

Obama's rise: A fantastic case-study for new startups. - ideas101

I think new startup can learn a lot from Obama's rise, he was virtually a non-entity and no one could have believed he would oust Hillary Clinton. Defeating Hillary Clinton means defeating Bill Clinton, the heavy weight lobbyist, the money power, the experienced power-broker all together in one shot.<p>By winning the democratic nomination, Obama has proved that:<p>1. Where there is a will there is a way : Founders of new startup has to be determined and just start without afraid of anything.<p>2. Slow and steady wins the race: Keep improving your product/service on regular basis.<p>3. Technology is the key : see how you can use technology to bring the change that you're planning.<p>4. Newbie can take over giant: the new startup shouldn't worry about the giants. The will power and confidence will certainly keep you going.<p>5. Find the real problem and try to solve that: Founders should create product/service that solves the problem and concentrate on that by engaging to be customers.<p>6. Finally, its all about "team": Build the best of the best team, at the end of the day it is all about how good is your team and your team work.<p>There could be many more lessons that can be learn and YC readers can share it here...
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maxklein
The real reason for the Obama win is that he leveraged a small competition
(Iowa) and seeded and worked hard on an initial user group (his initial
supporters, equivalent to a beta group of a product), and with that, he
created an explosive first splash, which got all the media talking about him
(equivalent to your killa product getting splashed accross techcrunch, wired,
etc).

And after that, he followed up and built a huge social network around the
brand. He concentrated on brand loyalty, creating a unique and quirky brand
that made his users feel cool, and making sure the donation (payment) method
was very simple to use.

And he used newletters very effectively. What Obama did was a perfect example
of a seamless product launch and perfect sales and post sales service.

The key was his core group of motivated users and his excellent organisation
of them,

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misterbwong
"and his excellent organisation of them"

I think people often underestimate his leadership skills. Campaigns are
historically pretty messy affairs. His campaign organization was extremely
well run-probably one of the cleanest and most efficient in recent history.

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aneesh
7\. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. Obama was an amazing orator, and a great
salesperson for himself. Find someone who can be just as convincing
marketing/selling/evangelizing your product.

8\. Love your customers. Obama got millions of people to give him money and he
wasn't even giving them a product! The Obama campaign kept in touch with
supporters by email, made them feel important and empowered. That's what
matters at the end of the day.

9\. Respect your competitors, but be intimidated. One thing that Obama never
did was disrespect Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he was always confident
and never was intimidated by Hillary's name and brand.

~~~
aneesh
meant to say "9 ... DON'T be intimidated ..."

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danblaker
12\. Stay calm. There will be drama and hardships along the way. If you react
to every one of them or question your core values, you won't succeed.

13\. Take a break to do other things. Obama plays basketball a few times a
week. He took a weeklong vacation in the middle of the primary campaign. You
need to take time away from your project--you'll be amazed what a little
perspective gets you.

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elad
Agreed. Here's another thoughtful post on the subject:
[http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/06/the_rise_of_a...](http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/06/the_rise_of_asymmetrical_compe.html)

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JimEngland
10\. Involve your customers in your product, and provide easy ways for them to
provide feedback. The Obama campaign assumed that campaign donors would want
to get involved and gave them tools to do so (such as the phone lists).

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ericb
11\. Find your key differentiator and trumpet it (change). If your competitors
cannot copy your differentiator effectively because of their entrenched
positions, even better.

