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The “Build to suit” ten step

December 10, 2006

Here’s a formula for a base-hit (or better) and optionally landing a really cool job for smart entrepreneurial geeks.

1. Take a look at the biggest apps that people can’t seem to get enough of. The iTunes Music Store, MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, etc. Don’t just focus on the hugest companies, also think about local companies that you admire, and are well funded and/or profitable. Their strengths are all very clear.
2. For each of these companies, make a list of what they’re not so good at and imagine how much more valuable they’d be if they were good at each of those things.
3. For each of these companies, figure out if they tend to build or buy technology. This is easy to research. Don’t rule out anybody based on your findings, just use the data. If they’re buyers, you’ll make sure to build your tool in their “mold” with a similar attitude, look, and feel. If they’re builders, you’re more likely to get interest from other companies that exist around the ecosystem created by that company. Just being aware of this can sharpen your thinking.
4. Figure out what you’re good at and are passionate about personally. Perhaps it’s mobile apps, ease of use, RSS, or whatever. Map this to the list you generated in step 2.
5. A very limited number of companies should now come into focus. If you can narrow this list by figuring out which of these companies you have some sort of connection into such as geography, a buddy who works there, a relationship with an existing advisor, etc., then you should probably focus on them. Much of business success is often related to who you know or whose attention you can get quickly.
6. Jump on the blogs and support forums for these companies, and see what their customers are asking them for. Talk with company insiders that you might be able to get access to, if any.
7. Pick your top company, and go and quickly build a prototype that fills their gap. Test it with a few dozen friends - don’t spend too much time on details once it’s basically working.
8. If you do know an insider or two, pitch the tool directly to them.
9. Post your free “extension/addon/tool” somewhere their customers will see it and start using it. Show it off at a tech meetup. Blog about it. Tell your friends.
10. React quickly to what the early users want, improving your tool.

Then quickly respond to any business inquiry emails that you receive. Didn’t get any? Go to step 1. ;-)

It does work. Look at earFeeder and smartFeed (Kevin took the job). Hmm, maybe you’d better name your product “feed” something or other.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

The TechCrunch effect

November 22, 2006

Since TechCrunch covered my earFeeder project last month, lots of people have emailed me to ask for tips on getting their products profiled by TechCrunch. I think earFeeder got covered because it was simple, interesting, and unobtrusive and maybe just kinda “neat”. I only got one email from them asking a few questions, and they wrote what they wanted to write.

Guy Kawasaki recently did a great interview with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch called How to get in TechCrunch. Guy asked Mike flat out how a company can get covered on TechCrunch. The short answer: Get referred. The official answer: Email him or use their contact form. Hint: The short answer works much better.

So what did this coverage do for earFeeder? Well, quite a bit. I demo’d earFeeder for the first time in public on October 3rd at the Boulder New Tech Meetup. TechCrunch wrote about it on October 16th (less than 2 weeks later). LifeHacker followed up with a story 2 days later, exposing earFeeder to half a million people in a two week period. About 100 other blogs then covered it in the following days, and about a million people in total had been sneezed on. A hell of a lot of them came to the site.

Then, just 39 days after I showed it for the first time in Boulder, and just 26 days after TechCrunch covered it, earFeeder was acquired by SonicSwap.

So, is there value to being covered by TechCrunch. Sure. That value is in initial exposure. Take a close look at this traffic graph from the earFeeder co-location site.

snipshot_62hb1859w08.jpg

With earFeeder, I got lucky and somebody wanted to take it and run with it. But if you’re trying to build a sustainable business, TechCrunch is clearly nothing more than a good jump start on buzz. You have to find some way to convert that and keep it going over time.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

TechCrunch does Boulder

October 18, 2006

Neat. TechCrunch has covered two technologies out of Boulder in the last few days. The blog with 127,000 geeky readers (including me) first featured ProtectMyPhotos.com on Friday, and then covered earFeeder (a project of mine) on Monday. Yes, there is some cool stuff going on here in Boulder too - thanks for noticing.

Looks like the TechCrunchers are glad to see ProtectMyPhotos getting the attention it deserves. 4.6 million photos were uploaded in the 5 days since the post. What, no extra love for earFeeder? ;-)

I’ve gotten lots of requests to give a firsthand report about 53,651 and the effect on earFeeder. I can tell you, it’s LARGE. I’ll assemble the data and put a post up after the dust settles a bit. Right now, I’m just trying to stay in the various earFeeder conversations going on out there in the blogosphere.

Rock on Boulder….

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups | 2 Comments 

Boulder New Tech Meetup recap

October 4, 2006

Kevin Cawley wrote a great summary of the New Tech Meetup last night on his blog. I would like to thank Robert Reich (of Medium) for organizing this event. I think it’s a great resource for Boulder.

You can watch the video of the event here (less than an hour) thanks to ClickCaster (covered previously). It features Joe Pezzillo showing off the Metify Anthricite web mining desktop toolkit, Alek O. Komarnitsky showing off his grass growing and crazy Christmas light coolness, and Jean McAuliffe talking about Agile (well, let’s say fighting about it with the always interesting and opinionated Dave Taylor).

In addition, I was there showing off one of my (several) pet projects last night called earFeeder. earFeeder generates a customized RSS newsfeed based on your favorite musical artists that it finds on your machine. The feed informs you about new releases on iTunes, upcoming concerts, and other news.

I built earFeeder for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I wanted it for myself. Secondarily, I wanted to keep my programming skills sharp and learn more about RSS. People seem to like it, so I’ve opened it up to the world in “perpetual beta” (for now). Give it a try and let me know what you think. I also have the obligatory earFeeder blog if you’re really interested in the product and want to keep up with the latest news, comical bugs, and generally help to improve it.

Next next meetup is November 7th. Show off your cool stuff by contacting Robert.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |