Stay faithful to your vision
This is Part #2. My last essay, “Are You Willing to Be Generative?” defended your right to have ideas, and encouraged you to have a lot of them. These three mini-essays build on that general line of thought… Don’t Forget The V in MVP A slightly more compelling argument against ideas is made by leaders in the now-prevalent lean startup school of thought. While, as I’ve written elsewhere, I agree with most of what they say, there are certain things they say which have already begun to calcify as oft-repeated... Read The Rest →
Are you willing to be generative?
Last year, one of the themes of my blogging was ideas. Specifically, I wanted you to give yourself permission to have them. Go ahead, it’s okay – have lots of ideas! Believe it or not, that’s actually a bigger deal than you might think. As ironic and shocking as it may sound, ideation is often discouraged in Silicon Valley, the epicenter from which so many of the craziest, wildest, and most impactful ideas emanate. [If I am fortunate enough to catch you at a moment when you have the supreme... Read The Rest →
Give Yourself Permission to Succeed
There’s so much talk these days about failure. They say that it’s what makes Silicon Valley great. It’s our secret sauce, our magic. Apparently there’s a special attitude towards failure around here: it’s okay. Each attempt is just part of a long road towards success, so “fail fast, fail often” and get on with it! In other places, people look down on failure. There’s a stigma attached to it. But not here. Here, gravity falls up. It’s like that great Dr. Seuss quote: “Those who mind don’t matter, and those... Read The Rest →
Why Wikipedia Should Have Been A For-Profit Company
At least, on other sites, the ads feature models. Every holiday season, I dread the arrival of the huge fundraising banners that take over the top of every page on Wikipedia. Over the years, they seem to have gotten larger and more intrusive in their solicitiations. This year, the banners featured close-ups of various people – from founder, Jimmy Wales, to engineers on their staff, to random (and I mean random) users – who had each written a “personal appeal” for annual contributions to the service. After a while, and... Read The Rest →
Long Live the Business Plan!
Who said the business plan is dead? #longlivethebusinessplan This is an attempt to reconcile cognitive dissonance. Together with my co-founders for @everestapp – @victormathieux, @katherinekrug, & @jcmendez_us – I just wrote a massive 40-page business plan, replete with appendices, research, and projections. To accompany it, we built a super-sexy jQuery powered pitch deck (see http://investors.evr.st). Now the pitch deck’s cutting edge stuff, nobody will have an issue with that. But the business plan? That’s a SIN in today’s Silicon Valley. Like, come on! Are you kidding us? It’s 2012 already. To make up for... Read The Rest →
Why numbers matter to me less than ideas
Why numbers matter to me less than ideas One of my co-founders for <a href=”http://evr.st”>Everest</a>, <a href=”http://www.victormathieux.com/”>Victor Mathieux</a>, is a deeply reflective person, and out of that deep reflection often come staggering insights. I am reblogging his most recent post, <em><a href=”http://victormathieux.tumblr.com/post/14760927669/less-looking-out-more-looking-in”>“Less looking out, more looking in.”</a></em>, because it expresses something I’ve long felt and attempted to articulate.In business, almost everyone loves research. That’s because almost everyone is a risk-averse and scared. Research gives them certainty. It gives them a paper-trail. Something to show their boss’ boss’ boss when heads... Read The Rest →
Expanding a circle can ruin its chemistry
This introduction has nothing to do with the “point”. Well, maybe. None of my English teachers liked my writing in school. That’s because it never fit their rules. Every class they would obsess over rules: forms, structures, and other such old dry bones… Give them an essay, and what do they see? They see an intro, three points, a conclusion, and that is all. Save perhaps that interesting sentence pattern in the second to last paragraph; the one with the semi-colon. Extra points! And they always wanted me to lead... Read The Rest →
Is your product emotionally satisfying?
I have observed that lots of products are useful. But people don’t use them. As someone involved in bringing products to life, I have developed a strong opinion as to why that is: they are not emotionally satisfying. So people instinctively spurn, reject, and remove them. That’s because as humans, we’re capable of remarkable intimacy with products. A product that you use all the time becomes an extension of the self. People have relationships with people, but they also have relationships with products. Just as trust sets the tone for... Read The Rest →
Adify
My uncle, Jorge, shared an idea with me, and I thought I’d pass it along. What if I told you there’s an opportunity to build an ad business bigger than Twitter? (Bain, Costolo, and Dorsey’s visions of grandeur notwithstanding…) What’s missing: a DIY product for anybody wanting to monetize their media presence across all platforms. Plug-n-play. You (the advertiser) provide the content. You determine how much, when, where. One price. The money goes to an account provided by Adify to the media source. With just a few clicks, you can choose from radio, television, display,... Read The Rest →
Anyone should be able to advertise on Twitter
I found this article on CNN Money today to be quite interesting. It’s an interview with Twitter’s Chief Revenue Officer, Adam Brian, whose favorite word seems to be “massive”. He says Twitter’s going to become a “massive business” – and that advertisers are already falling in love with the engagement rates on their three ad units, and that they’re paying up. I’m not convinced. I mean, obviously it’s his job to talk up the business, and confidence is good. But it boggles my mind that they have ONLY 1,600... Read The Rest →