Clicks and Bits » Business

Ten Rules for Startup Success from Loic Lie Meur

Shawn — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:10:22 +0000

Snagged from Financial Times, a profile of French entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur.

Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

Yahoo Finance Back with Free Real Time Quotes

Shawn — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:37:02 +0000

Running through some stock quotes this morning, I noticed Yahoo has brought back free real time quotes. I’ve only caught it one other time today after catching this screen shot this morning so I’m not sure how widespread it is yet.

The Cabo Wabo Journey

Shawn — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:30:02 +0000

Business Week has an excellent story on Sammy Hagar taking a chance on starting the Cabo Wabo Cantina and the resulting tequila brand of the same name, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. In a nutshell, the Cabo Wabo Cantina was opened against the advice of his business manager – who quit over the idea – with investments by the rest of his band mates in Van Halen. When the going looked rough and his fellow investors wanted out (it was losing around $40k a year), Hagar took over sole ownership. Then the cruise ships made Cabo San Lucas a destination and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, it is a $60 million entity with the #2 super-premium brand of tequila in the US and a second location in South Lake Tahoe.

I am most impressed with his thoughts on growth, “Hagar says he could have rolled out 80 Cabo Wabo Cantinas by now, he remains cautious about diluting the unique brand experience he has created”