The Art of The Start

Watched Guy Kawasaki, former Apple employee and author of "The Art of The Start" today. Very funny guy and great speaker with some great words to say about Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship, check it out here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3755718939216161559&q=label%3Aentrepreneurship
Here is a summary of his 10 main points on Entrepreneurship:

1# If you truly want to be a successful entrepreneur or to change the world your reason to start a business must be: TO CREATE MEANING NOT CREATE MONEY
How does one create meaning?
- Increase the quality of life (e.g. Apple: allow users be creative, save time, ...)
- Right a wrong (e.g. Apple: MS-DOS was wrong, needed to be done right!)
- Prevent the end of somethging good

Helps you to attract the right people who are not focused on money solely.

2# Create a Mantra for your employees - Why do you (employees) exist?
Example of a wrong 'Mission Statement for employess' - Wendys Fast food chain:
"The mission of Wendys is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customer and communities through leadership, innovation and partnership"
- Very generic (see Dilbert's mission statement generator http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/games/career/bin/ms.cgi)
- employees won't recall or strive for this
Wendy's should be changed to "Healthy fast food" - Encapsulated what they do and strive for.

FedEx - "Peace of Mind"
Nike - "Authentic Athletic Performance"

3# Get Going!
Not so much research, no focus group, just get going...
1. Think Different - Don't do better sameness!
2. Polarize People - Create a product/service that wont appeal to all. Will end up mediocre!
3. Find a few soul mates - Steve Jobs : Paul Allen, Bill Gates : Steve Balmer -> need some one to compliment yourself, balance yourself off -> marketing: engineering, visionary: operational

4# Develop a Business Model
1. Specificity - Who is my customer & how do I get my money out of her purse? "It's my money in her purse"
2. Keep it Simple - Do not innovate business models. Keep them simple. Innovate the technology and processes..

5# Weave a MAT( Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks)
When starting a company it is like the first skiier down the slope. Its a wonderful experience but need focus and direction.
1. Milestones: "Finishing Design", what you would call your spouse and tell her!
2. Assumptions: What are the number of customers you can call per day, what is the customer ROI, how does it coast to install our software - write them and test them.
3. Tasks - Help you reach milestones, help you test assumptions. "Rent an office" etc..

6# Niche yourself
Holy Grail of Marketing: Need to create value for the customer and be unique.



7# 10: 20: 30 rule
When pitching to a venture capitalist they hear a lot of pitches daily:

10 slides - no more than ten slides. Don't bore the audience KISS principle.

20 minutes - If given an hour make the presentation for 20 minutes. Allow for unexpected occurences. Don't bore. Allow alot of question time.

30 pt font - should be the smallest font on the Power point slides. Makes it easy to read, reduces the amount of text you can add so you have to know your slides and not read them.

8# Hire infected people
1. Regardless of background hire those interested in product. Guy was himself in jewlery business when hired but loved mac.
2. Hire people better than yourself. A people hire A+ people. B people hire C people. C people hire D people...

9# Lessen barriers to adoption?
1. Flatten the learning curve. Make it easier to 'plug and play'. - How many people can change the clock on the VCR?
2. Don't require eople to do anything you yourself wouldnt.
- fill out 65 text fields to sign-up.
3. Embrace evangelists
- reward those people who will bring your message to the world

10# Seed the clouds
1. Let 100 flowers blossom - If non intended users buy your product let it be. It may lead to product differentiation or a new product.
2. Enable Test Drives - Let people try out the products in trial versions. Show they are smart and you trust them.
3.Lower level influence. Don't always look to the CxO when trying to push the product. The higher up, the thinner the air. Get real influencers, tech. support, secetaries (post-its!),..


#11. Don't listen to the Bozos.
"I Think there is a market for maybe 5 computers in the world" Thomas watson, Chairman IBM, 1943

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Western Union Internal memo, 1876

"There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home" Ken Olsen, Founder, Digital Equipment Corp. 1977