Innovation in Software

If you’re a start-up, here’s the names of two people you should consider ignoring: Mike Arrington and Chris Shipley. Avoid their blogs unless you appreciate what they are there to do. Do not attend their events unless you understand how nobody cares about what happens at their events (not least, your customers). Focus on your own business execution and what your customers want, and you might get somewhere.

The web industry is very young and very immature. Bad ideas are still coming and going as the barrier of entry remains low and the bargaining power of customers is very strong. The churn in this industry is astonishing.

A result of this churn is a whole sub-industry in analysing start-ups, their culture, tracking launches and giving entrepreneurs a shot at getting some publicity. The problem with this sub-industry is it places companies into the wrong frame of mind, and as recent events have shown things can get a little bit ugly as players compete not by asking what is best for the sector, but by complaining about each other.

In recent weeks the public dialogue has been the rivalry between Arrington’s “Techcrunch 50” event and Shipley’s “DEMO” conference. The difference between them fundamentally comes down to this: DEMO charges companies $18,500 to attend, and if you have the money you might get the invitation to show up (they’re over-subscribed). TC50 shows off 50 companies who have been picked by industry “leaders” and don’t pay – the event makes money by charging the audience to turn up and see new products and services before anybody else.

Arrington charges that DEMO is “unethical”. Cue cat-fight. I don’t really care who said what to who, why, when and whatever. All I know is that the posts I have read concerning all this coming from Arrington and Shipley themselves have been the most navel-gazing, but for good measure I have to agree with Shipley’s point that on this occasion Scoble is a dick for determining a company’s entire worth in less than a minute based on their website.

All of this is distracting and silly, because guess what start-ups do not need in any way shape or form? Events that focus entirely on their launch or providing a PR opportunity to those already in the tech industry.

Running a business is a marathon, not a sprint. The launch means absolutely nothing other than the fact you’ve taken the first step. You don’t spend weeks, months or even years preparing for a marathon run by concentrating on what you’re going to do at the start line: you focus on how you’re going to pace yourself and deliver a result over the full distance. As you run, you listen to your body and you adapt – you take on fluids when you need them, you keep track of your time as each mile disappears underneath you and if it’s not working you give up before you kill yourself.

You don’t prepare for a marathon by training for 100 metre sprints either. You’ll tone your muscles all wrong, and exhaust yourself too quickly.

Arrington and Shipley are inadvertently creating a structure that breaks companies. It makes them prepare for completely the wrong thing, and the blog echo chamber is building and supporting this culture of “Oh, shiny-shiny! Next?”. They don’t mean to, they’re not being vindictive here, it’s just their audience is geared to launch analysis and they’re catching companies in the dragnet behind them who don’t understand this isn’t the way to execute.

Techcrunch does, to be fair, continue to do industry analysis as companies evolve, but to build an event around a launch rather than an event that helps companies grow and develop over the long term is to my mind a mistake. I hope one day they fix it.

What’s my answer? What do I know that is better? I’ve thought about this a lot. Condensing down my 15 years of experience in the software industry down into as little space as possible, I realise it’s no different to any other industry. I think I have at least one very basic insight that can replace this launch-hype-focus. I’ve said it before elsewhere, and I’ll repeat it again. Sit down and ask this question several times over with different emphasis: What does your customer want?

What does your customer want? Don’t hawk over your competitors picking them apart piece-by-piece. Sure, do some industry analysis, understand how the sector works and good ways to develop the business, but think about what you are going to do that is unique. This is something you are going to have to be passionate about for a long time, so think and choose carefully.

What does your customer want? Have you actually asked some customers whether what you’re offering is what they want? Do you know for certain there is a market for what you’re doing? Is your delivery strategy suitable? Is it profitable? Do you know how to work out whether what you’re about to do even has a chance of profitability? Also remember for most businesses, it’s very unlikely your customers will ever read Techcrunch or watch DEMO pitches.

What does your customer want? Can you exceed expectations, time after time, reliably? Can you deliver beyond a mere need and do something spectacular? If so, you’re differentiating yourself from your competition and raising the bar for entrants and competitors, but make sure it’s what your customer wants, not what you think they want.

What does your customer want? Now you have some answers to the above, make a list. Turn them into actions, projects, whatever you need to do. Put the ones involving people giving you money as close to the top as you can. Now, deliver them. Tick each one off as you go. Well done, you’ve started the marathon – remember, pace yourself, listen to what is happening to you, take on board what you need as you go, try and avoid a heart attack.

Arrington’s opinion of you is nothing compared to your customers’ opinions. Your DEMO pitch is nothing to your customers compared to their experience of your product. It’s you and your customers and that’s it, concentrate on that and you’ll be fine.

It’s not rocket science, but it is far more useful to a startup than the obsession over launch or PR within the tech industry echo chamber.