Lessons from MIT's Start Up Boot Camp 2010

Check out this interesting synopsis by Darmesh Shah's OnStartUps of MIT's Start Up Boot Camp 2010. It was a an interesting event highlighted by Bob Metcalf's pithy remarks and preferred start up team formula of "Suits & Geeks"

The Evolution of Online Advertising

John Battelle - head of Federated Media - has an interesting post on Silicone Alley Insider today discussing the necessary evolution of targeted advertising online. As online advertisers develop ever more sophisticated means of targeting their prospects - tracking your and my movements across the web, our physical location, past buying behavior, key word searches etc - to deliver their messages to the most "appropriate" audience, we have reached a point where it feels like we are being followed around the web. Targeting a message to a specific group of prospects is as old as marketing itself. But today's technology now allows marketers to see much more than what they could in the past - a zip code, a demorgraphic or a past purchase. They can now see who you talk to most on Face Book. What your most recent search was on Google. Where you last checked in on Four Square.

So Battelle rightly proposes these advertisers offer us the ability to politely say "no thanks, maybe later" - just as you might do when shopping at an actual store. The new marketing parading isn't to tell the customer that your products or services are awesome - but to have them say it to their friends. Help them have this conversation - give them the choice to opt out. Because they are saying "no" already - and if you give them a choice maybe next time it will be "yes".

Check out the full article at http://bit.ly/cAsttd

MBA's and Start Ups: A must read for my MBA class mates

So you think you want to get an MBA and start a company .....
read this first

http://bit.ly/cDfgCT

The Gratefull Dead Business Model

Check out this interesting write up from OnStartups.com on the importance of developing a compelling user experience and an unique business model - rather than simply copying the competition.

http://bit.ly/d327uN

Having just returned from three months China - where it seems innovation comes a distant second to duplication and re itteration of current ideas/business but profits are high - this is an interesting point. Does innovation in terms of business models always matter?

First Steps - Start Up's in China

The start up tech scene in China is very active, VC's are taking notice and e-commerce will be the big money draw over the next two to three years. Things like private shopping and group buying are quickly becoming established as normal activities, and the market here will be both the largest and diverse in the world (e.g. the number of people online in China is greater than the total number of people living in the US - and purchasing power per is growing in certain areas at 20 - 30% per year)

More up dates soon

Start Up Lessons Learned

Some video well worth watching from the Startup Lessons Learned Conference last week in SF. There's a lot here http://bit.ly/cuBgSx


Check out Steve Blank's "Why Accountants don't run startups"

Sourced from Venture Hacks

Re working old concepts: "word of mouth" best new thing for online marketers

There was an interesting post on Business Insider today "Facebook's Ads Work REALLY WELL When Facebook can get users talking about them" http://bit.ly/apHnzw - an article from AdAge.

Essentially it is put foreword that "branding ads" - paid ads such as banners on Facebook are much more impact full - in this case producing better click through rates to X company website - when the X company brand is followed by a friend of a user. The argument is that by developing followers - or friends - of your company on Facebook - your paid ads become more relevant and interesting to a user who's friends are following you. Nielsen research indicates - through various percentage points - that this type of user - follower - company - friend dynamic raises brand awareness, recall and purchasing intent (although it is dubious how this last percentage increase is determined as the research doesn't extend to off line purchases).

While this is good news for brands that are are actively advertising on Facebook and also developing their "follower" network - this is by no means a new, or even surprising, development. Facebook is certainly the paradigm of new social media, and one of the biggest potential advertising media platforms in the world. But that doesn't mean that the dynamic of brand exposure to purchasing will really be changed by a medium. Word of mouth - in this case seeing that your friend is a friend of brand X - is the oldest and best form of advertising. Facebook and the expanding world of digital marketing experts surely get this. But what is missing from the argument is how any user became interested enough in a brand to follow it in the first place.

50% of your advertising will work - its just a matter of knowing which 50%. The dilemma here for Facebook and any other online social/news media is how do you bring in early adopters if they don't already know about your product brand. Advertising a banner on Facebook without the accompanying follower group is no more effective than any other online banner (less than 1% of users click on the average web banner ad). So we know word of mouth is important. And we know combining paid and organic advertising is important on mediums like Facebook. But we still don't know how to generate enough interest/brand awareness with users - typically early adopters - to even get to that point. At least not if solely online.

So maybe print/radio/TV advertising is important and not really all that "dead". Im sure some wouldn't agree

Countdown: leaving for the Orient in T minus 7 days

Today was my second to last day working at Blue Water Sailing Media (if you don't know the definition of niche, special interest media - look it up under Blue Water). Wrapping things up after 4 years of highs and lows is easier said than done. In a week I leave for China - an introduction to management education via the Pacific Rim and a crash course in cultural revolution - or something along those lines.

This is a primer blog post - more interesting things will probably begin to happen when I land in Beijing if this all goes as planned.

Later on I will post stories, photos and videos of my expericnes in China and then my time at BU. Interspersed in these chronological postings will be insightful blogs on what is happening in the world of new media.

Above is a photo of a beach in the French West Indies visited in December - a reminder of what I am giving up by leaving BWS. Time will tell is this was a wise choice.