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March 21, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | 6 Comments

Startup Founders/CEOs: Do Your Own Outreach

startup and PROne of the first things I tell potential startup clients is I don’t do public relations. I can help them create stories to pitch, but when it comes to blogger and media outreach, it’s not my cup of tea.

A big part of my reluctance about PR is I’m not particularly effective. Despite having worked for more than a decade as a newspaper journalist, and knowing the in’s and out’s of dealing with bloggers and reporters, my track record in helping clients attract coverage has not been good.

Some of my struggles may have to do with not having good enough connections or particular expertise, but an important lesson I’ve learned when it comes to startups and PR is authenticity counts.

For whatever reason, having an external PR person pitch on behalf of a startup seems like the wrong approach. Maybe it comes across as too “corporate” or impersonal, particularly given reporters and bloggers are getting pitched by PR people all the time.

So what should startups do when pitching a story to a blogger or reporter? I suggest a founder/CEO make most of the pitches to key bloggers and reporters.

How come?

When a founder/CEO reaches out, it is far more personal and real. It’s not a PR person looking for an editorial hit but a startup entrepreneur looking to tell their story. This has the potential to resonate more with bloggers and reporters.

This is not to suggest that PR agencies can’t help startups. They can leverage networks and relationships (aka The Rolodex), and skills in creating pitches for different target audiences. But early-stage startups looking to capture the spotlight would benefit from having their founder/CEO also wear the PR hat.

For an opposite take on this idea, check out this CNBC article and this post from RocketWatcher.

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March 19, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | 2 Comments

Seriously, Stealth Mode a Silly Concept

I’ve come across a few entrepreneurs over the past few months who are convinced their idea is so good and novel that it can’t be shared publicly.

Instead, they operate in stealth mode, making sure their idea is hidden from view in the fear that if someone caught a sniff of it, they would instantly steal it. After all, the idea is that good. Sometimes, they make you sign an NDA or do a pinky swear before providing you with a glimpse of the idea.

I hate to say it but stealth is a silly idea. It’s not to suggest someone’s idea doesn’t have potential but you have to know there are people working on or thinking about the same idea. As HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes said in a recent interview, anyone who believes their idea is that unique is “really green or don’t understand how things work”.

At the end of the day, it’s not the idea that will propel a startup to success, it’s the execution. You can have a brilliant idea but it will go nowhere without creating and delivering on a plan to turn the idea into a viable business or venture.

Nevertheless, it is fascinating to see people who see stealth as a positive thing. Rather than seek the opinions of others, they privately and cautiously nurture it until it’s ready to be unveiled.

The danger is the idea is never tested, scrutinized or enhanced via feedback and criticism because it sits in a cocoon protected from the elements. As a result, the idea never has the opportunity to evolve, improve or even change.

My advice to entrepreneurs who think they have a great idea is not to fear it being stolen or hijacked. Instead, they should let it loose in some way to see if the idea flies. If it has any potential, it all comes down to execution.

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March 18, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | Leave a comment

This Week in Canadian Startups

canadian startupsWith March Break happening, it seemed like the Canadian startup world geared back just a little but there was still lots of news, as well as a steady flow of interesting blog posts and articles from the startup world.

- Do startups need full-time employees? Sure, but there are positions that can be filled on a part-time basis. Mark MacLeod offers some insight into why it can make sense. This post resonated with me given my consulting business often sees me become the part-time director or VP, marketing for startups.

- Calgary is apparently Canada’s startup capital based on per capita entrepreneurs. But like many Canadian cities, there is a lack of venture capital to support the community, according to TechVibes.

- I’ve been slogging my way through Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup”, which is all the rage in the startup world. Ries’ thesis makes a lot of sense but there are parts that don’t work for me. In particular, I’m not convinced fickle, multi-tasking users have patience to use a product that has flaws that will be fixed later.

- iNovia’s Chris Arsenault, who I wrote about in my Globe & Mail “Start” column recently, penned a passionate post on Next Montreal that Canada’s startup ecosystem is back and that “We stand on the verge of an era in which Canadian entrepreneurs and investors can carry their domestic strength to the international arena.”

- As much as Canada’s vibrant startup ecosystem is great to see, it is starting to feel frothy. Here are my thoughts.

- 500px.com, one of the fastest-growing photo-sharing services, announced a major design overall, as well as the launch of a new marketplace in which people can buy or sell photos. I did a quick Q&A with co-founder Evgeny Tchebotarev.

- HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes did a live video chat with YEC and Mashable about his background, HootSuite’s progress, and some of his thoughts on the startup world.

- Are U.S. companies snapping up all the good Canadian startups? Is there a downside? The Ottawa Citizen’s James Berkow talks with entrepreneur Daniel Debow about what’s happening.

- The C100, a non-profit, member-driven organization dedicated to supporting Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment, celebrated its second anniversary. C100 includes more than 100 members based in Silicon Valley.

- On my Forbes.com column, I put together a list of five things that startups shouldn’t spend their money on.

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March 15, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | 1 Comment

Snapshot of a VC Deal: ContactMonkey

Who: ContactMonkey, which offers a contact cloud solution that lets people easily share their contact information

How Much: $800,000 from Plazacorp Ventures and angel investors.

The Quote: “ContactMonkey was born out of frustration. Why do organizations make it difficult for their customers to save their representative’s contact information? Copying and pasting peoples’ contact information from email signatures is simply too painful. I realized there was a need for a simple and elegant solution that works across all major address books. I’m very pleased that Plazacorp Ventures shares my vision”: ContactMonkey founder and CEO Scott Pielsticker.

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March 14, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | 7 Comments

The Achilles Heel of the Lean Startup?

Here’s a confession: For all the buzz about Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup”, I’m finding it tough slogging to read.

I understand the thesis and the benefits it provides to startups looking to create and evolve products that resonate with users. But as I read through the book, there was something about the Ries’ thesis that wasn’t clicking. I wondered whether it was just me or whether there is a flaw or hole in The Lean Startup.

Then, I stumbled upon an interview on Tech Cocktail with SoftTech VC’s Jeff Clavier:

“The other thing which is very popular these days is the lean startup concept, which my friend Eric Ries has pioneered. And it all makes sense, but it’s based on the concept of throwing shit at your users very early on and then iterating. The problem is that users have less and less patience now.”

What Clavier nailed is the Achilles’ heel within the Lean Startup thesis: the reality that many consumers are time-strapped, fickle and suffer from attention-deficit disorder. As much as a lean start-up can embrace the idea of continually iterating and testing new features, many consumers don’t have the patience to go along for the ride.

Within this landscape, which offers an endless buffet of choices, startups usually only get one shot to capture the attention of a user. If their messaging, value propositions, registration process or service features any kind of uncertainty, flaws or grit, a user will leave you in a flash. The problem is there are no second chances, no shots at redemption or do-overs.

To me, this is the big challenge and problem with the lean start-up: While it’s great to do real-life testing, the product needs to be good enough out of the gate. It has to provide some kind of value and, at the same time, avoid any kind of bad users experiences.

As much as you would like to think consumers would give a startup the benefit of the doubt, the reality is they need to be impressed in some way to stick around or come back. There are simply too many other choices to tolerate a product that doesn’t deliver.

To be clear, the Lean Startup theory has a lot of good elements, which explains why it has resonated. At the same time, startups need to recognize that whatever they offer along the way needs to deliver without creating much pain for the user.

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March 13, 2012 BY Mark Evans Posted in Startups | Leave a comment

500px Unveils Major Redesign and Marketplace

500px, which has become one of the fastest-growing photo-sharing services, has unveiled a major redesign, as well as a new market that lets people buy and sell photos.

To get a better handle on what’s new, 500px co-founder Evgeny Tchebotarev answered a few questions.

What are the major parts of the redesign?

The biggest things of the redesign is the Flow, Stories and the Market. However, we have completely rethought everything that was on the site to make it faster, more convenient and more responsive. Starting from minor things like custom share buttons for Twitter and Facebook to things like better Search with lots of sorting options.

What are the highlights? 

The highlights, however, are the Flow, Stories and the Market. We introduced Flow, which is a new way to discover photos. Not just what we may recommend you, or what you choose to see, but rather you see photos based on actions of your friends. That way, by sharing same ideas and art views, you get to see a lot more great photos. Stories is a new platform for photo-blogs and photo-story sharing. It’s super-easy to use, and it shows photos in gorgeous high-resolution. Everything looks so much better, and there are thousands of stories to browse (http://500px.com/stories).

The Market looks like an important move for 500px. Can you provide some details about its development? 

The Market is, of course, our biggest move there. We’ve been working on that for a few months, and our idea is to bring flawless and beautiful buying and selling experience. With previous platforms, you buy a photo, the photographer gets an email, and if the photos is not large enough, the photographer has to visit the site and upload a high-resoluton file. If he/she fails to do so, the transaction is cancelled. I’d imagine many ruined birthday surprises because of that. What we’ve done is the opposite. All the photos you see in the Market (there are 220,000+ already), you can immediately buy on a large canvas (24×36″) or an HD download (1920×1080). And then the issue comes of prices and choices.

On other platforms we tested, you have a choice of 17 photo papers, canvases, metal, acrylic, plus a hundred of different sizes, plus a few dozen of different frames. By the time buyer gets to the checkout, he or she has gone through five to s screens. There’s also pricing — some photographers price their photos high, some low. I’ve seen many times where I really like some photo, but it’s expensive and over my budget, but there’s another photo, which I kinda like… and it’s cheaper. Which one should I get? That’s why we have one simple price for everyone. When buyer comes on the site — from a choice to a purchase there’s just one screen, one price for all prints, and one gorgeous canvas to print it on.

500px has enjoyed robust growth. Is there still plenty of traction?

We’ve been growing healthy — ordering new servers every few weeks or so and reengineering architecture behind the site. For example, the complexity of the Flow is far beyond pretty much anything anyone is doing in a photo space. It takes into account even minor things to calculate and show you exactly what you’d like to see.

Are you attracting different types of users in addition to avid photographers?

In terms of users, we are indeed focusing to cater to a new wave of users — some of those newly registered users are simply observers. They love to collect. They favorite hundreds of photos, but have few themselves. What we are changing here is that you can visit their profile and see their personal Flow to see what kind of user they are. If you like their favorites and taste, by following them you’ll get curated content on your home page. So we are opening the site not just to photographers, but to people with good taste who can get lots of followers simply by being avid photo collectors.

What’s next?

And of course that’s not all — we’ve been busy finishing up a few more projects (an Android app is one of them) and will be happy to release them really soon. As you know, we still operate as a very small group, and we are pushing the boundaries of what such a small team can accomplish.

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