Posts Tagged ‘Category Design’
077 Venture Capital, Startups, IPOs & Immigrants Oh My!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:00 — 18.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares his insights about venture capitalists, start-ups, IPOs and immigrants and how these topics have driven the economy of the United States. Lochhead poses some serious questions and asks why there is not enough discussion on these matters.
Venture Capitalists and The Upcoming Elections
In a study published by Brookings, they claimed that “in recent decades Venture Capital (VC) has generated more economic and employment growth in the U.S. than any other investment sector. Annually, venture investment makes up only 0.2% of GDP, but delivers an astonishing 21% of U.S. GDP in the form of VC-backed business revenues.”Further, Brookings stated that 51% of VCs invested around $45.7B in California.
Lochhead concludes that other states are losing the opportunity of gaining value in this incredible economy.
For Lochhead, the lack of support of government officials might explain the absence of VC in other States. Successful VCs have proven to create a growth dynamic that fosters innovation and creates more start-ups. Unfortunately, seated officials fail to see this.
“Maybe its time for us who care about entrepreneurship and the difference that it makes in the world, to make sure that our candidates—focuses on this topic.” – Christopher Lochhead
IPOs Creates New Millionaires
According to Yahoo! Finance, around 5,000 new millionaires will be walking the streets of Silicon Valley after this year’s IPO. They would surpass the estimated 1,000 millionaires who emerged in 2004 from Google’s IPO and the 1,000-plus millionaires in 2012 after Facebook went public.
“Tech IPOs not only create wealth, but IPOs are a hot-house flower environment for creating more startups.” – Christopher Lochhead
In addition, Jay Ritter of WSJ claims in one of his articles that “the median age for tech companies going public in 1999 and 2000 was 4 and 5 years, compared with 12 years in 2018.”
Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Forbes reported that immigrants started the top tech IPOs in 2019. Further, an immigrant co-founded four of the five biggest tech IPOs this year, namely Slack, CrowdStrike, Uber, and Zoomare.
“We need entrepreneurs and start-ups and growth-oriented businesses, cause that’s where the jobs, innovation, and productivity comes from.” – Christopher Lochhead
Lochhead thinks that there is a lack of conversation about immigration—it’s not in mainstream media, not even in this election cycle. Specifically, he points out how the country attracts and supports immigrant entrepreneurs, given the fact that U.S. immigration law does not lean towards them.
“If Americans don’t want to start companies, don’t we need to attract immigrants who will?” – Christopher Lochhead
In the end, Lochhead is encouraging Americans to show support to small and big scale enterprises. He further believes that electing the right candidate who advocates for entrepreneurs is a good start. The dudes have created a huge collection of hentai games, where each game is examined under a microscope https://thebesthentai.com by the way, some broad makes powerful reviews of adult games.
To hear more about Christopher’s thoughts on venture capital, startups, IPOs and immigrants and more relevant information, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Links:
Brookings – As the venture capital game gets bigger, the Midwest keeps missing out
Yahoo! Finance – Silicon Valley could have 5,000 new millionaires after this year’s tech IPOs
Statista – Number of IPOs in the United States from 1999 to 2018
WSJ – Mutually Assured Disruption in Silicon Valley
WSJ – The 2019 IPO Frenzy Is Different From 1999. Really.
WSJ – The IPO Millionaires Are Coming!
Forbes – The Top Tech IPOs In 2019 Have Been Started By Immigrants
Axios – U.S. startups are in a surprising 13-year slump
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
076 Billionaire Entrepreneur Tom Siebel on Digital Transformation
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:03 — 41.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
In today’s episode, Billionaire Entrepreneur Tom Siebel shares some thought-provoking insights on new, leading technologies and its impact on businesses and society. He is the founder of C3.AI, a new software platform that harnesses Big Data, IoT AND AI.
Tom covers in this episode the contents of his book, Digital Transformation, as well as some intriguing ideas about huge US Tech companies.
Silicon Valley Entrepreneurial Giant
Listeners might recall Bruce Clevland, author of “The Traction Gap” and guest in episode 033. He used to work with Tom Siebel at Siebel Systems, which was the category king in the 1st wave of CRM.
In the year 1999, Fortune magazine named Siebel Systems “the fastest growing company in the United States.” In 2006, they merged with Oracle for $5.85 billion.
Digital Transformation
Tom has a brand new book entitled “Digital Transformation.” The book covers giant Megatrends and impacts on business and society. CEOs and senior leaders would find this book highly beneficial to their decision-making process.
“The coming two decades will bring more information technology innovation than the past half-century.” -Tom Siebel, Digital Transformation
Further, he discussed that companies who fail to seize this massive technological growth will be extinct in the future. In the last 30 years, companies that didn’t make the necessary transition required in their industry, cease to exist today.
Continuous Learning and Education
Tom Siebel and his company have a real commitment to their employees: to focus on continuous learning and education. Employees can take online classes via Coursera—in relation to AI, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, among others. Universities such as Stanford, MIT, and the University of Illinois offers these online courses.
“Things are changing more rapidly so to be on top of these, you must be continuously learning” – Tom Siebel
The company recognizes the employees who completed the courses and awards cash bonuses — ranging from $1500 to $25,000. At the moment, the company is rolling out new incentives — a 15% increase in compensation and an additional equity grant.
“These people are better equipped to do their jobs and to serve customers. This is to advance their careers professionally. They also do feel more empowered, so everybody wins.” – Tom Siebel
To hear more about digital transformation and more relevant information from Tom, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Tom Siebel is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of C3.ai.
He was the Chairman and CEO of Siebel Systems, which merged with Oracle Corporation in January 2006 for $5.85 billion.
Mr. Siebel is also the Chairman of the Siebel Energy Institute, a global consortium for innovative and collaborative energy research for the public domain.
Mr. Siebel serves on the boards of advisors for the University of Illinois College of Engineering and the University of California at Berkeley College of Engineering.
Mr. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a B.A. in history, an M.B.A, and an M.S. in computer science.
Links:
Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an Era of Mass Extinction
Thomas Siebel – Forbes Profile
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
060 Cards Against Humanity Co-Creator Max Temkin
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:02 — 86.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
Living legendary designer Max Temkin, co-creator of Cards Against Humanity (“a party game for horrible people”) talks about his ideas on design, company building, his work ethic—or lack thereof—and so much more.
Max’s Non-Existent Work Ethic
Max proclaims himself as a horrible procrastinator with no work ethic. He can never decide to do something and sit down to actually do it. Because of this, he has developed coping mechanisms to get him through last-minute clutch work.
This ties up with the philosophy of necessary and sufficient conditions that he personally believes in.
Working hard is necessary to keep a business running but it is never sufficient. Hard work needs to be coupled with critical thinking, team play and good energy to make legendary things possible.
“No one is successful just because they killed themselves with work.“ – Max Temkin
The Wild Medium: Design
Max says that it is incredibly difficult to break down what it means to be a designer.
After all, so many skills go into design.
There is design thinking, organization and empathy for the user, and then there are the technical skills like typography and color theory.
Because of the many skills that a designer can sink their teeth into, no designer is excellent at everything. It would take more than one lifetime to master them.
For example, Max has never understood color theory, so he stuck to black and white, which eventually became his brand.
“I’ve definitely come to suspect that for many people, what you might call their style is like the coping mechanisms they’ve developed to cover those holes in their skill set.” – Max Temkin
Building Small Things
Max says that people usually build things from the desire to make them just because it would be neat to do so. Some people would put up their creations for the people to decide their fate.
Some would build a company with the mindset of growing its worth into a billion dollars. Max believes that these ideas, however, are rarely delightful and rarely work. In contrast, allowing yourself to think small and unconstrained would help your ideas grow into huge phenomena.
“Very rarely does someone go, ‘I’m gonna change the world with this huge idea’ and then it works exactly as intended.” – Max Temkin
To hear more about design, gaming and the Do By Friday podcast from Max, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Max Temkin is a designer.
He is best known for co-creating of the #1 selling, category creating “adult party game” Cards Against Humanity.
He also co-created, Secret Hitler, and Humans vs. Zombies.
Max is also co-host of the popular podcast, “Do By Friday”.
Links:
Cards Against Humanity – Wikipedia
The Sun UK – Cards Against Humanity set to be a shocking quiz show on Comedy Central
PR Week – Cards Against Humanity Gorilla Black Friday Marketing!
The New York Times – Letter of Complaint: Cards Against Humanity
Do By Friday Podcast – Overcast
We hope you enjoyed Max Temkin on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
029 Legendary Marketing Lightning Strike Dave Gerhardt Drift
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:08 — 48.8MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
In this follow-up to Episode 20 with David Cancel (DC) the founder and CEO of Drift, Christopher talks with Dave Gerhardt (DG), the head of marketing for Drift and fellow podcaster.
They are co-authors a of brand new, number one best-selling book called Conversational Marketing: How The World’s Fastest Growing Companies use Chatbots to Generate Leads.
In this episode, we unpack how Drift is designing a new category and we go deep into the strategies and tactics Drift is using and how they executed this most legendary lightning strike centered around the new book.
If you’re into marketing, there’s a ton of gold in this episode.
- You’ll get insight into how to get a massive amount of attention for your category, brand and point of view.
- How to execute an approach called the Multiplier Effect so that each component of your marketing mix multiplies the value of the other components.
- How to make your company and your category undeniable.
- And, how to do my favorite kind of marketing which causes your competition to have emergency board meetings.
“Whether the (category) name is sexy, good or not, you have to name it.” – Dave Gerhardt
Almost two years ago, Dave was introduced to Christopher through his book after Sequoia invested in Drift, Pat Grady sent him five copies of his book Play Bigger and said he needed to read it. Dave was blown away that how much was in the book was what they were doing without really talking about it. Play Bigger clarified what they were working on.
Hurdles to Overcome
The team at Drift knew they were building a category but didn’t’ really know about category design. During their efforts to write the book and get a publisher, Dave and David discovered that thing, that category that they were building meant nothing until they named it.
“In order for us to win, we need to elevate the category of Conversational Marketing.” – Dave Gerhardt
They had a little traction but not enough. They needed a following, big investors, and the social proof. Fast forward to early 2018. They spent the year writing the book and published on January 30, 2019. After a month, it’s a top 20 business book in the US and in the top 1.5% of all books being sold on Amazon.
Why Competition is Good
In order for the book to succeed, Dave wants competitors and people in the conversational marketing space. They don’t want people to just think of Drift when they think of conversational marketing.
Dave compares it to a part of Play Bigger. Apple didn’t invent the tablet but they created a category that elevated it. That’s Drift’s goal; to elevate the category of conversational marketing.
To hear more about Dave’s legendary marketing strike, download and listen to the episode.
Dave Gerhardt Bio:
Dave Gerhardt is a B2B marketing leader, brand builder, and copywriter.
As VP of Marketing of Drift, he’s helped grow Drift from $0 to over eight-figures in revenue in just two years, and his work has been featured in 100+ news sites and publications, including Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Harvard Business Review.
He also co-hosts the popular Seeking Wisdom podcast with Drift CEO David Cancel, and he’s the co-author of the definitive book on Conversational Marketing.
Links:
Linkedin
Drift.com
Podcast: Seeking Wisdom
iTunes Seeking Wisdom
We hope you enjoyed Dave Gerhardt on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
