5 screw-ups and Ten Rules from a high-flying startup CEO

Liz Gannes recaps a talk on a high-flying startup whose CEO was remarkably candid in a recent speech. What’s particularly interesting is this same CEO wrote a much reach piece entitled Ten Rules for Web Startups (see excerpts below). Here’s the list of screw-ups…

Williams went through a tidy list of the top five Odeo screw-ups:

1. “Trying to build too much” – Odeo set out to be a podcasting company with no focus beyond that.
2. “Not building for people like ourselves” – For example, Williams doesn’t podcast himself, and he says as a result the company’s web-based recording tools were too simplistic.
3. “Not adjusting fast enough” – The company thought its comprehensive web-based strategy would win out over the competition, primarily Apple, in the long term. “It turns out long term is not soon enough for a startup if you’re trying to get a foothold.”
4. “Raising too much money too early” – Williams seeded the money with $70,000 of his own money, and after the TED excitement added another $100,000. After he tied up over a million in angel funding, a term sheet came through from Charles River Ventures at three times the angel round valuation. They took the money.
5. “Not listening to my gut” – “When you’ve got a bunch of money and you’ve hired a lot of people and you’re talking to your board and you’re talking to reporters, your gut can get drowned out.”

 

Ten Rules for Web Startups

The following are the ten rules with a couple of samples of his rules. Click here for the details behind each.

#1: Be Narrow

Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there's less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there's a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.

 

#2: Be Different

 

#3: Be Casual

 

#4: Be Picky

 

#5: Be User-Centric

 

#6: Be Self-Centered

 

#7: Be Greedy

 

#8: Be Tiny

 

#9: Be Agile

You know that old saw about a plane flying from California to Hawaii being off course 99% of the time—but constantly correcting? The same is true of successful startups—except they may start out heading toward Alaska. Many dot-com bubble companies that died could have eventually been successful had they been able to adjust and change their plans instead of running as fast as they could until they burned out, based on their initial assumptions. Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr's company was building a game. Ebay was going to sell auction software. Initial assumptions are almost always wrong. That's why the waterfall approach to building software is obsolete in favor agile techniques. The same philosophy should be applied to building a company.

 

#10: Be Balanced

 

#11 (bonus!): Be Wary

Top 5 Tools For Generating Sales Leads

From a podcasting news site, this talks about the top 5 sales lead generators.

When asked, "Which offers are 'very effective' for generating high-quality leads?" marketers in all three areas studied - technology services firms, and business software and hardware - put Blog and the Podcast in the top five.

The information comes from Marketing Sherpa's annual survey of business technology marketing executives. About 1,900 responded to the survey.

Top 5 Tools For Generating Sales Leads

·         1. Free Trials -- Business software marketers ranked free trials extremely highly, with 54% calling trials very effective.

·         2. Webcast -- At 41% this was another favorite for software marketers, however technology services and related hardware firms also ranked webinars at 33% and 31% respectively.

·         3. White paper -- All business technology marketers rated white papers fairly evenly, giving white paper offers ratings ranging from 31-36% 'very effective.'

·         4. Blog -- 35% of software and ASP marketers rated their blog as very effective, as did 33% of technology services firms. However, just 19% of hardware companies felt that a corporate blog was effective. This may be because general business executives are more likely to read a blog, while IT staffers may not.

·         5. Podcast -- Last year the concept of a podcast was barely on the technology marketing map. By June 2006, 22% of software marketers who'd given a podcast called them 'very effective' lead generation tools. Perhaps IT professionals are more likely to be in an early adopter community that might listen to a podcast.

Source: Marketing Sherpa (PDF)