Why not to start a startup

Paul Graham examines the reasons why you may be better off waiting to start your business. Anyone considering a startup should read this and make an honest assessment of their skills, weaknesses, plan and drive.

The problem with media star CEOs

UCLA analyzes the downside of having a media sensation as a CEO. While the exec will win fame for the company, s/he is often lured into more external activities, sapping the time and effort they can continue to put into the company that made them famous.

Why seed investing is less risky than later stage investing

Whether you’re looking to get into angel or venture investing, or trying to convince investors to buy into your brilliant startup idea, this article explains why buying in early is a wise move. (Want to see how startup financing works in action? Take a look at the Tequila Shots Ringside Startup Launch.)

Don’t give your software away free

If you’re planning to sell your software at some point, this article explains why it is better to charge immediately than give it away initially. Seven practical tips help you put theory into practice, and start your software empire.

Make Google Calendar rock

If you’re anything like MJ, our CEO, you need Google Calendar to stay organized. With GCal Sync you can keep your calendar synchronized with your Blackberry. Check out this article for 18 other great tips on how to optimize your Google Calendar experience.

Serph launches new real-time buzz tracker

In this age of information overload, most of us couldn’t survive without various aggregators and media trackers. Serph.com has thrown their hat into the ring, pulling buzz together from Feedster, Bloglines, Topix, Technorati, Sphere, YouTube, Digg, Podzinger, Google Blog Search and many more.

Yahoo quietly leads with API offerings

The web has become less about keeping people on your site and more about allowing people to pull elements of your site or data into their own online space and applications. As such, APIs are de rigeur, and Yahoo is now offering over 20 powerful and varied APIs. There’s something there for virtually everyone, including the sensational Yahoo Pipes for non-programmers.

Speaking of APIs… how to make money with Twitter

The blogosphere has been abuzz for weeks over Twitter. With the recent offering of an API a whole new world of mashups and monetization has opened up to the enterprising programmer. This sort of thinking can be applied to any popular or powerful web service wth an open API. Oh, did I mention that Cambrian House is offering APIs for our platform?

Allo allo out there all you movers and shakers,

When the dust finally settled, this is how the crowd voted:

* the numbers in brackets = percentage of votes

This means we have PeteC vs Fazza in the final. This is shaping up to be a truly epic battle as both ideas seem equally matched going into the finals. Congrats also to johnandPeter and Hewson for making it to the Final 4. It was close and down to the wire. Don’t wait till next Wednesday noon to get your votes in. Vote now and help decide which idea is worthy of the Hoffman title. May the best idea win! Special thanks again to the good people at 42squared.com for their financial support of the Reid Hoffman Tournament. These guys really are ninjas.

One risk an entrepreneur encounters when they launch a startup is being so wedded to their idea that they resist any change. While it’s important to ignore the naysayers, critical feedback has helped a lot of companies find their true path.

Did you know that Flickr and YouTube were both originally failures?

Flickr was a massive multi-player online game called Game Never Ending.
YouTube was originally built as a dating site.

My point isn’t that your idea will change as radically as these high profile examples. Only that when your startup becomes successful, it won’t look the same as the idea you start with. And that’s ok. It’s to be expected - not resisted.

Our good friend Patrick Lor reminded me how iStockPhoto didn’t really take off until they nailed their community compensation model - micro-payment system.

We ourselves adjusted course this year. Instead of trying to commercialize each product idea ourselves, we could do a much better job working even more collaboratively with our community.

So when you’re out there executing, don’t be afraid to change it up. A good tip from our buddy Reid Hoffman is to seek critical feedback from the 6 smartest people you know. Listen to their advice and then decide if you think you can overcome the challenges. If you can’t move on - you just saved 6 months of your life. If you can, you are in a much better position and know the first few hurdles you’ll face.

Keep an open mind, have a thick skin, and relish the critical feedback. I find it’s often more insightful than any of the positive stuff I get.

2007 Digital Outlook Report

From Avenue A Razorfish, via Guy Kawasaki’s blog, comes the 2007 Digital Outlook Report. The report covers several aspects of how producers, consumers, media and advertisers are using digital media to converse and communicate.

The realistic entrepreneur’s guide to venture capital

You’ve got the plan, the prototype, the drive. Your project is developing nicely, and you’re ready to push it to the next level with venture capital. VCs aren’t like banks, borrowing money from them is a bit more like borrowing from your in-laws. They are going to want input and a degree of control over how it is used. So check out this guide and make sure you know what a VC will expect of you.

5 most common mistakes made by startups

Maybe you’re not quite ready to court a VC. Avoiding these mistakes will help get you there.

Interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

The CEO of Internet behemouth Google talks about innovation and maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit in a massive company. As Schmidt says, “You don’t learn very much when you yourself are talking,” so put on some headphones and enjoy his hard-earned wisdom.

Innovation +1, Earth’s gravitational field 0

Remember when space travel was just a dream? Okay, neither do I, but it wasn’t that long ago. Nothing can hold back human innovation and curiosity, and yet another private organization has successfully launched a rocket into space. Congrats, guys, and thanks for reminding us that the “impossible” only seems that way because it hasn’t been tried yet.

Cambrian House makes Read/WriteWeb

We were proud to see Cambrian House at the top of an aticle in Read/WriteWeb examining the phenomenal growth and continued potential of crowdsourcing.

As the host of IdeaWarz, I see a lot of idea pitches. Over time I noticed that the popular ideas use a few simple techniques to make their ideas stand out from the crowd.

Here are some tips I have gleaned from submissions that seem to resonate with the community.

#1. Pick a great product name

Nothing attracts attention and sparks interest like a cool, compelling product name. Names like Tummy Cruncher, Money Mentor, and Cover Girl say it all. They reinforce the fact that from all customers, hope springs eternal. Everyone would like to be thin, rich and beautiful. Choose a compelling name for your idea that is easy to remember and has the audience thinking it is exactly what they need.

#2. Avoid the tech speak

You are in danger of succumbing to tech speak when your pitch is filled with words like: Linux, AJAX, REST, API, or RubyOnRails, Java, Vista, .NET, etc.

This may come as a shock, but most people don’t care about technology.

They care about how your idea is going to make their life easier.

The guys at 37signals are masters at this. If you want to see some great marketing from a bunch of developers, check out their new product Highrise.

Focus on the benefits of your idea and save the tech talk for the local monthly chapter meetings. Unless your idea is so directly tied to a specific technology that it warrants mentioning, save it.

#3. Talk about benefits - not features

Features don’t sell - benefits do.

The 300 horse power engine and anti-lock breaks are nice features on a car. The benefit is that you can pass easily on the highway and break safely with your loved ones in snow storms.

Describe your idea in terms of benefits and not technical features. This will better position your product in the customers mind and make it clear why they need it.

#4. Keep it short

‘I would have written a shorter letter but I didn’t have time.’ - Blaise Pascal.

Writing short, powerful prose is tough, but important. People are inherently lazy and the last thing you want to do is turn a reader off because you made them work to understand your idea.

VC’s are lazy too. That’s why Guy Kawasaki encourages entrepreneurs to use the 10/20/30 rule when pitching their ideas.

Hit the audience with your best selling points early and drop all unnecessary text after that. Using the fewest words possible will make your idea easy to understand and digest for the reader.

#5. Formatting counts

Be sure to format your idea so it’s easy to understand in a glance.

Bold or italicize important points.

If you have long sections of information, try breaking them down using bullet points.

Make sure you effectively use white space.

Good formatting makes it easier for the reader to understand your idea, and increases your chances of getting a thumbs up. If you make the reader work, they will skip your idea and move on.

So there you have it. A few tips to help your idea punch above the noise. Try’em out and let me know what works. Effective use of these and other techniques will make your idea stand out and increase the likelihood garnering support. Hopefully we will soon see your idea in an upcoming IdeaWarz Tournament.

May the best idea win!

Special thanks again to the good people at 42squared.com for their financial support of the Reid Hoffman Tournament.

Here are the results from RND2 of the Reid Hoffman folks: IPhone & Mashup Widget Repository (43)   vs   Donate your change (57) Photo Warz (47)   vs   Get me out of my lease or contract!!! (53) Wicked Travel Site (58)   vs   guitar hero - for real guitars (42) Trial by Jury (44)   vs   Give Me TV & Ad Love! (56) * the numbers in brackets = percentage of votes

What a close round! Congrats to our all contestants who made it to the final 4!

Don’t wait till next Wednesday noon to get your votes in. VOTE NOW and help decide which idea is worthy of wearing the Reid Hoffman crown.

May the best idea win!

Special thanks again to the good people at 42squared.com for their financial support of the Reid Hoffman Tournament. These guys really are ninjas.

Hi all,

Some of you may have noticed this weekend that IdeaWarz was down Friday night and Saturday over the weekend. I apologize for the outage, and while I know it doesn’t make up for the time, I would like to extend the RND2 voting by 4 hours on Wednesday afternoon. That means voting will wrap up at 4pm on Wednesday instead of noon.

Again, apologizes for the outage.

May the best idea win!

Cheers - JR

Small bonus: Here is a great video I watched this morning of Larry Page of Google sharing his top five tips for up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Hiya All,

If you are a community member, and you have a blog you would like to share, add a comment to this post and we will add you to our Community member blog roll. This will help drive traffic to your site and expose more people to your thoughts and ideas (buwahahah).

Special thanks to techguy who for whom we super appreciate mention on his blog. Be sure to check out a very interesting article on what it takes to become super rich.

Hiya all,

Our good mate from down under, PsychSplash, is looking to setup a local Cambrian House chapter down under. He is looking to:

• setup informal social get togethers
• organize a conference
• combine forces with others to promote the entrepreneurial concept and dream to local business colleagues
• attract investment
• maybe even a satellite web site geographically targeted

Of course PsychSplash has the full support of Cambrian House and we are keen to help him get things going.

So if you are keen on joining Psych’s crusade, send him a note and join the discussion here in the forums. Let him know a there are a few good mate’s looking to have a few cool ones and throw a few shrimp on the barbee (sorry I couldn’t resist

Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Every business plan is wrong

You can now fail faster and cheaper than ever before. So take our advice and get out there. You won’t know what works until you start testing what doesn’t.

Kathy Sierra teaches how to make apps more human

Notes from SXSW, where Kathy Sierra (of Creating Passionate Users) suggests that most web apps have Aspberger’s syndrome, and aren’t capable of totally normal human interaction. Fortunately, she also suggests how to change that and win the love of your users.

Viacom sues YouTube for $1 billion

No news on whether the sum was set by Dr. Evil. This lawsuit will have an interesting effect on the Internet video market.

Kaneva blends Myspace and Second Life

Blending the 3D virtual world most famously offered by Second Life with the communities oriented around music and other interests found at MySpace, Kaneva is looking to shake up the already saturated social network scene.

Speed dating for venture capital

11 Sources of Capital. 10 Companies. 9 Minutes each. That’s right, the speed dating model has been applied to venture capital. If you have an idea or a company that you want to get off the ground, consider applying for the event. Remember: venture capitalists like minty fresh breath.