Archive - July, 2010

Groupon can do so much more – 3 things to add more value to all parties.

July 30, 2010 in Entrepreneurship with 3 Comments

Straight up – I think that Groupon is awesome, for all parties involved. The consumer gets the deal and the vendor gets huge exposure to a new customer base and can clear inventory, whether that is product or time (available spa time, for example) and Groupon makes a ton of cash.  Of course, the merchant may not make money on the specific deal unless they up-sell which many of them can. For example, I bought a $50 coupon for $100 worth of sushi groove and spent $130 including drinks.  Whether or not the deal provides profit for that merchant transaction, Groupon is really a marketing play not a short term merchant profit play. They allow merchants to drive awareness and product demand really fast.

Here are 3 simple examples how they can improve the service for both the vendor and the consumer (I have a dozen in mind but no one will read more than three examples).

1. Enable vendors to offer community with a few simple clicks – let customers talk to each other and build an experience.

Not all of the vendors that use the Groupon service would benefit from offering a customer community but some will.  My idea is to give the vendor the option of allowing each consumer (and maybe even prospective consumers) the ability to communicate with each other. This will allow the vendor to up-sell and cross-sell and may even allow the conversion of lookers to buyers, during the deal consideration process. Now, this may not be relevant for a sushi restaurant but may be relevant for a bar.  One merchant who could definitely benefit from this capability is Ready, Set, Bag!, Oren Jacob (also the CTO of Pixar) for the launch of his documentary. Oren used Groupon to pre-sell nearly 300 tickets to his upcoming documentary premier. Wouldn’t it be cool to connect with other movie goers in advance of the documentary film – or at least have that option.  Perhaps they could do this with a Plancast API, or simply build it in to their infrastructure, like Plancast, and offer it to the merchant.

2. Offer a white labeled service to allow the customers a follow on capability.

This is a layup, right? Shouldn’t the vendor have the ability to offer their own group buying offers, as a follow on service. This might be an upgrade or perhaps Groupon provides the full services and takes a piece of the transaction volume that cranks through the system – simple to offer and easy to understand. Currently, Groupon has a waiting list of 3,500 merchants. This “wait list” is one of the holes that allows copy-cats to build traction. They could close this gap by providing this follow-on capability. For example, Dan Yoo of Stone Korean Kitchen sold 2,300 Groupons recently. He would love additional tools to most effectively leverage this transaction and customer base while providing customers with a deeper experience. These tools might include analytics and follow-on deal capability.

3. Provide extra value to the consumer who really spreads the word fast and frequently.

If my network (say first, second and third degree relationships) sign up for the deal, then I should receive Groupon credit of an extra discount or some of form of gift. It’s easy to track, etc. LivingSocial does some of this in that if 3 people that I share my deal with buy it, then I get it for free. Both LivingSocial and Groupon can enhance this service and make it more valuable for me, as a consumer, to spread the idea.

For more about Groupon and the take by TechCrunch, have a look at this. What do you think? Simple, right?

What turns you on? What makes you tingle? Where is your passion?

July 28, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Generosity, Inspiration, Life with 0 Comments

I’m one lucky dude. Recently, I have been spending my “work” time on stuff that I love to do – that I am passionate about. These activities include writing and interviewing rockstars for my book, advising startups for equity and providing big-change consulting services to small and medium sized companies. My compensation for these ranges from zero to plenty. The most interesting (an 11 on a scale of 1-10) of these projects, frankly, is the one that actually costs me money to do. I love the companies I advise and the clients that I have and I’m able to provide tons of value in short periods of time and I rate these projects as “10″ on a scale of 1-10, but, interviewing super smart people to learn about what makes them tick really gets me fired up. It’s a gift to be able to spend time with these people, learn about them, ask questions that make them really think about what drives the way that they spend their time and the events that lead to them getting there. In some cases, they may not have thought about these questions previously and they allow me to share this information with others through my posts. It’s a process that is really satisfying. It actually costs me money (flights, editing, etc) but it’s worth it to have and share the experiences.

Consulting activities allow me to make a huge impact within a company in a short amount of time. Working with super smart and passionate people, I am able to apply some of my experience to drive real positive change, usually driving top line revenue very quickly. I get a thrill out of this. The advisory roles that I’m involved with also provide huge satisfaction, as I’m able to work with super smart, passionate people to help them with strategy and shape their vision which is based on my experience building startups and working within larger companies. These projects deliver great upside potential and lots of excitement.

Is there something that you are doing that provides you with tremendous satisfaction? Is there something you would prefer to do but can’t justify the time, expense or the necessary income of working on that project? Perhaps others can help you think through a way to manage the non-paying with the paying; I’m certainly happy to help you think through that. It doesn’t have to be anything career changing – it could just be a new project within your existing company or a small side project to get you started – something that gives you the chills on occasion. Maybe it’s volunteering at your local school or the local elderly center. Perhaps it’s applying your skills to advise a local startup. I’m seeing too many people walking around looking defeated, bored, annoyed, unfulfilled or completely stressed. I’m not being all rah-rah Tony Robbins style here, I know that life can be tough. I’m just suggesting that you find something, paid or not, that you are passionate about or at least that provides you with an occasional thrill – something that turns you on and gives you the chills – makes you feel like a kid again.

What I have learned over the last several months is that it’s 50 times more fun spending time on exciting stuff than things that are not. I also believe that the money will follow passion, if money is an incentive for you (as it is for me). I should note that prior to engaging my 2010 projects I was running a software company, which I founded, for 7 years. That’s exactly how I wanted to be spending my “work” time during those years. When the balance between fun, excitement, upside, risk, boredom and hassle changed; I needed a change. You spend a ton of time working – you have to find some fun in there. Linchpin talks about this and I highly recommend it. I’m not being quite as firm as the ideas pitched by Seth – I’m simply saying find something that gets you fired up. What I have learned from Gates, Sacca, Harrison, Gupta, Simmons, Hsieh, Mycoskie and others is that they are absolutely passionate about what they do and this passion is one of, perhaps the most important, ingredient to their success.

Take small steps – what can you do, this week, to feel like a kid again? Let me know if I can help in any way.

Amusing Craigslist story – assume that you don’t know what you think you know.

July 12, 2010 in Culture, Inspiration, Life with 3 Comments

Recently, I posted some items for free on Craigslist. My standard protocol is that I list items for sale if I think they will fetch $150 or more and list them for free if they’re worth less than that. I would just prefer not to hassle with multiple emails, visits, calls, etc, for that type of money and figure I might build up such much needed karma. I posted 6 toddler items for free and tried to craft the post to minimize the effort on my part but also let the interested party minimize wasted time. Well, I received an email asking whether I still had a couple items and I replied that the stroller had been taken. They replied with a thank you email a day later. I sent a follow up email asking whether they were able to grab the stroller, since I noticed it was gone and they sent a “thank you” email. When I asked whether they were able to grab the stroller they replied that although the stroller would have been ideal, the car seat suited just fine.  I assumed that they wanted the stroller to stroll with a child. He went on to explain that the use of a baby item was simply a way to deal with their neighbors. See his reply below:

Everyone has their reason and motivation which is often not in align with what you assume it is. Isn’t it easier just to ask why?

Many of us assume that they know what people are thinking, and we’re often wrong. We think we understand motivations but we don’t. We don’t ask simple questions such as “why do you want to buy this?” or “why do you want to hire me?”. We would prefer to assume that we know what people are thinking. We often interrupt others while they are asking a question and begin to answer a question that wasn’t actually the question that was about to be asked. We try to finish comments that are about to be made because we read minds. Maybe this doesn’t apply to you but I’m both guilty of it and subject to it. Well, I hope this short Craigslist story will make you think twice next time you begin to answer a question that has yet to be asked or assume the motivation behind one’s decision. Felix Unger covered the subject pretty well in the episode of “The Odd Couple” (you might want to begin at minute 3 or 4). If you have similar stories, I would love to hear about them.

Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, is a huge inspiration to me.

July 7, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 4 Comments

Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, is a huge inspiration to me. He was kind enough to sit with me at his offices in New York City recently. The focus of the conversation was about what drove him to start charity: water and how he decided that this will be his life’s passion. The interview lasted about 20 minutes and you can see a 4 minute version below. The full interview will be summarized in the book.

Since it’s inception 3 years ago, Scott Harrison and charity: water have served more than 1 million people, with a 10 year goal of serving 100 million people – a rate of scale that is greater than any other non-profit. Learn what gets Scott out of bed in the morning and what keeps him driving forward. Hear how giving and serving have changed Scott’s life. Learn how Scott turned from a New York City night club promoter into running a non-profit and how he applies his background to his life’s work. I hope you agree that Scott’s passion is infectious and that what he and his team are doing is nothing short of remarkable. He is a hero to many, including me. I want to point out that the the organization is full of amazing people, and only begins with Scott Harrison. Scott made a point to make this point to me. Please consider spreading the word about charity: water, and perhaps starting a campaign of your own.

why we do it? charity:water from Rockstar Group on Vimeo.

If you wish to subscribe, we will send the full length version to you when it’s ready (closer to the book launch). As always, your comments are appreciated and I hope that you spread the word about this amazing group of people doing amazing things and how they are changing the way people think about giving. There are 1 billion without access to clean water, let’s help Scott Harrison change that.