I went to 30 Rock to check out the NBC studio. One thing that struck me was the involvement they create for customers in the studio. Here’s a picture of me as Al Pacino:
It’s an old trick, but the point is simple:
We now demand to be part of the experience, to create the stuff we buy. Especially in new media and web forums.
Got an idea for an iphone app you can’t find?
Great – there’s like a zillion iphone app developers waiting for your business right here, and here and here.
So write the brief for the app you want and can’t find, contact the developers and get it made. Get your itunes account up, choose a cheap ‘low barrier’ price, like a ‘dollar’ or so and sell that puppy. Remember it’s better to sell a $1 iphone app a lot of times than a a $5 or $10 one no times at all.
This micro-entrepreneurs opportunity is as simple as they come. Global distribution with an engaged audience – rare indeed. A classic ‘trend hijack’.
Go now – make it, sell it.
Chatting with Chris Mander from docolo.com and he came up with an awesome idea – which every business should have.
The Chief Mojo Officer, or the CMO.
Sure, I asked him what they did and here’s what he told me: (with some embellishment)
“Firstly you have to believe in mojo. If you don’t believe in mojo, then forget it. If you do, the CMO is in charge of general “Vibe Strategy”. The CMO has to make sure that the ‘vibe’ is right. There are no real quantitative measurements for mojo – you can just feel it. The CMO is the type of dude who can just feel it. They’ll know when it’s out of whack. The CMO is in charge of things which are nebulous, but actually matter. When the CMO has the general vibe grooving, the mojo is right, and revenue happens.”
Good news for startups with small staff is that we don’t have to wait for the employee head count to justify a new CMO. We can and should be doing it anyway. It’s our job!
But when you make it, I reckon it would be the best investment any company could ever make.
We diversify our asset portfolios to reduce risk. To reduce the risk of a particular asset losing value, declining, getting stolen, lost, or broken. We store our assets in safes and banks and put locks on them. We even insure our assets.
If information is the new ‘asset’ – Why do we keep all our assets in only 1 or 2 devices? Just a laptop, a brain, maybe an iphone or external hard drive. Why don’t we diversify their location, or even afford them other types of protection?
Maybe they should be shared instead, and not hidden or locked up. Maybe the sharing of the asset will stimulate it’s growth. Maybe…. But there is little doubt they ought be protected.
image by Austin Kleon
words by Steve from rentoid.com
Dying |
Thriving |
Disposable |
Permanent |
Anonymous |
Identified |
Replace |
Repair |
Colleague |
Friend |
Volume |
Value |
Average |
Atypical |
Discounted |
Premium |
Ubiquitous |
Scarce / secret |
Processed |
Organic |
Spectate |
Participate |
As entrepreneurs we’re lucky to be living in a revolutionary period. A period where we can take the good from the Industrial Revolution (infrastructure & technology) and reject the bad stuff (directive attitudes & mass culture)
In relation to the lists above – startup blog strongly recommends your startup offer be placed in the right hand cloumn.
steve – rentoid.com