by Jared Goralnick
John Buckman of Magnatune presented some of the most practical advice I’ve come across on how to become an entrepreneur and get started in business. He presented this just a few minutes ago at Le Web 2008.
The following are the slides (and now video!) from his presentation and some of my general thoughts around it.
First of all, the slides are here:
Update! Here’s the video, too:
John Buckman, founder of of Magnatune, presented at Le Web about how to get started with a business, and some of the highlights for me were:
- Never act on an idea for a business idea that you just thought up. Write the idea down and let it resonate for a few weeks or months. Keep writing down other potential business ideas. If the original idea still appeals to you and stands out amongst the rest, it might be worthwhile
- Present your business idea to a friend while they’re drinking in a busy bar. If your friend doesn’t put their drink down and get really interested in your idea, your idea likely sucks
- Do some marketing/PR brainstorming and write some copy before product development. If you can’t come up with really interesting and compelling language to describe the product now, you’re not going to be able to spread the word about it, and it’s probably not an interesting enough idea
- Focus on freelancers, not staff writers when seeking press coverage. Staff writers are often given stories by their editors, but freelancers often have to look out for their stories. If possible, find a freelancer who’s personally interested, too
If you haven’t seen or met John, look out for him…he’s one of those people that really gets it. And his many successes prove it.
Anything you’d like to add to these points and his slides?
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Wow. That was fantastic. Thanks for writing that up and embedding it.
Hey Jared,
@ bullet #2…
I recently read an blog post about a speech given by Amazon investor Nick Hanauer called “How to Spot a Breakthrough”. Nick touches on this point, but he has a different opinion:
“As for social disruption, Hanauer gave a quick summary of what he meant:
—If everyone thinks it’s a great idea, it probably sucks.
—If people understand it, you’re too late.
—If people don’t like it and don’t understand it, it probably still sucks.”
I guess there is a difference between “social disruption” and “business idea”, but disruptive breakthroughs, as Nick puts it, are the businesses most likely to become runaway hits. Otherwise, you’re just stealing market share from an existing market, as opposed to creating a new market altogether.
Here is the blog post:
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/12/03/how-to-spot-a-breakthrough-tips-from-early-amazon-investor-nick-hanauer/
Great slides—thanks for posting.
I’m curious if you agree with Buckman’s endorsement of PHP. Jobmatchbox’s recent poll indicates D.C.-area startups prefer Ruby on Rails to PHP by a margin of nearly 4 to 1. Others, including Derek Sivers (cdbaby.com), swear by PHP. I don’t use either, yet, but plan to learn one or the other…
Jobmatchbox post: http://jobmatchbox.com/wordpress/archives/217
Sivers post: http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_switched_back_to_p_1.html
Alex, that’s a very interesting point. The reality is that most of us will never create a truly disruptive business, but still it’s important to have something interesting enough that others will *want* to cover it, and that others will be able to differentiate you from other companies.
Dan, I actually completely agree with Buckman’s point about using PHP. Rails is popular and trendy but I think there’s still more talent in PHP, especially affordable talent. I also have watched a lot of companies run into issues with scaling Rails. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m in no position to take a strong slant on this clearly religious issue. So please don’t take my word as a completely informed one, but we did build AwayFind in PHP and I found the depth of resources (both people and literature/code libraries) to be encouraging. However, one of the reasons we stuck with PHP is because we simply had existing experience with it.
Both languages are good places to go, and one is not “better” than the other. Then again, depending on the application one may be :-).
Cheers!