startups must be focused on the customer and providing value to them. Orient your release names towards customer acquisition and let your early adopters tell you when you can start charging.

Why? If you’re not focused on getting paid, how and why are you in business? Secondly, if you change to this kind of naming convention, your potential paying customers have the notion that others have adopted it. It’s true, early adopters have, they just haven’t paid for it or have paid a lower fee.

Consider the following names for your release stages:

Demo – Enough to truly demonstrate your value propositions. This should be completely out in the open if you’re confident that no one can imitate you easily. If they can, I would suggest that you don’t have enough to get to market in a big way.

First Adopter(s) – Just enough code beyond your demo for your first adopters to grasp your value proposition and consider paying for the product (unless you’re freemium of course.) The great part is that you can add more features until your early adopters say “Yep, we love it and you can start charging for this. In fact, we’ll start paying for this!” (Next question of course, how much would they pay?)

Paying Customer – You’ve validated your principle value proposition and customers are willing to pay. There might be other more suitable names but your customers get this one. Potential paying customer: “When did you release this product?” You: “We had early adopters in March.”

Once you have paying customers, lean and agile notions start to shine. No more traditional phase names as you’re continually putting customer-driven features in front of them.

Startups have Lower Odds than College Athletes Turning Pro

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:26:35 -0500

I don’t think people realize how extremely hard it is to get a company launched. Some folks say that if you make into college ball, you have a 1:40 chance of turning pro. The odds are longer for startups.

My friend, Tom Summit of Genotrope does quarterly updates called “When will they launch?” that lists a few startups we’re all waiting to see. Only one out of twelve have actually launched. The rest are in “beta” or “stealth” or they’ve morphed into something else. Tom only listed companies he knew about. I could add six or seven to his list! That tells me that out of about twenty companies, one launched.

I’m think being generous here but I think once you’ve launched, you have about a 1:50 chance of getting angel or VC funding.

1:20 X 1:50 = 1:1000.

The odds are longer for web companies that are organically self-funded. Perhaps even as high as 1:2000. I know three or four and they’re very patient. They also have an anchor business that helps them fund the new one.

That should tell you one or two things: You need commitment and you need to be realistic.

As a startup consultant, I come across budding entrepreneurs who say “We’ve got this great idea but I don’t have any money! Can you help me find an angel?” only to find out they’re part timers who have an ok idea, no code, and no real commitment. Sound harsh? Go code and then we’d love to talk to you.

Others that I talk to have code but they’re part timers. Depending on the circumstances (my time commitments and a deal), I’ll work with them – depending on how long it might take them to launch. Are they prepared to quit their job? It depends. If it’s a straight IP play, they might not have to. If it’s an operating business, how much are they willing to give up?

Still others are full time entrepreneurs who continually morph their business model until they find something that works and they like. That’s ok. It depends on their ability to stay in the market. Each change in focus represents sunk resources and time.

Knowing the odds, are you committed?

Don't Give Up

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:59:36 -0500

Lizard Fighting - Seth Godin's Linchpin

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:54:00 -0500

Seth Godin challenges conventional wisdom (again!) with his new book Linchpin. In it, he says that we have a choice of being cogs in the big corporate wheel or sharing our best gifts with others. Some companies call people like this a pain in the ass and others embrace them. He calls them linchpins. Mr. Godin believes they’re indispensable and have undeniable qualities and habits that we all have and should expose and promote.

Mr. Godin goes to great lengths to tell us how corporations have reinforced the notion of sameness while seeking lowest cost delivery models. Linchpins don’t follow this model.

There are four or five major precepts he promotes while ultimately letting us know that we have to give to receive. I believe the funniest is the Lizard Brain, which is a part of our subconscious (somehow along the way we were trained to have it) that only seeks food and safety.

If you accept the notion that you have undeniable, indispensable gifts, Linchpin goes on to say how “The Resistance” will constantly fight you. Why? You’re of two brains, one being called the Lizard Brain. He says that a part of us is conformist and seeks to fit in and by doing so, we rob the world of our best work and what is right for the rest of the world. The other brain seeks to be an artist and knows that non-conformity through the sharing of our gifts (through emotional labor) is the right thing to do. Emotional labor are all of the uncomfortable tasks that we know we have to do; despite the norms that hold us back.

I believe he does a wonderful job discussing how we got to the notion of sameness (or nourishing our lizard brains). Corporations are forced to do what’s best for the shareholder and unfortunately, that shareholder doesn’t really care how they did it. Individual shareholders don’t have a voice, only the market. Unfortunately, now, the market consists of a few decision-makers and lots of computers backed up by lobbyists and politicians.

Boiling it down: Mr. Godin underscores the eternal conflict between our hearts (and the things we know are right, the things we know we have to do) and the notion of sameness, conformity, and lowest cost delivery.

Mr. Godin is a linchpin and rebel. As with his other books, there are a significant number of unattributed references and my lizard brain had to fight this notion to accept his message. I also had a difficult time knowing which things he was promoting over others but this is his style. To him, perhaps it is all most important. My lizard brain fought against that so I could form some conclusions and write this! My lizard brain makes my head spin. Does yours?

All in all, a 4 out of 5. It would have had a 5 if I could have seen a PowerPoint first. Get it!

Please join thousands of other Tumblr users in supporting Haiti

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:20:31 -0500

Please join thousands of other Tumblr users in supporting Haiti:

staff:

Thank you.

Tungle - Shatters Agile and Gets It Right

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:35:00 -0500

I like it. Why? Rifle-focused, spot on satisfaction of basic customer needs. Shared calendar, public appointment enrollment, a custom URL for a calendar, personal profile, connectivity to social networks and syncing Outlook, Google Calendar, etc. Simple interface, easy to use. What’s not to like?

From a startup point of view, I think they’ve gone just a little bit beyond lean development and focused their value stream on the right table stakes to make a helluva launch with the right feature set. Just when you’re thinking that agile development consists of streamlining and getting minimal features out in a singleton fashion, someone goes the other direction, creates a little market headroom for themselves by getting the right features out first and off they go!

Lean means getting it right the first time by understanding your customer. They’ve increased their agility by getting it right out of the gate. What are your table stakes to make a dent in the market on launch?

For you Tungle-experienced folks, did they do too much? What are your thoughts on table stakes for launch?

More. More Blogging Needed in 2010

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:55:00 -0500

More about customers, less about you – In general, I blog about companies and people with whom I’ve had contact. I hope that helps others. Most of them are local and I call the owners or try to engage them in Twitter or on their Facebook Fan Pages.

More company representatives blogging about their needs - Retail consumers typically blog about their needs. It would be great if companies did. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard for companies who build products for companies to design and build them.

More comments! How’s that for honest? If the blog post isn’t interesting, I’d like to hear about it. Hopefully the title caused you to be curious and so is the content. If not, say so.

More business Ideas - I’d love to see them. If I made a post that has a business idea you have considered as the result of reading a post, I’d love to chat with you about it! If you blog, how about posting your ideas! If I’ve missed your post, I would love to hear about them here j s t a c k at the following domain: 3 big heads.com - I might know someone who can help!

More startups blogging about their challenges more often. It’s ok. Everyone has problems and I’m pretty sure you might have some helpful comments. Perhaps you might think that if you post them it makes you appear weak – actually I think its the opposite you’re strong and open. I plan on blogging more about my challenges. I definitely have them!

More VCs blogging more about pitches they turn down and why - Wouldn’t it be interesting if VCs talked a bit more about companies they’ve turned down and why they turned them down?

More accurate blog titles – Misleading headines (typically reverse of what the content is about) waste my time. I’m pretty sure you feel the same. For example, An Affordable Apple Computer: Meet the iSlate should have had the word CLONE in the title.

Have a great 2010!

Bits Have Spirit

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:58:00 -0500

Bits have spirit.

While this might not be an original idea, I’ve been thinking about it a great deal lately. Many of us convey our thoughts and emotions through a computer to share with others. Somewhere in the ‘net, they’re stored in little bits and bytes until they’re retrieved for later use. Much like packing away old photos or letters, we can take them out at any time and with a little bit of remembrance, feel the same emotions that we had when we first experienced them.

Like most of you, I get a little nostalgic over the holidays. I don’t just think about the holidays with friends and family, I think about all my friends, most of the events in my life, and a bit about the future. The trigger? Now, most of the time its little the little bits that you all share – either 140 characters at a time in Twitter or the small stories about being stuck in traffic, going on a bike ride with kids, shopping, re-energizing at Starbucks, drinking, gambling, chasing women, links about science, healthcare or politics or about the organizations to which you belong.

Bits have spirit or at least they have the ability to invoke them.

Thanks for your bits. Happy Holidays.

Five will Survive. Two Will Dominate.

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:47:17 -0500

Today, I was thinking about my clients and came up with this axiom:

Five will survive. Two will dominate (in the US.)

Search Engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing/MSN/WindowsLive, AOL, Ask

Cellular Networks: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular

Cell Phones: Apple, Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, HTC

None of my clients are in these markets but I’m optimistic they will be heard in their markets. Are you disruptive, a fringe, provide 1:1 value with customer requirements? Do you aim for the top?

A Failure to Plan is Still Failure

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:36:00 -0500

Startup consultants everywhere (well, at least here in Newburyport) probably sighed a collective sigh of relief after reading Derek Pilling’s “What We Have Here is a Failure to Plan.” His post outlines good reasons why you need a plan. Read it. Simple. After you’ve read, here are some further qualifications:

Does it have to be a big plan? No. It just states what you’re going to do and why. That way, post IPO, you can keep your job since your whole existence isn’t accidental. (Not that being accidental is a bad thing, it just gives people that much more confidence that you actually know what you’re doing.) The other huge reason is to get everyone on the same page. A simple concept.

Do you have to stick to the plan? No. But the whys or the drivers should be clear and if you’re wrong or if things change, you’re wrong and things changed. At least you can remember why you failed. (Seemed like a good idea at the time doesn’t sell very well.)

Why don’t VCs need business plans? Lots of answers here but boiling it down, they want the flexibility to suggest their own direction and have it you strongly consider it (that’s fair), most entrepreneurs need to get to business and quit overanalyzing, and/or most plans are wrong in the eyes of the VC and yet they definitely look at things significantly different than you do. In the final analysis, it is relationship overhead - they’re bringing you fresh money. Fresh and money are the the operative words here. Fresh as in their energy and experience and money as in something you don’t have.

You don’t fool me, you had a plan, didn’t you? You didn’t just stumble upon something cool did you? You had a plan, you had a vision, you figured out it might be popular or that people would pay you for it, right? Didn’t you plan various ways to show customers and have them pay for it? You backed execution up with a reason to do it. Didn’t you have a little timeline or did you do literally everything at once? That’s a plan. Accidents are cool. I just wouldn’t advise waiting for them.

A vision? The entrepreneurs I know say the same thing: Its the reason behind the things that keep you up at night evaluating ideas and ….. planning.

How about writing it down and thinking about it a bit? Maybe send it to your team and see if they agree or disagree. You can surprise some other time.

Startups: Ask, Ask Again, Ask for Help, Ask Until You Can’t Ask Anymore!

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:37:00 -0500

I am writing this short post while trying to find 50 gently used winter coats in 5 days. This morning, it struck me that I wasn’t following my own typical sales process of involving anyone who would listen directly in success. Not my success but the success of the project, the product, the idea. Whether it is to buy and install software, help you find customers, or attract people to your website, its the same. You ask, you ask again, you ask for help, you ask until you can’t ask anymore.

Being part of a charity organization, we’re always doing these things but this week, right before Christmas, it is especially difficult. Most folks already cleaned out their closets in the fall. If you ask for help, if they can, people will help you. It’s human nature. Thank god!

What’s more, if they’re invested in your success, they’ll help more!

For this project, I did the usual thing. I went to my network and asked them to donate. I had moderate success. I kept asking and a few more donated. This morning, I woke up and changed my strategy. I asked my network to commit to finding me a certain number of coats. Now, why didn’t I think about that before! We’ll exceed our goal by tomorrow.

Here’s the process in highly abbreviated form:

Call your network. Ask for their buy-in and leads. Call those target customers (“Terry sent me!”)
If your target customers don’t have business or need, asking for their help, ask them to engage and suggest ideas for you to success.
(New to some of you!) Call back. Thank them.
(New to some of you!) Send a written thank you or something that will make them remember you and your sincere thanks. If you weren’t sincere, you wouldn’t be sending cards, right? Its not a physical task, it is the effort to remember that people respect.

If they don’t have time, perhaps they aren’t human! Perhaps they never help other folks. Perhaps the dog you’re selling won’t hunt. At least you’ll be one step closer to your goal. Ask! Ask Again, Ask for Help and Keep Asking! (And Thank You for visiting. If you liked this post, please post your comments and other ideas!)

Startup Tipping Points - Recognizing False Positives

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:19:00 -0500

While you’re writing your software, building your value propositions, or seeking new customers and followers, try finding and focusing on the right tipping points for your startup’s success.

For a want of better terms, let’s call them false positive and positive Tipping Points. False positives are the things that create good feelings for you and your team, nourishing continued hard work. They get you message momentum and positive sentiment but true business momentum? Definitely positive but they don’t tip. I believe another name for it is progress. Positive tipping points put you in position for your next business phase.

Here are a examples of false positive Tipping Points:

Good Press, favorable reviews, retweets, shared FB posts: Everyone loves you in public. They like the idea behind your product and your idea of value creation. Do they create a tipping point? Without a doubt, they do a great deal for awareness and help build credibility. They build an expectation in the minds of potential customers and investors. You’re competing for attention. There’s no doubt about it.

New Feature Releases and Upgrades: Another great thing. A milestone for your business. Your development team has pushed the rock up the hill and gotten the code done. Customers are expecting to try it out and are excited to do so. How many people are waiting for the new features or your next release before they make a purchase decision? If you think about it, you might be a little disappointed with the answer. Should you create awareness by doing targeted messages? Absolutely.

New Partner Agreements and Contracts: You have just signed a partner agreement with an influential integrator. They’re going to take you to market. That’s great! It adds to your credibility in the marketplace. You can issue an incredibly auspicious press release and analyze the traffic.

Here are examples of Positive Tipping Points. Find them – exhaustively:

You’ve completed your Minimum Viable Product: The customers that told you what MVP was? Tell them you’ve done it and you’re waiting for them to implement it and write you a check.

A 25% increase in closed business: Whether its the whale or a discounted-price customer. Starting from zero, one closed sale is a tipping point that will, hopefully, lead to the next. 25% - that’s a tipping point!

Your enthusiasts have transitioned from liking you to endorsing you: Real product endorsements come from those folks who have recommended you to their consumers or they’ve purchased your product or service. The big tip? Somewhere in the process of loving you, you received a check.

Your Partners are selling your product: They’re convinced that having you as a partner increases their value stream and they’ve decided to realize its value by closing business.

By now, you’ve probably noticed a theme. Without being a buzzkill about positive events at your organization – all those things that are necessary or help you to reach a goal, they’re only progress. The right goals have a dollar sign in front of them. The false positives aren’t really tipping points, they just serve to influence when the actual tipping point might occur.

Next up? The value of influencers, customers and partners and getting them to help you tip.

Your Chicken McNuggets have experienced a network outage. ...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:39:32 -0500

Your Chicken McNuggets have experienced a network outage. Please standby while we reboot. (from a friend, Jay Sikkeland)

5 Google Apps Ideas to Steal

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:00 -0500

I think Google Wave rocks. During their beta, I’ve noticed they’ve peeled back some features and added a great many others*. Thinking about iGoogle and Wave, I’m absolutely convinced that there are number of lightweight applications that can be developed to leverage the base values of these incredible platforms. Steal Away!

Stock Portfolio Sharing – Users create their own stock portfolios and share them with their friends and peers. This function – similar to Twitter lists helps the everyday investor compete against the big trading machines.
Shared Portfolio Wave Application – Users get to collaborate on a shared portfolio. Augmented by stock tickers, news widgets, etc.
Public Wavelets – A user gets to contribute to a wave on a platform that sits outside of Google Wave. This application aggregates other asynchronous collaboration sites as well as sync’d sites like Twitter.
Live Movie Feedback – Users see movie feedback as people are leaving the theatre – SMSing and Tweeting their feedback. The movie times widget displays that real time feedback for your zip code as well as the demographics behind them.
Personal Network Link Stats - Google appears to be a service for augmented reality data (mapping, cloud apps support) but not much of a core platform itself. What if there was a Google app that displayed reading and link launch demographics for people in your network?

This is my second “Steal” post. I’d love to hear if you take one of these up. If you do, think Friends and Family stock or free t-shirts…

(*I was hoping that wavelets could be created from words, sentences and paragraphs but it appears that they removed the feature from original authors. Let’s hope this gets put back in. I reply to my own ideas – frequently!)

"Good or bad: My HP 7780 died after about 18,000 sheets. What’s your average printer life?"

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:11:11 -0500

“Good or bad: My HP 7780 died after about 18,000 sheets. What’s your average printer life?”

'Cuz Craigslist Sucks...Boston Startup Weekend Results

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:41:00 -0500

Last night, the eight finalists gave their Startup Weekend – Boston presentations. From the presentations and overall vibe, I could tell it had been a friendly, highly productive weekend.

The general principle behind Startup Weekend is that you pitch an idea and/or be a volunteer to be on a startup team. The best ideas are selected via an audience vote and teams form up to start the company. Winners received some consulting from Techstars and Cooley, a law firm that has a startup practice and undoubtedly a great deal of market interest. Friday night started with over thirty short pitches that were narrowed down to eight. After the event, the team can decide if they continue.

The winner was Doodlebugging. Doodlebugging is a Twitter-based one to one marketplace application. I think they won hands down. Here’s why:

The application/service is insanely simple.
Their pitch: “Doodlebugging is like Craigslist but it doesn’t suck” adequately conveys the message and generates interest.
The name, while being a bit long is very sticky.
They create value by connecting people who are selling something with potential buyers – extremely quickly and efficiently. Imagine tweeting “I’ve got a kindle to sell” or “I need a kindle” and you get matched with a buyer or seller - right away!

The Second Place Winner was ReleaseQ. ReleaseQ lets you track upcoming releases of movies, books, music, and videos. Here’s why I think they won:

Their target market is huge: Lots of people who love a movie or book topic want to know when new content is being released.
Their revenue stream is extensible: Amazon, Netflix, or any reseller or distributor will want to promote their wares through the site.
The software creates a highly effective community, informing its users of new promotional media and giving them a queue of the things they might look forward to and allowing them to connect to other users with similar interests.

It would be great to see these startups and the other ideas get to market! BTW, if you want a taste of what a startup is like, I encourage you attend Startup Weekend. You’ll have a great time and there’s no particular obligation past the weekend. You might just end up being on the team that creates the next big thing!