Erich Stauffer

Author: Erich Stauffer

  • 20 Serial Entrepreneurs: An Analysis

    Serial entrepreneurs want to change the world and “make meaning” but successful ones also make money, and lots of it.

    Here is a list of 20 serial entrepreneurs and the companies they helped create:

    1. Andy Bechtolsheim: Sun Microsystems, Granite Systems, Arista Networks
    2. Biz Stone: Twitter, Xanga, Blogger
    3. David Duffield: PeopleSoft, Workday
    4. Dennis Crowley: Dodgeball, Foursquare
    5. Elon Musk: PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors
    6. Evan Williams: Blogger, Twitter
    7. Jack Dorsey: Twitter, Square
    8. Jason Calacanis: Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs Inc., Mahalo, Launch, OAF/TWI
    9. Jim Clark: Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Healtheon, MyCFO, Neoteris
    10. Kevin Rose: Digg, Pownce
    11. Marc Andreessen: Netscape, Opsware, Ning
    12. Mark Cuban: MicroSolutions, Broadcast.com, 2929 Entertainment, HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres
    13. Mark Pincus: Tribe.net, SupportSoft, Zynga
    14. Max Levchin: PayPal, Slide, WePay
    15. Nick Grouf: Firefly, PeoplePC, SpotRunner
    16. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis: Kazaa, Skype, Joost, Atomico, Rdio
    17. Scott Jones: Boston Technology, ChaCha
    18. Sean Parker: Plaxo, Napster, Facebook, Causes, Founders Fund
    19. Steve Jobs: Apple, NeXT, Pixar
    20. Wayne Huizenga: Blockbuster, Waste Management, Auto Nation

    Birds of a feather flock together

    Of the companies listed, you may have noticed some repeated names. When we sort the list by the companies with at least two serial entrepreneurs from our list, we get three companies:

    1. Twitter: Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey
    2. PayPal: Elon Musk, Max Levchin
    3. Blogger: Biz Stone, Evan Williams

    Similar Industries

    And of the companies listed, another trend emerges, which is the similarities in industries.  The companies can be narrowed down into a surprisingly small number of groups, which could be categorized as ‘Technology’ and ‘Other’, but broken we see a large amount of Web 2.0 and Entertainment companies as well as Transportation:

    1. Software: Twitter, Blogger, Xanga, PeopleSoft, Workday, Dodgeball, Foursquare, Netscape, Ning, Plaxo, Napster, Facebook, Digg, Paypal, Slide, WePay
    2. Hardware: Sun Microsystems, Arista Networks, Granite Systems, PeoplePC, Apple, NeXT
    3. Entertainment: Pixar, 2929 Entertainment, HDNet, Blockbuster, Zynga, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theatres
    4. Transportation: SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Auto Nation

    This follows a pattern in economics called ‘barriers to entry’ of which software has the lowest barriers in terms of cost and transportation, the highest.  Hardware and entertainment, it seems, falls in the middle, which is what you would expect.  So in the future, we can probably expect more serial entrepreneurs in the software arena, probably culminating up through app makers, which has the lowest barrier of entry and the highest audience: a combination ripe for the next round of serial entrepreneurs.

  • Purple is the New Black

    In art class they will teach you to never use black as black rarely occurs in nature. Instead, when a dark hue is needed, purple is used. Even in web design, a dark gray is used instead of black as black itself is harsh and unprofessional.

    What is Black?

    If black is never ‘black’ then what is black? Black is brown, gray, and purple. It’s dark and contrasting. It’s bold, but much the same way any solid color is when used appropriately. But how often are solid colors found in nature? Almost all colors are mixed and changing, just like the definition of ‘black’.

    Today I saw two men wearing purple shirts. One man was my elder and the other my younger. I didn’t like either application of the color and wondered if my age or my micro-generation was somehow biased against it as it reminded me of purple silk shirts from the early 90’s – but those days are over. Aren’t they? Or is purple the new black?

  • Are You Hiding from Your Customers?

    You may have a website, billboards, and radio ad spots, but do you really want more business or are you hiding from your customers?

    Sometimes we can hide in plain sight simply because we are doing everything right – we’re not “rocking the boat” so to speak. Our hope is that if we keep out nose to the grindstone and do everything right, business will come and your business will grow. As you can probably tell by my tone that viewpoint is slightly naive. What has worked in the past may not work now. The times they are a changing and people (your customers) are too.

    What to do?

    It’s not going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be uncomfortable. That’s because you’re going to have to stop doing what feels good and start getting outside your safety zone. Are you willing to do what it takes to grow? I’m not talking about spending more money. I’m talking about how you spend your time and how you think about attracting customers – that is if you want to. You’d be suprised at how many self-limiting business owners there are out there making excuses for why they don’t hear the phone ringing. You can make the phone ring anytime you want by picking it up and making a call.

    Put the pieces together.

    Cracker has a song that goes, “If you want to change the world, start to spin it.” How are you spinning your business? Do you blend in with the crowd or are you a solution to be sought? You don’t have to be mediocre. You can be great. If you don’t like the customers you have now, attract a different set of clients. Remember why you got into business in the first place and don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. It’s your business. Own it.

  • Know Thy Customer

    Know who you are. That is foundational. But once you do, focus less on yourself and more on your customer.

    Who is your customer? I am not talking about your target customer. I’m talking about the one(s) you already have. What needs do they have that you are not or are not willing to meet? What are you ignoring or choosing to ignore about their needs. It could be that it’s because it’s outside of your business model or your scope and that’s okay – as long as a majority of your customers don’t have the same need. If they do, you may be seriously misaligned with your customer. Change your mindset and you could be poised for growth and a happy clientele.

    Do your customers prefer a different type of communication than you offer?

    It’s easy to send an email or paper invoice to a customer, but what if your customers prefer a phone call or face-to-face communications? Pay attention to how they contact you and learn from them, then adapt – even if it is uncomfortable for you. You are in business because of them. Without customers you have no business.

    And lastly, pay attention to words like ‘wish’ and ‘hope’ in conversations.

    Picking up on key words of wanting like ‘wish’ and ‘hope’ can be great indicators of new advice, products, or services that you could be offering.

  • Business On the Side

    The days of working as a business analyst by day and a business consultant by night are starting to wear on me.

    For those of you who don’t know, I run Watershawl Technology Consulting and do Internet Marketing for Cost Publishing “on the side” while maintaining a day job as a business analyst. I’m Microsoft Certified and have worked as a network technician in the past so I tend to understand both sides of the fence. I realize the balance that needs to exist between business needs and technical specs. This makes me a good business consultant.

    The problem is time, which is the same problem we all have. I know I am entrepreneurial by nature and enjoy solving problems, but I can’t be in two places at once and this causes stress. Its stress I put myself in, but like I said, its starting to wear on me. I’ve been working “on the side” since I graduated from college in 2005. Even before graduating I worked full time while in school. I know what it means to balance work and life goals. Every once in a while, though, you have to ask yourself, “Why?”

    Why do I do what I do?

    I enjoy watching my clients businesses grow while my business grows at the same time and I’ve learned to relish that growth, but what am I growing into? What is Watershawl? I dream of the day this company is able to employ myself and others for the good of the community, creating and updating new and exciting solutions for customers online and off. I would love for my children to have someplace to work or learn new skills as they grow into their careers. I would love to be able to work from home. Those are all the goals I am working towards. That is who Watershawl is. What can Watershawl do for you?

    August 2011 Update: My First Day of Work After Quitting My Day Job

  • Tablet PCs and Their Effect on Web Design

    2011 is supposed to be ‘the year of the tablet’ and while growth has exploded since 2009 it hasn’t really affected web design, but all that may soon change.

    imageIn the same way ebook readers are changing the way books are produced, tablet PCs may change the way web site content is produced. For example, how would a web site be designed differently if it were meant to be touched instead of clicked? We already have separate domains and style sheets for mobile phones, why not for other mobile devices?

    Web analytics are currently smart enough to detect browser types, but how will we detect tablet PCs. There are so many different types that we need a tablet comparison just to know what tablet runs what operating system for compatibility!

    Maybe it won’t be a problem. Hopefully it will all work out, but as technology progresses, so must web design.

  • Tablet PCs Effect on Business

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    How will tablet PCs affect business?

    Now that tablet PCs are becoming more pervasive and in some cases, cheaper, how will businesses be integrating them into their business processes and technology planning?

    McDonalds and Sam’s Club have both been using tablets to pre-checkout customers in line and now medical doctors are considering using them in their practices. Public kiosks, which previously used bulky CRT monitors and desktop PCs and more recently, flat panel LCDs, can be replaced by a simple tablet PC. Even point of sale (POS) machines could be replaced by cheap tablets.

    With all of the choices out there, how will businesses know which tablet PC is best for their business?

    If you’re big enough to have your own technology department or a business analyst, you can ask them, but if you’re a small to mid-size business there are resources on the web like Tablet Comparison that can help. If you are really serious about getting the most out of the technology you might consider hiring a consultant or outsourcing the project, even if you have your own technology department.

  • 6 Steps to Making Money Online

    Using proven, repeatable techniques there is little risk and great rewards involved in marketing products for profit.

    When you use keywords that people are searching for, you naturally drive traffic to your site, which in turn makes you money online. But how do you find the right keywords and how do you know what people are searching for?

    There are six key steps to this process which will answer all of these questions:

    1. Find Micro-Niche Keywords – Identify a micro-niche inside a penetrable market that has profitable products that people are already selling. A micro-niche is a subset of a market niche.
    2. Verify Keyword Volume – Using WordTracker and/or the Google External Keyword Tool, make sure searches are over 80 per day and that there are under 30,000 search results overall.
    3. Verify Keyword Competition – Determine whether or not you will be able to penetrate the top 10 results in Google based on the number of top-level domains listed, their age, and number of backlinks.
    4. Produce Keyword-Rich Content – Write content for your primary landing page that also contains your primary keywords and links to sub-pages that contain longer keyword phrases.
    5. Promote Using Keywords – Write articles, blog posts, and lenses for posting on other web sites that link back to your sub-pages with your longer keyword phrases. Post at least two Youtube videos.
    6. Sell Products or the Web Site Itself – At this point, if you followed all of the steps, you should be making money online by selling products.  If not, then consider selling the domain for a profit online at Flippa or Sedo.

    The rate of success with this method is roughly 1 out of 8 and marketing and testing can take anywhere from 1 to 30 days.  Success is defined as more money coming in than is going out each month and that includes all opportunity costs (time that could have been spent making money in other activities).  Tracking is critical not only with the data of the results, but with the finances and time spent.

  • How to Find a Niche (and What to Do with it Once You Find It)

    Profit can be made from almost any niche – the key is knowing how to find it

    This is a simplified method for how to find a niche. Essentially we begin with the end in mind, knowing we’re going to need a product to sell that is currently being sold, but maybe not as well as it could be.  Maybe it’s hard to find or maybe the people who are selling it want help selling it.  That’s where you come in.  Here is an example:

    I like computer games so I use Google to search for “computer games” (without quotes, which is called a ‘broad search’), which gives me back 200 results. I then use the criteria (as mentioned in 6 Steps to Making Money Online and Research and Analysis Metrics) to narrow them down to one ‘keyword’ I’d like to use.  I then find 200 more keywords related to that one keyword and again narrow those down to 4.

    Now I have my micro-niche, which is identified by the keyword, “World of Warcraft Gold”.  I then have to see how much competition there is for that keyword and if it is a penetrable market (one that has low domain age, a small amount of back-links, and no or low directory listings). Only then can I move on to check whether or not there is something to sell.  If there is something to sell, then we ask ourselves if we would want to work for the amount of money it is offering.  If it is, then we build and start promoting.  If I don’t get traffic, I kill it and start over or sell the domain on Flippa or Sedo.

    How to Find a Niche

    Sometimes coming up with ideas for a niche is hard.  One set of advice I heard was to look in the back of magazines to see what people are selling because it means there is already a niche market for it because people are buying it.  You can also use Google Trends or Twitter Search to see what is trending right now.

    Here are some examples from ads in the back of a magazine:

    • Logo Design
    • Web Design
    • Business Plans
    • Botta Solus Watches
    • Timeshares
    • Oranges as Holiday Gifts
    • Exercise Equipment
    • Employee Leasing
    • Business Services

    Here is what is currently trending on Google Trends:

    • tom delay
    • ashley turton
    • eftps
    • bcs championship game
    • liberal smear machine
    • todd graham
    • houston livestock show and rodeo 2011
    • eftps.gov
    • ron rivera
    • www.eftps.gov

    Here is what is currently trending on Twitter Search:

    • Wojtek Wolski
    • Lionel Andres Messi
    • María Elena Walsh
    • Beth Gouveia
    • Fernanda Vasconcelos
    • Sue Sylvester
    • Great Gatsby
    • Toni Ramos
    • CHAD CHAD
    • #palabrasquedanmiedo