So following a rather rushed morning Q&A session - in which you'll be please do know I DID ask the Geeks a question (number 7 on my list, below. Arguably the least sarcastic) the dinner was marginaly more luxurious. I managed to speak with four of our vistiors, at least partially.
Howard Rheingold is, in fact, a sparkling gem of a man. Not only did he agree with me wholeheartedly that entrepreneurs are created, not born (against the preposterous beliefs of one of our hosts), but he then revealed to me the the future of everything: interactive paper. Though it took me several attempts to understand it (and I believe I may yet be in denial) I now believe wholeheartedly in interactive surfaces and I plan to preach them continuously.
Tom Foremsky (#28 on the list of the most influential people in Silicon valley) turns out to be the softest spoken genius this side of Michael Jackson (RIP). He's one of those rare people who listens and then explains, in a whisper, what you had been trying to say all along. Therapeutic.
I only met Renee Blodgett, the startup PR impresario, for a few minutes, but she implored me to check out www.weblogtheworld.com - which I'm doing in the other tab as I write this post.
Lastly I saw Robert Scoble and reminded him of our last meeting at Les Blogs in 2005. There was no particular reason for him to remember me (other than I hosted a huge party) - but bless him if he didn't feign recollection. Now that's what I call dedication.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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6 comments:
I'm a big believer in some of Howard Rheingold's predictions - in as much as the general direction, if not the actual implementation.
I remember reading about the wearable computing movement in SmartMobs and thinking that noone would wear their computer in such a way for many years - but with Augmented Reality etc on Smart Phones, the functionality those people envisaged is available to everyone, without the problems associated with strapping laptops and powerpacks to yourself!
Yes. Howard's clearly a thinker and writer, rather than a journalist or entrepreneur (like the other Geeks). I challenged him to provide a really practical use for interactive paper (which is essentially paper that can respond to touch or writing) and he laughed: "I've no idea, but I'm sure someone will figure it out".
I just wondered what their answer was to your question? (no.7 - good question!)
Hi Alison. To be honest they didn't answer it at all satisfactorily. Their overall response was "no, natural search is still king" and SEO is still more important than promoting via social media - but I don't really buy that. It's part of the same process - as we say in our marketing seminar - (1) publish (2) optimise and then (3) share via social media. My question was, after you've done all three, did they think social media would start to bring similar (or greater) returns to natural search. They seemed to miss the point - which was a shame.
Hi Luke. About time I checked out your blog. Shame the geeks missed the point. Social Media is surely empowering small businesses or individuals to come up trumps in relevant search results almost instantly, enabling them to tackle optimisation issues incrementally? Surely The Scobleizer himself appreciates this? He is constantly evangelising Friend Feed and his activity on Friend Feed/Twitter/Flickr add a lot of value (personality) to his (top ten) search engine presence, even as someone who has thousands of blog mentions and trackbacks.
Anyway, liking the content on your blog Luke. The School For Startups itself has left me with a lot of positive food for thought, and your clear concise comments have had a huge impact on our making things clearer. I hope that becomes apparent soon. If not, I look forward to hearing why. ;-)
PS - A Question or two off the top of my head: Any tips/links on what should go in the following sections: marketing & sales, forecasts (vs. metrics) & milestones, and timelines? Which is short-term and which is long-term? What type of content should go in these sections for a 10/20/30 presentation?
Also wondering with whether social media startups are better to explain how they aim at metrics driven marketing/growth? As opposed to making ridiculous claims about the size of their market and guesstimating a random (non quantifiable) forecast percentage?
Hope to see you soon, I may miss a friend's wedding preparations to attend the Marketing Seminar. ;-)
Hi Pavan
Nice to hear from you. I'll drop you an email re: the specifics of your question... but for now, and this is controversial, I'd say you need two marketing and sales projections:
(1) a graph that shows a lovely hockey-stick graph firing off into the millions within 3 years. Sad though it is, VC's still need to see this to justify their involvement.
(2) The plan that you actually work to. Harsh reality. You need to NAME your first 10 customers, then build a spreadsheet showing what you expect to receive in income and spend in expenditure in year 1 (anything beyond that is fantasy). The Marketing and sales sections are NOTES that explain this spreadsheet - nothing more.
The days of guesstimating figures without any hard facts or detailed research are gone. This applies to both models above; the latter has simply had ALL the optimism squeezed out.
If you can't project income from sales accurately (e.g. based on a survey of your target market segment - and you must start with a market segment) - then you shouldn't start the business.
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