The Startup Kids

This documentary is my next must-watch video if I can get my hands on it.

It's definitely something that gets my blood racing especially because it relates to the tech business I founded awhile back which I'm still actively involved in.

It's clear that the video takes on an angle to inspire more people to take the plunge into entrepreneurship and may paint an unrealistic picture of what it means to start a business by focusing on success stories, it's motivational nonetheless.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the trailer.

This is the most manic-depressive way you could possibly live life. You’re never having a good day; you’re either having the best day ever or you think you’re about to die.

Everything you’re doing is basically something you’re just barely qualified for or not qualified for at all. It’s like jumping off a cliff and having to build your own parachute.

I remember writing letters to my friends and family saying, “sorry, you don’t know me anymore”. I just let all my relationships go because nothing was as important as this.

I don’t know why anyone thinks that our lives are all rainbows and sunshine.

Being successful in your own company; there is no freedom like it in the whole world.

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Tablets

Here is an interesting comic strip showing the problem with buying a tablet, which I've seen some of my friends go through.

For myself, I still much prefer using my laptop at home and the iPad is basically my wife's destressment tool rather than one that boosts productivity.

This is why I think that the Microsoft Surface would have had a significant market to target had they produced a better product but reading the reviews, it's nowhere near the quality that is required, especially in terms of software.

I'm definitely going to be looking at their future, improved versions to replace my current seven year old laptop which is on its last legs if, and that's a very big IF, they get it as slick as the iPad but with its extra features which I like.

The question now is whether my laptop is going to last long enough for me to wait. For now, at least I have a work laptop to use for most of my computing requirements.

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Draw Something

I am REALLY impressed with the app Draw Something. It’s truly amazing in terms of success and what it has achieved shouldn’t be too surprising when you look at the brilliant design and user experience the game provides.

Let’s look at some of the numbers.

In 5 weeks, there were over 20 million downloads, 12 million of which are very active.

It makes revenue amounting to a 6-figure sum EVERY SINGLE DAY.

It’s made more in 5 weeks than the company who produced it, OMGPOP, made in all of 2011.

Just like Rovio which had made 51 games before Angry Birds stormed into the world, destroying one pig at a time, OMGPOP had many games on its browser site before coming up with Draw Something.

Both companies had not experienced a lot of success in the past but kept persevering, finally deciding to methodically create a great user experience game.

And guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to find a lot of new games which require two people to play and interact flooding the market over the next 6 months because everyone is going to think it’s the new secret formula.

Arguably, Words with friends was the first real huge success game requiring two-person gameplay but it’s going to be interesting to see whether any others make it.

Hats off to Draw Something for capturing an untapped market so devastatingly effectively and really…I can’t say enough about how wonderful their UI design is.

I truly love what they have done.

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Information overload

I’ve been having a few conversations with a friend about the importance of technology such as the Internet, smartphones and tablets.

He mentioned that no amount of money would convince him to give up Internet for the rest of his life because everything revolves around it and was rather surprised when I said I don’t mind giving it all up for a certain sum of money.

I’m finding that technology is becoming a major pain point. I love knowledge and learning, and so I try to find ways to incorporate technology to facilitate this. However, to stay up-to-date with all the latest information and content regarding certain topics is literally making my head feel like exploding every day.

In order to keep up-to-date with technology news and have regular entrepreneurship inspiration for my side business, I’m using Google Reader and Twitter. Some of the sites can churn out 200 articles per day and the amount of content that needs to be scanned through to pick out what is important is mind-boggling.

For church ministry, I also subscribe to content and updates through e-mail and twitter so that it helps to keep me aligned that there is a spiritual purpose and centrality to everything that I do.

I’m finding that lowest on the food chain is the social side of things where once in awhile I log into Twitter and Facebook in order to see what some friends and family are up to but this has become a much less common activity.

I honestly told my friend that I much preferred the days when I didn’t bother about Internet and the corresponding social and content connectivity. In the past, I would call a friend from a fixed line to another fixed line, and we’d arrange to meet at the tennis courts or meet a group of friends for mamak. In order to learn about a topic, I would buy a book and read it slowly, absorbing everything I needed to at my own pace.

But as I observe the kids nowadays and how they handle smartphones, tablets and computers, I understand that it’s really for the new generation. A generation who grew up thinking that keeping up with all this fast-paced information was normal and effortless. I have seen 2 year olds use iPhones faster and with more comfort than myself.

I’m finding it hard to keep up although I feel that it’s necessary.

I suddenly realise that I’m old and am no longer the ‘younger generation’.

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Bubble

Quite awhile back, there was a dot-com bubble which burst around the year 2000. There was an incredible hype around the Internet and on web start-ups, and those which listed on stock exchange had such exponential growth that everyone jumped in without properly assessing the fundamentals of the investment.

Then it crashed and the successful dot-coms became dot-bombs. And so many people got burned that they never wanted to believe in these risky web based start-ups anymore.

Flash forward to present day. It’s happening again. People have short memories.

Everything is online. Venture capital is flowing into tech start-ups at an incredible pace and at incredible amounts. Valuations are blowing through the roof in IPOs.

And much of this is going on without the companies even turning a profit. There’s no positive cash flow. Some don’t even have a viable business model yet and are still trying to figure out their identity.

The business game is changing and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. It seems that as long as you have a big base of users, a database of a captive audience and an online community established, you don’t even need to monetise the site yet but there’ll be people cueing to have a slice of the pie.

But there’s a danger and although I don’t see it slowing down yet, I believe that it’s a bubble and that the valuations are far greater than the real value of many of the tech companies out there.

A company could very easily burn through their capital and never reach the critical mass and turning point of properly monetising what they have, especially when you look at the amount of marketing and SEO it takes to maintain the popularity of an online website nowadays. Not everyone has a model which can readily draw a huge amount of loyal, repeat users consistently.

I think we have to be careful in how we approach the current environment even as everyone gets excited over the daily success stories of online start-ups. It’s so easy to get distracted and not be able to focused on what your own company does best. It’s so easy to envy the success and want to emulate it. But in the end, there are too many people trying to hit homeruns and strike jackpots, forgetting that you’re far more likely to win the game by sticking to your core strengths and competencies.

In this context, focus is far more important than keeping up-to-date with the latest fad.

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