A very impressive feature on sites is live chat. IT shows the site owner cares enough to staff someone there. However i am offended when it is one of those chatbots. it hurts the user experience because i feel like im being treated like an idiot. either real live chat or no chat at all. No Soup for you!
I recently was asked to help people recruit some developers. I said sure but i’d like to get paid like any recruiter would. I’m not a recruiter nor do i offer the service but the once in a while where i’ll do it, i expect to get paid. Mind you this executive said “money is no object” and that they were intrapreneurial in a big company and that they can’t find any good developers themselves. Meanwhile they have an internal HR department and when it came to signing the paperwork, they said their internal recruiters were happy with their existing external recruiters and don’t need any help. Meanwhile their recruiters can’t find anyone! This is a sign of death. If you’re peoples’ heads are bureaucratic and up their own asses, how do you expect a startup to have a shot? They can’t find anyone but can’t admit they don’t know what they are doing. Yay!
So lately i’ve been trying to close a number of deals. Trying to exit on investments and overall get a bit liquid. Dam its hard. I haven’t tried to sell anything in a few years and now that i’m trying to sell a couple of interests at once, it’s a big challenge. For those of you out there that expect quick exits, don’t. That’s luck. Real exits take time, patience and brass balls.
My billion dollar idea for the day is offering a lending tree type product for small business financial services such as merchant processing. Small businesses always get the shaft. Let them get a good deal! I think it’s a billion dollar business. Someone do it and throw me a few points!
Someone suggested that i could spike traffic here by doing integrated blog marketing. You know, twittering that i’m typing, then facebooking my post and digging it. Ah so many angles its scary. Alas I don’t care to - the goal of this blog is to be my diary so I remember what the heck i do every day. I have no memory. I don’t care about traffic. I want to record my thoughts and hopefully someone else out there will learn a bit from it. Simple.
My prediction is the next big wave of apps will be apps that enhance workflow. User experience still hasn’t been applied to corporate applications properly. Great workflow saves time and stress. Over the next year I think we are going to see products that are successful in the b2b space solely because of great UI.
So I recently had the luxury to play a Wii Fit. I want to say that it’s amazing and actually does offer a great work out and is fun. Everyone should own one. Nintendo is did a friggin amazing job. Buy one for your office. Make people run a bit for their slice of pizza. It’ll be fun and keep people in good shape. When people are in good shape, they tend to be happier. That’s because when people workout they generate endorphins which give you pleasure. Do get a Wii Fit and endorphanize!
I wanted to take a minute today to talk about the importance of research to any company. Big companies tend to do lots of it but small ones often times don’t do any. It’s very important to do market and competitive research and understand how your product stands in the market. A) Any investor will ask you but most importantly B) You need to know so you understand how to position your product. If you don’t do research and throw it up, maybe you’ll get lucky but most likely you’ll get lost in the crowd. Understand your market before building anything. Save your money and time!
So I admit I’m rough around the edges and can be tough to work with sometimes. I don’t let people get away with bullshit. I’m sorry I don’t like bullshit, dogshit maybe but not bullshit! Some people don’t appreciate that. Also, i always make an ass out of myself over email but still…i’m just Richie. I may be rough but i’m always more than fair and always willing to lend a hand and help people. I just wish people would reciprocate more.
So the capital market is pretty dry right now but don’t let this hold you back. A friend of mine, Jeevan P. coined the term “me7″ companies. He says that in a hard environment only great companies will get funded and me7 companies that like to play the follow me game are left on their asses. I tend to agree. There is always money around for great ideas and great people. There isn’t money around for followers and crap. In a bubble sometimes there is and that’s what causes issues. Corrections are a part of life. If you are a young startup, don’t fear, you may be diluted or not have great terms but money is out there. Later stage companies will feel the pinch more since PE funds and the like are taking a beating and the public market sucks.
So I recently took over hosting Ibreakfast events. Ibreakfast is the longest running digital media event series in NYC. It’s been around since 1994 and the founder Alan Brody is on a book tour and asked me to take it over. I wanted to publicly thank Alan since it’s an honor to take over such an establishment. We will be hosting some cool events around media buying and startup pitching over the next few months and I hope to see a lot of you there!
I usually don’t like to re-hash posts, but after reading what Michael Arrington just wrote for Tech Crunch, I felt like the advice was perfect for this forum. His original article on effective demos can be found here.
Below are observations taken from sitting through hundreds of phone and live demos at Techcruch50.
If you are presenting to a client, investor or partner keep the following in mind.
If you have anything else to add to the list feel free to comment below.
So I recently broke up with my longtime girlfriend, Bluey. We’ve been together for about 5 years and then we decided to break up. We’re still seeing each other but its weird. Are people meant to really be in long term relationships? The relationship was really hard the whole time even though i completely love her. Arg!
Happy Birthday Kara! My little sister turns 20 today! Scary!
love you!
Richie
So I want to publicly thank my intern, Adam Greenes today. It’s his last day and he was incredible. He has been instrumental doing key research for my stealth startup. He did an amazing job and deserves a public applause. Thanks Rob for sending him my way!
Interns can be very valuable since they are usually uncorrupted minds that will listen to you and do what you ask. Yes, they can do cold prospecting, research and other such tasks that you may loathe but are critical to success of any company. However, most people waste these great young minds fetching coffee and stapling shit. Go fetch your own coffee and give your intern something real to do!
