Some Lessons, etc

Duncan Lambduncan@duncanlamb.com

A couple of things

• Some random (business) wisdom I’d like to share that I’ve learned the hard way

• The best time to start a business is absolutely, positively, now

Career

• The steps of a career:

Stage 1 – What you know

Stage 2 – Who you know

Stage 3 – Who knows you

Your Network is your Net Worth

Get in a new network in 6 monthsShow upAsk QuestionsVolunteerContribute

Your world is a small pond

• Money comes and goes, get used to it in this line of work

• Relationships are what the world, and your future, is based on

What is the number one factor in a business’s success?

The experience of the CEO/Founder/etc

Catch-22 – how to get it?

• EXPECT Failure – Remember Mark Cuban• Just please don’t repeat the same mistake

twice

Keep taking shots. You may always suck as a shooter, but you’ll make more baskets than the next guy.

Learn Business Fundamentals

• Build in a freakin profit• Stop thinking tech – think emotional impact.

Think how you’ll change people’s habits to their liking. Think how they’ll keep more money. Think MEANING.

• Learn how to bootstrap

• Learn how to monetize• Learn some business models that always work• You date ideas, you never marry them

Have an exit strategy

• Learn how to sell – nothing happens until someone makes a sale – sales solves all

• TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEAS – seriously, they are cheaper than you think

• Nobody wants to steal them. Well, nobody that matters.

There has never, ever, in the history of mankind, been a better time to start a

major business

Why?

• More connected world• More disposable income– And cheaper stuff! = more disposable income….

• Easier ways to monetize

Outrageously Rapid Development times

• More APIs every day• REST standards• Programming methods – Cake, RoR• “The Cloud” – cheap, free? Incredibly

sophisticated, and moreso every day.

Brainstorm

• Borrow ideas – use them in other contexts• Abstract out a narrow idea• Go ahead, be insanely niche – more money than

ever• Mobile?• Facebook?• Destroy an industry – and be prepared to be

destroyed• Add value