Boris Mann's Link Blog

Galen Ward Blog: Downloads Are the New Hits

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:03:07 -0700

Galen Ward Blog: Downloads Are the New Hits:

Downloads are as meaningless as hits, since you can game them with frequent updates. Important metrics: Installs, Daily / Monthly Uniques, and Time on App.

"The telecoms industry is caught up in a trap of its own making driven by a failed mental model of..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:56:49 -0700

“The telecoms industry is caught up in a trap of its own making driven by a failed mental model of networks as pipes, bandwidth as the resource that is to be packaged and sold, and resource efficiency as the driver of profit. The inevitable result is that the typical telco resembles a Model T car plant (complete with QoS mine, network policy plantation and IMS steelworks), rather than a modern lean flexible manufacturing system matching resources to needs quickly and efficiently.”

- Future of Communications - Future of Communications blog - Lean Networking

"Customers are the result of a series of events."

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:00:27 -0700

“Customers are the result of a series of events.”

- Ways to Increase User Engagement | The Intercom Blog

You should be reading the Intercom blog. You should also be using Intercom to engage with the users of your webapp.

"So if both have no customers, why on earth would a company with an offering necessarily be more..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:02:42 -0700

“So if both have no customers, why on earth would a company with an offering necessarily be more valuable than one without? There is absolutely no inherent value in effort put toward something nobody will buy. The value comes with market knowledge that informs the development of the offering, which in turn, increases the chances of market success.”

- Should Only Startups with Products Get Funded? | Rocket Watcher: Product Marketing for Startups

In other words: you don’t know anything about whether you have a successful until someone is paying you for something. For me, not having an idea is still a negative signal. I think there is a role for labs / studio concepts where a great team gets thrown together, but that is different from these “no idea” fundings.

iOS app success is a “lottery”: 60% (or more) of developers don’t break even | Ars Technica

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:01:38 -0700

iOS app success is a “lottery”: 60% (or more) of developers don’t break even | Ars Technica:

I don’t know why this is a surprise. Apps are a business. Most businesses fail soon after starting. Googling a bit finds me this About.com article with some business failure stats that says really small businesses show only 55% survived after three years.

How VCs, Accelerators, and Coworking Spaces Put Communities in Buildings vs. Buildings in Communities

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:51:27 -0700

How VCs, Accelerators, and Coworking Spaces Put Communities in Buildings vs. Buildings in Communities:

So if you’re checking off all the ingredients you need to build your own startup ecosystem, just count how many people you have whose fulltime profession it is to support the ecosystem through their normal course of business—not just a side gig or an economic project. Get enough of those and you’ll have your community.

That’s the last paragraph of this post. Unfortunately, we have very few (down to zero?) people in Vancouver whose fulltime job it is to support the community. Everything else rings very true as well, such as “[Government] grants are nice, but they don’t come with the expertise of investors who have worked with tons of startups before”.

"If the classic shape of a seed has been thrown out of the window, so be it. If entrepreneurs come in..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:56:32 -0700

“If the classic shape of a seed has been thrown out of the window, so be it. If entrepreneurs come in seeking cash on the explicit understanding that they are putting together a diverse syndicate to help them run a series of experiments called “a company” with no notion of probability of success, that’s cool by me too. If crowd-funding platforms help them access top flight investors at speed, all the better.”

- A singularity hits venture capital – Fred Destin – The Kernel

In other words, yes, the current model of VC is still in the process of being disrupted, so various “VC is broken” is not a surprise. Transparency and markets change all things.

Why Churn is so critical to success in SaaS | For Entrepreneurs

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:01:37 -0700

Why Churn is so critical to success in SaaS | For Entrepreneurs:

A good read and primer on churn and negative churn and impacts on revenue. Take away: focus on upselling and cross-selling as well as keeping your customers happy to reduce the effects of people cancelling (churn).

"I’ve been interested in writing an ebook for a while. The first time I tried I didn’t..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:01:32 -0700

“I’ve been interested in writing an ebook for a while. The first time I tried I didn’t finish because I couldn’t stay motivated. This time around I was able to stay motivated because I put up a fake sales page to test the idea before I even started writing. This is the same technique that Tim Ferriss talks about in the 4HWW. The validation this provided was what I needed to see it through.”

- 4 Months of ebook Sales

I’m fascinated by self-publishing AKA boot-strapped ebooks, so in general I’m collecting stories like this. Each market is different, of course, but much like Kickstarter, it feels like people are willing to pay for stuff that other people make.

"Understanding and utilizing the underlying data of your business is no longer a strategy, it is a..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:58:03 -0700

“Understanding and utilizing the underlying data of your business is no longer a strategy, it is a requirement. I wrote years ago that social was not a business in and of itself — it was an enabler of all online business. In the same way, Big Data is not a business in and of itself — it is an enabler of all business, online and offline.”

- Big Data 2.0 — Data as a Platform - VentureBlog

We are still selling data tooling for the most part, rather than tools that let people act on the data.

"The technology industry is a lot like major league baseball circa 2000: it shares widely held, but..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:51:20 -0700

“The technology industry is a lot like major league baseball circa 2000: it shares widely held, but fundamentally incorrect, ideas about valuation. Vendors and buyers alike, for example, behave as if software were a competitive advantage, when this is only rarely the case. As GitHub’s Tom Preston-Werner writes, there are pieces of software that represent “core business value,” and these are assets worth seeking and protecting. But those are, in general, a fraction of an organization’s overall software investments. Most software simply does not represent a competitive advantage.”

- Software is the New On Base Percentage – tecosystems

Teams, processes, culture. Who cares how much software you’ve built, how do you keep shipping it, maintaining it, and selling it to customers?

"There are no “right” answers to any of these questions. Hugely successful businesses..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:01:22 -0700

“

There are no “right” answers to any of these questions. Hugely successful businesses have been built at all points on the spectrum, and — since companies are fundamentally a reflection of their founders’ values — the most important question is “what feels right to you?”

But founders also need to be aware that their answers to these (and other) questions have huge significance to prospective investors. I know I have a “right” answer to each of these, some of which I”ll outline below. That doesn’t mean that I’ll never invest in a company that chooses the “wrong” path, but it’s a significant hurdle for me to overcome in making a decision to invest.

”

- Crash Dev: Unwritten Rules

Chris DeVore goes over various typical starting-a-company questions, as well as what he considers to be the right answer for companies he invests in at Founders Co-Op.

Knowing what your answers are to these questions - or at least, how you go about discussing them with other people - is crucially important.

Lightning | Boris Smus

Sat, 12 May 2012 16:01:06 -0700

Lightning | Boris Smus:

Boris Smus’ Python based static site generator, if you like Python better than Ruby.

"The really important point to underscore is that if you abstract the decision of how to serve ads..."

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:01:22 -0700

“The really important point to underscore is that if you abstract the decision of how to serve ads and offload it to a server right off the bat instead of baking it into your binary you’re potentially saving yourself a headache.”

- Mobile Advertising Mediation | Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility

We’re only seeing more and more hosted services that let you make changes, monitor, or otherwise do interesting things by hooking them into your “native” binaries.

PhoneGap Beliefs, Goals, and Philosophy « PhoneGap

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:01:50 -0700

PhoneGap Beliefs, Goals, and Philosophy « PhoneGap:

Moving post by @brianleroux about PhoneGap.

#PunkMoney - a gift currency you can use on Twitter

Sat, 12 May 2012 10:01:37 -0700

#PunkMoney - a gift currency you can use on Twitter:

“A gift currency anyone can print, transfer, and redeem on Twitter”. /via @sleslie

"Perhaps the question about reward/performance isn’t the right one. Why do we do this kind of..."

Fri, 11 May 2012 16:01:16 -0700

“

Perhaps the question about reward/performance isn’t the right one. Why do we do this kind of work over another? Because it speaks to us? Because it leading edge? Because it is challenging and engaging?

Monetary motivations aside, we do it because we want to, we are driven to create. Anyone doing it for money alone will never take the step beyond that. Being in the position to posit and debate this is a great one to be in and part of the journey.

”

- Services to Product - Boris Mann

Linking to your own blog post is perhaps a bit weird. I had a great back and forth about these concepts with Jay, and the quote above is from Gord Christmas.

I am really enjoying the new blog platform. I don’t know if it’s the subject matter or the design, but the engagement in the comments has been fantastic - thanks everyone for participating!

"One of the most radical ideas in the book [Maverick] is that every employee has full access to the..."

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:01:36 -0700

“One of the most radical ideas in the book [Maverick] is that every employee has full access to the company’s financial records. Nothing is sacred, not how much the owner takes from the company or how much money your boss makes. This sort of information is carefully guarded at most companies. At Lincoln Loop, its different.”

- Peter Baumgartner | Open Book Finances | scriptogr.am

Here’s the link to the Maverick book on Amazon.

Lincoln Loop is a company experimenting with product (Ginger) alongside their services work. I think this kind of openness is what is needed to excel as a true team.

I would be interested to hear if employees also “own” a piece of the company.

"Now, e-commerce is not so much a business model as an essential approach to engage consumers. If..."

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:59:41 -0700

“Now, e-commerce is not so much a business model as an essential approach to engage consumers. If your company sells a product online, regardless of how it’s delivered, you are an e-commerce company.”

- We’re All E-Commerce Companies Now - Bonin Bough - Harvard Business Review

This was from the point of view of a “Consumer Packaged Goods” aka CPG company.

"I think fulfillment and joy barely enter into the calculus for most founders, and that’s a mistake...."

Fri, 11 May 2012 09:56:34 -0700

“I think fulfillment and joy barely enter into the calculus for most founders, and that’s a mistake. Why build a company — or anything else for that matter — if it’s not fulfilling?”

- How do I stop “analyzing” and pick between two good choices? by @ASmartBear