Nesheim Online

SPONTANEOUS STARTUPS (PART 2): Learn from a real $300 million example

Spontaneous Startups just happen. Often very well.

Today I'll share an amazing example of a real new enterprise that spontaneously rose from nothing to sales of over $300 million (and climbing).

EXAMPLE

The startup is Wayfair.

Its on-line service sells "everything for the home."

Why don't you know about them? That's part of their story and it's a clever one, filled with excitement, risk and extraordinary success.

I highly recommend you read the well written story (just click on the Wayfair link above) in which the two founders, Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, tell how they moved from startup idea to startup idea until one day they found a very special idea for their new enterprise would become Mayfair. It simply "occurred to them".

As you dissect this amazing saga (it took years and a lot of hard work), keep the following characteristics in mind, they'll help you glean extra value from your thinking, they will generate things to apply to your own startup:

• Stalled with several startups, bailed (wisely) one after the other, until they got The Big Idea.
• Took no venture capital until success was very clear, years after starting.
• Stayed focused, did not get distracted during early formation years.
• Looked and looked and looked for a better idea than the one they had at the moment.
• Techies made the move to marketing savvy as a natural consequence of their processing of ideas.
• Settled on a very simple idea, yet one with huge potential.
• Bold vision: "determined to think big -- really big."
• Flanking Strategy: moved into uncontested territory, a new market not yet dominated by a Gorilla.
• Profitable from Month One.
• Quick to follow successful step after successful step (and to not repeat failures).
• Creative with cash flow management.
• Learned how to do the (retail merchandise) business by doing it.
• Avoided attacking Gorillas.
• Figured out what customers were frustrated with, solved that problem.

I'll leave the rest of the story thinking up to you. Read, think and repeat several times how you analyse this Wayfair story. Each reading offers to you the chance to glean a fine harvest of stimulating ideas for how to do a Spontaneous Startup.

BOTTOM LINE: Wayfair is a find example of how to do a Spontaneous Startup. You can do the same. Study the process the founders went through. That is where the low hanging fruit is waiting for you. When you "get it", you'll know the secrets that made serial entrepreneurs serial winners. And you'll be able to use your idea to build an unfair competitive advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

STARTUP LESSONS FROM TODAY'S "APPLE BLOWOUT QUARTER" AND "THE CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD OF THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS"

A few minutes ago Apple announced a "blowout quarter" of sales and revenue (Tuesday afternoon, January 24, 2011).

Twenty four hours ago the Republican presidential political hopefuls debated in Tampa.

Startups can learn a fundamental lesson from both events:
"You have to stand for something" to win.

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STAND FOR SOMETHING

Apple sells products that are exciting in their elegant simplicity. There is no confusion. The positioning in the mind of the consumer is clear. The message is short and crisp.

Each of the Republican hopefuls has yet to take a stand on what he stands for. Each of their messages is a combination of many words (attempting to appeal to the most voters without offending too many others). That's the ultimate compromise and a sure way to not win. Voters stand aside, confused, with over a third saying they are undecided hours before each voting deadline. Everyone knew what Obama stood for ("Change, Yes We Can"), he owned that wording. Perhaps the Republican victor will be able to eventually do the same kind of focused messaging. But until then, voters will continue to scratch their heads.

It has been my experience that serial entrepreneurs quickly figure out what their company should stand for (in less than four words). That is difficult, but is a mark of the grand winners.

Is there something else required for a startup to win? Yes, there sure is!

Must Have

Serial entrepreneurs tell me there are three Must-Have things your startup requires to win:

1. Products that "WOW!" your customers. Exhilarating substance, not boring fluff.
2. Execution with excellence. Doing your plan brilliantly.
   
3. Moving target that keeps competition behind.

Products that are okay, but not exciting, produce Number 2 (Chimpanzee) companies and start a slippery decent into the group of a dozen starving Monkeys. Gorilla status requires products that get the end user highly emotional, eager, compellingly driven to get their hands on those products (Riots at the Apple store in Beijing). Startups with me-too products ("better, quicker, cheaper") cannot become great winners.

Execution by your company must deliver everything on time, well done, month after month after month. If you err, you end up losing your momentum. Lululemon missed executing inventory deliveries, angered customers, and their stock was crushed. Apple has continued to deliver with brilliance, in spite of wildly unexpected demand by consumers for phones, pads and computers. Startups must do the same, under even more challenging circumstances.

Once a Gorilla of a new market, the leader must keep up the momentum with more great product inventions and continued, amazing, execution. That moving target makes competitors cry, unable to leap over and take the lead. RIM failed to do that with its Blackberry. Apple leaped over and never looked back. Android phone suppliers (Number 2, or Chimpanzee status) are running at feverish levels to just keep closely behind Apple's constantly changing leadership position.

 NOT ENOUGH

The above Four Must-Haves are required, but are not sufficient to ensure startup success. You have to have one more thing to win:

Number One is "You have to stand for something" to win.

A clear, short message about what your startup stands for is what end users are seeking. That is the foundation on which all else is built. Then your WOW! products become branded, never to be forgotten by end users. Your execution is appreciated by customers, reinforcing your growing position as The Leader of the new market. Your ever changing, constant innovation leaves your competition standing (behind) in awe of your startup. Bloggers spread your message around the globe (at no cost to you.)

That is what marketing is about in this new era. It is mandatory for startups.

Done well, you are shooting a rifle at a clear target.

Done poorly, you are shooting a shotgun in a circular firing squad.

BOTTOM LINE: Serial entrepreneurs figure out swiftly what their new enterprises should stand for. They deliver fresh products/services with quality and timeliness appreciated by customers. Further innovation surprises competitors, leaving them continually behind. That's power marketing. That's the basis for building your unfair competitive advantage. Veteran entrepreneurs do it all the time. You can do the same.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

CAN STARTUP CEOS BUY "GOING VIRAL" OR DOES IT OCCUR NATURALLY?

"That startup is boosting users by buying traffic for its app!" is what a serial entrepreneur observed this weekend during our discussion.

He meant that a related new enterprise had recorded rising numbers of users. That suggested a sign that the app was staging to go viral. But after some research the findings revealed the growth numbers emanated from hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to purchase traffic and users.

That reminded me of a trustworthy adage from wise serial entrepreneurs:

"You can't win a race running on crutches."

Neither can startups.

Unless you are competing in the Special Olympics, your crutches are a sign of a fundamentally weakness: you are in an undesirable position, unable to compete to win.

In other words, if your app is not compelling to end users, all the extra things you to to try to get users to get excited and use it are doomed to flop. A dead horse is a dead horse.

All the PR and blogging and shouting will not produce something insanely great if it is not insanely great.

If it is insanely great, you'll find users quickly raving about your app, spreading the word "Gotta have it!" to friends around the planet, all at no cost or effort to you.

After that it's up to you to reenforce their enthusiasm, contribute to the viral momentum (by continuing to deliver what your Ideal Customers eagerly are seeking), and enjoy the fruits of your hard, creative work with the users. That's what "marcom" pros, marketing communications professionals, are skilled at.

I don't mean that the app/product/service will sell itself. You'll have to put in a ton of hard work, be very creative and execute with skill and great effort.

I do mean that dressing up a dog in a beautiful gown does not overcome reality: it's still a dog.

This is why serial founding CEOs focus on making an app/product/service so "insanely great" that end users rave about it and can't wait to Tweet, Facebook Like, email, blog and spread the word around the planet. The startup winners avoid artificial traffic generation efforts, pushy PR work, and blog influencing because they have their hands full keeping the servers from crashing as thousands of end users/customers make accelerating purchases by the hour.

BOTTOM LINE: Going viral is a natural phenomenon. Trying to artificially boost traffic and end users only produces a brief rise in the inevitable curve of a mediocre app/product/service. As founder CEO, it's your job to morph what you have into what the end users rave about. Then your startup will "go viral" naturally. That will be the sign eagerly sought for by experienced startup employees, strategic partners and investors, as well as eager bloggers and reporters. When you can produce products like that, you are onto the path of the winners. It's a key part of how serial entrepreneurs build their unfair advantages.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

DAY ONE STARTUP FOCUS SURPRISES: What should be done and how?

Did you recently launch your first product/service and get surprised at who is using it?

Are you finding the users/customers widely spread, far flung from whom you expected?

Are you wondering in which direction to now move your startup?

Those questions are asked daily by entrepreneurs who have proudly launched their first product/service. Anything can happen after First Launch, including a lot of unexpected end users, customers, blogger comments and strategic partner reactions. The surprises lead to doubt and pondering by the CEO founder. The above questions pop up. Deep emotions are stirred in the souls of the Core Team members.

The related issues are important and need immediate responses. Like the newborn child, the fresh startup that is beginning to struggle needs swift attention before it becomes ill.

TIPS FOR RESPONSE TO FOCUS SURPRISES

Today I'll make some suggestions from my experiences with serial entrepreneurs, those intrepid souls who continue to figure out what to do to a fledgling enterprise so it grows with good health, very fast.

I'll begin with an edited email that I received today from a first time entrepreneur and then I'll show you the tips I sent.

ENTREPRENEUR'S EMAIL INQUIRY

We built the product and just went live a couple of days back! Please check us out when you get a chance at [NEW COMPANY ("NEWCO") WEBSITE] -as planned we are doing this pilot in New York. What do you think of the product? Btw, we also have one transaction in already.

I wanted to email you and see if I could interest you once again in advising me. This time it would be about how to maneuver NEWCO to success. This is very exciting milestone- seems like we traveled a long way from the idea we had 3 months back - but we understand that the first iteration of the product is only an artificial milestone! Now comes the part when how artful we are in discovering and validating our core customers will make all the difference.

I need some advice and guidance at this point. As you can see right away from the initial few services offered, NEWCO does not have one strong identity - people are offering all kinds of things from organic flour to management consulting advice on our service platform. We originally thought of this as a place where people can [proprietary service of NEWCO] and I think we are convinced we have people who will want to use the site. But who will be our core buyers - whom should we focus on? It's getting tricky. This might seem like a basic question, or perhaps we should have already known the answer to this by now? If you have any pointers/thoughts/suggestions that'd be really helpful!

STARTUP COACH REPLY

Hi Kim,

Always pleased to view a fresh entrepreneur in action, especially one from Cornell.

My advice for you today is to “Think about what you want people to think about first when they recall the name of your business.”

That will help you Focus.

It will lead you to the Marcom Messaging that will brand your company over time.

What do you want your company to stand for?

Then compare that to related new enterprises. There are a lot more these days working on a business model similar to yours. That will help you with your Competitive Positioning.

 Hope that is helpful.

JOHN

BOTTOM LINE: Get ready to alter your expectations as soon as you launch your first product/service. Surprises are most likely to happen quickly. Dissipation of focus is the enemy. Chasing every rabbit is unproductive, and leads to dwindling of scarce resources. Instead, serial entrepreneurs stand back while collecting the latest pattern of end users, customers, blogger comments, and strategic partner input. Then they analyse the findings and choose a focus for the new enterprise, one often very different than first planned during pre-launch days. The fresh input is then crafted into a revised (often very different) marketing communications message that is compared with competitors and modified further. The end result is a Positioning Plan that becomes a powerful element in constructing an unfair advantage based on delivering a product/service so compelling to end users that they shout "WOW!" and start Tweeting immediately. Serial entrepreneurs know this is very hard work that kicks up powerful internal emotions, but it is vital to do this swift response very well. When you can do that, it can lead you to become one of the great veterans of real startups.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

SECRECY IS THE STARTUP FOUNDER'S FRIEND: How to get well known without revealing critical startup secrets

"How do we get money, attract employees, and do deals with strategic partners without the whole world (and all the competitors) knowing what we are going to do with our vital secrets?"

That's a question I am frequently asked. It is a very important question, so let's look at what serial entrepreneurs do about that issue:

1. Investigate before you open your mouth or send emails. I have had sad founders tell me they presented to VCs who had already invested in their competitors. Others said they gave away vital secrets when interviewing employee candidates (who were comparing direct competitors during job searches). The First Rule is: BEWARE! Start by assuming the worst could happen and you'll be avoiding critical communicating mistakes.
2. Build your unfair advantage before you start communicating. Are you afraid to tell someone what you are about to do? Then you do not have a strong competitive advantage. You just have an idea for a new enterprise. When you have built an unfair advantage, you can publish your bplan in the Internet and still be confident of launching successfully.
3. Learn to strip tease: Start by taking off just one glove, and asking for order (for the seed $, a commitment to join your startup, to do a deal, etc.). Keep removing clothing until either you get what you want, or get uncomfortable and decide to stop and depart. This is especially important when speaking with potential venture investors. They see a lot of similar startups like yours. They are notoriously leaky with proprietary information. It's the nature of the VC business. They talk a lot.
4. Go into action with confidence. You have something "cool" (in MBA language, something of "high intrinsic value added"). Go for what you want, what you need next, with a positive attitude. Think with courage and conviction: to VCs tell them "If I like you, I might let you invest in my startup." Don't stand there like the guy with the cardboard sign and tin cup at the roadside.
5. Prepare a great Elevator Pitch. Get your 30 second speech ready.  It is designed to get the other person to say "Tell me more." Then in 3 minutes you can take breaths between sentences and tell the person more. That is designed to get you the hour meeting in their office. It all starts with a very intriguing Elevator Pitch. Small is powerful.

BOTTOM LINE: Plan your communications carefully, assuming what you say will spread around the planet quickly. Be wise in whom you speak to, be crafty in what you tell them. Keep as much secret as you can before launching your first product. And most of all, before you communicate, build your unfair advantage. It is central to how serial entrepreneurs become successive winners. So can you!

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

HOW CAN MY START-UP CUT THROUGH THE NOISE? Tips from the serial entrepreneurs

So you've got a great start-up started but feel like you are lost in the crowd? Can't get attention or respect? Lost in the herd of start-ups in your space?

How does a serial entrepreneur "cut through the noise?"

Here are some practical tips I've learned from the best (and worst) of the bunch (of start-ups) over my too-many years of working with ambitious entrepreneurs like you:

• Start-ups fall into two categories: LIFE or DEATH
• LIFE start-ups give birth and succeed.
  
  • DEATH start-ups are dead-on-arrival and should be quickly buried.
• LIFE start-ups do something never been done before.
  • DEATH start-ups do "me-too, better" things already done by someone else.
• LIFE start-ups start a new category (social networking, location-based-services).
  • DEATH start-ups enter an established category that everyone knows about.
• LIFE start-ups enter a fresh market not yet dominated by one company.
  • DEATH start-ups attack an established market dominated by a Gorilla (Facebook, FourSquare).
• LIFE start-ups think global, world-class, all over the planet, from the day they are conceived.
  • DEATH start-ups think "local", small.
• LIFE start-ups create "WOW!" in their product/service that thrills end users, customers and bloggers.
  
  • DEATH start-ups are undistinguished copy-cats that bore everyone.
• LIFE start-ups are so exciting that they "go viral" because people cannot wait to spread the word around the planet.
  
  • DEATH start-ups are so boring they think they have to advertise or do shocking things to get attention.
• LIFE start-ups have assembled the elements that produce an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE.
  • DEATH start-ups have no competitive advantage.

BOTTOM LINE: Life or death, the choice is yours. You'll "cut through the noise" when you are a LIFE start-up. If not, quickly dig a trench, bury your start-up and go on to do a LIFE start-up next. This is not rocket science. It is essential for you to learn. It is what it takes to thrive (not die). When you "get it", you'll understand how to build an unfair advantage. You WILL stand out in the crowd, cut through the noise.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

 

GREAT START-UPS START WITH "CATEGORY" (NOT BRAND): The BIG marketing mistake of first time entepreneurs

Where do you begin creating the marketing plan your start-up?

• Get buzz?
• Get loud?
• Get crazy?
• Get crass?
• Get lowest price?
• Get highest price?
• Do surveys and research?
• Great slogan?
• Great logo?
• Toss it on the market (and keep your fingers crossed, pray it will "go viral", somehow?

Those are the real responses from entrepreneurs I've talked to recently.

My response to each was "What is your new category?"

None of them had a good response to that question.

Yet that is where the serial entrepreneurs start. Search (Google). Microprocessors (Intel). Smart phone (Apple). The veterans know they must figure out "the new space" (or invent and name it) before they can do the challenging marketing work needed to win.

Most of the first time entrepreneurs who contacted me turned out to be entering an existing category. That was revealed by their inability to respond with the name of the new category that their idea was going to enter. The result: they are start-ups doomed to "faster-better-cheaper" disease. Veteran VCs and serial start-up employees will get it and not bother them any more. Bloggers may comment once and then forget them (even if the founders think they have something "way cool").

You have to play in a new space to win the start-up hearts of end users, customers, strategic partners, employees and suppliers of cold cash. They already know where to go for things (brands) in the existing categories.

In other words, you have to see and name the new space (e.g. social networking) before others do. Or at least you need to be entering a very fresh new category before a gorilla has risen to dominate it.

If you still don't get it, watch Al Ries (one of Advertising Age's Top Ten Living Marketing Gurus) explain it.

Then just go do it.

BOTTOM LINE: Start your start-up's marketing plan by naming the new category you are entering. Only after you can do that should you do your logo, names, messaging, positioning and PR-viral campaign. Getting over that hurdle is mandatory. Without accomplishing that, you'll never be able to build an unfair advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure, especially this Easter and Passover week!

CAN START-UPS "GO VIRAL" PASSIVELY, WITH LUCK OR IS IT A SPECIAL SKILL? Some observations and tips for entrepreneurs

Today I tried putting the words "Going Viral" in a Google search and got 3,040,000 responses. Yes, it is true, Going Viral is a big deal. But it's also a phenomena filled with mystery and doubt. Entrepreneurs have trouble getting it to work for them. Self-proclaimed Going Viral experts abound with only rarely repeatable successes. I sympathize. This thing is tricky to get a handle on and even slipperier to get to work for you. And it is a lot of hard work.

Today I'll share with you a few observations about Going Viral and give you a couple of practical tips.

"GOING VIRAL"

• Is part of a marketing communications process. Veterans know that Marcom is the lifeblood of the start-up. If it flows you live. If not you die. Nothing new here but starting at this point puts Going Viral into its useful context.
• Begs the question: What message should we use to Go Viral? Before pulling the trigger, it's wise to decide what you are going to use for ammunition. You are entering a marketing war, and you should know how to conduct marketing warfare.
• Is about "something Very Cool" that has an amazing "WOW! Factor". This is the thing that makes your product/service so outstanding that reporters, writers and bloggers eagerly spread your message. You have to have Very Cool and WOW! to attract their attention.
• Is both old and new. In the beginning there was PR (public relations) and then it moved to Buzz. PR was focused (in the stone age) on "getting unfair share of mind" of reporters at newspapers and writers of magazine stories and television and even radio. Buzz is focused on "spreading news over the Internet" to as many people as possible. PR is very deliberate. Buzz is very quick. Both remain very important to the clever VP Marketing who use both tools in conducting marketing warfare. Both are central to Going Viral.
• Is about having boldness and courage to pick targets and set goals. For example, let's say you decide to aim high and go for the Going Viral Gold Medal. Your goal is to achieve -- within three months -- getting your WOW! message to be part of (1) a New York Times article, (2) in a review by Walt Mossberg in his weekly Wall Street Journal column, (3) lead story in a TechCrunch daily blog, (4) get an invitation to TechCrunch Distrupt NYC, (5) get invited to present at DEMO.com, and (5) attain 100,000 responses to your Tweet page by the end of month three. No guts, no glory.
• Is more about achieving momentum than getting attention. It is easy to get attention: any child can get attention by taking his clothes off in a crowd or doing something disgusting. What is hard is to use your first attention getter to begin an avalanche of a wave of rising publicity that quickly snowballs around the planet as it gets bigger by the day. It begins by you carefully choosing your initiating attention grabber and plugging it into your longer term buzz plan.
• Is about branding. The first words out of your PR buzz mouth will brand you, your product/service and your start-up. Pick them wisely. No one will ever forget them. The words will forever be identified with the name of your company.
• Is what great products do. A product/service that brings significant value to end users is the basis for start-up success. That plain vanilla truth is what is fundamental to Going Viral. Even if you have a wave of initially amazing and provocative buzz, people eventually wake up, look around and if the king has no clothes they declare your product/service "ho hum" and "not very interesting" and move on. You have to make something of such value to your ideal customer that he raves about it over and over and over. Great products do great things for a lot of people. That is why they Go Viral.

BOTTOM LINE: Going Viral is less about mystique and more about creatively planning and executing a great marketing campaign. Start with your product and creatively figure out what can be done with it so that the end user shouts an immediate "WOW!" when she first sees it. Then craft your basic message around that WOW!. Next boldly set your marcom goals and prepare a calendar, budget and resource plan for execution. Choose those first words carefully so your brand gets its eternal identity in the form you desire. After that it is up to you to execute your Going Viral plan. This special form of marketing communication is what makes the lifeblood of the start-up. It is a powerful element in buliding an unfair competitive advantage. You'll need one, it's marketing war out there. Others have fought and won before you. Now it's your turn to Go Viral. I am confident you can also do it.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!

FIGHTING STARTUP MEDIA WARS: What to do when the negatives pile up

"What do we do when the media calls and wants a story about all the crap that is happening in our market/industry? Or when a blogger emails and says our competitors are bad-mouthing our startup?"

That is going to happen to your startup, so get prepared. Here are some tips from serial entrepreneurs who have fought media wars and won.

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   Try this:   You conduct a media war by getting a convincing message (which is newsworthy) to the media. Your customers read the media reports and thus receive a (more) believable story (than what they hear from your competition).  

If you divert your basic message (of your positioning) by reacting to sudden industry and basic economic blips and burps (sounds of competitors attacking or drowning; recession continuing), you will confuse the media ("What is the story I should write about YourCo?").   

Positioning messages that are attempted with messages like "We are great, they are lousy" fail because they are not newsworthy. Complaints are boring. People are tired of complainers. Even if the facts warrant complaining. A story about a complaining company does not sell to the readers and thus neither does it sell (the media company’s) advertising.  

The glass-half-full opportunity for YourCo lies in being creative about how to stand above the mud and mess. That is positive and begs the question "How do they do it?" (That lets YourCo remain clean that while others are up to their ears in muddy messes they created). That is the opening for the positive story (without trashing your competition).   

Your job is to tell YourCo's stories of mostly (don't get arrogant) clean work that has brought the company great progress, because of how well you executed A + B + C (the basics of what makes up your marketing message, i.e. your positioning statement).  This enables you to put industry phenomena into context, speaking in response to media questions about the latest flames in the industry, with a story that reinforces the basic positioning message of YourCo.     

BOTTOM LINE: Stay focused on your positioning messaging. Use industry messes and competitive misinformation as opportunities to get the media to carry your basic message. Take credit for executing well during the crazy times. Give the bloggers a story about something positive. Deliver the glass half full because you executed very well your basic strategy (positioning). That is how you reinforce your company's unfair advantage.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure!       

TIP OF THE WEEK: Get buzz to rise, get hype to die

Are you seeking buzz or hype? The difference can kill you. Or make you rise to startup success.

Buzz happens when a lot of people get excited about your startup and begin to pass the word around. Tweeting, blogging, on Facebook messages, texting and over lunch with friends. It grows and grows, spreads around the world, gathers speed and momentum. It takes time.

Hype happens when suddenly a lot of people, especially writers, take notice and publish something about your startup. Following this is a quick rush of reporters who missed the first wave of publicity. Then the mass media spreads the word to the public who then become excited about the news and rush to see what the startup is all about. It reaches a crescendo, peaks, but instead of enduring, it disappears, like a roman candle fireworks. It happens very quickly.

Examples of buzz include Amazon selling one million book titles on-line. And the growth of use of Google's more effective search engine.

Examples of hype include Second Life, the virtual world created by Linden Labs in San Francisco (take a look at in a good article written Sunday in Silicon Valley by Chris O'Brien). Remember the Segway, the two wheel vehicle that would replace the car? Next Computer Inc. (Steve Jobs)? They all don't die, but they all do fade into the background to be forgotten.

Some wonder about the enormous economic value of the hyped YouTube and now Twitter. Was Facebook about buzz or hype? Or both? They claim to now be converting business models to money makers.

Buzz wins because end users "get it" and find it "way cool." People get excited about something special in your product/service offering. They use it and "Wow!" happens and they can't wait to text about it to a friend. I saw a grade school girl in a mall with her father today, walking with a pink iPhone clutched in both hands, staring at the screen with a beaming face. You can bet all her friends will know about her new phone in less than an hour. Remember the people who slept overnight outside the stores to buy the first iPod?

Buzz works like an avalanche. First there is a real user experience that triggers the first movement of a few snowflakes (other users and a few observers). They impact more and then more, and soon a large chunk of snow moves an entire slab (bloggers) that starts an entire mountainside of white flakes (mass media, mass public) crashing down to the valley below, enormous in its power and momentum.

Like an avalanche, buzz can be influenced and initiated and even guided at first. But after it starts you can only join it or get out of the way and watch. Buzz on a roll cannot be stopped.

BOTTOM LINE: That is where you want your startup to be: offering something to end users that is so cool it gets them buzzing. You can influence that with your marketing messaging (marcom positioning message). You can alert bloggers and help enthusiasts spread the good word (e.g. social networking group). And there is a lot more in this technique we label as public relations. When you can do buzz, you have a powerful element to add to your competitive advantage. You competition will complain it is unfair.

I wish you The Best on your Adventure.