Blackberry...my five cents worth

Dear Mr. Thorsten Heins, I know as the present CEO of R.I.M. life must be (well I don't have words for that one), and having advisers like John Albright still funding "titanics" of the 90' surely doesn't help (I once met John on a project I was looking to get financed in 2008, although I came from Windsor, John thought that playing racquetball was more important, and so I sat for 45 minutes waiting. After my presentation, he told me that I should really focus on building a "search engine" for that they would have some funds...Go John!). However, I am a fan, and I think many more are. Here are my five cents worth:

1. Focus on a niche market (teens, and youths are not BB's market!)
2. Make that market the best possible market it can be with BB.
3. Go after business people
4. Make your products work with other - BB is not Apple, but could be, this is how they started

Let's face it, business people don't want to play games, they need tools to help them in their day to day jobs. I have both an IPhone (Verizon) and a Blackberry (Rogers) and I use my IPhone for games, reading, reminders and other personal things, I use my Blackberry for business, meetings, calls, appointments and more. Well I would like it to do more. Let's start with a better sync with other O/S. Syncing with Microsoft needs to be improved, why do I have two entries for this birthday, why do I have 4 reminders on my calendar, and so on. Yes, there are methods to do all of that, however, my business is not to be in business to figure these things out. Make a button that does it! If BELL can use a CD to install a modem in your house (well they think they can) then you should be able to do the same for the businesses.

Simple, pure, and functional, Blackberry Business!

That's what I am talking about, but, what the hell I am sure you have better advisers than me! By the way, why don't you allow the Playbook to connect with Facetime...there's a thought. In all seriousness, BB started in the business sector, it deviated to try and keep up with Apple and now Android, and in all honesty, it should go back to the business market and make it the best it can be!

Good luck Thorsten.

The future of Apple

I am presently reading Steve Jobs by Isaacson, Walter, and wonder if Apple will continue having such high standards now that Steve is no longer with us. I have always been a Microsoft person, I don't mean a loyal rebel like Apple fans, just that cost wise and software availability wise, Microsoft was the way to go. That all changed two years ago when I bought my first IPad. Granted at first it was more of a toy then anything else. I use it to play cards, read and surf, a little. Lately though I acquired the IPhone 4S and now I see the real value in having more than one Apple product. I am not going to make this post about the fantastic way that Apple works via the cloud, and other features. However, when reading the book you learn about the Jobs vision, the aspect of bringing design, hardware and software inline together so that they work in perfect harmony. This is truly amazing, and, while reading this book, I am seriously contemplating buying my next laptop at Apple! The question is, will the vision, the meticulousness and the perfection still be there?
When you think "product design" the first thought that comes to mind is that a design team designs and the engineers comply. However, in today's world that is not the case. We basically are told by the programmers, the engineers and the technicians, what will work with what, and what the limitations are, how you need to construct things and so on. What if Jobs was right? What if we began with a beautiful design, and made everything else fit from that point on. Would the world be a better designed place? Think about it when you attack your next project, and in the meantime, whether you are an Apple fan or not, do yourself a favor, and read the book.

Angels or Venture Capital, you be the judge!

Canadian Angels, another oxymoron or not? Recently I came across the Essex Angel Group, and to my surprise (well not really) they had the following posted on their site:

 

We do not make seed investments in startups. We invest in ventures that have worked out their business model, understand where they’re headed and are ready to take that next, big step.  

 

Now, I asked myself, is this the mission of an Angel or a Capital Venture company? Just yesterday Facebook announced that it was buying Instagram for, wait for it...$1 Billion dollars. Now that in itself is no longer unusual for Internet sites, what is unusual however is that Instagram is a little over 2 years old and to date as yet to make any money! Last month it raised another 50 million dollars based on a valuation of $500 Million! Go figure!

So, how does a Canadian Angel Company like Essex Angels deal with that? Now, I am not picking on the Essex Angels in particular, however, if you are going to say something like "we do not invest in startups" well you are just asking for it, after all why be an Angel if you are going to act like the Devil? In fairness to Instagram, I must say that they have 30 million users, so perhaps, Angel groups like the Essex one should be careful about what they write. It seems that Canadian Angel companies see 20 deals, invest in one, and hope it was the right one. In the US, they look at 20, INVEST in 20 and hope one makes it. Different philosophy, I wonder who comes out ahead!

So you want to get bought out!

So you want to raise money or get bought out, let's talk valuation. What is valuation? Valuation is what your company is worth, or, better said what you and industry experts say it's worth. Why do I say that, well there is a BIG difference between what you think it's worth and what the experts say it's worth. Let's take the case of Instagram, who recently got bought out by Facebook for...$1 billion dollars. This company is a little over 2 years old and HAS never made a penny! Now here is the kicker, last month they raised an additional $50 million dollars based on a valuation of...wait for it...500 million dollars!

Now, don't go telling a Canadian Angel Group that story and say you want a similar valuation. For one, Canadian groups are much more conservative and like to set the valuation of a company based on  revenue, first and foremost, and, by amounts already invested if there is no revenue. So if you thought that your company was worth a lot of money, think again. Unless of course you are making money, but then...who needs Angels? As a side note, I must however state that Instagram although having no revenue had and still has 30 million users, so maybe a valuation can also be based on that!

So, if you are looking for money and need a higher valuation, get viewers/users to come to your site, and if you reach that many users, remember, you have to be worth at least $1 billion, so don't settle for less.

Using your social networks

So, you've got hundreds of friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, and followers on Twitter, what do you do now? Well if did all this on a personal note, then continue on, you are doing well, however if you thought about the possibility of increasing your site traffic, think again.

Take a look at each of these networks on their own and analyze the data, I mean, what are they talking about? Facebook is all about individuals interest, woke up this morning and wanted a Big Mac...great for McDonald's, not so great for you. LinkedIn is about business, again, more of a personal interest, something like, Google in the eye ware business...if your an optometrist, great, and finally Twitter, well, if your Kutcher!

So how do you use them?
On Facebook you need to create a page, that is a business page, and you have to get people to like it and invite others to do so. Depending on what you are trying to do, for example, drive traffic to your site, if that is the case you need to entice them. Prizes, draws, and giveaways are a great way to get started. If you are looking for opinions, get them to fill out a poll first, make it fun, people like fun, they hate boring! The idea is to get them to promote you, not you promoting yourself. Once you have people promoting you, more will come to your site. Again, the first thing you have to do is establish the goal, why or what, do you want the page to do for you. On LinkedIn it's all about business, so go ahead, promote your business, however you will find the same thing here when it comes to asking people to do something for you, if you have a prize, or giveaway, they will respond much quicker. In your own network you could do a poll, make it interesting, don't make it directly about your product, chose something similar, so that you can use it to measure your own products. Twitter is fun, if you make it fun. In my opinion there are two ways to get business from it, the first take longer, you have to become the Tweet of the day for a group of people, so I hope you are creative. Once you have a following, you can direct them. The second is to leave them hanging, wanting more, for example, what Bieber did recently, posted is phone number, told his fans to call him right away, but omitted the last number...bad Bieber, good technique!

Good luck.

TMT with Duncan Stewart

If you are in the technology sector, you owe it to yourself to visit Duncan Stewart's blog. The predictions in this presentation are truly a guide or an insight to what's going on in our tech world and who will come out ahead.

This is an important document if you are presently in the development stages of apps, software or hardware. Duncan can be found at the following locations:
Twitter is @dunstewart; facebook is www.facebook.com/dunstewart

How do you explain that?

So you have a website, and, you are not getting any leads from it. You picked the right name (well it is your company name, so people should know it!), you paid to have a nice website built (well they said it was Web 2.0 and stuff), and you put in those meta, or is it mena tags, and still, no leads. HOW do you explain that?

Well I hate to tell you, but the Internet is not what it use to be! There are billions of sites, many not even indexed by the biggest search engines, and each minute more are created. There are certainly ways to get your site picked up by search engines, but, it will demand work. Meta tags are important, however the big thing is SEO, search engine optimization. There are many companies out there that can do this for you, just be careful, look for references, ask around, read reviews. Another way of creating traffic is by doing what I am doing, create a blog (blogger is great it's owned by Google, that helps) and have people follow you, you can (really you should) also get a twitter account, and naturally a corporate Facebook page. Speaking of Twitter, most people don't know what to "tweet" about, here's a trick, tweet about new product release, new services, new launches, re-tweet (that is when you read a great tweet you can tweet it forward) about a hobby, be careful what you say, everyone finds out. You will need to spend a minimum of 4 to 5 hours a week on these things, but it will be worth it. As a closing thought, by other domain names and have them forwarded to your site, things like (if you have a consulting site for example) www.freeconsultations.ca (yes I use .ca because you will find that most .com are gone) or tipsandclues.ca or whatever suit your business, then simply have those forwarded. The trick is to get URL's that people search for, like the word free, or money, things like that, but please, don't buy things like gambling or gaming just because those are popular searches, if you use them, you get them, meaning, those are the people you are attracting. Happy SEO!