On Rad's Radar? - startup Archives

A Day in My Brain

2012-05-18T14:19:54Z

I was in NYC (Tribeca) this week to spend the day at a Q&A session with Seth Godin. He is a marketing guru and author of a lot of best selling business books. Like these:

Here are some of the gems that I liked.

"A "brand" is the promise of an experience." [Boy, could I riff on that one!] Brand IS the experience. Accept that most people won't like you. Build a tribe that will.

Commit to one marketplace or two. You can't chop all the trees down in the forest with one hatchet.

"It's way easier to sell water to thirsty people than to make thirsty people. It's OK to remind people they're thirsty." The corollary to that is People buy to avoid pain more often than they buy to gain pleasure.

You can try to create demand for your service, like trying to make people thirsty. Or you can find thirsty people and sell them water.

"Define failure before you start. When you reach that point, stop, learn and move on to the next thing." [It's a concept from Seth's book, The Dip]

"The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters."

"People spend their time and attention and money in places that make them feel valued." Are you making your customers feel valued?

What is the world view of your target customer? Does your marketing line up with that?

For a brief few, Seth talked about working for a start-up versus working for Google or Apple or Facebook. A start-up is about growth If you want fast-paced; to make an impact; and to learn, join the start-up. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook are in the "keep it going" mode. You won't have an impact there. You will be a cog in the machine. In our world, working for any of the billion dollar LEC's or MSO's is like working for Facebook, only a lot less cool on your resume.

What is Important to you? Tom Peters says that he can tell what is important to you from calendar. What does your schedule say about what's important to you?

It's all about Direct Marketing and Pay for Performance. (Social media is a tool of direct marketing.)

There is no road map.

It's all about connection and association. Are you connecting people?

We have mass disruption going on today. Every industry including our own is being disrupted by the Internet. Why? The Internet is the first device that is both a Receiver and a transmitter. That's the problem.

Hopefully one of these nuggets gets you thinking.

Some notes made it to this Power Point I created.

Some Stuff Happened While I Was on Daycation

2012-04-23T18:23:04Z

I was taking today and tomorrow off to visit with some pals but the news won't quit.

In the I-can't-stand-it zone, the University of Florida decides that TD's are more important than IT and cuts the Computer Science Department. Just when Florida is playing host to the Rupublican Convention and is looking to make a name for itself, that name becomes DUM or MUD. In a time when we need more science and computer nerds, the state U decides to go a different way.

In Tampa, the former CEO of Savvis has closed his e-commerce company, Savtira, after a flurry of promises to hire 200 people and a number of odg and pony shows about the hot future. Apparently, he has done this before.

Cbeyond has decided that traditional agents are not its future. The Cloud has different demands and demands different partners.

Coresite bought Comfluent to enter the Denver market. "Comfluent plays a vital role in the interconnection community in the western U.S., serving more than 75 customers and managing the Rocky Mountain Internet eXchange (RMIX), the region's largest Internet exchange with access to more than 25 networks. Comfluent currently leases two sites that total approximately 9,300 NRSF," according to the SunHerald

Verizon Wireless wants its deal with the cablecos / SpectrumCo to go through, so it promised to sell off some spectrum. T-Mobile and others think that is just smoke and the deal should still be axed. [see here and there]

Tucows, a domain registrar and fellow ISPCON standard, runs an MVNO called TING.

Vodafone is bidding $1.7B USD to buy Cable & Wireless, according to Rueters

Linux talent will be important in 2013, especially in data centers, reports the Channel Insider

Alex Doyle left Broadsoft for Polycom. Good luck at the new position, Alex!

from Tony: An Insider's Guide to Technology Analysts

Dean Parker, CEO of Callis in Mobile, AL, has been selected in the top 12 finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Alabama/Tennessee/ Georgia region.

The Latest in VoIP Updates

2011-09-19T22:00:37Z

There is just so many press releases. I'd say news but much of it is not new (that is to say innovative) or really news worthy other than as tidbits of info to keep up on the sector.

Metaswitch got into the SBC market, because their clients didn't want to buy the market leader, Acme Packet. Level3 jumped into the SBC market with a new service: Managed SBC.

Skype bought Groupme for a rumored $80M. Groupme was a contestant at the second Startup Camp, that also had the makers of the Android desktop phone, Glass.

Interesting thought: Inter-op is about user experience, so is device choice. Think about deployment from the user's experience.

Telesphere partnered with CosmoCom to add cloud-based contact center solutions. That's one more customer that won't be using BroadCloud. Oops! BSFT bought web conferencing company, iLinc, for just $2.4M. The hope is that clients will use BroadCloud instead of third party companies (like Citrix, MegaMeeting or CosmoCom) to fill in the UC components needed for the complete UC experience.

Sangoma acquired all the key assets of Vegastream.

InterCall announced that it will extend its Smoothstone VoiceMaxx IP-PBX services with the addition of VoiceMaxx CE, a suite of service packages based on the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution. Both Smoothstone and Intercall are owned by West Corp.

Here's something startling: a company debuted at ITEXPO with "a 100 percent turnkey white label product that will not only include provisioning, support, billing and telco services, but will also incorporate all of RealLinx products (VoiceLinx, SecurityLinx and BroadbandLinx)."

RingCentral got $10M more in funding. Aren't they self-sufficient yet?

8×8 recently acquired cloud-based call center provider Contactual Hosting.

"NetSapiens' SNAPsolution is utilized by One Source Networks to power a hybrid of cloud-based and premise-based solutions, integrating all of the necessary service delivery components critical to the OSN VoIP infrastructure, such as accounting, provisioning, and call switching to enable OSN's end-user applications such as unified communications, virtual PBX, conferencing, and enhanced call center solutions."

"Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere allows customers to use their smart phones and computers as VoIP handsets with complete business phone system capabilities."

CounterPath added SMS, chat and presence to its Bria mobile app. Counterpath also launched the Client Configuration Server (CCS), a carrier grade server platform specifically designed to allow enterprises and service providers the ability to efficiently and consistently deploy, configure, update and upgrade softphone and UC Client end-points.

Zendesk adds some VoIP functionality via Twilio. Zendesk Voice is a cloud-based call center that integrates with the startup's popular help-desk platform.

Vocal IP Networx now offers a unified communications (UC) platform, dubbed Vocal UC, utilizing Microsoft Lync software.

ITEXPO in Austin Will Be Hot

2011-08-04T22:04:52Z

Taking a cue from Jon Arnold, here's what I have going on at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin (a move from Los Angeles in previous years):

While I will miss the chance to hit Manhattan Beach for some beach volleyball, this will be my first time in Austin.

It's also the first time that there will be a CMO Summit at ITEXPO. My company and my pal's company, CR8 Group, in conjunction with a great team at TMC - Dave, Anna and Mike - are bringing in 2 speakers to discuss Online Branding. Rich Tehrani wrote about it today. CMO, CEO, President or VP of Marketing only. 75 execs in charge of marketing to network and learn. Apply for a ticket now!

I usually have a panel for Reseller Day or under the ITEXPO banner for VoIP, but this year I am moderating 2 panels for the Social CRM Expo. Keeping with the CMO theme of online marketing, my panels run from 2-3:45. At 2, Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing with Shawna vercher on the panel. At 3, Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Both should be pretty informative. (Wait until you see the panelists!)

Then over on the show floor, the Channel Vision Expo will be happening. Get ready for a Channel Manager Round Table!

Startup Camp is at 5PM on the 14th! That is a don't miss session.

If you will be in town, let me know - I woould love to have coffee, a drink, dinner or interview you for the blog. Email me for a time!

What You Can Learn from Blackberry

2011-06-30T17:13:34Z

An employee of Blackberry published an open letter to the co-CEO's on the web [see it here]. There are lessons for all in this letter.

1) It's all about the USER Experience. The people buying your product / service are the ones you have to please. Not Wall Street, your VC's, or your own desires. At the end of the day, if no one buys it.....

2) Focus. You can't be everything to everybody. You want to be everything to your Tribe! It's too expensive to market to everyone. It's also not possible to deliver great product / services to everyone. For example, every VoIP deployment can not be custom or your support folks won't have a clue how to care for your customers.

Another example, is that if you say you are a Cloud company or a VoIP company, how do you wrap into that story the 25 other services that you offer that have nothing to do with your primary focus? Stick to the knitting. Focus on delivering a few good services to a well-defined niche (at high margin). Be an expert - the best of breed in a category. [For more on this see The Dip by Seth Godin.]

3) The marketing isn't about your technology or your service, because no one gives a crap about you or your stuff. What do they care about? Themselves. The story has to be about THEM not you. How does buying your stuff make them cool, sexy, money, productive, rich? Period.

4) Leadership is importance. Not just through the tough times but also through the crazy growth times and even through the boring"things are going smoothly along" phase. Leadership sets the tone for everyone. Leadership sees the Vision and walks the talk.

5) Apps. It's what is driving EVERYTHING! Apps to make people productive or to let them play or to help them connect / communicate. It's apps that are driving Cloud, broadband, mobility, start-ups, everything.

It's not just Blackberry that has lessons to learn.

Growth Starts Here

2011-06-08T15:03:42Z

This is from GE's 2010 Annual Report. I liked the graphic and the slogan: Growth Starts Here! When I think about GE that brings good things to life, I think that they must have very good people and a culture to applaud innovation AND failure (because you can't innovation without risk and failure). This is what it must have been like in the hey day at XEROX PARC, AT&T Labs and 3M.

Today, most job growth comes from small business and startups. Don't believe me? Look it up or consider that for revenue growth, big companies have to achieve synergies which is political talk for firing redundant employees. So every merger is a net loss of jobs.

I work with a the tech startup community in Tampa Bay and with the many smaller service providers in the US telecom industry. Here's where growth starts.

Grasshopper Group closed down a new division called Speadable. They are doing a 4-part post mortem. One takeaway: every product or startup needs a Leader. This is key. It has to be a strong leader too. She has to have Vision to see it through the many challenges ahead.

Dane Jasper of Sonic.Net is one of those types of leaders. He has a vision and he is driving forward undeterred. A Big Congrats to him! Donny Smith at Jaguar Communications is another leader with a vision driving him forward.

It's about risk for sure, but its having conviction in your vision and the passion, desire and drive to run down any hurdle, tackle every challenge to get continue down your path.

That doesn't mean blindly either. You have to make course corrections as data comes in.

I look at the companies in Tampa Bay at that growing - 2 jobs, 4 jobs, 8 jobs - and I see strong leaders. And its these businesses that are creating jobs and helping out the local economy. The local (city, county, state) government needs to help. These companies don't need tax breaks or subsidies. What they do need is help with government regulations (and the paperwork to go with it); assistance with grants and loans; and communication with the local leaders.

It's easier than ever to start a business. (In fact, July 8-10 is Startup Weekend in America, where folks from a community will get together, team-up, and launch a business in 54 hours.)

It's the passion and vision that fuels the growth. That vision and passion has to infuse everything, from sales to talent to culture to customer care. But it never gets easier. Everyday is a new challenge, a different struggle. And when the passion fades, so will the growth.