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Kevin

Aaron Patzer, Mint CEO, Talks Startups

If you are a startup founder, you’ll want to bookmark this and refer back to it. It’s absolute gold.
-Michael Arrington

Spotify Is Music’s “Natural Selection”

From vinyl to cassette to compact disc to mp3; the music industry is home to one of the most shape-shifting of delivery models in recent business history.  Music is a constantly evolving medium and has seen tremendous breakthroughs in the past two decades alone.  This transmutation of music embodiments has created a completely new landscape for artists and listeners to distribute/consume music.  Napster revealed just how disruptive this transformation had become, much to the dismay of many artists and record labels.  Perhaps the music industry wasn’t ready for such an open and “free” music platform.

It has been almost a decade since we witnessed the shutdown of this music phenomenon.  And while there have been many newcomers onto the music scene since that time, none have captured the attention of the masses quite like Spotify has.  Proclaimed by some as  “the Napster of today,”  Spotify’s philosophy is: instant, simple, and free.  I couldn’t think of 3 better words to describe an ideal music consumption service.  The Swedish startup has gained massive financial backing valuing the company at an estimated $250MM.  This massive figure is due in large part to the partnerships Spotify has secured with many major record labels, allowing the company to legally offer instant access to millions of tracks.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s not available in the US yet?  I have yet to experience Spotify myself and still I find it hard not to get excited for this service to hit the States.  Just as we witnessed tracks on a CD morph into files on a PC, we are now seeing the music’s next transformation: instant, on-demand music served up in the “cloud”.

Why is this significant?

I have always associated the progression of music (distribution) with Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection.    We don’t use cassette tapes now for a reason.  Cassettes simply could not survive in an environment shared with CD’s.   In enough time, the same will be said about our beloved mp3 players.

Storing music files locally and uploading them to an mp3 player will be crushed by streaming music on connected devices.  Why limit yourself to a hard drive of songs when you can have access to millions of tracks with no hard drive limitations?  This sort of evolutionary thinking is what has propelled Spotify into the limelight.  Below is a demonstration as to what’s to come in terms of music consumption:

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds with a Spotify competitor in iTunes, especially since they recently approved the Spotify iPhone App.

Is Spotify an “iTunes Killer”?  That isn’t clear just yet, but one thing is certain…they are music’s natural selection.

image via spotify vimeo channel

Listen To Hockey

via hockeyband.com

Go Big Or Go Home!

About a year ago, I wrote a post entitled “Changing the World vs. Making a Profit.” Below is an excerpt from the post:

There is one particular “fork in the road” that distinguishes one entrepreneur from another. It is the decision or strategy each entrepreneur consciously or sub-consciously makes when beginning their business venture. I like to call it the “World Changer vs. Profit Maker” debate. This debate essentially forces the entrepreneur to define their business venture. In other words: Is your business a “world changer” or a “profit maker”?

-via techsoomer.com (oct. ‘08)

I’ve always gravitated towards the world changer mentality.  When an entrepreneur is trying to change the world with their product, the amount of passion and dedication that he/she shows cannot be replicated anywhere else.  This is the type of attitude Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh alluded to in his conversation with Sara Lacy backstage at the TechCrunch50 conference (see video below).

We all know it’s not easy to change the world as a young, underfunded, resource-deficient startup.  Many young upstarts tend to chip away at a niche market because of this.  But it is those rare few that swing for the fences that inspire a community.

Take a look at AnyClip presenting at TechCrunch50 (video below).  The conviction that CEO, Aaron Cohen displays in his presentation is just awesome.  There is no question as to where AnyClip wants to go with their innovative platform.  This is great example of going big.

How to Become a “Kunsoomer” (In One Easy Step)

I’m excited for the launch of my startup company, Kunsoom, and invite all of my readers to sign up for the beta invite here.

Kunsoom aims to become a powerful consumer platform, facilitating both the consumers and the retailers/content providers simultaneously.  While this space is full of competition, we feel as though there still remains tremendous opportunity.

A note from our official blog:

About the Service

Kunsoom, a play on the word “consume,” is a web service dedicated to changing the way we think about consuming information, entertainment, and merchandise.  The shift towards a more open and social consumer experience has opened up doors and has created opportunities that were simply impossible until now.  Kunsoom explores these areas in a way never quite done before.

Inspiration

The inspiration is simple: we want to create the most complete and powerful consumer platform.  With a constantly-evolving B2C landscape, Kunsoom operates with the intention of creating a win-win scenario: for both the businesses and its consumers.

Core Values

It is our belief that technology and innovation are found at the core of any meaningful business.  We find it important to push the envelope and disrupt conventional wisdom whenever necessary.

Please take a minute to sign up and join the community of kunsoomers.  We look forward to your participation as well as your input.  We are looking to our users (especially those in our closed beta) for usage stats, user experience, and feedback.

You never know, we may even give away some “swag” to those select number of beta users!

Embrace Minimalism

“Keep it simple” is an overused, yet under-executed mantra for most. With the abundance of distractions in today’s society, it’s not hard to realize why this is the case.

When it comes to maximizing your personal, professional, or financial life, eliminating complexity can do wonders. I urge you to think as minimalist as possible when confronted with daily tasks and decisions. “Throw out” all of the unnecessary anchors that do not add benefit to your life. Clear out unused furniture in your office, consolidate multiple bank accounts, completely end a relationship…whatever it may be, always keep the following in mind:

• cut the fat wherever and whenever possible
• if it’s not important, forget about it, move on to something that is
• get used to eliminating instead of accumulating
• strive to have less of something (money may be the only caveat)

It appears that that the majority of society associate having “more stuff” with having more overall value. This “bigger is better” mentality is not only wrong, it’s unproductive.   If we relate this to startups, you begin to see how a minimalist approach creates the most effective results.

The minimalist-approach to launching a company

All too familiar scenario:  You’re an entrepreneur.  You have no money.  You’re time and resources are very limited.  And you want to launch a startup?  Are you crazy!?

Crazy or not, one thing is certain: you cannot afford to waste anything.  Very simply, you must operate as efficiently as is humanly possible.  And herein lies the core of the minimalist-approach to business.

I just picked up a book by the team at 37signals entitled Get Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application.  The book serves as an effective reminder to all the upstart businesses, entrepreneurs, and aspiring world-changers to strip down their approach to its simplest, most fundamental components.  The book focuses on the internet sector, but can really be applied to any number of business fields as well as to most any type of business owner.

The core of the book focuses on getting things done fast and efficiently.  They strongly endorse simplicity in an overly-complex world, which is refreshing, and most importantly, effective.

Focus on the fundamentals

Fundamentals mean everything.  Unfortunately, we seem to be accustomed to burying them whenever the option presents itself.  Why write a 5 paragraph email that can be expressed in 3 lines?  Why waste your coworker’s time with a 2 hour presentation?  It’s probably because your email is garbage and your presentation sucks.

Ironically enough, when things are broken down to their most basic component, that particular thing becomes instantly more powerful.  In business, and in life, focus on the foundation and strip away the rest — you’ll be surprised at how simplicity will conquer complexity.

Unbelievable! Facebook Acquires FriendFeed!

TechCrunch broke the story and has recently been confirmed.  Let the discussions begin…

What It Means to Be an Early Adopter

Early adopters are a critical component to any startup environment.  This particular demographic is unlike any that a company will face in the future.  It’s the early adopters who are first to interact with a company’s initial product or service.    It’s the early adopters who represent a company’s first fan or first critic.  It’s the early adopters who can open the eyes of the closed-minded entrepreneur.  It’s the early adopters who have the ability to drive a company into unforeseen directions.  It’s the early adopters who tell it like it is.  So what does it mean to be an early adopter?  Quite frankly — it means a lot.

For many technology enthusiasts, being an early adopter comes naturally.  This crowd eagerly jumps on beta releases, private invites, and all other forms of limited activation events — commonplace within the dot-com arena.  In an industry with so much transparency and so many options (the closest industry to being barrier free), it’s easy to see how powerful this group can be.  Twitter is a great example of how a group of early adopters transformed a fledgling company into super-stardom.  I doubt even the most ambitious Twitter founder could have predicted how the early adopting community would utilize the simple messaging platform.

Where Do Early Adopters Stand?

The early adopter crowd represent the gatekeepers between the firm and the “early public”.  Needless to say, a positive reaction at this stage in the game can only improve the firm’s strategic position.  However, the early adopter crowd seem to possess a powerful double-edged sword.  Along with boosting company and product awareness through praise, the early adopters can bring user adoption to a halt through negative rants and dismal product reviews.  Although representing only about 5% of the target audience, (according to my not-so-scientific math) this group’s influential capacity is off the charts.

Should Companies Cater to their Early Adopters?

Despite the massive influence that early adopters possess, I advocate against catering to them.  Instead, companies must focus their energy on constantly improving upon their core competencies (which is what every business should do).  It’s in the best interest of the company to utilize the early adopter crowd, taking advantage of real-world interaction and early customer dialogue.  For it’s this crowd who you must ultimately impress.  Without “the approval” from these dedicated customers, your company will likely remain hidden from the masses.  Since early adopters possess  a deep understanding of the marketplace, they know what type of offering a given company should be delivering.  Startups should listen to these smart consumers, but let me stress this one more time: never cater to any particular crowd — doing so will cause the firm to lose focus as well as their true identity.

Bad PR is Still Bad

There’s a misconception that there is no such thing as bad PR.  Maybe that’s true for a moment or two, but eventually, bad press will catch up to any company.  I cannot think of one impactful company who has made their name off of negative press.  Long-lasting, innovative firms are built from within, not through marketing budgets, advertising campaigns, or a few abusive headlines.  Entrepreneurs must keep this in mind at all times, especially throughout the infancy of their struggling startup ventures.

In case there were any contradictions or misunderstandings throughout the post, these three bullet points should summarize the fundamentals:

• The early adopter crowd is an important demographic in any upstart, however:
• Companies must learn to utilize this crowd instead of catering to them.
• Startups must always remember that success is produced internally, never externally.

Inside the Mind of a Serial Entrepreneur

Morten Lund offers up a super-refreshing outlook from a serial entrepreneur’s point of view.  A man who expresses so many awesome character traits, most notably:

• humility
• honesty
• transparency
• perseverance