Instead of using the normal categorizations, genres, descriptions, or wordy answers I normalized everything as disruptive.

It might be overused at this point but it boils everything down to a very easy to digest word that can described these audacious goals of entrepreneurs.

Image from ShutterStock

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Disruptive

Tickets were sold to benefit the kids, but the day was also a success due to a promotion between Pepsi and Foursquare using social check ins as a way to earn “points” translating into dollars for the charity. I have discussed Foursquare on this blog before, and they are a USV portfolio company, but this was a great initiative. In many ways this is a great passive way to participate without having to do too much except know that it exists.

It was a great event – one that I hope to see and organize more of in NYC.

A huge thanks to everyone that came out and especially to Simon Kirk who helped organize the event and get everyone to volunteer.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Techies Give Back: Ice Skating Event

I wanted to post about this for a few reasons:

1. It is good to get outside of your bubble once in awhile – mine is of a constant broadband connection
2. Productivity is directly tied to speed of connectivity today
3. Using the Internet with a slow connection is a powerful reminder of where we are and how we have left to go

Getting outside of the broadband bubble for me meant using a slower connection via my blackberry. Fortunately my complicated steps to tethering are no longer needed as the latest version of the Blackberry Desktop client for Windows has a single click tethering option. It works as promised and I was connected to the network (in my case Tmobile)

This meant I was subject to the poor data service of Tmobile. Interestingly voice and data connectivity were not possible and every time I had a call I had to reconnect and re authenticate on the network.

Getting outside of my broadband comfort zone was good. It reminded me of how distracting the Internet can be and how completing tasks without interruption is an effective way of being productive. I may incorporate periods where connectivity is off in the future.

I take for granted the speed at which things happen on a broadband connection. I felt like I was rationing my connection only to those things that were mission critical.

I kept Firefox down to only two tabs vs. my normal unlimited amount

Using many sites was impossible. From checking the news, to checking email, I was reliant on my Blackberry inbox more than anything else.

I was amazed at how the HTML or low-bandwidth version of sites simply crawled or were next to unusable with my slow connection. I know that I am sound somewhat like a snob making the assumption that everyone has broadband, which is simply not the case, but it perhaps soon will be.

So does the speed of connectivity limit the speed of thought in any way? Perhaps only in that we are now conditioned to get answers to questions faster and have facts available. On the flip side, thinking through something without distraction was extremely helpful.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Speed of connectivity and thought

The last Boxee event back in March was a huge success and brought out a huge crowd – but this time the show was even bigger.

You can watch the entire presentation here:

A lot was announced last night and I have included highlights below, but the biggest news was the showcasing of the Boxee Box by Boxee and D-Link

Above is a picture of Avner Ronen, CEO of Boxee, talking about the new device.

You can read the full details of the announcement on the Boxee Beta blog post.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter The Boxee Beta Event & Boxee Box

Here is a favorite example of putting all the wood behind one arrow from the Sun CEO back in 2007.

It basically boils down to concentrating on one area and focus.

It provides a worldview that provides solid constraints but focused energy.

I realize that describing this one is harder than it looks, but hopefully you get the idea.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Startup Analogies: Putting the wood behind one arrow

It is usually within this context:

Me: Is it a done deal?
Them: Yeah totally.
Me: Is the deal signed?
Them: No, but it is 99.99% going to happen…

This can apply to so many different things but I thought I would share a few examples below

The advertising deal

This one usually comes with different odds – somewhere in the 50%+ range

“We are about 60% certain this IO is going to get signed”

This applies to a few different cases but usually gets into things like sales pipelines and assigning percentages to deals in Salesforce

The Sale (goods or services)

Anything above the 80% confidence level gets attention and scrutiny.

“We got 90% of the way there – and have the last 10% to go”

Warning: This last 10% is the hardest part. You might as well reset your scale and have the last 10% reset to 100% left to go.

What can get in the way?

Diligence
Terms
Conditions
Exceptions
Last minute shenanigans (yeah, I put shenanigans in the list)
Caveats
Out clauses
Launch timelines
Leaked information
Competitor language

The new company hire

This one always gets a 50% chance up until deal docs – then seems to move magically to 80%. I remember an experience in a previous company where this one woman was 50% for about 3 months, then we went to deal docs and she was at 80% then got another offer out of left field for literally DOUBLE the offer I was aware of and she didn’t take the job.

Time wasted? Maybe not as there are lessons learned.
Percentages talked about? 50%, then 80%, which got the wheels in motion for “making room for the new hire”

The sale (of the Company)

This one suffers from a major misinformation problem. People at the top have their percentages, and the people at the bottom have theirs. In my limited experience these range from “10% going to happen to 99.99% going to happen”

This one is a favorite because the “%” has almost no bearing on anything other than the psychology of the number. Things can go awry at any moment and it literally is not a done deal until the documents are signed.

There are countless other examples but I wanted to share some that come to mind.

My point? Nothing is a done deal until it is signed. Everything else is just a percentage chance of happening.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter 99.99% (or its totally going to happen but isnt signed yet)

Below are some interesting lists I found from the latest data.

Internet Memes of 2009 under Entertainment

1. kanye west
2. xzhibit
3. courage dog
4. three wolf moon
5. gentlemen
6. keyboard cat
7. candlejack
8. csi miami
9. lolcats
10. i accidentally

Here is a local favorite – searches by city New York, NY

1. cuny portal
2. duane reade locations
3. mta trip planner
4. seamless web
5. conedison.com
6. hopstop
7. hale and heardy
8. shake shack
9. nyu home
10. queens library

I would love to see Google to a Zeitgeist of all their properties such as Google Trends, News, and others – obviously they have this data.

Find something interesting? Let me know.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Google Zeitgeist 2009

One thing to mention before getting into this post is that folks I spoke with about their advisors were generally split down the middle; sometimes they chose their advisors, but sometimes their advisors chose them.

It was interesting to learn that one common thread throughout everyone I spoke with is that most, if not all interest was drummed up by sharing their idea and information openly without any mention of secrecy, an NDA, or private information. Some did however mention a FrieNDA. Unless otherwise stated, everyone had either the decency to mention a potential commercial conflict or they simply listened further then got involved.

The role of an advisor can be different depending on what stage a company is in. It seems that most folks I spoke with have an informal advisory board where they can bounce ideas off of a group and get honest feedback.

One of the common themes was the ability to get negative comments from a trusted source. Nobody wants a yes man on their guiding committee as they need real actionable feedback that can sometimes mean coming down on an idea that has had a lot of work put into it.

An advisory board can be friends, family, people with core competency to what you are doing, or thought leaders that can lend a completely opposite perspective so that you don’t get trapped in the bubble of your idea.

My limited role as an advisor has been been brainstorming with friends – but formality does play a role. Equity conversations usually occur instead of financial compensation so that the interests are aligned between founder and advisor. I have heard that financial compensation can sometimes get in the way of interests being aligned correctly and have also never heard of this situation going well. This is not to say it is impossible, just an observation about the universe I play within.

I have also observed that the most likely advisor or mentor type of roles come from people that did not have these roles filled for them in the past. Mentors offer help where they did not get it personally. Again, there are exceptions to this rule but it is worth sharing as it was a common occurrence across the people I spoke with.

Conclusion:
Having a trusted advisor can be very important. It can open doors, give you truthful much needed advice, and be a good sounding board for both new ideas and encouragement when it is needed. I would really love to hear from readers of this blog on their opinions of advisors both good and bad if they are willing to share openly – or privately.

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Thinking about advisors

I just finished watching the Thanksgiving day parade which never gets old. Today marks an important time to reflect on everything you have to be thankful for and I certainly wanted to take the time. To my wonderful family and friends which make up an amazing support system, to the new friends I have met this year I am very thankful.

I have learned more in my job in the past year than I thought possible which is exciting and humbling at the same time. It is exciting because I have learned so much, and humbling since I have so much yet to learn. Being around smart teams of people both inside my office and outside has taught me a lot about patience, feedback, iteration, overcoming challenges, and perception vs. reality. I truly enjoy collaborating with people and teams over the past year and look forward to what is next!

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Happy Thanksgiving 2009

We hope to do something similar to this in the future and if you are interesting in speaking or attending future events please let me know.

A big thanks to Steve for coming, and to MaestroMarket for making this all possible.

This would also not be possible without the video recording and encoding by Will Dearman from The Strategy Blog

Video split into two parts below for space reasons on Vimeo

Part 2/2

Big thanks to:

Kareem Hamady – SATAdvice.com
Kareem Kouddous – Hapnin
Gregory Schnese – Hapnin
Fraser Kelton – GetGlue

Post from: Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman
You should follow me on Twitter Steve Blank event in NYC – Entrepreneurs Discussion