Trying to Be Twitter Is the Quickest Path to Failure
Today's startup is WildFIRE Â (note the "FIRE" is in all caps), not to be confused with social marketing company Wildfire which was acquired by Google for $350 Million, a startup which "is a simple way to capture and share the world's FIREs and watch them spread all over the world beyond your inner network of followers as well as discover moments that interest you." If you thought this was a pyromaniacs app you're not alone. It sure sounds like it. However, this looks like an app that is trying to be Twitter and as you know trying to be a huge platform right from the get-go rarely ends up in success. Let's examine more closely.
What is WildFire?
As you might have surmised WildFIRE is not an app for Pyros (though that might do better), but an app to share media (photos, videos, and audio) to people who follow you. There's seems to be a way to "Spread the fire to your followers" which means you can re-post someone else's fire to your followers. Does this sound familiar to you? Yes, it's because this is what Twitter essentially is. Oh, there is one difference. "No FIRE will spread to the same user more than once. FIREs only display the originator that started it, you will never know which user "Spread" it to you."
Essentially WildFIRE is Twitter where FIRES = Tweets (with media) and Spreading FIRES = Re-tweeting.
The Good
The landing page actually looks good. Everything is clean and the app design looks good as well. From the surface the app looks well built.
The Bad
This app could be great if a lot of people used it, but there already very well established apps where you can do the same thing and you'd probably find more interesting people using (ie Instagram, Vine, Twitter, etc...). So feature-wise this app isn't really different from the other social media platforms. If there's no difference in features what value is WildFIRE bringing to users? It's not, and that's why in it's current form WildFIRE will fail.
The Solution
One way to potentially salvage this app is to focus the content and usage to a specific audience. Here are some ideas.
AnimalFIRE (Twitter for Animal Lovers) - Target animal lovers (ie people who love reading animal news, watching silly cat videos, etc...). Users share photos and videos of their own pets. People are crazy about their pets. Tap into it.
SkateFIRE (Twitter for Skateboarders) - Target skateboarders (or other action sports) where users can share photos and videos of their friends or themselves practicing tricks or showing off gear.
FashionFIRE (Twitter for Fashion people) - Target stylists and people who like following clothing trends and styles. They can share photos of their outfits and clothes they like.
Conclusion
It's tempting to want to build Twitter since they are valued so high and on the outside looking in it doesn't seem to crazy of an idea. However, you have to remember that even Twitter took some time to find their stride. And for someone to try to replicate and build their own Twitter when Twitter already exists is insane. In order to succeed you have to find another angle or hook to get users FIRED up about your app.
Reconiz is a horrible name for anything, let alone a consumer focused start up and iPhone app that's trying to get traction and get people to actually download and check it out.
What it's supposed to be is a micro blogging platform where users share pictures and posts about pop culture. Initially it started out as a consumer "paparazzi" app where users can use the app as a tool to announce and take pictures of their celebrity sightings. Fair enough. It's a concept that makes sense. After all pop culture, celebrity sightings and gossip are always popular topics of conversation, especially in the social media drowned culture we're living in.
But what's up with the name? It's hard to pronounce, read, write, remember and to top it off you'll have to spell it out for everybody you encounter who asks about it. Maybe they are targeting people that misspell "recognize" so they can get a user base filled with idiots.
Did it derive from Recon? So you can set up recon missions to spy on celebrities? Or is supposed to be pronounce recognize? The latter is probably more likely although both variations are idiotic and makes you think of nothing you are trying to convey.
If it had more traction maybe it would make the Inc's list for worst start up names.
It's not too late to change the name to something better. The app doesn't have any traction as is so you can change it to something that people can actually remember and enter in their phone or website without thinking too hard.
Just remember this. If you do not change it, everything you tell somebody your app name, in their head they are thinking "What the fuck". Don't believe me? go ahead, ask the last person what the thought about when you showed them your business card with the spelling of your start up.
Wigo is a college focused app that "shows college students who at their school is going out and where they're headed, every single night." They recently raised $700K in seed money from prominent investors including Sean Rad and Justin Mateen formerly of hot dating app Tinder. So is Wigo going to be the next hottest social app? Or is Wigo going to be a no go? Here are some thoughts on the app.
The Basics
On Wigo each day you have the option of updating your status to "Going Out" when your plan on going out to a party or some kind of function. Once you've added this status you're added to a list of students at your school whom are also going out as well. Your friends can see this update and if they want chat with you about where you're going out. You can also "shoulder tap" other users and friends and that will send them a push notification letting them know that you are going out.
Why It Might Succeed
It's relatively simple. You don't need to specify where you're going out. It's also designed with your friends in mind and we all know we're curious where our friends, even if they aren't super close friends, will be partying or having fun. The fear of missing out is strong here and it's not hard to imagine if you saw one of your friends who said they were going out you'd message them back and ask where they are going so you can tag along and not miss out on all the fun.
Why It Might Fail
I've seen a lot of these "social planning" apps and what always struck me about them is that they require a lot of work on the part of users than the value they receive. For example many of these apps would ask you to enter the location and time of where you were planning on going. Just entering in this info is time consuming and as a user you got little benefit from putting this info in other than maybe someone "liking" the event you planned on going to.
With Wigo it's not that bad since they took out the requirement of putting in time and location. However, the app is trying to train a new habit of having users when they plan on going out to update their status in Wigo. If it were me I'd just go to the event. However, what might get this going is having a few friends who do use the app that post enough where people start finding out about parties or events they otherwise might have missed.
Product market fit is defined as finding sufficient demand in a defined marketplace. It's when you realize your product does solve a problem and the next step is to focus on managing and scaling customers trying to use or purchase your product. The scaling often involves both scaling marketing and employees.
Finding product market fit can be a difficult process. Most companies fail before they find this fit. Once you do there are many strategies companies use to grow and tend to their customer growth.
Stitch is a Tinder app for older adults. LoveWithFood is a snack box company and Club W is a A California based direct-to-consumer winery. Here's a few strategies that these 3 companies used in marketing and managing customer growth:
Twitter and Social Media
All of these companies use Twitter as a way to promote their videos, products, contests and connect with consumers. Some of thees companies produce their own original content while others tweet tips for their demographic. For example, Stitch may tweet out an article about dating for seniors or tips on how to use Siri, a technology that might be useful to seniors but underutilized because most seniors aren't that tech savvy.
Besides twitter, creating a youtube channel with original content and a Pinterest following to showcase some quality pictures has helped Club W and LoveWithFood build and grow their audience and potential customer reach.
LoveWithFood throws 1 hour long online parties with their hashtag #lovewithfood where participants receive specials and giveaways related to their product.
Partnerships
Partnerships is a good way to spread the word of your product or service. While Club W partnered up with other startups like SideChef Blue Apron, and Eat-Ink.com, where they had special promotions with these companies to utilize their audience reach. Stitch partners up with influential and respected authors, naming them ambassadors of the company while Club W hires "taste makers" and contributors to product content on their blog.
Contests
If you have a physical product like Club W or LoveWithFood, giveaways and contests of either your product or in demand products like iPads is a good way to get users to help market your product by either making them tweet, post, sign up to your email list or follow your social media accounts. Entering users into contests or giving them points or credits to your site when they refer new users is a way to grow your email list as well.
Club W has a "redeem gift" section where gifts users give other users can be redeemed when they put in their redemption code and email address, building their email list.
Events
Events targeting your audience can help connect the company with users in a more intimate way. Stitch had sponsored concerts and dinners while Club W has dinner and wine events at their headquarters.
Press
Whether they use PR companies or their own contacts in the industry press is always a method companies use spread the word for their product or services. Some methods these companies received press was from participating in industry or technology related panels, discussions or keynote speeches. Getting featured in popular apps or websites like "ProductHunt" is another way to get your product noticed.
Corporate Partnerships
Club W and LoveWithSnack developed special programs targeting corporate customers. If your product makes sense for companies and you can score a corporate customer, this can be great way to get large orders and grow your customer quick in one swoop.
Conclusion
If you are lucky and skilled enough to find product market fit, the strategies used my start ups and mature businesses alike are not too different.
If asked you to pronounce the name "Qvotr" how would you say it? For me it looks like the letter "Q" with the word "voter" attached to it. So all together it would be Q-voter! Based on this name I would guess this startup has something to to do with polling or voting tech. Maybe a mobile social polling app. But, I would be wrong. Turns out Qvotr is "like Pinterest, except for words." Confused?
Their homepage just leads with that statement. I know Pinterest is like visual bookmarking so does that mean Qvotr is word bookmarking? So I can save snippets of text and view them on a pinboard? If that's the case isn't this just a note taking app?
If you can get past the initial confusion and you happen to have the patience of staying on the page you'll find there's a button to see an example of what they are describing.
As you can see it is a way to save snippets from websites and tag them with whatever you'd like so you can go back and reference them later. It's actually kind of cool since the design and formatting is clean. My suggestion would have been to put some of these examples right on the landing page and to change their tagline. I know a lot of people know of Pinterest now, but even if they do, I don't think they'll get the "Pinterest for words" reference. I think it'd be better to say something like "Save and share important quotes and notes from stuff you find online." Sure it might not make an investor jizz in their pants, but at least they won't be scratching their heads trying to figure out what words and pinterest have in common.
I also think it'd be better to show a gallery of users so I can browse and see what other users are sharing. I'm too lazy to install the extension and start creating my "wordboard" (is that what they call it?) so I rather just see what other people have done before I decide I want to create my own.
It's an interesting product, but a product that might take more time and investment then the benefit I'll get out of it. I wonder too if you can use Evernote or other online note taking apps to do the exact same thing.
Let's Hang (Today) - The Greatest Social Mobile App Never
So what's the Let's Hang app all about? It's a new app and based on the landing page, Let's hang is a new social networking / dating / local discovery location based app (All the key "startupy" terms (a short clip from the Silicon Valley TV show).Â
There's a hot girl on the landing page, stereotypically nerdy founders on the about page and hints of what the app will do. But whatever the app will do, it has to stand out from the rest if it stands a chance of being more than just a side hobby and social experiment.
The dating and social space is jam packed with apps. Some are blowing up (Tinder, Yik Yak...) and some have been lingering in the middle to top lists in the app store for years, hopefully pivoting their way unto something great..some day (Circle app, Yeti...)
Lets Hang looks like another iteration of a wannabe social, dating, location based app with nothing to make it stand apart from the rest. It's probably going to be well designed, but that's more of a basic requirement these days.
If it's focused on dating, it has some really hot competitors to take on that are already dominating the app dating space. If it's focused on general socializing, it also has a ton of well funded competitors, many of which are still trying to find it's market fit and will eventually fail or pivot.
Based on the competitive landscape of this space, they should focus their marketing on one niche. Not "dating" or "social" or "new in town" or even "university students", but something even more specific. For example, bike riders, weed smokers, sculptors, or anything the founders might have some interest in.
By doing this they can see if they have the marketing skills, influence, chops, whatever you want to call it, to build an app with some type of community of users. They might say "fuck that, we want to be huge! a billion dollar company, like Whisper or Tinder". That might be true but while tinder had its innovating swiping user interface (not to mention the backing of a billion dollar company in IAC) and Whisper focused on the anonymous niche (not to mention the founders had years of experience building and marketing successful apps), Lets Hang has nothing. Absolutely nothing. At least for now.
Even if all three founders were genius engineers and brilliant business minds working on this project full time, their chance of success in the social / dating space is very low without some hook, innovative technology or unique competitive advantage. Circle App has some of the smartest engineers hand picked from India's top schools and funding to last them years and they're still struggling to build a product with some market viability.
They are probably at a stage right now where they can still refocus their marketing for the app. It's probably not too late. Once they launch and try to market to everyone under the sun, they will begin the process of digging their own grave.
Good luck and I hope you prove us at the Silicon Pope wrong.
When you go to the instaMD website you are inundated with information. They have a straight to the point tagline of "The Simple and Affordable Way to Capture and Share Vital Signs from Anywhere." Sounds compelling, right? The only problem is the rest of the landing page goes into great detail how they do this and a million other things. It's overwhelming and confusing and muddles their initial message of being the simple way to capture and share vital signs. There's a lot they can do to streamline their message in order to get people interested.
Show Off the Product
This is what their product looks like.
It's definitely unique looking which is something instaMD should use to their advantage. They should have this picture above the fold on their landing page. For a prospective doctor / patient it's something which after looking at they'd probably be curious to know more. Instead, however, we're greeted with this less eye catching and confusing image.
(the doctor looks like he's playing minesweeper)
Focus on a Few Things
As mentioned the website is pretty overwhelming which dilutes from the overall message instaMD is trying to convey.
They talk about their Multi-Use Headset and mention its features including:
While it's nice that you can listen to music or have phone conversations with this headset I doubt that this is a major selling point for 95% of the people who would be interested in buying this device. It's better to focus on the original message of helping users to capture their vitals so their doctor can better diagnose any potential problems.
(the ability to listen to Taylor Swift while taking your vital signs shouldn't be a main selling point...)
instaMD also has software platform they are offering. Like the headset above their platform offers more features than related to their mission of capturing and sending vital signs. Features like a Short URL to share your profile through Twitter (not sure why a patient would want share their private vital signs on a public platform) make me question if that was that important include. That's just one example of many I found which made me scratch my head. This is a case where I think it's better to focus on doing a few things well rather than doing everything poorly.
Who's Your Audience?
The other issue I have with their page is I'm not sure who they are trying to sell this product to doctors or patients? The copy is confusing since they say "At last, you can "see" your doctor without ever setting foot in their office." This suggests they are targeting patients, but then if it's a software platform don't you need to have doctors that use it? So it seems like it's more important to focus the marketing and copy to the targeted to doctors. Best case scenario, let's say I bought this device and brought it to my doctor and asked him to start doing streaming calling with me. I doubt he'd be open to this (especially since he wouldn't be getting paid his normal way).
Revised Page
Taking all of the above into consideration this is what I would have for their revised landing page for instaMD to get started thinking on how they can streamline their offering.
Here I'm focusing on patients like they are, what their benefit is "No more waiting rooms" and using a picture of someone using their product. It would be better if they testimonials either from doctors or actual users as it would add more legitimacy to the product. However, this is just a starting point.
A new app recently came out to help girls organize and catalog their clothing from shoes, dresses to jewelry and purses. For those who spend hours organizing and color or style coding their closets, taking a picture of the clothing item and tagging it in an app doesn't sound like too much additional work and it might be fun to have it on your iPhone to share, browse and search clothing items.
Marketing consumer apps are always difficult. With so many popular fashion apps and websites already out there, reaching new users interested in your product is difficult. Apart from solely ad buys , Here's a few ideas / comments for Boudoir, many of which are probably already being implemented.
1) Pinterest / Instagram - Any fashion related product should be focusing their efforts on building a following on both Pinterest and Instagram where a lot of fashionista's, bloggers and companies live. By posting popular fashion catalogs as boards on Pinterest or tags on Instagram, they can reach a lot of targeted consumers that are interested in fashion.
2) Once Boudoir has built up a list of top fashion bloggers that have their own YouTube channel or Blog, reaching out to these users for app reviews can help them not only get the word out on the app, but also help them get more user generated content on their app since they will be adding their own catalogs for the reviews.
Maybe even create their own YouTube show featuring that week's most popular catalogs and fashion tips will help.
3) Sharing catalogs or allowing users to make them public and used as marketing material can provide a lot of great user generated content for Boudoir's blog.
4) Voting or "liking" certain pieces of clothing or catalogs on the app is a great way to feed the need that people have for social media interaction. Integrating social media so that Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest likes show up on the user's profile or catalog on the Boudoir app will encourage more people to share their pictures and catalogs.
5) Giving away gift certificates for ___ amount of clothing added might help populate the app's content. For example, if you post 15 pieces of American Apparel branded clothing, you get a 10 dollar gift certificate. If this works you can contact the companies to see if they are interested in sponsoring these gift certificates as a way for them to promote their brands.
6) Since posting fashionable pictures, tips and fashion ideas are already prevalent on most of the social media platforms as well as other apps, there should be more emphasis on what problems this specific app solves.
It may be beneficial to add more real world examples and use cases on how this can be useful for the regular consumer. For example, by using Boudoir, Sarah was able to prepare outfits weeks ahead of events, saving her hours. Or by following a fashionista that Sarah admired, she was able to locate specific hard to find articles of clothing and add that to her "Buy" list after finding out the brand and specifications of the product.
We'll be following the progress of this start up.....
Marketing Ideas for Bond Social Relationship Management App
I stumbled across this app called Bond which is an app that lets you set reminders on when to connect with someone. It works by allowing you to select which people you want to keep in contact with, what method you want to use (phone, text, or facebook), and frequently you want to contact them. It doesn't look like a half bad app. Below are some marketing suggestions Bond could use to get more users and awareness.
Landing Page Improvements
I was not a fan of their landing page. While it's not horrific I did find problems. Specifically:
Tagline. "A simple app that reminds you to keep in touch with people" is OK, but doesn't tell you why it's important to keep in touch with people...
Video. It wasn't clear there was a video that could be played. There's a play button, but normally videos for playback include an image thumbnail that gives you and idea on what will be in the video. Bond, however, didn't have this.
Page aesthetics. Page is too sterile. For an app that's supposed to be about people bonding the page itself is devoid of people.
Call to action. Only download option is to put in my phone number so it can text me a download link. I don't like to give my phone number out to random sites so I wouldn't use this method.
Suggestions to address these issues:
Tagline. Appeal to the emotion of the app like "Bond lets you live a more satisfying life by keeping you in touch with those you care about." Do people want satisfying lives? You bet they do!
Video. Either add a thumbnail preview image for the video to be plaid or use a link that when clicked will overlay the video that will play (tinder has a good example of this)
Page aesthetics. Add either a video background or photo background of people bonding, doing stuff, etc... add some people in there to sell the feeling of the app
Call to action. Add a download now button that takes user to the app store download.
With those changes in mind my quick and dirty revised landing page looks like this...
Marketing Campaign Ideas
Bond is all about the benefits of keeping in touch with people so the marketing should focus on this. Here are two low-cost ideas.
Celeb social media content. Find celebs who regretted not keeping in touch with people. The general public loves all things celeb related so try to find stories of celebrities who have publicly mentioned sadness / regret in not spending more time with their friends, family, etc... Create meme type images with the important quotes from their stories. Share these images and stories through instagram, blog, facebook, pinterest, etc...
Benefits of Keeping In Touch Infographic. Find interesting facts about the benefits of keeping of touch... like longer lives, less stress, etc... compile it into an infographic and share share share.
That's about all i can think of now. What do you think?
Controversial marketing campaigns have always been prevalent in the start up space. Uber was recently reamed by news media outlets for their "Avions de Chasse" promotion in France where you would get a ride from an attractive model. They recently apologized, stating that it was a "clear misjudgment by the local team" in France.Â
Soon after the promotion, news outlets all over the world covered the controversy. Media from local news stations to large tech and mainstream news publications quickly released articles either condemning the company or praising it's unique, albeit controversial and seemingly misogynistic campaign.
This means that even more people around the world who never heard of Uber were now aware of them. Lets be honest, companies constantly make mistakes in judgement and the ones who were honest about the mistakes, especially if the mistakes are for the most part harmless, they usually come out on top.
AirBnB has had many crazy stories that has led to the company consistently receiving press. From hookers to robberies and sob stories of renters losing their precious belongings, the press always has something sexy and interesting to write about. Blessing AirBnB with more eyeballs and potential customers. Although they didn't create these situations on purpose, the press didn't have a negative effect on them since they addressed each situation quickly and professionally.
Ryan Holiday, the director of marketing for American Apparel has made a living creating controversial marketing campaigns. This includes his failed attempt to donate 500,000 to planned parenthood on behalf of one of his clients, Tucker Max, a former frat boy, sex addicted party animal that led to press and purposely vandalizing one of Tucker's billboards for his film "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" that led to even more press.
Can this type of marketing work for you? It can if you're careful not to cross the moral line too far and break the law too much, it can. If you go to far, as long as you apologize professionally, profusely and pledge to change your policies moving forward, you should be good to go.
Most people are smart enough or at least have enough common sense to realize that certain incidences like Uber's hot girl riding service won't have a long term impact on service and what they truly care about when using these services.
Here's a four controversial topics you can play: around with and integrate into your next black ops marketing campaign:
Religion
Sex
Hot news topics (currently domestic abuse is hot due to the NFL)
Siren is an app I bashed a couple of weeks ago for being yet another dating app in an endless sea of dating apps. Chances are they are going to fail, but rather than focus on the negative I wanted to flex my "creative" muscles and figure if without changing any aspect of their product I could come up with a better way of marketing and presenting their product. This way they at least put their best forward before failing. The biggest area they could use improvement is their homepage / landing page copy.
Right now when you go to the Siren homepage it doesn't tell me, a prospective user, why I should be interested in whatever they're offering. Right when the page loads I'm greeted with a slideshow which explains some app. That in itself is not bad, but it fails to answer the more important question. What does Siren offer me now that I'll continue to read more about this app?
Scrolling past the slideshow the most eye-catching text is "Request Invite Code", but that has no meaning to me so I won't be doing that. Further on you get a snippet of what Siren offers "Siren helps people discover the individual beyond the profile photo." This is better than "Request Invite Code," but at the same time fails to appeal to what's in it for the user. Why do I want to discover people beyond their profile photo? Oh, and I'm sure is not going to open up gmail, copy and paste the email address, and compose an email to request an invite code. That's just too much online work for so little perceived benefit!
Since Siren is a dating app let's look at how a successful dating app did their landing page and presented their "value prop" (as it's called in the biz). This is Tinder's landing page when they first launched in May 2013.
Notice right off the bat how simple and focused on the message Tinder is. "Discover those around you". Ok, that sounds mildly interesting, I'll read more... "Tinder finds out who likes you nearby and connects you if you're both interested". Ah, I got it. I can find people who like me!
The challenge for Siren is to distill their app and message down to the core of what they are trying to accomplish. Siren explains themselves as "Siren is a dating app that puts women in control of their visibility and encourages women to make the first move. This simple action creates a better, more valid signal to men, similar to real life. Siren also removes the stress and artificiality of pre-crafted profiles." If you are like me after reading that you still don't know what siren does.
It took me some time to figure out how their app works, but essentially it allows "Sponsors" to sponsor or ask a question. After the question has been asked it is broadcasted to the community and other users can decide if they want to answer the question. The sponsor then can decide if he/she wants to connect further based on the answers they received. What makes this question and answer format different than other dating apps is that it focuses more on the thoughtfulness of the responses than the quality of the photos the user uploaded.
However, reading their homepage it's not clear that's what this app does or how that could benefit you.
Based on what they are trying to do this is what I came up for their landing page.
Connect with people not selfies
Siren connects you to singles by highlighting your awesome personality through zany questions and answers.
With "connect with people not selfies" I'm trying to appeal to users who've become jaded with online dating where pictures are primary and everything else is secondary. Further on I also want to highlight what makes Siren unique and interesting; namely, their question and answer format for connecting people.
So taking that new copy this is my modest proposal for Siren's new landing page.
In 2013, Coca Cola launched a campaign where they embedded a digital window on a coke vending machine so that consumers from Pakistan and India, 2 countries worlds apart due to political tension, could see each other and dabble in simple interaction games.
While this concept may not work as well with e-commerce sites like Etsy.com, the concept itself of connecting 2 people during using more than the text on the screen could be used to bring something different to the e-commerce experience, especially when many of the sellers on Etsy are artists or locals from interesting places with their own story of their unique products..
Audio Clips
Sellers on Etsy.com are often creative individuals, building homemade crafts or curating interesting and unique items locally. Many of their beautifully taken photos and descriptions for their products give you a window into their culture and life. Adding audio to accompany the descriptions or storefronts can add some flare to their store, build a larger following and possibly increase sales. Here's a few benefits of adding audio to the store:
It creates a rich experience to inform and captivate shoppers in a more personal manner, especially if the creator and owner of the store is speakingÂ
Audio is for the most part very manageable and cost efficient
Unlike video, it takes less preparation to set up and you don't have to look like a model to stand out
The creative sellers on Etsy can get creative with their audio, being funny, culturally educating or describing a product in ways that text can't.
A short audio guide to an Etsy store can be a very appealing way to introduce the stores concept and story behind the creation of the store. For example, in addition to their about section text, the sellers can have a special extended audio clip talking about the store owners experiences and why they chose to sell the products they sell.
Comics
From a content marketing strategy, comics has been underutilized by e-commerce. Depending on the product, a comic strip can explain concepts visually while adding some humor or entertainment. It explains difficult topics in an easy to digest way. Some stores on Etsy.com that might benefits from comics are:
Stores that sell clip art can use their art are in comic strips to convey simple yet amusing or charming content
Creating simple consumer manuals to describe functionality or features of their products. Zappos used comic books for their employee guides as opposed to the typical Bible sized guides that employees rarely consume in it's entirety.
With the rise and popularity of taxi-ride-sharing app, Uber, we've seen a proliferation of on-demand service based startups offering: weed on demand, laundry on demand, car washes on demand, and even valets on demand etc.... The formula for these type of startups is to brainstorm services and products that have yet to be turned into an app and start a company around that. I feel like the more crazy the idea the better chance it has at being "disruptive" (which is every founder's wet dream). In honor of jumping on the Uber for X bandwagon I've come up with 3 game changing billion dollar Uber-like companies.
GasMe - Uber for Gas Filling
If you live a fast paced busy lifestyle the last thing you have time for is having to drive to a gas station and pump your own gas. That takes at least 15 minutes out of your day and puts you at risk of catching all kinds of diseases and sicknesses due to having to touch that gas pump. Why put up with that headache when you can use GasMe. GasMe will send a Gasser (the hip name we give to our workers) out to wherever you are who will bring his own gas with him and fill you up on the spot. You don't even have to talk to him if you don't want to. Gas and go!
MobMe - Uber for Actors
Wouldn't it be great if you could hire actors whenever you wanted? Say you're in line for a club and you need to up your girl to guy ratio in order to get into the club. How would you do that? You can call your friends, but let's say you're a loser and you don't have that many hot female friends that could pass muster to get you fast entry. For most people you'd be shit out of luck. However, with MobMe, you open the app, select the actors you want and they'll come out to you and perform your acting gig of pretending to be your hot friends so you can get into the club. If you pay additional money you may also be able to get them to act as your girlfriend and have them give you the full girlfriend experience!
PetMe - Uber for Pets
Studies have shown that people who have pets live happier and more fulfilling lives. You see these people in the park walking their dogs or at the beach playing frisbee with Fido. While pets can be a lot of fun we all know that pets aren't cheap or clean fun. You have to deal with vet bills, pet food, poop, etc... What if you could have the best of both worlds. All the fun of having pets without any of the work that's required to keep them alive? That's where PetMe comes to the rescue. Open the app, select the pet you want, and one of our Petbassadors will come out and deliver your chosen well-trained pet for your use. When you're done with your pet you just hit the "I'm Done" button and the Petbassador will come back and fetch the pet. Pets without the mess!
The Central Governor Theory & Pushing Beyond Your Physical Limits
I recently listened to an episode of Radiolab titled Limits. The episode focused on the limits of human ability both mentally and physically. The episode examines some of the physical and mental feats that different people have achieved where many wouldn't think possible. It was an interesting episode so I wanted to look into one of the people they mentioned, what they did, and how they did it.
Julie Moss - The Unlikely Ironman Triathlete
Julie Moss, 23 years old at the time, needed to complete her senior project in order for her to graduate from San Luis Obispo as a PE major. She didn't know what her project was going to be until she watched a broadcast of the Ironman competition on ABC Worldwide sports. She was mesmerized by the competition and decided she would enter the competition and do a write up about the experience for her senior project.
Going into the race her plan wasn't to win the race, but just to go through the experience and write about it. In terms of preparing for the race she had previously never done any triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run) let alone an Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run). On race day she hadn't ever completed the full distance for the bike or the swim.
Amazingly on race day after the swim and bike as she started the run portion of the triathlon she was surprised to find out she was in second place. As the run went on the first place runner dropped out due to an achilles injury. That put her in first place and a mile ahead of the person behind her.
As the finish line drew closer the effects of not being physically prepared started to catch up to her. She said she started to feel like her body was breaking down. 400 meters from the finish line she out right collapsed. She tried to get up and walk, but kept on stumbling and falling. Each time she fell she knew the 2nd place person was catching up to her. She kept pushing through trying to get up, taking a few steps, and falling back down. However, it wasn't enough to keep her first place position as the 2nd place racer passed her and went on to win the race.
Even though she wouldn't win the race she decided she would finish at any costs. Watching her struggle and push through is pretty inspiring. Luckily it was caught on camera so you can watch it as it happened (below).
When asked why she didn't give up she said she had this voice in her head that told her not to give up. That she didn't care how bad, pathetic, or messy it looked she was going to finish the race. And she did finish the race and even pooped her pants on national television.
The Role of the Central Governor
In addition to profiling Julie Moss the episode looked at how Julie and other people like her were able to accomplish these physical feats when others would have quit. The prevailing theory is called "Central Governor Theory" which posits that the brain regulates physical activity like exercise by causing a sensation of fatigue in the muscles. This means that even though you have the energy and capability to run a certain distance the brain will step in and give you the sensation that you can't continue. The reason the brain does this is in order to protect you from causing long term damage to your heart and other vital organs.
People like Julie are able to push past their central governor and tap into the full capability of the body and even past that point where the energy is not there to complete simple motions like walking.
In experiments to test this theory they found that this Central Governor is extremely conservative in how it protects the body often causing fatigue well before reaching true physical limitations. They also found that it is "optimistic" in that if the governor senses energy that will be coming into the body that it will let up on the feelings of fatigue and allow an individual to perform better even if that energy is not actually consumed. To show this scientists gave runners beverages that contained carbohydrates but told them to just swish them in their mouth as opposed to consuming them. The runners who had the carbs in the water performed better than those who had water with no carbs in it.
The science is explained like so...
"Your brain tells your body, 'carbohydrates are on the way', and with that message, muscles and nerves are prompted to work harder and longer", explained Matt Bridge, a senior lecturer in coaching and sports science at the University of Birmingham.
And more interesting...
In tests, runners given a quick swish of flavorless carbohydrate water performed better than those given plain water. Whether or not the beverage was sweet did not make a difference; the mere presence of carbohydrates was enough to provide a little extra boost.
Based on this research you could say the next time you need a boost in energy all you need to do is swish the energy drink as opposed to swallowing it and still get some benefit without the calories.
More importantly the next time you are struggling to finish off that last mile just remember that your central governor while well intentioned is stopping you from reaching your full potential.
Neuroplasticity: Brain Games like Lumosity Won't Make You Smarter
Neuroplasticity is "an umbrella term that encompasses both synaptic plasticity and non-synaptic plasticity—it refers to changes in neural pathways and synapses due to changes in behavior, environment, neural processes, thinking, emotions, as well as changes resulting from bodily injury."
If you suffered brain damage from disease, stroke or other injuries, it's possible your brain can change it's neuro pathways to adapt to the new structure of the brain and rely less on the damaged parts of the brain.
Recently there was a case of a woman in China where after bouts of dizziness discovered she was missing her cerebellum, a key part of the brain that controls coordination, balance, and other key brain functions. Although she has always spoken with slurred speech and learned to walk later than usual (age 7), she still maintained what many would call a normal life.Â
Maladaptive plasticity is "when the brain’s primary sensorimotor cortex no longer receives input from a missing body part, such as an amputated hand, signals from another body part, such as the lips, begin to take over that area." Although there are new studies that may have discovered new findings related to an amputee's "phantom pain"
Despite the scientific studies, theories and facts surrounding neuroplasticity, there has been little evidence to show that training the brain through playing games in healthy adults can cause dramatic and permanent changes in coordination and intelligence, especially when the brain has matured, usually past puberty.
I've used Lumosity, a web and mobile application boasting benefits of positive neuroplasticity personally for months and on a daily basis. The games are fun and you get a sense of accomplishment when you improve your scores in each game but that's about it. Long term improvements in cognitive functions is something that these brain games do not help you with. And that's the problem. Most people believe that they will get smarter in the long run, and that's simply not the case.
A quote by Neuroscientist James Fallon regarding plasticity of the brain:
"My bias is that even though I work in growth factors, plasticity, memory, and learning, I think the whole idea of plasticity in adults—or really after puberty—is so overblown. No one knows if the changes that have been shown are permanent and it doesn't count if it's only temporary. It's like the Mozart Effect—sure, there are studies saying there is plasticity in the brain using a sound stimulation or electrical stimulation, but talk to this person in a year or two. Has anything really changed? An entire cottage industry was made from playing Mozart to pregnant women's abdomens. That's how the idea of plasticity gets out of hand. I think people can change if they devote their whole life to the one thing and stop all the other parts of their life, but that's what people can't do. You can have behavioral plasticity and maybe change behavior with parallel brain circuitry, but the number of times this happens is really rare."
While studies about the brain and cognitive behavior gleaned from the vast amount of Lumosity data is interesting and no doubt useful to a certain extent, users of these products should realize that long term gains in intelligence will not be there. Just like playing a video game eventually makes you better at that video game, even in the long run, it won't make you necessarily better in other aspects of your life unless your goal is to train for another very similar video game.
Whenever people talk about Rocket Internet and the Samwer brothers, the response is generally negative, marking this company as simply nothing more than copy cats of successful startups. Many entrepreneurs like Jason Calacanis have harsh rants against these entrepreneurs.
While it may be true that they don't create innovative products or products that have never before been seen in the world, their process of building, scaling and localizing to various countries is quite impressive.
They build products that many people use and find value in. And that's how it should be. Creating companies is not always an artistic pursuit where the most creative, unusual or original ideas win. The primary goal is to create something of value for customers and to generate revenue and profits so the company can sustain itself and grow. 90% of entrepreneurship is in the execution (HR, scaling, marketing, finance + accounting etc...) and that's what Rocket Internet is great at.
As Americans, we love the story of the struggle. We romanticize the founder's garage office origin stories. But sometimes building a large profitable business that employs thousands and provides services in a region where those services never existed is not bad either.
Most of the jack off's leaving their trollish comments chastising Rocket Internet probably have never created anything of value in their lives in relation to business or entrepreneurship. It's much easier to stand on the side lines criticizing than actually doing something impactful.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. And any great idea that has really taken off has been copied or been targeted for copying by many individuals or companies. Just look at any top apps in the iOS store and you'll see a copy of the product, with or without variations on them. From food delivery, to photo sharing to social networking, copying is not a new concept in developing new markets for start ups. The difference between the Samwer brothers and what they've built is that they are actually good at executing the business processes that follow after the idea conception phase AND they are successful at it.
Most of the idiots leaving negative comments to articles about the Samwer brothers or Rocket would give their left arm to taste some of the success the Samwer's have had. It's just that they simply don't have what it takes to reach that level of success in...... anything.
Those in tech should be familiar with startup accelerators. This Mashable article defines an accelerator's function as "to turn the art of starting a company into a program that can be repeated, churning out valuable companies is if on an assembly line." An accelerator in essence should "accelerate" the growth of a startup through mentorship and access to investors. Among the well known accelerators are Y-Combinator, Techstars, and 500 startups. In addition to those there's been an explosion of accelerators popping up here and there. The accelerator business model is straightforward. In exchange for resources, a little capital, and access to potentially more capital you give up equity in your company (anywhere from 3-8 percent depending on the accelerator). Today I came across something which caught me off guard, the "pre-accelerator". The program you join before you get go to an accelerator.
WTF is a Pre-Accelerator?
I learned about the "pre-accelerator" when this showed up in my inbox today.
I didn't even know pre-accelerators existed, but according to Startup Next if you plan on joining a pre-accelerator then you need to join their program because "Startup Next is the #1 startup pre-accelerator in the world..." cause of course you know there are like 1,000,000 pre-accelerator's out there.
I decided to fact check that statement so I did a google search for "pre-accelerator". This is what I found.
Apparently pre-accelerator is an car engine part. But further down the google results page I found what I was looking for.
Turns out Startup Next is only the #2 startup pre-accelerator in the world according to Google.
The Non-Existent Case for Pre-Accelerators
Anyway, i guess if there's pre-kindergarten there should be a pre-accelerator so I decided to look deeper into what they offer and do.
On their program description page layout their USP (unique selling proposition... got to be hip with the lingo!):
"Our program has helped graduates get accepted into Techstars, 500 Startups, Imagine K12, AlphaLab and many other top accelerators. If you are looking to apply for and get accepted into an accelerator, we can help. Startup Next will get your team focused on the progress needed to stand out from others applying through our framework of top-quality mentorship, content, and referrals to accelerators or investors."
Rationally I understand what they are doing. They want to help people who would have difficulty getting into accelerators get an edge and get accepted. No different than college admissions counseling for those who want go to an Ivy League school (like The Ivy Coach who "Makes Ivy League Admission a Reality" ).
However, what bothers me about these programs is no where in their copy do they mention how they'll help those who join build a better business, validate their business ideas, help you get customers, etc... you know all the stuff you should be doing when starting a startup. It's teaching for a test rather than teaching for the skills you'll actually need to be successful in business.
Like I mentioned in the Y-Combinator post if you want the secret to getting into a good accelerator and you aren't a genius with impeccable credentials and domain expertise (cause if you were you'd probably already be in a top tier accelerator) than the next best way of getting in is building something people want and are using. That's it.
A Fool and His Money....
But if you really want to "get an edge" in getting into a pre-accelerator than you can join a program like Startup Next and pay them $300 per team member for the privilege.
This doesn't mean there can't be any value in these program. For people who don't know anything about startups it's probably a good crash course. If you are too lazy to read posts online or watch some youtube videos this $300 will probably save you some time. You also might make some good friends too.
Either way, I'm still wary of crap like this. Just seems slightly scammy to me.
How does the saying go... "A fool and his money are soon parted..." The question you got to ask before joining is... are you a fool?
