A Sack of Seattle

The risks of getting too aggressive: A story from one of my readers

2009-11-20T06:57:00-08:00

I got this email from one of my readers and just had to share it with all of you:

When I was about 13 or 14, I decided I wanted to run a web hosting company out of my bedroom (I had a successful BBS back in those days and wanted to start shifting into a profitable business). I figured I could charge like $50/mon and do web design and hosting, and if I could get maybe 5-6 customers I could afford a 512k frame relay line (everything was dial-up back then).. I wanted this so much, but didn't have the networking skills to find these customers. What I did was emailed the entire user list of a friend's BBS (who was already doing Internet hosting) and advertised my offer. My friend (who was a mentor to me) was very displeased with this, but I was too blinded by my visions of success to have thought about what I was

doing to people beforehand.

Persistence is omnipotent

2009-11-16T16:19:39-08:00

There's a lot of talk about "be persistent" in traditional business literature self help books. And the advice is sound -- but the meaning is often missed. It's easy to say "be persistent" but being persistent at the point when it matters is really freakin hard. I was reminded of this fact when I met with the entrepreneur, Scott Golembiewski, behind tuneyfish -- a how to video site that is now focusing on the automotive vertical. He started the company over 2.5 years ago and has almost bootstrapped the entire thing to date. He's been completely under-capitalized, built the site on a shoestring, doesn't yet have enough traction to be interesting -- but I'd say he's now just at the point where he understand what he needs to do to be successful and is starting to that in a small way. He's tired. He's broke. He hasn't received a pay check in forever. Being persistent is hard. That said, if he does persist -- somehow -- I bet he comes out a winner. The persistence that the business books write about is the hard persistence -- not the easy stuff.

Trust your gut: avoid scummy online transactions

2009-11-11T08:10:00-08:00

I was talking to Rahul Pathak, CEO of Lookstat, about ways to increase the number of sign ups for his analytics product. He wrote a blog entry about Microstock RPI and image formats (why it'sn not as cool as you think to be square). This blog entry has gotten lots of traffic because photographers can get some actual data about what formats to shoot in -- very useful data for photographers. I asked Rahul if he thought about "hiding" or cascading the conclusion of his report until after the user submitted an email. He told me that he had a negative visceral reaction to the idea of scummy online transactions -- I told him that meant he shouldn't do what I was proposing. We laughed. Seriously though -- my instinct to try to figure out a way to get a relationship with people who found value in his blog entry was good. My idea on how to do that was bad -- Rahul's gut reaction was good. This lead the two of us to a few very interesting engagement ideas that Rahul is going to be rolling out over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for good, interesting analytic candy -- and be sure to sign up if you want to have a direct relationship with the CEO who has a gut to avoid scummy online transactions. You rock Rahul. Trust your guy and stay awake.

The regret index

2009-11-10T08:07:00-08:00

I just watched this video of Josh Petersen of 43 things talking about the process of filtering ideas to see which one is worth pursuing. This process is a critical one -- and one that is filled with contradiction and emotion. in the video, he talks about using the notion of "regretting" not doing an idea as a way of sorting through ideas. I think he's totally right -- some ideas -- you just have to get out of your system...otherwise you'll regret not doing them. That doesn't mean that the start up is going to be a raging success if you only use this method of sorting through ideas -- I just think it's one of the more important ways to sort through your ideas. So along side your spreadsheet of market size, capital needs, skill fit, add a column for the regret index when analyzing which of your ideas to pursue -- and which ones not to pursue.

The Rise of Agile Organizational Development

2009-11-09T08:05:00-08:00

There’s lots of buzz in the startup community about agile software development; there are software programs, books and seminars on the topic, and even huge firms like IBM are now touting their "agile
development solutions". The general idea is to create a team and a software process that is flexible, quick and adaptive to feedback from the market. Put stuff out there, collect feedback on what works, kill what doesn’t, improve what does, rinse and repeat.

But there's a parallel trend occurring in the early stage technology market that hasn't been talked about much. Programs like TechStars, Y-Combinator, and Founder’s Co-op have been pioneering what I like to
call agile organizational development. These “initiator” organizations provide founding entrepreneurs with an incredibly compressed calendar of iterative feedback on all aspects of their company. The feedback comes from a broad network experienced entrepreneurs who serve as mentors in these programs, and it comes often, regularly, and relentlessly.

Mentors in these programs provide feedback on the startup’s team, 30second pitch, fund raising pitch, positioning, product, pricing – on just about every aspect of the organization. Some of the feedback is
contradictory - just like market feedback can be. The TechStars program even has a name for the confusion that results from conflicting advice: "mentor whiplash". But the net effect of all this
menot input is a set of organizations that adapt to market feedback much more nimbly than startup organizations of the past. This feedback cycle and the entrepreneurs' response is what I’m calling agile
organizational development and my bet is that the companies that embrace it are much more likely to succeed than those that don't.

These programs are all relatively new, and there aren't any books or seminars on the topic yet – but I'm betting there will be.

This blog post has been published by xconomy

Great video to watch about entrepreneurship

2009-11-06T08:00:00-08:00

asack

Friday's Homework Assignement

2009-11-05T20:31:55-08:00

asack

Advice for wannabe entrepreneur from big company

2009-10-28T18:48:00-07:00

A big company executive who is ready for a change asked me for career advice. He wants to work at a small company. I told him that he should take a project and start small -- work out of his house. Having a project to work on that's interesting and takes advantage of his past experiences will be super useful in moving him from point A (big company) to somewhere else. The reason I gave him this advice is that I've found many people -- myself included look for an insight that's the BIG idea -- as if big companies were born out of strokes of lightning in a bottle. I think that may happen, but more often they come from mucking around with ordinary things and putting things in motion. Once things are in motion -- extraordinary things can happen.

Open - my vote for the title of new book by Charlene Li

2009-10-27T12:35:31-07:00

Charlene Li is one of the great analysts in the technology sector. Read about her and her company here. I just read her tweet:

"Wanted: Your vote on the best title for my next book, takes 2 minutes. Thanks! http://bit.ly/18l7oE"

I clicked the link and it brought me to a book description and then a list of 5 titles to choose from. I think this kind of crowd sourcing is just beginning and we're going to see a lot more. I think it makes all the sense in the world. When communication is key -- and you don't know what words work best -- just ask the audience. It's the ultimate "ask the audience" hotline used in "who wants to be a millionaire"

I voted that her book be called "Open". We'll see if it wins.

Friday's advice for wannabe MBA entrepreneur

2009-10-23T15:02:14-07:00

A 25 year old MBA student called me from MIT. I'm always happy to help an alum. She had already demoonstrated the ability to do a little bit of research and reach out to people and introduce herself. I told her that's a good skill to have. My career advice was :

Meet with the constituents of the start-up scene in Seattle
- Entrepreneurs
- Press
- Investors
- Big companies
Strive to start your own company before you're 30 -- doing it while your young gives you great exposure, great learning, and you're not encumbered by life's expenses yet.
Consider working at a big company for 4 or 5 years -- learn an industry and learn a function. I've never done this before -- so it's a bit of do as I say not as I do. My career has been small company after small company. It's useful to have experience working at one of the big tech companies.

You're not young forever. Take advantage of it. Now that I'm forty -- I'm learning that I have some perspective of time. Sometimes that's useful....sometime it's an impediment. I'd gladly be 25 again. :-)