Category: strategy

Don’t be like Wikipedia

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Firstly, I love Wikipedia. To quote Cameron Reilly – Everything I know I learnt on Wikipedia.

But the times they are a changin’ – says startup blog.

 wikipedia-logo.gif  

Wiki is at risk of losing the advantage which made it what it is today.  Nat at Pure Caffeine pointed out on Twitter that; “Wikipedia [is not about] creating pseudo structures of what is ‘acceptable’ scholarship”.

 

We couldn’t agree more. Wikipedia is at risk of losing its competitive advantage through moderation of articles by letting the ‘sanctioned few’ decide on what deserves an entry in the peoples encyclopedia.  

 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but…

isn’t that what Wikipedia opposes?

isn’t it “up to the market” to decide”?

shouldn’t we all have equal moderation rights?

  

Pull your socks up Jimmy Wales.

  

Start up lesson – when something makes you successful – Stick to it.

Don’t let bureaucracy destroy the basic premise of why you made it. Fight the temptation to moderate, assimilate, hydrate your proposition.

Big Ideas

Posted on 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?

How to – Consumer promotion

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Occassionally a consumer promotion does what it’s intended to do.

This is one such promotion.

redbull-helisurf.png

Summary:

Surfers compete in a surfboard paddle race.  The first four to the Red Bull buoy in each race will be the only surfers winched from sea to sky by the Red Bull helicopter, and whisked away to spend a weekend surf trip in a top secret location hosted by Ross Clark Jones & current World Champion Surfer Mick Fanning at an awesome beach house retreat.  Winners will get to mingle with Mick, demo some awesome new boards and order their very own free custom surfboard!

  

Click the image above to check out the details.

 

Simple mechanics, enhances brand value, anyone can have a go, zero cost to enter, unobtainable prize which money can’t buy, worth talking about.

Sure, they’ve got the budget to do it, and I’m a self confused surf junky… but neither of these things are what makes it so impressive. It’s the idea, the execution and more so “The Experience” – even the losers will enjoy participating.

   

As life becomes more about experiences, rather than consumption smart startups will take notice.

  

What experience does your start up offer?

 

Kudos Redbull – again.

Just one customer

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

If we had just one customer how would we treat her?

If we had just one customer what would our business relationship be?

If we had just one customer at what lengths would we help her?

If we had just one customer we’d hope she told others good things about us.

If we had 1 million customers it would be different. We’d be too busy to do any of that stuff. We’d have projects and financials and meetings and someone answering our phone and daily issues to resolve….right?

As far as she is concerned, we only have one customer.

So it must be true, we only have one customer. We ought treat her that way.

Simple permission marketing – in action

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

You may recall a blog entry I did on Simple permission marketing. The basic premise being, if we have a startup which is ‘interesting’, it’s not difficult to get some good media coverage which is ‘content’ – not advertising.

In the spirit on practicing what one preaches, here’s a little summary of how we’ve achieved this for rentoid.com

* You can see the article for each by click on each listed below:

–          The Leader Newspaper (metro ciculation)

–          The Herald Sun Newspaper (biggest circulation in Australia)

–          The Age Newspaper (most respected broadsheet in Australia)

–          The Age – Livewire (web weekly of above)

–          The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney’s broadsheet)

–          ABC radio – National Public radio – interview

–          The Australian Financial Review (Wall Street Journal of Aust)

–          The Pod Cast Network – G’day world interview

–          Multiple targeted magazines & blogs

Net cost of all this was zero. No PR firm, no dodgy deals. Just honest conversation with people about rentoid.com and what we are doing.

It works, but it takes 2 things: effort and a lot of follow up.

Try it for your start up, and let start up blog know how you go!