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Bubble Generation Entrepreneurs Are Different Than Their Predecessors

Santosh Jayaram, Ayush Gupta and Supreet Singh are Bubble Generation entrepreneurs.  Their brilliant idea is PowerSnap, a photo management site that gives the user unprecedented power to send, receive, manage and sync photos within a single application. While their product allows for a unique user experience--ideally-suited to the new, connected consumer--what really makes these guys different is how they built the business in the first place.

Recently, I asked co-founder Jayaram what made his team's approach so different.  He noted that like most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs they were not flush with resources; they started with more talent than money.  But while a generation ago, a pre-bubble dotcom would have garnered several rounds of venture funding before launching in beta, PowerSnap is up and running with no VC backing at all. "It was our conviction to get this product developed and out there for users to avail of, before we go out and raise serious money," Jayaram says.

The team will now look at venture participation, but to grow an already-proven enterprise.  Lesson: It may require a tough gut check for the start-up team, but it now takes a real business to get funding, and that's a good, not a bad thing.

Because the team bootstrapped development of the application, they could not rely on traditional and expensive Silicon Valley talent, so they leveraged weakness into a strength by tapping talent in their homeland India.  "Luckily for us, we had friends and contacts in India who we approached, some we paid, some we offered equity, but all these folks worked from their homes and we created a 24/7 work environment using Yahoo IM, Skype for calls, Webex for collaboration, Bugzilla for bug tracking and online tools for project management," Jayaram points out.

By employing a virtual team of code writers, and by using every day communication and collaboration technology for the hand-off, the PowerSnap team could work nonstop on app dev, saving time and money in the race to bring out their better service. 

Lesson: the new start-up can, and perhaps should be, launched without old boundaries or biases.  BubbleGen entrepreneurs can tap into an entire world of cost-free and cost-effective resources to start and sustain a new business.  The message is, don't stand on ceremony, just go.

Most important of all, PowerSnap intuits the real needs and wants of the new connected consumer in a way that shows the team understands just how technology is changing culture--and commerce.  In short, today's entrepreneurs are as different as the customers they propose to serve.  "PowerSnap augments the newly connected user’s experience by building context to images and allowing them to be shared via automated subscriptions. We’ve developed a peer-to-peer network for the sharing of images within a defined context. The users never have to straddle multiple environments (their own PC, others’ photosites, their own photosite) to have a complete photo experience," Jayaram says. 

Lesson: these guys didn't just fall in love with their own technology, they understood their customer's pain and started with that as the core of the company's purpose. 

Ultimately, the biggest difference between Bubble Generation companies like PowerSnap and its predecessors is that the company founders don't harbor grandiose ideas of sweeping corporate campuses, bloated payrolls or even going public as a highest and best use or exit strategy.  Today's entrepreneurs like the PowerSnap team are smart enough to know that keeping it lean and virtual, getting good ideas to market without all the trappings and perhaps joining forces with a Google or Yahoo is every bit as satisfying--and rewarding--as an IPO.  Maybe more so.

 

Rock n' Roll Goes 2.0

Rock n' Roll is dangerous again.

I recently had lunch in San Francisco with the charismatic Lee Smith, West Coast president for music juggernaut LiveNation, and our friend and music impresario, Ted Cady.  Between noshing, the conversation naturally centered on the seismic changes taking place in the music business.  With the rise of online downloading and the recent demise of Tower Records, the conversation was like trading field notes about a new-found asteroid hurling toward earth.

A recurrent theme throughout was the new direct and web-enabled business models being adopted by today's musicians.  No longer willing to be passively managed or insulated from their fans, artists have taken to strengthening direct contact and communications--and commerce--with their fan bases. That means a whole new world of direct-via-Internet sales of CDs, concert tickets and merchandise that is dramatically shaking up the hidebound music biz. 

To its credit, LiveNation is as good as it gets when it comes to morphing with the times.  People like Smith truly love the business and want to bring quality experiences to people, and the company has been quick to adapt to the new music landscape created by MySpace, YouTube and MusicToday.  In fact, LiveNation recently acquired a majority interest in MusicToday, the archetypal fan-direct business engine started by music mogul Coran Capshaw.  Capshaw, who started managing clubs and then acts like The Dave Mathews Band, has been quietly changing the music business from behind the scenes--improving the unsexy clockwork of routine artist-to-fan relationships.  Now, acts signed with MusicToday (all manner of talent, from Green Day, Incubus and Ataris, to the Rolling Stones, Ramones and Rush) have far greater control of their total businesses, from ticket sales to t-shirts and tube socks.  In a model pioneered by my one-time compatriot Marc Geiger at ArtistDirect--who unfortunately was a tad ahead of his time, MusicToday uses Web 2.0 principles and infrastructure to put artists and fans in direct conversations.  It's a win-win: Artists develop long-term value in their love bases and keep more of their earnings, while fans get a little closer to the musicians who matter most to them, with perks such as early ticket sales and free swag. 

All of these innovations, of course, are driven by the availability of technology and the adoption of a new worldview--a mindset ushered in by Bubble Generation consumers who loathe intermediaries and hate to be "handled" by corporate types.  Overall, it is good to see the return of a little danger and unpredictability to the music industry.  It would never have been so without the prodding of web trailblazers like Napster and ArtistDirect and MusicToday.  Rock on.

Apple Passed on a Chance to Make Phone History

Funny how shiny objects captivate and confuse us.  Take the Franz Mesmer performed by Steve Jobs last week with the introduction of the Apple iPhone mobile phone.  Among the more hyperbolic statements made, was Jobs' assertion that the Apple phone would “reinvent” the telecommunications sector.  The reality is, the unit may prove to influence the future of handsets, or perhaps handset GUIs, but the entire telecommunications sector, I think not.  They could have changed the world and won the hearts and wallets of BubbleGen consumers everywhere, but they whiffed  Tom Evslin put it well:

The telecommunications sector (or at least the mobile part of it) WOULD have been reinvented if Apple said that the WiFi connection on the phone could be used to make voice calls without going through the Cingular network.  But they didn’t.

The telecommunications sector (or at least the mobile part of it) WOULD have been reinvented if Apple had announced a phone which is network agnostic and  let the carriers rush to announce their support for it.  But they didn’t.   Read more.

No, the hero of the Bubble Generation will be the company with the courage to break the mold and more importantly, break the "carrier barrier," giving consumers the freedom of choice they value above all other features. 

Google Plans for Life After the Internet

From issue 2585 of New Scientist magazine, 10 January 2007, page 21

Google has revolutionized web advertising with its AdSense system, which displays adverts for products related to the page being viewed. Now it wants to do the same for billboard ads.

In a patent the company has filed, it argues that however glitzy the ads that run on electronic billboards in shopping malls and out on the street, they are all but useless if local stores have not got the advertised products in stock. Google has come up with a system that only advertises products available nearby.

Stores buying advertising time on local electronic billboards are able to connect their stock-control computers to the network. The ads are displayed in rotation, but only until the stock-control computer reports the product as sold out. At that point, the ad is omitted from the cycle until the product is restocked.

Another work stream of the BubbleGen Affect...

I Want My Mobile TV

If form follows function, expect a stream of new video formats--like mobisodes--to satisfy the interests of the mobile viewer. 

To wit: Perhaps seeing its "M" now standing for mobile, MTV Networks has announced an expansion of its partnership with Amp'd to provide original episodic shows for the Amp'd phone. 

"MTV Networks and Amp'd Mobile are building an entirely new model for the creation, development and distribution of short-form programming for consumers to access on their handset," said Greg Clayman, senior vice president of mobile media for MTV Networks.

Interestingly, MTV is not attempting to recast regular TV content to the small screen, but rather plans to repurpose the mobisodes for its TV properties, including MTV, mtvU, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike and Logo.

Quietly, a cultural revolution is taking place as we redefine entertainment for a moving-target audience.

The Bubble Generation is Cursed with Knowledge

My kids are cursed.  So are yours.  As part of that giant cohort of people to come of age after the Internet bubble burst, their curse is that they simply know too much.  Take technology, for example.  They have grown up in an online world, with mobile phones in their pockets, wireless gaming in their rooms.  They are completely comfortable with avatar worlds and MP3s and instant everything. 

And of course, the true curse of knowledge is that you can't unlearn what you've learned.  They cannot now imagine a world without technology, without web surfing, and social media and shopcasting.  And, moreover, they cannot understand why things aren't advancing as fast as they should.  They want it live, always on and they want it now.  That's a species-level change in worldview in the span of a generation. 

The biggest challenge for marketers today is to keep up with the accelerating expectations of people who know too much. 

This week's Consumer Electronics Show, for example, underwhelmed not because the products weren't new and novel and worthy, but because we (read: a substantial part of the consuming public led by BubbleGens) have already intellectualized and even made emotional accommodation for these products.  In other words, we expected them already.  What used to amaze and mesmerize about new products shows was the world's fair-wonder of the unexpected and the unforeseen.  Not much left on that front these days, I'm afraid.  Bill Gates' snoozer annual CES vision speech was again battled by Steve Jobs spitting out a new rap on what makes stuff cool.  Not that Gates was wrong; we've simply heard it all before.  At least Jobs could radiate his reality distortion field and make us want utilities (mobile phones and set-top boxes) with a little pizazz.   

No, the real news of this week should be the emerging worry that we can no longer please our customers with business-as-usual results.  The bar has been raised several notches and expectations are now exceedingly high.  It is a recipe for disappointment and disaster.  The best thing we can all do as technology marketers is focus on the fundamentals.  We need to make damn sure the moving parts work, the quality of experience is high, the follow-through is there.  The competition has moved beyond technology now, to experience.  If we screw that up, the only place left is to compete on price.  Then the wheels really fall off the bus.

Long and short of it: Your customers know as much or more than you do today.  They know what to expect, they know what they want and what they don't want.  You can't fool them any more with flash and misdirection.  Time to stand and deliver an experience worthy of their knowledge.  That is, after all, the final curse of knowledge: knowing but not getting.  You've been warned.   

CES Now One Step Behind Consumers

There was a time when the Consumer Electronics Show excited the imagination with mind-boggling wizardry and gadgetry.  Not any more.  Today, CES feels like it is merely satisfying already articulated needs of the consumer, like its actually playing catch-up.  Live TV to the third screen?  Bring it on.  Slingcatcher tossing PC content to the TV, what's the hold up?    Wireless home theater?  Ho hum.  The issue is that the Bubble Generation--30 million strong in the US alone--is a huge cadre of early adopters and trailblazers.  This generation is so comfortable with technology, so ready to embrace new things, that it is hard to wow them.  That may explain why so much media interest today has shifted over to San Francisco and Steve Job's latest Apple revelations.  If its old hat technology (in this case long rumored), at least it has style and will be presented with panache. 

What are the implications of a more frantic new technology adoption cycle?  Let's call it the BubbleGen Affect.  Early acceptance, fast adoption, rapid market growth. Start again.  We are now seeing entire markets born, grow, morph and sometimes die in the span of a silicon generation.  This is nose-bleed territory.

What are the ramifications for future fanny-grabs like CES?  Not clear.  After all, it will be increasingly tough to capture that "wow factor" when your customers are already clamoring for more.

As we have seen in industry after industry, the compressed time to market for new applications and features is driving a business revolution behind the scenes.  Today, Moore's Law is accelerating in certain areas as chip generations face rising pressures to deliver more for less.  Throughout the food chain companies are struggling to balance speed with accuracy, to get next gen products to the dock before they become obsolete.  A mobile phone generation has been slashed from maybe a year to just weeks.  Laptops are in continuous release.  Web sites need to launch while still in ideation.  It is a brutal environment except for the fastest, most open (read: collaborative) companies in every sector.

What are the ramifications for future fanny-grabs like CES?  Not clear.  After all, it will be increasingly tough to capture that "wow factor" when your customers are already clamoring for more.

Mounting Data Behind Bubble Generation Behavior

We are starting to get substance behind anecdotal evidence of Bubble Generation behavior.  Today, the Pew Internet & American Life Project issued its latest survey showing that more than half (55%) of all American kids ages 12-17 use online social networking sites.  The telephone survey, conducted in October and November among 935 online youths between the ages of 12 and 17, shows just how prevalent and influential social and shpocasting sites have become among younger BubbleGens.

Significant Survey Findings

• 55% of online teens have created a personal profile online, and 55% have used social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.
• 66% of teens who have created a profile say that their profile is not visible to all Internet users. They limit access to their profiles.
• 48% of teens visit social networking websites daily or more often; 26% visit once a day, 22% visit several times a day.
• Older girls ages 15-17 are more likely to have used social networking sites and created online profiles; 70% of older girls have used an online social network compared with 54% of older boys, and 70% of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57% of older boys have done so.

Teens say social networking sites help them manage their friendships

• 91% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person.
• 72% of all social networking teens use the sites to make plans with friends; 49% use the sites to make new friends.
• Older boys who use social networking sites (ages 15-17) are more likely than girls of the same age to say that they use social networking sites to make new friends (60% vs. 46%).
• Just 17% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to flirt.
• Older boys who use social networking sites are more than twice as likely as older girls to say they use the sites to flirt; 29% report this compared with just 13% of older girls.

Of Note: MySpace dominates the Social Networking landscape

• Fully 85% of teens who have created an online profile say the profile they use or update most often is on MySpace, while 7% update a profile on Facebook. Another 1% tend to a primary profile on Xanga. Other sites mentioned were Yahoo, Piczo, Gaiaonline and Tagged.com.

The Power--and Perils--of Wikinomics

There's an old joke about a camel being a horse designed by committee that speaks well to the frustrations and limitations of group thinking.  But in the world of web 2.0, we are rapidly learning the very real benefits of peer collaboration and the wisdom of crowds.  An excellent new book on this subject is Wikinomics--How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. 

The book is an critical look at an important new business paradigm, and another great contribution to managing for the digital age from Tapscott.

At its core, the book explores many of the subjects covered by this blog over the past months in a very comprehensive look at using the power of social networks to create or improve every aspect of a product or market cycle. 

Key takeaways from the book:

• An open invitation to collaborative input from your love base keeps you in real-time touch with your users
• Peer-to-Peer collaboration often creates new and unforeseen outcomes and offerings
• Collaborating with users, suppliers and other stakeholders can reduce costs
• Collaborating with competitors can shift competitive focus and transform industries
• Social capital generated by collaboration is a multi-party compact that should benefit all participants

In my mind, the book's only shortcoming is that it does not adequately explore the "soft" challenges inherent in open systems of collaboration.  While web 2.0 provides the means and mechanism for mass collaboration, success will require a massive cultural change for most organizations.  Without that culture change, without understanding the limitations, the need for well-defined rules of the road and outcomes, without settling on governing principles that create win-win results, collaborative companies risk disappointing and even dispiriting their cohorts.  And that would be more challenging than never opening the conversation in the first place.  Nothing worse that joining a hot group on a well-intentioned mission only to ride off into the sunset on a spitting camel.

Five Web 2.0 Predictions for 2007

Okay, I'm no Pat Robertson, but I have spoken with a few gods of the high tech world and I have formulated a few prognostications of my own for 2007.

First, the growing popularity of social media sites and the growing trend of shopcasting will create a new phenomenon of Social Shopping Groups.  Using the strength in their numbers, these groups will buy together and create new opportunities for themselves.  This is a logical way to capitalize upon and monetize like-minded members of a social community.  I would foresee special pricing and group-only deals on everything from gadgets to concerts.

Second, we will see the rise in new Web.20 Gadgets.  If the first wave of the Internet meant every computer linked to every other computer, the next wave will see every device connected each other via the Internet.  Expect Christmas '07 to see numerous Internet-connected devices like the Chumby to fill store shelves.

Third, it is inevitable that Location-Based marketing and advertising will grow.  Combining existing or WiMax mobile telephony and GPS technology, marketers will soon create unique, situational offers tracked to specific locales.  Like store end caps and counter displays, the watchwords here will be convenience, utility and impulse.

Speaking of advertising, the fourth big trend in 2007 will be the flowering of Behavioral Advertising.  Expect to see a new vision of the Internet, not as real estate but as experience.  None of the roadside, contextual ads we currently run, or the interruption commercials we are attempting to migrate to the web are working for this medium.  A new model will be developed to cross tab consumer behavior with consumer interests.  Media companies like Tacoda will lead the way.

Fifth, you can bet on Web 2.0 Culture leaping off the Internet this year.  Led by Bubble Generation consumers and employees, we should see numerous examples of the spirit of web 2.0 infiltrating the rest of society.  From the Wikinomics of mass collaboration and group production to new standards in trust verification, web 2.0 will emerge as a cultural phenomenon in 2007.