Come for the tool, stay for the network
Come for the tool, stay for the network is a model used to describe the success of some startups. Basically, users come for a “single-player” tool and then stay because a valuable network grows around it.
This is Chris Dixon's idea:
I’m going to give two historical examples and leave it to readers to think of present-day examples (there are many): 1) Delicious. The single-player tool was a cloud service for your bookmarks. The multiplayer network was a tagging system for discovering and sharing links. 2) Instagram. Instagram’s initial hook was the cool photo filters. At the time some other apps like Hipstamatic had filters but you had to pay for them. Instagram also made it easy to share your photos on other networks like Facebook and Twitter. But you could also share on Instagram’s network, which of course became the preferred way to use Instagram over time.
The ‘come for the tool, stay for the network’ strategy isn’t the only way to build a network. Some networks never had single-player tools, including gigantic successes like Facebook and Twitter. But starting a network from scratch is very hard. Think of single-player tools as kindling.
The Coca-Cola Company and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Enter into Long-Term Global Strategic Partnership
Soon, Coca-Cola in every home.
“Breaking Bad”, whose finale airs on September 29th, takes place in a recession-ravaged America where most people are struggling to get by on stagnant incomes but a handful of entrepreneurs live like kings. The hero, Walter White, is a high-school chemistry teacher with a second job in a car wash. When he is diagnosed with cancer he is also shaken out of his lethargy: he decides to go into the highly lucrative methamphetamine business to pay for his cancer treatment and leave his family a nest-egg.
What The Beatles can teach us about entrepreneurship
What The Beatles can teach us about entrepreneurship
For example, did you know that in less than 2 weeks since the Beatles arrived to the US for the first time, Americans had bought $2.5 million worth of merchandise One typical item was an ice cream sandwich called “Beatle Nut”, another popular one was a wig in the style of their haircut at that time (one newspaper described them as “75% publicity, 20% haircut, and 5% lilting lament”).
Fine article which mixes what The Beatles did with insightful business lessons for your startup. Also no one misses out a post which “Beatles” and “entrepreneur” in its title (speaking for me).
10 business leadership lessons Julius Caesar could have taught us
10 business leadership lessons Julius Caesar could have taught us
Funny article, one cool bit:
7. “It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.”
The competition is the hungry kid with an idea, ambition and nothing to lose. Thirty years ago, they were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Five years ago, they were Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Who’s next? Who will crush Big Advertising? Big Web? Big Print? Big Software? Big Consulting? Big Energy?
If you’re the industry leader, don’t look to your biggest competitors. Instead, look to the kids with the brains, the vision and the huevos to redefine your category and make you obsolete. Likewise, if you’re one of those kids, don’t let the big dogs intimidate you. If you have a better idea, fight for it. Make it happen. Don’t settle for what’s comfortable. Fight. The old guy playing golf with his CEO buddies every other day, he’s given up.
In the long run, my money is always on the hungry young wolf, not the fat one taking a nap in the sun.
Great leaders don't need experience
Interesting research by Gautam Mukunda from Harvard Business School. He wanted to know whether looking for leaders with long and extensive résumés was the best solution.
Gautam Mukunda studied political, business, and military leaders, categorizing them into two groups: “filtered leaders,” insiders whose careers followed a normal progression; and “unfiltered leaders,” who either were outsiders with little experience or got their jobs through fluke circumstances. He then compared the groups’ effectiveness; for instance, with U.S. presidents, he looked at historians’ rankings from the past 60 years. He discovered that the unfiltered leaders were the most effective—and also the least effective—while highly filtered leaders landed in the middle of the pack.