August 30th, 2010 by Paul Spence
What kind of attributes do you need to make a start-up dream team? When we think about high flying tech companies, a single high profile founder often springs to mind. But the reality is that start-ups with high growth potential need a mix of skills to build something long-lasting.
A lot depends on the type of business that you are thinking about starting. But for a definition of a basic start-up team I quite like the analogy of “finder, minder and grinder”. The Grinder is the person with domain knowledge. In a software start-up it’s obviously a skilled developer, at a micro-brewery it’s the brewer, in a restaurant it’s the chef. The Minder looks after the accounts, makes sure the money gets banked and the bills paid and later on, helps to raise capital. The Finder is your marketing guru who gets out there and makes the all important sales, without which there will be no business.
When we established ideegeo and started developing domain registrar iWantMyName, that was pretty much the roles we each took on. Being a web start-up we also had a designer at the outset, which was important for us. Now I don’t want to be too prescriptive because there are always exceptions to a rule and there is almost always some overlap in these early co-founder roles as well. But “finder, minder, grinder” is a good rule of thumb to get your team started.
On Thursday 9th September Unlimited Potential will be running the Co-founder Match-making Event in conjunction with the Bright Ideas Challenge and Grow Wellington. This event is specifically aimed at taking people with I.T. related bright ideas and matching them with others who have technology or business skills to take these projects forward. The event is NOT for consultants looking to sell services to companies; it’s for folks who actually want to put their time into a project in return for equity and a bigger potential return downstream.
If you are a developer, designer, web marketing expert or just have a great tech idea you want some help with – come along to this facilitated networking session and find your dream team! We will also be having inspiring Minimonos co-founder and serial tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds join us for the evening.
Please create a short profile on the new Unlimited Potential website and register for the event.
Tags: business, domain registrar, entrepreneur, founders, start-ups
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start-Ups, ideegeo | No Comments »
August 9th, 2010 by Paul Spence
Companies traditionally put a huge amount of resources into carving out and dominating niches within a particular product category. Airline loyalty programmes are one example of the lengths marketers will go to in order to retain customers. But in more dynamic markets such as web-based services, the old rules no longer apply. Customer acquisition trumps retention every time. Do the math.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that there are a total of 100 customers in your target category and that 20% change their loyalty each year. So, ignoring any organic growth, there is a total pool of 20 customers up for grabs in any given year. A start-up entering the field does well and secures 5 of these floating customers in the first year. But they will lose one of these customers at the end of the first year on average. In the second year there are still 20 customers looking to change provider. If the start-up succeeds with customer acquisition at the same rate it will still more than double it’s user base.
Being a small brand in a market with high defection rates is risky. Growing customer numbers as quickly as possible is insurance against future defections. A larger brand can weather the storm. For many product categories in fact, 20% loyalty churn would be extraordinarily high. So a new entrant has its work cut out for it on both fronts because in some industries the number of shifters is fewer.
I’ve over-simplified the figures, but you see my point. Acquiring customers from the pool of dissatisfied users is the primary goal of a start-up. In the case of web-based services, create a better user experience and you immediately tap into that pool. Customer retention will also take care of itself. Because the domain registrar industry is in dire need of innovation and there is a large number of disaffected users, this is the approach we have taken at iWantMyName.
Tags: domains, iwantmyname, marketing
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Management, Start-Ups | 1 Comment »
August 2nd, 2010 by Paul Spence
Chris Carter’s clumsy and self-serving attempt to foment dissent amongst the ranks of the Labour caucus are remarkable but not without precedent. Carter’s brain explosion was never going to end happily for him. Ironically, his irrational behaviour has given the party a rallying point that might actually strengthen Goff’s position as leader – at least for the time being.
Chris Trotter’s commentary last week indicates that the Left have washed their hands of the rogue MP. Trotter’s analysis is right on the button. In the wake of losing power and with the departure of his ally Helen Clark it seems like Carter was left in the political wilderness. Too much time on his hands led to some outlandish excuses for publicly funded travel which was the beginning of his unravelling. Carter’s puerile attempt at payback after being sidelined by Goff earlier this year will not have won him any friends amongst the electorate faithful.
Carter may well have been right about Goff’s inability to front at the next election but that is a moot point. Goff may have more political nous than he is given credit for. With Shane Jones exposed (so to speak) and Carter shamed, there are very few from within the Labour caucus that would be in contention. In the long term, the leadership will be contested by someone who is not yet even an elected MP but who is being quietly groomed for greater things. In the short term Labour may be willing to sacrifice Goff to an election that might be unwinnable irrespective of the leadership. If the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup in October 2011 it will be worth 10 points in the polls to the incumbent government.
Posted in Opinion, Politics | 2 Comments »
July 19th, 2010 by Paul Spence
You have to give credit where it’s due. Air New Zealand’s spin doctors have had a delicious time making their engagement with Virgin Blue sound like a huge bonus for customers. Unfortunately the reality of the situation is somewhat different. Our national airline’s lusty desire for consummating a union with Virgin may sound like a match made in heaven but it should not be allowed to get airborne without a proper pre-flight inspection.
The two airlines plan to merge and rationalise all their trans-Tasman operations in order to compete more effectively. With Qantas and its low cost offspring Jetstar making rapid inroads into market share and a host of other carriers dumping excess capacity in the region the blue team are taking a beating. It makes perfect economic sense for the airlines to work together, but there is no upside for passengers – especially those from Wellington, where ANZ and PBN already face little opposition.
No matter what spin the airlines put on the alliance proposal, there are only two possible outcomes for consumers if it proceeds – fewer flights and higher prices between New Zealand and Australia. That is the sole objective because it is the only way the airlines can get revenue per seat to a sustainable level. The net result is that eventually one brand will cease to exist. Given that Air New Zealand is entrenched, it is likely to be Pacific Blue that dies. This will also reduce competition on the domestic scene. That would be a shame because both companies are highly innovative and have excellent customer service standards.
In any event New Zealand’s domestic market has never been able to sustain more than two airline brands historically and somebody will blink eventually. Then the era of cheap airfares will be over, at least for a while. On the other hand Singapore’s Tiger Airways is waiting in the wings – so to speak, although with its appalling customer service record it is questionable whether Tiger’s arrival would be either beneficial or long-lived.
There are however two possible benefits of the proposed alliance to consider. Firstly, Air New Zealand gains access to Virgin’s domestic feeder traffic and marketing machine. That would be a plus for the New Zealand tourism industry and a long awaited return to the Australian market since Air New Zealand’s near death experience with its misjudged acquisition of Ansett back in 2000. Secondly, with more A320s on the way, Air New Zealand will have more capacity irrespective of its partnership status. There may be scope to launch some kind of new low cost option to address this section of the market and placate the regulators.
There is a certain inevitability about all of this, so it’s important that any deal gets properly examined. Australia handles such proposals through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, but in New Zealand it will likely be a Cabinet level decision. Considering that the New Zealand government is the majority shareholder in one of the applicant companies, that would seem to be a slight conflict of interest. Hopefully a compromise can be hammered out that both ensures the viability of airline services and protects competition in the market.
Posted in Economy, Management, Opinion, Politics | No Comments »
June 28th, 2010 by Paul Spence
GeniusNet is proud to host the ION e-Letter. ION is New Zealand’s original virtual community forum for innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors.
ION is kindly supported by EGL, Revera and iWantMyName.
During 2010 we are moving to an opt-in newsletter format for ION. Through our relationship with Silicon Valley based theStartupDigest.com we can now offer you a weekly digest update of tech/biz/startup events across New Zealand. To check out the latest NZ digest, follow this short link:
http://iwmn.me/1gOw4A
Hit the subscription button within the digest to get a weekly update of events in New Zealand and please let us know if you have a technology, innovation or startup event or a cool product launch that you wish to promote. Also, if you are heading offshore on company business, don’t forget to check out other regional Startup Digest event listings.
Follow ION on Twitter
Posted in ION | No Comments »
June 14th, 2010 by Paul Spence
At this time of year when it’s cold, grey and wet, it becomes all too easy to simply enter hibernation mode. But businesses don’t stop running just because the weather sucks and certainly nobody can afford to stop creating and implementing new ideas. Every so often we need to escape our local environs, go away and stimulate our brain cells by becoming totally absorbed in something completely different. That’s why I’m looking forward to my trip to X|Media|Lab Sydney later this week.
X|Media|Lab is a highly effective and affordable globally focussed event for businesses involved in the digital media innovation space. The event comprises a conference day plus a weekend workshop for selected project teams. There are also social events at which the organisers can facilitate introductions to potential partners, investors and international mentors. X|Media|Lab visited New Zealand in 2008 and 2009 and we’d love to see them back again. The events are organised at venues around the world, several times a year and attract a who’s who of speakers from the worlds of digital media, animation, games and mobile.
With ideegeo being essentially a business software developer, I wasn’t sure we would ever get the chance to attend the international mentoring workshops – but much to my delight, the opportunity has arisen. No, we haven’t started creating digital animated games or building social network sites, but we have begun conceptualising a product that will help such sites to monetise. So it was with much excitement that we found our project had been selected as one of a handful for mentoring from over 80 entries.
We’ve already been talking to some very smart people about the idea but there is more work to be done. Whether or not we can take the next step will largely hinge on securing some high level partnerships at a very early stage. Such relationships are difficult to secure without travelling outside of New Zealand. X|Media|Lab brings a bunch of influential movers and shakers to our front doorstep. It’s an opportunity we are relishing.
Tags: ideegeo, media, monetisation, startup, sydney, xmedialab
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investment, Start-Ups, Technology, Web 2.0, ideegeo | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010 by Paul Spence
A winter retreat for scientists interested in medical research and biotechnology is bringing some of the world’s finest science researchers together for a week long convocation.
Queenstown has for many years played host to a number of research meetings across a diverse range of topics from molecular biology to neuroscience. Now these meetings are being clustered into a knowledge fest being labelled as Queenstown Research Week. It’s an opportunity for local researchers to mingle with and learn from some of the world’s leading minds from within the medical and biotech arenas.
It is also an opportunity for investors to hear about opportunities within biotech and to promote science commercialisation in general. No doubt there will also be some quiet analysis during the coffee breaks on whether or not there is any substance to Craig Venter’s recent pronouncement that life had been created in a test-tube.
Irrespective of one’s position on that particular topic, one thing is certain. Medical and biotechnological science is advancing at a rapid rate and such fields create wonderful opportunities to improve human quality of life, address environmental problems and deliver economic gains – provided these technologies are viewed with a robust ethical overlay.
Posted in Economy, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Knowledge, Science, Technology | No Comments »
May 24th, 2010 by Paul Spence
Lean Startup methodology when applied to technology start-up companies advocates rapid prototyping, iterative re-testing of market assumptions and soliciting frequent customer feedback to more quickly evolve a product offering. At a recent lunchtime seminar hosted by Wellington’s Lean Startup group, we discussed when to pivot.
Pivoting involves a fundamental change to one or more of the three fundamental questions that frame the business model and could be a response to either a flawed model or a new opportunity.
We Are Selling What? + Via Which Channel? + To Whom?
Bruce Aylward from Psoda described how his company underwent a complete change in strategic direction in terms of how their product was marketed and distributed. Psoda is a SaaS suite that assists professionals to manage programs, projects, requirements, testing and product development. Psoda’s pivot point came when they realised that customers only wanted some of the services being offered – so they created a pick ‘n mix option. It was a subtle change that boosted the company’s revenue take.
The domain registrar industry has a well established model and hundreds of incumbents. Finding ways to innovate within such a model is tough, but it is the only way forward for a new company. At iWantMyName our pivot point came when we realised we were creating a scalable platform-as-a-service offering that we could rapidly roll out to channel partners. It was a great learning experience for us that added a lot of value to our business.
Tags: domains, Entrepreneurship, iwantmyname, lean startups, Technology
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, domains, ideegeo | No Comments »