For Success, Value Speed and Feedback Over Secrecy

August 26, 2006 at 7:44 am · Filed under Web

Guy Kawasaki has posted a video of “Startup Success,” a recent panel event moderated by Kawasaki and featuring five Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Highlight

During the 1 1/2 hour panel, the following exchange was especially insightful:

Kawasaki: “We have an audience primarily of entrepreneurs so if you could just give them your top one, two, maybe three tips about starting a company.”

Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn: “There is a tendency to be very closeted because you think that you have this unique idea that no one else has thought of and by being secretive about it you’ll get kind of an avenue to market. At least go to 3 to 5 of the smartest insightful people you know and get them to critique your idea because frequently at least half the time you can find out what the serious problem is. And, you should give some serious thought to whether or not that is an overcome-able thing. One of the things I most often see in early entrepreneurial things is they say ‘well I’ve got this idea and…’ and I say ‘well yeah, the problem is you have to get 10 million users into your system until it starts to get useful at all’ and at that much of a ramp you have a problem… So, value speed and value intelligent feedback over secrecy.”

Hoffman goes on to offer some other great tips and anecdotes on the consumer Internet. To watch the full exchange, skip to the 33:00 minute point of the video.

Analysis

I wanted to specifically point out Hoffman’s answer here because it encourages a level of transparency even at the birth of an idea. I believe that companies who take this advice to value speed and intelligent feedback over secrecy and build it into their company culture and market presence will have a major advantage in the marketplace. They’ll have a better chance at getting things right, at innovating and at showcasing their leadership. Although startups have the best chance to do this since they are starting from scratch, incumbents also have the opportunity to do so.

Technorati Tags: startup, linkedin, kawasaki, entrepreneur, transparency, siliconvalley

Comments

50 Websites for Web 2.0 Design Inspiration

August 21, 2006 at 1:33 am · Filed under Web

On the fifty sites below you’ll find some of the key defining features of web 2.0 sites including design features such as large text, conversation bubbles, gradients, the wet floor effect, white space, pretty icons, award stars, small square images and bright colors. You’ll also find that these sites embrace layout features such as layouts controlled by CSS and not tables and widths going beyond the old 800 pixel standard.

From a content standpoint, these sites also offer some lessons. For example, most of the sites contain a clear message about the products or services of the site and display transparency into their business with clear pricing and a company blog.

In the coming weeks I hope to talk more about some of these trends.

• Wetpaint.com
• Mint
• FireAnt.tv
• Eurekster Swicki
• Riffs
• Coastr
• BlinkList
• StumbleUpon
• Zillow.com
• Riya
• Wayfaring
• Standpoint
• Listible
• TotoExpress
• goowy
• fluxiom
• Springdoo
• RoundCube
• Slawesome
• JotSpot Live
• Rallypoint
• Writely
• Shopify
• Blinksale
• Side Job Track
• Vox
• Yahoo! Search My Web
• blummy
• Blogniscient
• Technorati
• Instructables
• Rollyo
• Mozilla.org
• IconBuffet
• ForecastAdvisor
• Odeo
• Flock
• Last.fm
• Wufoo
• Lussumo
• Zoho
• Box.net
• Crazy Egg
• foldera
• Federated Media Publishing
• 37signals
• Panic
• JotSpot
• Skype
• digg

Technorati Tags: web20, design, css, layout, web

Comments (3)