One of the terms that always make me cringe is the term 'Serial Entrepreneur'. Maybe it's the relation of the word 'Serial' with 'Serial Killer' and 'Serial Rapist'.
I think of Serial Entrepreneurs as the human equivalent of a hurricane. They come at you at breakneck speed, throw a million ideas at you, mention their entire network of business contacts they think is even vaguely related to your business ("Oh! You're in Wi-Fi, I know a guy in Switzerland who sells cordless phones!"), talk about mergers with their own companies and even companies you've never even heard of.
Once they've finished talking they ask the stupid old question: "So What's your Exit Strategy?". I've always been confused by this question, as I'm working 16 hours a day getting a global Wi-Fi company off the ground, so my idea of an exit strategy is literally getting to work 10 hours or less a day. (See my previous post: "What's your Exit Strategy, Sonny?"
I've finally figured out that they're really not interested in my exit strategy, but rather in figuring out their exit strategy.
So imagine my expression when I looked in the mirror today and suddenly realised that perhaps, maybe, aw heck, admit it... I'm becoming a serial entrepreneur!
You see, I'm getting drawn into a little startup called Tinfon. Tinfon is one of those amazing little gems that come around very seldom, even to the most connected of 'serial entrepreneurs'. (more about Tinfon later)
One of the first things I was thinking about was an exit strategy...
Is there a Serial Entrepreneurs Anonymous chapter in Cape Town?
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Neighbourhood Power Watch
It usually takes bit of effort to convince overseas investors that South Africa has the infrastructure available to run successful global companies.
South Africans traveling to California often come back talking about how bad the roads are, how patchy cellphone reception is, and even about Palo Alto's 'bad' neighbourhoods. This is in stark contrast to what we expect.
Likewise, travelers to South Africa often expect dirt roads, animals in the streets and other popular notions picked up in Hollywood movies that feature Africa. They don't expect to find 6 lane highways without potholes, an advanced banking system and a highly skilled workforce that is spending much of its time proving that South African companies and educational institutions are on par, if not better, than the best in the world.
However, lately Cape Town and surrounds have suffered a severe electricity shortage. As a result Eskom, the national power company, has decided to implement 'rolling blackouts', in the form of two power cuts per neighbourhood per day, lasting for about 2-3 hours each. Once the power comes on in one, they'll switch off power to another neighbourhood or business district.
Apparently, Cape Town will need to cut down on its usage by about 25%. I've started switching off our geyser and taken care to ensure all screensavers in our office kick in after a minute.
Although some companies, such as Enablis, have switched off their airconditioning systems, one can also see empty skyscrapers at nights with lights burning on all floors, oblivious to the current power crisis. A few days ago I was at a house where the owner had 2 heated swimming pools running. (I did confront him about it, but that's another story...)
My solution is to have Cape Town neighbourhoods 'compete' for electricity. If a particular neighbourhood does manage to save 25% on a given day, that neighbourhood will not suffer a scheduled blackout the following day. This will empower communities to control the amount of power outages they suffer.
Imagine the embarrassment and irritation to have your neighbours phoning you up at 2 AM to remind you that they can hear your swimming pool filter is running!
Now, I know I have the new mayor's business card lying around here somewhere...
South Africans traveling to California often come back talking about how bad the roads are, how patchy cellphone reception is, and even about Palo Alto's 'bad' neighbourhoods. This is in stark contrast to what we expect.
Likewise, travelers to South Africa often expect dirt roads, animals in the streets and other popular notions picked up in Hollywood movies that feature Africa. They don't expect to find 6 lane highways without potholes, an advanced banking system and a highly skilled workforce that is spending much of its time proving that South African companies and educational institutions are on par, if not better, than the best in the world.
However, lately Cape Town and surrounds have suffered a severe electricity shortage. As a result Eskom, the national power company, has decided to implement 'rolling blackouts', in the form of two power cuts per neighbourhood per day, lasting for about 2-3 hours each. Once the power comes on in one, they'll switch off power to another neighbourhood or business district.
Apparently, Cape Town will need to cut down on its usage by about 25%. I've started switching off our geyser and taken care to ensure all screensavers in our office kick in after a minute.
Although some companies, such as Enablis, have switched off their airconditioning systems, one can also see empty skyscrapers at nights with lights burning on all floors, oblivious to the current power crisis. A few days ago I was at a house where the owner had 2 heated swimming pools running. (I did confront him about it, but that's another story...)
My solution is to have Cape Town neighbourhoods 'compete' for electricity. If a particular neighbourhood does manage to save 25% on a given day, that neighbourhood will not suffer a scheduled blackout the following day. This will empower communities to control the amount of power outages they suffer.
Imagine the embarrassment and irritation to have your neighbours phoning you up at 2 AM to remind you that they can hear your swimming pool filter is running!
Now, I know I have the new mayor's business card lying around here somewhere...
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Wibiki embraces Fon
Wibiki just announced that they will embrace new Wi-Fi services and models, such as Fon's. They will even adapt their software so that Wibiki users can use free FON hotspots.
Of course, one really only has two choices when a competitor all of a sudden becomes BIG friends with Google, Skype, Cisco and the like. Either you 'embrace' them, or you make a big noise about how their product is inferior. Wibiki chose to do the former, but did mention that Wibiki is the only company to still offer totally free access.
So why is Fon better than Wibiki? In my opinion it has nothing to do with Fon getting $22mm in funding, but with the simple fact that Fon integrates both for-fee and for-free models. I don't think Fon does this particularly well, or in an innovative way. It simply offers both models under one brand name.
But the fact that it offers both means it can compete for the minds and hearts of different kinds of hotspots owners: The small entrepreneurs who intend to setup hotspots at various locations, as well as the guy wanting to share with 2 or 3 neighbours.
Wibiki, the Company that provides
software for a free Wi-Fi world, said today it will extend its free Wi-Fi platform to embrace new Wi-Fi services and models. The Company will provide free Wi-Fi software for more routers, including NetGear. Wibiki will also enhance free Wi-Fi software for laptops to help users find FON (http://www.fon.com) hotspots when free Wi-Fi is unavailable.
CEO Shant Hovnanian said "Wibiki is all about free. We intend to make Wibiki compatible with any company and all organizations that include a free Wi-Fi access component in their offering. We recognize that the FON model primarily depends on user access fees, but they've told us hotspot owners will have the option to provide Wi-Fi without charge."
Wibiki will continue to focus on free Wi-Fi for users and communities. It has developed a new user opt-in advertising service to pay for free user services. Wibiki has filed patents for technology that increases user control of Internet ads on their screens. "Pop-up" ads will be excluded by the new service. Initial funding for Wibiki was provided by Speedus Corp., the company that pioneered development of wireless broadband in the early 90s.
Wibiki remains the only company offering a totally free Wi-Fi platform -- free software for both clients and routers -- that make it simple and safe to share wireless access. Wibiki intends to continue its investment in giving all users an easier way to find and connect to the best free Wi-Fi available. Users can download and install Wibiki from http://www.wibiki.com.
Of course, one really only has two choices when a competitor all of a sudden becomes BIG friends with Google, Skype, Cisco and the like. Either you 'embrace' them, or you make a big noise about how their product is inferior. Wibiki chose to do the former, but did mention that Wibiki is the only company to still offer totally free access.
So why is Fon better than Wibiki? In my opinion it has nothing to do with Fon getting $22mm in funding, but with the simple fact that Fon integrates both for-fee and for-free models. I don't think Fon does this particularly well, or in an innovative way. It simply offers both models under one brand name.
But the fact that it offers both means it can compete for the minds and hearts of different kinds of hotspots owners: The small entrepreneurs who intend to setup hotspots at various locations, as well as the guy wanting to share with 2 or 3 neighbours.
Wibiki, the Company that provides
software for a free Wi-Fi world, said today it will extend its free Wi-Fi platform to embrace new Wi-Fi services and models. The Company will provide free Wi-Fi software for more routers, including NetGear. Wibiki will also enhance free Wi-Fi software for laptops to help users find FON (http://www.fon.com) hotspots when free Wi-Fi is unavailable.
CEO Shant Hovnanian said "Wibiki is all about free. We intend to make Wibiki compatible with any company and all organizations that include a free Wi-Fi access component in their offering. We recognize that the FON model primarily depends on user access fees, but they've told us hotspot owners will have the option to provide Wi-Fi without charge."
Wibiki will continue to focus on free Wi-Fi for users and communities. It has developed a new user opt-in advertising service to pay for free user services. Wibiki has filed patents for technology that increases user control of Internet ads on their screens. "Pop-up" ads will be excluded by the new service. Initial funding for Wibiki was provided by Speedus Corp., the company that pioneered development of wireless broadband in the early 90s.
Wibiki remains the only company offering a totally free Wi-Fi platform -- free software for both clients and routers -- that make it simple and safe to share wireless access. Wibiki intends to continue its investment in giving all users an easier way to find and connect to the best free Wi-Fi available. Users can download and install Wibiki from http://www.wibiki.com.
Fon Fon Fon Fon Fon! (sung to the tune of the Tigger song)
Wow, what an exciting few days it's been. I'm not sure which is more exciting, the fact that FON raised $21.7 million from Google and Skype, or all the blogging going on around it!
I've been watching Fon with some interest the past few months, and must admit that I'm totally blown away by the amount of capital they raised for what has repeatedly been called a "flawed business plan". (See "Wibiki joins Fon in reiterating failed business models of the past") Of course, having Google, Skype and 22 million dollars in your pocket gives a whole new perspective on the term "flawed business model".
The greatest thing for us about Fon managing to get this kind of backing is that it validates what we at Skyrove are doing, that is, community owned wireless infrastructure.
It does also make it clear that there will be major competition in this space! Fon is not doing anything new. It's really the same as Joltage, Wibiki and SOHOwireless, although Glenn Fleishman argues that the they're really a for-Fee hotspot service like Boingo or The Cloud and that the for-Free sharing model they're pushing is really just a smokescreen for the 'true' business of commercial hotspots.
I've been getting quite a few emails from folks since Monday asking what's the difference between Skyrove and FON.
Here are some differences AND similarities:
1. We have the same vision: Cheap Global Wi-Fi coverage through community-owned hotspots.
2. They have funding and brand-name backers, and we don't (yet) :)
3. There's nothing unique about their business model. They're simply offering BOTH for-fee and for-free sharing models. Skyrove combines the two in a new way, letting the Hotspot owner decide the price.
4. Skyrove is conceptually like the "eBay of Wi-Fi". We don't sell Wi-Fi, we provide the platform for anyone to sell it themselves at the price they set, while we take a commission on the sale. Think of FON as trying to be the "McDonald's" of Wi-Fi, which is the competitive space shared by Boingo, The Cloud, iPass and others.
5. Their router software was written by the same brilliant programmer who wrote our software, Sebastian Gotschall, and we use the same router, the Linksys WRT54GL. However, they are selling the router at $25 while in South Africa we're paying about 4 times as much from the distributors!
6. Skyrove's edge: Our system is implicitly ISP friendly. Although our system caters for both Usage (per MB) and Time billing, we are biased in favour of Usage billing. An ISP can offer a per GB package to Hotspot Operaters without fear of it being 'abused' in some way. The more GB used, the more money the ISP will make. We don't have to "convince" ISPs that "Sharing is Good". We believe it is good, but we'd like there to be a real "bottom line" incentive for ISPs.
7. We have already signed a small ISP in the US (SkyWi) and are in talks with some others (large and small)
8. We don't have SpeakEasy or any other ISPs theatening legal action (yet) (see Speakeasy Says No Deal with Fon)
*UPDATE: SpeakEasy and Fon made peace soon after. I spoke to a SpeakEasy rep who said that they're totally happy with anyone sharing their internet with Wi-Fi, regardless of the payment method*
9. Skyrove has a much stronger focus on enabling small entrepreneurs, particularly in developing countries, to set up multiple profit-making hotspots. We will enable ordinary folks to share with their neighbours, but we give massive incentive to entrepreneurs who install multiple hotspots.
10. Just like Martin's blog, this blog suddenly got a shitload of hits on Monday. Although Martin's probably got about a 1000 times more!
I hope that all the hype around Fon's fundraising will be the jumpstart needed for investors to start backing Wi-Fi projects, so that we can finally see truly global Wi-Fi access, particularly in the developing world.
Wi-Fi is a dirt-cheap technology. What is needed are folks like Fon, Skyrove and others to take internet access out of the hands of telcos and give the power of communication back to who it belongs to: the people.
Update: Wibiki embraces Fon
I've been watching Fon with some interest the past few months, and must admit that I'm totally blown away by the amount of capital they raised for what has repeatedly been called a "flawed business plan". (See "Wibiki joins Fon in reiterating failed business models of the past") Of course, having Google, Skype and 22 million dollars in your pocket gives a whole new perspective on the term "flawed business model".
The greatest thing for us about Fon managing to get this kind of backing is that it validates what we at Skyrove are doing, that is, community owned wireless infrastructure.
It does also make it clear that there will be major competition in this space! Fon is not doing anything new. It's really the same as Joltage, Wibiki and SOHOwireless, although Glenn Fleishman argues that the they're really a for-Fee hotspot service like Boingo or The Cloud and that the for-Free sharing model they're pushing is really just a smokescreen for the 'true' business of commercial hotspots.
I've been getting quite a few emails from folks since Monday asking what's the difference between Skyrove and FON.
Here are some differences AND similarities:
1. We have the same vision: Cheap Global Wi-Fi coverage through community-owned hotspots.
2. They have funding and brand-name backers, and we don't (yet) :)
3. There's nothing unique about their business model. They're simply offering BOTH for-fee and for-free sharing models. Skyrove combines the two in a new way, letting the Hotspot owner decide the price.
4. Skyrove is conceptually like the "eBay of Wi-Fi". We don't sell Wi-Fi, we provide the platform for anyone to sell it themselves at the price they set, while we take a commission on the sale. Think of FON as trying to be the "McDonald's" of Wi-Fi, which is the competitive space shared by Boingo, The Cloud, iPass and others.
5. Their router software was written by the same brilliant programmer who wrote our software, Sebastian Gotschall, and we use the same router, the Linksys WRT54GL. However, they are selling the router at $25 while in South Africa we're paying about 4 times as much from the distributors!
6. Skyrove's edge: Our system is implicitly ISP friendly. Although our system caters for both Usage (per MB) and Time billing, we are biased in favour of Usage billing. An ISP can offer a per GB package to Hotspot Operaters without fear of it being 'abused' in some way. The more GB used, the more money the ISP will make. We don't have to "convince" ISPs that "Sharing is Good". We believe it is good, but we'd like there to be a real "bottom line" incentive for ISPs.
7. We have already signed a small ISP in the US (SkyWi) and are in talks with some others (large and small)
8. We don't have SpeakEasy or any other ISPs theatening legal action (yet) (see Speakeasy Says No Deal with Fon)
*UPDATE: SpeakEasy and Fon made peace soon after. I spoke to a SpeakEasy rep who said that they're totally happy with anyone sharing their internet with Wi-Fi, regardless of the payment method*
9. Skyrove has a much stronger focus on enabling small entrepreneurs, particularly in developing countries, to set up multiple profit-making hotspots. We will enable ordinary folks to share with their neighbours, but we give massive incentive to entrepreneurs who install multiple hotspots.
10. Just like Martin's blog, this blog suddenly got a shitload of hits on Monday. Although Martin's probably got about a 1000 times more!
I hope that all the hype around Fon's fundraising will be the jumpstart needed for investors to start backing Wi-Fi projects, so that we can finally see truly global Wi-Fi access, particularly in the developing world.
Wi-Fi is a dirt-cheap technology. What is needed are folks like Fon, Skyrove and others to take internet access out of the hands of telcos and give the power of communication back to who it belongs to: the people.
Update: Wibiki embraces Fon
Thursday, January 19, 2006
My Tip for Trevor - South African Minister of Finance
SILLY EXCHANGE CONTROL REGULATIONS FOR INTERNET COMPANIES
Dear Mr Manuel,
South Africa has the talent and skills to be part of the next Internet revolution. Internet-based companies by their nature are able to trade globally from day one. However, this is severely restricted in South Africa.
For example: Lungi has been selling handmade African jewelery in Gugulethu. She can start a website, with the help of a local NGO, and sell online to people overseas. However, folks overseas wish to pay in their own currency, e.g. Euro.
Currently, to perform this simple task, the only viable option for Lungi is to open an offshore bank account and an offshore company.
But to do this, she needs to get something called 'Reserve Bank approval', which is a silly process that A) Costs too much for a mini-entrepreneur and B) is a bureaucratic nightmare, with all sorts of requirements that were drawn up without ever thinking of small entrepreneurs and/or internet businesses.
Trevor, you'll do South Africa a GREAT favour by ensuring internet businesses can go global and flourish from day ONE.
How about this? I'll raise the funds for an NGO that helps township businesses go global, if you level the playing field and make it as easy to start a global internet business based in South Africa, as it is in most countries around the world!
Yours faithfully,
Henk Kleynhans
CEO of Skyrove (Pty) Ltd
Winner of the Enablis/Business Report ICT Entrepreneurs Challenge 2005
henk@skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com
* Please join me in this campaign by leaving a similar Tip for Trevor!*
If you are too lazy to type out your own blurb you may copy & paste the following:
"Dear Trevor, Please re-consider Reserve Bank approval for internet companies that need to trade globally, whether it be tangible products, or intangibles such as electronic books, music, videos, telecommunications services etc. Please contact Henk Kleynhans via email at henk@skyrove.com if you need further clarification."
Dear Mr Manuel,
South Africa has the talent and skills to be part of the next Internet revolution. Internet-based companies by their nature are able to trade globally from day one. However, this is severely restricted in South Africa.
For example: Lungi has been selling handmade African jewelery in Gugulethu. She can start a website, with the help of a local NGO, and sell online to people overseas. However, folks overseas wish to pay in their own currency, e.g. Euro.
Currently, to perform this simple task, the only viable option for Lungi is to open an offshore bank account and an offshore company.
But to do this, she needs to get something called 'Reserve Bank approval', which is a silly process that A) Costs too much for a mini-entrepreneur and B) is a bureaucratic nightmare, with all sorts of requirements that were drawn up without ever thinking of small entrepreneurs and/or internet businesses.
Trevor, you'll do South Africa a GREAT favour by ensuring internet businesses can go global and flourish from day ONE.
How about this? I'll raise the funds for an NGO that helps township businesses go global, if you level the playing field and make it as easy to start a global internet business based in South Africa, as it is in most countries around the world!
Yours faithfully,
Henk Kleynhans
CEO of Skyrove (Pty) Ltd
Winner of the Enablis/Business Report ICT Entrepreneurs Challenge 2005
henk@skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com
* Please join me in this campaign by leaving a similar Tip for Trevor!*
If you are too lazy to type out your own blurb you may copy & paste the following:
"Dear Trevor, Please re-consider Reserve Bank approval for internet companies that need to trade globally, whether it be tangible products, or intangibles such as electronic books, music, videos, telecommunications services etc. Please contact Henk Kleynhans via email at henk@skyrove.com if you need further clarification."
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Wibiki goes live with free Wi-Fi internet access
Wibiki today launched its Public Beta for testing its free Wi-Fi access service. Wibiki aims to provide free Wi-Fi access to people who share their own internet access using Wi-Fi.
You'll need to download the Wibiki software and install it onto your laptop and your Linksys WRT54GS router. (Available for $80 at Amazon.com)
The instructions on Wibiki's website are incredibly clear and it's obvious that Wibiki have been working hard at making this simple. The laptop software didn't cause any hassles or crashes, even though it's only at version 0.1.3.
It definitely looks that as far as the technology goes, Wibiki has got it right.
The big question is whether they have the right business model for encouraging Wi-Fi adoption, and in particular, bridging the digital divide. In South Africa and many other countries, DSL subscribers pay by the gigabyte, and through the nose at that. This means that sharing with freeloaders is simply too risky. I suspect Wibiki might be able to earn advertising revenue from a portal 'landing' page, i.e. the first page that Wi-Fi users will see when connecting to a Wibiki hotspot.
Even if Wibiki shared this revenue with hotspot owners, it is unlikely to be enough for the hotspot owner to make any profit.
Wibiki is led by CEO Shant Hovnanian and CTO Marcos Lara who are no strangers to the world of wireless communications. Shant has been promoting the convergence of voice, data and video over wireless since the early nineties. Marcos has been working on altruistic, community owned Wi-Fi since 2001 as a member of NYCwireless and is the Founder of the Public Internet Project and the Bryant Park Free Wireless Network!
From the Skyrove team, we wish you all the best in helping to make Wi-Fi cheap and accessible to everyone!
You'll need to download the Wibiki software and install it onto your laptop and your Linksys WRT54GS router. (Available for $80 at Amazon.com)
The instructions on Wibiki's website are incredibly clear and it's obvious that Wibiki have been working hard at making this simple. The laptop software didn't cause any hassles or crashes, even though it's only at version 0.1.3.
It definitely looks that as far as the technology goes, Wibiki has got it right.
The big question is whether they have the right business model for encouraging Wi-Fi adoption, and in particular, bridging the digital divide. In South Africa and many other countries, DSL subscribers pay by the gigabyte, and through the nose at that. This means that sharing with freeloaders is simply too risky. I suspect Wibiki might be able to earn advertising revenue from a portal 'landing' page, i.e. the first page that Wi-Fi users will see when connecting to a Wibiki hotspot.
Even if Wibiki shared this revenue with hotspot owners, it is unlikely to be enough for the hotspot owner to make any profit.
Wibiki is led by CEO Shant Hovnanian and CTO Marcos Lara who are no strangers to the world of wireless communications. Shant has been promoting the convergence of voice, data and video over wireless since the early nineties. Marcos has been working on altruistic, community owned Wi-Fi since 2001 as a member of NYCwireless and is the Founder of the Public Internet Project and the Bryant Park Free Wireless Network!
From the Skyrove team, we wish you all the best in helping to make Wi-Fi cheap and accessible to everyone!
Monday, January 02, 2006
What's your Exit Strategy, Sonny?
This is a question I've been asked more and more often as I'm looking for Venture Capital funding. And it's a question I've naively misunderstood.
Google 'exit strategy' and see what comes up. George W. Bush didn't have an exit strategy for invading Iraq. There was no exit strategy for the US involvement in Vietnam. This makes it look as if you might only need an exit strategy if you have a bad idea in the first place.
However, VCs aren't really that interested in long-term dividends. They wish to invest money, see it grow in the shortest timeframe possible, and then sell, typically within 3 to 7 years. With the money they make on the sale, they invest in more companies and repeat the process.
Obviously, I feel at odds here with potential investors. I'm thinking all day about getting 'into' business, new markets etc. The budding entrepreneur has very little time to think about getting out while working his butt off just trying to get in.
Essentially, there are 2 common exit options: Aquisition or IPO.
Recently, Skype was sold to eBay for $4.1 billionAlthough I'd gladly accept such an offer, I wouldn't plan any business from the ground up with a 'big sale' in mind.
So that leaves us with the other great option: the IPO. Very exciting, but is it really necessary to go IPO? What are the plans of the guys at 37Signals (one of my favorite 'model' companies)? I somehow don't imagine them in the IPO world with their no-nonsense 'less is more' approach.
Rick Segal suggests that a startup should never have ‘build to flip’ as a cornerstone of its business plan. See his excellent post: Build to Flip = Build to Fail
My favourite quote: "I point this simple math out because you can dig into your passion, make it amazingly great, and knock one completely out of the park without worrying about a flip, being crushed or ripped off. Keep it personal, grow the business, and let the big guys come knocking on your door."
I'll be waiting for your call, Mr Omidyar!
Google 'exit strategy' and see what comes up. George W. Bush didn't have an exit strategy for invading Iraq. There was no exit strategy for the US involvement in Vietnam. This makes it look as if you might only need an exit strategy if you have a bad idea in the first place.
However, VCs aren't really that interested in long-term dividends. They wish to invest money, see it grow in the shortest timeframe possible, and then sell, typically within 3 to 7 years. With the money they make on the sale, they invest in more companies and repeat the process.
Obviously, I feel at odds here with potential investors. I'm thinking all day about getting 'into' business, new markets etc. The budding entrepreneur has very little time to think about getting out while working his butt off just trying to get in.
Essentially, there are 2 common exit options: Aquisition or IPO.
Recently, Skype was sold to eBay for $4.1 billionAlthough I'd gladly accept such an offer, I wouldn't plan any business from the ground up with a 'big sale' in mind.
So that leaves us with the other great option: the IPO. Very exciting, but is it really necessary to go IPO? What are the plans of the guys at 37Signals (one of my favorite 'model' companies)? I somehow don't imagine them in the IPO world with their no-nonsense 'less is more' approach.
Rick Segal suggests that a startup should never have ‘build to flip’ as a cornerstone of its business plan. See his excellent post: Build to Flip = Build to Fail
My favourite quote: "I point this simple math out because you can dig into your passion, make it amazingly great, and knock one completely out of the park without worrying about a flip, being crushed or ripped off. Keep it personal, grow the business, and let the big guys come knocking on your door."
I'll be waiting for your call, Mr Omidyar!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The Best Books in Life are Free
Seth Godin recently published his book "The Bootstrapper's Bible" online for a limited period of two weeks. Unfortunately, the book is not 'officially' online anymore, but I downloaded it and thought it so absolutely brilliant and completely essential to the starting entrepreneur that I just had to post it online.
An insight from his book:
"You need to start before you start. Figuring out which business to be in is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your new venture, yet it's often one of the most poorly thought out decisions bootstrappers make."
It reminded me of a function I recently attended (at Mzoli's, no less) where Canadian telecomms magnate Charles Sirois was the keynote speaker. He put it in an interesting, uniquely Canadian way: "It doesn't matter how good your canoe is, it's the lake that matters! Even if you have the fanciest canoe in the world, if the lake is busy drying up, you'll find yourself at the bottom of it with all the other crappy canoes."
Download "The Bootstrapper's Bible" here in PDF format and start paddling!
An insight from his book:
"You need to start before you start. Figuring out which business to be in is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your new venture, yet it's often one of the most poorly thought out decisions bootstrappers make."
It reminded me of a function I recently attended (at Mzoli's, no less) where Canadian telecomms magnate Charles Sirois was the keynote speaker. He put it in an interesting, uniquely Canadian way: "It doesn't matter how good your canoe is, it's the lake that matters! Even if you have the fanciest canoe in the world, if the lake is busy drying up, you'll find yourself at the bottom of it with all the other crappy canoes."
Download "The Bootstrapper's Bible" here in PDF format and start paddling!
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Township Entrepreneurship and Naked Kings
Mark Twain once said that any time he found himself in the majority on any given issue, he always reevaluated his position. One of my favorite stories of all time is "The Emperor's New Clothes". The main character is a vain king with a particular affection for fine clothing. He gets swindled by two tailors who sell him a suit made of material so fine and pure that it was invisible to the foolish and the unworthy. Of course, there is no material, but as the king and everyone else don’t want to be exposed as fools, they all keep quiet. When the king parades his new suit in front of his subjects they all cheer and make comments about how 'fine' his new suit is. Until a little boy points at the king and shouts out "The King is naked!"
People started realizing the trick, but the king continues the parade, telling himself: "I must go on pretending. I cannot stop now"
I've often felt like the little boy, pointing at naked kings of all sorts. There is a particularly large amount of 'naked kings' being sold to the public these days through the insane amount of advertising, marketing and branding being forced upon us. But who is to blame? The 'swindlers', or the public who accepts their lies?
Luxury goods (think of a $100 rolled-up tobacco leaf) in particular is a whole 'naked empire' in itself. And it's particularly interesting when swindlers try to sell a 'naked king' to a group that isn't used to buying 'naked kings'.
For example, I recently went to a wine-tasting in Gugulethu. For those of you who don't know, Gugulethu is one of
Everyone at Mzoli's got free samples and Pieter, the wine maker, explained to a crowd of about a 100 black people how to drink and "appreciate" wine in the correct fashion.
He then asked them if they could identify the subtle hints of guava and tropical fruits in the Chardonnay and if they could taste any other fruits in the wine. "What else can you taste?" And the crowd answered as one:
"Grapes!"
Friday, December 09, 2005
Cut your site in half
We finally launched our first public Beta Wi-Fi hotspot this week! However, feature-wise, it's very much a stripped down version of what we envision. And that's a good thing!
Becasue I believe one should start simple. The really funny thing is, even though our new service does something very 'simple', the interface is anything but. To sign up as a new user to our service, you have to go through 11 webpages!
Our current design was done by developers, for developers". I.e. the pages are actually just "test" pages so that our developers could test the working of the back-end system.
So we went back to the drawing board (literally) and realised straight away that we could cut out 3 of those webpages immediately before any major re-design or development.
Ironically, even though our design is already convoluted and the usability needs much improvement, we're already talking about extra features and in which priority we should be adding them to the existing webpages...
Then I saw a comment by Jason Fried on his Signal Vs. Noise blog: "As sites mature they should be getting smaller, not bigger. Fewer pages, not more. Fewer words, Fewer paragraphs, Fewer options. There’s too much on too many sites."
Back to the drawing board again..
Becasue I believe one should start simple. The really funny thing is, even though our new service does something very 'simple', the interface is anything but. To sign up as a new user to our service, you have to go through 11 webpages!
Our current design was done by developers, for developers". I.e. the pages are actually just "test" pages so that our developers could test the working of the back-end system.
So we went back to the drawing board (literally) and realised straight away that we could cut out 3 of those webpages immediately before any major re-design or development.
Ironically, even though our design is already convoluted and the usability needs much improvement, we're already talking about extra features and in which priority we should be adding them to the existing webpages...
Then I saw a comment by Jason Fried on his Signal Vs. Noise blog: "As sites mature they should be getting smaller, not bigger. Fewer pages, not more. Fewer words, Fewer paragraphs, Fewer options. There’s too much on too many sites."
Back to the drawing board again..
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