Category Archives: Technology

The Future of Commerce Will Combine Your Social Network and Mobile Device

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Below is from my latest posts published on PayPal’s DevZone, titled The Future of Commerce Will Combine Your Social Network and Mobile Device.

Each day we hear growing speculation about the so-called mobile commerce revolution that’s just starting to take shape. Some think NFC payments will be the next big thing in retail. Others believe text-based payments will open up the mobile payment experience for the billions of mobile device holders around the world. And thousands of new apps are created each year with a new twist on using your mobile device to pay for everyday things.

To some extent, these concepts and more will shape the future of mobile commerce. However, pundits are forgetting what might happen if you combine the most commonly used platforms in the world—mobile devices and social networks—and infuse quick payment technology within them.

If Those Two Powerful Phenomena Merge, Will We Discover a New Payments Utopia?

It seems as if we’ve been in the stone age of social commerce for years now. Facebook has been around for almost a decade, and before that we had Friendster and Myspace. From my perspective, most don’t realize how close we actually are to merging social and commercial actions. How many times have you read a Facebook update from a friend, for instance, saying something like “I just saw ____ and it was the best movie I’ve ever seen.” Or what about the posts that show off a new car or recently purchased clothing? Those posts, in a small way, are the beginnings of social commerce. By sharing things such as a new purchase or a cool new movie, you are influencing your friends’ commercial interests. Today, people are partaking in social commerce without actually knowing it.

The question is, what will happen when they know they are doing it and they help you make a similar purchase? And more interestingly, what happens when it originates from a mobile device?

Read the rest here.

Seconds Chosen To Provide Mobile Donations For U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

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We are pleased to announce Seconds has been chosen to power mobile payments for the 2012 U.S. Capitol Building Christmas Tree.  Yes, the one that travels across the country on a truck and is put on display in front of the capitol building in Washington D.C.  That one.

This past spring, wildfires burned more then 100,000 acres of land and more than 600 homes near Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition to destroying homes, these fires severely damaged critical watershed areas that supply water for the cities of Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. They also damaged critical habitat for wildlife and fish in the region.

Seconds was sought out by a Colorado non-profit called ChooseOutdoors and the National Forest Service looking for a dynamic mobile/text payment system to help raise money for restoration of the thousands of acres destroyed in the fires.  They were very clear they wanted it to be as smooth and quick as possible to complete since people will be standing outside during festivities and if wanting to make a donation, they should be able to with a mobile device.

I told them “No problem.  Heres how it works: People simply text a numerical dollar amount to the phone number. For example, texting “5” will instantly send back a link to quickly complete a $5 payment using a credit card or bank account. Payments can also be made on the desktop or mobile web by visiting getseconds.com and searching for the tree.”

That’s it.

You can learn more about the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree here.  From the press release (full press release below):

People are encouraged to give what they can – even $5 or $10 – to help restore their country, whose deteriorating forest conditions place America at a growing risk of forest fires. “Our team wondered how many dollars can we, as a nation, raise to help restore the forests during the holidays,” said Nick Hughes, CEO of Seconds. So the goal became to raise at least $25,000 for restoration of the very forests many of us make our back yards. “All money raised will go to supporting work crews and acquiring materials needed to replant riparian vegetation, stabilize stream banks and re-plant trees lost in the fires,” said Jeff Olson, president of Choose Outdoors.

Please take a moment out of your busy day and give to the tree.

Seconds Powers Mobile Donations For U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Campaign

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree now represents much more than an old holiday tradition

SEATTLE, WA – November 1st, 2012 – Seconds, the company enabling quick payments using mobile devices, is announcing their have been chosen as the payments provider for a holiday donation campaign associated with the Christmas Tree standing in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

This past spring, wildfires burned more then 100,000 acres of land and more than 600 homes near Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition to destroying homes, these fires severely damaged critical watershed areas that supply water for the cities of Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. They also damaged critical habitat for wildlife and fish in the region.

Seconds is announcing today they have been selected to help ChooseOutdoors.org and the U.S. Forest Service with the Colorado Forest Fire Restoration Challenge Fund, in association with the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree project. The U.S. Capitol Christmas tree will be cut from Meeker, Colorado and driven across the country starting November 6th, touring more than 30 cities before being decorated and put on display for the holidays in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington DC.

People are encouraged to give what they can – even $5 or $10 – to help restore their country, whose deteriorating forest conditions place America at a growing risk of forest fires. “Our team wondered how many dollars can we, as a nation, raise to help restore the forests during the holidays,” said Nick Hughes, CEO of Seconds. So the goal became to raise at least $25,000 for restoration of the very forests many of us make our back yards. “All money raised will go to supporting work crews and acquiring materials needed to replant riparian vegetation, stabilize stream banks and re-plant trees lost in the fires,” said Jeff Olson, president of Choose Outdoors.

To donate, simply text a numerical dollar amount to the phone number 303-502-5858. For example, texting “5” will instantly send back a link to quickly complete a $5 payment using a credit card or bank account. Payments can also be made on the desktop or mobile web by visiting getseconds.com and searching for the tree.

“It’s an honor to be chosen by the U.S. Forest Service and ChooseOutdoors.org as the payments platform for this special event. Our goal is to encourage people to give any amount they can during the holiday season to help improve the health of our land”, says Hughes. All participants from the winning state will be placed in a drawing for two tickets to next year’s tree lighting ceremony in Washington D.C.

Give up a latte, gain a forest. Our nation’s forests are in critical condition and need our help to restore their health. Imagine what Americans can accomplish by simply giving up one holiday latte and gifting that $5 to the forest. Funding for restoration and public education are just a few of the ways we can decrease the chances of devastating fires – saving homes, neighborhoods and possibly lives. “We are thrilled that a Colorado forest is providing a gift to the nation and hope that it will assist in educating the country about forest health and restoration” said Jerri Marr, supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests.

For additional information on how to support or help with efforts, contact Jeff Olson at jeff.chooseoutdoors@gmail.com or Nick Hughes, CEO of Seconds at nick@getseconds.com.

About Seconds

Seconds enables any device holder to send or accept payments, whether through the web, mobile web or a quick text message. They believe the payment experience should be as quick, simple and intuitive as sending a text message. Founded during the fall of 2011 in Seattle, the original idea was to enhance mobile ordering and commerce for small local businesses. After pilot tests proved both merchants and customers just want the payment experience to be completed as fast and easy as possible, they decided to only focus on the mobile payment experience. They have a vision of any individual being able to interact and transact with any merchant in the world, holding any device they wish. Currently they hold office space in the recently opened SURF Incubator in downtown Seattle.

Seconds Was Just Given A HUGE Holiday Gift, And It’s Not Even Halloween Yet!

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Christmas is still more than 2 months away, but we are already full of holiday cheer.  We have been chosen to be a part of a large holiday tradition, putting Seconds payments on the national stage and changing the trajectory of our company forever.

What it is?  Can’t tell just yet.  But I can tell you it’s not proving mobile payments at Macy’s.  And it’s definitely not a Starbuck’s payments deal, Square already go that one!  Stay tuned for more details in the next few weeks.

But let’s just say Square can’t do what Seconds is about to do.

Startup Growth Requires Making Your Own Luck

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Great things don’t just appear out of thin air.   You have to nurture and cultivate them over time into what you envision as your dream company.

That, my friends, is the secret to startup success.

Yes, you have to build a solid product.  You will need to attract great technical talent.  You also need to have enough user engagement and financial capital so you don’t end up in Startup Death Valley.  But even if you have all that in your favor, luck is still required if you want to succeed.

Luck gives you the breaks you desperately need to go from a no-name into household name.

Seconds has been given an amazing opportunity to drive payments for a nationwide holiday event.  I will provide more detail as the event nears but suffice it to say this lucky opportunity is only possible because of what we have done over the past year.

It definitely didn’t appear out of thin air.  Day by day over the past year we made it happen.

Launch early

We launched the earliest version of Seconds about a year ago, under a different name and clearly aimed at a different customer segment.  The product was buggy as hell and to be honest, a bit embarrassing.  But that’s the point of an early release, isn’t it?  It does you no good to have an idea without a product others can touch, taste and see.  We knew we needed to get something into end-customers hands ASAP if we were going to receive any feedback – feedback that actually led to our next iteration.  I consider it lucky we were able to have a team willing to quickly put out a buggy product and gain much needed feedback.  In fact, we created that luck by committing to releasing immediately and listen to the feedback.

Speak loudly

Not surprising, I like to write.   Also not surprising, I like to write about Seconds and payments in general, on this blog as well as others more well known.   For a number of reasons, I believe this is why we are in the position we are in now given we have only been around 12 months.

If you search Seconds, we come up fourth, above the fold, right below a Wikipedia entry for the time interval and a few links to a movie also titled Seconds.   This is huge, as early feedback on the name was something akin to “great name, but how are you going to be found in Search?  Pretty tough huh?”  Well, that’s where writing comes in…. the more links to a website the more “relevant and valuable” it is in the search index algorithm.   I have no idea how many links are pointing to Seconds but it’s quite a few, based on how many articles I have written as well as how many others have written about Seconds.  This tactic also has helped Seconds gain media attention a lot earlier than other startups in the same situation.  At least we had something written about us and our vision the media could go off of, even if it’s from the founding team.

Founders need to speak loudly about what they are doing.  If you don’t, why should the media?  Getting your word out and better positioning your product are a few ways to create your own luck.

Spray widely

Discovering product market fit is probably the most challenging task for an early stage startup.  It’s one thing to sit at the white board and determine your products are meant for __(whatever)___ market; it’s a whole other ballgame once you get outside the office and try to grow a customer base in that market.  Not so easy…

Seconds is a payments system, a mobile focused one at that.  Amazingly, almost every industry and market vertical handles payments in one way or anther.  This poses both a great opportunity and a large problem.  The fact that our larger market is HUGE is quite the opportunity.  The challenge is trying to serve everyone right out of the gate, which is pretty much impossible.  So we spent the last 8 or 9 months spraying our message quite wide, gaining attention from a number of customer bases.  Some turned out well.  Some did not.  But the incredible thing is we have continued to learn from each and every customer discovery conversation, resulting in refinement of our pitch, company positioning and – at times – the very essence of our product.  Ultimately, this practice led to a few very promising markets ready and willing to run with Seconds.

We refused to be boxed too narrow in the beginning, and it has paid off tremendously.  A year ago, we were a text ordering system for local restaurants, struggling to fit our solution to their non-obvious problems.  This winter, possibly millions of people will be using Seconds to make donations to an important cause with a few quick swipes of their finger.  Everyone wants their payment experience be easier and more enjoyable, especially when making a quick donation.

Are we lucky?  I would say yes.  Did we create this luck?  You bet. You can’t sit on your butt and think the world will come to you.  If you want the world, you need to go out and get it.

Startup Death Valley: What It Is And How To Get Out

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I’m sure a large number of teams reading Techcrunch or other tech blogs right now are in the same situation my company found itself recently.  It probably goes something like this: you have a startup, a product, users and a maybe little revenue.  You are growing month over month but really you aren’t where you want to be.

Most likely you are answering questions with reflexive responses such as “well, we are just testing some assumptions right now” or “we’re heading in the right direction, just need a few more engineers on the team.”  Or, how about this one, “oh, we’re still in stealth, you could call it alpha…”

Give me a break.  Quit lying to yourself.

To put it bluntly, you are in Startup Death Valley.  And you need to get out as soon as possible.  If not, your startup will certainly die.  It might make you feel better knowing Death Valley is where most startups end up – not quite done but definitely not making anything happen.  If you do feel better thinking you are not alone, you are most certainly destined to fail.  Finding yourself in Death Valley is scary and should result in only one question: “how long until we’re dead?”


You and I know it wasn’t always this way.  Not too long ago your team was driving forward toward a goal, excited as hell to be at the office until midnight or later hammering away to the launch your latest concept.  And you absolutely knew, once you launched, millions of users were going to flock.  Revenues were supposed to grow.  Investors were most definitely going to call you back.

And then… Crickets.

Now, it’s become a lot more difficult to get out of bed.  You’ve noticed it’s not as exciting to load up the email or go into the office, and definitely not as fun to field questions about your startup.  Reading all the media out there you just wish you could be on the other side, reaching milestones and attracting investment dollars at record levels.  But you’re not.  You get up each day wishing things would be different instead of actually doing anything about it.  In a word, you are complacent.

If this is how you are feeling, you are currently in Death Valley and have little time left.   So, how do those select few companies – the ones gaining all the attention and money – get out (or stay out) of Death Valley?

First and foremost, they make their own luck.  They pick up the dice and roll them again – quickly.  They get out by putting it all on the line and betting the company, just as we did recently.  Oddly, when faced with inadequate growth too many startups just keep heading blindly toward danger only to drive right off the cliff.   This is, quite literally, insane.  They are not self aware enough to sense what needs to change, when, and how fast.  The ability to sense market shifts and adjust accordingly is an incredible skill that can be found in all of the successful founders, especially ones the ones you don’t find in Death Valley.

Without going into detail about my startup, here’s the playbook we just used to redesign and deploy a brand new product within a month’s time, reviving our company and paving the way for a whole new market opportunity.  If you are a founder or early employee of a stagnant startup, maybe this playbook will help you too.

Make a commitment to change
The first step is to determine what you are going to do and how you will go about it.  To get clear on those issues, you need to take an account of what you have or have not accomplished up to this point.  This requires a long and painful look in the mirror by the founding team, revealing truths that will hopefully save the company.

Has your vision changed since the last big development?  What has the larger market and your existing user base told you since your last product release?  What features are engaging users on the existing product?  What is not engaging and not being used.  Point blank, what’s not working?   What assumptions were proven true and what didn’t pan out?

Then it’s pretty simple – keep what is working and throw away what doesn’t.  Really, just scrap it.  In our experience it was smarter to cut the fat and trim features rather than just add new ones we thought might work.  For a number of reasons we actually decided to rebuild rather than make additions to existing codebase.  Contrary to popular belief, this is more challenging than it sounds.  Why? Inherently, humans tend to be scared and freeze when making drastic changes on things they spent long periods of time working on.  It all comes down to our natural fear of change.  This is no truer as an employee of a Big Co. than as it is as a startup team reviewing their V1.0 product.  The reason is we fear change.  Yet, this is exactly where we found ourselves with our product – growing but not growing very fast. Ultimately, we decided we weren’t scared of the consequences since we knew if we did nothing, nothing would change.  Actually, that’s not true.  It would have been the end of the line since “good enough” is actually not good enough in the big leagues.

State it VERY publicly
Almost nothing gets done until there’s a deadline.  Although dates set internally are the start of it, they are only as good as your team’s integrity.  Unfortunately, it’s way too easy to fudge on commitments when they are loosely agreed upon between a few team members in a private meeting. Fully committing to a new product release required establishing a public event and trying it to our new product.  To make it even more drastic of a commitment, we also stated this publicly and promised a large group of people they would be using our system, the very product that wasn’t yet built. This was really the only way to move the needle.  Similar to launch parties, larger public commitments set solid deadlines teams must respect.  In fact, DEADline is a great word since that is what you will be if, in fact, you don’t meet it.

Do whatever it takes to deliver
Staying at the office until wee hours of the morning, having intense discussions of where buttons and other little details should be placed, and not spending time with friends or family because a deadline is fast approaching, these are all signs you are doing whatever it takes to make things happen.

The biggest sign: you are more afraid of not delivering and failing in public than anything else in the moment.

We found ourselves performing at levels we hadn’t reached in quite some time, if ever.  The last few weeks were a blur, and we didn’t sleep at all the night before our release, not because we were excited like Christmas Eve, but because we HAD to deliver.  Although not amusing at the time, the moment media was suppose to go live (6am EST) announcing our latest release, our site was actually down.  How fun!  Even more challenging, throughout the entire launch day our system was incredibly buggy due to a DNS change and other small issues.  Yet I was as proud as any startup CEO could be watching our entire team set aside all other distractions, doing whatever it takes to push out a successful new release.

The lesson here is simple – without a predetermined public commitment connected to a larger event we would never have pushed ourselves as hard as we did.  We would have stayed in Death Valley, remaining complacent like the other 90% of startups out there.   We smartly made a commitment others outside our organization could hold us accountable and expect us to deliver on.   It was very risky.

Yet, through the very late nights and stressful moments an awesome feeling started to emerge:  Damn right, we will most definitely make this happen.

image via Flickr user Michael Ransburg.

What I Learned At DEMO 2012

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The DEMO conference, held each year in Silicon Valley, has been home to many successful product launches over the last decade.  I was honored to be in attendance this last week in Santa Clara and it did not disappoint.  For those who aren’t familiar with DEMO, it’s an event where scores of startups have 6 minutes to present their product on stage.  At the end, a few awards are given to winners voted by a panel of investors and journalists.  The trip was actually the winning prize from the SURF Incubator pitch competition we won in June.  Before I go any further I want to publicly thank SURF Incubator for the opportunity and I hope we represented you well.

Although we didn’t present or pitch on stage I definitely had a great time.  Here’s Ray Kurzweil speaking on what he see’s as the future of technology.  Things are about the get crazy cool and I’m very glad I was sitting there that day!

The event – one I won’t forget for a number of reasons – was notable, tiresome, and educational.  We spoke with a number of other startups and were shocked at how strong our pitch has become, even to other entrepreneurs.  It’s pretty cool to see others grasping your concept and actually wanting to use it themselves and integrate within their offering.  The trip in itself was very travel intensive, which takes its toll on you mentally and physically.   We spent way too many hours on public transportation, that’s for sure.  But the biggest thing that stuck with me was how much you can learn by just observing people.  As I closely watched the presenters, I noticed a few things that I feel are not covered enough in the media, lessons us “early stage” founders desperately need.   I realized by following a few simple principles any founder can successfully demo their product and impress an audience.

Passion

The truth is, as an attendee watching all the DEMO’s you get quite restless and bored.  This is natural when you are indoors seeing 75 companies parading across the stage throughout the two-day event.  As a presenter, you must understand people are drawn into passionate communicators and distaste anything boring or monotone.  I watched most of the presentations during the event, and I was struck with how many presenters lacked expressive passion for their concept and cause.  They might have had some really cool tech but I wouldn’t have know it by how little they expressed their excitement.  Maybe they were nervous or something, but for whatever reason they did not positively influence me on what they were trying to DEMO.

To me, as an attendee, if the presenter did not elicit belief and passion as they spoke about their product, I tuned out.  It became background noise and monotone distraction to me and my iphone.  You think I am alone?  Occasionally I would glance around to the crowd only to see most attendees face lit up with some sort of device in front of them.  This is something all presenters should not overlook.  Today, you need to give people a reason NOT to grab their phone and play with it.  The best presenters were passionate in the right way, and helped me become passionate about their concept, albeit even for just a few minutes.  It’s notable to mention EVERY award winner passed my passion test.

Poise

In addition to passion, presenters must employ a great deal of poise when on stage in front of hundreds of people.  This is challenging yet probably the most important aspect of public speaking.  Face it, people are very superficial and if a presenter doesn’t come across comfortable, collected and confident the audience will immediately judge negatively.

The presenters that most impressed me were the ones that came across the most comfortable, confident and collected.  In a word, they were very poised onstage.  They told me, through their non-verbal cues, “I am the expert on this subject at the moment one the one you should be listening to.  Our market leading product is one you definitely need to check out.”

Unfortunately, a few of the presenters actually froze on stage and forgot what they were going to say.  This is not a good outcome, especially when being onstage in front of investors and media could result in great fortunes for you and your company.  The result, for me as an attendee, was I didn’t really understand what they were doing (in addition to feeling really uncomfortable).  The result for them, probably very little investment leads.  Whatever it takes, speakers must get prepared!

Relevance

Great product demo’s lead the audience on a journey of discovery into insights and personally useful information.  If not, it’s a waste of six minutes of a person’s time and attention (yes, this is what we all are thinking).   The successful demos all encorporated concepts or illustrations that instantly became relevant to me and others in the room.  One of the startups, StressFriend, has released an app plus wristwatch called Bandu that monitors your current level of stress and displays it in real time on the smartphone app.  Not only that, it maps my stress areas on an interactive map so I can see where I am stressed and where I’m calm.   It’s awesome, and something our society really needs so we can all just chill out!  During their demo, they actually had a drill sergeant come out from behind the stage, yelling and screaming in the face of one of their team members in the audience.  On the big screen, they showed his stress levels changing in real time.  Indeed, they were one of the award winners.  The relevance here is obvious; we all are stressed, we all hate raging people and we all felt it at that moment.  They brought it home!  You gotta believe very few people in the room were messing around on their phone or tablet during their presentation.

Winning pitch competitions can be the difference between gaining media attention and millions of investment dollars… or not.  It doesn’t have to be that difficult, you just need to follow a few major principles.  First be a passionate communicator so the audience feels you and your cause.  Second, be confident and have poise on stage in front of the crowd.  Lastly, no matter your product you need to present a story in which everyone can relate.  These three simple things will go a long way to help with your next demo and hopefully launch your startup successfully.

What Every Entrepreneur Thinks Before They Even Lift Their Head Off The Pillow

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“No way, You Can’t Quit Now”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this founder thing is damn tough.  Not a day goes by do I not think about how much easier life would be if I just quit and went back to a measly job trading hours for dollars.

It sounds so nice, doesn’t it… get a job where I have no real responsibility, just show up, go through the motions and every two weeks have money automatically deposited into my bank account.  Clock-in/clock-out and then go hang with friends and family, gleefully spending the money I didn’t work very hard to earn.

If that was the case, the basis of my employment would be how close to the status quo I could lie, just making sure I don’t screw anything up.

Oppose this to the radical idea of pursing excellence in myself and the things I create.

Yes, it’s tempting to go take the easy road like so many others do… so many whom most likely are way more in touch with reality than am I.

The thing is I am not wired that way.  As crazy as it seems to be, entrepreneurship is so much more than status quo, hours for dollars and not screwing up.  Entrepreneurship is about embracing the unknown and challenging yourself to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges, all this with little or no support and resources.  Basically, an entrepreneur is a magician creating something from nothing.  And trust me, most challenges we face seem insurmountable.  These aren’t just “where’s that piece of paper again?” or “I wonder if my boss will let me go on that vacation I have been thinking about?’

That’s child’s play.

Not a day goes by where I don’t think about the consequences of my decision to forgo income (in my own company or with another job opportunity) for the opportunity to do something most people are afraid to do.    Think about what would happen to you and your life if one day your paycheck just stopped showing up in your bank account.  It takes courage, vision, strategy and a bit of stubbornness to make it as an entrepreneur.  And because of those requirements, most don’t.

Also, quitting is the worst possible option at this time.  Quitting not only validates all who doubted but it also flushes everything I’ve worked for and have equity in.  It flushes it right down the drain.  Not only would I be broke but I would have nothing to show for it.  I can’t let that happen.  I won’t let it happen.

All this goes through my head before I even raise it off the pillow each day.  Although things are tough at times, I count my blessings –  family, friends, business partners, God and all other greatness in my life – allowing me this opportunity.   Not everyone has what I have around me.

The amazing thing is how great of position Seconds is sitting in right now.

  • We just experienced our 8th month of continuous growth, month over month.  We have never seen a down month and don’t intend to.
  • We are just about to release a new version of Seconds, one where it will be much easier for you and I to use and experience the value.   It’s gonna blow your socks off.
  • We are throwing a big charity party at the end of the month involving a number of area startups as well as donations (via Seconds) to local non-profit Vittana in an effort to fight world poverty.
  • We are attending DEMO Conference at the beginning of October, a conference which will be full of founders, executives, investors and media.  This is the event we won a trip to earlier this year at the SURF Incubator pitch competition.
  • We have been asked to go back down to San Francisco mid-Oct to be a part of a select group of startups in attendance the TwilioCon, a conference put on by one of the tech platforms in which we have built our system.  They want us to demo Seconds and showcase what we have built with their communications technology.
  • In conjunction with our release, we will be rolling out across local colleges and universities for Seconds to be used to easily collect payments in students’ college and greek life.  First one starts at the end of September and we’ll be systematically spreading across numerous campuses throughout the year.

Given all that is good about where Seconds is heading, a few bad days/weeks/months personally will not be enough to push me over the cliff.  I suppose someone or something is trying its best to persuade me to give-in and give up.  If that’s the case, they are going to have to do much better than they are now.

No way, you can’t quit now… you gotta get up and go make it happen.

It’s Amazing How Much Technology Negatively Affects Our Leaders

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As a lifelong student of Leadership, I’m sure I look at certain people and situations a bit differently than my peers.  When observing those at the helm of large or small tech companies, others might think genius or insanely wealthy where I tend to look for greatness or Leader.  All too often, and to my disappointment, I end up with something like “hmmm leader… not so much”.

The current state of Leadership in the tech sector has recently come to my attention as mini-crises seem to occur daily.  Wall Street this, tech companies that…  the rising turnover at executive levels of various companies.  These all definitely point to something not quite right at the top and everyone’s pointing fingers and playing the blame game.

And as it is with everything, it all comes down to leadership.

Look no further than Groupon and Zynga for real life examples. They are perfect studies of what happens when there is a clear lack of leadership.  Both companies are in free-fall with no end in sight, and both are now seeing early investors, shareholders (even founders) cashing out before it craters to rock bottom.

Coincidence?  I don’t think so.  Surely I don’t blame a founder for wanting to secure their future after years of hard work, but based on recent actions the lack of faith is clear as day.

Why all the focus on Leadership?  Well, I recently stumbled across one of the most incredible articles on the subject, Solitude and Leadership, originally a lecture given by William Deresiewicz to a class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October 2009.   I can only imagine what it must have been like in the room that day, reading it now still yields a strong sense of how important leadership means to our military.

But as I read the article something unsettling occurred to me: are we, as an industry, giving Leadership its due respect?  Are we adequately preparing individuals to lead organizations, some numbering in the tens of thousands?  Or are we inadvertently focusing on the wrong skills and placing the wrong people at the front?  These individuals may be highly intelligent, top of their class, technically oriented and gifted with the ability to communicate with machines, but do they embody basic abilities to connect, communicate and lead others on a human level.

Accomplishment doesn’t necessarily mean people are adequate to lead.  Highly qualified people can have a CS degree from a top school, be a grifted engineer, and had the foresight to be a co-founder of a startup or previously earned millions from a well placed bet.  All those things make for a successful individual, but they have nothing to do with understanding the principles of leadership.  High tech and human interaction are pretty much opposite sides of a broad spectrum.

To put it bluntly, are we appointing the wrong people only to see the ship go sideways?

To viscerally grasp quality Leadership, one has to have a deep understanding of human motivation, psychology and sociology.  Basically, a leader must inherently know what makes people tick, and why.   The dynamics of human nature is one of the most challenging arenas to master, its more art than science.  There’s no formula or equation to use when approaching another person in the heat of the moment.  It takes awareness of the situation, yourself and the other person – all at the same time – to best handle a tense or high pressure situation.  Some people naturally posses such talents and can handle things with ease and grace.

And some don’t.

I believe this is where well intentioned but misplaced individuals fail promising companies.

The entire article gripped me, full of lessons and anecdotes on how we need to review the basics of human nature and leadership.  But a few things jumped out at me I want to share with our community in hopes it can help get our leaders back on solid ground.

Solitude is true leadership

It’s quite interesting how Deresiewicz refers to solitude as true leadership. How can time alone bring clarity to thoughts and ideas, leading to better leadership?  To find out, a simple glance around will give some perspective.  If you look around you will notice most people tend to be excellent sheep.  They flock around, listening to and following others, and are ultimately way too distracted “climbing the greasy pole of whatever opportunity they are after at the moment” to actually think clearly.

In short, rarely does anyone actually take the time alone to think for themselves.

“I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea. By giving my brain a chance to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise. And often even that idea doesn’t turn out to be very good. I need time to think about it, too, to make mistakes and recognize them, to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing.”

Leaders would do themselves (and their followers) justice by simply taking more time alone to think independently.  Only by letting all parts of the mind come into play will they arrive at an original thought.

Deresiewicz believes we have a crisis of Leadership in this country.  “What we don’t have is Thinkers.  People who actually think for themselves – independently, creatively, flexibly, strategically.”

And he is absolutely right.  What we need is better thinkers, independent thinkers.  True leaders are able to take the time to think things through for themselves, and then have courage to make decisions even when those decisions are not popular but in fact the right thing to do.  Courage to think and act independently – for the right reasons – is what Leadership is all about.

Learn to think for yourself

To think clearly and independently a Leader must remove themselves from distraction and influence.  And when I say distractions, I mean all of them.   Today, more than ever, leaders are so bombarded with interruptions via email, texts, social networks, employees, bosses, media, etc… it’s no wonder they can’t gain any clarity of thought.  And studies have proven people do not multitask effectively – at all.   In fact, multitasker’s pretty much suck at everything they are doing when they are engaging in numerous activities at once. Various studies have shown multitasking only further distracts the individual and can actually impair ones ability to think clearly.

This is why I believe Twitter and Facebook, fascinating as they may be in our world today, are killing our ability to actually think clearly and independently, taking with them our uniqueness and innovation as collateral damage.  We’re now all dopamine feigns, searching for the next high pumped directly into our veins via short tidbits and chunks of useless information.  It’s like we are all now thinking in short tweets…  And according to Deresiewicz, this is not good:

“Here’s the other problem with Facebook and Twitter and even The New York Times. When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do now—older people as well as younger people—you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other people’s thoughts. You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. In other people’s reality: for others, not for yourself. You are creating a cacophony in which it is impossible to hear your own voice, whether it’s yourself you’re thinking about or anything else. That’s what Emerson meant when he said that “he who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.” Notice that he uses the word lead. Leadership means finding a new direction, not simply putting yourself at the front of the herd that’s heading toward the cliff.” (Emphasis mine)

A.  Constant.  Stream.  Of.  Other.  Peoples.  Thoughts…  No wonder we are having problems thinking for ourselves.

When was the last time you found yourself in the solitude of concentration?  How about being lost for hours because you were so damn focused on working through a challenging task you forgot about time?  It’s probably been a while due to all the chiming and dinging of gadgets stealing from you any time alone or peace of mind.

Maybe unplugging for a certain amount of time each day or week is exactly what you need to progress your life.  It’s amazing to realize that without solitude—the solitude of Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton and Madison and Thomas Paine—there would be no America.

Quality Leadership and technology are inversely correlated

As a society I fear we have become too distracted by the “efficiencies“ of technology we have lost sight of how to actually lead effectively.  The problem is the more we use technology the less we actually communicate with people.

Great leadership requires mastering humans, not machines.  It requires face-to-face communication (not Instant Messaging or emailing) so the leader can gauge a person’s non-verbal cues and adjust their delivery accordingly.  Leaders must be able to read an individual simply by looking into their eyes, studying their facial and body movements to decipher what that twitch or brow raise might mean.

To become a better leader, simply use technology less and spend more time with your people.  But beware, it takes an all-encompassing person, someone who is emotionally stable and can handle being outside their comfort zone as they address challenging issues with someone possibly less stable.  During a though conversation, you must be able to hear them out and handle their objections in a way that, in the end, results in saving the face of the company and everyone involved.

One of the best ways to determine if you are cut out to lead is to ask yourself “do I actually like talking to people?”  It’s a simple question but the answer tells a lot.  Indeed, intelligence is required to be a leader, but it’s people’s emotional intelligence that makes them great leaders.  Daniel Goleman, in his industry-leading work on emotional intelligence and leadership, writes:

” My research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.

To be sure, intellect was a driver of outstanding performance. Cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking and long-term vision were particularly important. But when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels.”

It’s obvious by now the above description of a leader naturally fits certain people and naturally dismisses others.  My suggestion is two-fold.  First, as leaders we do a better job of identifying naturally gifted individuals and place them in their appropriate positions – be it a leadership position or not.  And second, we realize the slippery slope of technology on which we are currently standing, how it affects our interactions with others and understand if our leaders fall they will surely take us down with them.

—

Disclaimer:  It took me a number of attempts to finish this article, as I had to check my email, send a few tweets and see what my friends were up to on Facebook.  I know… I’m working on it too!

General Zuckerberg’s Last Stand

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Is it me or is there a growing concern about Facebook’s murky future?  Oh… wait… it’s… not … just… me.   To make matters worse, current employees now seeing their net worth drop each day, are blatantly being encouraged to stay the course by both their boss and the media.  Facebook’s mounting challenge seems to be worrying a lot of people lately, and the more I read the more I see everybody has their own opinion.

Well FWIW, here is mine.

As Facebook’s General, Mark Zuckerberg famously said:  “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

Mark would do Facebook Nation a solid by finally acknowledging ads annoy people and are not a “service” to users.  Ads might have worked as Band-Aid revenue generation during infancy and adolescence, but now they are proving insufficient as the company matures and struggles in it’s transition to mobile.

First, I have a bone to pick with advertising and why it should not be the future of Facebook.  The main problem with advertising is not rooted in inadequate technology; it’s rooted in the fact that it doesn’t actually add value to you or me.  Ads are meant to interrupt our natural pattern of thought in an effort to imprint a commercial message on the neurons of our brain.  An imprint that, in fact, I wasn’t wanting or I would have sought it out first.

Simply put, ads are an annoyance of life.  Ads are peddling at its purest form and humans have an inherent distaste for peddlers because the act reeks of desperation.  Innovating around ads won’t help either.   Trying to squeeze as many ads as you can in front of people, even deceivingly placing a friends picture on the ad to trick the user for a measly click won’t change the fact that ads suck.  And it doesn’t matter if we can develop a quasi-cool concept like “Pre-Ads” similar to the “Pre-Crime” concept in Minority Report, it will still be a net negative on our society.

(On a side note, propositioning people to buy things they may not be able to afford could be why our country finds itself in the precarious situation we are in today.  But I digress…)

Yet I am no Pollyanna, suggesting Facebook immediately turn off advertising entirely since this is the main revenue source, but they need to find a new self, and quickly.  Mobile is becoming the primary means of access for a growing number of users and Facebook is in desperate need of a long-term solution if it’s going to be a viable business.

So with that behind us, I sure hope Facebook can turn their attention towards more fruitful business models.

My answer: Add value to the consumer, not the advertiser.  Because Mark, I’m afraid under your leadership the servant is quickly becoming the master.

Adding Value To Users
So what does “add value to the consumer” actually mean?  Adding value means making what I do each day, as a consumer, easier and more pleasant to complete.  The success of any product or service lies is the richness of value it creates for me, as a consumer.  Early on (and arguably still true today) Facebook added much value to life by connecting us with our friends.  And that was all nice and neat back in the day before social networking became commoditized.  It’s become clear Facebook needs to stand up, rediscover, redefine, and re-institute a business model around the value it creates in its users lives.

So rather than ads – which I will continue to dodge and evade like the plague – why not focus on commerce, payments, purchases and creating value with the resulting data?  Why not, since Facebook already has my identity and interests all figured out, make my life as a consumer easier and more efficient rather than further interrupted?  I would appreciate things like saving me time, saving me money, helping me understand more about myself and my purchasing habits and then aid me in putting that information to work?  Help me identify where I buy things and why?  And maybe identify what brands I am attracted to and which ones I stay away from?

Further, Facebook could then quickly assist me in accessing specific brands I respect and usher in repeated interactions/purchases for me.  These are the things that matter to us as consumers.  These things help us better manage our lives.  And believe me, I would use Facebook more if it added more value to my life.

Again, we hate ads… but we like buying stuff!   A subtle but HUGE difference lies between those two concepts and if Facebook can dig deep enough into why there’s a difference they will discover the answer is found within the delta.

General Zuckerberg needs to plot a game plan for Facebook that is not only a sustainable but growing future as a business.  A number of business models – outside of the traditional “lead generation” advertising we’ve come to despise – are possible.  Here’s just a few focused on adding value to the everyday consumer.

Payments
The world is rapidly going mobile and an incredible opportunity is looking Facebook right in the face.  They have almost one billion identities of people around the world.  Amazingly, these Facebook users are also consumers who pay for things. And I bet if you polled a large enough subset of them about their online/mobile purchasing experience they would tell you much is to be desired.  I often wonder why we need to plug in the same damn information (name, phone number, card number, email address, physical address, phone number, billing address, first born, mothers maiden name, etc.) again, again, and again, again and again… and again, just to buy something on a website with Facebook connect sitting right there!?  I bet Facebook already knows that information about me…

This “revelation” is not lost on Facebook and they have already been dabbling in the digital payment experience over the last few years.  But something seems amiss.  Recently stated quarterly numbers show payments flattening due to people rapidly shifting to using the site from mobile alone, or at least spending a lot more of their time on mobile than desktop where it shows more ads.  Ah, there’s that damn mobile device again!

So with the Zyngapocalypse upon us, most are wondering what comes next.  My view focuses on tying a mobile experience into our consumer experiences, namely real world payments and transactions.  It all comes back to consumer ID and expediting the payment experience.  Yes, I am talking about the same trillion-dollar market Square, PayPal, LevelUp and many others including my company Seconds are aiming to re-create.  Using the device we carry with us all hours of the day – the very same device we are always logged in as a Facebook user – these emerging business are actually adding value by solving a problem and making life more efficient.  More importantly, they figured out a way to make money while not annoying us!

Donations and Giving
A mobile payment doesn’t just mean buying a latte with my phone.  Donations, giving and social gifting are another potential home run for Facebook payments, since these are transactions people want to talk about and share with friends.  Donations are unique in the fact that the desired outcome is to influence others to join us and make a similar purchase.

So how big is this opportunity? Charitable giving is a $300 billion market, and Facebook would be wise to understand greater than 2/3 of that total – more than $200 billion per year – was given by individuals or household donors.  In fact, gifts from individuals represented 73 percent of all contributed dollars.  Wouldn’t it be great if we had a quick and easy account from which to give to our favorite charity without having to plug in those damn credit card numbers or be required to mail a check that we don’t have, (kinda like a pay button?)

It will be interesting to see what they do with Karma, the social gifting business they purchased the day of their IPO.  Social gifting and quick mobile based donations present a very promising opportunity and the Karma acquisition could be a beachhead to the milestones Peter Volgel predicted, where Facebook’s revenue from payments will double every year for the next five years.

Social Commerce
Finally, a low hanging fruit example for Facebook is the often propagated but yet to be commercialized social commerce concept.  If you think about it, it seems as if we are still in the stone age of social commerce, and have been for years now.  Facebook has been around for almost a decade and before that we had Friendster and Myspace.  What most don’t realize is how close we actually are to merging social and commercial actions, by simply talking about products and purchases with our friends.

How many times have you read a Facebook update from a friend, for instance, saying something like “I just saw ____ and it was the best movie I’ve ever seen.  Or what about the posts that show off a new car or recently purchased clothing?  Those posts, in a small way, are the beginnings of social commerce.

I discovered one startup in particular, Note Social, seeming to be gravitating towards all the ideas of value I bring forth above and from the looks of it they are just about to launch their solution.

Social commerce will usher in a totally new shopping experience, by sharing things such as a new purchase or a cool new movie you are influencing your friends’ commercial interests, which can quickly turn into another purchase.

Commerce taking place on and off Facebook, utilizing the social graph they built over the last 8 years, could be another huge business for them.  Imagine if they charged a 20 or 30% fee on any purchases within the platform?  With a half a billion daily people interacting on the site each day, that’s quite a bit of potential revenue just from social commerce relationships.

So Facebook and General Zuckerberg now stand at a crossroads.  Looking left, they hang onto advertising and hope people can deal with more unwanted interruptions on a smaller screen, leading to Facebook’s demise.  Looking right, they peer down a road full of potentially new and innovative social commerce businesses, ones which actually add value to users and possibly a brighter future.

It’s your move General.

A Deep Dive Into The Latest Eye-Popping Mobile Trends

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Heres a recent article I wrote on the Paypal network x.com titled A Deep Dive into Mary Meeker’s Latest Talk Yields Eye-Popping Mobile Trend.  Below are the mobile trends shaping the next phase of our world I cover in the article.

Smartphone Growth

The first major takeaway from Meeker’s latest talk is the astounding growth yet to be seen in smartphones worldwide. She illustrates the point on the following slide: approximately 953 million out of a total 6.1 billion devices are smartphones. Doing the math, one can see there is only a small portion, about 15% of the worldwide mobile devices, being considered smartphones. To put it bluntly: you are a minority in our world if you have anything more than a feature phone in your hand.

3G Wireless Penetration and Tablets

Another incredible observation involves 3G mobile wireless penetration. At last count, there were a little more than a billion people using 3G mobile wireless connections, again representing just a small fraction of all mobile users around the world.

Augmenting the rise in mobile usage is the adoption of mobile readers and tablets. A chart shows the rise in tablets dating back just a few short years. In Q2 of 2009, roughly 2% of adults owned tablets or eReaders. Comparing that to January 2012, where 29% of adults owned tablets, you start to see the tide rising—and fast.

Mobile Monitization Troubles

In addition to mobile growth, another data point Meeker brings forth is how the sea change of mobile drastically impacts monetization, both online and offline. Take, for instance, the difference between the time people spend using mobile devices versus ad spend on mobile. Time spent on mobile devices each week is estimated at 10% (and growing), yet only about 1% of ad spend is currently focused on mobile. Accordingly, Meeker says it represents a $20 billion+ opportunity in the U.S. alone.

Jon Evans (via TechCrunch) has a great quote:

In 10–20 years’ time, everyone on the planet has a smartphone, and/or some even smaller and more ubiquitous form of wireless access. Indeed, the whole notion of “online” disappears, as the Internet is woven into literally every facet of our waking life. As this happens, what company defines our identity, and becomes the gateway to every activity and every service?

The bigger business opportunity for leveraging the mobile device is to understand all the unique ways it fits into consumers’ daily life, and orient business models around and within those unique use cases. One of the most interesting monetization opportunities mobile presents is to augment the payment experience. From a previous article on mobile payments:

Virtual transactions—making payments without having to swipe, show, or display anything—will transform the payments landscape like never before. Since people carry their mobile devices with them everywhere, it makes the most sense to streamline transactions through the computer in their hands. True authentic mobile payments do not require any hardware outside of the mobile device. With cloud computing and offsite secure services holding payment credentials for every consumer, people can now make simple, quick, and easy mobile payments anywhere. As the consumer, the terminal is now in your hands.

Taking that a step further, the mobile platform is playing an ever-larger part in consumer shopping and buying processes. Even when consumers do not complete transactions via mobile, large numbers of shoppers use their phones to take pictures of potential purchases, access online reviews, compare prices, consult friends and family, locate nearby stores, add items to an online shopping list, or place an order. All of those actions can and will be augmented with business models outside of traditional display advertising.

Those were just a few snippets, go ahead and read the whole thing.

Why Craigslist Is Still King And Teaching Us Lessons On User Experience

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Recently I have been using Craigslist more often and the other day I just sat back and took a moment to appreciate what the old gray haired “startup” has done.  It has a achieved a virtual monopoly in the classified space all the while still looking like it did the first time it hit my radar back more than a decade ago.

After further thought, it occurred to me I could take away a few lessons as I continue to build Seconds.

1.  Always make your product SUPER SIMPLE to use.  

Today, it’s all about user experience – or how easy and simple a product is to use.  Notice how using Craigslist borderlines on dummy-proof.  That is how your product should work if you want millions of people to use it.

2.  Don’t make your users do more work than necessary.

All the flashy designs and information buried in layers of profiles, accounts, tabs, windows just wastes my time as a user.  With Craigslist, you go to the page and search through listings, clicking on ones you like.  The amount of clicks to get something done has always stayed as minimal as possible.

3.  If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.

Although I am a proponent of innovation and forward product movement, Craigslist is an instance where they clearly nailed it and haven’t had to ‘expand’ into other markets.  I am convinced staying the course is why they have a natural monopoly in online classifieds.

4.  Create a BRAND.

If you are going to move, what online site do you always check?  Need another job or searching for a side gig?  Looking for someone to build you a website?  Even though there are numerous sites that are arguably ‘better’ than Craigslist, millions of people still trust they will ultimately find what they need with Craigslist.  I don’t see this changing for a while….

So, even as Craigslist is starting to gray a bit, you better believe there are some lessons to be learned on how they have stayed on top.

The Future of Mobile Payments Will Be ‘Artificial Intelligence’

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This is a section taken from a recent article I wrote on PayPal’s x.com network.  

How we interact with computers—and to an extent the rest of the world—is changing. As you know, we no longer log on or are required to go to a computer to get online. We now carry computers with us all day, every day; we are always connected.

We do not have to reidentify ourselves and re-enter our credentials each time we go online. And with the inception of Siri, along with other crude artificial intelligence (AI) interfaces, it is now apparent that we will leverage new blends of AI and intelligent data systems integrated within our mobile devices to create very personal consumer experiences.

These technologies and more will drastically change our purchasing experiences. I see a future where the specific mobile device you carry doesn’t have any bearing on how you make a mobile payment. Take simple text, for example. It is fair to say that text messaging has taken over as the most common form of digital communication on the planet, with 6 billion capable devices and more than 8 trillion messages sent in 2011.

But what if SMS and messaging technologies were not only created for basic communications, but for commerce as well? Imagine being able to say things like “send a message to the coffee shop telling them I will be there in 10 minutes and I will have the usual,” and by the time you get there, your correct drink is sitting on the counter, already paid for.

This is not too far off. Actually, the technical requirements are manageable, and the right pieces just need to be put in the right places. The next few years will bring a fundamental shift in the economy as merchants and business adopt this popular method of communication and use it as a new form of commerce. It is already being accomplished through simple text, voice, and gestures, thanks to natural language processing within your mobile device.

http://youtu.be/4czAm7h6i10

Personalization will also become prevalent and is another key component in the future of payments. Today, most merchants still require voice calls to communicate with them; when it comes time to transact, the customer must actually be present with cash or credit card in hand. Think about how far brick-and-mortar retailers need to go to catch up with the e-commerce world. Even today, when I call a local merchant I’m asked to identify myself and to read my payment information (aloud) if I want to make a purchase.

How secure is that?

Interestingly, this lack of personalization does not change when I am present. As I walk in the door, the merchant has no idea who I am, how many times I have visited that location and what my purchase history there might look like. In a word, these retailers are ignorant. They lack the necessary and vital information to not only improve their operations but also make my customer experience much, much better. And why do I still need to stand in a line for them to swipe my card and write my signature before I leave?

A whole new world of possibilities opens up when personalized connections between customer and merchant are made available through mobile technologies and artificial intelligence.  Customers will be able to quickly find and interact with a merchant, requesting more information or making purchases when and where they feel most compelled. Since identification and payment credentials will have already been verified and stored securely in the cloud, transactions then become frictionless.  Merchants are not only afforded a more efficient method of communications and transactions, but also a unique perspective on each customer and a clearer picture of their entire customer base—in real time.

Visit x.com/devzone to read the whole article.

#MobileIHateYou — A love/hate letter to my mobile phone.

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The following is a guest post from Ted Youngs. Storyteller, designer, entrepreneur & CMO at Seconds, the mobile payment system working to make technology so simple that it disappears. @bobhodge

#MobileIHateYou — When you turn me into an addict.

Everything else be damned! Sunlight streaming through the window, my child’s hand tugging at my shirt sleeve, the oncoming traffic passing at 120 miles an hour. All I want is to be away from here, lost with you in the pixel wash of your retinal display.

#MobileIHateYou — When you don’t give me my fix.

Your ringtone goes “ding dong”. You vibrate in my pocket. Except it’s that guy’s ringtone over there. You lie inert. That vibration? Just a phantom. The conversation I was having without you was good. It’s just that I so wanted to believe that you were calling me to a better one.

#MobileIHateYou — When I’ve just bought you and you’re the most precious thing in the room.

Remember that party we went to? (It was our first day together.) Everyone knew your name. No one knew mine. Compliments on your sophistication and grace were directed to me but were meant only for you.

#MobileIHateYou — When six months later you are obsolete.

Until I had you, I never knew I could be so self-conscious, so vain. How did you age so quickly? Why do I feel shame when I expose you in public? I thought we had something that would last. The whole world seemed to flow through you to me. I didn’t understand: you were just a fashion to be discarded with the next season.

#MobileIHateYou — When I look up from you and find that the day is gone.

What where you showing me? A mushroom cloud over Beijing, promotional offers for websites I haven’t visited since 2008. It’s all a little hazy. How could so much of my life be consumed by staring into your a 2” x 4” screen? Is being with you making my life better or are you the one who keeps me from living?

Do You Think SF or NYC Public Transportation System Could Use This?

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I keep having a reoccurring problem.  My Orca Card – Seattle’s version of the public transportation pass – seems to run out of money a very inopportune times.  On my way to an important meeting downtown.  Balance $0.00.  Getting on the bus to go home later at night.  Balance $0.00.

To keep in better control of my finances I choose to not have it automatically refilled each month, so I am at the mercy of knowing how much is on my card at any one time and if more money is needed, I must take time out of my day to go put more on it.  We have learned the majority of cards in circulation are not automatically refilled.

I either have to go online and pay, which takes 24 hours to process.  Or I have to walk to a physical location around town and make a payment at a kiosk.  It sucks.

Why can’t I just pay on the fly and put money back on the card?

Why can’t I be notified if my balance is getting low?

Others around Seattle have this problem, I know this because that is how we were pointed toward initiating talks with Sound Transit.  I have to believe others in additional metro areas around this country are frustrated by the same inconvenience.  That is why we are now starting to work with Sound Transit on a solution involving mobile payment in Seconds and a pilot is set to roll out in the coming months.

Below is a video of how it works.  Pretty smooth, eh?

I wonder if anyone in San Francisco, New York or any other metro area would want to refill their transit pass in Seconds?

http://youtu.be/PCbfu9ajbpk

This Keynote Will Go Down As The Turning Point In Mobile Communications History

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I just (re)discovered this Steve Jobs keynote as I was doing some preparations for an upcoming Seconds demo.

It’s amazing.

Not only is it a perfect example of how to pull off a flawless demo, but it also occurred to me that this unveiling of the iPhone was a once in a generation event.   It’s hard to overstate the impact the iPhone has had on our world.  The introduction of the iPhone completely changed the mobile landscape, bringing smartphones into the mainstream at the same time setting the bar for Andriod devices and other smartphones.

It also pretty much paved the way for the iPad, which arguably is the fastest adopted new device/technology in history.

Sit back, take notes and enjoy history.

SURF Incubator Launch Party Happening Friday June 22nd. And It’s Gonna ROCK!

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The unofficial mantra at SURF is: Get inspired. Explore ideas. Start companies.   It’s crazy how you feel it the moment you walk through the doors.  Although SURF Incubator opened its doors at the end of April, they were busy accepting startups and inviting them to join the party even before the April 30th opening.

What once was a quite space with more empty desks than people walking around has now turned into a bustling center for early founders and tech startups.  Somehow I feel a lot more at home in SURF than I ever have at coffee shops or other temporary offices around Seattle.  More than 25 startups have joined the team and remaining spaces are quickly being claimed by others.  In fact, there is so much interest they doubled the tenant base over the last 2 months and Neil Bergquist believes “with about 150,000 square feet of vacant space in this building there’s no reason why we can’t take all this space.”

It’s now time to have a launch party and make the launch official.

The night is dedicated to Seattle’s startup community and specifically to (us) entrepreneurs who are taking the risks necessary to advance our vibrant ecosystem.  It’s about time we were honored!  They expect quite a few in attendance and in an effort to accommodate SURF took an additional 2,000 square feet in the building for the launch party and startup demo.

From the sound of it – it’s gonna ROCK.

The event will feature a Startup Demo Competition, successful entrepreneurs, and the investors and companies who support them. Attendees will also have the opportunity to network with the SURF community, which includes resident startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and sponsors. A few SURF resident startups will be selected to give a three-minute demo presentation in front of local media and hundreds of attendees. The crowd will choose the best pitch via a text-voting system and the winning team will be featured in GeekWire and flown to Silicon Valley for DEMO Fall 2012.

Register for the Launch Party.

AGENDA

5:00 – 7:00 Meet the startups, Tours, Brewery and Winery exhibit, Hors d’oeuvres
6:00 – 6:30 Startup Demo
7:00 – 7:30 Keynote and program
7:30 – 9:00 Network, Brainstorm, Celebrate

Current SURF Startup Tenants

                           

         

        

      

                                                             

  

Speaking Of Crappy Facebook Ads, I Hope They Can Do Better Than This

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Seriously, is this what Facebook thinks is going to increase their advertising revenue?  Is this what they were pitching on Wall Street as they were preparing investors during their IPO road show?

“Hey, yea we have ads.  They’re really effective!  This is what we show our users.”  {look to right}

You may or may not use Facebook very much.  I really don’t compared to Twitter and Linkedn.  You may or may not glance over to the side to look at the Ads on the right side of the page.  For once, I did both of those just now and look what they are showing me.

Amazing huh, I wonder what would happen if I actually did click on one of those… maybe a new girlfriend?  Thanks Facebook!

With all this talk of the market pulling away from the now public social network and Facebook shares falling to new lows each week, I wonder when they will figure it out?

Because of their massive user base (almost a billion people) and what comes with it (massive page views) they generated roughly $4 billion of revenue last year.  But with ads like this I suggest there really isn’t much innovation going on in the business front.  Is this what the smartest engineers in Silicon Valley are doing with their talent?

Their future on the mobile device posses other challenges, mainly in the fact that it’s harder to get all those hook up, singles and boyfriend needed ads onto my small screen.  (OK, to be fair there is a save the world from poverty ad on there so all is not lost).

Good luck Facebook, you’re gonna need it.  And hey Mark, if the marriage doesn’t turn out I don’t think you’ll have a problem finding another girl. {look to right}

How To Build Your Startup By Hacking Demo Videos For Customer Development

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Having a great idea and building a startup from scratch is hard stuff.   Once you are up and running, actually attracting customers can be even harder.

So why not have some fun with it?  The best way to get new customers is to act like you already have them!

At Seconds, rather than walking into meetings with potential customers empty handed or with boring marketing materials, we decided to hack the process by creating use case demos specifically for the customer.  We quickly shoot and piece together one minute videos showing a person paying the business in Seconds.  (see below for a few examples.)  This way they see it first hand rather than listening to 30 minutes of a sales pitch without the faintest idea of how it actually works.   Who wants to do that?

So how can you do the same?

1) Brainstorm….
Its what we all like to do anyway, daydream… just focus it on a few key points you want to get across.

2) Put it into a script

Ask yourself, “What do you want them to remember?”  Having an idea is one thing… putting it on paper is a whole other thing.  Try and capture your ideas on paper while you’re in the Brainstorm process and get them organized into EXACTLY what you want to get across to your audience.

I feel that this is the most difficult step in this whole process… so, don’t get frustrated when your idea doesn’t end up the way you thought it would… trust me, its happened to me.

3) Determine how to present it
Now, the fun part! How are you going to present this in visual way?  You need to play to your strengths so determine what you are great at and what you should leave behind.  Are you good with images? live action video? or animations? Pick pick one and go with it.

If you don’t have the camera equipment, use something as simple as and iPhone, which works quite well and it’s what the videos below we’re shot with.  Also, Keynote is easy to use (it has basic movement animations… it works much better than you would think). Make sure to show the simplicity of your product, don’t display a ten minute long tutorial of which someone has to watch it five times to understand what is going on.  This never goes over well.

4) Sounds…
While voice overs work very well sometimes, you don’t necessarily need to have a voice telling people what they’re watching.  Brief text can actually draw their attention into the video even more because they have to read it.  And some light music is usually good though… just to break the  awkward silence.

5) Tweaks
Oh, trust me… you will have to tweak this stuff before its ready to be deployed! Just expect it and work through the kinks.

6) Repeat with new use cases
Once you’ve accomplished it once with a video that works, remember how you did it and the script format you used.  If it worked once it will probably work again!

Rental Payment in Seconds – Property Management

Paying Transit Card in Seconds – City Transit Authority

With My iPhone In Hand It’s Like I Am Sitting Right In Stanford’s CS183 Class!

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The headline is true, except for the fact that if I was actually sitting in the Stanford CS 183 class, I would hear Peter Thiel’s voice, not Siri’s.

Yet, I can’t help but smile at the fact that I can highlight any amount of text, sit back, and have my phone read it to me.  It’s awesome!

I am aware this functionality can be found in other downloadable apps and is not the first time I could have text to speech.  But baked into iOS makes it that much easier and fluid.  Just take this as a brief step-back from technology and realize how cool our world of mobile technology has become.

It’s how I have been consuming most of the class notes Blake Masters has graciously been posting on his blog.  I am sure (although an afterthought to him) it’s been quite the traffic spike for his blog.   These class notes are indeed long reads and when I don’t feel like reading, I just highlight and listen.

How to get Siri to read to you:

1.  Have an iPhone 4S

2.  Hold finger and highlight any content

3. Select speak.