The Filter Bubble

Internet Trends 2010 by Morgan Stanley Research

[ by Morgan Stanley Research ]


View more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time.

Lessons we learn ...

Tony Hsieh built his online shoe retailer into an e-commerce powerhouse. But with credit tightening and investors eyeing the exits, Hsieh was forced to ask: Was selling Zappos really the only way to save it?

... At the time, we made almost all our money selling shoes, but our hope was that we'd eventually go into all sorts of other businesses. We saw Zappos as a global brand like Virgin -- except whereas Virgin was about being hip and cool, Zappos would be about offering the best service. The plan was to grow sales to $1 billion by 2010 and eventually go public.

These ideas about the power of our company culture had yet to be proved. As I talked to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who visited our headquarters in 2005, I realized that to Amazon, we were just a leading shoe company. If we sold, we'd probably be folded into their operations, and our brand and culture would be at risk of disappearing ...

[ By Tony Hseih – Why I Sold Zappos ]

What really motivates us

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Do not care about business plan, care about business model

[ By Steve Blank Woodstock for Entrepreneurs – the Startup Lessons Learned Conference ]

Why accountants don’t run startups

If you wanted to know what I’ve been thinking about after Customer Development, you can see and hear it in the talk I gave at the conference. Watch the expanded version of “Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups below.
- The first story, Shifts in Entrepreneurship starts at 4:20
- Not All Startups Are Equal starts at 7:30
- What VC’s Don’t Tell You starts at 12:00
- Business Plans Versus Business Models at 14:08
- Startups Search Companies Execute at 17:05
- Leadership Versus Management at 24:50
- Durant Versus Sloan at 30:13
- E-School Versus B-School at 33:41

View more presentations from Steve Blank.

To be great, does not need to be Good...

[ By Paul Buchheit ]

By now, everyone is tired of hearing about the iPad, but the negative responses are so perfectly misguided that it would be wrong to waste this opportunity. Even better, we can look back at the 2001 iPod launch and see the exact same mistakes. But this isn't about the iPad or the iPod -- it's about product design.


The most famous iPod review was from Slashdot, which simply declared, "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." The iPad reviews are similar in that they focus on the "missing" features.

Read full story - If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good

What is the right age to found venture ...?

[by Vivek Wadhwa - TechCrunch ]

Research that my team conducted, based on a survey of 549 entrepreneurs in high-growth industries, showed that the average founder of a high-growth company launched his venture at age 40. We also learned that these founders are likely to be married and have two or more kids. They typically have six to ten years of work experience and real-world ideas. They simply got tired of working for others and wanted to rise above their middle-class heritage...

Read here full story - When It Comes To Founding Successful Startups, Old Guys Rule

Three Israeli Femme-preneurs To Keep an Eye On

[ by Roi Carthy - Techcrunch.com ]

...
the fact of the matter is that female entrepreneurs are a rare breed. Let’s all try a mental game together… How many female startup CEO’s can you name off the top of your head? I am embarrassed to say that I have trouble coming up with more than a handful, but I don’t think I am alone.

Here’s what I find strange about all this: I speak to VC’s and private investors regularly, and have never EVER heard anyone comment negatively on deal-flow based on the entrepreneur’s gender. Startups—at least this has been my experience—are weighted on the merits of the product, market and the team, but never on gender. Frankly, I can’t explain why female entrepreneurs are a rare commodity in our industry. (Feel free to enlighten me about the gender bias underpinning the tech industry in comments).

The situation in Israel is not much different. But it should only be the quality that counts… To that end, here are three Israeli female entrepreneurs worth keeping
...

Read here full story - Three Israeli Femme-preneurs To Keep an Eye On

... 10 Questions to Ask Before You Join a Startup

[ By Guy Kawasaki - Alltop.com ]

1. How much money do you have in the bank?
2. What is your net outflow per month?
3. What is the post-money valuation of your last round?
4. What can you do that your competitors cannot?
5. What can your competitors do that you cannot?
6. Who are your investors?
7. Who is on your board of directors?
8. Has anyone in the engineering team actually shipped a product?
9. Assume that you have $0 for marketing, how would you market the product?
10. What keeps you awake at night?

For answers read this article ...

... startup is like a rock and roll band ...

Surfing and reading today about Startups I have found very good comment, I've liked very much and offer to yours attention:

Choosing the people on your core founding team (first four or so) is an important factor in success. They need to be smart, energetic and committed. It helps if they can fill multiple roles at the same time (sell, write software, deliver services and invoice).

I like to say that a startup is like a rock and roll band. You can fail if you don't have the talent, don't produce the right product, egos get out of control or people lose direction.

Get the right people with the right attitude, and you'll have a much better shot.

More, here in excellent post 10 Things Most MBA Schools Won’t Teach You About Startups by onstartups.com

Does anyone still have MySpace?

Looks like Internet community is growing up...

Posters on the wall, teen magazines, boom boxes playing the same stupid songs over and over again (automatically!) - that's not a sustainable situation, by definition. That's teenage living and that's what MySpace built its huge site on. Just like being a teenager, MySpace is something that most people grow out of. Today marked an important point in the internet's move beyond MySpace.

Read more in article by Marshall Kirkpatrick.

In opposite Twitter's domination growth is fantastic - Global Visitors Shoot Up To 19 Million.

Venture Capital Under Attack

The journey to find these ideas has taken me from inventors’ basements, to obscure research labs, to, in one case, a smoky Milwaukee bowling alley renowned for its fried Twinkies. With a lot of hard work and a little luck that journey ends on the floor of a stock exchange, witnessing a company you helped build go public. It’s a helluva ride.

Great article by Adam Grosser with interesting statistics about the value of VCs to economic prosperity. The challenge is - what can be learned from the current financial crisis that will improve the VC industry.

CREATE is a key theme!

Job creation, innovation and new technologies will help lead global economy back to a growing and successful economy. Venture Capital plays an incredibly important role in the global economy, and thanks to VCs (in both time and money), entrepreneurs and start-ups management have indeed been able to grow seedling ideas employing many and driving worldwide competitiveness.

There is a lot to be said for a creative and transformative approach to take the best of what the VC’s do and creatively use it as one of the solutions to rebuild the economy through creation.

Today is my birthday

I have grown up…
:-)

Still enjoying my spring holiday till 18/04/2009.
Just a couple interesting talks I like to share with you:

By David Pogue:




and Brody Kenrick:



No comments, just see and enjoy - the sky is the limit ...
Have a great holidays!

Failure is just part of the path to success

But it is not the rule ...

Not all failures are equal, explains William H. Davidow, a founding partner in the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. A company might fail because its timing was bad or because the entrepreneur was a poor manager. Mr. Davidow, who says he would have expected “a higher follow-on success rate for the failed entrepreneurs,” says that an entrepreneur who has failed in a previous venture “would get in the door to talk to me” about a new idea. But, he adds, “I would want to know why that last deal failed, and what the person learned from it.”

More in excellent article Try, Try Again, or Maybe Not.

P.S. Try ... Fail ... (or not) ... and Start-up again ...
:-)

Why things goes wrong?

Start-up, or any other business beginning – is a hard under pressure work, very limited in time frame, so only highly professionally crew have chances to success. Therefore looking back to my personal experience, - I think it is safer to go into business with a work colleague than with a friend. Even you know what you're getting in to - starting a business with a mate may sound like a good idea, but some-time better is just stay friends and save yourself a lot of heartbreak.

I like to share with you excellent article with a lot of useful information packed in - Starting up with a friend (What could possibly go wrong?) by Daniel Tenner.

* Make your agreements explicit so that you don’t break implicit promises
* Detail your agreements so that your promises are clear
* Don’t be afraid of discussing negative scenarios, so that you don’t add the stress of misunderstanding to already bad situations
* Write things down so you’ll remember
* Don’t make things work at all costs, so that you don’t spend the next years living with a deal that’s not acceptable to you
* Don’t assume things will get better with time, so you’re not surprised when they don’t

Making resume, I like to point - whether you going to start new venture or just some web-project/service, - make sure you have a mutually agreed upon, objectively measurable set of criteria for success. And most important point is to write everything down. Regularly measure yours, individual performance and the corporate performance against those criteria to avoid unexpected situations and surprises.

Any business idea, relation between friends, colleagues, clients etc, should be written down also to avoid misunderstanding in the future.

If only I'd read this article before I started my first business, I could have avoided many problems and a lot of stress. I hope someone else does find it useful in their own endeavors.

Education is the key to success

I like to offer to your attention "Talk by Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now"

Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.

I believe Bill Gates is not only intended to talk about these two problems, what he is encouraging those talented people around the world to dedicate themselves on something and carry out better solutions for the whole world, in - technology, education, health care, economy, etc. … but he deserves our respect, for his talent, for Microsoft and for the things he is doing now for the world. Through his philanthropic response to Malaria and the needy, he has shown that he lives a life that is beyond himself, - a life that has purpose …

Good education is priceless for any nation, good teachers are the key to the future, but I don't think spending money on "digitalizing" of classrooms is the right solution to anything. I think improved standard of living and free education at all levels available to all are the way forwards.

Staying relevant in tumultuous times

The Israel Association of Electronics and Information Industries (IAEI) has published a survey detailing the extent of the projected layoffs in the high-tech sector, as pessimism grows about the state of the economy in general and the high-tech sector in particular. The figures reveal that Israel's high-tech industry is on the verge of an acute crisis that could see the loss of 35,000 jobs.

by globes.co.il

Prediction - is not gratifying labour. There are about 2,000 High-tech engineers and IT professionals already lost they job places here in Israel, and more will in near half-year period. (Amdocs, Comverse, Cisco, ...)

Google declares about 10,000 layoffs worldwide, - how big % of them in Israel – we will find out soon … Same dismal mood hover in SAP Israel… (based on my friend expression, - he work there about 3 years and realize that in these days things are going to change).

So, how to stay relevant on current job place or while new job hunting? Absolutely clear – to be pulled out from avalanche of appeals and CV’s HR head hunters has already these days, most important is to have some “distinctive feature”.

Many words are stated and articles are written about how important not only to have profiles in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and etc …, but be an active user on daily basis.

Huge amount information is over on mentioned “social media channels”, and to success to cutch needed job it is very critical to be in first 10 applicants.


But most important thing – START YOUR OWN BLOG !!! Once again – there are a lot of articles available about WHY TO BLOG, but I like to recommend this one - “Save Your Career, Start a Blog” By Joseph Jaffe.

“So, if I may, a suggestion that may not help you keep the job you have, but may help you get the next job-and help you keep it. The advice? Start a blog. Start it now. I'll give you 10 reasons why…”

Summarizing in short, BLOGging:
- self education
- always tuned/updated
- evolution/keeps smart
- in sight progressive community
- indirect self promotion
- ...

(You are more than welcome to enlarge this list)

Some useful tips by ERIC TURKEWITZ

Wall Street thunder - what will happen to Startups?

Financial market thunder in the U.S. last week without any doubts will affect on the strategy of investors, whether Angels or VC’s. So, what awaits Startups in near future? The same scenario like in far year 2001...? Deep roll-back of investments from High-Tech field for 2-3 years..? Or experience of past crises will give different result - a balanced approach in making decision, to continue invest in technology companies or not.

Being entrepreneur myself, just in beginning of my way (pre-seed stage) I have to admit that current situation is very worries me too. But much more, I am not envy to Startups that are at more advanced stages, - it is not a secret how “fragile” world and the life-time of young companies. How many non-sounds “aborts” will happen in coming near months? Names of what companies we will read in a long list of obituary, untimely gone and unfairly excluded?

The economy of U.S. is terminally sick while past 10 years. But all what is made so far, is squeezing one burst bladder by blowing a new one, building financial pyramid of speculative securities and obligations on the ruins and corpses of previous. All of us, worldwide, will pay high price of those “genius invents” of Wall Street’s financial gurus. But it is absolutely different theme, which have to be disclosed in kind of separate essay...

Hope, I am clear, sorry for my English …
I will be very thankful to anybody who may share thoughts about near future of investments in Startups, - light predictions are more than welcome.

The Tel Aviv-Yafo Entrepreneur August Meetup – Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am going to my second meetup of “The Tel Aviv-Yafo Entrepreneur” group. The agenda is about “A new stronger social networking framework”. What make this meeting unusual? Jeff Pulver - special guest and speaker on event. Looks like it is going to be one of the largest Meetup to date since this group foundation.



Thanks to Gadi, he has found out bigger (payable and sponsored by Compucall) place to allow all of us to participate in this Meetup. Till now about 183 members are approved they participation and it is only 200 places reserved. So, if you are very close to Startup field and feel like you have to be there, you still have a little chance to reserve pace, - just register here, fill in your profile details (very important, otherwise you will not approved) and we will happy to meet you too.

I feel it will be very HOT meeting - new and familiar faces, speeches, non-official discussions, business cards swapping, news about “closed down” and “started up”, ideas sharing, business communications – all of this are the huge opportunities for all of us. Of course I will make some photos, which I will publish here in blog in my small post-meeting reportage. I am sure most entrepreneurs will come armed by questions and offers, and speakers will fire by answers and solutions.
:-)

See you there!
Fabian

Make me happy, or give me a break

On my way to work and back home in Israeli rain I have about 35 minutes free time. Usually I read my mails, some news and blogs. Today I got short message from my ex-colleague with link to new web-project LinQ (runs in Beta release).

Same magic "Q" letter trick used like in famous ICQ brand, where "I seek you" = ICQ.

Here we have – "Link You" = LinQ.

Fresh look and nice design, local oriented social network – one more clone of LinkedIn.

It is not first one oriented for Hebrew speaking folks, - we have met short time before the Mekusharim.

It is good that services like LinkedIn now available in Hebrew, - it is good for Jews. :-)
But I am very skeptic about monetizing ability of those clone projects... (off course it is only my humble opinion). How many more may start-up in near future …? We much smaller than USA, Russia or even Europe (Xing)

- countries where there is some free space for similar clones. But here in Israel, - how much we need for our "huge" Hebrew speaking society?

Most of local IT professionals already have profiles in LinkedIn. Part of connections they have are international… What may do them happy using LinQ? Or what kind of trick may catch them out from LinkedIn or at least to push them create second or third profile in other much more limited network group.

I am not advocate of LinkedIn, they also not ideal and there are to many details they have to tune up, correct and enrich functionality. But some symbiosis of co-operation between 2 or more Linked-Networks may be interesting… Like global LinkedIn with multi-lingual interface networking society with sub-orientation for local interests.

From other point of view - needless to say that one of clones for sure will go out winner from this "bloody clones battle"… So, I like to whish them to be strong, dynamic-minded and do not give up!

Ooops … my station … I have to run …
Cheers
Fabian