The late and great John Lennon said:
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”
Hmm…. Maybe we ought, invent, create, live or just ‘start’ now.
Category: Launch
Some stuff all web startups should know
I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.
I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:
-
More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
-
Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
-
‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
-
The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
-
Most took much longer than 2 years to build
-
The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
-
The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.
Worth a read.
Want to be a green startup?
Startup blog advice is this:
Forget the carbon offsetting. The best environmental policy is to have a business which doesn’t destroy it in the first place.
Simple.
Innovative or annoying?
Emirates Airlines have just announced they will be…
“the first airline in the world to commercially launch an inflight mobile telephone service, affording even greater convenience to passengers wishing to stay connected while traveling.”
Hmm… has one of the last bastions of peace and tranquility afforded by the lack of mobile phones has just been destroyed?
The question is this: Which airlines will decide that many passengers will hate this ‘innovation’.
I can only see it making the traveling experience less pleasurable. On top of this Emirates has invested some US$27 million to fit its fleet with the AeroMobile system. On something which may actually turn away customers!
It’s also true that Emirates currently has 7000 calls made per month from its in seat phone service. Approx $200,000 revenue which will be lost every month.
With certain innovations smart startups will often need to decide which half of their customers they want to keep happy. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
The map
Sometimes we’re not as lost as we think we are. We just need to put the brakes on. Stop and revisit our map.
We need to find our location, and determine if we’re on target, or if we’ve made a few wrong turns. If we’re not where we’d like to be, we might need to change direction.
The important this are that we don’t obsess over the map every day, or just keep forging ahead when we’re lost.
I’m a believer – the test
I’d spend my last hour working on my startup.
I’d spend my last dollar working on my startup.
Conceptually not just financially, I’m a believer in how I invest my time.
If we don’t believe, how can they?
