Like creating content, I no longer think marketing is something smart novices can figure out part-time. As the web gets super-saturated, marketing is the difference-maker, and it’s too deep a skill to leave to amateurs.
An exception is inherently viral ideas, especially one-to-many virality, where normal use of your product reaches new users, not “word-of-mouth” viral that requires users to advocate you. With inherent virality, a barely adequate product might suffice, though even then marketing should accelerate growth. Next time we’ll raise enough to hire a marketing expert early.
via 10 lessons from a failed startup » VentureBeat.
Tags: Marketing
“Producing quality content every day is a herculean task, especially live. The idea of creating both the content and technology for PlayCafe seemed achievable, but TV networks focus on distribution and studios on production for good reason: both are hard. Dev and I knew we were production novices but we thought live-filming a pretty girl delivering trivia with one camera guy was simple enough. We were wrong; the business was beyond our pay grade.
……
I would advise any entrepreneur or investor considering content to think twice, as Howard Lindzon from Wallstrip warned us. Content is an order of magnitude harder than technology with an order less upside; no YouTube producer will earn within a hundredth of $1.65 billion. This will only become more true as DVRs and media-sharing reduce revenues and pay-for-performance ads eliminate inefficient ad spend, of which there is a lot. The main and perhaps only reason to do content should be the love of creating it.”
via 10 lessons from a failed startup » VentureBeat.
Tags: Business Models
Wisdom from Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) on
‘If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.’
Tags:
Our takeaway from the TechFlash’s interview with the founder’s of Urbanspoon who recently had an exit with IAC.
- Assume you and your cofounders will have to go a minimum of two years without meaningful salary.
- Spend nothing. Nobody gets a salary. Don’t attend conferences, don’t travel, and don’t throw office parties. That stuff is for companies with investors or cash flow. Use Google Apps and Ubuntu. Buy everything at Costco and Newegg. Our only marketing expense was t-shirts, and we hoarded them like gold.
- Ship quickly, and often. If your team is strong and your idea is manageable, ship a crappy version of your product in two months. Then keep shipping every few weeks. If something catches on, double down. Companies that don’t ship for years tend to fail.
- Buy a big whiteboard. Don’t use calendaring, bug tracking or project management software. Put it all on the whiteboard. At the start of each week, erase and start over. Worried about losing something? If you erase it and forget, it wasn’t that important in the first place.
- No time for pri-twos. In project parlance, a “pri-one” is a work item that is essential to the success of the project. Bootstrapped companies don’t have any pri-twos. Once you determine that a task is a pri-two, forget about it forever. Sadly, this is why Urbanspoon still doesn’t have “hours of operation” for our restaurants.
- Outsource. Hire contractors carefully and treat them well. Find a great lawyer who doesn’t work at a firm. Deploy your product on ServerBeach or EC2. Use AdSense, but don’t plan on getting rich with it. For real leverage, discover new ways to use Mechanical Turk.
- Follow the money. At a certain point in your company’s timeline, even the pri-ones may need to get tossed in favor of following the money. No amount of features can compensate for a lack of cash.
- Live your dream. Focus obsessively on what you’re good at, and ignore or outsource the rest. Don’t be afraid to enter a crowded market if you think you can compete. Dream of being Markus Frind of PlentyOfFish, with 1 billion page views and no employees. If he can do it, why can’t you?
Ten lessons in bootstrapping from the founders of Urbanspoon - TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source.
Tags: Bootstrapping · Entrepreneur · Project Management · Ship Often
