Ideas Archives - Page 23 of 37

Your school teacher was wrong

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

It’s not cheating, it’s collaborating

It’s Ok to draw outside the lines

Neat handwriting is not a pre-requisite

Touch typing is not a pre-requisite

You don’t have to all wear the same clothes

You can have a respectable job and wear jeans

Conforming does not necessarily lead to success

the ‘Soft’ – subjects are the most important

Talking is not evil, it’s the most important skill you ever learn at school

Having a contrary opinion is fine

You can have a future and be bad at maths

Being different is OK

Doodling on your paper is good for the mind

Daydreaming is fine

…add yours here….

School is vital to our learning. But just remember which bits to ignore.

Money follows ideas

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Lacking the cash to commence a start up is a misnomer. There’s so much cash floating around western markets at present that the owners of this cash simply don’t know what to do with it.

All money in the world resides somewhere based on an idea. Let me explain:

Money in your wallet – based on the idea we’re going shopping, will need cash for lunch or maybe just for an emergency.

Money in the bank – based on the idea we’ll need it at a later date for something more significant and want to save it for this future transaction

Money in shares – based on the idea that this companies fortunes are improving and the money will grow and provide us with dividends and or a capital gain.

Money loaned to us – based on the idea that we can use this money to create something of bigger financial worth than the original loan and the cost of interest repayments.

All money follows an idea. Sometimes both parties profit. Sometimes one party profits, sometimes we all lose. But the thing which there is no doubt about, is the fact that money is out there for any idea, any time.

If our start up is that idea we ought chase it and give that idea the money it deserves. The better the idea the greater the chance of accessing the money.

Access vs ownership

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

We often have a default thinking that we must ‘own’ something to benefit from it. Particularly when it comes to assets. The truth is more like this…

we only need access, not ownership.

We don’t need to own a Boeing 747 to fly to Sydney, New York or London. We just need a seat on it – access to it. A lot of the time it doesn’t make any sense at all to own something.

It’s just as silly to think we need to have (own) all the technical skills our startup or business requires. And here’s an example which will makes us all very excited.

Yes Skype. The founders of Skype, Zennstrom and Friis, are not programmers. They outsourced all their technical requirements to a team of coders in Estonia. They wanted fresh eyes on the project. None of the coders had telecommunications experience either. They just told them what they wanted and made it happen.

No need to discuss what happened next.

10 years from now

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

You’ll look back in way in which you can’t grasp how much opportunity lay before you.

You’ll consider the freedom of choice you really had which made anything possible.

You’ll see your business ideas, predictions and philosophies transformed into an abundant economic reality.

10 years from now you’ll be able to look back on your choices today.

In 10 years….

…don’t be the shoulda, coulda, woulda guy*.

*guy means person at startupblog in a 2008 kind of way!

Maxjet bites the dust

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Another business class only airline has bit the dust – Maxjet. You may remember our view on why Ozjet failed.

And on this occasion we have a similar theme, but not quite as extreme. Maxjet had some of their act together and survied 4 years. Like the right routes, nice inflight service and an airline lounge. But it still had a few key flaws which still leaves the question unanswered:

Is a business class only airline a viable business model?

Start up blog says: We won’t know until someone ticks all the following boxes:

A new and modern fleet (18 year old 767’s don’t cut it Maxjet)
A cabin which is world best practice business class (Flatbeds are now the benchmark Maxjet)
Linked to premier frequent flyer program which links to other airlines and allows code sharing (One World / Star alliance)
It has international & domestic coverage in it’s home market
Flights every hour / a large fleet
It has the right level of ground service (Airport lounges / chauffer service)
Credit Card linkages

Maybe the business class only model could only work as a sub brand of a larger network (which Lufthansa is doing). It will be interesting to see how the remaining players net out (Silver jet & Eos)

Insight?: Maybe people who regularly fly business class enjoy looking down on those in coach too much to leave their multi class carrier!

I’d strongly advice against starting an airline. But if you must, show your VC’s this blog entry first.

Google Alerts are rad !

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

As a courtesy if I ever blog about anyone (good or bad) I let them know it’s there. I did this recently about Neighborhoodies.

The founder Michael sent me an email back saying – “I already know… Google Alerts baby! Thanks”.

I’ve since set up on things which are of interest to me. It saves me a great deal of time, which at present is my most scarce resource.

The really cool thing is it’s better than an RSS feed, because it’s the google bot doing all the hard work crawling the entire web for you. Every nook and cranny.

All start ups should set some up on topics of interest; themselves, their startup, their industry, their competitors, their whatever….

Click on the image above and go straight there…

Do it. Go now. Bye.

Big Ideas

Posted on January 18, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

There is no such thing as a big idea.

All ideas are the same size.

Because ideas only exist metaphysically.

An idea that really works, becomes a big idea (after we proved it).To find a big idea, first we need lots of ideas (of which all are the same size). The ideas that worked didn’t have an advantage over the other ideas. They we’re all equal, but maybe other stuff happened to that idea.

Maybe we nurtured it,

maybe we believed in it,

maybe we developed it better,

maybe we tried a bit harder,

maybe kept pushing it,

maybe we modified it slightly,

maybe we resisted the temptation to modify it…

….maybe that idea had an advantage because of the way we treated it?