taking "the purple pill"

I've been flipping back through the book "The Art of The Start" by Guy Kawasaki. It is a really fantastic book for anyone trying to start a new company. If you are in this position, it is required reading.

I went back to the section entitled "Take The Red Pill" in which he refers to a scene in the movie "The Matrix". Morpheus presents Neo with the difficult choice between taking the Red Pill or the Blue Pill. The Red Pill takes him back to the harsh reality while The Blue Pill takes him back to the fantasy world. Guy recommends taking The Red Pill and getting a Morpheus on the team.

I'm happy to say I have some people that fit the bill in my team. They are experienced people that know what it takes and they force me to take The Red Pill while others are convinced it's a slam dunk. They believe but question most things forcing me to get back to reality. As for me, I regularly take The Purple Pill. I need to have enough reality to stay on my toes but enough fantasy to remain encouraged.

The company I'm launching will be fighting for your attention, Mr. and Mrs. consumer. You probably surf the web, listen to radio and CDs. You might have an MP3 player and possibly listen to streaming music. You might even have satellite radio and if you don't could get one if you wanted to. You have lots of choices but each has its own pros and cons and none provide the complete experience I'm looking for which compels me to create it. I think the team I'm pulling together can create something totally different and better ... but is it enough?

The real enemy is "good enough". This is where The Red Pill comes in handy. It is not too hard to make things better. However, incremental improvements are not the realm of startups. We need to make things 10 times better or cheaper or create an entirely different experience or paradigm. We have chosen the "entirely different" approach. Nevertheless, we'll be fighting for your attention and so in the end, you'll need to be compelled to come over to our side.

So what are you really looking for you fickle customer? I'm going to eventually find out but I could use some help. Share with us and you'll probably be rewarded by a new experience that will finally satisfy you. Tell us what you like, dislike, love, hate and what really drives you crazy about:
-AM/FM radio
-MP3 players
-Satellite radio

I'll seed this a little without leading the witness too much:
-I feel like listening to a specific song right now and I don't own it ... tough luck
-I get in my car in the middle of a great song ... tough luck
-The local stations cover only hockey but I'm also interested in basketball ... tough luck
-I heading towards the main highway but I just missed the traffic report ... tough luck

I could go on and on. There are lots of problems and things that drive me crazy. How about you?

I promise I'll take The Red Pill ... but for now, The Blue Pill tells me there are lots of problems that need to be solved and that I can do it. Perhaps I need The Purple Pill.

Cheers,

Allan Isfan
Entrepreneur with an Iron Ring

Feel free to email me directly at 5628isfan@rogers.com

Radio is going where tv is

I'm sitting here before singing and piano lessons composing this blog while listening to Radio Total from Romania (where I was born) http://www.radiototal.ro . I'm streaming through the internet and it works quite nicely. This whole Internet thing may be here to stay ... not the fad I thought it would be:). It definitely brings me back and it's a good feeling ... until they play Back Street Boys!! AAGHH ... wish I could skip forward ... but of course I can't because it is a radio station. The motto is "Muzica buna se imparte cu prietenii" which translates roughly to "Good music must be shared with friends".

I guess you can't account for taste. Somehow the Romanian DJ, sitting in some building in Bucharest doesn't seem to know what I like. Shocking!!! Just for fun, do some searches for internet stations being broadcast from different provinces, states or countries and listen in a bit just for fun. This is especially cool if the station is based in a place you have some ties to. There are so many of them, it is incredible and overwhelming. Getting to any decent ones that actually work properly and that are good takes forever and it is frustrating but it is pretty neat to listen on all these different societies and get a totally different experience ... I'm going to try to listen in on some Jamaican stations to see how that goes ... should be interesting.

So where am I going with this?

As you start to exploring what the world has to offer on line, you realize how much great stuff is out there. My daughter walked in to my office the other day and listened in on one of the songs that was streaming through pandora. She said, with surprise "I've never heard that song before ... it is really good!". We've all gotten so used to radio pushing us the same stuff over and over, it is a surprise when we hear something new! I used to fill in surveys from Chez 106.9 The Bear (Ottawa Station) but now that I'm checking out different streaming services and radio stations from around the world, I'm literally pissed off at the local stations (except for Live 88.5FM ... a breath of fresh air). They are doing a crappy job of filtering stuff for me. I imagine satellite will do a better job but 150 channels is still a puny drop in the content bucket ... and it is still filtered.

TV went through this phase several years ago. It had a few generic free channels and then came cable with the subscription fees and hundreds of niche channels. That was a welcome improvement as is satellite radio for many people. However, we've already entered the TIVO/PVR world and Video On Demand (VOD) that allow us to have much better control of what we watch and when we watch it while even adding some mobility with portable video players. Radio is following a couple of steps behind. If you want to figure out where radio is going, look at where tv is. A major disruption is happening and earcandy will play its part.

BTW, incorporation has begun.

Before I go, I promised you something cool. Check out http://www.jajah.com/, potentially the next skype.

Cheers,

Allan Isfan
Engineer with an Iron Ring

people and the idea pendulum

Startup concepts often feel like a pendulum. You start with one idea, you bounce it off people you can trust, they add their thoughts and it picks up momentum and speed. Next thing you know, you've diverged significantly and hit a standstill as you realize you are way off track. Before you know it, you are somewhat back to the original concept but the "bob" is now a bit shinier.

I was a little stuck until I had a chance to meet with my crew of merry men today for lunch. We had such a fantastic discussion that I believe we may have come up with some potentially revolutionary concepts ... one idea building on another and another until some really neat thing popped out. Very exciting stuff, especially since it is tied to delivery of ads (gotta leave it there ... sorry). It is great to be in the presence of smart capable people! The ingredients for the magic potion are now appearing.

Having said that, the team is missing one or two key people that are crucial. We are playing in an emerging market but it has strong roots in radio and its usually duller second cousin on the net. I am looking for assistance from some senior people out of the radio industry to provide some critical input, feedback and contribution. If you are one or know of one that wants to be involved in something revolutionary and disruptive, please contact me. Perhaps some adult supervision wouldn't hurt either (ok, I'm nearly 40 ... but I feel so young!).

You have often heard that VCs invest in teams, not ideas. In my slightly younger, more naive days I thought this was complete bull. What good is a fantastic team if there is no fantastic idea to go with it? I experienced this at my previous company (great team) when we changed our business model and struck gold. Now I'm literally living through it again. The things we came up with today, coupled with one or two key people (whom I need to find) will catapult us to new heights.

Cheers,

Allan "Bob" Isfan
PS. Those that have known me for a while know that my nickname is Bob (eastern european for Bogdan ... my middle name) so this is a bit of a funny irony relative to the whole pendulum thing.

Also note that I have added links to some blogs I think are worth checking out. I'd strongly recommend Guy Kawasaki's latest blog since it covers defensibility really well (a topic I covered in my post entitled "crush crush crush") http://blog.guykawasaki.com/