One of the issues of a young startup is the question of innovation. Here are the questions that come up:

1) How much should we innovate?
2) How often should we innovate?
3) What should our innovations focus on?

What most startups dont focus on is: when and what do I iterate on?

The general rule is innovate or die, but thats great in words, but not so great in practice. Innovate too much, and you are unfocused. Innovate backend stuff, and it appears that you are not innovating at all. Innovate in a non-linear fashion and you lose the excitement of the innovation.

Many founders are technologists that started by trying to solve a personal problem. “I hate it when X happens, what can I do to correct it?”

The problems begin to occur when “building a business” enters the equation. Now, innovation and all the “cool shit” you develop have the sole purpose of moving the business forward.

So, what is the answer?

Like most things, its simple. Engage your community and find out the problems that your users have. Innovate around those. Dont listen to one person; listen to the rising noise around problems.

Take Intense Debate. They recently released what seems like a small feature: The ability to have a tweet sent every time I comment on an blog with Intense Debate.

This is was in response to their community asking for a way to let people know that a conversation was occurring around a blog post.

With this feature, Jon and crew did some things right. You can modify the text of the tweet and its off by default. Brilliant.

They missed on the real value of Twitter. That twitter is a two way conversation, not a circus barker for the crap I am posting online. Where they could provide real value is in generating a conversation not just a notification that comments are occurring.

Also, from a publisher perspective, the feature is either on or off and I cant select the specific comments that get tweeted, rather they all get tweeted, or they all dont.

Interesting innovation. The type of innovation that is indicative of the early stage Intense Debate is in. The type of innovation that a true hacker technologist bangs out overnight.

But, Intense Debate is a business. Where they will win with this innovation is the speed of the iteration.

And thats the answer: Innovate. Listen to your community. Then iterate.

It’s really that simple.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

I recently was engaged in a Skype conversation with my friend Aaron Brazell. Aaron recently left b5media where he was the Director of Technology, and has decided to change careers. Of all the things he could choose to do, Business Development happened to be on his list.

So, probably because I am the coolest person in the world (in addition to my status as the #1 douchebag in the world), I asked Aaron to try his hand at Business Development at Lijit Networks.

Its been fun over the past week or so talking to Aaron about publishers and Lijit, but more interestingly is the discussions we have had about business development.

So, back to the Skype conversation.

Aaron and I were discussing a plan of attack for a large publisher. One that neither of us had a warm introduction into. As the conversation continued, I began to explain to Aaron the difference between business development now and during the Great Dot Com Bubble of 2000.

In the “old days,” business development was more about strategic alliances, which was a silly way to say, “lets find a way to drive traffic to each other.” (Notice the word traffic. I didnt accidentally substitute that for the word revenue.)

Many companies owned a certain space and could demand many things for the access to their traffic or data. Business Development was really just sales with out the quota. It was all about traffic and eyeballs, and there was little to no focus on creating bi-directional relationships. As I just explained to another friend:

Business Development is about working with people who want to make your company better while you work to make their company better.

And that, in a nutshell, is the difference in todays world.

The world is smaller. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the like make it easy to interact with people all times of day and builds a level of understanding and connection that is unprecedented.

So, what advice would I give a new business development guy? What advice did I give Aaron? Here are my three rules to being a fantastic Business Development guy:

1. Be yourself. You are now intertwined with the brand of the company you are pitching. If you are fake, then the company will be seen as fake. Just be yourself.
2. Do what you would do normally. If you are not a blogger. Dont blog. If you dont like twitter, dont tweet. Basically, chose the communication medium that best suits you.
3. Look for connections. Not just between people, but between companies. Does it make sense for Lijit to work with hardware manufacturers? Probably not. So think of connections in three ways:
   1. Direct: These are people that you know directly or can be introduced directly. In this case, you are looking to directly pitch the person on your product or service.
   2. Indirect: These are tangential connections, where you want to pitch your product or service to someone because of the people that like, follow, respect the direct connection.
   3. Enhanced:  Dont really have a better word for this, but its basically a connection where there may be no immediate business to pitch, but since the two companies are like minded and the product or service is complimentary, that a connection will enhance both companies.

The first type, Direct, is the most like sales. You have something you want someone else to use or pay for, so you explain the features and benefits, and you are off to the races. The second, Indirect, is very much like a Direct connection, but your target isnt the initial person, its the intial person’s fans and friends.

Both of those are necessary for the growth of a company. As long as one is open and honest about it and straight forward, there is nothing shady about the practice.

The third type, enhance, is the most difficult and esoteric for most people. People that are successful at Enhanced Connections usually dont work for commission. They usually arent great sales people. But, they see the potential in both their company, and the target company, and understand that together they are stronger than individually. And most importantly, they understand its about sharing and giving, not just taking.

I also often joke that my title is VP, Favors and Introductions. 99% of my job doing favors, giving introductions or asking for favors or introductions. To me, the only capital I possess is my reputation and the trust my friends have that I will introduce someone that is worthy and wont waste their time.

The key to being successful at this is understanding one simple thing:

To get, one must give, and trust that the gift is compelling enough to have the other give in return.

And that one sentence, is what Business Development in a Web 2.0 World is. Its not wineing and dining, or business trips, or even expense accounts. Its being in a state of constantly giving, making sure that you have given more daily than received. And, most importantly, if, at the end of the day, what you are giving away (whether it is time, connections, a product or service, or even just an ear to listen) is not worthy of the people you are giving it to, and not given freely, you will lose. Every time.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I joke around. A lot.

One of my all time favorite scenes is the scene in Goodfellas where Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci) starts to mess with Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta) while at dinner.

You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it’s me, I’m a little fucked up maybe, but I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?

So, when I want to be serious, It sometimes takes people a little bit to make that mental shift in their thinking that I am not trying to be funny, but trying to be serious.

I dont mind. Really, I dont.

But there are times, when I realize that sometimes the only thing that is important is just what matters. What matters to me. Seriously.

Today was a day like that. Fantastic day. Work went better than expected, still full of pressure, but diamonds arent created by petting carbon now are they?

And, at 4pm, I headed over to the Vet’s office with Billie in tow for the first of three appointments. The third appointment would be at VRCC (Veterinary Referral Clinic of Colorado) where she will have her other hip replaced.

Thats right, her second hip. She is two years old.

Many people find it funny that I have so many animals at home. Sometimes, I think its pretty funny as well. But, Billie is the first dog I have ever had.

And thats not what makes her special.

What makes her special is when I was in the process of getting healthy and sober, taking care of her, having to focus on her hip replacement and post op procedures really helped me focus and understand what was important in my life. And those morals, rules, whatever they are called have continued to stick with me. They are simple:

1) Be honest always.

2) Do right every time.

3) Do good in everything.


And more than any one living thing, that little dog taught me that.

Popularity: 5% [?]