Hemingway – A short story
Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work.
Heads up from wired.
Self promotion
There’s no promotion without self promotion.
Especially given that in the early days of any startup – You are the brand!
Cool brands
Cool brands are put simply, just like cool people. It’s not so hard to believe when we consider that brands (well known ones) have personalities. Brands have values, share ideas and represent something.
Brands are just like people, the personification of things or services.
So what makes a cool brand? The same stuff that makes a cool person.
Cool people:
· Cut new ground
· Dress how they want
· Don’t care about being popular, which is why they ‘become’ popular
· Do stuff they like, not what others like
· Have strong opinions and values, don’t care what others think
· Don’t try and impress – so they do
· Are confident and relaxed
· Aren’t selfish, mean or vindictive
· Are often compassionate and kind
· Are easy to get along with (easy to use?)
· Take a while to be understood
· Get discovered eventually as being – thought leaders
· Cool in a crisis
Hey, there’s plenty more personifications where these came from – so be
like Arthur Fonzerelli and add them to the comments.
Quote of the century
The late and great John Lennon said:
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”
Hmm…. Maybe we ought, invent, create, live or just ’start’ now.
The love list
All entrepreneurs should keep a love list.
‘What’s a love list?’ you say…
It’s a list of companies / brands / startups with one thing you absolutely love about their offer. It could be their logo, a web page design, the way they answer the phone, their value added services, an emotional link to their product, an advertising campaign, their social responsibility, their green credentials, the product prices….anything. It’s not static, it changes weekly. It’s like a music top 10, it evolves.
Here’s my current love list:
| Love List | Who | What I love… |
| 1 | Ripcurl | Best wetsuits. They make surfing possible for me all year! |
| 2 | Ipod | Industrial design |
| 3 | Borders books | The library factor – read before you buy |
| 4 | Tivo / IQ | Ultra convenience – no more bad TV |
| 5 | Youtube | Instant entertainment – I can usually watch whatever I want, whenever I want |
| 6 | Qantas Club | The decore & comfort. I feel exclusive walking into a members only club |
| 7 | Toyota Prius | Gives my ego a massive boost every time I drive it. |
| 8 | Seth Godin | He makes me feel smart |
| 9 | Tiffany | The definitive packaging |
| 10 | Snickers | Mr T get some nuts TV adv. |
Yep, you can see what drives me, but hey sharing ideas requires self exposure. Share yours in the comments section. We’d love to hear it!
When things go wrong
Update – all fixed. phew…
When things go wrong – admit it and fix it….
At this very second something is wrong with rentoid.com – people can’t join…a big issue for us.
While the tech team are on it, we posted this blog entry which might advise those who see the blog…
Any other ideas / solutions?
The conversation continues
Digital footprints last forever… and our anti-hummer conversation continues…
Fun parks and CBD’s
In reality there are two ways we can define websites. They’re either Fun Parks or Central Business Districts.
Startup blog definitions:
Fun park: A website which is primarily in existence for the entertainment of its users. A place to enjoy, socialize, have fun and waste time.
Central Business District (CBD): A website which has a commercial function from it’s inception and is essentially there to assist people in trade.
Examples of each include:
| Fun parks | CBD’s |
|
Youtube |
Ebay |
|
|
Paypal |
|
Flickr |
Amazon |
|
Hot or not |
Lulu |
Sure, there’s some overlap, but it’s the insights behind the two variants that matter.
Fun parks are ‘fun’. They’re easy to use and addictive in nature. They tend to spread quicker and go viral because there’s less risk. We’re not being asked to spend money, just enjoy the rides. So the fun park fills up quickly, gets popular and the owners monetize them by selling advertising billboards to all the eyeballs in the fun park. Eventually the park becomes overcrowded and people start to leave. They tend to have a rotating user base.
CBD’s are useful. Sometimes fun, but usually more serious and offer ‘value’. The commercial function is built in to the site, hence it doesn’t need to ‘monetize’ itself. People tend to investigate more, take longer to put their name down and join site. But once the do, they often become evanaglists and do the marketing for the site. They build more slowly, maybe take years, but usually end up with a more loyal user base. And rightfully end up more profitable. (profit as defined by yield)
Both are valid, both are evolving. If you’re a start up, it just pays to know which category you fit into.
Some stuff all web startups should know
I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.
I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:
-
More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
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Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
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‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
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The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
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Most took much longer than 2 years to build
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The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
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The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.
Worth a read.
