startups

Mobile first vs web first? How about “product market fit first”

* Note – There’s obviously categories of applications that only make sense on mobile (Yelp), just as there’s some that only make sense on web (zendesk).  I’m clearly not talking about that category of application.  

Recently, there’s been a bunch of discussion about mobile first vs. web first.  Some of my favorites are from Fred Wilson here and  from Vibhu Norby here.  But I think all of these articles are missing 2 really simple factors in deciding.

1.  Forget mobile first.  Screw web first.  How about “product market fit first”?

Product market fit … not the platform … is ALL that matters.  Until you have that, you’ve got nothing.  And “nothing” looks the same on mobile as it does on the web.

So really, the question when viewed in that light, is “what platform (mobile, web, desktop) will get you to product market fit fastest?”

The common sentiment is that apple’s review process and timing is a bane.  And even if you develop on Android, you need users to install updates to test native changes.  So a lot of people are arguing for web based on that.  I disagree though.  I think it all depends on the ability of your team to iterate and execute FAST.  Although it’s rare, some teams/developers are much faster building on mobile than they are on web.  I’m one of them.  For those teams, mobile is probably the way to go.  No, you can’t test multiple variants daily, but the review process isn’t THAT long.  I’ve typically had updates accepted after 2 to 3 days.

So I’d say, go with the platform you’re most competent in.  It’s all about speed, and your ability to get to product market fit before running out of time.  Once you’ve achieved product market fit, you’ll probably want both.

2.  Keep in mind that mobile … and web … are just windows into the service that you’re building.

And if that service sucks … whether the window is mobile or web … you’ve got nothing.  “Mobile” isn’t a silver bullet, nor is “web” (or any other platform).  They’re just windows into value that you’re providing the user.  Spend more time thinking about what that value and pain is.  Let THAT drive the platform choice, rather than letting the platform choice drive the value.  Otherwise you’re a hammer looking for a nail.

Ultimately, if there’s value at the core, and pain that you’re solving, it’ll surface, through web OR mobile.

* A caveat 

If I could summarize Mary Meeker’s slides from a few days ago into one line, it would be something to the effect of “Holy shit, mobile is growing at an unbelievably unbelievable rate.”  So if you don’t go mobile first, you certainly have to be planning for mobile.  In anything I’ve done, that’s meant mocking up UI and UX on mobile in parallel with any web first design and development.  Doing that is good enough to make sure that anything you do will make sense on mobile.

Please do celebrate fundraising

Not that long ago a tweet went viral that annoyed me to no end:

“Congratulating an entrepreneur for raising money is like congratulating a chef for buying ingredients.”

A blog post has been on the tip of my tongue since then, and recently, Mark Solon pushed out this beauty of a post which nicely summarizes the sentiments I was feeling.  http://towriteistothink.com/2012/09/18/celebrate-and-then-get-back-to-work/

I think the analogy of a chef (and the overall sentiment that raising money is insignificant) completely minimizes the significance of raising money.  Yes … I totally get it … raising money is only the beginning.  It’s a long journey, for which, raising money is only a small part.  But comparing it to buy ingredients … something that anyone can do with great ease … is misleading … and  is self serving to the person making the comment.  It’s what kids do in the playground when they name call.

Despite the impression people get from reading techrunch, convincing skeptical investors who are subjected to hundreds of pitches is hard …  damn hard.  Unless you’re a serial entrepreneur raising money on a deck (which rarely if ever happens), it represents many months, or years of sacrifice, hard work, iteration, and commitment, and if you are a serial entrepreneur, it still represents the hard work from the past bearing fruit.

In addition to the small validation you get for your effort by investors, there’s other reasons to celebrate and for congratulations.  Being able to tell your family that you’re working your tail off, making personal sacrifices, but at least not doing it for $0 is not insignificant.  Not having to lay off awesome, productive members of your team, that feel like they’ve become family is pretty awesome too.

Look, I get it,  You haven’t accomplished much yet.  You’ve just hit a single home run in the bottom of the first inning.  There’s a long way to go. I also get it that people want to discourage celebration because they want to discourage complacency.  I just don’t think that happens.  I’ve never met an entrepreneur that settles after raising money.  I think if anything its served as a motivator.  It’s added pressure and responsibility (in a good way).  You feel a personal obligation to return money to the individual investors.  I know that was the case with Attassa as I wrote about here.

So in parting … go dancing with your family, get a massage, drink wine with your partner, go to a movie, go go-karting with the team, and then as Mark says, get back to work.

Tweetgab startup weekend project

Twitter is an unbelievable tool for getting the sense of what’s going and what’s being said at any given moment.  It truly is a tool for measuring “the pulse” of any event.”  One of the greatest things about twitter is that it’s completely free form.  There’s really no rules – as long as the content crams into 140 characters, it can be said.  As a result, the data within twitter has become very chronological.  A stream of unrelated tweets, with no real surrounding context.

No where is this felt more than at Conferences where organizers are beginning to use twitter to broadcast on projectors what the audience is saying.  This is great in theory, but there’s still no real structure of the data.  It’s just a stream of tweets, bound by a hashtag with no real context.

I attended a Startup Weekend in Palo Alto last week and formed a team which tried to solve this problem.  Here’s the presentation … Pardon the number of “Um”‘s … I really need to learn to speak better publicly.

“shhhh don’t tell anyone; it’s a winning idea”

I was out for drinks a couple nights ago with a friend who had a “winning idea” that he wouldn’t share with anyone in the room.  I can only imagine that he feared someone scooping his idea.

Much like that evening, whenever I see someone guarding their idea like it was their first born, I can’t help but think they’re going to spill the beans within minutes.  Of course though, they’ll make you swear until you’re blue in the face that you won’t tell a living soul.

In my mind, this person, or anyone who has a “winning idea” has failed already. Ive met enough “ideas people” to know that ideas are worthless; the value lies in the execution of the idea.  So if there’s anything you should fortify, it’s the execution of the idea, not the idea itself.  Better a mediocre idea brilliantly executed than a brilliant idea with a mediocre execution.

The utimate success in startups


It seems that since this summer, time normally spent throwing words at my Blog has quickly become time spent throwing Frisbees on an ultimate field. So it seems only appropriate that the theme for this blog should focus on ultimate Frisbee and startups.
Without further ado … The similar keys to success in Ultimate Frisbee and in a startup.

1. Learn nothing from success, but everything from failure
Once every couple weeks, one of my favorite quotes pops on one of the tech startup blogs I read. Most recently Don Dodge used this quote about “success being a terrible teacher.”

In 2005, our mens ultimate Frisbee team (EMU) went into Canadian Nationals as the number 3 seed in the country. The tournament went down as one of the most disappointing for EMU, after we finished the weekend in 11th spot. Looking back at this classic collapse, I often attribute much of it to success we had earlier in the season. We had beaten Calgary in Alberta regionals handily, and dominated Flowerbowl in Vancouver earlier in the year. However, these successes taught us nothing. We won Alberta regionals on a cold, soggy, rainy day where we played the game with the same 7 players. Similarly, Flowerbowl was a victory against a weaker division. The success of these tournaments was misleading. Not only did we fall under the false belief that we could succeed with a smaller roster, but it instilled a false sense of entitlement in our players. Instead of being hungry, and eager to improve, we became complacent and content. We glossed over the areas that we could have improved on, and glorified all of our success.

2. Effort less than 100% results in quick failure.
I wish I was … but sadly, I wasn’t blessed with the god given speed, agility, or fitness that many athletes are born with. Nor was I born with Stephen Hawking’s IQ. Any success I’ve had, has pretty much been achieved through a lot of hard work. Unfortunately, in the case of both career and ultimate Frisbee, not giving 100% has resulted in some pretty terrible performances. The 2006 and 2007 ultimate seasons are good examples of this. Infrequent training, poor diet, and not practicing resulted in my worst 2 ultimate Frisbee seasons ever. In the same way I feel completely behind after being away from the office for only a couple days; the second I take a step back from the ultimate field I feel completely behind. I’m unconditioned, can’t keep up the pace, am confused on the field, and not ready to compete at a high level. There’s little room for taking a break in a startup, or on the ultimate field. The game just moves too quick, you’ll be left too far behind, it’ll be tough to get back.

3. But there is always a chance to bounce back
Another of my favorite sayings … “if you haven’t failed, you’re not trying hard enough.” The game of Ultimate Frisbee, perhaps more than any other, allows you opportunity to atone your error quickly. Drop the Frisbee? Work extra hard and get it back with a layout defense. Throw the Frisbee away? Block your opponent next pass. Mistakes, both in ultimate, and in start ups are crippling, but they happen. Of course, the goal is to minimize your mistake, but more important than that, is your ability to realize the mistake, adjust, and fix the problem quickly.

The "Ultimate" in startups


Ok … so I’m beating the whole “Startups are like X” thing to death … and then maybe death again. Quite the opposite of original, this is a rebuttal to my fellow Attassa co founder Rod Frey’s blog “The top five reasons entrepreneurs love hockey”
I present to thee …
If startups most resembled of a sport, it’d be ….
Ultimate Frisbee; and not just because both are dominated on the west coast!

4. Ultimate Frisbee is a sport without any financial compensation. As a matter of fact one scrimps and saves to just play the damn sport. In the same way I remember spending the night on the floor of my cousin’s apartment in Lethbridge Alberta I remember spending the night sleeping on an air mattress in Seattle apt.
3. Ultimate Frisbee is self officiated. No ref’s to enforce the rules, no coach to layout a game plan, no trainer to motivate you to work harder. In ulti, and in startups, you, you’re team-mates, are the sole stakeholders.
2. Plays and game plans go out the window! Much like design docs and business plans, ultimate Frisbee plays serve as the required starting point to a dynamic and ever changing game. They pretty much get thrown out the window once you start playing.
1. And much like hockey, ulty is a game of time and space. Unlike any other sport, ultimate Frisbee relies on you reading the competition, getting into the right position at the right time, and reacting swiftly when opportunity arrises.