Jan
16
ETL - Mitch Kapor
January 16, 2008 |
This week’s ETL was Mitch Kapor. He is the founder of both Foxmarks and Lotus, and he has a major reputation in the Valley. At first glance, I didn’t think he would be a very engaging or entertaining speaker, but once he started talking about what he’s done and what he’s passionate about, he became as engaging and thought-provoking as any other speaker I’ve heard. I think the structure I’m going to follow with each of the speakers is a list of take-away lessons/info.
Current Projects
Mr. Kapor is currently working on Foxmarks, an in-browser bookmark system. It allows you to sync bookmarks from multiple computers, and seems pretty interesting. Even though I use del.i.cious, and I have no complaints, I think I might check it out… One of his other projects is as a board member for Second Life. One of the interesting things I learned is that the demographic composition is mostly international and about 35 years of age, which was surprising because I thought it would be mostly national and the 12-25 age range. Level Playing Field Institute, a non-profit that Mr. Kapor is involved with, focuses on creating a level playing field for the economically poor so they are no longer educationally disadvantaged. Because I come from this background, this topic and program is definitely interesting (and cool) to me.
Product Differentiation
When it comes to creating a small business, it’s best not to compete head to head with the big giants. Like taking on Google in algorithmic search is a bad idea, but making a specific type of search that functions completely differently is a good idea. One other good idea is that if the product works fundamentally differently, there should be some kind of visual product differentiation that makes it easy to see that the two products are different.
Why Now is the Time to Start a Business
With Web 2.0 businesses these days, it’s extremely easy to start something and test the waters. The barriers to entry are extremely low, all you really have to do is create a website and add some value or prevent some pain. There is immediate feedback that tells you whether or not something is working, and a cycle of quick iterations can be implemented to ramp up the product and make it better in a quick hurry - which is something the giants can’t do. And while self finance is easier these days, one thing to worry about is that it’s too easy to put off tough decisions such as growing the business.
Picking an Investor
One of the biggest things to look for is an investor with the right skill set for your entrepreneurial undertaking. Because they have faith that your organization could be the next big thing, it’s a great idea to respect your angel, learn to trust their judgement (most of them know the ropes), and work with them in a non-adversarial relationship. If one of you loses, both of you lose. You’re both looking to win and by working together and trusting one another, it makes the process that much more fulfilling and successful.
Role of Corporate Culture
When it came to starting Lotus, there was a huge amount of growth and became a big deal in a quick hurry (first year’s sales were $54 million when they expected only $1 million). Mr. Kapor attributes much of this success to the corporate culture and says that Lotus succeeded because of the strong identity it developed and the tone that he and the other founders set. Mr. Kapor himself says that he always had a problem with authority, and as such actually implemented a system of measuring value and management accountability to keep an eye on managers and making sure they were walking the walk along with talking the talk. In fact, Mr. Kapor says that the corporate culture of Lotus is probably the thing he is most proud of in his career. On a final note, he clarifies that trust is not found but earned and built - one has to be self aware.
The Future
The next five years are going to be exciting times because there is a lot of stuff going on in the field of search, information technology, and energy technology. The intersection of information technology and energy technology should be really exciting because of everything that is entailed through the intersection of those fields, and Mr. Kapor is looking forward to seeing what will happen in that area.