Category: web 2.0

Freshness

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

On first thoughts we’d assume that green grocers and web developers are in an entirely different business. But upon closer expection there are quite a few similarities. Similarities which can’t be ignored.

First of all – it needs to easy to find what your after. If it’s not obvious, if we can’t see it  we’ll assume it isn’t there.

Secondly – we need things clearly categorised.we need to be able to sort the apples from the oranges. So it makes sense to have them in different sections. Not all bundled up in the one place in a rainbow of colors.

But most important of all things need to be fresh. They need to know it and we need to show it. There is nothing worse than a static website – not only do we want, but we ‘expect’ frequent change.

Clue number 1 – the refresh button.
Clue number 2 – it’s software – it’s made to be malleable.

People want to see what ‘we’ and ‘they’ the members / users are up to. What members are doing, what’s changed, that it’s live, that the site represents what’s happening in the physcial world. This matters for every website, that is any business which happens to have a website. Not just businesses with the web as it’s primary forum.  Youtube does it with it’s most viewed by the day, feature videos and promoted videos. Flickr shows a different photo everytime we click in it. Most cool sites let us register for updates or run a regularly updated blog. It isn’t hard – just important.

Start blog says – change things up a little a lot

Media diet – startup style

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As promoted in the 4 hour work week a media diet is a nice way save time. For entrepreneurs a different type of media diet is required.

A business trends diet

Here’s how – avoid all business related articles as they pertain to new strategies & trends.

Here’s why – We already know enough to be successful. Our problem is doing the stuff.

Unless we are just starting in the business world – we’ve heard every strategy and the fact is that most ‘new’ business ideas are simple derivatives of business theories which have been around since the birth of commerce. Cables channels and tech stuff is the worst. Who’s got the time to read 86 posts from techcrunch every day? – not me.

We ought just trust our judgment and make the call that we know enough to get moving…and the rest we’ll learn on the job…. So in the spirit of this blog entry, ignore the articles you were about to read and get back to your stuff.

Outsourcing – Visuals vs Backend

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As webpreneurs we all now employ offshore coders to develop sites using super cool resources like Odesk and Elance. The process is a simple one. But just like all things good, there are some catches. Here’s some advice from someone whose done, does it and occasionally avoids it.

The main thing you need is patience and very considered briefs. When there is a language barrier, ideas and words can be taken very literally.

Our experience is that some (not all) offshore IT practioners are indifferent with ‘visual’ requirements. Maybe it’s a cultural implication. And there are many things we’ve had done much better offshore, like finding creative solutions to technical problems. We’ve worked with some great creative bootstrappers. But it’s clear that more developed markets put a much higher value on ‘aesthetics‘. So we get all our rentoid visuals done locally, while we outsource alot of our backend work. It’s akin to a convenience store you might see in India, there just not quite as pretty as those in Australia and the USA. See below.

Western Convenience Store

Convenience Store India

Inventing the future

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Check out this vision from 1969 I found on youtube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pPfyYtiBc]

Sure the usability is different, but conceptually it’s pretty accurate – even with the touch screen. It probably seemed fanciful at the time, even ridiculous or pointless. But people with vision created the infrastructure that we rely on today.

Maybe your startup has it’s detractors, it might just be too much for people to comprehend. What you can be sure of is that plenty of the ideas which seem ridiculous now, will eventuate and become part of our everday lives. Our job as entrpreneurs is to ingore the opinions and invent the futre.

Formula for winning

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Do, mistake, learn, improve, repeat.

Do, mistake, learn, improve, repeat…

Do it fast. Continue in perpetuity.

The key word is the first one – ‘Do‘. Unless we take action we remain largely philosophical about what might happen. It’s only when we act that we find out the truth and formula of startup success above can eventuate.


Engage your customers

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Really the title should say “people” – we don’t do business with customers, it’s the greatest lie of all time. People trade with people. But I just gave it that title so I could teach people this who stumbled upon this blog entry…

So here’s how we do it at rentoid.com

We have a live chat session with our people. Answer all their questions, assess their concerns and just get to know them. Tonight we are doing it at 7.30pm Aust Syd / Melbourne time.

Go here to log on: http://rentoid.com/live

You can see the startup blog author in action live and see if he (me) can deliver it all live. So tune in, tell your friends and get a shout out!

The skills that matter

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Since we’ve been going through a massive growth spurt at rentoid – I’ve been thinking about the skills which matter. The skills which will take us from start up – to business. That stuff that happens after we’ve proved our concept and people are getting involved in what we do. And here’s my conculsions:

1. Project management. We must get the stuff done we’ve been talking about with our customers quickly. They haven’t got time to wait for us to get our act together. We must deliver our promises, or lose them forever.

2. Leadership. Keep the team inspired and motivated, while maintaining the culture we believe in and have already created. Just because we are starting to achieve our goals doesn’t mean we need to invent systems, create paperwork and lose trust for each other. This is where we prove there is another way to do things in business & life.

3. Maintain Momentum. Go ‘back to back’ in sporting parlance. The ability to maintain public interest and is difficult after unpaid national TV coverage. We’ve got to keep the tap running, keep communicating and getting coverage. This is where communication frequency becomes way more important than communication depth.

Another great way to keep ’em talking about rentoid?

We make sure we deliver on all the stuff we said we’d do – refer point 1.