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Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs Part 1: “Purpose = Power”

David Eckoff — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:55:29 +0000

Everyone knows someone who has come up with a good idea and who has not acted upon that idea. Or started working on the idea… and not finished.

Perhaps you can even personally relate to that.

People come up with good ideas for new businesses all of the time. Unfortunately, many of those ideas are never acted upon and most are never brought to market.

This is tragic, because it’s not a matter or whether or not we can. In 2010, an average person of average intelligence can come up with a good idea and bring it to market – thanks to a democratization of the tools of production, distribution and sales.

But not everyone will.

Why do you suppose that is?

Lessons Learned

I’ve made it my focus over the past 20 years to turn ideas into products and businesses. Most recently launching Spitter.com, and working with other companies such as Rivals.com, RealNetworks, Turner Broadcasting, Ustream.tv, and Zazzle to bring their revolutionary ideas to market.

What have I learned that can shed some light on what makes the difference in going to market with your ideas?

There will be obstacles along the way. Distractions. Problems. Frustrations. Doubters. Skeptics.

The single greatest way to overcome those obstacles is something often overlooked in execution: having a big enough reason why.

Big Enough Reasons Why

Chris Klaus, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Kaneva explains why this is so important.

“Part of the secret sauce of a successful startup, is finding a vision and mission that you and your team are passionate about,” Klaus told me. “Every startup has incredible challenges. The teams that are passionate about their mission will be determined to learn from their mistakes. They have the desire and energy to overcome these obstacles.”

Reasons why are the fuel that will get you to follow through.

Big enough reasons why can help get you through anything.

Pamela Slim, business coach and author of ‘Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Employee to Thriving Entrepreneur’ explains:

“Knowing why you are starting your business — how you will impact others, or even change the world — will fuel you through the inevitable periods of struggle as a first-stage entrepreneur,” Slim told me. “Your customers will feel the meaning and purpose behind your business, and your marketing position will be much stronger.”

What Do Most People Do Instead?

As entrepreneurs, we love our ideas – often to the point of irrational exuberance. And being excited about our ideas, we often focus so much on “what” we are doing (the product) that we don’t define - or we lose sight of – “why” we are doing it.

And without big enough reasons why to motivate us through the hard times, we’re more likely to get stalled – when we really need to be putting in the extra effort.

“The difference between success and failure might be the difference between calling it a day at 7 pm or midnight,” David Payne, founder of Atlanta-based Scoutmob, told me. “Only a strong mission will cause you to feel good about working those hard extra few hours.”

A Powerful Approach to Getting Important Things Done

Start by answering these time-tested four questions:

1) What is your desired outcome?

Most people answer: “I don’t know”. Perhaps that explains why so many ideas are never acted on.

Think about what your desired outcome is, what do you really want? And write it down. Be as specific as possible. Set a specific date for that outcome.

2) Why do you want that outcome?

The power is in why. When you get enough reasons you can do just about anything, you can find the way.

A big enough reason why is where you get your drive to follow through.

A useful way to frame this question is to think about why you must do it (as opposed to why you should do it). Think about what matters most to you, what do you most value?

For example: so you want to make a million dollars? Why? Dig deeper. Ultimately, what do you value most?

3) How am I going to make it happen?

Think about – and write down – the most important actions you need to take to accomplish your desired outcome.

Bonus: take it one step further. You are more than your to-do list. Think about and write down the answer to these questions. What kind of person would you need to become to accomplish your outcome? What skills would you need? And become that kind of person. Develop those skills.

4) How will I know when I’m getting my outcome?

Sometimes we can be winning – and feel like we’re losing – because we’re not keeping score. How will you measure it? How will you know?

Not All Reasons Why Are Created Equal

I’m not here to tell you which reasons are the right reasons for you. The “big enough reason why” is unique to each person. (Although some reasons that are often cited by aspiring entrepreneurs are misguided at best – and really bad reasons at worst – and I’ve written about them here.)

But the reasons that drive you could make the difference between success and failure.

What Have You Learned?

So, what do you want to remember from this article?

Before you get started with your to-do list, be clear about what it is you really want and why you want it.

You’ve got to be clear about your outcome and your purpose. The “why” is what will get you to follow through on your decision.

And as you’re bringing your idea to market, remember that Purpose = Power.

What do YOU think? What gives you your drive to follow through and launch new businesses and products? I’d love to hear about your experiences, in the comment section here.

Coming Next Week: Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs, Part 2: “Goals Alone Are Not Enough”

David Eckoff Speaking at Internet Summit 09: Twitter & Real-Time

David Eckoff — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:25:23 +0000

I recently spoke at Internet Summit 09, about “Twitter and the Real-Time Web”.

A terrific lineup of speakers at the conference, including Richard Jalichandra, President and CEO,Technorati Media, Joe Kennedy, President and CEO, Pandora and more.

On the panel with me was John Kosner, SVP ESPN Digital Media; Jeramie McPeek, VP Digital, Phoenix Suns; Don Brown President & Cofounder, Twitpay; and Robbie Allen, Founder & CEO, StatSheet Network.

Click here to view the embedded video.

@ Social Gaming Summit – What I Learned

David Eckoff — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:38:06 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO – I attended the Social Gaming Summit this week, and here is a digest of the most interesting things that I learned.

Justin Smith, editor of Inside Facebook gave a state of the industry. He defines social games as “casual games designed to be played with friends on online social platforms.”
Facebook has created an environment where there is no catalog, therefore “quality drives distribution.” (With no distributor, users are responsible for distribution.)
The web is the gaming platform, therefore the cost of production can be lower.
iPhones and other smart phones will make social gaming more accessible for people who have time on the go (vs. in front of a desktop).
Because there isn’t yet a social network imbedded in the mobile experience, distribution is more important. Much of the distribution from iPhone is driven by the Top 25 list.
Sebastian de Halleux of Playfish says: “For us, Facebook is the gaming platform. iPhone is an access device to that gaming platform.”
Companies like Zynga focus on cross promotion between games in their network. But it isn’t required for success. de Halleux notes that a game like Restaurant City achieved 5 million users in 5 weeks.
Most important: quality is the key driver, along with a link to invite a friend to the game.
As Jeremy Liew, of Lightspeed Venture Partners summarized: “Manipulating users to spam their friends is less powerful and effective than building a game experience that users will willingly tell their friends about.”
Zynga is ultra focused on metrics. In contrast, Playfish is ultra focused on fun. de Halleux notes that when everyone in the company can only do one thing, play the game all the time (!) they know they have the right game. In the end, “quality is the driver of distribution,” says de Halleux.
If you design a game in which it is more fun to have your friends involved, it drives distribution.
According to Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, social games need to do 3 things: 1. Give you a feeling of playing with your real friends; 2. Give a way to express yourself (about your unique personality); and 3. Give players the opportunity to invest in the game over time and have something of value.
Demographics: While the industry has sold to the same demographic, male age 25, de Halleux says that Playfish demographics are 50/50 M/F, and age 18-34. Most don’t talk about them as “games”, but rather as social experiences with their friends (“I just spend 2 hours decorating my restaurant with friends.”)
de Halleux says that games are not a science and that fun cannot be modeled. “There is chemistry with small teams of developers with full creative freedom to do something that will impact millions of people. “
When games go live is when the real work starts. This marks a long relationship between the user base and the developer team. Weekly releases nurture the game, and it is essential to listen to what the audience wants.
Pincus talked about the phenomena in which people are spending more money on virtual Christmas tree ornaments than on real Christmas tree ornaments. His theory is that people are increasingly disconnect from their friends in real life and they are staying in touch by social networks, so relatively few people see their real Christmas trees. In contrast, many people see their virtual Christmas trees.
As a culture, we’ve used up all the time we have, we don’t have any unallocated time. Social games enable people to have fun and justify that time by staying in touch with friends. The analogy: each touch point is keeping another spinning plate spinning.

Photo credit: Via Mike Trigg, Hi5.

RELATED LINKS:

Social Gaming Summit: In-Depth On The State Of Social Gaming (Gamasutra)
Crowdsourced Summary: 70 Tweets that Summarize it All (@MayankDhingra)
In recession, social gaming comes of age (VentureBeat)
Metrics for Social Games (Presentation slides by Siqi Chen and David King)
Social Gaming – Where’s The (Creator) Fun? (Gamasutra)
Social Gaming, Virtual Goods Discussed In SF Summit (Virtual Game News)
Observations from the Social Gaming Summit (Mike Trigg)

BONUS: State of the Industry…

Justin Smith, editor of Inside Facebook gave a state of the industry, with some interesting stats.
14,000+ games on Facebook in the past two years.
Usage distribution across those games: 5,000 games have 1+ monthly player; 1,000 games have 1,000+ monthly players; 300 games have 10,000+ monthly players; 100 games have 100,000+ monthly players; 30 games have 1,000,000+ monthly players; and 3 games have achieved 10,000,000+ monthly players.
Companies make money by a combination of user payments, offers (from third party companies such as Offerpal, Super Rewards, Peanut Labs, AdParlor, Gambit, and Sometrics), sponsored items (advertiser pays for distribution) and ads.
ARPUs: Top rates are $1.00-$2.00/month; and a good MySpace ARPU tends to beat Facebook ARPU’s ($0.60-$0.70/month vs. $0.30-$0.40/month).
Direct payments are increasing share of total revenues.
Top industry trends: free to play games on social networks, however a crowded monetization ecosystem; companies are focusing on monetization earlier; new games are bridging mobile and social; and copycat IP issues continue to be an issue.

Our SXSW Interactive Panel Proposal On Technology & Fitness

David Eckoff — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:27:24 +0000

I’m co-planning a session proposal for the SXSW Interactve conference, with Biray Alsac of FITTmaxx Institute. Hope to see you there in 2009!

“Reduce MySpace Between Waist & Thighs So Wiki Live Longer.”

Let’s face it, most of us in the Web 2.0 community lead a non-stop lifestyle, with jobs that keep us plugged in 24/7, online, time-starved and sedentary. And that could be killing us. Literally.

When Internet famous blogger Om Malik suffered a heart attack December 28, it was a wake up call that he needed to change his non-stop unhealthy lifestyle. “Living a healthier life isn’t just one of my New Year’s resolutions,” Malik wrote. “It’s doctor’s orders.”

We know we should be taking better care of ourselves. We might even know a few things we could be doing. But how to get started? And how to keep it going with all the demands on our time?

In this highly participatory session, discover how Web 2.0 platforms and technologies can help us achieve our health and fitness goals. Gain insights from expert panelists about the most important things you can do right now to get the best results in the least amount of time. Discuss real life practical examples: what works, and what doesn’t work. Discover the keys to feeling better, looking great, having more energy. Be inspired by your fellow Web 2.0 friends and colleagues.

Is a heart attack in YOUR future? Could be…

Don’t wait for doctor’s orders, learn how to make positive lifestyle changes now and how to get fit with the help of Web 2.0 technologies.

Some early user feedback posted on SXSW:

“A much needed discussion!” – Karen Gurney

“Amen! I’ll be there!” – Rebecca Newton

“Excellent panel idea.” – Janice James

@ Georgia Technology Summit: Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics

David Eckoff — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:02:41 +0000

ATLANTA – I recently attended a presentation by Don Tapscott, author of the best selling book “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything“. Tapscott explained how businesses can tap the potential of the emerging networked economy and its self-organized, mass-participatory communities. A digest of some of the more interesting insights I heard from Tapscott, along with my own observations:

The corporation as an institution chosen to create goods and services is going through massive change.

At the same time, the knowledge, resources and computational power of billions of people are self-organizing into a massive collective force. The Internet is becoming the first global platform for collaboration in history, interconnected and orchestrated through blogs, wikis, chat rooms, peer-to-peer networks and personal broadcasting.

Businesses that know how to tap into this self-organizing ecosystem of partners will co-create and peer-produce value for customers in ways that companies relying on internal capabilities and tightly-coupled partnerships will not be able to match.

A fundamental change in technology: the old web was accessed via the PC. The new web is accessed via smart communication devices.

The next generation is driving change. Kids today have no fear of technology because it is like the air – it is just there. The population isn’t merely aging as many people think, it is bifurcating: getting older (the baby boom generation) and getting younger (the baby boom echo). In fact, the echo (80 million strong) is larger than the boom, and these kids are going to dominate the twenty first century. Their defining characteristic: they are the first generation to grow up online.

For the echo generation, time spent online is taken away from time spent watching TV. The echo generation comes home from school and turns on the computer and multi-tasks. They watch TV differently – it is passive and in the background. Most important, they process information differently during a key developmental stage for their brains, and this affects synapses.

Tapscott says that when he was a child, he was “an expert on model trains”; kids today are experts in every institution! Unlike previous decades known for their “generation gap”, today there is a “generation lap”. For the first time in recent history, kids and their parents listen to the same music on their iPods, with overlapping musical taste. Having said that, kids are lapping their parents in everything digital.

Looking at the audience of mostly boomers hearing Tapscott’s presentation, I couldn’t help but think that they are indeed being lapped. And worse, they don’t know what they don’t know. Are YOU part of the boomer generation and are you being lapped? How will YOU keep up? My prescription: experiment with new ways of communicating and collaborating. Start a blog. Try out Twitter or Facebook. As I often say in my keynote speeches: “Change means the time to innovate is now.”

A young panel participant once told Tapscott: “E-mail is yesterday’s technology. Today’s generation communicates by text message, IM and Facebook. A good use of e-mail? “Sending a thank you to your friend’s parents,” she said. Interestingly, even I am using text messaging and Twitter much more, often replacing e-mail with those a text or Tweet. I recently guest lectured at Kennesaw State University and asked them what they thought about the trend. That group, born in the late 1980’s, said Tapscott’s young panel participant is not representative of their generation. Sure, they use text messaging and Facebook (some of them multi-tasking during my lecture!). But they all use e-mail regularly.

The Internet is a platform for collaboration, and Tapscott banned the word “websites” in his company. “None of you should have websites,” Tapscott said. “You should have communities.” That’s an interesting concept. When I was building the online sports network Rivals.com in 1999, the secret of our success was we didn’t just create team sport websites, we created communities of fans around topics. I found most traditional journalists who grew up in the world of print struggled with creating and growing online communities, while people who had immersed themselves in online discussions were naturals with online communities.

All this affects how we innovate and invent new products. It used to be that we all worked for companies because the transaction costs for finding the right information, coordination and collaboration were higher outside the company than inside the corporation. All that has changed with mass collaboration on the Internet – and companies need to act as peers instead of superiors. Mass collaboration requires: peering, being open, sharing some of your intellectual property and acting globally.

We’re in the age of the wiki workplace and we need to transform how we do technology inside the corporation. “If you have people wasting time on Facebook, is that a technology problem?” What a great opportunity to figure out how to use social networking in the workplace. Unleash the power of human capital locked into old constraints.

Tapscott says everyone in a company should have a blog. Believe and trust in your people. In three years, his company hasn’t had any problems with that approach. I compare that with CNN, which reportedly recently fired producer Chez Pazienza for blogging. CNN’s policy as described in published reports: employees may not write anything that appears elsewhere, without first having it reviewed through CNN’s “Standards & Practices Department”. This centralized command and control management is in stark contrast to the Tapscott’s recommendations.

One of my favorite comments from Tapscott: at his company, they don’t have management meetings, instead the run the business via a wiki. With everyone traveling and based in different locations and time zones, this works well for them. Think about your own company: do you run the company via centralized management meetings? Could you experiment with replacing the meetings with an online wiki? I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried this, how did it work out for you?

Tapscott concluded by saying that there is a crisis of leadership. “Welcome the future, for soon it shall be the past.”

What are YOUR thoughts about Don Tapscott and Wikinomics? Post your thoughts in the comment section.

Innovation Focus: Krishna Bharat, creator of Google News

David Eckoff — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:57:45 +0000

ATLANTA – I’m attending the Symposium on Computation & Journalism at Georgia Tech, with a capacity crowd of 230 people focused on the intersection of journalism and computer science.

Krishna Bharat, principal scientist at Google and creator of Google News, was a keynote speaker Friday. Some of the interesting points I heard:

Google doesn’t want to own content, it wants to be the intermediary that brings people to content.

Early on, Google realized that portals wanted to keep people on their sites as long as possible. But the company, at the highest levels, believed that “trapping” people on a site is shortsighted.

Bharat is a computer scientist, but he didn’t talk just about engineering. “Many perspectives, providing contrasting viewpoints, creates an appetite for news and makes you want to read more,” said Bharat. “Perspectives educate, knowing what others believe matters.”

News is real time and fragmented and bringing it all together is hard to do. Google’s process:

Crawl (gather news); cluster (group articles by story) rank (determine how important the story is by aggregate editorial interest). Within stories, story importance in a given edition is based on editorial interest, local relevance and story freshness. Articles are ranked by originality, freshness, quality of source and localness of source.

Google achieves scalability by creating one algorithm and applying it to multiple editions.

Integrating Google News in universal search was very important for Google News, because many people don’t think of going to Google for news. (This is smart, and is similar to how RealNetworks leverages its high traffic Real.com property to drive users to new services.)

Google recently introduced new features: local news; and a Facebook app to browse news while within Facebook and allowing users to track top stories and share them with friends.

Asked what news publishers can do to get ranked by Google News, Bharat said: try to be original, too much reporting is rehashing. The Internet enables niches. Find topics that are underserved.

Bharat says one thing he has learned about the process of innovation during his time at Google: “innovation happens when you put people together.”

What do YOU think about Google News? Post your ideas in the comments section.

Innovation at Google: Product Management Tenets

David Eckoff — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:27:30 +0000

I recently attended a presentation titled “Innovation at Google“, by David Bercovich, product marketing manager at Google.

Among the highlights of his presentation, Bercovich shared key lessons learned about product management.

People have a close connection to Google, Bercovich said, because it has opened up information to people and changed the perception people have of sharing information. Before, people who had information had power. Now, in the interconnected world, sharing information has power.

From a marketing perspective, it’s interesting to remember that Google didn’t do a lot of advertising to attract new users. For most people who use Google’s services, a friend said to them: “You’ve got to try this because it is great.” Bercovich notes that as we’re more networked, that kind of viral marketing happens more. That’s one reason why I believe it is so critical to focus on Net Promoter Score in running a business.

When you think about it, the consumer technology world is innovating because you’re one click away from a consumer going somewhere else. For Google, “It’s all about innovation, because there are no switching costs in search,” Bercovich said.

Here is a summary of Google’s product management tenets, as presented by Bercovich:

1) Fast is Better Than Slow.

While there’s an old saying “patience is a virtue”, users are impatient. Google has found that if they slow search by 1/10 of a second, there are significant decreases in search usage. What does that say about user experience in other parts of the web? People don’t have a lot of patience.

There are implications to how to deploy web services. The world sped up, but for many companies how they deploy didn’t change.

In the old model: define all the requirements; evaluate build vs. buy; issue an RFI or RFP; select a vendor; conduct a bake off; define an implementation plan; customize the application; build an end user training plan; deploy the application. That takes a long time.

In the new model: get the product out quickly, let early adopters provide feedback and have that shape the product. New product development must be iterative, not a big bang. Launch and improve. Fail quickly and learn.

In the past, safe was better. Now, the speed at which industries are changing makes an important case for speed and taking more risk.

2) Simple is Better than Complex.

Google search today has essentially the same simple experience it did in 1997. Today, all the innovation happens behind the scenes, so the products are easy to use. No user manual is needed.

3) Assume Chaos and Deal with It.

As a basic approach, Bercovich advises: encourage risk taking, don’t punish failure. “If you’re not making mistakes every month or quarter, you’re not taking enough risks,” Bercovich said.

In terms of dealing with chaos, Bercovich says that manual categorization and hierarchies are dead. As an example, he has 108,000 emails in his inbox. The old way of putting mail into folders isn’t scalable.

“Search is the only scalable option,” Bercovich said.

And this example applies to information across a company: rather than structurally manage each piece of content, allow people to search the information they have access privileges to.

Of course, search isn’t always the right tool: for example browse and discovery are important for media.

Bercovich notes that there is a difference between not being structured with information categories vs. not being structured in your approach to problem solving.

How does Google approach problem solving? “Google’s core philosophy in hiring is hire athletes, not shortstop,” Bercovich said. “If you hire a person to solve a particular problem, over time that problem changes.”

Organizationally, he advises forming small teams, and moving people around a lot.

“Put a small team on something. Put it on the web. Test it,” Bercovich said.

(Photo credit: smanjo)

This Week: speaking at Perot Innovation Lab and Charles River Ventures

David Eckoff — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:02:53 +0000

This week I am making a keynote speech at the Perot Innovation Lab “Innovation Insights” conference. My speech: “Lessons Learned from the Consumer Web”.

Then later in the week I will be speaking on a panel at the Charles River Ventures “Leadership Summit“. I’ll be in good company, with Andrew Baron, creator of Rocketboom, John Penney, SVP of new media business planning at HBO, and Michael Yanover, business development agent at Creative Artists Agency scheduled on my panel.

PodCamp NYC Roundup

David Eckoff — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:47:29 +0000

I attended PodCamp NYC this past weekend. Was impressed with how the conference came together in such an outstanding way, all with an “open source” approach. A terrific group of people attended.

Here’s my roundup of the best from around the web on PodCamp NYC:

Articles:

Unconference PodCamp is what participants make of it (News.com)

Podcasters invade Manhattan! (rikomatic.com)

PodCamp NYC Report (and Brain Dump) (Jason Van Orden)

PodCamp NYC ‘07 (Magnify.net Blog)

Podcamp NYC – From Cubscast to Rocketboom (Online Video Watch)

PodCamp NYC Wows The Masses (PR Blog News)

Back From Podcamp (TheWebpreneur)

PodCampNYC Recap Part 1 (Rob’s Musings)

Podcamp NYC was fun! (podcasterwhoswho)

PodCamp NYC 2007 (LynetteRadio)

Podcamp NYC 2007 (CT Biz Blogs)

At PodCamp, the Only Fires Will Be Lit Via the Web
(The New York Sun)

Photos:

Pictures from PodCampNYC (The amazing Chris Brogan)

Photos: PodCamp NYC 2007 (CC Chapman)

Photos: PodcampNYC 2007 (bestdamntech)

Photos: PodcampNYC 2007 (HowardGr’s photos)

Video:

Monetizing Your Podcast (Eagle’s video of session)

Great day at Podcamp NYC (DailyEats video recap)

@ PodCamp NYC

David Eckoff — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:08:28 +0000

Will be attending PodCamp NYC this upcoming weekend.

If you’re a video producer or video blogger, I’d like to get a chance to meet you, hear about what you’re up to, hear about your experiences, and talk ideas. If you’re interested in meeting up, please get in touch with me via the contact me page here.