The Path to Startup Success: Idea, Product, Traction

June 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Vinicius Vacanti

I’m covering some Internet Week New York sessions for Yahoo! Scene.

On Wednesday, Vinicius Vacanti, founder and CEO of Yipit, the most popular daily deal aggregator on the web, delivered an excellent session for startup founders titled, “From Idea to Product to Traction.”  The session was jam-packed with actionable nuggets.  Some highlights and a link to the full post below.

Identify a real problem. The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs make at this stage is getting excited about an idea that isn’t solving a real problem that people have.

Make sure it’s a very big problem. Vacanti used a personal example of replacing a broken remote control for one of his televisions. Problem? Yes. Big problem (market)? No. Vacanti explained that when pitching entrepreneurs need to convince VC’s they’re building a billion dollar company.

Come up with a name and setup a landing page. Collect emails while you’re working away getting a product up to speed.  To do this quickly and easily, Vacanti recommended one of my favorite new startups, Launchrock.com. He explained a few simple ways to promote the landing page, such as including the problem you’re solving and the landing page URL in your email signature.

Come up with a less than 7 word description that succinctly explains the problem you’re solving. Tumblr’s is simple, “The easiest way to blog.” Yipit’s is “All the best daily deals in your city.” The original Apple iPod was, “A thousand songs in your pocket.” The shorter the better.

Don’t add features, throw them out. Vacanti explained that by trimming features and functionality, Yipit reduced it’s production time from a year and a half for v1.0 to four months for v2.0 and then down to three days for the current iteration of the product.

You can read the rest of the post over on Yahoo! Scene here.

 

More or Less?

October 16, 2009 | 2 Comments

Abacus

More
Some industries are becoming more fragmented. A lower barrier to entry is resulting in more new players with no end in sight.

More authors (blogs, Lulu & self publishing tools).
More charities (Charity Water, Acumen, Kiva).
More musicians and more songs (iTunes, last.fm).

Less
Some industries are consolidating – a few dominant players are capturing more and more of the market.

Less bookstores (Amazon).
Less search engines (Google).
Less pharmaceutical companies (mergers & acquisitions).

Is your industry becoming one of more or one of less? How are you preparing? Does your story match the trend in the industry? Should it?

Amazon's New Shoez

July 22, 2009 | 4 Comments

amazon_logozappos_logo

Amazon just announced that it was acquiring Zappos, one of my favorite companies, for $807 million in Amazon stock, and about $40 million in cash and restricted stock.

Here are 5 reasons everyone wins in this deal:

1) Culture
Amazon gets to learn directly from Zappos, the company that wrote the book on culture as the DNA of success.

2) Leadership
Amazon gets Tony Hsieh, Fred Mossler, and Alfred Lin, three leaders who understand the new business paradigm as well as anyone.

3) Vision
See #2. Imagine sitting in “future of the company” brainstorms with Jeff, Tony, Fred and Alfred.

4) (Repeat) Customers
Here is Zappos’ repeat customer data from March 2001 – March 2007. (click to see larger)
Zappos_Repeat

5) Transparency
From living his life publicly on Twitter to the heartfelt letter Tony Hsieh wrote to Zappos employees, Zappos bleeds honesty and transparency. I love Amazon but I’ve always felt like I’m dealing with a website. With Zappos, I know there are humans behind the curtain.

The transparency seems to be rubbing off already. Here is Jeff’s video:

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy some AMZN.

It's not about the bracket.

March 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

The killjoys over at at Challenger, Gray and Christmas waste a bunch of money running an annual study of (ironically) the money and productivity lost by people checking out the NCAA tournament while at work. CGC calculates it to be as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time over the 16 business days of the tournament.

I don’t buy it.

It’s not about the bracket. It’s not about the entry fee or the prize money.

It’s about the incremental camaraderie.

watercooler

It’s about the shift of power when the mousy receptionist taunting the big shot sales guy about her team upsetting his.

It’s about the invisible IT guy gaining respect by hacking together a system for the office to enter their pools ‘online’ (in 1998).

It’s about the female CFO finding out that the janitor majored in finance at Syracuse, a year ahead of her.

It’s about the new connections and conversations that occur every March.

Challenger, Gray and Christmas can’t put a dollar value on that.

The problem with lists

February 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

Why do we feel more comfortable with lists?

to-do-list_small

Because teachers don’t give open ended essay questions to 2nd graders. Because nobody ever tells a girl scout troop to go raise money however they see fit. Thin Mints and Samoas are the tasty, structured proof.

Because the jobs we get early in life are always very structured (ever had a paper route?). Everything is laid out, do this, then do that, then do the other thing. When you’re done, it will look like this. Exactly like this.

It extends beyond childhood. The jobs we get after college are also very structured. Consulting is often nothing but repeating for a new client the same methodology, process or technology that worked for the last client. Lists of what to do and how to do it are everywhere.

Lists aren’t evil. Many times, lists are important, such as in accounting, CPR or the construction of a safe building. But we all want to know that if we check all the right boxes, that we get the A+, admission to the right school, a good review and a 7% annual raise.

Almost everyone is more comfortable with lists. Almost everyone wants people to tell them exactly what to do and exactly what finished looks like.

This is why the people that don’t need lists are so valuable.

Learn to be that type of person. Learn how to take an ambiguous task and figure it out. Learn how to fundraise without Samoas. Learn how to improvise. Learn how to host a conference. Learn how to start a company.

Learn how to do things without lists. You’ll become indispensible.