Color Outside of the Lines - Partnerships Early On Matter for Startups

My jaw nearly dropped this morning as my Twitter stream presented the following news to me:

Color Partners With Verizon To Bring Livestreaming Audio and Video to iPhone, Android

Color??  Color?!  Is this the same Color that became the laughing stock of the tech startup community after announcing a whopping 41 million round of funding prior to launch?  The Color which failed to amass more than 30,000 daily active users one year later after a relaunch as a video status messaging platform?  The Color which.. well, you get it.

The answer is yes, and a strategic partnership deal with Verizon that will bring video and audio livestreaming to all 4G LTE smartphones on its networks may have just saved Bill Nguyen’s 41 million dollar app from being the butt of many jokes within the tech community.  And it may have just been a giant wake-up call to all startups looking for ways to inject corporate steroids in their user acquisition strategy.

I’ve always felt that strategic partnerships are a vital part of any startup’s user acquisition strategy.  Leveraging existing user bases of partners with value adds to your own network is a great way to not only acquire new users, but extend one’s brand value.  As with product placement, growing one’s brand and network through alliances with outside partners will get you to where you want to be faster than doing it on your own.

Time will tell whether this Verizon deal validates Color’s 41 million in funding.  But it does send up a flare into the night - every startup should be thinking about these types of “mega-deals” for their startup early on.

Many startups often shy away from hiring non-technical, “business” people to join on prior to any major funding.  Perhaps it is time to rethink that strategy, and bring these type of strategic thinkers on board in the very beginning.

I Want to Be a Point Guard, Not a CEO

I want to be a point guard, not a CEO.

Professional titles can mean a lot to certain individuals.  With that label of “co-founder” and “CEO” comes that feeling that you control your world.  I thought that was what I wanted.  And every time I read something from the tech press talking about the next 19 year old CEO, I panicked a bit.  Oh, no.  I am 26 and over-the-hill already.  I was wrong - everyone makes mistakes. Being a CEO is much harder than I could have ever imagined.  I have more respect for founders now than ever before. 

I spent the past 3 and half years working in public relations for tech startups and mainstream consumer brands.  Within my last organization, my best experiences were the following:

• Leading branding initiatives with a heavy emphasis on strategic thinking 
• Working on business development and strategic partnerships
• Feeling part of a team on a mission to rise to the top

I learned so much from that experience, and in particular, what excited me and motivated me the most.  Thankfully, early on in my career, I had people who had trained me in the ways of Peter Drucker. When you combine Drucker with the words of Jay-Z and Kanye, you get a pretty mean management philosophy that I think will apply well to my next gig.

After a great run with my last team, ultimately, that profession just didn’t fit my own career goals.

Throughout that experience, I did find out that I loved working with smaller startups, becoming pretty friendly with founders.  Their conviction, attitudes and goals to make a product that would impact the world inspired me. Once I caught the startup bug, there was no looking back.

Business development, marketing and strategic partnerships look like the next landing spots for me.  And it’s what excites me the most as a creative thinker.  But I don’t want any label on my next postion other than point guard.  (I’m being dramatic here, I’ll take whatever label, but roll with me on this one for a second.)  For a thorough explanation of why point guard, see here.

I want to get what needs to be done accomplished, without a label attached to the position itself. Be that scrappy guy who puts it all on the court.  Most importantly, I want to learn from others, and would love the opportunity to work under a great mentor.

When you are a non-technical person who wants to insert himself into an early stage tech startup (actually really any stage startup), in my opinion, you need to accomplish the following:

• Understand the technical even if you can’t build the code yourself - a skill I picked up doing PR for tech startups that was invaluable when pitching journalists

• Do whatever non-technical job possible to acquire more users, elevate brand growth, and anything else it takes to build on that foundation that already exists

• Bring a great attitude to enrich life a product/idea that you can be passionate about even if you didn’t create it yourself

Google That: Tech Startups & Product Placement Ain’t Nothing to F%$# With

I was all set this morning to do a big post on the up-and-coming phenomenon know as “startup product placement” - and in a broader sense, product placement with tech products in general.  I spent four years at NYU studying product placement.  Of course back then (all of 4 years ago), when one associated product placement with any vertical, it was entertainment.  Hollywood to be more specific.

Earlier this morning, news broke that Angry Birds producer Rovio was rumored to include content from The Simpsons in the next Angry Birds update.  I’m nowhere near a fan of the show as I was growing up, but hey, that’s some pretty cool synergy there and why shouldn’t Fox leverage its relationships with two booming IPs?  The Simpsons IP is no stranger to video games, so it’s really only natural see them pop up in one of the hottest selling mobile games on the market right now.

A week or so ago, rising NYC-based startup Birchbox announced a deal with the CW’s hit, Gossip Girl.  I can’t admit to watching Gossip Girl (I was a huge O.C. fan back in the day so I can’t hate on it either), but knowing what I know about Birchbox, including Birchbox within the context of Gossip Girl makes perfect sense - and more importantly, is a fantastic new way to acquire new adopters.

Entrepreneur (linked above) does a fantastic job in explaining why product placement is the wave of the future for startups who are looking for non-traditional ways to acquire new users.  I was fully onboard to promote this today and highlight some potential examples, and then unfortunately I read the following headline:

Things You Never Thought Would Happen: Wu-Tang’s Raekwon Makes “Google That” Rap Video

Oh where to begin.

Look, I know this isn’t product placement in the traditional sense and there is no way Google had anything to do with this. If we have learned anything from the stiffs at Novartis (R.I.P. “Theraflu” which is now “Way Too Cold”), “Google That” may quickly become “Search That” very soon.  Anyone who has followed the careers of NORE, Styles P and Raekwon know that this is an odd and strange move on their part to capitalize on the Google brand name.  ODB is spinning in his grave right now.

I still haven’t had the time to properly digest this (if that’s possible), but this does signal one huge warning sign to me - when you try to collaborate with anyone, be it a startup or a rapper, please, please make sure the partnership you engage with makes sense and is an extension of your brand value.  Angry Birds and The Simpsons - love it.  Birchbox and Gossip Girl - terrific!  Google and the Wu?  I’m pumping 36 Chambers right now just to try to drown this monstrosity of my head.

There’s No Winning Without a Great Startup Team

I spend a lot of time in the gym.  If you don’t believe me, just check out my Level 34 score on Fitocracy.  While I work out for many different reasons (health, structure, discipline, etc.), perhaps my favorite result of staying in shape and those efforts in the gym showcases itself on Saturday mornings.  Saturday mornings are when I get to play pickup basketball in the greatest environment possible to do so outside of Madison Square Garden - the streets of NYC.

I interned one summer at the NBA.  At 5’ 6” tall, that’s as close as I’ll ever get to the NBA hardwood floors.  Playing competitively when you are my height can be difficult.  Luckily, I am fast and in good enough shape from the gym to compensate for my vertical inefficiencies.  Naturally, I run the point.  While my shot can be hit or miss,  I generally know my role on the court and there is one thing that is always certain - I play better when surrounded by a good team.

I play a lot of sports, but to me, basketball is the greatest example of how winning is reliant on a team effort.  You can have your stars who know how to lead, but without team chemistry and selflessness, you more than likely will struggle to beat those other five players on the court.  To have a truly great team, each player must utilize personal strengths and abilities and fuse them with those surrounding him to compete at the highest level.  This is true for any sport, but again, most applicable to the 5-on-5 game of basketball in my opinion.

This concept of team is hitting especially home with me right now as I attempt to figure out the next stage of my career.  I’ve flung myself into entrepreneurship with a few ideas I’d love to see develop.  The titles of “founder” and “CEO” sound great, but after a month or so, I’ve come to the realization that without a great team to work with, titles and ideas mean nothing.  If you asked me a month ago why I wanted to go into entrepreneurship, I probably would have said something along the lines of wishing to get my own DNA into a company and create my own destiny.  That was the wrong approach to all of this.

You can have great personal success (and I am far from it with only a few ideas in my own starting lineup right now).  But it means nothing if you can’t celebrate that success with others.  

I was captain of my soccer team in high school, both on the freshman squad and later on as a co-captain of my varsity team.  Sure varsity soccer had more prestige to it, but I never had more fun in my life playing sports at a competitive level than that year with my freshman squad.  We were 11 individuals on a field with one goal - to go undefeated. Without the pressure of advancing to varsity (it was very rare for a player to go varsity freshman year in my program), every single player put their egos aside that year and worked with one another to achieve a perfect season.  

My varsity experience never lived up to that year, as I was forced to compete with those same players and friends to earn a starting spot amongst the entire high school crowd of players.  We achieved similar success as well as great failure, but none of it meant anywhere as much to me as that undefeated freshman season.  

I think as I move forward into entrepreneurship, I really need to remember that freshman year of soccer.  My Saturday basketball games serve as a good weekly reminder of what it means to play (and win) as a team.  I know my role on the court is not to try to take every shot and try to dunk (I’m short but I have ambitions!), but I can certainly throw a lob pass or two and hustle back on defense to get the job done.  

All of the hard time put in throughout the week at the gym enables me to be a better teammate on the court.  Personal efforts matter, but the best comes out when working with others who carry similar work ethics, passions and goals.

I must also realize that if any opportunity presents itself to become part of a winning team, I should not dismiss it because of an urge to “create” rather than “contribute”.  If this past month has taught me anything, perhaps I got into this whole entrepreneurship thing to work with an awesome group of individuals who can together build the blueprint for a great new company.  Additionally, if there is a foundation already in place that I can help improve on and learn a great deal in the process, then that could be just as beneficial right now.  I’m not a technical person, I’m an idea person, a strategist, marketer - the label doesn’t matter.  I’m a team player at heart who is most satisfied when achievements are made together.

Oh, and I hate losing but that’s a whole other subject…

What Muggsy Bogues Can Teach Everyone About Responding on Twitter

Remember walking into the high school cafeteria on the first day of school and having to decide where to sit?  Yes, almost everyone at some point in their lives experienced that all too familiar cliché.  At that moment you have to label yourself and brand yourself - am I a jock, a nerd, a “jerd” (hybrid of jock and nerd, I made that one up the other day)?  I could go on, but you get the point.  In a dream scenario, you had people saving you a seat at any table you wished to sit at that day.  Ah, if only the world was like that every day.

The freedom to sit and interact with anyone because you had access to them.  If there is any medium that offers this today, it is Twitter.  That is what has always excited me about the medium and made it distinct.  Big or small, jock or nerd, on Twitter, as long as one’s profile is open to others, you have access to anyone at any time.

I’m a small fish in the ocean that is Twitter.  At 740-something followers and a guppy at best, I use Twitter to communicate with peers that I know, and more importantly, the whales I’d love to get a chance to engage in dialogue with.  I try to respond to every relevant @me I get, as no one likes to be ignored.

In the startup community, I’ve admired co-founders who take the time out to respond to fishes (and mammals, a whale is a mammal) of all sizes.  From VCs to day 1 users of their products and even the haters, when co-founders respond to the entire community on Twitter, it shows that they care about everyone.  They open their cafeteria table up for anyone to sit with them.

If anything bothers me about Twitter, it’s when we use it too much to promote ourselves.  I can be guilty of this myself, and am doing my best to tweet less about me and my own thoughts and instead use Twitter to engage in dialogue with others.  This is a major goal of mine in 2012.  I’d also love to use the medium to engage with anyone who thinks I could help them in any shape or form.

I still believe Twitter hasn’t peaked and offers so much potential for collaboration and idea exploration.  And hey, if Muggsy Bogues can get back to me on Twitter….

This does a great job of capturing the startup mentality in NYC.  Fun to see it debut last night at the Tech Meetup.

Paper resumes are sooooo 2011 and the whole process of using them needs to be disrupted. Welcome to my living resume.