Build A Company That Attracts The Next Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs joined Atari in 1973. On his very first day, he walked into founder Nolan Bushnell’s office and said “I think you have a really awesome company. I think that everything is pretty good, but I’ve seen your soldering connections and they’re really crappy.” to which, although somewhat taken aback, Nolan Bushnell replied, “Well, let’s fix them.” and Jobs did.

So what made Atari a company so attractive to Steve Jobs that he actually walked in off the street and demanded a job?

Recently Bushnell, in his book called "Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Hire, Keep and Nurture Creative Talent", describes the culture and the allure that was so critical to hiring and keeping creative talent like Jobs.

Don't forget that many of the famous entrepreneurs of our time all started out working for someone in the beginning.

How are you going to attract this sort of talent? Below is a great interview with Nolan Bushnell that's worth a watch. 

For Every Yes There Are A Thousand No's

Apple has summed up its product philosophy in this powerful and very plain video manifesto.

It's vintage Apple ...  another shot at reiterating its long standing "Think Different" mentality. 

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

– Steve Jobs, WWDC 1997

 

Formula for Entrepreneurial Success (From Ev Williams)

Excellent advice from Ev Williams (Twitter, etc.), one of the most prolific and successful entrepreneurs of our time.  

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I can't say it better than this ... so I will just quote it in its entirety below: 

1. Work with Amazing People

Don’t compromise on who you choose to found your company with and hire. Do not put up with ego-centric personalities or downer attitudes.

2. Take on Big Challenges

It’s pretty simple: Hard things are valuable; easy things are not so valuable. Reaching the mountaintop is rewarding because it is hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it.

3. Focus

Say no to most things: Features. People. Partnerships. “Coffees.” Projects. Only a few of them really matter. (Yes, it’s hard to know which.) Don’t get distracted.

4. Take Care of Yourself

When you don’t sleep, eat crap, don’t exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers.

5. Love those Close to You

Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationships is.

 

Take heed young entrepreneurs ... he's absolutely right.

Inspiring young entrepreneurs

At the recent Next Web Conference Europe, two 13-year olds showcased their companies. Inspiring stuff for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Jordan Casey is the founder and CEO of Casey Games, a mobile gaming company he founded in 2012.​

Puck Meerburg is a very talented young coder from the Netherlands, who has just released a fun new game called CatStacker. ​

For those of you who ​are interested in helping your kids learn to code at a very young age, LifeHacker recently published an excellent article on the subject. In addition, CoderDojo in Los Angeles has a great page summarizing some of the coding tools available to kids.

Finally, there is an excellent Ted Talk by Mitch Resnick, who reasons that true fluency comes from creating with, not just interacting with technologies. He also outlines some great resources in his talk "Let's Teach Kids to Code".  More can be found here on the TED Blog.

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Mobile Is Eating The World - Are Your Ready?

Stunning data about the rise of, and importance of mobile on a global basis.

If you do not have a compelling mobile strategy (and vision) that lies right at the heart of your company and/or if you are not considering how best to leverage mobile as one of your top strategic imperatives, you will eventually be overtaken by those who are.

Win the hearts and minds of consumers on their mobile devices, or risk obsolescence.

Must Watch Interview: NEST Co-founder Matt Rogers

This interview with Matt Rogers, the co-fouder of NEST, is a revealing look at the formation of a truly great startup, and is a must watch for any entrepreneur.  ​

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Matt left an amazing job at Apple in 2010 to co-found Nest Labs. Nest, which received funding from some of the best venture capitalists in the world including Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, Shasta and Google Ventures has revolutionized the mundane and oft ignored home thermostat. And my sense is that there is much more to come from this great company.

Nest is an exciting company at an exciting time. The rise of the internet of things, and the coming of age of the smart home are two interesting trends (among others) driving a renaissance in hardware startups. We're starting to see a plethora of internet connected appliances, from smart watering systems that know all about pending rainfall to power hungry clothes dryers that know when the cheapest electricity is available.

Smart Advertising: Smart Cars To The Rescue

From Creativity Online

To promote Mercedes Smart cars to Russians (who like driving big cars), BBDO Russia actively proved to potential customers the benefits of having a smaller vehicle. Many Russians get towed on weekend shopping trips for parking illegally; and the traffic is also notoriously bad in the city. So in March Smart offered free rides to those stranded by having their vehicles towed - getting them to take a test drive without requesting one, and see what a difference having a small car makes when parking is scarce and traffic heavy.
623 car-less drivers were rescued during three days. The agency encouraged people to thank the Smart brand on social media, while blogs and news portals picked up on the stories and test drives increased 10 fold. Sales increased by 300% in the two weeks following the event.

​This had so many elements of a modern, multi-faceted, ad campaign ... purpose built for social media amplification. 

Re-imagining the UX for iOS 7

With Apple's WWDC just around the corner, we're being teased by the tantalizing possibility that Apple will deliver a much overdue refresh of the UX in iOS 7.

As the conference nears, designers are falling over each other to present their visions of what an iOS 7 remake might entail.

Here is one interesting one - in the spirit of flat design. It comes from the talented folks at SimplyZesty, a Dublin, Ireland based digital agency.​ 

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Building A Culture That Works: The CEO As The Cultural Epicenter

In this excellent post, Peter Levine, who's a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, talks about the profound impact a CEO has on the culture of a company.

This is so true ... companies are defined by their cultures ... and cultures are defined from the CEO on down. You cannot manufacture a culture that is inconsistent from the beliefs and actions of a CEO. No matter how hard you try.

It is a must read for any aspiring CEOs. ​Remember that the expectations you have of others must be aligned with the expectations you place on yourself. And that the behaviour of your team will eventually be aligned with, and influenced by, your behaviours.

“The organization reflects the behavior and characteristics of the CEO, and that establishes the culture. Foster an environment of open communication and the organization inherits a culture of open communication. Operationally detailed? The organization becomes operationally detailed. Political? The organization becomes political. Curse a lot? The organization curses. Angry? The organization gets angry. Have a big office? Everyone wants a big office. It doesn’t matter what’s written on a coffee mug or on a “culture” slide, what you do as a CEO, day in and day out, and how you behave will define your company’s culture.

Despite the best intentions, companies often become culturally dysfunctional. This occurs when leadership has a perception about the culture that conflicts with reality, or leadership behaves differently than what might be written down. ”
— http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/27/building-a-culture-that-works-the-ceo-as-the-cultural-epicenter/

Wearing Your Computer

We all know it's coming ... regardless of the manufacturer, or the OS, the smart watch will rise in the near future.​

Shortly a wide range of digital services will be delivered from your wrist ... payments, alerts, IDV, contextual information, directions, etc.

It's rather exciting if you ask me.  But wearable computing raises the bar on usability and design significantly.

Below is a rather stunning 3D render of what such a device might look like, and how it might work.

Re-imagining Education

Sugata Mitra, in this absolutely endearing TED talk, speaks about how the rise of the internet and cloud computing should compel us to re-imagine education ... a system he claims isn't broken, per se, just built for another world and another time.

His stories of how children in the slums of India, left unaided with a computer stuck in a wall, began a self directed journey of learning, is an example of why we might consider a different paradigm for education. No longer just top down, but bottom up.

Another great example of this sort of thinking comes from Salman Khan (founder of the Khan Academy)​. Millions of kids around the world now turn to the Khan Academy's on-line educational videos and multi-media activities to grasp some of the more complex elements of math and science. Why? Because Khan's approach not only makes the topics approachable, amusing and engaging, it enables kids to learn at their own pace.

Watch and find out why one kid said, "this was the first time I smiled doing a derivative". 

Education, done well, can be captivating.  

As Sir Ken Robinson so aptly put it in his TED talk on education:

“I think we have to change metaphors. We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”
— http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

If you are interested in the topic of education, TED has pulled together a list of some of their favourites in a post on their blog. ​

Engaging Advertising

Once in a while, ads come along and cut through the clutter, engage you, amuse you ... and ... deliver the message they intended to. Tor Myren is one of the best at this, and his eTrade Baby ads are some of my favourites.

However, in 2011, Volkswagen debuted a classic ... during, of course, the Superbowl.

What makes a good engineering culture

Great products are built by great engineering teams, and great engineering teams are built on great engineering cultures. The attached post from Edmond Lau (who's an engineer at Quora), is one of the best definitions of what makes a great engineering culture I have seen in a long time.

He focuses on 10 key elements:

  1. Optimize for iteration speed
  2. Push relentlessly toward automation
  3. Build the right software abstractions
  4. Develop a focus on high code quality with code reviews
  5. Maintain a respectful work environment
  6. Build shared ownership of code
  7. Invest in automated testing
  8. Allot 20% Time
  9. Build a culture of learning and continuous improvement
  10. Hire the best 

This all sounds like motherhood and apple pie stuff, but it isn't and I encourage you to read his well written post here: 

 

Making Music On The Go

There's no doubt that the iPad has revolutionized music creation on the go. From apps like Garageband (which really set the bar) to newer entrants from old standards like Image Line (FL Mobile), the quality of this ecosystem has risen exponentially over the last year.

Over the past few months, as I've sat on numerous airplanes, I've had a chance to play with some of this stuff ... and it's been a ton of fun. However, beyond the sheer enjoyment of creating music, we as mobile app developers can learn a lot from our counterparts in this space. I often marvel at the cunning way in which these developers have created stunning and efficient user experiences. Trust me, it's really worth taking a look ...

Making music is not something I get a chance to do very often, and it's not something that I'd argue I have a huge amount of skill at, but these applications greatly facilitate the process of taking an idea from your head to the real world in a way that I don't think has been possible before.

In a way, these tools are doing for music creation what digital cameras have done for photography ... democratizing it.

Happy New Year!

 

 

Effective Storytelling and Visceral Benefits

The latest iPad ad reminded me that effective marketing is about being able to transport your audience directly to a place where they can viscerally experience the benefits of what you are selling. Combined with simple and effective storytelling, it's a powerful motivator. Too often we drown our audience with specs and features ... big yawn, low yield.

Just watch the following iPad commercial to see what I mean.

Dogpatch Labs gives startups the room - and expertise - to thrive

Dogpatch, which was created by Polaris Venture Partners, is a shared space designed to connect entrepreneurs and help founders conceive and launch startups. Aspiring entrepreneurs are offered desk space, bandwidth, coffee and even lunch.  The locations (San Francisco, New York and Boston) are wide-open fun spaces that are typically shared with a more established local startup.

To quote Dogpatch:

But we are much more than a physical space — we are a community of like minded entrepreneurs who share a spirit of “open source entrepreneurship,” the idea that, particularly at the very earliest of stages, we all benefit by fostering connection points between and amongst entrepreneurs and startups.  Whether it is sharing space, sharing ideas, sharing referrals, networking, or just hanging out, we all thrive on the flow of ideas, people and relationships. So, in addition to a workspace, we also use the lab frequently as a meeting place — for dinner events, brown bag lunch talks, workshops, conferences, symposia and good ole’ pizza and beer nights.

It's also a wonderfully subversive way for Polaris to meet and build relationships with great young entrepreneurs, often at the very earliest stages of their businesses.

Here's a look inside the Dogpatch Labs facility in San Francisco.

 

For more information on Dogpatch, click here.