Boston: July 18, 2012

Starting a new business

It’s good to be second
- Learn from your competitors’ mistakes
- Samsung has never pioneered anything new
Seeding is one issue, scaling is another
- Seeding users vs. businesses
- Small businesses present unique challenges
  - Employees are like robots
  - Owners are not visionary risk-takers
  - Owners aren’t around when you visit
Marketing is the hardest part
- Competition doesn’t just mean other companies/products in your industry; there’s just so much noise out there.
- Businesses in Boston/Cambridge area are pitched to on average 40 times every month.
- You want to be "pulled into" the market, not "pushing into" it.
Attack one vertical, prove you can do it in that "simple as possible" market
- Apple changed the music industry by focusing on iPod, and before that, iMac.
- Amazon focused on books, had to prove it was possible to sell books online. Then they expanded.
It takes some detachment to be good at the thing you’re passionate about.
Recommended reading: Chris Dixon blog, founder of Hunch (bought by eBay)

Users aren’t customers unless/until they are paying you money
- Facebook has 900 million users but 18-25 year-olds don’t have money.
- Dropbox: millions of users are happy with the 2G free storage
  - Those users are costing Dropbox for infrastructure
- When using your website is free, your users are the product and you’re selling traffic to advertisers
Pinterest went for a couple of years with less than 200 users. They were lucky to go viral.
Why invest in Instagram?
- Users can leave as quickly as they come.
- Companies can’t monetize except for being bought.
- It’s like the 90’s dot com bubble but instead of IPO they are being bought by larger companies.
- The industry is perpetuating these bad habits by investing in these companies.
Every platform that is "open" is open to a lot of crap as well.
On social networks, certain individuals act like nodes for bringing the vast majority of the crowds.
- How to identify and attract those individuals?

Instead of purchasing expensive software to use infrequently (or even just once), rent the software for a limited time.
Host the software on some server so the user doesn’t actually download it, and provide a web interface.
Might prevent some piracy?
Software publishers would have to be idiots to agree to offer this option.

Education should focus more on language
- As the world gets smaller it’s more important for students to learn multiple languages
There is market demand for private schools in the area because parents are looking for anything to give their kids an edge.
Replace Physical Education as we know it with things like Taekwondo.
Focus on world history instead of just US history.
Self discipline is tough when you’re doing self-directed learning.
Companies use social networking apps to use social pressure to drive students.
Remote classroom at younger ages
- Target parents and involve the family.
- Kids are bright and motivated already.
US education focusses too much on memorization
- Not true in France, Germany, other countries.
Homeschooling helps with academics but not social development.