 A few days a go I was invited to attend a seminar at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Speaking that night were five heavyweights in the online business world: Josh Berman - COO & CoFounder, MySpace.com Matt Coffin - CEO & Founder, LowerMyBills.com Ted Meisel - Former CEO, Overture.com John Phelps - President, Shopzilla.com Steve Wadsworth - Pres., Disney Internet Group All had interesting stories about how their businesses started and evolved. I'm going to share with you some of the more memorable and meaningful nuggets of information. I know many of them are common sense, but it's all good advice nonetheless: |
- Networking with others is vital. More contacts mean more opportunities.
- Surround yourself with a team that can open up doors for you not necessarily whose the best at a particular skill.
- The "vibe" is important early on. If everyone on the team is feeling it, then those long hours don't seem as long and energy levels are high.
- Public Relations is important when starting. You need to generate interest fast to get the vital early adopters and jump on market share.
- Don't be afraid to deliver bad news
- When times are tough, sometimes you have to keep a smiling public face to keep investor and employee confidence.
- Get cash flow positive early. This allows you to control your destiny.
- Not all good ideas should be implemented. Focus on what will separate you from the pack.
- Focus on your demographics. If Myspace was targeting the 35+ year olds it would not have been successful.
- Let the market tell you what it wants. Many times the market tells you what it doesn't want as well. Listen to them.
- Do it better than everyone else. Someone else might have more resources but you can steal their shine by doing it better.
- Study your competitors intensely.
- Use of metric is invaluable.
