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I was asked last week to speak in a class at MIT on entrepreneurship. Rather than a self congratulatory parade through past products and companies that I’m most proud of, I gave the talk that I wished someone had given when I was a student 20 years ago at HBS taking a course on entrepreneurship. In that course I remember meeting Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin who came in to give us his simple self-aggrandizing recipe for success (passion + persistence, bla bla bla). It’s humble to talk about your mistakes, but hopefully more useful. And slightly cathartic…
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20 years 20 important mistakesI’ve made as an entrepreneur
David [email protected]@vitality.net
A presentation to the MIT Media Lab Ventures Class, 2/18/10
Don’t sell the right bike,Sell the bikes in the basement
You ≠ your company Commitment is critical. Obsession may be regrettable.
Enchanted ObjectsMindstorms
Select your customers carefully Museums, educational publishers, and toy companies have little spending power.
Ignore 90% of potential opportunities Prioritize low-hanging fruit that ripen quickly
Babson
Don’t confuse a clear view with a short distance Vision is easy, market timing is the challenge
Starve together. Feast together.
Listen to early customersDon’t be afraid to throw out the bplan
How can the web help people tell stories with pictures, and co-create photo albums?
– Create Construct Pholios based around a life event,
wedding, birthday party, trip to Europe or just a collection of
pictures of old school friends
– Personalize Follow an easy-to-use process to build well-
designed personal, customized area to share stories
– Communicate Stay in touch with family and friends
– Collaborate Add captions, thought balloons and sound
effects
– Protect Password-protect or make public
– Organize and Archive Sort, categorize and preserve
Don’t just work on the productYour job is to make 4 bridges meet
Product Customers
Team
Investors
Site X-ray: visualizing online traffic patterns on ecommerce sites
What if connectivity and computation could be baked into any object?
We envision that the architectural spaces we inhabit will become an interface between humans and online digital information. We have been designing ambient information displays to explore the use of kinetic physical objects to present information at the periphery of human perception.
Press and sales may be inversely proportional Novelty generates headlines. Incrementalism makes an easy buying decision.
Fishing
Fishing
Fishing
Ambient Devices CONFIDENTIAL
eBay
Auctions
Frequent
Flyer Miles
Team
Standings
Ambient Channel Line-Up Preview - Spring 2004
Weather
Forecast
Ski
Surf
Sailing
Air Quality
Pollen
Forecast
Golf
Game
Score
Web Traffic
Online
Transactions
Election
Polls
NewsFutures Homeland
Security
Wedding
Registry
Sales
Trends
Customer
satisfaction
Inventory
Levels
Profit
Margins
Employee
Utilization
Competition
Waiting
IM Buddy
Status
Mobile plan
minutes
Meeting
Countdown
Traffic
Congestion
Messaging EnterpriseTravel Outdoors Sports News Other Shopping
Game
Countdown
Betting
Odds
Developer*
DOW
FTSE
NASDAQ
My Portfolio
Bank
Balance
Credit Card
Balance
Net Worth
Finance
Opinion
Polls
Blogshares
Commute
Time
A single pixel browser is only interesting at MIT You can own one idea in people’s minds
Ambient Umbrella
Compensation isn’t about the money,Pay your best people more than you
ambient
Beware of group-think If everyone on your team likes it, expand the circle.
ambient
Ambient Dashboard
ambient
Smart-swappable faces. Insertion instantly reprograms the device.
ambientWeather Wizard
Startups shouldn’t partner with startups
Energy Joule
Startups shouldn’t partner with startups
5-Day Forecaster
ambient
LG Refrigerator
Exclusivity is a type of currency It can beget larger orders, marketing support, ...
ambient
Ambient Bus Pole
Temper your entrepreneurial optimismarticulating risks garners credibility
Your board is not your strategy teamExceeding expectations may shorten your lifespan
CEO 1.0 cannot co-exist with CEO 2.0
V I T A L I T YVITALITY INC. ©2005 PATENTS PENDING
V I T A L I T Y
Flower Power
Persona: Jill, age 34
Lifestyle: Working mother, travels often for work
Motivators: Fashion, style, convenience
Condition: Depression
Prescribed: Cymbalta (Lilly)
For Jill the Flower Pillbox lets her
manage her depression with security
and ease. The stylish circular case
holds a week’s worth of pills. She
puts the Flower night-light discretely
in her bathroom. Each filled pedal
represents a compliant day of the
week. It provides Jill and her
husband peace of mind each day
that she is taking important steps to
improve her condition.
Don’t design the right product for the customer
V I T A L I T YVITALITY INC. ©2005 PATENTS PENDING
V I T A L I T Y
Match Book
Persona: Mel, age 72
Lifestyle: Sedentary, retired Construction Manager,
Motivators: Coupons and Rebates
Condition: Hypercholesterolemia, Hypertension
Prescribed: Lipitor® (Pfizer), Toprol-XL® (AstraZeneca)
Nowadays Mel is managing heart
disease, not ironworkers. At the last
office visit his physician gave him a
handsome new smart pillbox to manage
his once a day Statin and
Antihypertensive pills in a consistent,
convenient way. Each Sunday morning
Mel loads it up…at the end of each
month he receives coupons for being
compliant. He values the coupons
because they offset his out of pocket
cost. He has already saved $15 since
starting on the program. He knows that
if he keeps his medication compliance
over 75% for 6 months, he will receive a
reward bonus for $20 in the mail.
Don’t design the right product for the customer
instead, design the right product for the channel
Now data streams in daily. We know exactly which people are taking their medication when. Here each box is one day. Rows are people, columns are days. Shades of green show when medication was taken relative to dose times. Glyphs represent reminder calls. Pink indicates a missed dose. These results far exceed our expectation.
6 months of GlowCaps data shows over 95% adherence.
Invert the sequencedevelop final product > get paid by a customer > promote > launch
Attribution is a currencyPrivate label deals often reduce risk and accelerate adoption
Simplify until is hurtsTry to fall out of love quickly with your favorite ideas
43
Oscillation between poles is healthy
Design
Critique
Learn
Fund
MentorTeach
Fund Raise
Mentored
Don’t tell your girlfriend, spouse, family, friends that you’re on the verge of a deal....until the funds are wired into your account
Connected Syringes
• Looks like a high-tech sunglasses case• Insulated case slides open to expose syringes• Glows, vibrates, and plays ring tones to subtly
get your attention• Wireless connection to pharmacy and caregivers• Distributed by specialty pharmacy as part of
adherence programs
Don’t stop sketchingSketching doesn’t defocus your engineering team
Salt Sentinel
• Dispenses salt and grinds pepper• 360 degree camera uploads images
to offshore nutritionist for realtime analysis
• Mini-projector displays information adjacent to each item: calories against a budget, ecological footprint, transportation modality.
• Press the “i” for more information.
Spirometer Kazoo
• Makes spirometry fun using sound and projection
• Spirograph projection shows visual feedback to anticipate an asthma attack
• Wireless connection to the web permits realtime data analysis and graphing on smart phone.
20 years 20 important mistakes
David [email protected]@vitality.net