Diez Mandamientos para los Emprendedores de Kawasaki
1. Ofrezca sentido, y no dinero. “Como capitalistas de riesgo”, dijo Kawasaki, “lidiamos con muchas empresas que, por norma, nos dicen aquello que creen que nos gustaría oír: cómo ganar dinero. Según mi experiencia, la mayor parte de las empresas fundadas sobre el concepto de ganar dinero suelen fallar. Atraen el tipo equivocado de socio y de empleado”. En lugar de eso, dice, el emprendedor debe preocuparse por hacer que su producto o servicio signifique algo más que la suma de sus componentes, y del dinero que podrá ganar. Kawasaki llamó la atención sobre las zapatillas aeróbicas de Nike dirigidas al público femenino, y cómo la empresa hizo de ellas algo más que sólo “dos piezas de algodón, cuero y goma producidas en condiciones relativamente sospechosas en Extremo Oriente”. Con una publicidad inteligente en que mostraba cómo las mujeres siempre han sido juzgadas y evaluadas, Nike “cogió un conjunto de materias primas de 2,50 dólares y lo transformó en símbolo de eficiencia, poder y liberación. La empresa produce sentido por medio de zapatos. Las grandes empresas son generadoras de sentido”. No hay duda de que Apple hizo eso con el Mac, con el iPhone y otros aparatos.
2. Trabaje con un mantra, y no con una misión. Declaraciones insípidas y genéricas sobre la misión de la empresa —“ofrecer productos y servicios de calidad superior para nuestros clientes y para la comunidad por medio de liderazgo innovador y asociaciones”— son buenas sólo para el consultor contratado para desarrollarlas, dijo Kawasaki. En vez de eso, opte por la concisión y defínase a sí mismo por lo que usted quiere significar para el cliente. Nike ofrece un “desempeño atlético auténtico”; FedEx promete “paz de espíritu”. Para que todos, dentro y fuera de la empresa, estén unidos en torno al mismo propósito, explíqueles la razón de ser de la empresa y de qué manera ella atiende a las necesidades y deseos de los clientes.
3. Sáltese las curvas. Innovar es más difícil que simplemente estar un poco por delante de la competencia en la misma curva. “Si su empresa fabrica impresoras de margarita, el próximo paso no es la introducción del tipo Helvética en un tamaño de fuente diferente. Su objetivo debe ser ‘saltar’ hacia la producción de impresoras láser”, dijo Kawasaki. Eso es más fácil de hacer en algunas empresas que en otras. El empresario dijo que en los tiempos anteriores a la refrigeración, la industria del hielo estaba formada por gente que cogía hielo en las regiones de clima frío usando caballos, trineos y sierras para ‘cosechar’ el hielo durante los meses de invierno. En 1900, un total de 4.536 toneladas de hielo se produjeron de ese modo. Después vino la era del ‘Hielo 2.0’: surgieron fábricas que producían hielo en cualquier lugar. El ‘hombre del hielo’ entregaba el producto en establecimientos comerciales y en las casas. Por fin, llegamos a la era del ‘Hielo 3.0’: la nevera casera.
Está claro que ninguna de aquellas personas que cosechaban hielo se metió en el negocio de la producción en fábricas, lo mismo que ninguna de las fábricas se introdujo en la industria de neveras. Esto se explica por el hecho de que “la mayor parte de las empresas se define por aquello que hace”, dijo Kawasaki, “y no por el ‘beneficio que genera para el cliente’. La verdadera innovación aparece siempre que nos saltamos las curvas, y no cuando nos esforzamos por mejorar un 10% o un 15%”.
4. Trabaje con diseños exclusivos. Introduzca características que no se queden en lo trivial. Kawasaki citó una de las ideas que considera más innovadoras: las sandalias Fanning Reef, que traen un abridor de botellas incorporado a la suela. Hay diseños igualmente inteligentes, como el de la linterna BF-104 de Panasonic, que puede usar pilas de tres tamaños diferentes. De ese modo, las personas no tendrán dificultad en escoger una pila entre los diferentes tamaños que suelen tener en casa. Hay diseños que son completos, porque no se limitan solo al producto: ofrecen también soporte y servicio. La elegancia también es fundamental, dice Kawasaki. “Toda empresa debería tener un CTO: Chief Taste Officer, o director de gusto’”, dijo. Tampoco puede faltar la emoción. “Buenos productos producen emociones fuertes: piense en la Harley Davidson, el Macintosh”.
5. No se preocupe en crear un producto perfecto. Esto no significa hacer un producto malo, sino que “la innovación puede contener elementos no muy buenos”, dijo Kawasaki. Twitter tiene un montón de fallos, pero está cambiando el hábito de las personas. El primer Mac tenía muchas cosas que había que mejorar, pero estableció cómo sería el futuro de la computación personal, y no necesitó esperar mucho por eso.
6. Polarice a las personas. Siempre que usted intente serlo todo para todo tipo de personas acaba cayendo en la mediocridad, dijo Kawasaki. El Scion xB de Toyota, con su estilo “cuadrado”, puede parecer feo para algunas personas, pero para los fans es sensacional. El TiVo tiene éxito, a pesar de volver loca de rabia a la industria de la publicidad.
7. No impida que broten las flores. Parafraseando a Mao, Kawasaki dijo que no sabemos dónde va a surgir una flor, así que simplemente debemos permitir que brote. Las innovaciones pueden atraer a clientes inesperados e imprevistos. Fue lo que sucedió con la crema para la piel “Skin-so-Soft” de Avon, que acabó siendo un éxito como repelente de mosquitos. La regla número 1, dijo Kawasaki, consiste en “conseguir el dinero. Regla número 2: descubrir quien está comprando su producto. Pregunte a esas personas por qué lo están comprando y déles otras razones para comprarlo. Eso es mucho más fácil que preguntar a las personas por qué no están interesadas y, a continuación, intentar cambiar su manera de pensar”.
8. Renuévese, renuévese siempre. Nunca deje de mejorar su producto o servicio. Oiga las ideas de los consumidores. No es fácil, dice Kawasaki, porque el innovador o el emprendedor siempre deben ignorar el consejo de los negativos y de los necios, para quien casi todo es imposible. Una vez hecho esto, cuando el producto llega a las manos del consumidor, ha llegado el momento de comenzar a recibir feedback.
9. Escoja su nicho. Encuentre su lugar, insistió Kawasaki. A continuación, presentó un gráfico simple de coordenadas X y Y con los cuatro cuadrantes donde se veían las variables “Exclusividad” y “Valor”. Un producto o servicio no necesita ser exclusivo para generar valor. Así fue, dijo, cómo Dell obtuvo cuota de mercado vendiendo ordenadores. En el cuadrante izquierdo inferior del gráfico Kawasaki colocó varias puntocom surgidas a finales de los años 90 sin nada de especial unas en relación con las otras. Eran empresas de bajo valor y sin inspiración. Ya en el cuadrante superior derecho estaban los productos y servicios exclusivos y de alto valor. Allí estaban la empresa online de servicios de entradas de cine Fandango y la compañía de tarjetas Clear, que puede agilizar el paso de los usuarios por la seguridad de los aeropuertos. “La parte superior derecha es la parte más codiciada del mercado”, dijo. “Allí hay producción de sentido. También es allí donde se gana dinero, se hace historia”.
10. Siga la regla del 10-20-30 siempre que esté intentando convencer a un capitalista de riesgo. En otras palabras, no use más de 10 diapositivas de PowerPoint, restrinja su discurso a 20 minutos y utilice una fuente de tamaño 30 en su presentación (para mantenerla simple). El objetivo de ese tipo de presentación no es volver a casa con un cheque en la mano, dijo, sino evitar “ser descartado”.
Ten Commandments from Entrepreneurial 'Evangelist' Guy Kawasaki
Published : June 10, 2009 in Knowledge@Wharton
When Guy Kawasaki talks about business innovation, as he did recently at a University of Pennsylvania technology conference, he brings more than 25 years of major-league experience to the conversation -- a background that the good-humored investor and entrepreneur calls "my checkered past." After getting a psychology degree at Stanford and an MBA at UCLA, the Hawaii-born Kawasaki became the second software "evangelist" at Apple Computer, where his job from 1983 to 1987 was to convince people to create software for the Macintosh. Kawasaki fondly recalls his colleagues at Apple as visionary, driven and "arguably the greatest collection of egomaniacs in the history of California -- though the record has subsequently been broken by Google."
After leaving Apple, Kawasaki started his own companies in addition to becoming an author, consultant and venture capitalist. His books include The Macintosh Way, Rules for Revolutionaries, Selling the Dream and, most recently, Reality Check. Now 54, Kawasaki listens to pitches from start-ups regularly at his venture capital firm, Garage Technology Ventures. Its portfolio includes technologies ranging from logistics outsourcing to renewable energy, though he admits the firm hasn't yet had its breakout hit -- its own Apple or Google. In 2008, Kawasaki launched Alltop, a free Web site that uses RSS feeds to aggregate, by topic, the latest stories from thousands of web sites and blogs. His blog, "How to Change the World," is among the most visited business strategy sites.
At Penn, he spoke at a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Executive Master's in Technology Management (EMTM) program, offered by Penn Engineering and co-sponsored by Wharton. His talk, titled "The Art of Innovation," amounted to a 10-point manifesto on how to make something of value for customers. Along the way, he invoked funny and revealing examples that included everything from obsolete ice-delivery men to beach sandals that open beer bottles.
The following is a summary of Kawasaki's "Ten Commandments":
1. Make meaning, not money. "As venture capitalists," Kawasaki said, "we deal with many companies, and often they come in [saying what] they think we want to hear: that they want to make money. It's been my observation that most companies founded on this concept of making money pretty much fail. They attract the wrong kind of co-founders and early employees." Rather, he says, entrepreneurs should focus on making their product or service mean something beyond the sum of its components -- and the money may very well follow. He noted how Nike made its aerobic sneakers for women into more than just "two pieces of cotton, leather and rubber, manufactured under somewhat suspect conditions in the Far East." With smart advertising about how women traditionally have been measured and judged, Nike "turned $2.50 of raw materials into something that stands for efficacy and power and liberation. They are making meaning with shoes. Great companies make meaning." Certainly, Apple has done that with the Mac, iPhone and other devices.
2. Make a mantra, not a mission statement. Bland, generic company mission statements -- about "delivering superior-quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership innovation and partnerships" -- serve no one but the consultant brought in to develop them, Kawasaki said. Instead, keep it short and define yourself by what you want to mean to consumers. Nike stands for "authentic athletic performance." FedEx is about "peace of mind." To get everyone internally and externally on the same page, explain why your organization exists and how it meets customers' needs and desires.
3. Jump curves. Innovating is harder than just staying a little bit ahead of competitors on the same curve. "If you're a daisy-wheel printer company, the goal is not to introduce Helvetica in another point size. The goal is to jump to laser printer," he said. That's easier in some businesses than others. Kawasaki noted how in the days before refrigeration, the ice industry consisted of ice harvesters in cold climates using horses, sleighs and saws to collect ice outdoors during winter months. Ten million pounds of ice were shipped in 1900 that way, he said. Then came "Ice 2.0" -- factories that could freeze ice anywhere and an ice man who would deliver it to establishments and homes. Finally came "Ice 3.0": home refrigerators.
Of course, none of the ice harvesters got into the ice factory business, and none of the factories got into the refrigerator business. That's because "most organizations define themselves in terms of what they do," he said, "instead of thinking 'what benefit do we provide the customer?' True innovation comes when you jump curves, not when you duke it out for 10% or 15% better."
4. In product design, "roll the DICEE." That's an acronym. "D" is for deep, which to Kawasaki means thinking about features that go beyond the norm. One of his favorite "deep" ideas: Fanning Reef sandals, which have a bottle opener built into the sole. "I" is for intelligence, as seen in the design of Panasonic's BF-104 flashlight, which uses batteries of three different sizes to accommodate the random mix of extra batteries many people have around the house. "C" is for complete -- or being not just a product, but including support and service. The first "E" is for elegance: Beauty matters, according to Kawasaki. "Companies should have CTOs -- chief taste officers," he said. The second "E" is for emotive. "Great products generate strong emotions: Think Harley Davidson, Macintosh."
5. Don't worry, be "crappy." This doesn't mean ship a bad product, but "your innovation can have elements of crappiness to it," Kawasaki said. Twitter has a litany of flaws, but it is changing people's habits. The first Mac had plenty of room for improvement, but it made a statement about the future of personal computing, and it did not need to wait.
6. Polarize people. Try to be all things to all people and you often ship mediocrity, Kawasaki said. The boxy Toyota Scion xB looks ugly to some people but very cool to its devotees. TiVo became popular while maddening the advertising industry.
7. Let 100 flowers blossom. Borrowing from Chairman Mao, Kawasaki said you never know where the flowers will emerge, so let them grow. Innovations may attract unexpected and unintended customers. Think of Avon Products' Skin-so-Soft cream, which became popular as a mosquito repellent. Rule one, he said, is "take the money. Rule two: Learn who's buying your product, ask them why and give them more reasons. That's a lot easier than asking people who aren't interested 'why not,' and trying to change their minds."
8. Churn, baby, churn. Always improve. Listen to customers for ideas. That's difficult, Kawasaki said, because an innovator or entrepreneur must often ignore the advice of naysayers and "bozos" who say it can't be done. Once it is done, and the product reaches the hands of customers, it's time to start listening to their feedback. "Once you ship, then you flip," Kawasaki said.
9. Niche yourself. Find your place, Kawasaki urged. He showed a simple X-Y graph, with the usual four quadrants mapping the variables "Uniqueness" and "Value." A product or service does not need to be unique if it delivers value. That, he said, is how Dell won market share selling computers. In the lower left quadrant of his X-Y graph he placed many of the me-too dot.com companies of the late 1990s that were low value and uninspired. But in the upper-right quadrant were high value, unique products and services. They included the online movie-ticketing service Fandango and the Clear card that can speed passage through airport security. "The upper-right-hand corner is the holy grail of marketing," he said. "It's where meaning is made, it's where money is made, it's where history is made."
10. Follow the 10-20-30 rule when pitching to venture capitalists. That means no more than 10 PowerPoint slides, a limit of 20 minutes for the pitch, and using a 30-point font size in the presentation (to keep it simple). The goal of such pitches isn't to walk home with a check, he said, it's to "not be eliminated" from consideration.
Kawasaki added one bonus point for innovators -- and a mea culpa. "Don't let the bozos get you down," he said, trotting out some well-worn statements from technology naysayers, such as IBM chairman Thomas Watson's assertion in 1943 that the total worldwide market for computers was "maybe five" (computer historians question the authenticity of the unsubstantiated quote), and Western Union's inability to see a use for the telephone. These companies were trapped by thinking about what they already did, rather than what could be done next. Ignore them, Kawasaki said. Nevertheless, he admitted he was a "bozo" himself once. In the mid-1990s, he was offered a chance to interview for the CEO position at Yahoo. He declined. He saw the web as just another thing to do with a computer modem, and a web index as having limited value. "By my calculation, this decision cost me $2 billion."
INNOVATION
“What the innovators have in common is that they can put together ideas and information in unique combinations that nobody else has quite put together before.”
Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired. We found that it’s like exercising your muscles—if you engage in the actions you build the skills.”
“They are able to put together something they hear from a conference they were at last week with a briefing they’re at tomorrow and come up with a new idea.”
GROWING START UP BUSINESS
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2272
Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired. We found that it’s like exercising your muscles—if you engage in the actions you build the skills.”
“They are able to put together something they hear from a conference they were at last week with a briefing they’re at tomorrow and come up with a new idea.”
GROWING START UP BUSINESS
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2272
IDEAS DE NEGOCIO
Biased Expectations: Can Accounting Tools Lead to, Rather than Prevent, Executive Mistakes?
Un blog con ideas de negocio
http://enpiyama.wordpress.com/category/innovacion/
Coolbusinessideas
www.coolbusinessideas.com/
6 Intelligence Myths Exposed
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_myths
Springwise
http://www.springwise.com/
Babeofbusiness
http://www.babeofbusiness.com/
Un blog con ideas de negocio
http://enpiyama.wordpress.com/category/innovacion/
Coolbusinessideas
www.coolbusinessideas.com/
6 Intelligence Myths Exposed
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_myths
Springwise
http://www.springwise.com/
Babeofbusiness
http://www.babeofbusiness.com/
MUST BE READ
The Art of Bootstrapping The "Eight great" at Wharton
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1738
Someone once told me that the probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. This may be too optimistic.
Let's say that you can't raise money for whatever reason: You're not a “proven” team with “proven” technology in a “proven” market. Or, your company may simply not be a “VC deal”--that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a zillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a not-for-product with a cause like the ministry or the environment. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all.
I could build a case that too much money is worse than too little for most organizations—not that I wouldn't like to run a Super Bowl commercial someday. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. The term comes from the German legend of Baron Münchhausen pulling himself out of the sea by pulling on his own bootstraps. Here is the art of bootstrapping.
1.Focus on cash flow, not profitability. The theory is that profits are the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue. It means passing up the big sale that take twelve months to close, deliver, and collect. Cash is not only king, it's queen and prince too for a bootstrapper.
2.Forecast from the bottom up. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down forecast: “There are 150 million cars in America. It sure seems reasonable that we can get a mere 1% of car owners to install our satellite radio systems. That's 1.5 million systems in the first year.” The bottom-up forecast goes like this: “We can open up ten installation facilities in the first year. On an average day, they can install ten systems. So our first year sales will be 10 facilities x 10 systems x 240 days = 24,000 satellite radio systems. 24,000 is a long way from the conservative 1.5 million systems in the top-down approach. Guess which number is more likely to happen.
3.Ship, then test. I can feel the comments coming in already: How can you recommend shipping stuff that isn't perfect? Blah blah blah. ”Perfect“ is the enemy of ”good enough.“ When your product or service is ”good enough,“ get it out because cash flows when you start shipping. Besides perfection doesn't necessarily come with time--more unwanted features do. By shipping, you'll also learn what your customers truly want you to fix. It's definitely a tradeoff: your reputation versus cash flow, so you can't ship pure crap. But you can't wait for perfection either. (Nota bene: life science companies, please ignore this recommendation.)
4.Forget the ”proven“ team. Proven teams are over-rated--especially when most people define proven teams as people who worked for a billion dollar company for the past ten years. These folks are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it's not the bootstrapping lifestyle. Hire young, cheap, and hungry people. People with fast chips, but not necessarily a fully functional instruction set. Once you achieve significant cash flow, you can hire adult supervision. Until then, hire what you can afford and make them into great employees.
5.Start as a service business. Let's say that you ultimately want to be a software company: people download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That's a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-process software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field-tested and battle-hardened, flip the switch and become a product company.
6.Focus on function, not form. Mea culpa: I love good ”form.“ MacBooks. Audis. Graf skates. Bauer sticks. Breitling watches. You name it. But bootstrappers focus on function, not form, when they are buying things. The function is computing, getting from point A to point B, skating, shooting, and knowing the time of day. These functions do not require the more expensive form that I like. All the chair has to do is hold your butt. It doesn't have to look like it belongs in the Museum of Modern Art. Design great stuff, but buy cheap stuff.
7.Pick your battles. Bootstrappers pick their battles. They don't fight on all fronts because they cannot afford to fight on all fronts. If you were starting a new church, do you really need the $100,000 multimedia audio visual system? Or just a great message from the pulpit? If you're creating a content web site based on the advertising model, do you have to write your own customer ad-serving software? I don't think so.
8.Understaff. Many entrepreneurs staff up for what could happen, best case. ”Our conservative (albeit top-down) forecast for first year satellite radio sales is 1.5 million units. We'd better create a 24 x 7 customer support center to handle this. Guess what? You sell no where near 1.5 million units, but you do have 200 people hired, trained, and sitting in a 50,000 square foot telemarketing center. Bootstrappers understaff knowing that all hell might break loose. But this would be, as we say in Silicon Valley, a “high quality problem.” Trust me, every venture capitalist fantasizes about an entrepreneur calling up and asking for additional capital because sales are exploding. Also trust me when I tell you that fantasies are fantasies because they seldom happen.
9.Go direct. The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and her customer is zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But God invented ecommerce so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. And God was doubly smart because She knew that by going direct, you'd also learn more about your customer's needs. Stores and wholesalers fill demand, they don't create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. If you don't create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you bupkis.
10.Position against the leader. Don't have the money to explain your story starting from scratch? Then don't try. Instead position against the leader. Toyota introduced Lexus as good as a Mercedes but at half the price--Toyota didn't have to explain what “good as a Mercedes” meant. How much do you think that saved them? “Cheap iPod” and “poor man's Bose noise-cancelling headphones,” would work too.
11.Take the “red pill.”This refers to the choice that Neo made in The Matrix. The red pill led to learning the whole truth. The blue pill meant waking up wondering if you had a bad dream. Bootstrappers don't have the luxury to take the blue pill. They take the red pill--everyday--to find out how deep the rabbit hole really is. And the deepest rabbit hole for a bootstrapper is a simple calculation: Amount of cash divided by cash burn per month because this will tell you how much longer you can live. And as my friend Craig Johnson likes to say, “The leading cause of failure of startups is death, and death happens when you run out of money.” As long as you have money, you're still in the game.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1738
Someone once told me that the probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. This may be too optimistic.
Let's say that you can't raise money for whatever reason: You're not a “proven” team with “proven” technology in a “proven” market. Or, your company may simply not be a “VC deal”--that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a zillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a not-for-product with a cause like the ministry or the environment. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all.
I could build a case that too much money is worse than too little for most organizations—not that I wouldn't like to run a Super Bowl commercial someday. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. The term comes from the German legend of Baron Münchhausen pulling himself out of the sea by pulling on his own bootstraps. Here is the art of bootstrapping.
1.Focus on cash flow, not profitability. The theory is that profits are the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue. It means passing up the big sale that take twelve months to close, deliver, and collect. Cash is not only king, it's queen and prince too for a bootstrapper.
2.Forecast from the bottom up. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down forecast: “There are 150 million cars in America. It sure seems reasonable that we can get a mere 1% of car owners to install our satellite radio systems. That's 1.5 million systems in the first year.” The bottom-up forecast goes like this: “We can open up ten installation facilities in the first year. On an average day, they can install ten systems. So our first year sales will be 10 facilities x 10 systems x 240 days = 24,000 satellite radio systems. 24,000 is a long way from the conservative 1.5 million systems in the top-down approach. Guess which number is more likely to happen.
3.Ship, then test. I can feel the comments coming in already: How can you recommend shipping stuff that isn't perfect? Blah blah blah. ”Perfect“ is the enemy of ”good enough.“ When your product or service is ”good enough,“ get it out because cash flows when you start shipping. Besides perfection doesn't necessarily come with time--more unwanted features do. By shipping, you'll also learn what your customers truly want you to fix. It's definitely a tradeoff: your reputation versus cash flow, so you can't ship pure crap. But you can't wait for perfection either. (Nota bene: life science companies, please ignore this recommendation.)
4.Forget the ”proven“ team. Proven teams are over-rated--especially when most people define proven teams as people who worked for a billion dollar company for the past ten years. These folks are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it's not the bootstrapping lifestyle. Hire young, cheap, and hungry people. People with fast chips, but not necessarily a fully functional instruction set. Once you achieve significant cash flow, you can hire adult supervision. Until then, hire what you can afford and make them into great employees.
5.Start as a service business. Let's say that you ultimately want to be a software company: people download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That's a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-process software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field-tested and battle-hardened, flip the switch and become a product company.
6.Focus on function, not form. Mea culpa: I love good ”form.“ MacBooks. Audis. Graf skates. Bauer sticks. Breitling watches. You name it. But bootstrappers focus on function, not form, when they are buying things. The function is computing, getting from point A to point B, skating, shooting, and knowing the time of day. These functions do not require the more expensive form that I like. All the chair has to do is hold your butt. It doesn't have to look like it belongs in the Museum of Modern Art. Design great stuff, but buy cheap stuff.
7.Pick your battles. Bootstrappers pick their battles. They don't fight on all fronts because they cannot afford to fight on all fronts. If you were starting a new church, do you really need the $100,000 multimedia audio visual system? Or just a great message from the pulpit? If you're creating a content web site based on the advertising model, do you have to write your own customer ad-serving software? I don't think so.
8.Understaff. Many entrepreneurs staff up for what could happen, best case. ”Our conservative (albeit top-down) forecast for first year satellite radio sales is 1.5 million units. We'd better create a 24 x 7 customer support center to handle this. Guess what? You sell no where near 1.5 million units, but you do have 200 people hired, trained, and sitting in a 50,000 square foot telemarketing center. Bootstrappers understaff knowing that all hell might break loose. But this would be, as we say in Silicon Valley, a “high quality problem.” Trust me, every venture capitalist fantasizes about an entrepreneur calling up and asking for additional capital because sales are exploding. Also trust me when I tell you that fantasies are fantasies because they seldom happen.
9.Go direct. The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and her customer is zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But God invented ecommerce so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. And God was doubly smart because She knew that by going direct, you'd also learn more about your customer's needs. Stores and wholesalers fill demand, they don't create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. If you don't create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you bupkis.
10.Position against the leader. Don't have the money to explain your story starting from scratch? Then don't try. Instead position against the leader. Toyota introduced Lexus as good as a Mercedes but at half the price--Toyota didn't have to explain what “good as a Mercedes” meant. How much do you think that saved them? “Cheap iPod” and “poor man's Bose noise-cancelling headphones,” would work too.
11.Take the “red pill.”This refers to the choice that Neo made in The Matrix. The red pill led to learning the whole truth. The blue pill meant waking up wondering if you had a bad dream. Bootstrappers don't have the luxury to take the blue pill. They take the red pill--everyday--to find out how deep the rabbit hole really is. And the deepest rabbit hole for a bootstrapper is a simple calculation: Amount of cash divided by cash burn per month because this will tell you how much longer you can live. And as my friend Craig Johnson likes to say, “The leading cause of failure of startups is death, and death happens when you run out of money.” As long as you have money, you're still in the game.
MATERIAL INSTRUCCIONAL
CASOS DE ESTUDIO
start.ups
* E INK (Harvard Business School)
* What´s the BIG Idea (Harvard Business School)
* Documentum, INC (Harvard Business School)
Equipo gerencial
*E INK
*Documentum, INC
Innovación
*What´s the BIG Idea
*Innovation at 3M Corporation (Harvard Business School)
Empresa familiar
*In-N-Out Burger (Harvard Business School)
Franquicias
*In-N-Out Burger
MULTIMEDIA
PATENTS 4 INNOVATION
http://w3.cantos.com/05/eicta-504-0arfg/cii.php?page=sme
STANFORD TECHNOLOGIES VENTURE PROGRAM
http://edcorner.stanford.edu/
ecplips from Cornell University
http://www.eclips.cornell.edu/homepage.do
more more more more
The Kauffman Foundation http://www.kauffman.org/
Specifically, their Thoughtbook (http://www.kauffman.org/about-foundation/kauffman-thoughtbook-2009.aspx) has many applicable readings, and the foundation may be willing to provide thoughtbooks for students at no charge
Videos from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/popularVideos.html
Basically, this is a collection of 1,200+ 3-9 minute videos of talks given by a wide range of people from academics to consultants to entrepreneurs
Videos relating to creativity and innovation from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?topicId=1
158 videos all relating in some way to creativity and innovation
Videos relating to globalization from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?topicId=9
70 videos all relating in some way to globalization
Babson Entrepreneurship Center Teaching Cases
http://www3.babson.edu/ESHIP/research-publications/facultycases.cfm
Includes case teaching package (strategies for presenting, key concepts, diagrams, suggestions for how to integrate case into course, etc.) and more than half include video of the case subject in a Babson classroom discussing the case
Must be ordered through European Case Clearing House (http://www.ecch.com/) – prices are pretty reasonable (maybe around $3-$6 per case)
Harvard Business Publishing relating to entrepreneurship http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepreneurship.jsp?N=509628
Various cases for around $7 each
Batten Institute (Darden School at University of Virginia) Cases and Multimedia http://www.darden.virginia.edu/BattenInstitute/Batten.aspx?menu_id=494&id=16026&silverheader=1
Various cases and multimedia presentations (purcase at https://store.darden.virginia.edu/topic/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-business-case-studies for around $7 each)
Social entrepreneurship teaching resources handbook www.universitynetwork.org/handbook
Video clips from Deb Streeter at Cornell http://www.eclips.cornell.edu/
Startup.com (movie at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
October Sky (Jeff Timmons)
Videos from the following sites:
YouTube - Innovation in Motion YouTube - Innovation at Google YouTube - The Secret History of Silicon Valley YouTube - Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there's innovation ahead YouTube - MS Project is Not Project Management Portrait of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates - Media Player at Nobelprize.org CNN "Innovators" - Susan Murcott Stanford's E-Corner: Marissa Mayer, Google - Don't Kill Projects; Morph Them Stanford's E-Corner: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook - Product Development at Facebook YouTube - P&G VP Shares Web 2.0 Initiatives, Experiences YouTube - L&T P&G Connect Movie YouTube - Bharti Airtel...new ad ...very inspiring YouTube - Open Innovation in Services The business of ideas Amar Bhide GLOBELICS :: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2243
Video clips from Dragon’s Den (British TV series) – particularly the “Reggae, Reggae Sauce” episode
Demonstrating what a good pitch should look like
Videos Kauffman : http://video.kauffman.org/services/player/bcpid1811456713?bclid=1632695651&bctid=20358665001
start.ups
* E INK (Harvard Business School)
* What´s the BIG Idea (Harvard Business School)
* Documentum, INC (Harvard Business School)
Equipo gerencial
*E INK
*Documentum, INC
Innovación
*What´s the BIG Idea
*Innovation at 3M Corporation (Harvard Business School)
Empresa familiar
*In-N-Out Burger (Harvard Business School)
Franquicias
*In-N-Out Burger
MULTIMEDIA
PATENTS 4 INNOVATION
http://w3.cantos.com/05/eicta-504-0arfg/cii.php?page=sme
STANFORD TECHNOLOGIES VENTURE PROGRAM
http://edcorner.stanford.edu/
ecplips from Cornell University
http://www.eclips.cornell.edu/homepage.do
more more more more
The Kauffman Foundation http://www.kauffman.org/
Specifically, their Thoughtbook (http://www.kauffman.org/about-foundation/kauffman-thoughtbook-2009.aspx) has many applicable readings, and the foundation may be willing to provide thoughtbooks for students at no charge
Videos from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/popularVideos.html
Basically, this is a collection of 1,200+ 3-9 minute videos of talks given by a wide range of people from academics to consultants to entrepreneurs
Videos relating to creativity and innovation from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?topicId=1
158 videos all relating in some way to creativity and innovation
Videos relating to globalization from Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?topicId=9
70 videos all relating in some way to globalization
Babson Entrepreneurship Center Teaching Cases
http://www3.babson.edu/ESHIP/research-publications/facultycases.cfm
Includes case teaching package (strategies for presenting, key concepts, diagrams, suggestions for how to integrate case into course, etc.) and more than half include video of the case subject in a Babson classroom discussing the case
Must be ordered through European Case Clearing House (http://www.ecch.com/) – prices are pretty reasonable (maybe around $3-$6 per case)
Harvard Business Publishing relating to entrepreneurship http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/academic_discipline/entrepreneurship.jsp?N=509628
Various cases for around $7 each
Batten Institute (Darden School at University of Virginia) Cases and Multimedia http://www.darden.virginia.edu/BattenInstitute/Batten.aspx?menu_id=494&id=16026&silverheader=1
Various cases and multimedia presentations (purcase at https://store.darden.virginia.edu/topic/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-business-case-studies for around $7 each)
Social entrepreneurship teaching resources handbook www.universitynetwork.org/handbook
Video clips from Deb Streeter at Cornell http://www.eclips.cornell.edu/
Startup.com (movie at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
October Sky (Jeff Timmons)
Videos from the following sites:
YouTube - Innovation in Motion YouTube - Innovation at Google YouTube - The Secret History of Silicon Valley YouTube - Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there's innovation ahead YouTube - MS Project is Not Project Management Portrait of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates - Media Player at Nobelprize.org CNN "Innovators" - Susan Murcott Stanford's E-Corner: Marissa Mayer, Google - Don't Kill Projects; Morph Them Stanford's E-Corner: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook - Product Development at Facebook YouTube - P&G VP Shares Web 2.0 Initiatives, Experiences YouTube - L&T P&G Connect Movie YouTube - Bharti Airtel...new ad ...very inspiring YouTube - Open Innovation in Services The business of ideas Amar Bhide GLOBELICS :: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2243
Video clips from Dragon’s Den (British TV series) – particularly the “Reggae, Reggae Sauce” episode
Demonstrating what a good pitch should look like
Videos Kauffman : http://video.kauffman.org/services/player/bcpid1811456713?bclid=1632695651&bctid=20358665001
PUBLICACIONES
De fácil entendimiento y con mucha información sobre nuevos negocios y franquicias
Entrepreneur: www.soyentrepreneur.com
Con artículos para hombres y mujeres de gerencia, casos mexicanos, etc
Expansión: www.expansion.com.mx
Investigación digerible con excelentes artículos para Emprendedores, administadores, mercadologos, etc
Harvard Business Review edición LA www.hbral.com
Información para emprendedores, inversionistas, etc. desde un punto de vista diferente:
Blog de Guy Kawasaki
blog.guykawasaki.com/
Lista de Journals de Emprendedurismo
http://www.ten3.biz/learning/mod/resource/view.php?id=148
Otra lista de Journals
http://www.learnpreneurship.com/learn/mod/resource/view.php?id=559
Wharton: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/category.cfm?cid=12
Business Innovation Insider
http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/
Ideas para PYMES
http://www.ideasparapymes.com/
Instituto PYME
http://www.institutopyme.org/
Entrepreneur: www.soyentrepreneur.com
Con artículos para hombres y mujeres de gerencia, casos mexicanos, etc
Expansión: www.expansion.com.mx
Investigación digerible con excelentes artículos para Emprendedores, administadores, mercadologos, etc
Harvard Business Review edición LA www.hbral.com
Información para emprendedores, inversionistas, etc. desde un punto de vista diferente:
Blog de Guy Kawasaki
blog.guykawasaki.com/
Lista de Journals de Emprendedurismo
http://www.ten3.biz/learning/mod/resource/view.php?id=148
Otra lista de Journals
http://www.learnpreneurship.com/learn/mod/resource/view.php?id=559
Wharton: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/category.cfm?cid=12
Business Innovation Insider
http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/
Ideas para PYMES
http://www.ideasparapymes.com/
Instituto PYME
http://www.institutopyme.org/
ENTREPRENEURIAL EFFORTS
UNIVERSIDADES, INCUBADORAS, CLUSTERS, CENTROS I+D+i
Universidades
Babson College
www.babson.edu
Incubadoras
Austin Technology Incubator
www.ati.utexas.edu
Advanced Technology Development Center (Georgia Tech)
www.atdc.org
Incubadora Tecnológico de Monterrey - Campus Toluca
incubadora.tol.itesm.mx
Rensselaer Incubator
www.rpi.edu/dept/incubator/homepage/index.html
Babcock Incubator Wake Forest University
www.mba.wfu.edu/default.aspx?id=225
Commercialization technology (IC2)
commerce.ic2.org
Rice Alliance
www.alliance.rice.edu
Educators Corner Entrepreneurship Education Resources Stanford University
edcorner.stanford.edu/
Clusters
Corporación Mondragón
www.mondragon.mcc.es/
Cluster de Energia
www.clusterenergia.com/indexcast.asp
Cluster del Conocimiento
www.clusterconocimiento.com/redir/cluster/3331/Default.aspx
Agrupación Cluster Industrias Componentes Automoción Euskadi
www.acicae.es
I+D+i
Fundación para la Investigación y Desarrollo en Transporte y Energía
http://www.cidaut.es/
Fundación i2cat
www.i2cat.net
Universidades
Babson College
www.babson.edu
Incubadoras
Austin Technology Incubator
www.ati.utexas.edu
Advanced Technology Development Center (Georgia Tech)
www.atdc.org
Incubadora Tecnológico de Monterrey - Campus Toluca
incubadora.tol.itesm.mx
Rensselaer Incubator
www.rpi.edu/dept/incubator/homepage/index.html
Babcock Incubator Wake Forest University
www.mba.wfu.edu/default.aspx?id=225
Commercialization technology (IC2)
commerce.ic2.org
Rice Alliance
www.alliance.rice.edu
Educators Corner Entrepreneurship Education Resources Stanford University
edcorner.stanford.edu/
Clusters
Corporación Mondragón
www.mondragon.mcc.es/
Cluster de Energia
www.clusterenergia.com/indexcast.asp
Cluster del Conocimiento
www.clusterconocimiento.com/redir/cluster/3331/Default.aspx
Agrupación Cluster Industrias Componentes Automoción Euskadi
www.acicae.es
I+D+i
Fundación para la Investigación y Desarrollo en Transporte y Energía
http://www.cidaut.es/
Fundación i2cat
www.i2cat.net
BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITIONS
Idea to Product Competition,Hosted by University of Texas at Austin
The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge Hosted by Queensland University of Technology
Georgia Bowl,Hosted by Kennesaw State University
Cardinal Challenge,Hosted by the University of Louisville
UC Spirit of Enterprise MBA Business Plan Competition Hosted by the University of Cincinnati
Northwest Venture Championship, Hosted by Boise State University
University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition Hosted by the University of San Francisco
Camino Real Venture Competition,Hosted by University of Texas at El Paso
FGV Latin Moot Corp Competition,Hosted by Fundacao Getulio Vargas
Thammasat Asia Moot Corp Competition,Hosted by Thammasat University
Venture Challenge,Hosted by San Diego State University
McGinnis Venture Competition,Hosted by Carnegie Mellon University
Technology Commercialization Venture Championship Hosted by the IC² Institute and WBTshowcase
Wake Forest Elevator Competition,Hosted by Wake Forest University
IBK Capital Ivey Business Plan Competition Hosted by University of Western Ontario
Stuart Clark Venture Challenge,Hosted by University of Manitoba
Utah Entrepreneur Challenge,Hosted by University of Utah
New Ventures World Competition,Hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
New Venture Championship,Hosted by University of Oregon
Uniandes Moot Corp Business Plan Competition
Rice University Business Plan Competition
OFC Venture Challenge,Hosted by Fayetteville State University
MOOT Corp Global Competition,Hosted by the University of Texas at Austin
The John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge Hosted by Queensland University of Technology
Georgia Bowl,Hosted by Kennesaw State University
Cardinal Challenge,Hosted by the University of Louisville
UC Spirit of Enterprise MBA Business Plan Competition Hosted by the University of Cincinnati
Northwest Venture Championship, Hosted by Boise State University
University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition Hosted by the University of San Francisco
Camino Real Venture Competition,Hosted by University of Texas at El Paso
FGV Latin Moot Corp Competition,Hosted by Fundacao Getulio Vargas
Thammasat Asia Moot Corp Competition,Hosted by Thammasat University
Venture Challenge,Hosted by San Diego State University
McGinnis Venture Competition,Hosted by Carnegie Mellon University
Technology Commercialization Venture Championship Hosted by the IC² Institute and WBTshowcase
Wake Forest Elevator Competition,Hosted by Wake Forest University
IBK Capital Ivey Business Plan Competition Hosted by University of Western Ontario
Stuart Clark Venture Challenge,Hosted by University of Manitoba
Utah Entrepreneur Challenge,Hosted by University of Utah
New Ventures World Competition,Hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
New Venture Championship,Hosted by University of Oregon
Uniandes Moot Corp Business Plan Competition
Rice University Business Plan Competition
OFC Venture Challenge,Hosted by Fayetteville State University
MOOT Corp Global Competition,Hosted by the University of Texas at Austin
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