Has been a guiding business maxim certainly since the industrial revolution. But I’ve now found a replacement terminology I can really feel.
Then: Profit Maximisation
Now: Purpose Maximisation
This comes from a book worth reading called Drive by Dan Pink.
Sure, startups need cash to stay alive, but our purpose is what people really care about.
The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. Not just from a startup / social media or tech point of view but from an economic one. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs:
100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue. And around 100 times their earnings. For comparison purposes Apple current has a 14 times earnings ratio while Google has 12 times. Both companies which have established and growing revenue streams. I know which companies I’d rather hold stock in.
68 Million in acquisitions: In the past year Facebook invested $68 million in purchasing other companies. They have an appetite for acquisition. And that appetite will only grow when the pressures of being public come to the fore. It means that startups who have invented ways to extract money from the Facebook platform are well placed to be bought by the mothership. If you have an idea on how to do this get moving, because the stock market pressures will ensure that startups with revenue generation via Facebook will be targeted.
The IPO will create 1000+ new millionaires: All of which will feel a sense of ‘owing the tech community’. Many of whom will feel like tech rockstars and want to start their own Angel funds. Which means there will be more startups being funded by the FB IPO gold rush. If there was ever a good time to seek money from the Valley, post FB float will be one of the good ones.
Was thinking about this laying in bed last night. The things we should never think twice about spending investing money on.
Mainly because they make us and life better and they build on our entrepreneurial foundations. Here’s my top 10 list.
What’s on your list?
Lately I’ve been totally loving the Youtube channel Big Think.
Basically it is some of the worlds leading thinkers, scientists, artists, educators et al, giving their views on important questions in a global society. Heavy kind of social, geo techno political issues. Often they are in short soundbites of under 5 minutes. For me it a nice TED alternative for bed time watching on my iPhone, or car listening (also via my iPhone which is streaming it from Youtube) – which makes me wonder is their a Youtube ‘radio’ app – where it streams only the MP3 file? If not there should be one. Gee, I might have to build it myself.
Check out Big Think – it is big awesome. Over.
I’ve been a vocal opponent (and customer) of Foxtel. A service that, as the web evolves is loosing its reason for being in my life. So I decided to disconnect my service and here is the interesting story of what happened.
I called the number and the options to choose from (1,2,3,4) for the appropriate issue. This surprisingly included ‘Press 4 to disconnect’. This was the first clue things aren’t right down at Foxtel. Any business that has this issue come up often enough to include it in the first 4 options of customer interaction has some issues.
So I click it and get put through to the ‘Customer Retention Center’ and they ask me why I want to disconnect. A few of the reasons I tell them include:
They apologise, tell me I’ve been a good customer for a few years, so they offer me a $30 discount per month. Which is 30% off what I’ve been paying. I retort with, ‘if I’m such a good customer why do you only try and keep me once I’ve already decided to leave you?’ Seems to me they have things back to front at Foxtel.
So I took the discount for now – I’m moving house in 2 months and it is all over for me and Foxtel then.
My advice to any Foxtel subscriber out there is to call up to disconnect and get the discount anyway and hack their already flawed proposition, before it gets hacked entirely by market forces.
It’s all shifting in front of our eyes. A new plutocracy is arriving. Some of the roles have already been filled…. Maybe there are some new ones to arrive that we just can’t forsee yet. But to enlighten us a little, let’s consider 3 examples:
| THEN | NOW |
| Yellow Pages | |
| White Pages | |
| Department Stores | Amazon |
The real question for entrepreneurs is which ailing legacy industries are still waiting for their shake up?
You may have noticed the lack of posting recently. And just two years ago I posted about a new startup here.
Well, I recently launched another one that has the same founders, and went through the exact same startup incubation process.
Although James will essentially be a non-profit, we can confidently tell you he’s one of our two favourite investments.