Winning a debate isn’t about proving the other party is wrong. It’s about proving you are right. In fact it’s about proving that you are more correct, even a little bit.
Then, by inference the other party must be wrong.
Although that’s a nice tip, debating is hardly the approach we need in any part of a startup business. The best advice we can give here is to never enter a debate, and let the other party believe they are right. Startups are about building relationships, not sabotaging them.
I caught up with all round good guy Ned Dwyer yesterday. We chatted about many things, of which the top of the list was the recent launch of “And now it’s in print.” A project Ned is heavily involved with. Let me just say this. It’s one of my favourite startups this year. The world over. For many reasons, but here’s one:
I asked Ned what the business model was, and this was his reply:
“It’s too important to have a business model. We decided instead to just make something awesome and see what happens”
That’s it my friends, the startup ethic we all need to aspire to. Doing it because it matters.
A couple of other smart ideas entrepreneurs can take note of.
– They limited their production run to 500 copies (invent demand through limiting supply)
– All the articles and visuals are from content they found on line (blending off line & on line worlds)
– The idea was borrowed from South by Southwest (share ideas, re-interpret)
– They proved print can still be awesome. (Print isn’t dead, print industry management is brain dead)
– They set themselves an impossible launch deadline, and made it. (Don’t think too much, get it out there)
Kudos from me.
Some fun pics from the launch here. More info here: andnowitsinprint.com
In the October 1994 Issue of Wired, Gary Wolfe said in an article, article about Mosiac (the worlds first GUI web browser) and the coming internet revolution.
Startup blog asks this:
What kind of pleasure is your startup bringing to its people?
Guest Post from Mick Liubinskas from Pollenizer.
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Department of Startups – Community Announcement
Unsynergy – where the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Often caused through too many features aimed at too many people with too much information.
86.3% of startups are injured or killed each day due to Unsynergy. Please help us stamp it out once and for all.
The worse thing about Unsynergy is that the person who is inflicted with it is unable to see the symptoms. They keep adding more things to their startup – more features, more content, more options – whilst they are slowly (or often quickly) committing suicide.
Most people on the outside, looking in (e.g. customers) can see Unsynergy for what it is. Though sadly, they rarely care enough to let the founders know. (Or can’t find the feedback button amongst the 100 other options.)
Founders, please understand, more is less. Less is more. Less is great.
To bastardise a great quote, “Great products are finished not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.”
Fight Unsynergy, Remove a Feature Today!
Thanks, Mick Liubinskas.
As most of you will know former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was ousted this morning by his deputy Ms Julia Gillard.
It was a whirlwind event that seemed to start and finish within 24 hours. Though, upon deeper consideration the evidence of such an event was mounting. During the media frenzy last night I made a tweet which is full of relevance for this blog and every entrepreneur. I thought I’d share it below.
I’ve decided to run a few guests posts on startup blog.
I’ve never done this before and on the surface it my seem to lack purity. But here’s what I think.
The blog isn’t about me, it never has been. It’s about providing valuable information to those interested in the topic (startups, entrepreneurship, marketing). Which the guests posts will do. Heck, it might even facilitate spreading the startup blog word a little further and connect a few people…. Yep, that would be cool.
There is more good than bad in these hilarious Ali G pitches to Venture Capitalists.
What to look for:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TR0vUPQCs]
I’d seriously recommend this video on how to pitch versus most other examples we see on the web so long as we understand the context.
