The Art Of The Start G Kawasaki LA2M

THE ART OF THE STARTGUY KAWASAKI

(AND MARKETING ENTREPRENEURSHIP)

Charlie Hammerslough

Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing (LA2M)

February 3, 2010

So, who is Guy Kawasaki?

Americanb. 1954

Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist

Author, Blogger, Computer Marketing Pioneer, etc

Pioneered Product Evangelismfor High-Tech Products

On the original marketing team at Apple for MacIntosh (1983-87)Created passionate user-advocates

Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist

•Garage.com(Garage Technology Ventures)•Alltop•Slideshare•Posterous•Tripwire•Visible Measures•ACIUS•Fog City Software•Truemors•Jajah

Author and Prominent Blogger

The Art of The Start (2004): Core Premises Entrepreneurship is a State of Mind

Next great new company in a garageWithin companies bringing new ideas to lifeStarting schools, churches, not-for-profits

A Totally Practical GuideLong on practical advice, little theory

Entrepreneurship should be an elegant, artful undertaking

This “Review”

Concentrating on the “Start of the Start” Highlight some useful suggestions A couple of opportunities I see for new

marketing ventures

Why Do It At All?

It’s hard. Financially: uncertainty. Emotionally: facing rejection,

responsible for others’ jobs. Professionally: the work can be endless.

According to GK, there’s really only one answer, which it took him 20 years to find.

To “Make Meaning”

Not money, power, prestige, or even to have fun.

For instance:Make the world a better placeImprove quality of lifeRight a terrible wrongPrevent the end of something good

“If my organization never existed, the world would be worse because _____.”

But HOW to start? Observe the world: what need improving? Think BIG Find a couple of “soulmates” for the journey Design different Use Prototypes as market research AND, how are you going to make money?

(business model) Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions,

Tasks)

DemoMetrics:“But What Do You Do?” Original answer:

“We use proven embedded real-time marketing

predictive analytics in the call-center space to improve upsell

and cross-sell from inbound call marketing opportunities. Our SaaS methodology continuously learns from agent-caller interactions to improve underlying models to make automated coaching suggestions to the agent about the best product to offer and the best verbal sales strategy to use …”

Now, we just say:“To make calling customer service less annoying.”

Some Useful Suggestions on Bootstrapping

Manage to Cash Flow, not ProfitabilityShort sales cycle, piggy-back Recurring revenueFills an obvious need, “auto-persuasive”Product markets itselfRiding mega-trend

Bottom-Up ForecastingWhat kind of revenue can we expect?

“Ship, Then Test” (careful) Consider starting as a service business Understaff and Outsource Invest in the Big Stuff

Some Useful Suggestions on Partnering

Do it for “spreadsheet” reasonsTo improve cash flow/revenue or reduce costsNot the wrong reasons (prestige, etc.)

Buy-In at the Middles and BottomsSingle, dedicated resource in each partner

Cut win-win deals that build on strengths, not cover weaknesses

Work with “enabling” lawyers, not “preventers”

Some Possible Opportunities(In Marketing Ventures)

Cross-Fertilization: Taking an idea from one area to anotherFor instance, applying ideas from cultural

anthropology to market researchOr MarCom principles to social media

Find niches where no “best practices” yet existSocial media wave yet to crestHow to measure, monetize, integrate

w/other marketing?

Some Possible Opportunities(In Marketing Ventures)

“Envelope” MarketingDeliver traditional offers inside non-traditional

wrappers Adapt and simplify big-company practices

for small- to mid-size companies Social entrepreneurship

For example, raising charity funds through Twitter

Peer-to-peer transactional models, micro-finance (kiva.org)

Crowdsourcing, crowdcasting

Some Possible Opportunities(In Marketing Ventures)

Newsletters to make sense of it allAggregate, simplify and create value

Location-based geomarketing Find niches in the “Long Tail”

Find markets by selling more of obscure items (Anderson, 2006)

Virtual communities and social networks reach the long tail of consumers

Applied behavioral economics

YOUR TURN

Thanks.

Charles.Hammerslough@demometrics.comwww.linkedin.com/in/chammerslough