Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp, Sept 2009)
March 23rd, 2010
A must read for all start-ups.
Posts filed under 'Creative Entrepreneurship'
5 Essential Principals to Help Make Your Web Start-up Successful.
December 21st, 2009
Since our founding we have helped over 20 start-ups at different stages in their development and needless to say we have learned a lot from each of those experiences.
Important: You can find many if not all of essentials I am sharing around the web and in many books.
However the five that I have put together are based on my personal experience as a principal and strategist at The Groop. I can’t claim I am right, but it does genuinely pain me to see fellow entrepreneurs spend a lot of time and money to learn these same lessons.
If you are an entrepreneur, before you choose to work with The Groop please read this post. And read the books it recommends.
1. Build Less. Spend Less. Release More.
No matter how many features we have seen a start-up build into their software it has very little bearing on their success. For example in 2004-5 The Groop worked with Entrepreneur Zak Kahn to build TalentBoom. He spend a lot (a lot) of money to build then redesign and rebuild TalentBoom until it had enough features and he felt it was different enough from his competitors and had the right “design.”
Early on I told him to release (launch), release, release what he had so far and start monetizing it. He did not follow my advice.
Today the market leader is still Breakdown services and TalentBoom is still looking to gain traction.
Zak called me recently and let me know “You were right, I should have followed your advice.” More importantly he said that I could share my story with you.
I told him this before I had read Getting Real by 37signals the makers of the successful online project management tool BaseCamp. From Getting Real:
“If you want to build a company that follows, you might as well put down this book now.
So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of oneupping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”
From Getting Real
If you have not read the book you should read it now.
Is it the absolute truth in how to do an online start-up? I don’t know, but BaseCamp is an extremely successful subscription service. We use it and pay for it, you might too.
2. Design does not matter.
Yes, I said that. And yes by trade I am a very well trained Graphic Designer who paid a lot of money to attend Art Center College of Design, one of the top design schools in the world. And yes The Groop has designed and built many beautiful websites for great brands over the 9 years of its existence. And yes Apple is an amazing example of how Design (big D) matters.
“So dude, why are you saying such blasphemy?!” you might ask.
First let’s make some important distinctions that will help:
By “Design” I mean visual language such as your logo and what exact color your links are and the style of photography you might use.
By “Does Not Matter” I mean “matters less than the whole” in the context of adoption and monetization. (People using your online product or service and you making money from it.)
So what matters?
The next three principles outline what matters. And to illustrate each point I will use one of the most important client relationships in my 15-year web career. One who happens to be in a business that many might not deem as “sexy”, but that is executing very well. I am talking about the coupon and deal site Savings.com .
3. Execute your business evenly and in the right order.
Like a rotisserie chicken. Don’t let one side cook too long before tending the other side. Your customers won’t like a half crispy and half raw chicken.
You have heard me call this “Total Brand Execution.”
Though Savings.com monetized well the Savings.com team who designed it felt it could be better both from a user experience point of view and from a brand identity point of view.
Savings.com generated revenue well and was growing. What allowed for that? The mechanics of its business model. It’s design (little d) or more accurately it’s user experience supported the affiliate business model sufficiently well, regardless of how it looked.
Before:
After:
Ebay in its heyday, MySpace in its heyday, Craigslist today are not the best looking sites and all three have been or are very successful.
I won’t even talk about Microsoft Windows, (predating Vista and 7) and a slew of other software products that succeed not on looks but on their business model and an acceptable if less than ideal user experience.
4. Have a business model and work from there.
Preferably one that your customers want or need urgently enough.
For Savings.com, brands and merchants need to sell more online and customers want deals on products/brands they need or desire. A customer who already has the intent to buy and is at the beginning or the end of the purchase funnel will be readily inclined to use a coupon or deal.
In other examples, people want to sell the contents of their garage, find a job or find workers, Craigslist brings them together. In these cases it involves one or both of the parties making money; in the case of Savings.com it involves saving money.
What does your online product provide your user?
Have you defined why your customer should care about your product?
More importantly what business model are you starting with?
And before you say I need a product before giving it a business model let me warn you that putting in place the mechanics of an affiliate model is far easier and far cheaper than building a product that looks awesome but is looking for a business model.
You can succeed either way but the latter will take a lot more capital and a lot longer. The heavier the rocket you want to launch the more fuel you need, it’s basic physics.
5. Know your user (singular) well. Delight them. Repeat.
The more type of users (customers) you can please the better your product will do.
That does sound right. Because more is better. Wrong. This mistake is replicated over, and over and over and over and over and over. And it’s wrong in so many ways. Let me count them.
- The more users you want to please, the more features you will need to create. Which violates the first essential principle in this list. Just like Issac Asimov’s rules for robotics.
-The more users you want to please the more confused they will be as to what makes you unique.
- The more users you want to please the more confusing your product will be to use. How many features do you use in Microsoft Excel?
And on and on.
Savings.com first focused on getting their core users to use the product more often. That is the first goal we were given in our brief. It also happens to be the first rule in sales, sell to your existing customer base first.
Together we segmented their users into three user profiles and aggressively aimed to delight the SMALLEST number but most INFLUENCIAL segment of their customers. Using essential principle number three above they executed evenly across social media, PR, design, user experience, content (and etc.) including the one place that matters most. The real world. They flew 30 of the most influential of their customers to San Francisco for a one day “Save Up” conference.
I can’t begin to express how successful that was.
Finally, until now I have not had the courage to urge my start-up clients to think radically different from their urge to follow and make “me to” decisions. Marty Nuemeir in his book ZAG, The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands explains it well:
“If nobody’s doing it, you’d be crazy to do it yourself, right? Wrong. In fact, if you’re looking to become the leader in a new market space, the rule is just the opposite. If ANYBODY’S doing it, you’d be crazy to do it yourself…”
…radical differentiation doesn’t test well in focus groups. When you ask people what they want, they’ll invariably say they want more of the same, only with better features, a lower price or both.”
Next:
You can read the entire Getting Real book online here:
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/
And you can start reading Zag here:
http://www.zagbook.com/
“Ideas Hitman” David Brody from North Social to Speak at Church of Twitter
November 5th, 2009
When executives need a marketing catalyst to come in, challenge a “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset, and inspire consumers to take immediate action, they ping Brody. Exploring and developing new innovative approaches to business is not a hobby for him; it’s a full time pursuit.
Brody arms North with over 20 years experience in venture analysis, brand strategy, product launches, retail promotions, consumer anthropology, and developing disruptive concepts in traditional and emerging mediums.
9 Ways Your Business Could Be Using Social Media But Probably Isnt
View more documents from North Venture Partners.
Before drinking the Virgin Kool-Aid, Brody wore just about every strategic leadership hat within the advertising industry; from Copywriter to Account Planner to Creative Director. He created and spearheaded the Concept Team for the Integer Group/TBWA, America’s 4th largest retail promotion agency with over 800 employees nationwide. The sole mission of this intrepreneurial project was to breed a higher degree of innovation and trigger breakthrough impact for new business and high-priority client initiatives; it resulted in putting more beers in hands, more butts in seats and game-changing thinking into motion for big brands like Coors and Coors Light, the NFL, EarthLink, Qwest Communications and United Airlines.
He first sharpened his experiential marketing chops as Director of Game Operations for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association, where he was recognized league-wide as a promotional innovator. Each home game he entertained the fans with a mix of stunts that included dropping pizzas from the arena rafters and showcasing on-court diaper derbies. He even taught the team’s mascot how to dunk (yes, “with authority”) off the mini-tramp. Brody graduated from the University of Arizona, and spends his free time pedaling bikes, tracking down the ultimate carne asada taco, and boasting about his prowess in Ping Pong.
Sean Bonner Metblogs Founder and the Host of iPhun to Speak at Church of Twitter
November 5th, 2009
Sean Bonner lives in Los Angeles though is often spotted elsewhere. He’s one of the guys behind Metblogs, the host of iPhun and has previously been involved with art galleries and record labels of the punk rock variety. He also is a big fan of bikes.
“Sean Bonner is a pioneer of social software, Internet memes and online publishing. In addition to being an excellent and highly sought-after speaker, he is quickly becoming known as one of the celebrated icons of the modern Internet subculture – his mere presence attracting huge crowds of fans. I for one am a true believer.”
- Joi Ito, CEO Creative Commons
He has been featured in GOOD, Wired, Playboy, Salon, Forbes and others, been included in Yahoo!’s Best of the Web, and has spoken at conferences, events, and coffee shops around the world.
As co-founder and CEO of Bode Media Inc, Sean helped create Metblogs, the worlds largest network of local media blogs. As a consultant, he has helped The Groop, Jack In The Box, LAPD, Suicide Girls, Obey Giant, Shopzilla and others interact with their customers, clients, and fans online. He also speaks frequently at conferences covering blogs, media, networks and grassroots journalism. Recently he’s spoken at IzeaFest (Orlando, FL), SXSWi (Austin, TX), Roboexotica (Vienna, Austria) and Re:Publica (Berlin, Germany). As an event organizer, Sean brought BarCamp to Los Angeles, produced the first art exhibition comprised solely of phonecam images, ran art auctions and benefits for the West Memphis Three. Sean is also a guest blogger/contributor for BoingBoingVideo and the host of the iPhone game review show iPhun.
You can find out more about Sean at his blog:
http://blog.seanbonner.com/
Experimenting with Twitter
September 22nd, 2009
As with all things digital I am obliged to experiment with the latest. I began using Twitter on February 9th 2007. (I found this date using MyFirstTweet.com) About 6 months after Twitter was founded. I will admit that I did it because it was “new” and our resident entrepreneur the CEO of MetBlogs, Sean Bonner, was raving about it. Over the two years that followed I experimented with Twitter in many ways and I wanted to share my experiences with you and what worked and how.
So, does Twitter matter? Does it work? If so how and why? What was my experience over the last two years?
To answer the first question, yes, Twitter does matter. To me personally it matters because it allows me to reach a wide audience with valuable bits of information, Groop updates and the occasional personal update.
If you are in advertising it should matter because it is on everyone of your customers minds. If you don’t personally use it, how can you talk to your clients about it? Even if it is to poo poo it.
If you are a media company it matters because it allows you to broadcast small bits of information on an ongoing basis. The news now breaks on Twitter, your next film will gain buzz on Twitter, your readers will hear about the latest article on your blog on Twitter.
Does it matter less If you are a lifestyle brand? That depends on the lifestyle of your customers.
Does it work? It works both as passive ambient awareness of what is going on around you and also as a discovery tool for things that you might not be looking but catch’s your eye. I know that I have personally discovered products, events and people that I was not looking for by just seeing what people are talking about.
To give a few concrete examples here are some experiments I tried over the last two years:
1. How many friends in New York (I live in LA) could I get to a bar if I notify them the same day?
The answer? A lot. Using Twitter, Facebook, our blog and our Email list(s) and mounting a campaign from my hotel room. Here are the pictures to prove it:
2. How many attendees can you get to a free seminar? A lot. Again, using a combination of Twitter, Facebook, our blog & our email list(s) we where able to get 300 people into a room.
3. How can you help a client, for us Opportunity Green attract an audience of 500 people to attend their conference? I don’t have to repeat it again.
As you can see, it is never Twitter by itself, it’s an eco-system of social tools that help create tangible impact and movement within our sphere of influence. It also does not have to be just for events. In my experiments using Twitter to send out interesting blog post we find, send out our newsletter after we have sent it via email, retweeting interesting articles we find on important topics of the day, have great response. I have found that the consistent low-level messaging that occurs helps create a conversation and a story about who The Groop is.
So that’s great Jose, but how does this relate to my business and how do I do it?
First and foremost it’s less about “your business” and more about you. Note that for the most part all of what I have described has been done from a Twitter account for – JoseCaballer. A person is easier to relate to on Twitter than a brand. That said, it does not mean that they are mutually exclusive. We also have a Groop twitter account. But overall my preference is to use an account that is from me. Not just a company. It makes it more personal, more human.
In summary, Twitter, like any other communications medium has it’s pro’s and con’s, but it is undeniable that the power of passive ambient awareness is here to stay. Whether as Twitter or as something else.
I want you to ignore all the commentary from the peanut gallery and get started experimenting with Twitter.
To get started I would like you to join us for “Church of Twitter” on October 17th. You will be able to bring your laptop and start with the basics of getting set up and growing your followers. “The Reverend” Casey Eberhart will share with us the secrets to using Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools.
Church of Twitter: Using Twitter & Facebook to Market Yourself & Your Clients
September 22nd, 2009
Join us for Church of Twitter: Using Twitter & Facebook to Market Yourself & Your Clients
Save-The-Date: Saturday October 17th From 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Featuring the worlds first 140 character hymn Choir or “Twire” as we call it.
West side location still to be announced.
$125.00 Early Bird – $175.00 Regular – $195.00 At the Door
What You Will Learn:
How Twitter works & getting started
Adding and growing followers
Do’s & Don’ts
Measuring impact
Using Twitter together with Facebook
Planning and executing Campaigns
And much more!
Who Should Attend:
Advertising Professionals
Media Planners
Account Executives
Creative Directors
Art Directors
Media Executives
Writers
Producers
Actors
Consultants
Musicians
Artists
Graphic Designers
Illustrators
Fashion Designers
Photographers
Architects
And More!
A percentage of our revenue goes to support individual art & design students through the Legacy Circle scholarships.
Legacy Circle is an Art Center Alumni led fundraising effort that aims to help young creatives afford a professional arts education by providing scholarships from Alumni to current students.
For more information visit: http://www.artcenter.edu/legacycircle/
iPhone Video QA with New Groop Chief Catalyst, CEO
August 10th, 2009
iPhone Video QA with New Groop Chief Catalyst, CEO from Jose Caballer on Vimeo.
Transcript:
I am Seth Epstein, the Chief Catalyst and CEO of The Groop.
What attracted me to merge Broadtent into The Groop is the fact that The Groop is in a leadership position. It is one of the top interactive, digital agencies in Los Angeles, and it does unbelievable work, has an incredible track record and is a great strategy firm, a great design firm and great at execution.
I think it is important to shoot this interview on a iphone instead of our $10,000 camera sitting over there is because it really represents the future in that content will be created. In the short time that I have already been here, in about a month and a half, we have already tackled a project that is cross plat-formed, kind of a new form of advertising on the web using video so it was an exciting project that we did for Rite Aid with Adperk and it really represents the future of how the web, advertising and television are colliding.
When we merged the companies people would say well what does The Groop do and who are the clients, and basically our clients are Ad Agencies, Television Networks, Fortune 500 companies all the way down to startups who want to grow their business on the web– so everything from platform, all the way to content and really that’s what we do.
[ Business Week ] Latest Trends in Design and Innovation–And Why The Debate Over Design Thinking is Moot
July 31st, 2009
4– A new VCD (Venture Capital Design) model is emerging. Yves Behar’s fuseprojects and others are funding new brands either directly or with partners. Designers are using their talent for spotting new trends and their ability to translate insights into new products and services to directly create new brands, instead of doing it for large companies. Smart began the trend by taking royalty positions in OXO in other brands many years ago as part of its compensation. This has expanded to funding new brands. A VCD model embraces both strategy and stuff and adds investment to the mix.
Venture Capital firms are turning to Behar and other Designers to bring them brands and concepts. This is a new role for Designers.
So where does this reality of Design fit into the discussion of Design within academia? Not well. There is a big gap between Design practitioners (at least at the top consultancies) and Design educators. The debate over doing and thinking taking place within Design Thinking is moot and meaningless in the marketplace. When design consultancies are asked to set up their own “universities” to teach design to corporate managers public leaders as IDEO and ZIBA have done, then we must ask why design schools aren’t playing that role.
Opportunity Green V.I.P. Party @ Environment
June 5th, 2009
The Opportunity Green VIP Party was crazy fun. Sorry if you missed it. Check out the sexy pictures.
So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur
June 5th, 2009
In the article So, You Want to be an Entrepreneur , Kelly K. Spors speaks with entrepreneurship researchers, academics, and psychologists to come up with a set of 10 questions one must ask themselves when deciding to become an entrepreneur. By asking yourself these questions and examining them, you could decide whether or not you are truly ready for entrepreneurship. Remember, as Spors says, “any self-analysis is only as useful as the truthfulness of the answers…”. Take the quiz and see if you are!