A site brings together the best of the web all to one page

Posted on November 22, 2008
Filed Under Startups | 5 Comments

Some of our readers have asked about a site to customize your own web portal. With so many options it’s difficult to provide a single answer, but we decided to present MySurfPad dot com, which is a really interesting project launched some time ago.

MySurfPad.com brings together the best of the web all to one page so you don’t have to. If it is news, search, music, TV, Radio or games you are looking for look no further!! The site is already customized with everything you could ever need with the option to create your own page if desired including adding your own RSS feeds. This is unique because MySurfPad works right out of the box which makes it very useful with very little effort.

The site is broken down into different tabs which include Search, News, e-mail, Tools, TV/Radio and Fun. Each of these tabs has the most popular sites already on them. This includes google, youtube and wikipedia search. You can also read the NY TIMES, DIGG, and WALL STREET JOURNAL while watching your favorite TV channel from around the world. For the user who is looking to create a truly unique experience than they can easily create your own page and add your favorite widgets from the sites own directory. It is fun, easy and simple to do. MySurfPad.com also has a built in RSS reader where you can add your favorite RSS to your page. MySurfPad is completely free to use and most importantly it will make your internet experience a lot more fun.

In a nuthsell, it’s a pretty useful tool that can be used everyday by both geeks and nongeeks. Businesshackers’ mark for it is 7.5/10.

15 points to reveal the “Launching a Startup is easy” myth. (3/15) - From one to one million users thanks to networking

Posted on October 23, 2008
Filed Under Business tutorials | 3 Comments

One of the most important things when launching a startup is networking and regular contact with other webmasters. If you don’t have thousands of dollars to invest you should try to save money on things that can be easily replaced. One of them is advertising, which can be replaced on condition that you have good relationships with people launching startups as well as media offering free space.

3. Networking is the king

I have personally met dozens of people who were able to launch startups without much effort and earn money. The key to success was to write articles for newspapers devoted to startups as well as magazines that cover a number of different topics. Those articles allowed startups to become visible to potential users as well as to potential investors.

a) The power of discussion boards

Discussion boards can be perceived as a place for teenagers willing to spend an hour or two on the internet without doing nothing particularly challenging. That’s not true. There are many forums/discussion boards that have been created for geeks and can be utilized to receive feedback from other users. A good example is Goldenline, which is the Polish equivalent of LInkedin, the famous social networking site. I have seen dozens, if not hundreds of startups being commented on Goldenline, and I must say that even though users are often ironic and cruel they are often right in their comments. As a result you can not only receive a sort of free feeback, but if your startup is really worth someone’s time it will also become famous.

b) Join real, not only virtual discussions

Many people believe that if you have a great idea someone will eventually enter your website and say “wow that’s great I will tell the whole World about it”. Forget it. You need to let people know about your project quickly. Join conferences, discussions, meetings etc. Even if you are at a party try to tell someone about your startup and check his/her first impression. Also try to find out if there is going to be a BarCamp in your city.

c) If in doubt stay out

It is absolutely vital that you refrain from telling about your project if you don’t feel comfortable with it. This is particularly important if you believe that your ideas can be easily copied. I am pretty sure that you can easily find someone willing to copy your startup if it has appropriate potential. Once again remember that is not difficult to create a startup similar to yours if you don’t possess unique knowledge or tools.

15 points to reveal the “Launching a Startup is easy” myth. (2/15) - Make money to be able to make more money

Posted on August 4, 2008
Filed Under Internet tutorials | 4 Comments

July 26 I wrote the first part of a series of posts that will reveal that saying “launching a startup is easy” is just a myth. Some media covered this posts and I was extremely happy to see that my site’s monthly bandwidth exceed within 48 hours. Today let me tell you about another key issue to be taken into consideration.

2. Make money to be able to make more money

This sounds like a very stupid advice, but in fact it isn’t. I have recently talked to a friend, who is a an investment director of a leading VC/PE company. He told that he was having problems because the companies he was investing in were losing money due to complete lack of revenues. Some of those projects were Web 2.0 startups, with very high hosting costs every month. Even though critical mass had been achieved he seemed to be unable to convert the considerable number of users his projects were able to achieve into real money. I told him that he could change this situation and start making money from day one. It’s simple:

A) Utilize ads starting from the very beginning.

If you want to start making money and if you have a website there is nothing more simple than using google, adbrite or any other similar system. If you have high traffic and readers that come to your site everyday or every week you will notice that they tend to utilize links on your ads section at least 5-10% of the times. It sounds bad, but in fact that’s an easy way to cover basic costs such as hosting, site management, etc. It’s hard to rely only on this kind of revenue, but it may easily represent 20-30% of your site’s financial results. A better way would be to focus on contextual ads only. If you launch a startup devoted to tourism, you are likely to find someone willing to click on links of travel agencies or airlines. So remember “context is the king”.

B) Find sponsors from the very first day.

Yes, it’s not easy, but you need to make an effort. Let’s imagine that you have a startup that requires few thousands dollars a month to be launched and maintained. If you have a steady source of income you can focus on the “conceptual” side of the business. It basically means that you will have time to think and rethink your content, without spending too much time on financial issues. This reminds me of some painters who want to be successful artists and businessmen at the same time. It can be done, but it’s not going to be efficient. Focus on what you are really good at: painting or accounting. It’s up to you, but never forget to choose only one of them.

C) Try to involve friends and people sharing similar interests.

If you manage to attract people who are enthusiastic about your projects you are likely to save money. Imagine how much it would have cost to hire millions of people who upload videos on youtube, millions, maybe billions of dollars. You can it done for free. Your enthusiasm should be contagious and make everyone feel proud to join the project. Motivation is the key, as you will see that many people will help you build huge projects almost for free.

D) Be original to attract media and save money.

A good strategy is to be controversial. Ryanair is a good example. How many times have you heard about advertisement campaigns that were very cheap, but allowed to let everyone know about a product. If you want to lose money: be boring and repetitive. If you want to make money: invent something that is totally ugly or attractive.

15 points to reveal the “Launching a Startup is easy” myth. (1/15): Critical mass is absolutely necessary

Posted on July 26, 2008
Filed Under Startups | 7 Comments

In the last few weeks I have been busy doing a number of different things that prevented me from writing posts on businesshackers. I appreciate my faithful readers for patience and kindness. Today I would really share some thoughts on how to successufully launch and manage startups. It is not exactly what I do in my everyday life, but after few years reading and writing about startups I hope I can provide some suggestions. I will share 15 tips that might turn out to be useful both in case of fresh new projects and projects launched some time ago. Today I will describe only one of the the so keep on reading my next posts on this subject

1. Critical mass is absolutely necessary.

From my observation I can tell you that this point is essential. Let’s imagine that we go back to the time Youtube was not invented yet. You are the one who comes up with a fantastic idea. You want to allow everyone to videos and upload their own videos. You launch this project in your garage/studio and after 14 days you realize that CNBC prepared a show to present this great idea. Believe me or not it will take less than a month to have someone copy your project and invest in hardware/software that will be far more powerful than what you have. “Catch up effect” will start and three possible scenarios can occur:

a) “catch up effect” < word of mouth –> this basically means that people started talking about your project and you are likely to stay number 1 in your category. It’s very hard to achieve such a position, but possible. Two examples are Digg (especially for American users) and Wykop, which is probably the best Digg equivalent for Poland. Competitive advantage comes from the fact that you were the first to start something and the first to believe that it makes sense to invest in it. Let’s call it “first mover advantage“. From my personal experience I can tell you that clones usually do not work. Some time ago you remember I launched a Digg clone that was created to give prizes to guys that were the most active on the site. I was determined to give books, movies, etc. to those who Dugg stories and submitted new ones most actively. It turned to be a bad strategy. No one wanted to give up Digg, Reddit, Mixx or Propeller in order to join my site. I was really disappointed. but in fact it was a good lesson. It’s not easy to drive traffic to your site and it’s even more difficult to mantain it.

b) word of mouth < “catch up effect” –> that’s exactly the other way round. If you take 95% of startups and you use Alexa or Compete to analyze traffic (popularity) you will draw the following conclusion: “it takes less than 3 months for the average startups to be forgotten”. You will always think that you are going to be in the 5% rather than in the 95%, but that’s not exactly true. Any Venture Capital company in the world will explain this concept in the same way. Only few succeed and that’s why it’s worth having a diversified portfolio

c) word of mouth = “catch up effect“–> I would call it “perfect equilibrium”. It means that even though you are not in case “a” you are still likely to be one of the main competitors on the market. In Poland for example there are three social lending sites that have moreless the same positions and more less the same chances for further development: Monetto, Finansowo and Kokos. “Perfect equilibrium” is defined as 33, 33 and 33% market share. Innovations and additional (external) funding may change things quickly, but the “products” remains essentially the same.

Let’s put it simple now. Critical mass is “the minimum number of users you need to attract and mantain” in order to efficiently launch and run a startup. I would say that it’s similar to a break-even point that must be achieved so as to make your project look good. Three more things to remember:
* achieving “critical mass” in a niche is relatively easy - don’t try to “fight with the big guys if you are not one of them”.
** it takes time and money to promote a startup, especially at early stages (I will discuss this topic in detail in the nearest future)
*** never forget about the power of networking; it will save you both time and money.