Category Archives: Course

I’ve got a great idea for a startup, now what?

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On Oct 20th, I was invited to give a talk at NYU Stern as part of the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series. Below is a video of the talk, key takeaways and my slides. Enjoy.

Video


Key Takeaways

  • Investment and tech talent is earned not given.  What can you do to further your idea on your own?  How can you validate your idea and demonstrate traction without spending a huge amount of time and effort building product?
  • Pick an idea in an area where you have strong domain experience, know the problems and have the connections to sell.  Look for markets that are big, have growing user bases and have rapidly changing technologies/distribution channels.  Love the problem space.
  • An idea is an assumption.  Turn that idea into a series of questions and figure out what’s the easiest way to find out an answer.  (examples: Skillshare, TheLadders, Zappos, Groupon, Seamless, Dropbox, SinglePlatform).
  • Fake it till you make it, delay complexity (Ghetto testing examples: Aardvark, Zynga)
  • Defining a minimum viable product – What are your biggest questions/assumptions about the product?  Identify those and devise and execute tests.  Will people use your product (and come back)?  Will they tell their friends?  Will they pay for it?
  • Launch Early
  • Don’t do a big launch.  Find a few people who feel the problem you are trying to solve most acutely.  Get them using your product in the way you want them to.  Then expand your audience.  Communicate with them openly and honestly.
  • Personal development: Everyone who is aspiring to be a tech entrepreneur should be: developing a strong online presence, comfortable with html/css/js/hosting/dns, understand online marketing (apply for Google Grants and manage SEM campaign for an NGO), understand web analytics (read Web Analytics 2.0), read The Lean Startup, attend OHours, Meetups, Skillshares.

Slides

I've got a great idea for a tech startup. Now what?
View more presentations from Amit Klein

B2B Social Media Marketing

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Many people question the value of social media for B2B companies.  I recently gave two sessions trying to answer these questions:

  • Why/How do B2B companies engage in social media?
  • What should companies listen to on the social web and how?
  • What type of content should your company be generating?
  • What is social search and how does it effect marketing?
  • What are first steps businesses can take to start participating in the social web?

My main points are as follows:

  • Social media can be used to achieve many of your business objectives (generating awareness, capturing leads, sales, recruitment, etc…).
  • The main opportunity for social media in B2B organizations is establishing yourself as a thought leader.
  • Create content that appeals to a wider audience then just your current customers.
  • Become a destination for anyone looking to learn more about the industry.
  • We’re moving away from static search toward recommendations.
  • It is critical to have conversations going on about your company.

Video and Slides below:


B2B Social Media Usage from Amit Klein on Vimeo.


Social Media for B2B
View more presentations from Amit Klein.



Eating our own Dogfood in Marketing 2.0 Class

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Social Media and Web 2.0 is all about the collaborative, bidirectional flow of information.  It’s no longer a brand, company or authority figure dictating the rules.  As part of the course I’m teaching at NMIMS and ISB, I’m trying to apply the same principals and ask the students to help shape the class.   Here are some examples of what we are doin’:

  • We have a fairly active Google Wave which covers the course goals and meeting notes.  Students are free to edit the course outline, ask questions and suggest topics for future classes (please note you must be logged in to Google for this to work… the embed API is also fairly new – i.e. buggy):

[wave id="googlewave.com!w%252BjWA1cBmJA"]

  • We have a few really awesome guest speakers including:
  • Rather then a preassigned reading list, the students are being asked to share a few links weekly with each other via Twitter and Wave.
  • Students can ask questions/make suggestions/provide their own examples (via twitter and wave) during the class.
  • The students will be partnering with a local NGO to raise awareness or solicit donations for a social cause using social media and an SEM campaign (hopefully Yahoo! and Google will come through and donate some ad credits).  These projects will be posted publicly.

Other things I could be/should be doing:

  • Posting the course outline (as a wave) and inviting everyone whose registered for the ISB course to make their edits/suggestions (for topics or speakers)/questions/modifications prior to the start of the course.
  • Reaching out to students in these universities ahead of time (via Twitter) to build some hype and make sure the class is filled up.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to make the course better?  Let me know…