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There’s only so much time in the day. If you follow this blog and your wondering what happened… It’s mostly that my effort’s been going into getting KickoffLabs ready to launch. I’ve been doing two posts there a week. This is harder than it sounds without a writing staff.
So, if your one of the people that enjoys my blogging (which may be a count of zero after finding out my wife stopped reading) then head on over to the KickoffLabs blog and subscribe there.
Not sure where I saw this first, but I love the following iPad tips.
1. Put folders in the launch bar.
2. Move all your non favorite apps to other pages so your home screen let’s your background image shine.
And putting the two together is awesome.
in – cu – bate
to maintain at a favorable temperature and in other conditions promoting development
It feels like you can’t turn a corner without hearing about another startup incubator or angel fund. This model has launched several successful companies including Dropbox, Loopt, Xobni, and Disqus.
So the question is… why don’t big companies drive innovation in a similar way? I’ve seen a lot of corporate “startup” teams come and go. For all that’s been invested in “startup” teams at large companies, the results are pathetic. Millions of dollars have been wasted without anything to show for it. These projects are eventually folded and the talented people are slotted back into the larger teams.
But big companies do not have to be devoid of real innovation. They could have a successful startup mentality that creates thriving new businesses. The most important success factor exists at the Fortune 500: The talented people who can form incredible multidisciplinary teams. So the people are there, but real success inside the corporate walls would depend on radical changes:
1. Financial Incentive
If you work at a Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! and ship something that changes the world and makes billions, you get … not so much. The reward factor just isn’t there, and it needs to be. There has to be the dream in place that for the 10 teams that fail, the 11th team could make its members millions. Of course this sort of incentive doesn’t exists today because big companies pay great salaries to all 11 teams along the way. But truly entrepreneurial people don’t really care as much about that regular paycheck… which makes it less required and leads to:
2. Hunger & Risk Factors
Because employees on these teams make a great salary, there is no profit incentive. This is probably the biggest problem with startup teams at large companies. You can show up at 9 and leave at 5. And getting more play money is just a snazzy powerpoint away from a well connected exec. Nothing makes them hungry.
There needs to be risk factor that weeds out people who aren’t bought into the idea. The risk could be a greatly reduced salary that is redirected into the incubation fund. This fund would be used to help reward the teams who make it big and cover the cost of running these startup teams. It’s up to each team to manage the money, prove a market, and generate real ROI. Companies could still give these employees some basic health benefits, open office space, etc.
3. Independence to Change the World
Nothing stifles innovation like having to argue about internal competition. Slippery slope politics have entrenched leaders fearing cannibalization of existing customers from new initiatives. This only prevents great stuff from being customer tested. Prezi would never ship at a large company with an existing presentation application. And from the founder perspective: why would you spend 6 moths working on something that’s just going to be killed? There needs to be freedom to let these new businesses launch before they are killed off by a scared VP.
4. Finiteness
Freedom needs to be time-boxed. These teams should be given a small seed fund that would run out if they can’t start showing returns within a short time period. It’s powerfully motivating to know that without some profit my startup has a finite life span that is not on a 3 year horizon. If the “founders” want more life… give up more of the “equity” that you would have earned in the end from the new reward system. Several of these teams will die off quickly and thats OK.
5. Mentoring
At first you may have to bring in some outside mentors for these teams, but eventually the successfully graduated teams can help the new classes learn from their wins and losses. The classes taught at these companies today just aren’t designed to make something wildly successful. Most of todays corporate curriculum is about preventing failure. Instead, these teams need education on turning small wins into crazy money with a few risks along the way.
Will anyone actually put something like this together?
I doubt it. It would take a perspective shift that most executives of the current c-level generation won’t make. But the reality is that the alternative should scare them more. The alternative is bleeding talent, a lack of innovation, and a slow decay of existing market share as it’s eaten away by the same talent you let leave. Simply because you didn’t find a system that motivates talented people to build out phenomenal innovation and new markets.
You may have noticed that I’m starting to talk more about what I’m working on publicly. I’ll do my best not to spam you continually about my startup business ventures. It’s a tough line to straddle as you are getting started. Word of mouth is critical and ones own networks are key to spreading your message. I love all the support I’ve received. I do, however, have a few things to ask of you… and none of them involve money. 
1. Do what you’d normally do and share what’s interesting to you. It doesn’t help anyone if you blindly share things you don’t believe in… but do overshare things that are really interesting to you because your other friends might find it interesting as well.
2. Tell me what you really think. I hear “X is a good idea” enough from strangers who want to be polite. Half the time I’m tempted to just make something crazy up just to see how polite people really are. I want to know if you think something I’m working on just isn’t going to work and why. I can take it. I may think I’ve found a way through the tree… but I like to know about them coming.
3. Enjoy the ride. You all have a front row seat to learn from my adventures into being a bootstrapped entrepreneur. I’m sure there will be lessons learned along the way you may get to take advantage of someday.
4. Let Gretchen know how awesome she is. She went through starting her own business first and I wouldn’t be able to do this if it weren’t for her. She’s an amazing woman, has shown great patience with me, and I could not be more grateful for having her and our son Gabe to be in love with.
Today Scott and I announced the foundation of a new business with KickoffLabs. Our goal is to make it simpler for people to validate, connect, and launch their ideas with customers. Although V1 hasn’t been released yet we are going to practice what we’re preaching and start building a list of potential early adopters that can help shape the direction of V1 before we launch.
At this stage our goal, in addition to building the product, is to build an audience of people that believe what we believe… that there is a better way to launch your product, business, or service with your target audience. If that’s something that you believe then become part of our tribe by giving us your attention at KickoffLabs.com.
I’d probably have my new app for sale if I wasn’t using it as the subject of my training series. But one of the things that really stuck with me after reading Rework was the concept that you can sell the byproducts of building your product.
In the 37Signals case they sell the books from creating their own product management/development process. I figured, in my case I’d try selling some “how”s in the form of training. One year from now it will be interesting to see if the App or the Training makes more money. 
To put it another way… there’s always a dog under the desk you could sell with your work. Chapter 3 has taken a little longer than I expected, but is almost in the bag.
Yesterday I started creating mockups for a top secret project. I decided that I was not only going to mockup the UI, but that I was going to mock up real copy to go along with it and skip the fake text. Not content with simply banishing “lorem ipsum” I attempted to make the content as real as I could.
There are several advantages to this including:
So, when I say “real text” what do I mean?
Ok, now go forth and change the world by bringing it a touch of reality.
I highly recommend working on your next project like your being filmed for training. Better yet… actually record what you are doing and try sharing it. You’ll learn a TON and you’ll focus on fit and finish in ways you never thought about before.
Working on the OneDayApp series has dramatically improved the quality of what I’m doing with my next application. There are all sorts of corners I would be cutting, steps I’d be skipping, and personal education I’d miss out on in the final product if I wasn’t building it partially to teach people.
It can be valuable at any stage. If you record your code you’ll find yourself caring about things like variable names in new ways. Once you have something to demo you’ll see all sorts of rough edges that you’d never see if you just used it. There’s simply nothing that beats actually “going to the tape” to get a glimpse of what other people see.
Over the weekend I released a “lite” version of GoodDay. My price experiment over the holidays showed me that the difference between free and 0.99 is an amazing barrier. So, if someone was holding out for another price drop… you can get the free version now. It’s ad supported.
The paid version will continue to progress with new features starting at the paid level first. There are also no ads in the paid version of GoodDay. Other than the ads the only difference today is the ability to sort your goals. This debuted on the paid version and will remain a paid feature for a while.
Thanks for all the support so far!
Create a simple signup page to attract customers leading up to launch.