startups Archives - Page 55 of 117

The open API secret

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

The biggest flip the technology age has done on the industrial era is the open API. For the uninitiated, an open API (Application Program Interface) is a word used to describe sets of technologies that enable websites to interact with each other. It is also a system where web companies ‘open up’ their platform for external non affiliated software developers to create applications on. Facebook most famously did this with their ‘Facebook Platform‘.

While this sounds like some kind of nerd nirvana, it is actually a counter intuitive move that forms a large part of the marketing genius of social web 2.0 applications. And that is outsourcing the R&D to total strangers. That is, entrepreneurs who have new and interesting ways to mash up their content. It is quite revolutionary in fact. Corporations from the pre-web industrial era would rarely let people use their logo, let alone open up part of the factory for hackers to come in and try and build something interesting. But this is exactly what is happening, the most amazing stuff is usually coming from external organisations and the entire ecosystem is the beneficiary.

Existing web companies get their new product development for free
Entrepreneurs get a shot at being acquired by the firms whose API they focus on

The open API idea has to be one of the major reasons why technology companies are eating the world. The only question remaining is why don’t old world industrial companies open up their doors to some new, fresh and external innovation?

More evidence of screen culture

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

Screens are beginning to permeate our entire existence. This latest effort from Samsung is seriously a step into the future. A fully connected web enabled window. It’s not hard to imagine this appearing in architectural designed houses and offices in the next 12 months a la minority report. Again it seems that UI is what really matters.

Startups need to be thinking about how they design around next generation screen UI beyond Apple.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rlTrdF5Cs]

Exposing your ideas

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

Ideas are like organic matter. If we keep them out of view, out of the light, away from external influence, then all we are really doing is reducing their potential. We are taking away the essential nutrition that could make them thrive grow, and bare fruit.

Why e-Commerce is different

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

At first we got confused about how to make money out of the internet. We thought we should be able to demand payment. Silly us, we forgot about the first lesson in economics – that pesky demand and supply. Supply doesn’t automatically equal demand – especially financial demand. On the internet things work in reverse. First value must be created, then it is extracted. It’s the opposite to the previous industrial world of buying and selling.

Now it’s proving, then earning.

Sowing & reaping

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

Regular readers of my blog will know that I quite enjoy the process of growing food. That there is much to learn from the process, and it often brings up unexpected results and analogies. Here’s another.

Last year I planted a great deal of herbs. These included basil, mint and oregano. But I had a very frustrating year. In fact, I lost more than 90% of my plants due to the heavy rain and relative increase in insects who seemed to gobble them up as soon as they sprouted. Which I would rather have happen, than use pesticides. But it did annoy me. It annoyed me to the point, where this year I didn’t bother. I didn’t plant any seeds for my summer herbs. I was cranky and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Until yesterday, when I noticed that nature has been far more generous this year.

Without any attention, effort or otherwise, 3 little basil plants popped up, in good health.

I was pretty stoked for getting something for nothing, until I realised it was simply a delayed reaction. In fact, last year I put in a lot of effort for very little return, and this year I quit. Turns out I quit too early. Imagine the yield I would have received with just a little more effort than none at all? It would have been a bumper crop (as far as you can have a bumper crop in four pots on a decking).

There are a couple of clear take outs for me:

Nature doesn’t work to our timeline, it has its own.
Yield is not always seasonal.
We eventually reap all that we sow.
The birds will always get some…
Stay the course, it is usually longer than we estimate.
When flower blossom, it’s not too late to start working the field again.

All startup entrepreneurs should learn through the art of growing food.

Big business v Small business

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

Today I was having a chat with an aspiring web entrepreneur. She contacted me for some advice via skype. I asked her a question about her target audience, suggesting she focus on the top end of town and I thought was worth sharing here:

Antony: I thought it’s best to focus on all small & medium companies rather than big giants

Steve: The size of the company is totally irrelevant. What IS relevant – is why your business solves their problems….
I don’t think you can delineate between big or small business being harder to sell to. I’ve had just as many challenges with each…

Small biz can be tighter with their funds….
Big biz can be locked into deals….

and vice versa…. it’s in our mind….

Steve: What matters is the value your business creates…. when you create value that matters – then the sell gets easier – regardless of the target…

Antony: Thinking…

The truth about goal setting

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Steve Sammartino

I’ve been setting visual and written goals for a few years now. However last year was one of the more limited goal setting years I’ve had in some time. In truth, I achieved less than in previous years.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that some times the goals we set for a year, take a few years to yield, for our brain to work out the subconscious algorithm needed to make them happen. I’ve never had a year when I have achieved all the goals that I have set, but it is also true that I achieve more in the years when I have made more of an effort in creating, reviewing and refining my goals.

On occasions I have made a personal postcard and sent it to myself with my goals as the visuals. I’ve shared one of these below, and while some of it is personal, it’s more important to share the goodness than worry about what people might think. You will notice that some things on it are not specific, and can’t be ticked or crossed, while others are specific. I really believe that very specific goal setting can actually work. I don’t know why, it just does.

Some of the Ticks included:

– Getting rentoid.com to feature on A Current Affair (if you click this link, you’ll see how close the reality was to my mashup up preemptive visual goal – quite extraordinary)

– Traveling with my, now wife, to elope

– Starting a family (see baby pic – my daughter even looks like this picture I found on-line!)

– Going to New York & Rome

– Getting published articles in the AFR, the Age and Sydney Morning Herald

– Surfing Weekly

– Graduating from being a University Tutor, to becoming a University Lecturer

– Turning my Startup Blog into a Startup School

– Helping my father sell his farm

– Getting rentoid in the news multiple times (Just google rentoid)

– Travel overseas in Business Class

– Collaborate with rental Industry to become leading portal

Some of the Crosses included:

– Flying in a private jet somewhere

– Having 10 million+ in net assets

– Upgrading my home (Including pool & eco friendly house features, and grand design renovation)

– Running a marathon

– Opening a new office for rentoid

– Getting on the cover of a business related magazine

– Becoming known as a respected business thought leader.

Some of these goals that I am yet to achieve, but am still seeking, in fact some I am very close to…. if they eventuate I will let you know. For 2012 I want my goals to be more specific and I intend on sharing them here to be honest in public and make myself more accountable.

The one thing I know for sure, is that we don’t achieve any of the goals we don’t set.