

50 Ways To Love Your Startup - brmancinelli
http://50waystoloveyourstartup.blogspot.com/ 

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brmancinelli
So, what's the big idea?

When I was growing up that question usually came from someone that wasn't very
happy with me or something I had done or said. I am sure we have all heard
that before in our lives. In the business world of startups, however, that is
the first question investors and interested parties will ask about your
startup. It short asked differently, it means what's new and different about
your startup idea. In order to first gain and then keep someone's attention
you have got to have a good answer to the question, "What's the big idea?"

First and foremost, what’s the big idea behind the startup? While bigger,
better, faster, and even cheaper works for new products and services, it is
hard to make that the big idea behind a new company. Bigger, better, faster
implies an improvement on something that already exists, and there are often
solutions already in the market that have history and a track record.
Penetrating a competitive landscape might be too difficult or too expensive
when promoting something that only “improves” on something that already
exists. A big idea is something new and different that radically changes the
way something is done or is delivered.

We hear a lot today about disruptive technology, a device or process that
leads to a more productive and efficient way of doing things. It radically
changes how things are done. Disruptive technology and innovation are terms
used to describe innovations that improve a product or a service in ways the
market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a
different set of consumers. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified
into low-end and new-market categories. A new-market innovation is often aimed
at non-consumption, which is targeted to consumers who would not have used the
products or services already on the market. Lower-end disruptive innovation is
aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality.

Disruptive technologies are particularly threatening to leaders of an existing
market because they bring competition from an unexpected direction. A
disruptive technology can come to dominate an existing market by filling a
role in a new market that older technology could not fill. Consider the
effects of cheaper, lower capacity but smaller flash memory on personal data
storage, as we have experienced in the 2000s. Dominance can also come from
successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally
displacing the market incumbents, just as digital photography has done to the
film photography market. Do we even remember what is meant by a Polaroid
picture? The photograph materialized right before your eyes. It was real magic
then, but it’s long forgotten and abandoned. The photo was not the greatest
quality but you got back your picture almost immediately, one photo shot after
another. Today a photo appears immediately on a digital camera screen. It’s a
great quality photo that can be shared with anyone and it comes without the
wait. That’s the real magic today.

There are dramatic examples of disruptive innovation in history. Firearms
replaced crossbows, steamships replaced sailing ships, telephones replaced
telegraphy, paper replaced parchment, planes, trucks, and cars replaced rail
transport, and plastic replaced metal, wood and glass in many products or
parts. These were all disruptive innovations.

Consider the number of disruptive innovations just in our lifetimes. They have
come faster and faster and caught many established companies completely off
guard.

Consider the following…

Disruptive Innovation Displaced Technology \- Mini steel mills Vertically
integrated steel mills \- Minicomputers Mainframes \- Personal computers
Minicomputers, Word processors \- Desktop publishing Traditional publishing \-
High speed CMOS video Photographic film \- Downloadable media CD’s, DVD’s \-
Mobile VoIP GSM and roaming \- LCD CRT \- Word processor Typewriter \-
Computer printers Offset printing \- Television/VCR's Movie theaters \-
Missile weapons Artillery \- Light emitting diodes Light bulbs…

…and so on, the list keeps growing.

Disruptive innovation has played a big part in the success of startups that
pioneered and ultimately captured huge market shares in the fields listed
above. Each was right for market entry at the time it was introduced and each
was largely ignored by the contemporary market leaders in that segment.
Disruptive technology can be the heart of a big idea, but the timing of the
technology must also be on target.

So does anyone out there have a "big idea" they are willing to share. There is
probably a startup right behind it waiting to be loved.

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brmancinelli
Some more thoughts on “Big Ideas.”

The big idea behind a startup has to be something that you and others can be
quickly excited about. The acceptance and understanding of new ideas are not
always cerebral or analytical. Behind almost every new big idea, however,is
excitement and emotion. It needs to be about changing the way things are or
will be in the future. It is about getting people so excited about what the
product or service does that they join you and your band of excited promoters.
Promoting a new and different way to do something has to stir others and cause
them to want to know more and try it out. People need to understand the big
idea very quickly. Remember: big ideas can come from solutions that are simple
and easy to grasp. The paper clip and sticky note pads were pretty simple
ideas that helped change the way businesses and consumers operated. There are
millions of such examples behind successful businesses and product ideas.

Consider the little idea born on the campus of Harvard University to put the
photos of incoming students, which were printed in booklets to help students
get to know one another, online, making the booklet interactive. Kind of like
a “face book.” That simple idea, conceived by Mark Zuckerberg, his Harvard
roommates, and some fellow computer science students has grown from its simple
use on a college campus to over five hundred million (and counting) registered
Facebook users. It has become a way to communicate anytime, anywhere, with
virtually anyone. For many users today it is their only way to communicate.
Facebook has become part of everyday business and personal life. That’s a big
idea.

Big ideas do not have to be complicated. In fact quite often just the opposite
is true. This does not mean that more complicated solutions borne in labs or
scientific clinical trials cannot be a big idea. There are examples of those
kinds of big ideas in cell phones, personal computers and handheld devices,
the Internet, erectile dysfunction medicines and so on. Take the Internet
alone as an example. How it all works is not all that well understood by the
majority of those who use it. But only a few years ago, the big idea of
electronic mail (e-mail) and the benefit of instantaneous communications and
the exchange of written communications at no cost made the Internet a
household word to everyone. So improvements on how we use things or get things
done can also grow into big ideas.

Again I ask the question, “What’s the big idea behind the company?” If there
isn’t a good answer then maybe the idea isn’t big enough, which might indicate
that the business won’t be the great success you want it to be. This does not
mean that your company idea isn’t a good one or won’t lead to a successful
company. But without that special big idea, your company may not become that
huge success that many would-be entrepreneurs believe is in the DNA of every
clever idea or startup.

When we look back on entrepreneurs in history we can see one of the major
shifts at the heart of big idea trends. Years ago entrepreneurs came largely
out of the scientific world, and their big ideas were borne through their
inventions. They invented things that never existed before. They invented the
light bulb, radio, telephone, phonograph, airplane, plow, transistor, sewing
machine, firearms, and dynamite. Then there was a wave of inventions and
innovations that introduced new processes in manufacturing and production.

When we recognize successful entrepreneurs today, there is an even bigger
group that comes from innovation more than invention. Our service-oriented,
information-rich, Internet connected, wireless society has provided a
different breed of entrepreneurs. Today many individuals could not survive
without eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter unheard of a few years ago.

Today in the iPhone world we live in there seems to be an “app” for
everything, until you run across a new one and you ask yourself; “Why didn’t I
think of that?” or worse yet, “Why didn’t I act when I had that idea?”

Today the impact of innovation comes quicker and the means to take a big
innovative idea to market are easier than ever before because of the
technology and tools entrepreneurs have created for new entrepreneurs to use.

Big ideas can become big successes even faster than it has previously taken.
So take that big idea and run with it.

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brmancinelli
In my book 50 Ways to Love Your Startup, I make mention that birthing a
company from an idea and raising it up, is much like having a child. Your days
are no longer yours alone. There are scarey times during the raising up years.
There are demands on time; in fact, there is never enough time. You are asked
to do things you have never done or have little experience in. There is a
constant need to monitor and watch the development as the needs and the
support required change over time. And whether you have only raised one child
or several, as a serial entrepreneur or serial parent, each is uniquely
different one child to the next, one startup to the next. But we entrepreneurs
and dads know there is no greater joy than to see that child (startup) grow up
and be all that you had ever dreamed or wanted and to enjoy the fruits of the
countless love that went into the raising of the child. That special day is
today. Happy Father's Day.

