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7 + 3 Lessons From Failed Startups
Great Inc post on lessons from a failed startup include: 1. Consider the entire experience 2. Raise money when you can not when you need too 3. Don't give away equity too soon or too fast Read the other 4 from the Inc post: https://www.inc.com/yoram-solomon/7-lessons-you-should-learn-from-my-failed-startup.html I'd add three of my own lessons from my "failed startup": 1. Don't think in terms of success and failure, win and lose. Think about impact, learning, and potential. Startups require a more nuanced sense of win/lose. 2. Don't hire your friends even if they are the right people because you are probably blind to faults, issues, or other "round peg in square hole" problems with friends. 3. Create any startup in collaboration with customers. Don't do the "mad inventor" thing and go off and think you've created a better mousetrap. You won't. Instead, collaborate and build on what you learn from real customers facing immediate problems.
Adding Scoopit Magazines
This post shares the easy how and why of adding @Scoop.it "magazines" to your blog or websties. We work with and around a lot of startups. Every startup is so widget focused they have a hard time creating the content marketing needed.
Why is content marketing so NEEDED for startups? Well let's see. Want to get funded? Want to scale? Content marketing can help, but virtually no startup thinks that way.
Every startup we know is so widget focused they can't see forest for trees. Widget focus isn't unimportant, but at some point soon you will need to sell that widget to someone for money. Content is the magic key in that "sell to someone for money" door.
The best return on any startup's content marketing time is to curate content - i.e. leverage brand relevant content from experts. When you don't have time or inclination to create great content you can get more reach and return from finding highly relevant sources (for your business content) and curating them.
Be sure to follow and contribute to those who you curate from too (or your curation can feel like stealing). This Curagami post explains how easy it is to curate content with Scoop.it and then add the magazines you create to your startup's blog or site.
I built and launched my first startup a few months ago. Although it failed, it just fueled my entrepreneurial fire to la…
Marty Note Startups are so pressed for time they often ignore or make a C priority developing content marketing. That is a huge mistake when it comes time to close a round of funding.
Startups with following have leverage and so may survive. In this excellent two part series Andrian Leighton shares tips on how to blog and how to recycle old blog posts into new content. With these tips every startup has the time to develop the most overlooked but important thing almost all startups overlook - effective content marketing.
15 Ways To FUNK UP Your Startup
15 Ways To Funk Up Your Startup
Watching Mr. Dynamite, HBO's great documentary about James Brown, got us thinking of ways to FUNK UP your startup including:
* Crowdfunding - James Brown knew how to ask for help.
* Content Marketing - Share your journey DAILY.
* 'Splainer Video - broll your elevator pitch & put on YouTube. * Daily Social Media Shares - Build Your Tribe NOW.
* Contest - When in doubt create a low cost high yield contest.
* Games - Make your startup a game with many winners.
* Arresting Visuals - STOP THEM NOW.
* Stories - Share yours and they share theirs.
* Awards - Find the under appreciated and give 'em an award.
* Daily Difference - do something (anything) different today. * Listen More, Talk Less.
* Curate - mashup this, that and the other thing. * Coach - say something nice about something YOU didn't do daily. * When THEY tell you there are RULES don't believe 'em. * Teach - Watch one, Do one and then TEACH ONE to really get the hang of marketing in a digital age.
Marty Note
Love this Jody Porowski post since she shares directly and doesn't lay claim to expertise she doesn't have (rare). I also love here reasons for why content marketing matters beyond pure traffic generation such as:
1. Drive Traffic. 2. Increase Awareness. 3. Create new Connections.
4. Produce Warm Fuzzies.
Great list. I would add:
5. Creates online community (net effect of 1 - 4).
6. Voice is authority, authority is reputation, reputation is all. 7. Provides grappling hooks out to social media to accomplish #2.
8. Shares values and nonverbals communication such as WE LISTEN (especially when you curate or incorporate content from users).
9. Promotes User Generated Content (they won't share if you don't).
10. Define your USP and UCA (Unique Selling Proposition and Unique Customer Aspiration).
YES, we live in a post content-shock world, but construct a website without a voice and see how it performs (it won't). Stories, shared intimacy and risk form the basis of any successful online community. Remember 1:9:90 Rule says 1% of a site's visitors will advocate and share valuable UGC (User Generated Content), 9% will vote and share especially content from the highly trusted 1%ers and 90% read and visit (important to traffic numbers but hard to engage).
We used to think content and voice was the ante for an Ambassador Program or the creation of valuable brand advocates and Sheraps. Team Curagami changed our mind recently and now advise customers such as Moon-Audio.com (manufacturers amazing audio cables and sells high-end headphones and earphones) to ASK for help NOW.
Continue to develop content and voice since the more trusted you are the greater chance you have at the gold at the end of the web marketing rainbow - sustainable online community. BUT ASK FOR HELP immediately, specifically and often.
Such a great post by Jody I couldn't help adding a riff from my experience as a content marketer, content curator and former Ecommerce Director. Added to Startups Revolution because content marketing is one of the rocks many startups get hung upon. Don't over think content marketing and create something daily.
New business, major ambitions, no budget… now what? You know your startup brand should have a Twitter account, the marketing opportunities can rocket your company into the big leagues.
It’s a free platform that puts businesses on a level playing field, where a decent Tweet can reach up to 271 million active users at an unprecedented speed. Using it correctly unlocks a huge return with little to no financial investment.
That sounds perfect – if you wanted to reach an audience of that size on almost any other medium you’d be paying an amount of money that most small businesses in the US could only dream of.
Getting a solid foothold on Twitter can be a challenge if your brand isn’t established yet. But Twitter users follow at least 5 brands on average, so they’re willing to be courted by you if you can appeal to them.
This means that in every industry there are startups using Twitter to grow their audience, increase their leads, help their customers, and ultimately improve their bottom line. Here’s how you can be one of them:
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Getting hired or bought by Warren Buffett would be cool. This Haiku Deck includes tips inspired by Buffett's interview process so YOU get HIRED or BOUGHT by the Oracle of Omaha.
5 Tips Inspired By Buffett's Interview Process
* Solve puzzles & challenge yourself daily. DO SOMETHING NEW today.
* Achieve a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).
* Develop PATIENCE (take a lickin' keep on tickin').
* VIDEO yourself CONSTANTLY.
* LISTEN Better and have loved one GRADE you.
Also tossed in the 5 rules of improv (mostly because I love 'em). Do these things, practice these these ideas and you will be ready when the Oracle calls.
Greatest Movie Never Made & Lessons Learned
"To fail is only to change the way," says Topo and Holy Mountain director Jodorowsky in this must view documentary for anyone trying to create anything. Such an important documentary I'm double posting here in Startup Revolution and in Design Revolution.
Here is what I posted in Design Revolution, the 30 Lessons in Creativity from watching this magical film:
Greatest Film Never Made
"What is he purpose of life," the director Jodorowsky asks in this must view documentary film for any creative, "to create a soul". The amazing creativity and vision of El Topo's director is shared in a series of linked stories.
Much like any creative's mind, this film flies between the surreal, heroic, mystical and crazy. Stories about Orson Wells and Pink Floyd are rich in "sounds true" detail, but pales in comparison to the "I can't type that fast" advice shared.
Advice such as:
* Be all in.
* Be a prophet. * When it comes to missions THINK BIG (something important for humanity).
* Start with clear ideas, but find and respect "light of genius".
* Challenge people to find their best.
* Give Morning Motivation speeches.
* Your VISION should become OUR IDEA.
* OUR Ideas become art.
* When you think you are looking at a rock its an object & vice versa.
* Lucky enough to meet a prophet FOLLOW HIM.
* Be supportive of others. * Transport people. MOVE THEM.
* Look for and work with WARRIORS (life is too short for anything else).
* Imagine and then imagine again.
* No such thing as "too far".
* Let the work rule.
* One man's obsession is another man's art.
* MOTIVATE others. * If you can Seduce Salvador Dali DO SO.
* Create enigmas.
* If chance puts Dali at your hotel, send him a strange note.
* When you find a clock in the sand discover who lost it.
* Create MOVEMENTS and ART with your life.
* If Dali asks you for a helicopter, GIVE IT TO HIM.
* Dali gets you Giger, Giger gets you Magma (and so on).
* If you can get a meeting with Mick Jagger, TAKE IT.
* If Andy Warhol invites you to the FACTORY, go there.
* Plan everything, Plan Nothing (chance).
* When you see Orson Wells in a Paris restaurant, send wine.
* Live a EULOGY Life not a Resume Life.
That last bullet picks up on a great David Brooks TED Talk I wrote about on LinkedIn yesterday: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140717125545-13925622-are-you-living-a-resume-or-a-eulogy-life
Hope you are living a Eulogy Life. Jodorowsky sure did. I had to be shoved kicking and screaming on the Eulogy train by the Big C. Glad I got on this train even if it turns out to be the last train from Clarksville :). M
Are you a "plural being"?
If you FAIL it's not import. It's important to try.
The No Asshole Rule: Don't Give Advice Like One Or Listen To 'Em - CrowdFunde Startup Journal
Prepare For Presumption & The No Asshole Rule
I'm guilty. I've given advice this way before, "Why don't you try to combine x and y". I don't mean to be an ASSHOLE but sometimes it happens. You will never be more assaulted than creating a startup.
Something about "startup" brings out the BATTLING BICKERSONS in people. I'm waiting for the first discussion that begins like this, "WOW, what a cool idea, wish I'd thought of that". Suspect I will be waiting a long time.
My LEARNING (from Adzerk CEO James Avery) is to easily share my EXPERIENCE and THINKING but say away from going the extra mile to presumption. Everything we do online is immediately TESTABLE so one person's philosophy is just as good as another anyway. Customers decide.
SO, if you are a startup or thinking about creating a startup time to thicken your skin is NOW. The rub is knowing when to stick to your guns and when to change based on good advice. Good rule of thumb we've discovered is someone who presumes to tell you how your idea should function better is an unlikely source for good advice.
Adzerk's CEO James Avery got it right. He realized he was being an ASSHOLE and he stopped. He decided he would share his experience and thinking but NOT JUDGE so much. James Avery is a MENSCH and the kind of MENSCH you want to have lunch with, listen to and learn from.
James isn't going to presume he is smarter than you. He is there to help. Today I had an experience where someone LOOKING at an ecommerce website TOLD ME what the person managing that site would do. When I mentioned I managed and ecommerce site with a great team that made more than $35M over 7 years it didn't slow the presumption down even a little.
The KEY learning for startup entrepreneurs is FIND a handful of people like James Avery and hold on to them TIGHTLY. I'm guilty of being too presumptive and am working on that. To those I've dis-respected by my presumptions I apologize and appreciate that you were more graceful and kind with me than I would probably be if roles were reversed.
My CrowdFunde co-founder Phil put today's experience into proper perspective. We need to explain what we are doing better, Phil Said. He is right and we are working on that too. So we are adjusting to the feedback that is valuable such as the name is confusing and trying to do as I say and not as I AM with absurd feedback from goofystupid presumptive people.
When I mess up and am presumptive give me a smack (lol). Marty
Wrote about our great James Avery meeting on CrowdFunde over the weekend:
http://www.crowdfunde.com/featured/dont-be-an-asshole-gestalt-coaching-entrepreneurs-startups/
Read James Avery's How I Learned To Stop Giving Advice
http://jamesavery.io/how-i-learned-to-stop-giving-advice/
Still hadn't written my way out of how angry a meeting made me today, so this post continues on GPlus:
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/4tF6GV1Fypc
Lessons by Marcus Lemonis of CNBC's hit show, "The Profit", for small business owners. We take a close look at lessons learned from all Season 1 episodes.
Buffet's Startup Tips Are so important I created a @HaikuDeck for his tips and for implied startup tips such as:
* Multiple Money - don't depend on one income source. * Spending - buying things you don't need means selling stuff you do...eventually. * Savings - Save then spend not the other way around. * Investment - Never put all eggs in one basket no matter how beautiful the egg.
* Honesty - Honesty and character and lack of it are expensive and amplifed by money so don't expect from "cheap people".
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/94SRtkQRzX/warren-buffet-startup-tips
Startup & Life Tips From Warren Buffet
There are reasons other than sheer brillance Warren Buffet has way more money than most. He lives by a strict code and these tips share some of that code. Great #startup and life tips.
My favorites are learning to spend only AFTER saving (hard lesson that one) and the tip about honesty being expensive so don't expect it from "cheap people". I suspect Warren means "cheap" in much more than the monetary sense.
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Ghann’s Cricket Farm Interview Had a great day in Augusta with Clay Ghann and the team at Ghann’s. Ghann’s has been selling crickets to customers since 1952. How can your business survive over sixty years and span generations? Listen to Clay’s willingness to experiment, change and find great people to help. Thanks to Chris Lawrence …
Crowdfunding may be the ultimate "in your face" DIY (Do It Yourself) disruption. Much like the CLASH's "punk ethos", so well described in The Future Is Unwritten the biopic documentary film about Joe Strummer, marketers must create content and community with authenticity and awesome, daring and original content.
Warren Buffet's Haiku Deck Lesson
One of the hardest web marketing lessons my former Direct Marketing bosses taught was to think Darwinian thoughts. I wanted to improve laggards.
Don't waste your time, came the advice and important digital marketing lesson, double down on winners. This wise lesson was just taught again by Warren Buffett.
Warren's Tips For Startups Haiku Deck has been on top of the 36 decks I've created. I started watching views by deck several months ago and my DM bosses lesson holds true.
Warren Buffett's Startup Tips (http://shar.es/10AbWU )
Buffett Gains: 878
Total Views: 8,100
% Gain: 12%
Social Media: It's A Conversation Stupid (http://shar.es/10AHlZ )
Gains: 1,915
Total Views: 6,297
% Gain: 44%
Once again Buffett proves the rich get richer.
This truth doesn't mean Social Media: Its A Conversation is unimportant. Knowing what is trending is a CSF (Critical Success Factor) for any web marketing team, but Buffett does prove Darwin was a web marketing pro long before there was a web. Double down on winners and leave laggards stands as one of the most important "laws" of our web marketing ecosystem :). M
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Suggested by
Marius Fermi
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It’s time we take a step back, away from all of the ideas and best practices of sales and the art that is selling and consider what the simple, indisputable truths are of selling.
Buffett's Startups Tips
* Multiple Money - Don't depend on one source of income. * Spending - Don't buy what you don't need or you will be forced to sell what you do.
* Saving - Spend what is left after saving not other way around. * Risk Taking - Never test river depth with both feet.
And more tips from the Oracle of Omaha for startups in this Haiku Deck
http://shar.es/1a0BaI
Warren Buffet's tips for startups as Bill Gates says, "Stick 'em up
Finishing our Haiku Deck Analysis (Scooped here http://sco.lt/80QYs5 and on Curagami here http://www.curagami.com/featured/buffet-tools-conversations-top-haiku-decks/ ) we were surprised how much our #1 views deck: Startup Tips From Warren Buffett is in front of #2 (Content Marketing Tools).
Fuffett is 35% ahead in views, but Warren is NOT the most shared. That honor goes to our fastest scaling deck ever - The Invisible Giant: Why The New SEO Is So Hard To See (http://shar.es/11X9fa ).
If you are a startup the Oracle of Omaha has tips for you and our tip is to use Haiku Deck. .
Bill Gates To Warren Buffet, STICK 'EM UP
Warren Buffet's tips for startups as Bill Gates says, "Stick 'em up".
Buffet shares great tips for startups in my most popular Haiku Deck. Next closest deck has 5,200 views.
Pinterest & Startups
This image of Batgirl staring out of a doorway is one of Scenttrail's most popular pins (http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/ ). Pinterest is important for startups because:
* Marketing is becoming VISUAL & Pinterest excels at visual marketing. * Pinterest is asynchronous to other social nets.
* Pinterest is EASY and doesn't require much time.
* Pinterest creates community faster than other social nets.
That last bullet should have a caveat. Pintererst builds community FAST once you figure out the secret handshake. I was frustrated with how long it was taking to develop a following.
I would share content on Pinterest and I could never understand what seemed to matter, so I shared LOTS more content (one key to success). I also Repinned from others and commented on pins.
All of those tactics helped, but the real dam breaker was creating the King and Queen of Pinterest boards:
http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/queen-of-pinterest/
http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/king-of-pinterest/
The real winner is the Queen of Pinterest with over 400 pinners now and a great daily rhythm. Community boards do get spammed so I developed some simple guidelines, pinned those guidelines (and do so again and again when the board starts to get spammy).
The victory with King and Queen of Pinterest shares an important secret. Pinterest is a tad solipsistic. People who love to pin really LOVE to pin. There are cult-like moments (lol). So one way to connect is to have a board that shares obsession with Pinterest.
Your startup may not be obsessed with Pinterest, but bet you need to develop a following. When I started the King and Queen of Pinterest boards I had 114 followers. Now, about six months later, Scenttrail has more than 5,000 followers.
Cool thing about community boards is people begin to tell their friends. I invited about half the people pinning on Queen of Pinterest. Interesting I invited 90% of the men (lol). Women understand the core of social media better. They are more naturally social about topics that people love to pin about such as culture, art, celebrity, travel, weight loss, etc...
If you are a startup you should be using Pinterest if only because it builds community, once you figure out a secret or two, faster than any other social net. The other reason Pinterest is important for startups is its focus on asynchronous visual marketing. Learn "asynchronous marketing" even a little and your startup will rock.
Startup Tips From CEO Dognition - The Personality Test For Dogs
Lunch With Smart Dogs at Triangle Startup Factory
Kip Frey (www.linkedin.com/pub/kip-frey/36/b09/384 pictured in middle above) is a smart entrepreneur who one might say has "gone to the dogs". Kip spoke at Free Lunch Friday at +Triangle StartUp Factory today about Dognition (https://www.dognition.com/ ).
Dognition is a Myers/Briggs personality test for dogs. During an hour long fascinating conversation Kip made several points we've heard consistently from Chris and Dave at TSF such as:
* Ideas that "seem true" create their own momentum.
* Look for ideas that "create a new category".
* Ideas with great partnership hooks work best since partners help create scale with OPL (Other Poeple's Lists) and OPC (Other People's Content).
Dognition is a cool idea since we humans are always anthropomorphizing our animals. Now you can do a test AT HOME with your dog to figure out which one of 9 classifications your dog's personality falls within. You can compare your dog to dogs in your area, across the country or possibly the world (soon Kip mentioned they are already speaking to interested parties in China).
I found Kip and Dognition's #brandingstrategy fascinating. Kip and the team at Dognition spent a year working on the #DIY version of their test. They needed enough data shared by "citizen scientists" after taking their test that the hard work created in the lab held up even in the DIY home version.
"I think people are more interested in their dogs than in their DNA," Kip said at one point and I agree. There are 70M dog owning families in America (so one in three roughly) and each year brings 7M new dogs to market.
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Branding vs Scale
The tension between creating a brand with meaning and the scale necessary to support that meaning was interesting. Kip decided to do a deal with Purina One to gain scale. Sounds like he had to defend the sizable deal with his board because they were worried about "brand purity".
#branding is tricky. Too much scale too fast could marginalize the brand. The science at the core of the test is something that could be seen as goofy in the wrong context. By doing an exclusive with Purina One for 2014 Dognition gets millions in partner ad dollars - the test is a freebie if dog owners complete a 28 day "Purina One 28 Day Challenge" (http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page ).
Cool promo and great legitimacy for Dognition and possibly just the right amount of scale. Partnerships bring interesting challenges. Dognition can get swallowed whole by Purina, and can anyone spot the BIG #socialmarketing error on the Purina One challenge page? http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page
ERROR - Love that Purina is using Tweets, but seeing 46 day old Tweets HURTS the social legitimacy of their campaign. A 46 day old tweet from a customer is fine IN ROTATION, but what if the only representation I see has old content?
When curating old and new social content from Purina and users always have something in the roll that is current, only several hours hold max. Using customer Tweets is brave, but stale in its current implementation. Even if the Purina staff creates Tweets today that related to something that happened 46 days ago have something current on social.
Building a #story off of #UGC is what +CrowdFunde is all about. Conversations require different #contentcuration and #contentcreation than promotional push. Purina One's misuse of #SMM is a perfect validation for a tool like CrowdFunde that helps create, curate and converse with the most valuable content on earth - User Generated Content (UGC).
By isolating old tweets without a clear understanding about why they are there, other than being self congratulatory, Purina destroys what they hope to build - active, alive conversations.
We think Dognition will have great conversations since learning your dog's personality feels like something MADE for social shares, but HOW you share social conversations is tricky as a big brand like Purina proves. Turning conversations into #engagemn and #loyalty is trickier still.
Cool talk today with many lessons for #startups and #Internetmarketers . Dognition is going to be on 60 Minutes in April and they will have a reality TV show on Nat Geo Wild so conversations will happen. Team at CrowdFunde wishes our fellow Durham #startup luck and a free CrowdFunde installation if they want to discover how to build community on a scale hard to knock down or duplicate...because building ongoing engagement after initial novelty is based on the quality, frequency and value of Dognition's (and any brand's) CONVERSATIONS!
Thanks to Kip for speaking with TSF startups today! Marty
PS. Kip asked for feedback on the Dognition site and since I know there are a lot of ecommerce conversion experts that follow me send me your thoughts and I will pull together 5 to 10 "would be better if" kinds of feedback for https://www.dognition.com/ .
As creatives, we all want to produce work that's unique and worthwhile, but this often seems at odds with the commercial pressure to cater to the lowest common denominator. Yet the mass market isn't the only market with money. Find the right niche market and you could be in business, producing work you love in a way that'll keep you going right up to retirement.
Marty Note
When my ex and I created FoundObjects.com (now gone except in the WayBckMachine) helping Magneitic Poetry Kit become a $50M specialty gift we discovered two important ideas:
* Everyone has a gift idea they want to share.
* Alternative distribution can create everything from a lifestyle business to a big win.
At Found Objects we used the web as a great B2C testing ground and to keep our B2B partners honest. If our B2B partners passed on something we thought was cool we could make a market for it ourselves via direct sales.
This Creative Bloq post updates our Found Objects experience with the many contemporary tools that can help a dreamer realize their dream even without a FoundObjects.com. Great Brian Yanish Scoop and post.
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Buffet's Startup Tips Are so important I created a @HaikuDeck for his tips and for implied startup tips such as:
* Multiple Money - don't depend on one income source. * Spending - buying things you don't need means selling stuff you do...eventually. * Savings - Save then spend not the other way around. * Investment - Never put all eggs in one basket no matter how beautiful the egg.
* Honesty - Honesty and character and lack of it are expensive and amplifed by money so don't expect from "cheap people".
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/94SRtkQRzX/warren-buffet-startup-tips
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Seven tips from Inc and three from me and the Curagami team.