Lessons Learned at DemoCamp

Some observations & lessons learned from Calgary first DemoCamp on Tuesday night:

• Compared with Montreal DemoCamp 2 we had fewer people, and it was interesting to see that most of the people gathered for drinks afterwards. Because this group was gathered out of interest, rather than industry or net worth like other groups, I think that this group will relate both socially and professionally better than other groups.



• It was an easy-going environment for young and first-time entrepreneurs to meet people in the tech industry, as well as a few "been-there, done that" entrepreneurs. Mark Rosenberger of Sidefinder put on a great demo and followed up with several people in the crowd.



• It was free, which is good and bad. Good (or maybe even great) because it allows everyone to attend - from students (we had a few show up) to bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Bad, because a lot of the people we told about the event didn't put it in their calendars!

Overall, we're pleased with how DemoCamp Calgary 1 turned out. The presenters did a great job, and the event was intimate enough for people to meet and have a great discussion afterwards. Here's Kempton's report, (with video).

As a result of this event, the organizing committee has decided to hold a few more DemoCamps before we hold a BarCamp. (BarCamp is a full day event). DemoCamp Calgary 2 will be held May 23rd - please let us know if you know of any new companies that would make for interesting presentations. BarCamp Calgary is now scheduled for the fall, and we're actively recruiting thought leaders to assemble panels and topics for that day.

Sad Exit For The Flames

It's been a hard couple of years for the Calgary Flames since their spectacular 2004 Stanley Cup run. While demand for tickets and paraphernalia continues to be high, the Flames need to show they're a Stanley Cup contender again, real soon.

And I'm not saying that just because I'm a bandwagon fan. Major league sports teams are expensive ventures, not only for the team owners, but for everyone in the city. The Flames are looking for major renovation on the Saddledome, or an entirely new stadium - guess who's paying for that? Local businesses (especially bars) depend on sports to generate business. Taken to the extreme, a local business partnered with the Flames and spent millions creating Flames Central and Wildfire Grill. How much of their business plan banked on the Flames going past the first round?

And while nobody is panicking just yet, you can hear the grumbling - check out what I got in my email this morning:

Competition-Based Strategy

Strategy is all about competition, says Jack Trout, in his book, Trout on Strategy. He says better people and better products are not viable strategies: Statistically, it is impossible for one large company to have better people than another company - as proven by the distribution curve. As for better products, do better products always win? Think Windows vs. MacIntosh, Betamax vs. VHS . . .

Jack recommends that we know our competition, avoid their strengths, and exploit their weaknesses. From there, we develop our strategy based on tactics. Tactics are ideas that allow your company to be different, and are always "bottom-up", never "top-down"

A tactic must have a competitive angle in order to have a chance of success. This does not necessarily mean a better product or service, but rather there must be an element of differentness. It could be smaller, bigger, lighter, heavier, cheaper, or more expensive. It could be a different distribution system.

Once you're determined your tactic, wrap the strategy around it. Strategy is coherent, and includes all aspects of your business, including marketing, finance and operations.

Many entrepreneurs have told me that their only problem is not being able to raise money, to which I reply, "What would you be able to achieve if you had $1,000,000?". It's a tough question to answer, because they have not determined what their company tactic is. (yes, that's a singular tactic, as Trout says you should only have one to maintain focus).

Most people think that this is a use of proceeds questions, and sometimes, it is. However, what I would like to hear is how the entrepreneur is going to take that $1,000,000 and convert it into more than a million.

The question really drives at whether your strategy & tactic provides the risk reduction and predictability that a good company should. For instance, when you invest in a bank, you expect them to charge service fees to make money.  Their marketing department understands exactly how much money to spend on capturing a new customer, and how much that customer will spend, on average, over a lifetime. Having a solid customer acquisition cost model and predictable RPU (Revenue Per User) gives you the ability to predict how you're going to convert the $1 invested into something more than $1.

DemoCamp Calgary: Tuesday

The first DemoCamp Calgary will be held next week at the University of Calgary. It will feature 4 or 5 company presentations that are strictly PowerPoint free!

Date: Tuesday, April 24th
Time: 6:00 - 8:00
Location: Scurfield Hall 257 (Map)
Cost: Free

The first rule of DemoCamp is to talk about DemoCamp - so tell all your friends!

If there are enough people interested, we can wander over the Dinnie's and have celebratory drink afterwards. Hope to see you there.

Will Ferrell: Web 2.0 Entrepreneur

VentureBeat reports:

VC firm Sequoia Capital backs Will Ferrell and Adam McKay comedy video site — Called FunnyOrDie.com, the site features a two-minute clip that won a reported 1.5 million page views in less than a week.

Check out the video here.

Ferrell and McKay are building a comedy video community, and there are currently 397 videos on the site. "The Landlord", with 6,555,803 views is number 1, with the 2nd place video placing well back at 204,632 views. When you consider the number of views on YouTube of "The Landlord", they have well over 7,000,000 views.

And that brings up another interesting point. Everyone expect videos to be available on YouTube, and when you search for "will ferrell landlord" you'll see one of several links:

• Spam: unscrupulous people placing the words "will ferrell landlord" into the titles of their videos (that have nothing to do with the topic) to get hits on YouTube searches.



• Videos that don't work: Uploaded by friendly internet users, these videos have anywhere between 1,000 and 150,000 views before getting pulled because of copyright violations.



• Videos that work: Uploaded by other friendly internet users, these videos will be taken down soon.

In remains to be seen whether or not people will go to sites other than YouTube in significant numbers to view videos. For now, it seems like plenty are diverting themselves from YouTube to Funnyordie.com. In addition, other content providers like Fox's American Idol are pulling their content from the site, making YouTube less of a one-stop shop that it once was.

Congrats to StumbleUpon!

Congrats to StumbleUpon on their acquisition by eBay! We're awfully proud of this crew, with founders Garrett Camp and Justin LaFrance hailing from Calgary. Garrett and Justin: after all the dust settles, please come back and tell your story at BarCamp, so that we can benefit from your experiences!

The acquisition of the site, which uses the power of community to allow users to discover new sites, was said to be worth between $40 - 75 million, as report by TechCrunch.

Pitch Thyself

With all the talk about how to pitch your company, I find that many entrepreneurs have a hard time introducing themselves at meetings. Don't kid yourself - leaving a positive personal impression is just as important as delivering a good company pitch, because people ultimately want to feel comfortable with the people they work with.

I mentioned 15SecondPitch a while back, but thought that it was worth mentioning in detail this time. In her study, Laura Allen, CEO of 15 Second Pitch found that 76% of people surveyed were professionals who said they have trouble explaining what they do, and/or feel uncomfortable pitching themselves.

Laura has created a great 5 step process for developing a personal pitch. They've even written one for Superman, as an example:

My name is Superman and I am a superhero specializing in saving the
world. I fight for truth, justice, and the American Way. I can leap
tall buildings in a single bound, which comes in really handy when
chasing criminals. Unlike some other superheroes I could mention, I
don't wear a funny hat, so people take me more seriously. Call me for a
free consultation - I'm always near a phone booth ready to take your
call!

I think the challenge for most people will be to make their personal pitch sharp, but not full of generic buzzwords; proud, yet humble. And once you've perfected it, don't be afraid to practice your pitch!

Free: Not a Business Model?

Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital writes a great blog entry entitled "The Penny Gap", explaining why it's easier to scale from $5 million to $50 million than it is to get your users to pay you anything at all.

Anne Zelenka writes a great follow-up entitled "Free: a Tactic, not a Business Model". She suggests that once a company has found a way to make money, it has found a business model. However, free is a great tactic towards getting paid in other ways, such as advertising.

I'll go a step further. I think there's a business opportunity in attracting leads with free products or services, as long as the "free" products doesn't cost more than advertising. For example, free stock photography sites are likely generating qualified leads for a lower cost than Google Adwords can.
It's just pure statistics:

• say you bid $ 1 - 3 on the phrase "stock photography"



• you'll pay $1,000 - 3,000 for 1,000 clicks.



• you might get 1 - 5% of those people creating a free membership on your e-commerce site.



• That's a pool of 10 - 50 people that you've paid $1,000 to $3,000 for.



• Cost per member: from a low of $20/member to a high of $300/member.

These numbers are for illustrative purposes only, but you can quickly see how valuable a free site is IF it has a large membership list and some key sponsors or a specific industry to target. Thus, key questions to ask if you're using free as a business tactic is - how valuable is the audience you're attracting, to whom is that audience valuable to, and how much do you know about your audience? Remember, most businesses aren't MySpace and Facebook, so you're going to have to be very specific if you choose this as your tactic!

Snap Image Search: Better Than Google Images?

Slowly but surely, Bill Gross and his Idealab team is chipping away at Google's leadership position. Take, for example, Snap's newest feature, Snap Image Search. I did a quick search for "business meeting", and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Snap not only has a great looking interface, but the results are very impressive. Take a look:

Links:

Snap search for business images

For comparison:

Google search for business images

iStockphoto search for business images

Getty search for business images

Alexa search for business images

While I may be somewhat biased, the best results for a search term like "business meeting" can be found on sites like iStockphoto and Getty Images, simply because of the implied commercial application. Snap! finishes a very close second, which is a huge accomplishment, considering the number of images it has to index. Google results are simply a little too scattered, and Alexa's search seems to be heavily reliant on certain stock clipart and photography sites.

Try Snap's Image Search, and you'll find it finds better looking images than Google across a variety of search terms.

Imagine

Last night, my family and I attended a concert by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, where they played the music of the Beatles. My favorite song of the evening wasn't a Beatles song - it was Imagine, by John Lennon. Voted as the 3rd greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone in 2004, Imagine was written and released in the midst of the Vietnam War. It's an understated, yet elegant song that is anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, and anti-war:

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today


Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace


You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one


Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

Lennon's message is simple, short and powerful, proving yet again that classic communication adage . . .

 

Mercenary vs. Missionary

John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins tells why he thinks entrepreneurs are missionaries, rather than mercenaries in this video clip. I've summarized his points here:

Entrepreneurs do more than what anyone thinks possible, with less than anyone thinks possible. Entrepreneurs are missionaries, not mercenaries: (Referenced from Randy Komisar’s book, “The Monk and the Riddle”)

 
   
   
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mercenaries:	Missionaries:
driven by paranoia Opportunistic “the pitch, the deal” sprint, short run obsess on competition aristocracy of founder(s) bosses of wolf packs entitlement the “deferred life” plan lust of money making success	driven by passion Strategic “the big idea, partnership” marathon, long run obsess on customers meritocracy, best idea wins mission, coaches of teams contribution a whole life (that works) lust to make meaning (& money) significance

"If the reason you’re taking on a mission or opportunity is for the money you’ll make, I believe you’ll fail. You should find your passion, find that mission, and take it on, even if no one paid you anything for it – because then you and your team will be motivated to succeed."

John Doerr has called Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com a missionary, while categorizing Jim Clark, founder of Netscape Communications, a mercenary.

Painfully Funny stuff

VoteForTheWorst.com is capturing the painfully funny stuff that American Idol delivers at the beginning of every season. The first two are so bad, they're funny. Imagine if there was video!!

Turdparty - Theme From FullHouse
Moose - Theme From Dawson's Creek
MagickPoultry - Theme From Rawhide
Johnnywang57 - Theme From Cheers

Making fun of bad singers is nothing new (my wife makes fun of me all the time). WB's Superstar USA was a fake-reality show where participants were duped into thinking that they were competing in an American Idol-like contest. However, the producers were actually picking the worst singers in the group. And of course, the best "worst" singer of them all, William Hung has actually made a career (well over a $1,000,000) of being bad - and was even on CNN with Larry King recently.

Link: http://www.votefortheworst.com/20070409/are_you_the_worst_idol_the_final_four#comment

 

Microsoft is Dead: Windows is for grandmas

If your first entrepreneurial cycle occurred after the dot.com era, then you're probably saying "Where they ever alive?". For the rest us, Google is the new Microsoft. From Paul Graham's latest article:

Microsoft's
biggest weakness is that they still don't realize how much they
suck.  They still think they can write software in house.  Maybe they
can, by the standards of the desktop world.  But that world ended
a few years ago.

Paul's 4 reasons for why Microsoft is dead:

1. Google: The webification of everything



2. Ajax: Made web apps good.



3. Internet: Fat pipes everywhere means less reliance on desktop software.



4. Apple: The OS that all young entrepreneurs use.

Link via: Fred Ngo

Upcoming Calgary Area Events

Calgary Code Camp: Saturday, April 28, 2007

The second annual Calgary Code Camp will
be happening on Saturday, April 28, 2007. In case you weren't there
last year, you might be wondering, "What is a Code Camp?" Simply put, a
Code Camp is a developer event by and for the developer community. You
get a full day of developer-focused content created by fellow
developers, not marketing wonks. You'll see code, code, and more code.
The sessions will cover a wide variety of topics, including current
Microsoft technologies (ASP.NET, AJAX, Windows Forms, WPF, WCF, WF) as
well as upcoming technologies (LINQ, WPF/e). We will also be looking
for presentations on TDD, NHibernate, Castle Windsor, MonoRail,
Spring.NET, and more.

www2007: May 8 - 12, 2007

The International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2) and the University of Calgary
cordially invite you to participate in the 16th International World
Wide Web Conference (WWW2007), to be held at the world-famous Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff National Park.

Your Pitch & Stupid VC Questions

In a speech to enterprising young entrepreneurs a few months ago, my friend Guy Kawasaki stated that there are indeed stupid questions. For instance, when a VC asks "What is your exit strategy?" - Guy suggests you should run - fast. It's because there's only two ways to ask that question - 1: sell the company; 2: go public. Good point.

I guess that's indicative of the "powerpoint parrot pitches" that we see, where entrepreneurs have downloaded a template and started filling out the "value proposition", "team" and "exit strategy" slides without truly understanding what is being asked. They think that if they repeat enough VC terms, they'll sound like they know what they're talking about. So, to a large extent, VCs themselves have propagated the inappropriate use of all this MBA-speak.

After speaking with other entrepreneurs regarding this issue, I think there are several ways to combat this. First, if you're pitching, try to eliminate all MBA-speak from your slide titles. Second, be passionate about your product - never let the slides make your business boring. And finally, be honest about what you're good at, and what skills you'll need to find to build your company.

After hearing a lot of pitches over the last year, I think I've come up with a jargon-free first slide format that works for most companies. I'd love to hear if it works for yours - here's a mock-up:

The problem with the world today is that we waste half a barrel of energy to recover one barrel of oil when drilling in the deep north. (In one statement, tell why the problem you're looking to solve should be relevant to anyone).

In one year, drilling programs in the north burn 100,000 barrels, enough energy to light a city the size of New York for 2 years. (Not just numbers, try to quantify the problem with a relevant comparison).

Our company has developed a patent-pending technology that will vastly improve upon the way things are being done today by capturing and recycling steam used in the oil recovery process. (State your core technology or solution) As a side benefit, our technology adapts easily to most existing rigs, eliminating the need for costly upgrades. (A quick statement regarding additional benefits or a passing statement that infers superiority over your competition)

As any good VC will tell you, the best businesses can be understood by anyone. Simplifying your pitch might be one way to eliminate those "stupid questions".

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

I've got a pile of new books this weekend, received as gifts for my 40th b-day. My sister gave me a copy of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, a book by Room to Read founder and former Microsoft exec John Wood. I did not expect to enjoy this book, for several reasons:

• It was written by a former Microsoft exec.



• My sister heard about the book from Oprah



• I didn't need to read a preachy book about how some guy saw the light and decided to change the world.

Well, it's been about 3 hours since I picked up the book and I'm about one-third of the way through. I'm completely inspired and energized by John's message and writing style. I think there are several reasons why.

First of all, John is extremely well-read. As a child, his parents couldn't afford to buy him all the books he wanted to read, so they bought him a bike to ride to the library. He wanted to borrow more books than the library would allow, so he sweet-talked the librarian into relaxing the policy. He quotes everyone from communist leaders to dead dutch poets, and the quotes are so relevant and enjoyable that it will inspire you to read more books.

Second, John has some great Microsoft stories - from escorting Bill Gates through a press junket in China, to his job interview with Melinda Gates (Melinda French at the time). As to why he chose Nepal for the vacation that inspired this journey - Steve Ballmer had just "inspired" him to take a trip where nobody to contact him - "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore."

Finally, I love John's entrepreneurial spirit and attitude. He's a guy that gets stuff done, no matter what. He got it done at Microsoft for years and years, and now he's getting it done with Room to Read. He realized that selling more copies of Windows made no difference in the world, but opening up libraries in developing countries would. And to convince people to donate, he never made them feel sorry for the recipients - instead, he made them feel good about building schools and libraries. He writes, "The Dalai Lama wrote that when we gave something away, we actually got something in return: happiness."

I love the cause and the message, love the writing style, and love the light-hearted pokes at Microsoft. I strongly encourage you pick up this book and donate to the cause.

Mid-life Crisis Week

With Mid-life Crisis Week coming to an end, I'm going to reveal my inner geek. Out of all the things I've posted this week, this is probably the thing I want most (keeping in mind, of course, that I need none of these things). The Mac Pro, with 8 cores, 3TB of storage, and 2 - 30" displays. Whoa.

What Will It Take to Unseat Google?

There's no doubt that Google is the 80,000 lb. gorilla in search -
so what's the strategy for building momentum in the search category? You
could throw money at it - for example, Mark Cuban has decided to back IceRocket,
which started out as a conventional search engine, but has now moved to
blog search (which is also fast becoming a crowded space). You could be
innovative, like Snap! from Bill
Gross and IdeaLabs. They pioneered Snap Previews, which is a great
viral tool that most bloggers have installed on their sites. They have
also pioneered pay-per-action (PPA) advertising, which Google has
promptly copied. Then there's people search sites, like pipl and xing, who presumably offer more refined results than a standard Google search.

However, I'm not sure that creating more niche search engines
actually helps us find anything any faster. Think of how you use search
when you are doing research on a topic you know little about: First,
you probably start with a one-word search. Then, you spend a ton of
time reading the pages, then, you type in 2 words for a search. You do
this over and over again, until you have a group of specific search
terms that give you the results you want.

How much faster would the search be if you were "guided" through the process? For instance, check out Grokker, Kartoo and Quintura,
which help you pick more specific search terms through a graphical
interface. I'm not sure that either company has nailed the UI yet, but
they certainly help you find what you want much faster when you're not
exactly sure what you're looking for.

Mid-life Crisis Week

This one speaks for itself. Due out this summer, Sharp's 108" LCD TV is the largest in the world. Pricing details have not been released.

Mid-life Crisis Week

To support your delusions of grandeur during a mid-life crisis, you're going to need feel like Captain Kirk all the time, not just when you're driving a rocket ship or steering a yacht. May I recommend the Aura from Poetic Technologies?

There's no pricing on the site, but I've read elsewhere that pricing starts at $5,500. Included is a lighting system, air circulation system, a chair with custom-air fitting, full wiring for all computers, phone and data, and a programmable rotation feature. That's right - your workstation can rotate 120 degrees to "vary sight lines"!!

R U a Good Namr?

To honr of Yahoo!'s acquisition of Flickr 2 years ago, here is a list of companies that have sought inspiration from Stewart and Caterina's creation. For those of you with a slide deck that compares dot.bomb to web 2.0 companies, here's anothr comparison - dot.bomb: ebank.com. web 2.0: bankr.com

approvr  /  bloglinkr  /  blogmailr
BlogRovR  /  blogr  /  blufr
flagr  /  glinkr  /  groovr
jaxtr  /  jpegr  /  juploadr
locr  /  moblr  /  msgr
mypictr  /  nottr  /  preloadr
resizr  /  scanR  /  scoopr
smartsetr  /  steekr  /  tumblr
viewr  /  wishlistr  /  Zooomr

Thanks to Go2web20 for making the task of building this list easy-r!

Mid-life Crisis Week

We continue Mid-life Crisis Week by going from the sublime to the ridiculous. Just to clarify - I don't think I would ever want any of this stuff - I'd be happier if I could just tag along for a ride once in a while!

The 118 wallypower: a 118 ft. power yacht that sleeps 6 guests and 6 crew.

And just to show the scale of a 118 ft. boat . . .

The wallypower 118 is priced at $24 million, and is equipped with 3 x 5,600 HP DDC TF50 gas Turbines and 2 x Cummins 370 HP engines. It cruises at 60 knots and has a displacement of 95 tons.

Apple: America's Best Retailer

Fortune Magazine reports that Apple stores average $4,032 per sq. ft. in sales annually. That's more than 4x Best Buy, which generates $930 per sq. ft. annually. With further proof that Steve Jobs is the best product man in the world, here are few lessons from the article:

• HIRE THE BEST: Steve Jobs recruited Mickey Drexler (The Gap), and Ron Johnson (Target) to help lead the retailing effort.



• PROTOTYPE: Apple mocked up an entire store in a warehouse to better understand customer buying patterns. They spent 6 months prototyping the first store, only to find out it was wrong. The current arrangement, including product placement and the Genius Bar were products of the prototype.



• SIMPLIFY: Focus on producing fewer products that consistently beat the competition. The stores reflect the same philosophy, using only glass, stainless steel and wood as interior finishes.

Dell opened a retail store in Dallas last summer, and announced two future stores in New York. The plan for now is to offer a way for customers to ask questions and order equipment, but to have the computers delivered through Dell's traditional build-and-ship system. What a contrast in customer experience!

Mid-life Crisis Week

I'm kicking off the countdown to my 40th birthday with a look at some testosterone-inducing tools!

 

2006 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 2dr Coupe

The
standard features of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 include 8.0L W-16 1,001HP
engine quad turbo, 7-speed auto-shift manual transmission with
overdrive, 4-wheel anti-lock brakes (ABS), navigation system,
automatic, 19.5" OZ forged alloy wheels, ABS and driveline traction
control, all-wheel drive, stability control, power mirrors, and power
windows.

MSRP starts at: $1,400,000

What does insurance cost on a $1.4 million dollar car?

Vote For The Worst: Malicious?

Civil Litigator Danielle Aidala tries to make the argument in this O'Reilly Factor interview that VoteForTheWorst.com and Howard Stern are actionable because they are "maliciously interfering with the operations of American Idol". She's lucky that Papa Bear took a shining to her, as he never did take off the kid gloves during the interview.

On a more serious note, what do people like Howard Stern and sites like VoteForTheWorst.com do for crowdsourcing? I think they do three things:

• They encourage debate: Is American Idol a show that pokes fun at bad singers or a show that launches undiscovered talent? Does the show actually allow the voting audience to make the best choices?



• They encourage voting: While fans of Howard Stern will vote for the worst contestant, other fans have more incentive to vote for their favorites.



• They encourage passion: All of the sudden, people actually care about who gets voted off, and who stays on. Check out the hate mail on VoteForTheWorst.com, and you'll see what I mean.

The lessons in this for crowdsourcing are clear. First, voters love a dichotomy: it's not fun to vote for french vanilla vs. regular vanilla, but it's fun to debate the merits of vanilla vs. chocolate. Second, voters love a little controversy: show that a "fair" system is being messed with, and you'll get people talking about lawsuits and first amendment rights. And finally, when voters want more input into your business than you originally planned to give them - embrace it! It simply means that you've struck a chord.

In the end, American Idol's producers can only be thankful that the judges put Sanjaya Malakar, the subject of this debate, into the final group of contestants. He has sparked debate and controversy, but will not ultimately win. According to the Skytower Sportsbook, the odds are still in Melinda Doolittle's favor (the judges' choice) - bet $150 on her and get only $100 if she wins. Bet $100 on Sanjaya to win, and get $1,500 if he does!!