My intention for today's post was to layout the dimensions of my decision-making criteria for choosing a design firm for PhlooQ's Web site and to then announce my decision.
PhlooQ will be taking its social engagement widget (see phlooq.com for an example) out to market with a group of publishers over the next 30-60 days. Before we do this we need to create a Web site that represents to publishers the value of what we do, how we do it, and even issue them a dare to see how far they can take PhlooQ's widget.
The widget and the basic metrics service behind the widget are free...so publishers are welcome to make a request for a widget for as wide ranging of a purpose as they can imagine. Quite frankly, the crazier the implementation the better!
Anyways, as I was laying out the dimensions for evaluating Skona, BayCreative, and Kasman/Squillante I received three additional requests to submit a proposal from firms that want to take a crack at the site. Lift Agency and Square2 have now entered the fray. And there is one more firm that looks like they may submit a proposal as well.
I've given all of these design firms our value proposition, one page summary, and backgrounder material. I've also run them through the Widget experience and other demos. So they all know what we are up to...
But no decision will get made today...
That does not stop me from laying out my thinking. In my decision making process I will be looking at in order the following dimensions:
1. My belief in the flexibility and dexterity of the mind's sitting across the table from me. Essentially I have to believe the group I am working with is smarter than me in as many ways as possible when it comes to developing our Web site.
2. My belief the people doing the work are capable of the creative thinking required to wrap a unique offering like PhlooQ into a design/offering that is both organic to PhlooQ and yet brings real eye-opening value to its brand, product, and experience.
3. My estimation of the record of demonstrated design skill and my affection for the design work of the group. If you rock, you rock! If I have to guess at what I might get or if I feel their is risk that what I might get will not sync with team, product, market, publishers and users then my estimation of capability in this dimension will be reduced. Think of this as the design team having a Voice I trust.
4. How I feel about the people...the vibe. This is #4 on my list...not a top priority because I can tell you that just because I like some one there is no guarantee they will perform. In fact often affinity with a contractor has led me astray. I cut people I "like" more slack and do not hold them to my typically high standards. Hiring a contract team is not the same as building an internal team. Building an internal team requires the highest of capability but also requires some dimension of camaraderie. Even then capability has to be there. Wow...what I mean is that I can't discount that I like some people more than others when I meet them. This will come into play when making a decision. Especially if this effort works out and I want t do more work with the firm.
5. What the cost of the project will be will come into play. While a difference on a proposal of a few grand here or there in most companies won't make difference, in the world of the start-up it always does. All things being equal or near equal...budget then becomes the driver. That said, no one wants to pay for an effort they don't believe in. So I will initially eliminate proposals based on higher priority criteria and then, of course, it comes down to price.
6. Speed...baby...baby speed. How fast, without compromising quality do I believe this firm will figure out what we do and get us moving towards a completed site? If I sense a firm thinks of a 60 day window as "too short" then I get the heeby jeebies. I need high intensity responsiveness without compromising any of the dimensions I established in 1-5. Think of this as having the requisite fidelity for my needs at all the right times.
Okay so there you go...the 6 dimensions of decison making criteria I will use for engaging with a designer on the PhlooQ.com Web site.
A couple of questions:
What dimensions/criteria did miss?
What did I miss that are a part of these dimensions?
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
PHLOOQ IS VETTING DESIGN FIRMS (http://phlooq.com)
As a start-up there is always a trade off between how much time and money you invest in your look and feel versus what you invest in honing your product, technology and the value of that technology to your market. At PhlooQ we invested all of our efforts into product and made no effort to hone the site or brand of the company.
So here we are signing up partners, rolling the product into the marketplace...and we have no Web presence.
As a backgrounder, PhlooQ offers online publishers a free service to massively increase the engagement between their Web site and their visitors through social engagement ads and social engagement widgets. (if you want to see it in action go to http://phlooq.com and click on the Q).
In short the PhlooQ service can draw a visitor's entire social graph to a web site. For a single visitor with a social graph of 100 people publishers should expect to have their site marketed to 1,000 new potential visitors.
Here is how it works, the publishers places the free widget aside an event, a venue, or location and when the visiting user clicks on the widget the user can see who they know that might be going to the same event, venue or location.
The system then sends a message to the visitor's entire social graph letting their social graph know that they are interested in the venue, event, or location. If anyone in their social graph clicks on the link in the message the link will bring them to the publisher's site. And once they engage with the widget, the cycle repeats itself.
The system also sends the widget with the list of people at or nearby your place, event, or venue of interest to your cell phone. This way you can just look down at your cell phone to see who is at or near the event you're attending.
The system both on the Web and on your phone lets you click to call people in your social graph, text them if they are fellow widget users, and send them a notification to their social network if they are not users of the PhlooQ widget.
Also of use to the user is the Widget's built in mechanism for broadening your view of your social graph. Sometimes no one you know will be going to the same exact event as you -- so the Widget lets you look for fellowship in the local neighborhood, community, zip code, city area, or region. This means you can send a quick note or even call someone to go with you to somewhere you want to go.
For the publisher PhlooQ provides engagement reports and analytics and also provides ways for them to reach out to Widget users to make them offers of goods and services that are hypertargeted to their specific venue or neighborhood.
The publisher's job used to be--"get the eyeballs to my site." Now with PhlooQ the game changes--as we enable publishers to bring a visitor's entire social graph to their sites, without being intrusive. In fact, this mechanism for being the semantic expression of the user's interests creates a natural flow of the user's social graph that makes the users thankful for the link back to the publisher.
In some ways this is the holy grail of advertisement: for a fan of the publisher to automatically recommend their interests from whatever they do across the Web and across the "real" world to their friends--and have their friends thankful for the recommendation!
Here is a quick narrative that might help:
The event promoter for the Rock-n-Roll Cafe adds the PhlooQ widget to his Web site where he lists his schedule of events. As people visit his site they click on the widget titled “See who's going?” Each individual as they add the widget in a one-click sign-up now messages all of their friends. For example if a user named Brian signs up, PhlooQ sends a feed to all 237 of Brian's friends that “Brian is going to the Rock-n-Roll Cafe.”
For Brian, as he signs into the Rock-n-Roll Cafe widget he sees a list of people from his social network who are going to the Cafe. From within the widget he can call them or text them. If he sees friends nearby he can invite those friends to the Rock-n-Roll Cafe as well.
Additionally PhlooQ aggregates all of his affinities in a widget in his social network's interface--the Rock-N-Roll Cafe gets listed with his other affinities. In this way he can have his interests aligned with people he is connected to so he can easily connect with them. Lastly right on time, every time, PhlooQ sends a link to his mobile phone or iPhone so he can see a list of people associated with the experience right there in place, in the moment.
Okay so I am currently talking with several design groups that have made the first cut. I interviewed a dozen or so folks I was interested in having build our Web presence and then solicited proposal from the following groups: Kasman/Squillante, Bay Creative, and Skona. There may be one or two more groups that end up getting a chance to submit a proposal, as I'm still vetting a few others.
What I can say is that I have a good feeling about the three design firms I am currently vetting. They are all so different in their personality but in different ways I am enamored with each of their approaches. In my next post I'll chat a bit about my experience vetting the proposals. The budget is tight, the need for quality is high and time is running out! We are going live with a dozen or so publishers in the next 30-60 days so the work has to be done one way or the other!
So here we are signing up partners, rolling the product into the marketplace...and we have no Web presence.
As a backgrounder, PhlooQ offers online publishers a free service to massively increase the engagement between their Web site and their visitors through social engagement ads and social engagement widgets. (if you want to see it in action go to http://phlooq.com and click on the Q).
In short the PhlooQ service can draw a visitor's entire social graph to a web site. For a single visitor with a social graph of 100 people publishers should expect to have their site marketed to 1,000 new potential visitors.
Here is how it works, the publishers places the free widget aside an event, a venue, or location and when the visiting user clicks on the widget the user can see who they know that might be going to the same event, venue or location.
The system then sends a message to the visitor's entire social graph letting their social graph know that they are interested in the venue, event, or location. If anyone in their social graph clicks on the link in the message the link will bring them to the publisher's site. And once they engage with the widget, the cycle repeats itself.
The system also sends the widget with the list of people at or nearby your place, event, or venue of interest to your cell phone. This way you can just look down at your cell phone to see who is at or near the event you're attending.
The system both on the Web and on your phone lets you click to call people in your social graph, text them if they are fellow widget users, and send them a notification to their social network if they are not users of the PhlooQ widget.
Also of use to the user is the Widget's built in mechanism for broadening your view of your social graph. Sometimes no one you know will be going to the same exact event as you -- so the Widget lets you look for fellowship in the local neighborhood, community, zip code, city area, or region. This means you can send a quick note or even call someone to go with you to somewhere you want to go.
For the publisher PhlooQ provides engagement reports and analytics and also provides ways for them to reach out to Widget users to make them offers of goods and services that are hypertargeted to their specific venue or neighborhood.
The publisher's job used to be--"get the eyeballs to my site." Now with PhlooQ the game changes--as we enable publishers to bring a visitor's entire social graph to their sites, without being intrusive. In fact, this mechanism for being the semantic expression of the user's interests creates a natural flow of the user's social graph that makes the users thankful for the link back to the publisher.
In some ways this is the holy grail of advertisement: for a fan of the publisher to automatically recommend their interests from whatever they do across the Web and across the "real" world to their friends--and have their friends thankful for the recommendation!
Here is a quick narrative that might help:
The event promoter for the Rock-n-Roll Cafe adds the PhlooQ widget to his Web site where he lists his schedule of events. As people visit his site they click on the widget titled “See who's going?” Each individual as they add the widget in a one-click sign-up now messages all of their friends. For example if a user named Brian signs up, PhlooQ sends a feed to all 237 of Brian's friends that “Brian is going to the Rock-n-Roll Cafe.”
For Brian, as he signs into the Rock-n-Roll Cafe widget he sees a list of people from his social network who are going to the Cafe. From within the widget he can call them or text them. If he sees friends nearby he can invite those friends to the Rock-n-Roll Cafe as well.
Additionally PhlooQ aggregates all of his affinities in a widget in his social network's interface--the Rock-N-Roll Cafe gets listed with his other affinities. In this way he can have his interests aligned with people he is connected to so he can easily connect with them. Lastly right on time, every time, PhlooQ sends a link to his mobile phone or iPhone so he can see a list of people associated with the experience right there in place, in the moment.
Okay so I am currently talking with several design groups that have made the first cut. I interviewed a dozen or so folks I was interested in having build our Web presence and then solicited proposal from the following groups: Kasman/Squillante, Bay Creative, and Skona. There may be one or two more groups that end up getting a chance to submit a proposal, as I'm still vetting a few others.
What I can say is that I have a good feeling about the three design firms I am currently vetting. They are all so different in their personality but in different ways I am enamored with each of their approaches. In my next post I'll chat a bit about my experience vetting the proposals. The budget is tight, the need for quality is high and time is running out! We are going live with a dozen or so publishers in the next 30-60 days so the work has to be done one way or the other!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Social Media and Social Engagement Top of Mind for CMOs
I recently attended the Aberdeen CMO conference to get a feel for where CMOs are at with regards social media at large and social engagement advertising in particular.
The event keynote was "Paul DePodesta, the former General Manager of the L.A. Dodgers and now Special Assistant for Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres." He was profiled in the bestselling book "Moneyball" and celebrated as "a baseball operations wunderkind." My key takeaway from DePodesta was that bad process can get you good results -- and this is the worst case scenario because it misleads the future of the organization. Constant and never-ending evaluation improvement to process by asking the question "If we didn't have to do it the way we are doing it, if we could do it right, how would we be doing it?"
I was fortunate, the 600$ event came to me free compliments of Taproot (see: Taproot Foundation.org). Taproot is a volunteer-based organization many local techies like myself contribute time to in order to support local non-profits.
The speakers I listened to were:
* Cathy Halligan, CMO, Walmart.com
* Patrice Varni, VP of Marketing, Levi’s
* Sylvia Reynolds, CMO, Wells Fargo
* Scott Ballantyne, Vice President of Consumer Direct at Hewlett Packard
* Pablo Azar, VP Marketing Strategy and Consumer Insights ALLSTATE
* Stephan Chase, VP Customer Knowledge, Marriott
* Denise Shiffman, Marketing Strategist, Speaker and Author Engage Daily Blog
There were many memorable moments. There was Cathy Halligan's call out of The Share This with Friends button--she implied the smallest part of her site might be one of the most important. There was Patrice Varni's slide illustrating how the Project Runway integrated media marketing campaign in conjunction with Projekt 501 created a new marketplace for women and Levis--women went from buying 50$ jeans in low volume to buying stylized Levis jeans in high volume at 70$ a pair. This was an unanticipated result their Project 501--perhaps the most elaborate user generated content / social media play in all of the Fortune 5000.
There was Sylvia Reynold's assertion: "If you aren't in social media you are fooling yourself because your customers have already taken you there." The implication is that if you aren't interfacing your integrated marketing into the social marketing space your customers are already there talking about you, your products and your services--with you. So you might as well be part of the conversation.
There was Chase asserting that Aristotle not Web 2.0 invented CRM. Aristotle places the value of relationships in three strata. 1. I like you because I have use of you (lowest level) 2. I like you because it is a pleasure to be with you. 3. I like you because we have mutual regard for each other: I want what is best for you and you want what is best for me. An interesting frame within which to operate a customer experience management analytics group!
Then there was Azar who had boiled down the entire marketing department to a page actuarial function. Azar's modeling group had figured out how to frame every marketing effort into an actuarial summary that gave the Marketing Program's value to the organization in real dollars. In fact even non-metric and non-operationalized efforts such as social media can have their % budget allocation factored into the marketing mix.
Perhaps the highlight of the show was Ballantyne's Irish brogue rippling through the auditorium explaining how Buzz Works took the HP Dragon from a floundering flagship laptop to screaming success in the marketplace and in the CFO's office. Using a social media campaign focused on a series of conversation between bloggers in the PC blogging community Buzz Works helped Ballantyne double the sales of the flailing product line.
Denise Shiffman provide a ho hum but validating discussion of her book: "The Age of Engage." Her thesis is that the social marketing space is moving toward models of engagement. Every piece of the marketing mix has to engage with the customer in a conversation that feels like an authentic conversation about what the customer is interested in. The conversation needs to not be between you and your customer--the conversation needs to be between a customer and their friends or trusted advisors in the market place.
Surveys at the show and elsewhere have shown that we make our decisions: where to go, what to buy, who to connect with in well over 60% of the time based on what our friends, family, and social relationships say to us.
The highest level takeaway of social marketing from this CMO event is this:
If marketers want to be successful they have to find a way to remain authentic and become the topic of conversation in and amongst their customer's social graph without forcing their way in. Be trusted, be present but don't interrupt, be automatic but personal, be the topic of conversation but leave the conversation to others.
All of this adds up to opportunity for start-ups. Who can provide an organization a way to make use of their customers visits by accessing their social graph and then becoming a key conversation in and amongst that social graph. Who can then spiral from that one customer's social graph outward into the conversation of all the social graphs of all that customer's friends? Who can help marketers engage and re-engage with customers in an authentic way while at the same time exponentially expanding the marketplaces encounter with their customer's conversation? Who can convert word of mouth to word of net?
Start-ups are emerging in the engagement space--this space of engagement widgets, and engagement ads, semantic web and location sensitive conversations will bring the holy grail to the castle of the marketer. Start-ups will afford marketers to offer the right product, at the right time, to the right people, at the right place, in the right psychological, financial and behavioral context. This will be a space to watch this next year and half.
The event keynote was "Paul DePodesta, the former General Manager of the L.A. Dodgers and now Special Assistant for Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres." He was profiled in the bestselling book "Moneyball" and celebrated as "a baseball operations wunderkind." My key takeaway from DePodesta was that bad process can get you good results -- and this is the worst case scenario because it misleads the future of the organization. Constant and never-ending evaluation improvement to process by asking the question "If we didn't have to do it the way we are doing it, if we could do it right, how would we be doing it?"
I was fortunate, the 600$ event came to me free compliments of Taproot (see: Taproot Foundation.org). Taproot is a volunteer-based organization many local techies like myself contribute time to in order to support local non-profits.
The speakers I listened to were:
* Cathy Halligan, CMO, Walmart.com
* Patrice Varni, VP of Marketing, Levi’s
* Sylvia Reynolds, CMO, Wells Fargo
* Scott Ballantyne, Vice President of Consumer Direct at Hewlett Packard
* Pablo Azar, VP Marketing Strategy and Consumer Insights ALLSTATE
* Stephan Chase, VP Customer Knowledge, Marriott
* Denise Shiffman, Marketing Strategist, Speaker and Author Engage Daily Blog
There were many memorable moments. There was Cathy Halligan's call out of The Share This with Friends button--she implied the smallest part of her site might be one of the most important. There was Patrice Varni's slide illustrating how the Project Runway integrated media marketing campaign in conjunction with Projekt 501 created a new marketplace for women and Levis--women went from buying 50$ jeans in low volume to buying stylized Levis jeans in high volume at 70$ a pair. This was an unanticipated result their Project 501--perhaps the most elaborate user generated content / social media play in all of the Fortune 5000.
There was Sylvia Reynold's assertion: "If you aren't in social media you are fooling yourself because your customers have already taken you there." The implication is that if you aren't interfacing your integrated marketing into the social marketing space your customers are already there talking about you, your products and your services--with you. So you might as well be part of the conversation.
There was Chase asserting that Aristotle not Web 2.0 invented CRM. Aristotle places the value of relationships in three strata. 1. I like you because I have use of you (lowest level) 2. I like you because it is a pleasure to be with you. 3. I like you because we have mutual regard for each other: I want what is best for you and you want what is best for me. An interesting frame within which to operate a customer experience management analytics group!
Then there was Azar who had boiled down the entire marketing department to a page actuarial function. Azar's modeling group had figured out how to frame every marketing effort into an actuarial summary that gave the Marketing Program's value to the organization in real dollars. In fact even non-metric and non-operationalized efforts such as social media can have their % budget allocation factored into the marketing mix.
Perhaps the highlight of the show was Ballantyne's Irish brogue rippling through the auditorium explaining how Buzz Works took the HP Dragon from a floundering flagship laptop to screaming success in the marketplace and in the CFO's office. Using a social media campaign focused on a series of conversation between bloggers in the PC blogging community Buzz Works helped Ballantyne double the sales of the flailing product line.
Denise Shiffman provide a ho hum but validating discussion of her book: "The Age of Engage." Her thesis is that the social marketing space is moving toward models of engagement. Every piece of the marketing mix has to engage with the customer in a conversation that feels like an authentic conversation about what the customer is interested in. The conversation needs to not be between you and your customer--the conversation needs to be between a customer and their friends or trusted advisors in the market place.
Surveys at the show and elsewhere have shown that we make our decisions: where to go, what to buy, who to connect with in well over 60% of the time based on what our friends, family, and social relationships say to us.
The highest level takeaway of social marketing from this CMO event is this:
If marketers want to be successful they have to find a way to remain authentic and become the topic of conversation in and amongst their customer's social graph without forcing their way in. Be trusted, be present but don't interrupt, be automatic but personal, be the topic of conversation but leave the conversation to others.
All of this adds up to opportunity for start-ups. Who can provide an organization a way to make use of their customers visits by accessing their social graph and then becoming a key conversation in and amongst that social graph. Who can then spiral from that one customer's social graph outward into the conversation of all the social graphs of all that customer's friends? Who can help marketers engage and re-engage with customers in an authentic way while at the same time exponentially expanding the marketplaces encounter with their customer's conversation? Who can convert word of mouth to word of net?
Start-ups are emerging in the engagement space--this space of engagement widgets, and engagement ads, semantic web and location sensitive conversations will bring the holy grail to the castle of the marketer. Start-ups will afford marketers to offer the right product, at the right time, to the right people, at the right place, in the right psychological, financial and behavioral context. This will be a space to watch this next year and half.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Taproot Launches Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Web Site...
Health, wealth, excellence, abundance, and joy are the 5 key precepts that I remind myself to focus on every day.
Service to the community has always been a significant dimension of my life. What I disliked about service was that many service opportunities asked me to volunteer time doing tasks I was not good at or tasks that any one could do. I always felt like I could give more to my causes if I could give my causes the full value of my skills.
For example instead of donating a book to the local library wouldn't they be better served by me if I could help them raise awareness of their services and their programs by building them a new Web site or new Brand campaign?
But I didn't think there was any mechanism for me to volunteer my marketing, business, and technology acumen to such places. That was until I found Taproot, where we "do it pro bono."
Today, we launched the second Web grant project I have volunteered to guide. I am an account director/grant manager for Taproot and I lead the development, design, build and launch of Advanced Website grants for Taproot.
The first Taproot project I was involved with was the Slide Ranch web site: http://slideranch.org/news where I acted as Grant Manager / Account Director. At Taproot I acted as the Grant Manager/Account Director for the Slide Ranch Advanced Website Grant. Slide Ranch, “Where the Bay Area Gets Down to Earth,” provides outdoor education programs focused on re-connecting students to where food and clothing come from. For the Slide Ranch Advanced Website Grant I built a 7 person team consisting of a Marketing Manager, Copy Writer, Web Designer, Web Programmer, Account Director, Slide Ranch Liaison, and the Executive Director of Slide Ranch.
This team based on the pro-bono model developed an advanced Web site executing on the Taproot process. The Taproot process includes steps such as a project plan, time line, requirements docs, design directions, wire frames, beta site, and go live.
Live today, the second Taproot project is the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library web site: http://www.friendssfpl.org/ or http://www.friendsandfoundation.org/. The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library is a legendary local non-profit serving the Bay area's entire chain of local libraries. I felt it was a great honor to be of service to this incredible organization. For this project our team ebbed and flowed. We lost members of the team to disease, car accidents, pregnancy, and job changes. During the development of the site I saw two companies fold, my mother died, and I divorced my wife. But some how the remaining team of myself, Civiane Chung, David Balmer, and Natalie Thompson stuck it out and finished the project.
Here are the credits: http://www.friendsandfoundation.net/?Credits listing the team.
My joy at completing this second Taproot project is quite deep. The investment by the volunteers, in sum, by both current team members and by ex-team members is well over 400 hours of work. Considering the size of the Friends site and considering the variability in the project, I couldn't be more proud of this team's accomplishment.
Interested in donating your technical, business, or marketing skills to local non-profits in need? Check out http://taprootfoundation.org.
Interested in your local library and the programs they run? Check out http://www.friendssfpl.org/
Service to the community has always been a significant dimension of my life. What I disliked about service was that many service opportunities asked me to volunteer time doing tasks I was not good at or tasks that any one could do. I always felt like I could give more to my causes if I could give my causes the full value of my skills.
For example instead of donating a book to the local library wouldn't they be better served by me if I could help them raise awareness of their services and their programs by building them a new Web site or new Brand campaign?
But I didn't think there was any mechanism for me to volunteer my marketing, business, and technology acumen to such places. That was until I found Taproot, where we "do it pro bono."
Today, we launched the second Web grant project I have volunteered to guide. I am an account director/grant manager for Taproot and I lead the development, design, build and launch of Advanced Website grants for Taproot.
The first Taproot project I was involved with was the Slide Ranch web site: http://slideranch.org/news where I acted as Grant Manager / Account Director. At Taproot I acted as the Grant Manager/Account Director for the Slide Ranch Advanced Website Grant. Slide Ranch, “Where the Bay Area Gets Down to Earth,” provides outdoor education programs focused on re-connecting students to where food and clothing come from. For the Slide Ranch Advanced Website Grant I built a 7 person team consisting of a Marketing Manager, Copy Writer, Web Designer, Web Programmer, Account Director, Slide Ranch Liaison, and the Executive Director of Slide Ranch.
This team based on the pro-bono model developed an advanced Web site executing on the Taproot process. The Taproot process includes steps such as a project plan, time line, requirements docs, design directions, wire frames, beta site, and go live.
Live today, the second Taproot project is the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library web site: http://www.friendssfpl.org/ or http://www.friendsandfoundation.org/. The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library is a legendary local non-profit serving the Bay area's entire chain of local libraries. I felt it was a great honor to be of service to this incredible organization. For this project our team ebbed and flowed. We lost members of the team to disease, car accidents, pregnancy, and job changes. During the development of the site I saw two companies fold, my mother died, and I divorced my wife. But some how the remaining team of myself, Civiane Chung, David Balmer, and Natalie Thompson stuck it out and finished the project.
Here are the credits: http://www.friendsandfoundation.net/?Credits listing the team.
My joy at completing this second Taproot project is quite deep. The investment by the volunteers, in sum, by both current team members and by ex-team members is well over 400 hours of work. Considering the size of the Friends site and considering the variability in the project, I couldn't be more proud of this team's accomplishment.
Interested in donating your technical, business, or marketing skills to local non-profits in need? Check out http://taprootfoundation.org.
Interested in your local library and the programs they run? Check out http://www.friendssfpl.org/
Monday, July 28, 2008
Fighting the good fight....
In a start-up we often get a diligent board and a passionate CEO. A less common situation is a passionate board and a diligent CEO. In both cases in start-ups the vision of the company is driven, necessarily, by people with blinders on. They essentially have tossed away any disbelief in their approach to their vision.
My question is in about how to amend such a vision when the team of a start-up realizes the board and CEO are barking up the wrong tree?
Whether you are the head of engineering or the head of sales or any other such team member -- if you begin to see that the direction of the start-up has not been set correctly how can you alert leadership and help them course correct without getting fired or being considered a drag on the business?
I've seen several attempts at this and the ability of the wheel house of the company to hear the sounds coming from the engine room is often lacking.
So how does a QA Director or a VP of Sales or such a team member open the ear of the board? In a team of ten or so people one would think this would never be an issue and yet I see time and time again the engine room conversation is never heard? Is this a structural defect in start-ups that can't afford to hear about their own potential flaws? Is it a necessary evil of the hard charging all steam ahead nature of a start-up? When is a course correction too late? Or is it never too late?
These are the kinds of questions I think teams in start-ups often face. Questions that usually don't or can't get answered.
My question is in about how to amend such a vision when the team of a start-up realizes the board and CEO are barking up the wrong tree?
Whether you are the head of engineering or the head of sales or any other such team member -- if you begin to see that the direction of the start-up has not been set correctly how can you alert leadership and help them course correct without getting fired or being considered a drag on the business?
I've seen several attempts at this and the ability of the wheel house of the company to hear the sounds coming from the engine room is often lacking.
So how does a QA Director or a VP of Sales or such a team member open the ear of the board? In a team of ten or so people one would think this would never be an issue and yet I see time and time again the engine room conversation is never heard? Is this a structural defect in start-ups that can't afford to hear about their own potential flaws? Is it a necessary evil of the hard charging all steam ahead nature of a start-up? When is a course correction too late? Or is it never too late?
These are the kinds of questions I think teams in start-ups often face. Questions that usually don't or can't get answered.
Monday, July 14, 2008
The odds...
Once upon a time when I was thinking about growing up to be a serial entrepreneur I heard the following:
"One in a 100 start-ups get to the seed funding stage. One in hundred of those get to a Series A. One in a hundred of those that get a Series A or a Seed round get a Series B or an exit..."
This was followed by "One in 10,000 start-ups get to a public offering..."
A sane person would say that these odds suck.
I, of course, said, I like those odds. I am not unlike many of the extreme skiing, surfing, shark-diving entrepreneurs who believe the long odds make ourselves the favorite. I am amongst a large crew of start-up guys who believe the world conspires in our favor when the odds are longest. I actually believe that the odds tilt in my favor because I am involved. If the typical odds for a "normal" entrepreneur are 1:100 then I believe the odds for ME are more like 1:5.
From my experience with others in the start-up arena this prospect of success despite the odds is a common thread. For some it is their belief in their intelligence, or their technical acumen...for others it is their belief in how they read the marketplace...for still others it is their belief that they can sell anything...and for still others they believe they can build great teams and great teams can do anything. Whatever it is that the serial entrepreneur brings to the table they think they bring it in spades.
"One in a 100 start-ups get to the seed funding stage. One in hundred of those get to a Series A. One in a hundred of those that get a Series A or a Seed round get a Series B or an exit..."
This was followed by "One in 10,000 start-ups get to a public offering..."
A sane person would say that these odds suck.
I, of course, said, I like those odds. I am not unlike many of the extreme skiing, surfing, shark-diving entrepreneurs who believe the long odds make ourselves the favorite. I am amongst a large crew of start-up guys who believe the world conspires in our favor when the odds are longest. I actually believe that the odds tilt in my favor because I am involved. If the typical odds for a "normal" entrepreneur are 1:100 then I believe the odds for ME are more like 1:5.
From my experience with others in the start-up arena this prospect of success despite the odds is a common thread. For some it is their belief in their intelligence, or their technical acumen...for others it is their belief in how they read the marketplace...for still others it is their belief that they can sell anything...and for still others they believe they can build great teams and great teams can do anything. Whatever it is that the serial entrepreneur brings to the table they think they bring it in spades.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Old Stuff that is cool that still hasn't been built...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6877137.html
One of the patents I worked on at a doomed start-up called Aurigin is now out there in the free patent universe. I believe alot of the ideas once "pending patent" are worthy of review. If I was in a sector and starting a new technology business I would at least window shop the world of expired and untended IP.
For example this piece of IP: System, method and computer program product for mediating notes and note sub-notes linked or otherwise associated with stored or networked web pages
is still a very interesting consumer service.
At the time we called it codename WEBSTER because you could surf anywhere annotate anything, share the links and annotations with anyone. Very fun, social browsing stuff...but in 1998...in an enterprise start-up focused on Pharma and Chemical the idea of a consumer service as a marketing function for the business was considered beyond stupid.
Of course in hindsight, WEBSTER was the future and the core business a dead end.
One of the patents I worked on at a doomed start-up called Aurigin is now out there in the free patent universe. I believe alot of the ideas once "pending patent" are worthy of review. If I was in a sector and starting a new technology business I would at least window shop the world of expired and untended IP.
For example this piece of IP: System, method and computer program product for mediating notes and note sub-notes linked or otherwise associated with stored or networked web pages
is still a very interesting consumer service.
At the time we called it codename WEBSTER because you could surf anywhere annotate anything, share the links and annotations with anyone. Very fun, social browsing stuff...but in 1998...in an enterprise start-up focused on Pharma and Chemical the idea of a consumer service as a marketing function for the business was considered beyond stupid.
Of course in hindsight, WEBSTER was the future and the core business a dead end.
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