Lean Startups and more on StartupRemarkable.com

September 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Howard Kingston was nice enough to interview me for his blog, StartupRemarkable.com.

In just under 40 minutes, we riffed on:

  • What is a tribe and why are they important?
  • The critical importance of finding the first ten rabid fans for your idea.
  • The benefits of Eric Ries‘ Lean Startup methodology
  • How to quickly mock up your idea using a rapid prototyping tool for less than $50
  • How to build virality into your startup, like Instagram did.
  • Why your startup should give users a metric to be embarrassed about.
  • The unique application and interview process for the Seth Godin MBA program.
  • How SAMBA taught applicable business lessons vs. a standard curriculum.
  • The genesis and vision for Spindows, my new startup.
  • How to get your early customers to fund your startup.
  • How to use search.twitter.com to find members of your tribe.

Watch the video below or over on Howard’s blog.

Andy Traub’s Linchpin Podcast

August 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Andy Traub

My friend Andy Traub is a man who ships things. He regularly ships the Linchpin Podcast, one channel of his Take Permission Media Network.

In June, Andy was nice enough to interview me for his Linchpin Podcast. The episode is pretty long at almost 90 minutes but we had a great conversation on the following topics:

  • The two traits of an incurable entrepreneur (hint: you have both)
  • A free website to launch and spread your idea in 15 minutes
  • Why the cost of failure has approached zero
  • We Work Labs – a new innovation co-working space in NYC
  • How to pivot your idea for success
  • The difference between ideas and shipping
  • My first failed business (a non-profit involving an Atari 2600 and my brothers when I was 8 years old)
  • How to finally write that book in your head (can you write a page a day?)
  • How to meet more relevant people in your organization
  • How Elliot Bisnow changed the world by dropping out of college and organizing an impromptu ski trip that spawned a world-changing organization.

Click here to head over to Andy’s blog to listen or click here to listen directly.

I hope you enjoy the show and look forward to your thoughts.

Entrepreneurship, ideas and shipping on NY Brand Lab Radio

May 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

Mary Van de Wiel

 

Last Wednesday, Mary Van de Weil was nice enough to have me back on her wonderful NY Brand Lab Radio show.

Mary is brilliant. I was her first ever repeat guest and I hope to be on her show again soon.

The show is about 30 minutes long and we riffed on some interesting topics:

  • The two traits of an incurable entrepreneur (hint: you have both)
  • A free website to launch and spread your idea in 15 minutes
  • Why the cost of failure has approached zero
  • We Work Labs – a new innovation co-working space in NYC
  • How to pivot your idea for success
  • The difference between ideas and shipping
  • My first failed business (a non-profit involving my brothers when I was 8 years old)
  • How to finally write that book in your head (can you write a page a day?)
  • How to meet more relevant people in your organization
  • How Elliot Bisnow dropping out of college and organizing an impromptu ski trip changed the world

I hope you enjoy the show.

Listen to internet radio with NY Brand Lab Radio on Blog Talk Radio

Would Shakespeare blog?

April 24, 2011 | 3 Comments

photo credit: Wikipedia

 

That is the question posed by Seth Godin on page 92 of his book, Linchpin.

The point? True artists use the means of technology available to them during their life.

Shakespeare didn’t invent the play.

Edward R. Murrow didn’t invent radio.

Jerry Seinfeld didn’t invent television.

Steven Spielberg didn’t invent the movie.

Brian Clark didn’t invent the blog.

Tim Hetherington didn’t invent war photojournalism.

These are all artists who took an existing medium and pushed it to the edges. They shipped, over and over. They shipped even when they didn’t feel like it and when they didn’t feel like their art was worthy. For Tim, he shipped until it cost him his life.

They shipped failures but by continuing to ship relentlessly, they also shipped successes. You didn’t know that Steven Spielberg was an executive producer on Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but you’ve seen Jaws, E.T, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park. He kept shipping.

Shakespeare shipped. 38 plays (or 39, depending who you ask) 154 sonnets and numerous other poems.

People often overuse the word “calling”, as in “Steven Spielberg really found his calling making movies.” Deep down, they’re making an excuse that someone else managed to luck into combining a passion with a skill. The often unsaid thought is, “I haven’t shipped anything because I haven’t found my calling.” It’s a cop out. To borrow from the brilliant Steven Pressfield, they’re giving into The Resistance.

If Spielberg would have lived in the 1600′s, do you think he would have been a blacksmith? Unlikely. He had art in him and he used one of the available mediums of the time to release it to the world. To ship.

Would Shakespeare blog? Yes, I think he would.

Stop waiting for your calling. Bring your art to the world.

Thank you Shakespeare. And happy birthday.

This post was one small part of HappyBirthdayShakespeare.com, a brilliant tribute to Shakespeare where bloggers from all over the world post to tell the world how Shakespeare has impacted their lives.  This project was organized and shipped by my dear friends AJ and Melissa Leon, who lead by example and have taught me more about the importance of shipping than the Bard himself. Thanks, guys.

Survival of Ideas

February 1, 2010 | 3 Comments

Darwin was right.

So is Federov.

2 sites to upgrade your e-cards

January 31, 2010 | 3 Comments

If you’re sending someone a card, whether physical or digital, the goal should be to trigger an emotion.

Isn’t that why we send cards?

If that’s not the reason, it’s just a selfish act on the sender’s part to communicate that they did remember the recipient’s birthday/graduation/Bat Mitzvah.

So if triggering an emotion is the goal, why do so many cards fail to do so? Between physical stores and e-card sites, there are tens of thousands of card options, yet maybe 1% are written well enough to trigger an emotion?

99% look something like this.

Really? Who sends cards like this?

(To be fair, I guess this card does trigger an emotion with me, but it’s not the desired one.)

Well in my never-ending quest to serve you, my brilliant and attractive Daily Sense readers, I have researched and found two sites to use to permanently upgrade your e-cards.

Someecards
This site is brilliant. The humor is often sarcastic and crass, something you would expect when one of the co-founders is a former writer for The Onion. Not all cards are safe to send to grandma, but it’s easy to find the perfect card to remind a friend or significant other of that inside joke or funny memory.

One of my favorite things about someecards.com is that users can customize their own cards and submit to the site. Leveraging the Wisdom of Crowds, The Editor’s Picks in the User Cards section are often some of the best.

Story People
This is the site of artist Brian Andreas. Story People is much more than e-cards. Brian has built a nice little empire out of his inspirational snippets and whimsical artwork. You can browse the entire collection, creating your own e-cards by combining any of the text with any of the images. You can also order the physical prints for framing and other products.

The Story People cards are often amazing and emotionally moving.

[The full "Hi, Mom" disclaimer: My mother originally introduced me to Story People and she's been a fan for a long time. As always, all credit goes to her.]

Use these two sites to save you from ever sending another forgettable e-card.

I’m sure there are more than just these two. What other sites have emotion-triggering e-cards?

Tools for thrashing early

January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment

If you’re building something, it’s critical to thrash early. The biggest and loudest changes should be vocalized early on.

Everyone gets heard, opinions are out in the open and the design gets refined from there.

If it’s done right, there is little to no thrashing at the end and the project ships on time and on budget.

Here are two resources that will help if your project involves any kind of prototyping or wireframing.

Balsamiq
is a really neat online tool for creating and sharing mock ups.

If you’re more of a hardcopy person (I sometimes use both), Geek Chix has a super handy list of sketch templates you can print for wireframing.

Thrash early.

Ship on time.

Godspeed.

Crocodiles and free pizza

January 23, 2010 | 8 Comments

“With every drink order, you get a free pizza.”

It sounds crazy. Or at least backwards.

But that’s the deal at Crocodile Lounge in the Gramercy / East Village neighborhood of New York City. With every single drink order, you get a ticket for a free pizza. All the time.

It’s not just a story, it’s a story that spreads. Friends tell friends. Friends bring friends.

They tweet about it.

They Yelp about it.

They blog about it. A lot. Photo credit by Smack Factor.

They check in on Foursquare.
.

Crocodile Lounge isn’t even active in social media themselves. They gave their fans a story that is easy to explain and fun to tell and the fans are carrying the message in person and online.

People are incredulous when you tell them about the free pizza per drink deal. “That’s impossible?! How do they make any money?”.

This only helps the story to spread, of course.

For you spreadsheet and ROI jockeys (I used to be one) here is my take on the short version of how it works (I’ll guess conservatively on the #’s):

Costs
The two guys who make pizzas all night probably make $10 / hour plus tips. Call it 10 hours per day * $10 / hour * two guys = $200.
Dough is cheap. The raw materials to make all the pizzas in a night probably costs about $200.

So, being conservative, the incremental cost of Crocodile offering free pizza is $400 per night.

Revenue
A tap beer is about $5.
Cost to the bar = less than $1.

So at a profit of $4 per beer, once the free pizza gimmick brings in an incremental 100 drinks per night, it’s now making money, at a very high profit margin.

Plus all the word of mouth, social mentions and positive press.

Once you do the math, it’s no longer crazy. It’s not backwards. It’s brilliant.

[NB: They also have two skee ball lanes in back. Here's the throwdown. I can beat any of my readers in skee ball. If I lose, I'll buy you a pizza.]

What crazy and backwards idea can think up for your business? What story can you give your fans to tell?

That's some strong cheddar

January 21, 2010 | 2 Comments

One video, two lessons.

1) Never give up. (Which is different than strategic quitting, as outlined in The Dip.)
2) If you’re going to make ads, don’t drone on about your features, low price or celebrity endorsers. Tell a story. Make us laugh. Make it memorable and remarkable so we want to tell others (like I just did).

How many car commercials have you seen where the car winds up a curvy mountain road while displaying the latest price. Hundreds? Thousands?

Contrast that with this. It’s impossible to watch this video and not smile, laugh AND remember the brand message.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go order some Nolan’s Cheddar.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

Remember when you were a kid?

January 18, 2010 | 3 Comments

Thanks to Jimmy for pointing out this great video that he found on Tristan Walker’s blog.

My wish for Martin Luther King Jr. day is for all of us to have a dream. And act on it.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

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