@yesi79 blog

Social responsibility drives social media #mashcon

Good morning! As always I'll simply blog my notes.

Friday Morning Opening Keynote: David Jones, CEO of Havas and global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide

David talked about how we are currently living in an era of massive change, historians will look back and recognize this time as the social media movement.

We are living in an era where in order for brands to survive and thrive, we will have to:

Have massive transparency

Acknowledge what customers are complaining about and embrace the change required. Example: Dominos Pizza listening to customer complaints on quality of pizza and their recent campaign to reinvent their menu

Collaborate don't try to control

Exemplary brands using these new principles: Sneakerpedia.com Uniqlooks.com - check out their iPhone app Number10.gov.uk - Prime minister of the UK reaching out to get help with debt

Earn, not buy attention

Dos Equis' most interesting man in the world KLM airline walked up and talked to customers tweeting or checking in at airport

"Social responsibility drives social media"

Adobe Interactive Awards feat. The Gregory Brothers #sxsw

In case you did not attend the Adobe Interactive Awards, you missed a great show by The Gregory Brothers.  Lucky for you MTBLewis posted a live video recording; the music and video combo was amazing.  Here's a link for a closeup video recording.

ROI of any relationships #mroi #sxsw

Jen van der Meer Powered/Dachis Group

Calculating the ROI of any relationship, great talk.  I didn't take many notes but the sites mentioned are great.

FitBit

ProjectNoah

LifeSize

Greatest Competitive Advantage Today is Incorporating Giving Into Your Biz #sxswTOMS

Blake Mycoskie Keynote

Founder and Chief Shoe Giver at TOMS Shoes

Blake was a wonderful speaker and a tremedous story to tell about starting TOMS Shoes.  I can not do his story justice by jotting it down word for word, so here are my notes:

Please find a way, even it if it's a little way to incorporate giving into your business.

Blake actually was on the Amazing race, traveled all over the world and raced through South America, but lost by 4 minutes.  After starting his first company, he needed to take a break and decided to take a month off to re-charge and go back to Argentina to do sight  seeing.  He hooked up with a volunteer group that was giving away shoes and was blow away at the joy he felt in giving away shoes.  But he was botherd with the fact that the kids would soon outgrow the shoes they were just given.

He thought, instead of charity solving this problem, why not entrepreneurs?  So he set off to create TOMS Shoes.

The first time he returned Argentina to give away his first 1k shoes is when his life changed.  As he gave away the shoes.

Feeling good is not just a feeling, but a good corporate strategy.  When you incorporate giving into your business, your customers love you for it and become your advocate.  So imagine all the advocacy that your customers will do for you because your corporation gives.  You also atract and retain great employees.  You will also attract amazing partners.

Q: Who is TOMS?  

A: No one, just a name, it is an idea.

Q: What is next for TOMS?  

A: It's coming June 2011

A Brand is a Gut Feeling #IdeasNotObjects #sxsw

Robert Brunner's Talk covered the many product's he has helped design.  He covered working with Dr. Dre in developing Beats Headphones and Lady Gaga's digital display glasses.

A brand is not your logo, nor your advertising, it is not your corp identity, nor your product, a brand is a gut feeling, you can't control it since you can't control what people feel.  Communicate who you are.

Usable is not desirable, people may know how to work your product but it doesn't guarantee success.

If it was easy, everybody would do it

One of Robert's favorite brands is Harley-Davidson.

With the world needing over 200 Nuclear plants to power all the electronics in the world, Robert talked about an idea for a solar powered re-charge station for your iPhone paired with an app, still in concept development.

"F*** Sneakers, let's do speakers" - Jimmy Iovine.  

Working with Dr. Dre, Robert developed the Beats headphones which later led to developing headphones for Lady Gaga "more like an Andrameda Strain" style and later collaborated with P Diddy to create "man jewelry" headphone sets.

 

Check out this beautiful video:

@mashable interviews @dens #sxsw #4sqdens

Pete Cashmore's interview of Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare was awesome.  Dennis provided lots of great insights into foursquare, how they work and launching at #SXSW.  Here are a few quotes that I tweeted during the interview

4sq's DNA: social graph integration, we what to make the stuff fun, game mechanics, check-ins

not convinced that people want a coupon as they walk by a coffee shop. Instead, mention the coffee shop a friend 

on biz model, r u making $ now: tools 4 merchants & providing targeted customers is something not done 

on acquiring or being acquired: evaluating things as they come up. Need greater distribution, more users and biz 

on funding: prob no more funding till end of year

on how they planned their #sxsw launch: It was like when a term paper is due, we had a deadline and got it done.

F'ing Thank You @garyvee #sxsw

Gary Vaynerchuk

What an amazing and inspiration talk.  I captured several nuggests.

Amazing Quotes:

How many have you heard about the Thank You Economy?  Great, for those who haven't, F*** U!

Why have I be able to break through?  I am not scalable and have worked so hard to care first before anything else.

Shock-n-Awe:  Send Thank you notes to customers, not coupons.

We are living through a massive destruciton. We are living in the begining of the humanization of brands and businesses.

All the bulk emails, like GroupOn's are not Human, because they've ruined email for us.

I give away first.

Don't try to close to fast like a 19yrd old

No such thing as a social media campaign, they are just one nigth stands.

 

SXSW Accelerator for Social Media Startups #sxsw #sxswaccel

Attending this mornings SXSW Social Media & Networking Startup Accelerator.  Right-off-the-bat, this is a fantastic collection of entrepreneurs, investors and startups.  

I'll be posting live as I hear pitches from startups 

A platform that enables your car license plate become a unique identifier that enables for services where camera readers are available.  Anyone can message your license plate.  Enterprise connectiosn to insurance companies, roadside assitance, service retail, etc.

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The most effective way to advertise with social media. Proven platform that identifies very specific targets by mining a user's publicly available social graph.  They place ads on users social graph.

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The Startup Deadpool #sxsw #deadpool

The Panel: Ben Lerer Thrillist, Charlie O'Donnell First Round Capital, Christine Herron Intel Capital, Emily Hickey Hashable

Great Quotes (paraphrased):

Herron: Don't wait, cut out the cancer fast out of your team.  If I can't repeat what you do, I won't evengelize for you

O'Donnell: If you don't have something to get a reported excited, then how do you expect to get funding? Entrepreneurs have a strange aversion of having a really short elevator pitch, fiver words or less. Your business is a black box, money goes in, more money should come out.  You have to get your idea out there, early on and not be afraid to share, it is not a special snow flake.

Hickey: Death by a thousand features

The panel was a fantastic discussion on why companies fail and advice for startups.  A huge topic covered was that startups fail to zero-in on what customers really need.

Herron: Figured out late in the game way that the were not providing their customers an easy way for them to up load thier data.  How do you ensure your next meeting is better than your last.  You want to avoid conversations about "We were waiting for..."  Don't wait, cut out the cancer fast out of your team.  You need honest market validation before you commit time and captial.  Are you sure your idea is worth committing a year to.  Key Quetion: Customer Acquisition, how will it work. 

Lerer: Having a great idea is not enough, you have to execute, look at the winklevoss twins.

Hickey: No one ever gets big by being comprehensive.  Figure out the one thing that people want today and focus on only that today.

Lerer: JackRabitt, they were underfunded .  They realized they were better off owning a smaller piece of something larger, that would funded and more succesful.

O'Donnell: It all depends on the plan you are trying to execute.  Prove you can get taction with your mvp.  Go through a throught excercise: Where will you be if you have 1M users, or where will be in six months, what would you do if you had funding.  If you don't have something to get a reported excited, then how do you expect to get funding?  Entrepreneurs have a strange aversion of having a really short elevator pitch, fiver words or less. You are more valuable if you are in more than one city  Your business is a black box, money goes in, more money should come out.  Run meetups to interact with your customers.

Startup Life After Y Combinator #sxsw #lifeafteryc

Power House Panel hosted by Singerman: Brian Chesky Airbnb Inc, Dane Hurtubise JobSpice, Drew Houston Dropbox Inc, Jessica Mah nDinero.com

Fantastic panel and Q&A session with Y Combinator startup alumns, but it did feel a little too much like a giant ad for YC.  The nugget from the panel definitely came from Jessica Mah who I felt provided some of the best insights into starting a startup and her experiences at YC.

Mah: Most startups don't announce their failure, they just lay down and die.  You need to stay in touch with other startups to get a sense on how you are doing.

Houston: Be afraid of working on something that neither lives nor dies, something that never exceeds the escape velocity.

Intros and Why/How they did YC

Dane: Had just finished UT when he met his co-founder when he was thinking about grad school or starting a biz.  Applied because Y Combinator seemed like a nice small biz school

Cheesky: Already had launched to provide housing for Obama supporters and were about to get angle funding.  But then the 2008 crash happened.  They debated on doing Y Combinator since they had already launched but decided to go ahead apply.

Mah: While still in school ran into Drw Houson who told her to apply

Houston: Knew he had to quit his job and start his own company

Startups have to give up a sizeable chunk of equity to YC, was it worth it?  YES

Cheesky: Really wrestled with the idea since they had already launched and they already had other investors.  

Cheesky and Mah: Looking back now, both feelt that they would have not survived without YC, so definitely worth it.

Working while at YC

Hurtubise: Constant motivation helped.  Showing up to the dinners without showing any progress was a real motivator.

Chesky: Investors will treat you better

Mah: Self-esteem building, press, credibility.

Deadpool companies: What happens to the companies that dont make it?

Mah: Most startups don't announce their failure, they just lay down and die.  You need to stay in touch with other startups to get a sense on how you are doing.  It's really transformative that her colleagues felt that they should either go to biz school, or start a company through YC or not start one at all.  

Cheesky: Investors I know are looking for entrepreneurs who are swinging for the fences as opposed to a high batting avg player.  Less of a financial homerun, but more of building something right.

Houston: Your confidence will increase over time.  Be afraid of working on something that neither lives nor dies, something that never exceeds the escape velocity.

During Q&A, I asked, what advice do you have for startups who don't make it into YC?

Keep going, YC is not a requisite to making it.  Singerman: As an investor, I invest in non-YC startups.