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Entrepreneurs and...Hey, There's A Shiny New Thing!September 25

If you’re one of those rare entrepreneurs that has the discipline to stay reasonably focused on what you should be working on, feel free to skip the rest of this article with the comforting knowledge that you have my admiration and envy.

But, if you’re like most of us, you are probably plauged at one time or another by the “Shiny New Thing” (SNT) bug.  This particular syndrome is pretty easy to describe.  There you are, minding your own business (literally) and working on your startup.  Then all of a sudden, BAM!  Some shiny new thing comes along and tries to distract you.  You either get distracted, or you stay up nights wondering if you should have gotten distracted.  If you’re like me (my sympathies if you are), you have this experience quite frequently.  I think it harkens back to our childhood days when just about any shiny new thing would immediately grab our attention. [Hence the toy robot photo, blog image selection is not a core competency.]

There are various manifestations of this Shiny New Thing (SNT) phenomenon.  Here are a few:

1.  New technology/platform/language/framework:  This applies mostly to developers.  There you are coding away on your project, and this article comes up in Google Reader about this new paradigm-driven-framework.  BAM!  It’s so c

Startups and The Power Of PolarizationSeptember 24

Startups, particularly those world-changing, curve-jumping, bet-the-farm kind are a tricky business.  The temptation for startups is, as Seth Godin would say, “to create average products for average people”.  The reason is simple, there’s a massive market of average people.  And, they want average products.  Nothing too controversial.  Nothing that makes them too uncomfortable. 

Guy Kawasaki, one of my favorite business authors addresses this in a recent article titled “The Art of Innovation”.  Here’s #4 from that article:

“Don't be afraid to polarize people. Most companies want to create the holy grail of products that appeals to every demographic, social-economic background, and geographic location. To attempt to do so guarantees mediocrity.”

But, my advice would be to not try and “solve for the middle” — but strive to polarize an audience.  If you’re really looking to make a big difference, you want a group of people that passionately disagrees with your idea/approach/business.  Why?  Because when you’re doing something that polarizes, and you have a bunch people that passionately disagree with you, you have a chance to find people that passionately agree.  It is these passionate people that help fuel the growth and help spread your idea.  And curve-jumping c

8 Startup Insights Inspired By The Mega Mind of Seth GodinSeptember 10

I’ve had a really interesting and crazy week (crazy in a good way).  As many regular readers of OnStartups.com know, I’m a huge Seth Godin fan.  I’ve read most of Seth’s books over the years and keep up with his blog.  He’s even been kind enough to comment on one of my prior OnStartups articles (“Why Your Startup Shouldn’t Hire Seth Godin”).  But, until recently, I’ve never had the opportunity to actually hear him speak in person.  This past week, I got to hear Seth twice. 

Most recently, Seth was a keynote speaker at the recent Inbound Marketing Summit in Kendall Square, Cambridge (MIT central).  Not only did I get to hear Seth speak, live and in person, I had the thrill of getting to have lunch with Seth and “just chat about stuff” (like getting some advice about my startup).  This has got to be the most thrilling thing that’s happened to me all year.  Very exciting.  [Interesting trivia:  Early in Seth’s career he worked in Kendall Square for Spinnaker Software].

So, here are some of the ideas and insights I gleaned from Seth, that I thought might be useful to other startup fanatics.  Although the core insights were insp

Startup PR: Tips For Getting Publicity Without A PR FirmAugust 22

I came across a great article today by Jason Calacanis on the topic of PR for startups.  Jason Calacanis is founder and CEO of Mahalo, but you probably would better know him as the the guy behing Weblogs, Inc.  In any case, he’s accomplished, and knows a thing or two about getting visibility for a startup.

I’ve always thought of myself as being really different from Jason (note: I’ve never actually met him).  He seems to be the classic extrovert and seems capable of really putting himself “out there” for his startup.  Though I don’t think of myself as lacking in passion, I just don’t have the gumption he does.

In any case, If you’re involved in a startup (particularly if you happen to be venture-backed), the article is worth the read.  However, the original article is over 4,500 words and on the off-chance that you’re lazy like me, here are some of my favorite points from the article:

1.  “My philosophy of PR is summed up in six words: be amazing, be everywhere, be real.”

2.  First time I’ve ever the heard of the term ceWebrities.  clever.  With regards to these ceWebrities, “these overnight successes are 10 years in the making.”. 

Startup Teams: Why Capability Doesn't Matter Without TrustAugust 19

I’ve been thinking a bit this past week about startup teams and what makes them work (or not work).  Most people that are in and around startups will readily agree that recruting the best team possible is critical to success.  This leads to statements from startup pundits that look a lot like “get the best people possible.”  Far be it from me to argue against this kind of sage advice.  You should get the best people possible onto your startup team.  All things being equal, who wouldn’t want to recruit the best people possible?

However, the phrase “best people possible” is a bit too vague for my tastes.  The question is, what makes a given team member the best?  Are they the smartest ones?  The ones with the most experience?  The ones with the greatest skillset for a given role?  The ones with the most domain expertise?  For purposes of this discussion, I’m going to “merge” all the things that makes a given individual really, really good into something I’ll call “Capability”.  You can feel free to make Capability a function of whatever attributes (intelligence, experience, skills, etc.) as suits your taste. 

So,

Capability = How well the person can do the job

Now, this article isn’t really about capability.  It’s