Startup Investments and E-Commerce

March 2, 2013 By 2 Comments

 

Investments come in many different colors.

I have been following lots of startups and angel investment news these days and I never understand why so many e-commerce sites get funded … and with millions of dollars. If e-commerce sites are backed by big investment companies, they seem to get traction.  But, what about other small size investment companies which are investing in e-commerce, especially in clothing?

I have asked a few friends lately who frequently shop online about some of the sites which got a few hundred thousand dollars.  When I ask about those sites, they say they’ve never heard of them. I ask them to look them over and if they would ever use them.  Their answer is almost always a “No.”  A typical response is, “Why should I change when current popular sites are offering wide variety of products?”  In fact, they are not finding anything new, but still these companies seem to easily receive investment compared to a lot of other companies with great products which are struggling a lot.  I don’t know what exactly these investors are seeing in the companies they are choosing, but I can’t imagine what they are thinking starting these companies.  I sense that entrepreneurs are losing honesty. Their only intention is to start something, press their luck with investors, try to move forward, and ultimately sell their company.

Are you offering anything new? Where is your strength of conviction?

I have a service-based company and we’ve worked on at least five e-commerce startups related to clothing.  I still get a lot of emails asking to build more, but I stopped taking on new ones if they don’t offer anything new. I even give them links and ask them if they offer anything new and none of them seem to come up with a valid reason.

I am not trying to speak down on anyone, but how some of the early investors are funding such startups when there are so many amazing products out there looking for funding is unfathomable.  I have been working on a great product for quite some time and the company has been working on getting funding.  In the meantime, I’ve seen many worthless companies receive funding.  It is disheartening to see funding for this great company continue to be delayed.

I feel sometimes people with money are trying to invest simply by following big investment companies, who continue to invest in e-commerce. These days, I feel a lot of people are starting companies just for the name, the fame, and just to try their luck.  In this essence of business, the startups are losing.

There seems to be a very small set of companies that are getting started for a cause or to make the world a better place.  A lot of people are just trying to start companies without passion or conviction.  This is why many, many well-funded companies are shutting down and will continue to fail.

Take a pledge

How often do you see this kind of pledge from a younger generation of entrepreneurs? https://posthaven.com

I am talking mostly about early investors and please look for change.  There is lot more out there than e-commerce and photos.  Don’t follow others.  Don’t invest just because others are investing in similar startups.

Also, entrepreneurs, don’t begin a startup just to sell.  Keep longer, more meaningful goals.  If selling is the only thing it can do after some particular point in time, then do it.  Take a pledge and then begin your journey.

 

About the Author | Bhanu Prasad Madala

Bhanu is CEO at Ruby on Rails Software Kitchen. He resides in Hyderabad Area, India. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Filed Under: Bhanu, Funding, Product, Startup, Tech

Write Better, Live Healthier #2

February 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

Packing serious power.

In the Write Better, Live Healthier  series I’m giving you practical advice on ways to improve the quality of your life. Creativity, happiness, success — there’s never a bad time to think more about it and go get it. It’s also a forum to explore and debate topics that we all care about but rarely have time to stop and consider amidst our busy lives. Think of it as a quick push notification for your life, full of little nuggets of byte-sized wisdom nudging you to tap into something new and good.

 

#2… Stop training for marathons, start training your mind.

Austin is my new favorite hot spot — not just for reasons some may think. Sure, it can be a mighty fine non-stop culinary and cocktail rodeo. But it’s also a place with people who live healthier lifestyles. That’s hard to do in the Everything-Is-BIG Texas.

It’s also home to two very cool and inspired people who I’ve come to know as great friends the last year — Andy & Nichole. You can read about their amazing story here. I recently was down in ATX to handle some business, surprise Nichole for her birthday, and retrieve my favorite burnt orange “trainers” (running shoes in the standard British-American English translation). Andy and I were having a discussion about what it takes to make a difference physically in your life. Nichole knows this like the back of her hand, so if you want to know more about her new project “The Real Lean Startup”  you can go here.

Back to me and Andy’s chat…

I was lamenting how I’ve known so many people that train for marathons, run in them, but never really seem to make much of a difference with their physical fitness. They still physically look the same as they always have. Conventional wisdom would tell you otherwise. But Andy reminded me what Nichole said once that stuck with us both, and that was “80% is your nutrition.” What I really worry about is all this focus on excessive cardio starting to eat into our muscles — the lean fat burning machine of our bodies.

About seven years ago, my doctor told me I was a little “fat” for my age and height whilst still being an athlete. I always tell this story to people, and might be a bit ridiculous. But I tell it to remind myself to stay on track. I played basketball in a fairly competitive pickup league every Tuesday night. I’d run up and down the floor for two hours, burn a ton of calories. I’d go to the gym a few days a week and run once a week on top of that. Here’s what happened. Amidst all the physical activity and exercise I was repeating some of these bad habits:

  • staying up too late and getting less sleep
  • neglecting my down time, i.e. no relaxation activities, but finding more work to do
  • eating like a buzzard while traveling on the road
  • stressing out too much about dumb shit

Whenever I visit Austin, I make a point to spend time with Andy & Nichole. We share a nice ritual of going to the store and picking up fresh ingredients for dinner. Then we go back to Bevanham Castle and cook an awesome fajita dinner. It’s good to slow it down a bit. Eat later. Do some food prep, open a bottle on wine, rap about life and business, and put on some crazy Swedish house music on the iPad. This is what my friends might call a “cheat” day. It’s never really a big deal because you’re doing the all the right things the rest of the week. And this is my practical message to anybody, but specifically to entrepreneurs  moving at a constant ludicrous speed:

It’s not about the bad stuff, as much as it is about not doing enough of the good stuff.

  • Eat right more often than not – Dave Thomas and Colonel Sanders are not your nutritionists. Neither are Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy John and Cinnabon. So don’t let them take over your crammed and slammed week of pitches, meetings, and hackathons.
  • Get out from under the laptop and get active — Surely. But don’t amass days and weeks of bad habits and think you’re rewarding yourself with a fun run or a marathon. That’s just backwards thinking. Instead…
  • Start training your mind to think ahead — Moderate exercise is a healthy habit to take up. No argument there. But stop for moment and think about what will take your mind and body farther and higher well into your best years. It’s the nutrition stupid.

Try this routine out. One weeknight a week. Work later (yes, I said work later). Go home around 8 or 9. Slow down, take the rest of the night off and cook yourself a healthy meal. Fajitas are great (Andy puts too much guac and sour cream on his), or try one of my all-time favorites. It’s fresh Wild Alaskan Salmon with sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts (use olive oil instead of butter, substitute prosciutto for bacon if you must!).

Little victories like these throughout the week will begin to train your mind with healthier habits. Watch your body become your new best follower.

Filed Under: Ideas, Life, Live Healthier, Marketing, Product, Sales, Success, Tech, Tim, Write Better

To Badge or Not to Badge at #SXSW

February 1, 2013 By 3 Comments

 

“Badges?”

 

I wrote a piece for my friends over at Entrepreneurs Unpluggd last fall on this topic. With just over a month before our annual Spring Break for Geeks  road trip, we’d like to get your opinion on the matter. Join us for a pint on @SquareOffs in Austin on Sunday night, March 10th. We’ll be at Fado Irish Pub on 4th St.

March will be here before you know it and that means “South by” time in Austin. And if you’re like me and haven’t bought your badge yet for SXSW Interactive, you may want to keep it that way. I recently saw a Tweet that got me thinking about the idea of going badgeless. There’s a bit of a badgeless movement going on lately, even a Facebook page devoted to it. It’s clearly a stated alternative, not a knock against the organizers of the conference. Read on…

 

So, if you’re headed to SXSW in Austin, are you considering going badgeless? Pick a side and tell us why!

 

 

Filed Under: Product, Software, SquareOffs, Startup, Tech, Tim, Unpluggd

Write Better, Live Healthier #1

January 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

Lettuce, begin.

In the Write Better, Live Healthier  series I’m giving you practical advice on ways to improve the quality of your life. Creativity, happiness, success — there’s never a bad time to think more about it and go get it. It’s also a forum to explore and debate topics that we all care about but rarely have time to stop and consider amidst our busy lives. Think of it as a quick push notification for your life, full of little nuggets of byte-sized wisdom nudging you to tap into something new and good.

#1…You need to make an effort to Write Better stuff.

I see a lot of poor writing out there. I see it in business — RFPs, emails, docs, Powerpoints, product specs and other things. I see it online — web copy, UI, blogs, profiles, social media posts and comments.  I also see out there in general, in the wild — ads, billboards, industrial designs, instructions, signage, even menus at bars and restaurants.

Nobody’s perfect, and I’ll certainly carry the torch for imperfection. Maybe at some point I’ll put up a few examples. But to quote a famous line from a Supreme Court judge and James Bond, “I know it when I see it.”

There are three reasons it’s important to Write Better:

  • Write Better to organize your thoughts. We all have ideas that pop into our head all the time. Use whatever system you want for getting these into some recognizable and referenceable format. I like blogging them, but I also like recording them on paper. For the latter, it has the added benefit of always being “wireless.”
  • Write Better to reuse your content. Time is precious. Why waste it on trying to recreate something every time you want to reference it, link to it, or expand upon it. I like this idea of becoming a buffalo content maker. Don’t waste anything. If you write it better the first time then it will be much easier to call-up and reuse again for maximum impact.
  • Write Better to inspire yourself and others. Make it memorable, and fun. How cool would it be to have a running catalog of stuff you wrote that gives you or someone else a lift in their day? Very. There’s an amazing thing that happens when you write in an inspired voice, a bonus. You often end up with content that can easily work into a verbal communication on the subject. This is because it was written in a conversational style that is a natural for connecting with the listener.

I leave you with this poster called 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer to get you pumped up. It’s from Copyblogger Media, makers of the StudioPress Genesis Framework. They make awesome WordPress themes. I am a big fan.

In future installments, I’ll cover specific tools and techniques for Writing Better for different situations in life — professional and personal. And of course I’ll be diving into the Healthier  side of this series. Topics for that one are top secret at the moment. I might need kid gloves.

#2… Stop training for marathons, start training your mind.

 

 

Filed Under: Ideas, Life, Live Healthier, Marketing, Product, Sales, Success, Tech, Tim, Write Better

Un-Predictions 2013

January 5, 2013 By 2 Comments

 

Bark park

Off the leash.

 

With so many predictions flying around out there, I’m taking a page from the unconventional and making this post about the things that I believe will not be changing — the “un-predictions”  for 2013.

I heard once in a great talk from Jason Fried of 37signals quoting Bezos wisdom, ‘focus on things that don’t change in your business.’ For example, a product needs to be slower and harder to use…said no customer ever! You get the idea. It’s in these tiny oft-overlooked realisms that we find our focus and keep delivering value.

My New Year’s gift to you:

pinstagram.ly…ify.io

Companies will continue to pop onto the scene with these uber crazy tech sounding names. If they’ve actually got something then these cheeky monikers will help them stand out for a little while. After their coolifyness wears off they’ll need to be tenacious about reinforcing their brand and value as more pop-up around them. Or, worse, this might happen. It’s true that slowly and certaintly the universe of possible legit sounding dot com domain names are dwindling down. But companies that opt for the other side of creativity — the bold and abstract, utilitarian, or sometimes ironic — still have a place in the market without going all creatify on it.

G+ Identity Crisis?

The tech press will continue to beat the living Internet out of Google for their supposed FAIL on an unrelenting effort to create an alternative to the Facebook social network. What will also continue over at the “Gplex” is their undying focus on building great context into networking and productivity tools for account holders of their service. The digital world is largely an impressions economy, not a winner-take-all moat. Information and people will always find ways to move about their pipes freely. We want context. It’s not about the plus one. It’s about the plus done!

Small Keeps Winning

Somebody asked me recently to sum up the “mobile revolution” and what it means for content. I politely mea culpa’d that I’m probably not the best person to answer that question despite being an early adopter at most things tech. Here’s one simple idea. Content makers will need to continue taking a hard look at how many impressions they can get from content that’s smaller versus bigger, longer form, etc. The context of how and where people are consuming information is constantly changing…and that will not change.

foursquare Quietly Eats the Physical World

“Excuse me while I check-in before we order” is NOT what foursquare is all about, or what makes it still very much relevant. To paraquote its founder, Dennis Crowley, foursquare is ‘making the world around us easier to use.’ It’s a discovery tool  for people that get out of the house and want to experience the world around them. foursquare’s new UI is slick for sure, but two enhancements pushed out this year are a sign of more goodness to come. Users can now synch an AMEX card with their account and get the deal auto-magically when using the credit card at those venues — check-ins not necessary. This takes foursquare more mainstream and further closes the data loop so many deal sites have been struggling with to date. There’s also a slew of new services presenting foursquare businesses with a customer dashboard where they can make quick decisions on data and push out relevance to their best customers. This is customer enchantment at its finest, and signals a sustained focus on value-add for their most active users and the businesses they frequent.

Impressions Not Emails

I’m on a bit of an email crusade these days. I’m both fighting it and on the hunt to improve it. It’s an odd pursuit trying to justify the value of something that’s still very practical but yet has become increasingly irrelevant in my connected life. Which leads me to a brief thought on marketing. How much value are you really creating in your audience’s inbox? Did they convert because of your email, or because it was just one of many impressions that collectively moved them to take action?  I ask this question of every marketer from the tenacious blog owner to the big brander. I’m almost not sold anymore on the email “subscriber” model of online marketing. #11 of on this prediction list especially got my attention. These are important and honest questions we will continue to tackle together in the coming year.

Simple Explanations Rule!

Need a New Year’s resolution? How about practicing explaining complex things in simple ways to non-techy people. It’s fun and challenging. It will ultimately help you become a better communicator. Most of all, it’s a great gift to offer those among us that haven’t yet figured all this new stuff out yet. Here’s a free sampler. Mom: “What’s the point of PayPal anyway?” Me: “It’s so I don’t have to do this every time I want to pay for something”…as a I pull my wallet out of my pocket. The people that fervently push SIMPLE on a complex world will continue to lead the pack of ideas in 2013 and beyond.

 

 

Filed Under: Ideas, Marketing, Product, Startup, Tech, Tim

Personal Branding: Are You @GaryVee or The Stealth Bomber?

December 16, 2012 By 1 Comment

 

Say something.

 

[Editor note: This post is related to the article "Founder to CEO: Mastering the Unnatural" that I wrote for Entrepreneurs Unpluggd. They share entrepreneurs' stories and advice to help you build your startup. Check them out!]

This is a quick post about branding. Personal branding. I’m not going to cover the “what” of personal branding, i.e. tools, techniques, etc. Instead, I’m going to talk briefly about the HOW. Use this as a quick gut check on where you are with your own personal branding.

Let’s talk goals first. Are you looking to get a lift in your job search and networking? Become a better thought leader in your space of learning and expertise? Get the word out about your new startup? The main question you must constantly ask yourself is, “What am I comfortable with out in the wild?” For some, it’s a series of baby steps, walks or skips. For others, it’s big leaps at every turn. Virtually all of us are looking for the same thing. We want our message to be seen and heard by people who care.

Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle of these two approaches, blend them at times, depending on the challenge or opportunity that’s in front of us. This is practicing situational awareness. I’m fairly new to personal branding and admittedly still finding the right mix. And that’s ok. The problem comes when your goals, expectations, and aspirations are out of alignment with your approach. For example, if you’re a soft-spoken entrepreneur and have big, lofty expectations for your idea in the marketplace you want to seriously consider turning up the volume on your personal branding even if it takes you out of your comfort zone.

Now, this doesn’t mean you will instantly gravitate to either extreme outlined below. But it does mean that when you decide to say something big, you should consider how big you want to say it. You’ll need to eventually put most of your personal branding chips into one of these two pots.

The Stealth Bomber

You’re a bit of a lurker. You smartly poke around different environments and platforms making incremental gains in building up your sphere of influence and network. You might even take center stage sometimes. Not a bad play. When played right, this strategy allows you to fly under-the-radar but still be visible when you need to be. You’re usually well-connected. It’s also handy for using the element of surprise when the right opportunity presents itself. You strike when the iron is hot, and do so decisively.

“…featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses; it is able to deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons.” — The Stealth Bomber

Personal branders should always strive for congruence. How you say something should align well with how you actually are — your authentic true self. Let’s say you’re known as somebody that doesn’t speak up much, but when you do, you do so confidently and decisively. Your personal branding should reflect this. That’s an example of being congruent. Conversely, if the same person is all over the map and offers no conviction in their personal branding, they are out of alignment with their true authentic self — and it will show. This is where being a stealth bomber can blow up on you. Let authenticity be your watchword with this approach.

@GaryVee

If you follow social marketing trends and aren’t familiar with @GaryVee of Vayner Media and Wine Library TV, get on Twitter or YouTube right now.  He advises some of the biggest consumer brands in their world on their customer engagement and marketing strategies. What sets him apart is his ability to put himself virtually/completely out there for mass consumption in his personal branding. It’s an integral part of his business branding too. This is a far cry from the stealthy approach outlined above. This approach requires a unique set of attributes, featuring thicker-than-concrete thick skin, laser-like focus of message, and less than zero personal inhibition. You must be comfortable in your level of exposure out in the wild being somewhere higher than the moon and stars.

“…featuring thicker-than-concrete thick skin, laser-like focus of message, and less than zero personal inhibition.”

I think you get the point with this approach. You’re putting your personal stamp on just about everything you’re putting out to the world. And you’re doing it in a very BIG and memorable way. If you buy into this approach, you are telling the world you’re confident that your message will persuade them to move in your direction.

The biggest difference between this approach and the previous one? In the @GaryVee approach, you’re putting all your chips into this pot, ALL the time. There is very little, if any, filter when it comes to your strength of conviction. Congruence is equally important with this approach to personal branding. But if you currently fall into this camp or are contemplating it, chances are you’re already the type of person that can pull this off.

Your Homework

To get you warmed up and inspired for how you’ll tackle personal branding in the New Year, watch this short video on marketing by the late Steve Jobs. In it, Mr. Jobs explains that ‘this is a noisy world, be clear on what you are about.’ It will challenge you to think differently about what you are currently doing. To say nothing is no longer an option.

 

 

Filed Under: Biz Dev, Ideas, Marketing, Product, Sales, Startup, Success, Tim, Unpluggd

Creative Collision in the Startup Ecosystem

November 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Pink'n'blue by futhark, on Flickr

Let’s collide, thrive.

 

[Editor note: This post is related to the article "Going #Badgeless at SXSW" that I wrote for Entrepreneurs Unpluggd. They share entrepreneurs' stories and advice to help you build your startup. Check them out!]

What a last few weeks. I live in the Silicon Prairie. Home to many new upstart software companies within the Omaha-Des Moines-Kansas City triangle. It’s also home to the Kauffman Foundation. If you’re not familar with @KauffmanFDN, to use a college football analogy, they are a veritable “Entrepreneur U” for the World. It was a pleasure to be part of #GEWKC and all the events that took place. It got me thinking about creative collision and how important it is to building a thriving and sustaining community of innovation.

People who run in these startup circles will talk about Brad Feld’s new book “Startup Communities” and what he’s done with Tech Stars and the Boulder community. An exemplary case study. There was also a recent guest post by Phillip Rosedale in the Silicon Prairie News that essentially asked the question,  ’How can a tech ecosystem like Silicon Valley/San Francisco take hold in cities like Omaha, Des Moines, and Kansas City?’ The big takeaway for me is DENSITY. Not the sheer population size. That’s just false hope. But a higher concentration of the ecosystem components in a defined area. The area should not only be defined, but branded. Let creative collision ensue.

Here’s an all-time classic scene to get us started on the idea of density.

Density is EVERYTHING. And it could very well be your destiny, if you play your cards right. Here’s the deal. Nobody’s gonna fund a light rail project through a dead downtown. Nobody’s gonna eat in an empty restaurant. Nobody’s gonna join a movement if nobody knows about it. The capital will be there. Yes it will. So, continue to fill your community with entrepreneurs, connectors, and service providers. Make bold moves.

Entrepreneurs

A curious, passionate bunch. Many have eschewed their corporate pedigree and aren’t looking back. Others are starting early, even skipping the traditional college-then-go-find-a-job plan. They seek comfort in ambiguity and risk taking. They are connectable. Meaning, they have a strong social API (Attitude Performance Index). All of these attributes are hard to find in one person in any community. So unique, and so vital. The DNA of this whole thing.

Action item for those still on the sidelines: Help cultivate and celebrate the entrepreneur ethos in children and young adults.

Connectors

One of my former bosses used to always say “success breeds success.” I’ll take it a step further and say that successful people breed successful people. These breeders are the connectors, and they are everywhere. Some may never take the leap into the great unknown of entrepreneurland. But they’re ready and able to help you where they can.

Action item for those already embedded in a startup community: Get the word out to more  potential connectors about the opportunities that abound for them. Bring a non-startup person (whatever that means) to a startup event or scene.

Service Providers

Not everyone is a product person. Service providers above all else are about RELATIONSHIPS. In many cases, relationships your startup doesn’t have. They also have expertise you don’t have (yes, it’s true), and a healthy distance from your product that allows them to truly think outside of the box for you. They ARE outside of the box. And they should be valued higher in the ecosystem.

Action item for startups: Stop trying to do everything yourself and embrace the service providers in the ecosystem.

Let’s collide, thrive.

You’re a bank? Consider making a loan to “startups” that are actually making money right now. You’re a large employer in the region? Consider looking in your own backyard, and give that innovative upstart a REAL chance to earn your business as one of their first customers. (Best line of any panel this week, by the way.)

Oh, and thanks Google. Welcome to the Fiberhood!

 

Filed Under: Ideas, Product, Software, Startup, Tech, Tim, Unpluggd

Let’s Sprint, Then Party

October 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Launch party? We’ll be there.

 

After reading Tim Farriss’ highly engrossing article “Always Be Closing: Y Combinator and The Art of the Pitch,” it got me thinking about how entrepreneurs spend their days/weeks in a startup environment. If you haven’t read Tim’s article you’re missing out. Be sure to fire up the Pandora and set aside a half hour. It’s a great behind-the-scenes account of a day at Y Combinator. Seriously, it’s worth it. If for anything, an always entertaining Alec Baldwin clip…

To unearth the quote that’s the lynchpin for this post I’m writing here it involved doing a keyword search for an f-bomb I remembered seeing in the article. Because it was that compelling and memorable. Tim writes:

Two days before, at the dinner, Drew Houston, the founder of Dropbox—summer of 2007— had been the guest speaker. Afterward, he told Graham there was something else he had intended to say about successful startups but hadn’t gotten to: “They don’t fuck around, right? The startups that succeed, they don’t go to meet-ups, they don’t run around talking to boards of advisers, they just write code and talk to customers, right?” This is Graham’s oft-repeated mantra, too. Write code and talk to customers.

Sure, there are meetups and events that could prove beneficial to your startup. There are recruiting opportunities (sometimes, but not always), potential first customers (really the only event you should probably never miss), hot investors (if you’re doing the right things they will find you), and others in the startup community who will no doubt tell you again just how awesome your idea can be.

Write code. Talk to customers. Have fun.

There is nothing more important to your startup, especially in the early stages. Fortunately, most people can realize instinctually when they’ve been hitting the startup circuit a little too much and need to get back to work. I’m sure the founder of Dropbox had plenty on his calendar when scaling his business coming out of Y Combinator. The point of it all is really focus on execution first, and then be strategic about the remaining time  you have and where to spend it.

One founder I’ve worked with split up the time we spent week-to-week attending functions. That’s a great a strategy. Translation: If you’re cramming down on a sprint with your development team, send the biz dev team instead. A strong startup community has tons of opportunities and resources at an entrepreneur’s fingertips. Choose wisely, time is precious.

 

 

Filed Under: Biz Dev, Product, Startup, Success, Tim

Inbox Love: Healthy or Hopeless?

October 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Perfect storm?

 

I’ve been obsessed with the INBOX for the last year or so.  Not actually checking it or reading the emails it (that shark was jumped a long time, I’ll explain later), but understanding our relationship with it. This has led to researching everything from its earliest beginnings to —  fast forward 40 plus years later — it’s impact on our daily lives.

The picture above really sums it up. It’s like we’re all caught in the rain without an umbrella. Information overload, Inbox fatigue, whatever you want to call it. Yet, because it’s become such a fixture in our connected lives, we might as well just accept it for what it is and have a laugh. The perfect storm for marketers. We’ll create some plugins to try and keep ourselves a little dry sometimes. I’d call this the HOPELESSLY in love camp.

All of this time spent outside of the Inbox trying to understand what’s in it has resulted in a few key learnings. I’m sharing these insights here because I think they could  A) help untether ourselves a little from the psychological pull of the Inbox, or B) spark some bright, dangerous and ambitious minds to either re-invent it or replace it with something else altogether different. It’s a hard problem and there are signs that it’s already underway. I’d call this the HEALTHILY in love camp.

1. A lot of spam now comes from board rooms, not boiler rooms

By now, you should realize some of the biggest spammers out there today are the actual brands and causes you trust. Take a look at your Inbox and you’ll see this. I have no time personally to keep up, let alone opt-out of the emails pushed to me on a regular basis. The bigger dilemma is whether opting-out/unsubscribing or unrolling is even a good option. If I do, I may not get that killer deal or that important notice about my account when I really need it most. Why can’t I still be on the list but only get the content I want?

(Note: Filters are too hard to figure out for most people, and most lists do a horrible job managing subscriptions. Some lists even try to undermine the preferences set by people who do take the time to use them.)

2. A “Save” button seems more practical now versus the traditional “Delete” button

Would you care if, for example, your Inbox deleted anything you haven’t read that’s not  from somebody in your contact list every 30/60/90 days? I have thousands of unread messages in my Inbox. My visual workflow is now simply:

A. Is the message unread?  i.e. in bold.
B. Who’s it from?
C. Subject line, my de facto BS meter.
D. Skim ALWAYS to personal messages first.

Anything that gets missed in the algorithm above lives on in unread bold forever. Time is precious.

The first thing I do is scan down about halfway above the fold to see if anything catches my attention. Priority Inbox: Really? Who has time and how accurate is that anyway? Labels: Fun for the first day or two. Next, I begin opening the personal messages first (i.e. the ones that don’t have a “noreply@” in their message header), then close it, send a quick response or save my draft response for later. Finally, I go on a binge of open and click back, open and click back, and so on. Eventually, I get through my daily digest of emails this way. I do it over and over again like a hamster. Some I don’t even open, or delete.

Note to marketers: Your confidence interval with my Inbox affinity to your brand or cause is simply my ability to see a bold subject line and either keep moving or clicking on it. It really depends how busy I am at that moment, if I’m on my phone, or at my desk. Think Twitter, except you might already be six feet under…

I stopped this insanity several months ago. For me, this was the moment my Inbox had Jumped the Shark. Now, most of my unopened/unread messages live on in Gmail’s eternal gift of ginormous Inbox storage.

3. Less Time + More Information = Less Control.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters most in an Inbox to me. How could I regain some control of my Inbox, considering:

  • Connection: How integral is the sender of the message in my life (social/interest/commerce graph)?
  • Urgency: Did I just meet them at a networking function and get LinkedIn? Did I just book a ticket to that city, and I am now in that city?
  • Content: How relevant is this content to me, based on the rest of my Inbox? How about my previous history with this sender’s content? Did I open/click on that type of content?

When it comes to our technology, we are total control freaks. Think Apple.

4. Email is old tech, and our imagination needs to catch up with the new tech

Case in point: Folders. A desktop metaphor layered on top of a time-sensitive, to-do list manager. For many, that’s really what an Inbox has become. Managers are great at last in, first out. Folders are where messages die a slow death. Search works just fine. As does…

5. The Inbox should really just be ONE BIG NEWS FEED for our connected lives.

That’s a pretty good start right there.

Let’s get to work on this idea. The irony is both camps could be helpful in this movement. It’s time to unfrazzle our connected lives.

 

 

Filed Under: Ideas, Product, Tech, Tim

Startup Series: How to Stop Fumbling Around and Finally Launch Your Business

September 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment


As you start your business you may have a ton questions or may just being feeling overwhelmed.  Perhaps you have a business idea but you are still in the ‘dream’ stage or in the ‘I haven’t made money… yet’ stage. You may be feeling uncertain, and perhaps a little lost, about whether or not your idea will work.  Things have changed a ton since the days of going to college and getting a secure job.

People want to work at something they are passionate about and that gives them a purpose.  People also want to create their own schedule and lifestyle.  Maybe you fall into both of these categories and see others ‘making it’.  Now, it’s time to turn your idea into a business.

As you work toward your business remember your idea may change, grow and develop into something else along the way and that’s fine.

First, know that your idea is not the first idea of its kind.  It’s been done before, sometimes poorly and sometimes exceptionally.  Find those entrepreneurs who have already had success in creating a vision similar to yours and sign up to their blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Study them and figure out what they have done well and what they could have done better.

The examples don’t have to be an exact copy of someone else’s business, but look for some key things:

1. Research until you find a person or brand you want to imitate with a similar vision, strategy, or approach. Everyone’s business will be different, but if you can find something solid an use that as a mold and a motivator, you can move towards your goals quite quickly by using a similar business model or the same tools.

2. Find a business or entrepreneur who uses the same medium you envision using for your business. Whether you are creating a product or you are branding yourself as the product (coach, speaker, etc.) you need an online store, a website, or a social media platform.  It’s not likely that you will use just one medium with the options to use websites, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and all of the other options out there, but start with one medium and build off of that.  Stay consistent and build your list and while growing your list of platforms you are using to get your product message out.

3. Look for a similar business plan.  The idea here is to get a good idea of the products they are launching, how they launch a product and how their sales funnel works.  Figuring out what works for them will not only fuel your mind with ideas, but help you learn each of the steps from creating the product to how to close the sale.

Search until you have found multiple examples of your business vision. Having multiple examples will allow you to be more specific about your business strategy and will help with implementation along the way.

From each example, take note of what specifically each business does well and study those aspects of the business.  As you study and learn from them you should be learning more and more specific details from them.  For example, when you picked them as a model you may have picked them because they sell e-books and you want to sell e-books too.  But as you receive their newsletters and watch their Facebook status, you’ll start to see how they get traffic and how they do a launch and what their sales funnel is.  Having this clarity moves your business toward success.

As you work toward your business remember your idea may change, grow and develop into something else along the way and that’s fine.  Accept that as you learn more about yourself and the new industry you are in, you need to adapt the idea or product to your new knowledge.  As you grow, always be looking for something to strive toward or better yet, to surpass!

 

About the Author | Nichole Carlson

Nichole is a life and fitness coach in Austin, TX. She is creator of The Rich & Beautiful Project. Connect with her at www.nicholecarlson.com.

Filed Under: Biz Dev, Ideas, Nichole, Product, Sales, Startup, Success
« Older Posts