Trevor Owens's Blog @owenstrevor - Tumblr Blog

Thoughts After Watching “Making A Murderer”

1. We have a responsibility to question people in power. Police officers, DAs, lawyers, judges, and anyone else in a position of power who dares claim they are above questioning should be questioned even further for they pose the greatest danger to society.

2. Never trust people in power. If police want to talk to you and you are not sure why, it is most certainly not for your benefit.

3. Lawyers use big words that most people don’t understand. I am amazed they believe that a jury can understand concepts like human bias and due process.

4. Small town people seem more corruptible by local social proof. The more world experience you have, the more you realize how skeptical you have to be of everyone. When you have a small social circle and are desensitized from the news, it’s easy to think, “That could never happen here, that could never happen to me.”

5. Victims, police, the justice system, etc. want to close the case and believe they are right.

6. “Good” police or people are always capable of bad things in some situations.

7. Police and intelligent people are more capable of accomplishing bad things if they choose to do so.

8. Poor people and uneducated people get taken advantage of by the system.

9. Evil people can truly believe that they are the good ones, and that innocent people are evil.

10. It is unethical to go against the process of due law. Many people don’t understand that but it’s not an excuse.

11. Many people want to see dumb people fail, even unjustly. They say, “It’s their own fault for being dumb.”

12. Many people believe they can know things they don’t know. ie. Someone is guilty just because they believe it.

Startup Valuations

Found this interesting graphic over at Rude.vc. Reinforcement that valuations are primarily dictated by supply of capital. More VC competition in Silicon Valley = higher valuations. That said, not every entrepreneur needs to go the $B route to become rich or make a difference in the world.

The One Skill Every Entrepreneur Should Master

Having coached thousands of entrepreneurs and hired many individuals for my own startups, there’s one skill I’ve noticed over and over again will help any individual reach unexpected levels of success. This same skill directly helped me build Lean Startup Machine from a workshop in just one city to hundreds around the world. This same skill I once taught to a founder who used it to raise $2M from some of the top investors in Silicon Valley. Another individual I taught used this skill (a college student at the time) to get a coffee meeting with Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter) and ask him for a job and to mentor her. And he agreed. And yet, because most of us don’t realize the importance of this skill, we miss opportunities every single day of our lives. The skill I’m talking about is cold emailing. Cold emailing goes beyond the idea of just sending someone an unsolicited email. It involves being able to FIND the right person and UNDERSTAND both his problems and what he wants. The ultimate goal of cold emailing is to make a great first impression and build relationships as fast as possible. Cold emailing is the ultimate act of resourcefulness and is useful even when you have no network. It’s power only amplifies over time. It will help you find the right customers to talk to before you start your business. It will help you get in touch with a high profile mentor. It will help you make a key hire, get the press coverage you need, or get a meeting with the right investor. Beyond these benefits, cold emailing is a powerful mindset. It’s a mindset that will help you understand how to take advantage of your network, put yourself out there, and be a better communicator. So, I’ve been looking for an online course to teach this skill for a few years, not just any course, but one that taught it the way I believe it should be taught. Because I believe this skill is so powerful, I was ecstatic when I found out my friend Scott Britton created an entire course dedicated to cold emailing. I’ve known Scott since he graduated Princeton and was the new guy in the NYC. He’s achieved a lot in the past couple years including doing business development for a startup that sold for $100M. Scott’s course includes three hours of content, six proven templates you can modify for your own needs, a ton of bonus content and a private community to share your learnings with. He’s great at explaining his thinking and helping you to understand the why behind his strategies. I doubt I could have created a better course myself. And that’s why I’m sharing it with you and why I’m sharing it with all of my employees and likely every entrepreneur I ever meet. Obviously I think this skill is extremely valuable. The course costs $197. That’s pretty cheap. Considering you can use this skill almost immediately to get a meeting with a high profile mentor or investor, it’s well worth it. Honestly, I think if you put any effort into learning this it will change your life as an entrepreneur or startup employee. I rarely promote other people’s courses and if I thought you could learn this skill easily just by reading blog posts—I wouldn’t be writing this blog post. I get tons of BAD cold emails all the time that are annoying. But when I receive a GOOD cold email it’s one of the best feelings, even though someone’s basically trying to sell me something! Writing GOOD cold emails is hard to learn and you need to learn it from someone good like Scott. So enough writing, here’s Scott’s Cold Email Mastery Course, the entire course is online and you get access to the videos forever. — PS. I’m doing a private webinar with Scott on cold emailing because I love the topic so much. Anyone who buys his course before Friday will get exclusive access to this event where I share some of the most effective cold emails I’ve ever written.

Sales People: Don't Send Template Emails

One of the biggest rookie sales mistakes is sending a template email with no personalization. Might work for some people, but you won't maximize your potential to get customers.

I send a lot of cold emails, sometimes I send templates. But I ALWAYS take at least two minutes to check the person's LinkedIn or Twitter to gage what they're interested in and what's new, and then write a sentence or two about that.

Even if they're not interested in my product, the personal touch leaves them with a good feeling about you and your company. I've had people recommend their friends because of this.

See the email below from AppSumo's Beef Jerky guy. It's all wrong because I really don't care about your product. I care about me. Take two seconds to tell me something about me. If you do, I will be much more willing to buy.

Related Post: The #1 Email Mistake

The Importance of Small Requests

One technique that has made a significant difference in my entrepreneurial career is making small requests.

Studies have shown that people are much more likely to agree to a large request, after first agreeing to a small request. This is also known as the foot-in-the-door technique. Essentially, getting someone to agree to a small request is "getting your foot in the door."

This method has been helpful for me in attracting mentors, building friendships, raising money, and growing our sales, among other things.

It's such a simple thing, and yet most people fail to do it most of the time.

Two Studies help to illustrate the power of small requests: 1. Housewives in California were phoned and asked to answer five questions about what household products they use. Three days later they were phoned and asked if a team of researchers could visit their home for two hours to conduct additional research. Another group was phoned and only asked if the researchers could visit for two hours. The result? The first group was more than twice as likely to agree to the two hour visit.

2. People were asked to sign a petition before being asked to make a donation to an organization two weeks later. Another group was merely asked to make a donation. Not only did more people in the first group donated, but the total amount donated was also significantly more.

A related method is called "The Secret of Socrates." Originally written about by Dale Carnegie. Essentially, whenever you start a conversation with someone, it behooves you to start the conversation on topics which you agree.

"Get the person to say 'Yes, yes' at the outset."

In both situations, the small request, and getting people to say yes, our internal desire to remain committed and consistent fuel the effect.

The #1 Email Mistake

I'll never forget this passage (link to audio) from Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friend's and Influence People. It crystalized for me the #1 email mistake I see in business: speaking in terms of your own interests, rather than the other person's.

Below (in bold) is the letter Dale Carnegie used in the book as the perfect example of this mistake, and within the brackets are what a person is inclined to think and feel when reading this email.

Mr. John Blank, Blankville, Indiana Dear Mr. Blank: The _______ company desires to retain its position in advertising agency leadership in the radio field. [Who cares what your company desires? I am worried about my own problems. The bank is foreclosing the mortgage on my house, the bugs are destroying the hollyhocks, the stock market tumbled yesterday. I missed the eight-fifteen this morning, I wasn’t invited to the Jones’s dance last night, the doctor tells me I have high blood pressure and neuritis and dandruff. And then what happens? I come down to the office this morning worried, open my mail and here is some little whippersnapper off in New York yapping about what his company wants. Bah! If he only realized what sort of impression his letter makes, he would get out of the advertising business and start manufacturing sheep dip.] This agency’s national advertising accounts were the bulwark of the network. Our subsequent clearances of station time have kept us at the top of agencies year after year. [You are big and rich and right at the top, are you? So what? I don’t give two whoops in Hades if you are as big as General Motors and General Electric and the General Staff of the U.S. Army all combined. If you had as much sense as a half-witted hummingbird, you would realize that I am interested in how big I am – not how big you are. All this talk about your enormous success makes me feel small and unimportant.] We desire to service our accounts with the last word on radio station information. [You desire! You desire. You unmitigated ass. I’m not interested in what you desire or what the President of the United States desires. Let me tell you once and for all that I am interested in what I desire – and you haven’t said a word about that yet in this absurd letter of yours.]

It's tempting to sell other people on how great we are. But in reality, the best business people know that others care much more about how great they are.

Viruses Are Predictable in Small Doses

PSY from Gangnam Style talks about the early indicators that his YouTube video would be a viral success (5 mins). The signs were there, even though he didn't realize it.

We're Hiring VP of Product

I couldn't be more excited to announce we're hiring for a VP of Product role at Javelin. Because we build tools for product development, we're an extremely product-focused company.

For the product-obsessed VP we hire, joining our team will feel like re-uniting with family. We put an intense level of discussion, logic, metrics, blog & book references, & white-boarding into our daily product work.

Here's some more info about what we're looking for:

Location: NYC or willing to relocate in near future.

Compensation: Short-term contract to perm. Low six figures + significant equity.

Obie's Thoughts: We are a results-oriented work environment, which means all team members must possess a strong work ethic and high-degree of emotional maturity. Unless they happen to live near New York City, candidates must be able to work from home reliably and communicate well via email and videoconferencing. Additionally, as an investor-funded startup, the pressure is often quite high and the right candidates need to be confident enough in their skills and opinions to hold their own among co-founders (me and Trevor) with strong personalities. Our current technology stack includes Mongo, Ruby on Rails, Spine.js, and Twitter Bootstrap, so experience with those is definitely a plus. Existing interest in lean startup topics is (of course) a must. Occasional travel will be required, for company meetings and/or attendance and support of our weekend workshops around the world.

Just Three Years

It's been three years since I hosted the first Lean Startup Machine workshop. Back then, we were just hosting a few events in the US and barely broke-even.

Today, our workshops are on six continents, generate $1M+ in revenue and we just launched our awesome software tool, Javelin.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the friends who've been there for me and believed in me.

Three years have flown by and we've still got a long ways to go.

Hiring Lean Customer Success Rep

I'm looking for three people to come on full-time in a customer success role for our upcoming pilots with GE, Lockheed Martin, Sony, ESPN, etc.

You will be calling these clients on a daily basis and checking their Javelin Board to make sure it's on track. You will also be contributing ideas and doing research on the customer segments and market they are tackling. You will also be working directly with me and learning the Lean methodology as we consider the business challenges these companies face.

You will start July 8th. Find my email and pitch me on why you'd crush it at this.

#hiring

Hiring a Communications & Marketing Summer Intern

I'm looking for a hungry recent grad or current student in the NYC area to work with our team on communications and marketing.

This individual will get an unequalled, startup experience working with our team, myself, and participating in the TechStars NYC program.

Please email me your resume and links to any communications and marketing projects you are responsible for the success of.

#internships #jobs #hiring

The Magic Sauce of TechStars NYC

TechStars is billed as the Harvard for entrepreneurs. We're excited to be a part of the Spring 2013 program for our soon-to-be-announced software product.

Now that we're nearing the end of the first month I thought I'd write about the people that make it such a great program.

Eugene Chung is co-Managing Director of our class and the heir to the NYC franchise. I didn't think I would like Eugene at first. During our interview process he was pretty abrasive and cold. I think it's because his mind is constantly working and he's close to a genius. Since the program started, Eugene instantly became one of my favorite people. When you get a drink with him and talk about Myers-Briggs, he can be really endearing. More than anything else, Eugene lives the program and really cares about the founders.

Nicole Glaros is the other co-Managing Director and a Boulder agent on special assignment for this class. She's run six or seven TechStars programs already so brings a ton of wisdom. It's weird but I feel like she's the motherly figure of the class. She's also super direct carries a strong presence.

One of the biggest benefits of the program is the weekly coaching we get from David Cohen, CEO of TechStars. I've been impressed with how he genuinely makes time for the teams, considering how big TechStars has become. My one interesting learning about David is that he's way more intense in person than his online persona. If you get the chance to meet him, don't let the above casual photo fool you, he will grill you about your business and want to understand it at a deep logical level.

Bret Feld [sic], MD of Foundry Group and Co-Founder of TechStars, spent several days here last week. Bret is one of the most charismatic people on the planet. When you look at the marathons he runs and the boards he sits on, you think he's like the real world Iron Man. Yet as a person he's down to earth and engaging.

Mark Solon, along with David Cohen, is a General Partner of TechStars (there are only two). I hadn't heard of Mark before joining the program as he tends to keep a low profile. He's one of the first investors in SendGrid, which will likely be TechStars's first billion dollar company. Mark struck me as very intuitive and I think the above picture really captures that side of him. He's also a pretty damn good photographer. It's clear to me Mark and David make a great team.

#techstars

Why Great Ideas Get Shot Down

The idea that will change your business is not the first nor is it the most obvious. Otherwise building a business would be easy.

Even for the most brilliant founders, having their team understand their next crazy idea and getting alignment can sometimes be extremely difficult. While they are still successful, and build millions of dollars in value, the fear of missing out on a 10x or 100x opportunity is real.

For the rest of us, most of our ideas are shot down by our superiors or partners. Perhaps this is a good thing, or perhaps it destroys our creativity. Decision making often turns into a negotiation instead of a consistent process.

There's a better way, if at first we understand why our well-intentioned discussions break down.

1. Personal Bias

We all have biases. These are actually healthy and good, unless we let them steer us too far. Product decisions must be made through an open-minded consideration of every alternative, and we must be willing to let our personal preference cede to the best thing for our customer. Demonstrating a consideration for alternatives, reasons why it won't work, and that there is no agenda behind an idea, is the best way to get others to listen to your idea with an open mind.

2. Miscommunication

What we say is rarely what others hear. Some ideas get shot down just because they aren't understood. Having something written down, discussing it, and re-writing it more clearly, is important to getting others to see from your perspective.

3. Ambiguity

When something is ambiguous, there are versions that people agree to and versions that they disagree to. Since so many ideas fail, we approach them with skepticism and want to mitigate the risk of the options we don't like. So we want to throw away the whole proposal unless it is specific. For example, we might agree in principal, but disagree on the execution. Being specific is key to eliminating fear.

4. Resource Drain

An experiment that takes twenty-four hours is easier to agree to than one that takes two weeks. Explaining the how, and designing an experiment in a cleverly efficient way, is key to overcoming the perception that something is too difficult to even try. When it won't take many resources and the downside is limited, people are more receptive even if they think probability of failure is high.

5. Fairness

Part of being a team is getting everyone's voice heard. This is why most product discussion resort to a negotiation. A well-designed process designs for fairness in a way that adds to the process, rather than takes away from it.

#process #ideation #communication #leanstartup

Why Entrepreneurs Hate Working at Big Companies

When compared to the stereotypical corporate persona, entrepreneurs are stoic individuals. They work out of basements and garages and hire their friends and family when no one else will work for them. Many go without pay for months, if not years, through ups-and-downs, for the chance at making something out of nothing.

Considering this level of determination, why do they often quit a year into being acquired by a larger company, or why would they never consider working for another corporation in the first place? Corporate politics and bureaucracy are just another obstacle that can be learned and overcome. In fact, they're relatively insignificant compared to the adversities entrepreneurs have to otherwise overcome. Considering the fact that entrepreneurs can leverage greater resources and a networks inside a company, why does the thought of that make them sick?

The answer is compensation. Not that big companies don't compensate them enough, but that the compensation structure is not aligned with an entrepreneur's world view.

Entrepreneurs are not motivated by money (except for a god-like amount), but compensation informs perception. Entrepreneurs look for up-side and the ability to arbitrage the system. Even though the potential for an exponential outcome is slim, entrepreneurs are overconfident in their chances. An entrepreneur's ideal situation is closer to a less than one percent chance to rule the world and a ninety-nine percent chance to be broke.

So when entrepreneurs say they hate working for big companies, it's not because they can't deal with the obstacles. It's because they perceive the best case scenario as being a waste of time. They see a better opportunity outside the system.

If enterprise innovation is to succeed as a new paradigm in corporate America, big companies need to develop new rules of entrepreneurial compensation. This means giving employees significant potential upside, while paying them minimum wage (if anything at all). There's a special kind of motivation that entrepreneurs get from taking the money of the world's most influential people, and betting their entire careers on a two year period.

Even Google, for all it's innovative DNA, let the founders of Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, & Foursquare, walk out their door. If it's happening to Google, it's happening to every big company.

#leanenterprise #innovation google

Three Enterprise Innovation Strategies

There's three strategies big companies should use to innovate:

Acquire Startups

Invest in Startups

Build Startups Internally

The difference is the level of control and momentum the company will afford.

Building internal startups is incredibly difficult--it takes a lot of energy an effort to get started but is likely the strategy that has the most long-term potential. Companies traditionally overspend on this option significantly. But now that new research is emerging around Lean Startup, this option is becoming viable and cost-effective for the first time.

The success rate of startup acquisitions is historically very low while the cost of acquiring a successful company is very high. Cisco is actually known for being highly successful at the acquisition process (claimed 70% success). Usually the problem is around keeping the original entrepreneurs engaged either through compensation or access to resources. For example, Dennis Crowley (foursquare founder) famously left Google after he couldn't get the engineering resources he wanted for the company they bought from him.

Funding external startups is the third & final strategy. This option is lower cost but also lower upside (lack of control). It's a way to get access to inside information on technology trends and be in a privileged place for strategic partnerships. For this reason Microsoft invested in Facebook and Rakuten recently invested in Pinterest. It's also a good option when a startup is not willing to be acquired.

#LeanEnterprise #Innovation

A Product is the Sum of its Behavioral Hooks

Today I attended Nir Eyal's Hooked Workshop in Boston. I follow his blog but hadn't had the time to think carefully about his ideas until now.

Overall, the experience really changed my thinking on a few things.

The Hooked Method is about intentionally embedding a series of behavioral loops in a product to increase user engagement and ultimately achieve Product/Market Fit. I think of it like a natural step after the Concierge Method. It's ideal for when you're starting to code the work you've previously done manually and are looking at the product holistically.

Essentially, if you look at each instance where a user engages with a product as a hook, it becomes intuitively obvious why certain things don't work. Whether intentional or not, every great product follows this pattern.

ie. Facebook

Internal Trigger -> Feeling Lonely

External Trigger -> Email Notification

Action -> Click thru to Facebook

Variable Reward -> What's in my feed? How many notifications do I have?

Commitment -> Comment someone else's post

External Trigger -> Notification that someone commented back

Action -> Visit site

Variable Reward -> Did he say something nice about me?

etc.

The epiphany for me was when I realized not just that this design pattern is good or ideal, but that it's the only design pattern. Infact, a product is not its functionality, it's its behavior hook. If the hook is interrupted, the use of the product ends.

I'm Hiring a Founder Apprentice

Want to change the world? Want to meet the top investors and startup folk in NYC?

I'm looking for a hungry student or recent grad to help with the crazy growth we'll be going through in the next 3 months.

This position is an exercise in operations/organization and relationship building. You'll be scheduling meetings and doing research on specific people in the tech sector that I'll be meeting with, trying to figure out what makes them tick and looking for ways to add value.

You'll get to build a crazy rolodex while experiencing startup life first-hand.

If you're interested, figure out how to get an email to me with why you're interested and more info on your background.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Trevor Owens's Blog