Carsonified

I just picked up a copy of Seth Godin’s book Small is the New Big and it’s already sparking ideas in my head. Definitely worth picking up.

I love this quote:

Consumers have more power than ever before.
Treating them like they don’t matter doesn’t work.

What he’s essentially saying is that you’ve got to respect your customers. Don’t ever try to bullshit them. Ever.

I’m tempted to shovel a little BS almost daily with DropSend support queries. For instance, our desktop uploader used to not work with our Business Plan. When I would get an email saying “Why doesn’t the desktop tool work with the Business Plan?” it was tempting to say “We’re working on it and it’ll be ready shortly.” The truth was, however, we weren’t even close to working on it. We had a million other things to do first. A couple times I gave people that answer but I knew deep down that it wasn’t actually true.

So I started respecting people by telling them the truth: “I’m really sorry, but it’s currently not compatible with the Business Plan. Unfortunately, it’s not a priority to get that fixed. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience.”

The funny thing is that people would usually respond with something along the lines of “OK, thanks for letting me know.” They just wanted the truth. (Once we finally updated the uploader tool to work with the Business Plan, those emails stopped coming in - should’ve done that sooner!) :D

If you’re around Washington DC on November 1st, feel free to stop by the New New Internet conference. I’ll be chairing a panel with Brad Feld - should be interesting!

Thomas Vander Wal has some great observations on the Facebook vs. LinkedIn for business networking issue. I tend not to mix FB with work, but some Carsonites do… what about you?

One of the things we constantly battle at Carsonified is how to balance our insane amount of ideas with the ability to actually do them.

We’re a small company (soon to be around 10 full time folks) and there just isn’t enough time to do everything we dream up. Right now we’ve got an amazing idea for a new web app, but we just don’t have enough people to do it. In order to do it properly we’d need to hire another developer and a product champion to look after it. With DropSend, Amigo, FOWA, Vitamin, FOWD and FOM, there’s plenty to do :)

That’s one thing we’ve learned with Amigo and DropSend - they need constant attention. You can’t just build it and move on to the next app and expect it to become a smash success.

Slowing down

So in 2008, I’ve actually decided to slow things down. We’re going to hold off on launching any new sites, apps or events. We’re going to hunker down and get to be damn good at what we’ve already created.

It’s weird but I’m actually really looking forward to it. Ahhh, the joy of focusing on one thing at a time :) I think we’ve always been slightly under-staffed for the amount of products we have, so we’re adding three new people and then we’re going to focus on growing what we’ve already got.

I guess the temptation is to be lured away from your current projects by something shiny and new. It’s a false trap though, as that shiny new thing will soon become a drain on your energy and resources.

A quick fix

One way to battle this constant frustration, is to do short and quick projects.

The FOWA Road Trip was a great example of this. We hatched the idea, Elliot designed it (beautifully!), and I hopped on a plane. Then it was over. All in the matter of about four weeks. It was a great way to do something creative and fun, without creating long term comittments on our time.

What do you do?

I’d love to hear how you battle with this. How do you balance launching new ideas versus digging in and getting good at what you’re already doing?

Paul Graham just posted a lengthy post in response to my on-stage rebuttal to his talk at FOWA. I disagreed with what he said during his talk at FOWA so I felt compelled to stand up on-stage and respond very quickly.

One of the main reasons we organize FOWA London is to encourgage people to build web apps here in Europe. We want people to feel encouraged, equiped and connected after the show. Saying “Well, you’ve got a better chance if you just move to Silicon Valley” makes my blood boil. It just isn’t true.

I won’t try to summarize his post here, as that wouldn’t do it justice (please take a minute to read it). However, I’ll try to explain why I think he’s wrong.

Silicon Valley vs The Rest of the World

In Paul’s talk at FOWA, he essentially said that startups have a better chance of succeeding if they are located in a ‘Startup Hub’ - a city where there is a large amount of support (funding, legal, news coverage and social). I fully agree - startups have a better chance at succeeding with support.

But I don’t think that’s the whole story.

I just spent 14 days travelling around various cities in Europe on our FOWA Road Trip. I shook a lot of hands and had a ton of great conversations with folks who are building web startups.

It was amazing how many people are launching web apps outside the US / English speaking market. They’re excited, motivated and many have already launched their apps. These folks are getting more and more support from movements like Seedcamp and investors like 3i, Index, Advent and Accel.

Events like FOWA, dConstruct, Mix and Max are also equipping people in Europe - the level of support is skyrocketing. There are also a ton of BarCamps and Open Coffees sprouting up. Not to mention the excitement around mobile (Mobile Mondays, Sweedish Beers, etc).

It seems crazy to discourage that growth by saying that people should move somewhere else. How can we get to that critical level of support here in Europe if we always have people saying everyone should move to Silicon Valley?

Look at last.fm (£140 Million!) and moo - if you ever needed an example that you don’t need to move to Silicon Valley, they’re surely it. I’d like to also humbly put forward DropSend. We’ve managed to succeed and we’re not even in London.

100 Million vs 1 Million

Paul didn’t clarify in his talk or post whether he was referring to startups who are funded or those that are boot-strapped.

This is a vital issue to clarify. If a web app is boot-strapped (as DropSend was) you really don’t need to move to a startup hub. Why? Because if it’s a decent idea and you’ve got a little bit of business sense, you can turn that into a product that is worth upwards of $1 Million (depending on the idea and market). If you’ve thrown $35,000 at a web app and you can eventually sell for $1 Million, that’s a pretty damn good return on your investment.

That’s the crux of my frustration with Paul Graham’s attitude. I almost felt as if he was saying “Yeah, for you little guys, you can stay wherever you are. But if you want to be a real startup and play with the big boys, better get yourself over to Silicon Valley.”
There’s way too much pressure in the web app industry to be the next $100 million dollar company. Screw that. Let’s all focus on being passionate about our great ideas and growing them into viable, profitable businesses. There’s nothing wrong with that :)

Paul’s a smart guy, but just because he says you need to move to Silicon Valley doesn’t mean it’s true.

I’d be interested to know what you think - looking forward to the discussion :)

(Thanks to flickr.com/photos/sergiopepe for the photo)

We’re looking for a full-time manager for DropSend. If you’ve got a passion for web apps and a little marketing experience please email me on ryan at this domain. You’ll need to be willing to work from our nifty new office in Bath (1.5 hours from London).

Some new research from Orange Business Services into entrepreneurial attitudes in the UK suggests that fear of failure is still a big factor in preventing people from acting on their big ideas.