1 to 100,000

The other night I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, mindlessly glossing over pictures, posts, and status updates, when one headline in particular caught my eye. My friend and mentor Mukund Mohan (founder of a new do-it-yourself PR company called Buzzgain), had posted a talk by Matt Mullenweg, the visionary genius behind none other than WordPress, entitled, “The First 100K Users Are Always the Hardest.”

Having spent the better part of 18 months working on two start-ups, and having experienced firsthand just how difficult it can be to attain 100 users – much less 100,000 – I felt compelled to hear what Matt had to say. If not to gain an intuition for achieving critical mass (though of course, I thought that would be nice!), then at least to audit what I had learned from my time as an entrepreneur.

Much to my surprise, the lessons that I had gleaned and the teachings that he bestowed were, for the most part, one and the same.

1) Be your most passionate user – If you can’t spend hours a day using your product, you cannot possibly expect anyone else to.

More than a year after we decided to close up shop, my former partner Ryan and I still chuckle about the mistakes that we made at The Freight Exchange. Not because we made them (for it’s always difficult to manage unknowns and succeed in spite of them when you’re doing something for the first time), but because we made them trying to start an online load board for shipping carriers and brokers.  If the concept doesn’t sound particularly interesting, well, it’s because it isn’t!

2) Be anal – Everyday is an opportunity to be a new user.

One of my fondest memories working with Ryan came in early August of 2007, when after a particularly grueling and mind-numbing afternoon of work, Ryan and I decided to step outside onto the fire escape adjacent to his apartment to get some air. However, no sooner had I come to my senses, than Ryan took a deep breath, directed my attention to the brick edifice across the way and said, “You know, if you think about it, the only reason that building is still standing is because every brick was laid just right, every ounce of mortar was applied just so…” That’s when I knew I had a like-minded partner.

3) Get off the “computer” – Reorient yourself!

Like many first-time entrepreneurs (or so I tell myself), Ryan and I figured that superior technology, class room theory, automated processes, and the illusion of credibility would be more than enough to propel sales. However it wasn’t until we began cold-calling, sending out surveys, and meeting folks in person, that we realized albeit too late that: there is simply no substitute for human spirit, insight, and interaction.

4) Do your own support – Every time a current or prospective user contacts you is an opportunity to impress them.

The problem with expanding too quickly is that it marginalizes a founding team’s usefulness. For instance, at Smart Genetics our CEO oftentimes found himself with the unenviable task of prioritizing  between the launch of company’s flagship product Alzheimer’s Mirror, acquiescing to the demands of board members, seeking financing, forging partnerships, creating a physician outreach program, running operations, and testing different revenue generating strategies all at once! So alas, instead of pushing a customer first approach (which is the way it should be in my opinion), we were forced to spend the majority of our time focusing on making sales.

5) Have a tagline – Distill what you’re doing in 5 customer-centric words or less.

Post. Find. Deliver. If not for those three simple words, TFE would have nose-dived in less than four months instead of gliding to a halt in seven. For, not only did they enable us to frame our value proposition both internally and externally, but they pushed us to recognize inconsistencies in our overall strategy as well. So even though the result was ultimately the same, I’d argue that we were able to stay in afloat long enough to learn how to build a company “the right way.” Not bad for a $5000 investment if you ask me!

6) Get version 1.0 out ASAP –  Nothing beats real users using your product, even if it sucks.

If only Ryan and I had internalized that truism a year and a half ago! Maybe then we wouldn’t have burned through our funding pursuing speculative development projects that ultimately provided little or no value, and actually engaged and catered to our target audience. (But hey, look on the bright side; had that been the case, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this post.)

7) Measure EVERYTHING – Do as your users do, not as they say.

Despite the tremendous feedback that Alzheimer’s Mirror received from media outlets and customers alike, it became abundantly clear once we filtered through the noise and started focusing on actual analytics, that in order to succeed we were going to have to overcome three distinct challenges. For starters, the $399 price point was simply going to be too high, especially in a down economy; secondly, older and less tech-savvy consumers were  going to be reluctant to purchase a direct-to-consumer risk assessment over the web; and finally, in spite of the test’s merit, 70% of our consumers made health-care related decisions in conjunction with their doctor.

8) Simplify  – Period.

To say anymore would be to, as Matt says, defeat the purpose.

9) Start strong, finish strong – Create a synergy of expectations.

Though I can’t be certain (for unfortunately with so much on my plate, I never had a chance to prove or disprove my theory), I’d be willing bet my right pinky finger that we could have gotten a few more sales at Smart Genetics if our landing pages didn’t look like we were selling used car insurance instead of a genetic risk assessments!

10) Be a painkiller not a vitamin – People don’t care if you make their lives marginally better; they want you to help them kick butt now.

Part of the problem with Alzheimer’s Mirror was that the test itself had very little inherent value. For starters, Alzheimer’s has no cure, and so even if someone is at increased risk for developing the disease, there is little if anything they can do to prevent it. Secondly, even if there are things one can do to delay the onset of AD, they are no different from the life style choices physicians already recommend to their patients regardless of genetic disposition (e.g. eating healthy, exercising regularly, challenging the mind, socializing etc).

In short if there is anything I have internalized in the past two years it is that business, like many things in life, is a journey into the unknown: the more you understand what drives you, the more readily your path and destination will reveal themselves.

Personal Brands

This afternoon Albert Maruggi, a PR thought leader with over 25 years of experience, hosted the first ever “Social Media Throwdown”, featuring a battle of wits between social media behemoth Geoff Livingston and brand strategy savant Hajj Flemings. The topic? The existence and importance of personal brands.

For his part, Livingston argues that personal brands are not only difficult to achieve, but that companies that promote the brands of their employees do themselves a disservice; whereas Hajj contends that “personal brands” are an integral part of what makes us human, and as such, one of the key reasons we provide value to teams and organizations in the first place.

Now while I don’t usually make it a point of stepping into the ring with two heavyweight champs (much less one!), I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I agree with my man Hajj.

To illustrate why, let me address each one of Geoff’s “7 Corporate Pitfalls to Promoting Personal Brands,” in turn (I apologize in advance for the sports analogies):

1) The personal brand is a cost to the company.

Though I wholeheartedly agree that you must never let employees build their own brand at the expense of a company’s, I would argue that: a) the best organizations sustain their vision in large part by investing in the brand of their people (e.g. Google, Amazon etc) while b) the companies that impose their “personality” on employees’ creativity, intellect, passion, and moral compass are  more likely to “fail” (e.g. Lehman Brothers, AIG, General Motors etc).

2) The now popular employee is likely to get poached: a common concern I hear is that competitors can easily identify the stars, and hire away these folks…

That’s certainly a risk. But if you ask me, it’s one that companies absolutely have to take. For starters, an organization’s ultimate success is built on the collective and individual growth of all of its employees. Secondly, the more well-regarded a particular employee/manager is, the more well-regarded his/her organization becomes (e.g the Livingston Communication brand ironically, is reflective of Geoff Livingston’s stature). Finally, in an era of high turnover, stars are much more likely to leave  if they feel their wings have been clipped.

3) Employee exits leave a chasm to fill… after they’ve built up trust with the market using social tools, they leave the company, and a gap is left that the brand can’t fill.

I suppose, but I would contest that if you build an organization the right way and put the right processes in place you should be able to replenish your coffers rather easily. For instance: you think Pete Carroll of USC lost any sleep over the departures of Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush? I think, after 7 straight seasons of 11 or more wins that’s highly unlikely.

4) The personal brand has a human failing, which then gets aired out in the marketplace and tarnishes the company’s entire social media effort in process. Think this can’t happen? Let’s go to sports and Barry Bonds. His steroids use has permanently tarnished the records he carries and the entire era of MLB he dominated.

Sure, but I would counter that when you build an organization the right way from the ground up you are able to do two things: 1) prevent those sort of failings from happening and 2) overcome and thrive in spite of them. Thus, as much as I loathe Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens for instance, Bud Selig, his $18M salary, and his negligent testing procedures are far more culpable in my mind.

5) Similar to Risk 1: The company sacrifices building its own larger commitment to the marketplace by building a personality. In essence, building the personal brand is a distraction from the company’s real purpose, which is serving its stakeholders.

I agree that companies should never sacrifice a customer-centric approach for the individual glory its employees. However, by definition employees are stakeholders as well.  Therefore I would argue that their success is directly correlated to end-user satisfaction.

6) But how long until people realize that seeing individuals as the only voice of the company on the Internet is an indication that the company doesn’t really care about the social web?

Individuals should never be the sole voice of a company; nor should their voice overwhelm those of their peers and customers. But I also believe that a “star” employee who is given the freedom to connect with a target audience in a manner that is consistent with the company’s core principles is a powerful ally.

7) A solo personality can polarize customers, or push away potential prospects. A team offers different voices and tones for different stakeholders.

True, but a strong personality that acts in accordance with the larger principles and mission of a team (e.g. Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, etc) can also captivate and unite an audience on a monumental scale.

Lastly, in response to Livingston’s closing argument suggesting that “Teams win and stars lose:” I would contend that it just ain’t that simple:

1) First of all, while it is absolutely correct to say that stars can’t succeed without role players, last time I checked, role players can’t exactly succeed without stars either! Can you imagine the Bulls without MJ, the Cavs without LeBron, or the Colts without Peyton Manning? There’s a reason they were and are MVP candidates year in and year out. It’s because without them, their teams wouldn’t be very good.

2) On the best teams, even role players develop personal brands/identities that are consistent with the overall vision. For instance on the championship Bulls teams (since Geoff brought it up): Rodman was the pest/rebounder, Pippen was the lockdown defender, Steve Kerr was the 3-point specialist, and Toni Kukoc was the jack of all trades.

So, while there most certainly is no “I” in “team,” there isn’t necessarily an “I” in “personal brand” either.

Thoughts?

Beyond Full

If there is anything I’ve learned in the last few years it’s that when life drops a hint (or in this case ten) you listen.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter yesterday. For, every time I was on the verge of succumbing to my frustrations (frustrations that had come to a head after yet another disheartening experience with a prospective employer) I was firmly and serendipitously reminded why I persist.

1) Family – “I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life (Abraham Lincoln).” Fifteen years from now, if there is one thing I will undoubtedly remember about yesterday, it is that despite all of her work and all of her obligations, my Mom the OB/GYN decided to come home early just so that she, Dad, and I could walk down to the beach together before sunset.

2) Kindness – Kindness, particularly when unrequited, is one of our greatest and most generous gifts. Late last night Miranda Maney, a fellow Penn Grad and ad copywriter in the Bay Area wrote me a page long email  (though it could very well have been 3!) filled with support, wisdom, and perspective – all despite the fact that we’ve talked on the phone only once, have corresponded back and forth a total of maybe 10-15 times, and have never met in person. Wow.

3) Conviction – Our conviction in ourselves, our family, and in our creed (religious or otherwise) is the only thing that gives us courage to stand strong in the face of gathering clouds. Last night, for the first time (that I can remember) since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s I heard my Dad say, in no uncertain terms, “I will not be defined by a mere disability” – upon finishing an inspirational PBS Frontline special on the disease.

4) Humanity – The older we get the harder and more imperative it is for us to internalize the inherent beauty and humanity of each moment. Few I would argue understand this better than Meera Sinha, whose anecdotal post yesterday about a selfless rickshaw driver epitomizes what it is to be human.

5) Love – “The life and love we create is the life and love we live (Leo Buscaglia).” If ever there was a story that encapsulated the essence of those words, it is the one I came across early yesterday morning chronicling the life and death of Robert and Darlene Moser.

6) Friendship – “I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know (Ralph Waldo Emerson)…” To all my friends who listened, encouraged, and advised me in a moment of weakness (S.D, R.K, D.G, P.W, U.T, D.S, S.A etc): thank you sincerely.

7) Humility – “To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, and to inferiors nobleness (Benjamin Franklin).” Though it would take me an entire post to discuss the merits of serial entrepreneur/professor Rajesh Setty‘s latest book entitled, Beyond Code: 9 Simple Ways to Distinguish Yourself (which I finished mid-afternoon), I suspect all I (or anyone for that matter) needs to know of the man himself, is that in spite of the countless hours he put into the work, and in spite of the many priceless suggestions he bestows, he hasn’t asked for a cent.

8) Inspiration – Inspiration and ultimately self-fulfillment comes from within. Case in point, more than a month ago one of my contacts in the Bay Area, Chris Hutchins, fell victim to the current economic climate when he was unceremoniously laid off from work. However, rather than wallow in his own misery (as I embarrassingly did), I learned yesterday that he decided to take matters into his own hands and start the now wildly acclaimed “LaidoffCamp” for unemployed tech geeks.

9) Music – Life without music would indeed be a mistake (Friedrich Nietzsche). But before yesterday, I would have never imagined that listening to the greatest rags-to-riches song in hip-hop history (“Juicy” by Biggie) for three straight hours could do so much for a person’s psyche.

10) House – Seriously, is there a better show on television (or in my case, Hulu)? Not only was last week’s episode typically brilliant, but it was entitled, “Big Baby” (as if I needed another blatant reminder to remove my diaper and quit whining before going to bed!).

So there you have it: if this is the only life we live – and by all accounts that seems to be the case – then why be ordinary? Why not do the extraordinary? Why not smile?

What 3 things made you smile today?