Startup Magazine - August 2011

STARTUP

2019 UNTHINKABLES

FASHION LABEL

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MICHIEL MOL

SPACE TRAVELLING AGE STARTS

P14

WHEELSSHARE YOUR

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AUGUST 2011 STARTUP NO 2

BY KEVIN KELLY P32

SKY IS NO LONGER THE LIMIT

TEXT EYLEM CULCULOGLU

‘The sky is the limit’ is a very well know cliché… Whenever you ask a startup company about their future plans, they say ‘the sky is the limit’… This issue includes a special interview with Michiel Mol - the man behind the Dutch commercial space-travelling project. He believes that the sky is not the limit and he wants to change the way we see the future…

We started this magazine with a similar approach. We believe in the future and we believe in the power of innovation. If one thing can change, everything can change.

There are many barriers in this world. There are too many things that need to change. We still use the same cars that were being used in the 1920’s. We are still dependent on oil. We still use silicon for chips… This is because larger companies only care about maximizing their profits. 9 years ago, while I was working for IT Business Weekly maga-zine I interviewed an Intel Vice President. I was shocked by his views about nano-tech-nology. He had told me there was no need for switching to nano materials. He proudly explained that silicon technology would last for at least 20 more years! When I asked why, his answer was long and full of market-ing jargon. In simple words it was just the money! One CPU factory costs 3 billion dol-lars to establish, and giants like Intel and AMD only care about making their share-holders happy.

Unlike those ‘established’ big giants, inno-vative companies are working to change things. That is why we started this maga-zine. We are a startup company too. We have a small team of young innovative people lo-cated in Holland. We look at the world from a different perspective than those ‘big boys’.

It is very nice to see that our very first issue brought such a great success. We reached over 20,000 readers in a very short time. Startup Magazine got featured on the Apple App Store more than 4 times and was show-cased on Issuu.com – the world’s largest on-line publishing site.

This issue we have packed in a lot of inter-esting articles for you. Our writers from the United States and Europe gathered a bunch of cool stuff for you to enjoy during the hot summer days.

See you next issue!

AUGUST 2011 EDITOR’S LETTER / EYLEM CULCULOGLU 03

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COLOfONCONTENT

EdITOR IN ChIEfMANAGING EdITOREdITORART dIRECTORdESIGNERWEb EdITOR

Eylem CulculogluJoris KruseJordan ThomasLisanne ter BilleAyrton SpiertsDouwe Trippenzee

Innovation IndustriesThe Netherlands

PubLIShER

Kevin Kelly, Jason Mendelson, Fred Wilson, Jeffrey Bussgang, John Jantch, Evan Carmichael, Andrea Wiegman, Jona Derks, Edwin W. Kalischnig

CAST

CONTRIbuTING WRITERS

CONTACTMail: [email protected]: +31 (0) 365 238 480

NEWS

WhY YOu ShOuLd ELIMINATE TITELS

fAShION LAbEL STARTuP

SuCCESS bEhINd SNAPPCAR

INTERVIEW WITh TERRI LEVINE

APPS bY JONA dERKS

SPACE TRAVELLING STARTS

2019 uNThINKAbLES

LINKING ThE WORLd TO ThE WEb

5 LESSONS fROM ThE NAVY SEALS

GAdGETS

7 QuESTIONS EVERY buSINESS MuST ANSWER

COLuMN bY fREd WILSON

AUGUST 2011 INDEX / COLOFON 04

Dome9 Security, the cloud server security ser-vice provider delivering multi-platform security management-as-a-service for public and private clouds, announced it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Solution Providers Program. With Dome9, AWS customers can centrally manage security policies for Amazon’s multiple security groups, cloud servers, or a single server. Policies are applied dynamically to customers’ cloud in-frastructure as they add servers and scale, and Dome9’s secure access lease technology further enhances security by delivering first-of-its-kind dynamic firewall controls for on-demand access.

Cloud security firm cooperates with Amazon

Marc Coleman, Director at HRN Europe - The Pan Europe-an HR Network has announced “the most Game Changing HR event ever produced in Europe”. Marc Coleman said: “We believe the evolution in work technology in parallel with new ways of working provides organizations with real game changing abilities, especially here in Europe, as business leaders continue to become increasingly frustrated with a slow recovery! Many Human Resources departments across Europe are grappling with HR Tech-nology, combined with the critical issue of talent manage-ment there is real excitement in the marketplace at the moment for software and solutions that help transform-ing organizations become more agile and successful.”

Event will be held at Amsterdam from the 2-3 November at the NH Grand on Dam Square. Event’s lead sponsor is Workday and co-sponsors are Oracle and SAP.

Game changing hR Event in Amsterdam

AUGUST 2011 NEWS 06

Zagg acquired ifrogz for $105M

Zagg Inc. – Zagg.com an-nounced today the acquisition of privately held iFrogz, Inc. ifrogz.com - a leading mobile device accessories company specializing in lifestyle audio products and protective cases, for approximately $105 million. “This transaction represents an exciting next step in ZAGG’s evolution, and gives us scale

within the rapidly growing protective cases and audio products markets by allowing us to immediately broaden our product line and drive the growth of our retail footprint,” said Robert G. Pedersen II, co-founder, president and CEO of ZAGG. “iFrogz is highly comple-mentary to ZAGG in terms of brand position-ing, product lines and customer base.

This acquisition is a natural extension of our strategy to build complementary brands and increase overall market share by growing product lines and expanding distribution.”

iFrogz designs, manufactures and distributes protective cases, headphones and earbuds, and other accessories for smartphones, tab-lets and mobile devices under the iFrogz and EarPollution brands. The Company has built a reputation for selling high quality, fashion-able products geared toward a youthful de-mographic at affordable price points. iFrogz products are sold worldwide through leading retailers such as AT&T, Best Buy and Walmart. The company is based in Logan, Utah.

Good news for small businesses:Get Shopkick and Citi Onboard for free!

Shopkick, the location-based shopping app that rewards shoppers simply for walking into stores, welcomes small local stores and coffee shops into its retail program, which already includes Target, Best Buy, Macy’s and many other leading national re-tailers. Sponsored by Citi, Shopkick will in-stall its small Shopkick Signal box for FREE at the first 1,000 selected stores to enable its beneficial walk-in rewards program.Interested stores in launch cities – Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth, TX; Chicago, Il; De-troit, MI; Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, CA; New Orleans, LA; New York,

NY; Seattle, WA; and Washington D.C. – should apply at www.Shopkick.com/local in the next 30 days. Shopkick is excited to have new re-tail stores, coffee shops, bakeries and yogurt shops join its growing coalition of partners.Shopkick, the first coalition rewards program in America, now works for both large and small retailers alike. Smaller local businesses with repeat customers, like coffee shops or cafes, can now reach and reward shoppers just for walking into their stores, with no out-of-pock-et expense. Paper loyalty punch cards can be a thing of the past!

AUGUST 2011 NEWS 07

“We will do for small and medium-sized local stores what we have done for large, national chains: drive foot traffic. It’s the single, hard-est problem to solve – and the most valuable driver of success – for both retail and service businesses,” said Cyriac Roeding, co-founder and CEO of Shopkick. “With Shopkick, stores also have the potential to increase basket size and margins, improve shopper engage-ment, and build customer frequency. Shop-kick’s new program will help small and medi-um businesses in a big way.”

Citi, through its Citi Ventures unit, was an ear-ly investor in Shopkick.“Our work with Shopkick demonstrates one of the ways we are working to drive growth for our clients and for our company,” said Christo-pher Kay, Head of Ventures, Citi Ventures. “We invest in cutting-edge companies and work with them to deliver new experiences for cli-ents designed around their increasingly digi-tal and mobile lives. Shopkick is the leading mobile shopping app and drives measurable foot traffic to its retail partners. We’re happy to help make that shopper engagement and customer retention available to smaller busi-nesses.”

A hundred small and medium-sized businesses in three cities have al-ready been involved in a pilot program for the past couple of months. “For years, we’ve relied on expensive, untargeted ads to try to attract new customers, and paper punch cards to reward our loyal buyers,” said Chris Whirlow, owner and proprietor of Yogurt My Way. “Now, we not only have a great way to let new customers know about us, but we can thank them for visiting -- and tie our loyalty and rewards points to loyalty programs like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and Facebook Credits! It’s great!”

AUGUST 2011 NEWS 08

More than 400 early-stage investment lead-ers from 37 countries took a significant step into the future at Europe’s annual startup financing summit, the 11th EBAN Business Angel Network Congress. The event, held in Warsaw, Poland, last month highlighted the rapid adoption of a multinational platform for coordinating early stage business angel investments. Over 35,000 professional early stage investors from over 650 business an-gel networks in 65 countries are now stand-ardized on a single set of collaboration tools that are helping to fuel the growth of the vi-brant European entrepreneurial economy.

The Angelsoft platform, adopted by nearly a dozen national business angel federations was awarded the prize for ‘Breakthrough Ser-vice/Tool of the Year’ by EBAN, the European trade association for business angels, seed funds, and other early stage market players. The award noted that the widespread adop-tion of a single international platform has greatly simplified the process of connecting high-growth entrepreneurs with individual investors and venture capital seed funds. Startups seeking to become ‘the next Sky-pe’ can complete a single profile form, which then serves as the basis for the funding ap-plications used by most organized business angel networks.

NASA might be working with a tight budget but they are still working on project Mars. Last month a NASA team tested a space suit in a setting with extreme conditions akin to some of those found on Mars -- an Argentine base in Antarctica -- for possible use on a visit to the Red Planet.

The NDX-1 suit, designed by Argentine aero-space engineer Pablo de Leon, endured frig-id temperatures and winds of more than 47 mph as researchers tried out techniques for collecting soil samples on Mars.

“This was the first time we took the suit to such an extreme, isolated environment so that if something went wrong we couldn’t just go to the store and buy a repair kit”, De Leon told Reuters after returning from the one week expedition.

European business angels, wings startup finance

New Mars suite from NASA

AUGUST 2011 NEWS 09

The $100,000 prototype suit, funded by NASA, consists of more than 350 materials, includ-ing tough honeycomb Kevlar and carbon fib-ers to reduce its weight without losing resist-ance.

During the “Mars in Marambio” mission, (named after the Argentine air force base), a team of NASA scientists went on simulat-ed spacewalks, operated drills and collected samples while wearing the gear.

De Leon himself wore the pressurized suit, which he said was bound to make anyone feel claustrophobic with its helmet and built-in headset for communicating with the outside world.The researchers chose Marambio because compared to other Antarctic bases, had easi-er access to permafrost, or soil that stays fro-zen most of the year.

De Leon, who heads the space suit laboratory at the University of North Dakota in the United States, said Antarctica was ideal for sample collection as it is one of the least contami-nated places on earth and will also give clues about the suit’s impact.

“Mars is a mixture of many different environ-ments: deserts, and extreme temperatures and winds like in Antarctica,” De Leon said. “So we try to take bits of different places and try to see if our systems can withstand the rigors of Mars if we go there.”

President Barack Obama said last year that by the mid-2030s it would be possible to send astronauts to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth. A landing on Mars would fol-low, he said. However, given NASA’s tightening budget, a manned mission to the most earth-like planet in the solar system may be even more distant.

MARS SPACE SuIT AT A GLANCE:COSTS $100,000MAdE Of MORE ThAN 350 MATERIALSExPECTEd TO bE uSEd AT MId-2030’S

AUGUST 2011 NEWS 10

Recent buzz in the business world has been about “hacking the corporation” - creatingnovel approaches to building young compa-nies, particularly when they are in theirformative start-up stage and pre-product mar-ket phase. One of them, reinventing boardmeetings (or, “Why Board Meetings Suck”), has gotten some attention from leadingthinkers like Steve Blank and Brad Feld.

I’d like to submit another idea to add to the “hacking the corporation” list: eliminating titles.

WhY YOu ShOuLd Eliminate Titles

Text: Jeffrey bussgang

AUGUST 2011 12JEFFREY BUSSGANG / ELIMINATE TITLES

Text: Jeffrey bussgang

At business school, I learned all about ti-tles and hierarchies and the importance oforganizational structure. When I joined my first business start-up after graduation, e-commerce leader Open Market, I found the operating philosophy of the founder jarring.He declared no one would have titles in the first few years! If you needed a title forexternal reasons, our founder told us, we should feel free to make one up. But alwaysavoided using labels internally. In other words, there would be no “vice president”or “director” or other such hierarchical de-nominations.

Why are they fluid, you ask? Roles change, responsibilities evolve, and reportingstructures move around fluidly. Simply put, titles cause friction, and the one thing youwant to reduce in a start-up is friction. By avoiding titles, you avoid early employeesgetting fixated on their role, who they re-port to, and what their scope of responsi-bility is - all things that rapidly change in a company’s first year or two.

In one of my early experiences, one of my first bosses in the company later became apeer, and eventually our roles reversed and he reported to me! Our headcount wentfrom 0 to 200 in two years. Our revenue from 0 to $60m in 3 years. We went publiconly two years after the company was founded. We were moving way too fast to get slowed down by titles and rigid hierar-chies. Over the course of my five-year ten-ure, I ran a range of departments - product management, marketing, business devel-opment, professional services - all amidst a very fluid environment. Around the time that we went public, we matured in such

a way that we began to settle into a more stable organizational structure and, yes, had formal titles. But during those forma-tive first few years, avoiding titles provided a more flexible organization.

When I co-founded Upromise, I instituted a similar policy: no titles. We had an open of-fice structure and functional teams, but a fluid organizational environment and rapid growth. One of our young team members changed jobs four times in her first year. Itwas only after the first year, as we settled into a more stable organizational structureand I recruited senior executives, that I be-gan to give out titles (CTO, CMO, CFO, etc.).With the title policy, there was some early tension and discomfort (one young MBA kept referring to himself as a VP externally, although he was playing an individual con-tributor role and was soon layered). When starting a company, any titles at all

can prove to be confusing because of the fluidity of employees’ profiles and shiftingorganization structure. I haven’t been able to institute this systematically in our port-folio, but whenever young start-ups are formed, it’s one of the first pieces of advice I give to the founder. Don’t let your found-ing team and early hires get too attached to titles and hierarchy. In fact, in that form-ative first year, see if you can avoid them all together.

NO TITLES AT ALL!

STARTuPS ARE fLuId

AUGUST 2011 JEFFREY BUSSGANG / ELIMINATE TITLES 13

STARTEd hER

OWNfAShIONLAbELFashion designer Iris van Her-pen (1984) started her own fashion label Iris van Herpen upon graduating from AR-TEZ in Arnhem in 2007 with a degree in fashion design. In 2010 she opened the Amsterdam Fashion Weekwith a 3D prototyped dress,

in 2011 she showed more 3D designs in Paris and

at the end of this year there will be additional

3D designs on show at the New York

Fashion Week.

TEXT ANDREA WIEGMAN, SECOND SIGHT www.irisvanherpen.com

>

AUGUST 2011 INTERVIEW / IRIS VAN HERPEN 14

CAN YOu TELL uS MORE AbOuT YOuR ExPERIENCES IN 3d dESIGN?“It really is a new process with new materials, this appeals to me. When I was asked to take on this new tech-nique, I did it. I was curious about this new type of production.” I am not technical myself and it involves quite a lot of software aptitude, which really requires the aid of a specialist. I collaborate with Dan-iel Wildrig, a 3D software architect.

That took some getting used to: you speak different languages and you have to develop a common one.”“Compared to regular fashion design there’s a major difference in production time. Normally the manual labour, the de-sign, goes quickly and the production takes a long time. Here, especially in the beginning, this was reversed. The design process took much long-er. Daniel had never designed around a human body. It was a big surprise. It was exciting, we had little control.”At the academy they teach you to pro-duce clothing, to ‘churn it out’. Iris never saw the merit in that. “So much clothing is produced, way too much, with little substance, little love and little innovation- it just bores me.”Iris doesn’t think about sales, she doesn’t work with a preconceived budget, without a thought about the targeted market segment, or even about the season. It’s her conviction that clothing will find its own market. Her work is totally free with few re-strictions in the design process, which is why she welcomed this challenge. “Much of my work came about due to boredom. I love innovation, challeng-es and looking for new materials and new techniques. I enjoy exploring new terrain. So much is going on right now, also in the production process. New materials, new techniques. High-end fashion doesn’t revolve around the big Parisian houses any more. It’s about new ways of working, co-operating, helping and strengthening each other.”


>


WhAT ARE YOuR NExT STEPS?“I’m not done yet with this new tech-nique of 3D prototyping. I applied the process to two collections and will continue with another software archi-tect. I have learned a lot about mate-rials. Also, I now look at materials in a completely different way. I want to delve into the combination of hand-made and technology a little deeper. I want to try out new things, to put new ideas into practice. For the first time we are going to incorporate sev-eral different materials in one single design and I want to do more work on finishing. We work with a lot of constraints at the moment. I’m figur-ing out how to add more handwork to the machine. I hope that technology and craft will melt into one in the future. A further meeting of the two.” “Before I started on this project I didn’t like computers and technology. I have learned to appreciate it more, though, and ≠now I see the possibilities for the future are enormous.

We live in great times with lots of change and lots of possibilities. There’s a lot of research going on, a lot of opportunities, also within tech-nology there’s a lot going on and it’s happening fast. The inspiration doesn’t come from fashion itself nec-essarily. It is through co-operation and experimenting that vibes and in-spiration materialize. For me, curios-ity is a driving force. I love anything that’s new and hasn’t yet reached the masses.”=“Before I started on this project I didn’t like computers and technology. I have learned to appreci-ate it more, though, and now I see the possibilities for the future are enor-mous. We live in great times with lots of change and lots of possibilities. There’s a lot of research going on, a lot of opportunities, also within technol-ogy there’s a lot going on and it’s hap

pening fast. The inspiration doesn’t come from fashion itself

necessarily. It is through co-operation & experimenting that vibes and inspiration

materialize. For me, curiosity is a driving force. I love

anything that’s new and hasn’t

yet reached the masses.”


>


MORE INfOMore information about the 3D printing mothods and Iris van Herpen see:

Combines fine handwork techniques with futuristic digital technology /

IRIS VAN HERPEN: ‘Much of my work came about due to boredom’ /

i.materialise.comwww.irisvanherpen.com



TEXT: EYLEM CuLCuLOGLu Page:

SAY GOOdbYE TO AVIS

SAY GOOdbYE TO hIGh RENTAL fEES

SNAPPCAR COMES TO RESCuE

Would you rent your neighbor’s car? I know this sounds odd but if it was cheap and convenient… why not? A Dutch startup company called Peer 2 Peer Ventures is working on a new project named Snappcar. Basically, they plan to make a website that will allow neighbors to rent out their cars! Instead of renting a car from a major rental company like Avis, Hertz or Sixt you can rent from your lovely neighbor next door!

AUGUST 2011 SUCCESS STORY / SNAPPCAR 18


IN YOuR OWN STREET

MINI COOPERS TO LARGE TRuCKS

When I first heard about the project at the Road to Silicon Valley Startup Com-petition, I thought to myself, “C’mon, are you guys naïve or what! This won’t work!” Many things came to mind while listening to their presentation: “Why should I rent my neighbor Joe’s car? Joe is a dirty bas-tard! What will happen if I smash his car… How the hell will I pay him for the damage? Etc...” After the presentation we did not have a time for interview but exchanged business cards. A few weeks later Jorg Kop – Partner of Peer2Peer Ventures gave me a call. I was hesitant at first to make the interview, but decided to give it a shot!

I was invited to the Peer2Peer offices in Utrecht, where I interviewed Jorg. I was surprised how Jorg was able to convince me that their project is a killer idea! First of all, although they are a very small startup company, they have made a perfect busi-ness plan. Jorg told me about how they have convinced the ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club) to support this project and shared the secrets of their business plan.

First of all, their system has many clear ad-vantages over regular car rentals. A typical car rental from Snappcar will be around 40 percent cheaper than Avis, Hertz etc. The main advantage is not the price, but the available cars. For example, let’s say you are planning to go on vacation. You need a caravan. You cannot find a cheap cara-van from Hertz. Obviously, it is extremely expensive to buy a new one. In situations like these Snappcar comes to rescue. By searching Snappcar’s database you can easily find a caravan in your neighborhood. They plan to compile a huge database of vehicles from Mini Coopers to large trucks and more.

One of the most important aspects of rent-ing a car is insurance. Regular rental car companies charge exorbitant sums such peace of mind. Snappcar has made a special deal with insurance companies, so once you get your car from neighbor Joe, it will be fully covered at a reasonable cost. So even if you smash his car, Joe will not get mad at you!

40 PERCENT ChEAPER ThAN AVIS



Snappcar’s slogan is: “Share your wheels next door” Does it sound like couchsurf-ing.com – a 21st century hippie site? No! Jorg Kop says: “Courchsurfing.com is free, whereas our service is paid and will there-fore be much similar to airbnb.com, a site that allows cheap accommodation world-wide.”

Snappcar’s business model relies on sales commissions. They plan to take 15 percent of all deals made through their site. Car owners will list their cars for free; they will tag their price using the built-in price cal-culator. Car renters will look for available cars and once the deal is made, payment will be made to Snappcar .

Once the deal is made and payment com-pleted, the cars will be fully insured. The renter will go to the car owner and pick up the vehicle, then return it by the specified date.

In 5 years time Snappcar plans to reach 20k users in The Netherlands and more than 100K car booking annually. They plan to have 15K cars registered in their data-base.

I am very impressed with this project. If it works out it can be a killer idea with potential worldwide implementation. You can check out Snappcar’s website at www.snappcar.nl


7 QuESTIONS WITh buSINESS MENTORING ExPERT

TERRI LEVINE

business mentor Terri Levine specializes in helping entrepre-neur-owned businesses achieve record-breaking growth. based in Philadelphia, Terri is founder and CEO of Comprehensive Coaching u, Inc., The Professional’s Coach Training Program. She has been featured in more than 1,500 pub-lications and on AbC, NbC, CNbC

Terri is also a Platinum author on my website – you can check out her articles at www.evancarmichael.com

Text: Evan Carmichael

7QuESTIONS

WITh buSINESSMENTORING

ExPERT

AUGUST 2011 INTERVIEW / TERRI LEVINE 22

Text: Evan Carmichael

In my heart I had passion to help other peo-ple be successful in business. It is my way of giving back to a world that has been very good to me and given me many successful businesses. I knew I had a lot of business “secrets” and wanted to share them with others by mentoring them coaching them and consulting with them. I am taking my 30 plus years (lifetime of experience) and sharing everything I know with others. I get so much joy when people I help are success-ful in their business.

Why did you start your business?

I got two customers at once: A woman who I should not have taken (she serious issues and I had to fire her). It was hard but a great learning experience for me. The other one was a large health care facility working with the CEO, all C-Level managers and the rest of the team. This engagement was a blast and lasted for years with them raving about the results. We’re still in touch today and they are exuberant about our work together. I increased revenue, decreased expenses, and facilitated stand-up meetings and cre-ated an in-house coaching program. I also coached team members, C-Level managers

Who was your first customer?

Dissolving a partnership that I should not have entered into. Realizing I want to be in charge and could not have a partner. Again a great learning experience.

What was the hardest challenge you had to overcome with your business?

I would not move into any other business because I have fallen in love with mentoring others in their businesses. I am at home do-ing what I do.

If you were to open up a new business in a different category what would it be and why?

I believe all coaches, consultants and men-tors need to believe in what they do and “walk the talk”. I always have a business coach. It might seem odd, but it makes sense. Even though I know how to grow businesses that have created millions of dollars in revenues I need someone who is making billions – al-ways have someone mentor you who is run-ning faster or doing way more. It challenges you, it stretches you and grows you and it is THE reason for my success.

What is your philosophy about coaching and about achieving a successful busi-ness?

I do have a proprietary process I share with my clients so I can’t share it here. Parts of the program include:

Put in place 2 ways to increase your leadsPut in place 2 ways to increase your conversionsPut in place 2 ways to increase the number of transactions/customerPut in place 3 ways to increase the amount of money each customer spendDecrease your expensesIncrease your profits

Do you feel there is a specific coaching process for business owners? And if so, could you explain the process?

Don’t go it alone! You don’t know what you don’t know. Every business owner needs the advice of a mentor, coach and consultant who can wear all three hats. Get someone to teach you the mistakes they made so you don’t have to waste money and time making those same mistakes. You need to learn to earn. Make the investment and hire some-one who can mentor, coach and consult with you who is really far ahead of you. Pick some-one you aspire to be when you grow up and make the investment. It will give you the re-turn on investment and grow your business.

As a business coach, what is the best ad-vice you can give to an entrepreneur?

7 QuESTIONS WITh buSINESS MENTORING ExPERT AUGUST 2011 INTERVIEW / TERRI LEVINE 23

Bringing your smartphone on holiday, you can stay in touch with friends, find that secluded beach and you will never miss your flight.

[SIGHS]... WHERE AM I? I’M TOTALLY LOST...

TEXT JONA DERKS

7 QuESTIONS WITh buSINESS MENTORING ExPERT AUGUST 2011 APPS / JONA DERKS 24

TEXT JONA DERKS

Warning!

Using mobile internet while abroad can be quite an expensive ordeal. Quickly checking the weather, finding nearby restaurants or mailing family that you have arrived can be quite costly while on holiday. Although data usage is included in most mobile subscriptions, this usu-ally doesn’t apply to using smartphones across borders. Getting access to the internet abroad, costing up to €10 a megabyte, can become quite an expen-sive ordeal. Even when not directly us-ing apps, background data roaming can already cost a traveler up to €20 to €30 a day or more. Vodaphone has recently launched a much cheaper alternative. Their international data package offers mobile internet access in 42 countries for just €2 a day. Once purchased, it is automatically activated when abroad and deactivated when users are in their home country again. To prevent steep internet bills it is possible to block in-ternet access while abroad:

iOS phones (iPhone): Go to ‘Settings> General>Network’ and disable ‘data roaming’ and ‘mobile data’

Android phones (HTC, Sony Erics-son, etc.): Go to ‘Settings>Wireless & Networks>Mobile Networks’ and dis-able “data enabled’ and switch ‘data roaming’ to ‘national roaming, or just turn it off all together

Symbian: Go to ‘Settings>Connectivity>Network’ and change ‘select opera-tor’ to ‘manual’

Windows Phone: You simply go to ‘Settings>Mobile Networks’ and select ‘don’t roam’

Blackberry: Go to ‘Manage Connections>Mobile Network Options’ and turn the ‘while roaming’ option off

Smart TravelerWith an abundance of websites of-fering travel information, it is hard to judge the validity of the information. This app, developed by the US Depart-ment of State provides travelers with official and trustworthy country infor-mation, travel alerts, maps and more.

Trip JournalTravelers can document and share their vacation experiences with friends and family. Instead of updating your online blog in a shady internet cafe, it is possible to give updates on-the-go. This popular travel app received a $100,000 prize by Google for innova-tive concept and design.

MapletsWith an assortment of more than 4,000 varying high-resolution maps, this app is a great alternative to Goog-le maps. The option to download and store the maps can save a lot of data roaming costs while abroad.

Doctalk for patientsExplaining your medical problems to a foreign doctor can be quite a has-sle. The direct translations of Google Translate can give awkward results. Developer Re-phrase has developed an app that offers click-though dialogues. Since the conversations required for a medical diagnosis usually follow the same pattern in every language, it is possible to create a dynamic dialogue.

Word lensGetting lost due to incomprehensi-ble street and traffic signs is a thing of the past with this app. Using the built-in camera of your phone, this app translates text in real time. The app can only translate Spanish and English text, but hopefully will be available for more languages in the future.

7 QuESTIONS WITh buSINESS MENTORING ExPERT AUGUST 2011 APPS / JONA DERKS 25

AUGUST 2011 COVER STORY / SPACE TRAVELLING STARTS 26

TEXT EYLEM CULCULOGLU PAGE

European startup company SXC plans to launch the first commercial flight to space in the year 2014. They have already sold over 500 tickets!

When Michiel Mol was a young boy, his biggest dream was to one day travel to space. He was an ordinary Dutch boy, sharing his dream with millions of oth-ers. Back in the 80’s, no one could imag-ine that Michiel would actually have the opportunity to go to space. Now, in 2011, Michiel’s dream is becoming a reality!

This issue we have conducted a spe-cial interview with Michiel Mol – found-ing partner of Space Expedition Curacao (SXC). SXC is a startup company focusing on commercial space travel. They have partnered with KLM on this mission and plan to make the first commercial flight to space in 2014.

The initiators of SXC are experienced aer-ospace and business professionals, with a passion for space travel. They are dedi-cated to the development of space trav-el as a commercial means of transport and are excited about participating in pioneering scientific research into space travel. Michiel Mol is one of the youngest and most passionate men on the team. He was very pleased to share his vision and dreams with Startup Magazine read-ers.

According to Michiel, everything started when he got his first telescope at age 10. He used it to view the moon and the stars, and was overwhelmed by the amazing depths of the space above. Back then, thoughts of commercial flights to space was reserved for science fiction novels and comic books.

Michiel continued to grow, and had a suc-cessful career but never forgot his child-hood dreams. He became one of the most successful e-businessmen in Europe. Having graduated from Leiden University with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, he started his own com-pany: Lost Boys International. LBi has since grown to become Europe’s largest digital agency and is listed on both the Dutch and Swedish exchanges. In addi-tion he founded Media Republic and Gue-rilla Games. These successes weren’t enough for Michiel Mol. He wanted to go to space, which is why he decided to be a part of the SXC space travel project.

There are currently 2 commercial space programs in the world: SXC in Europe and Virgin Galactic in the USA. Michiel Mol says it is healthy to have Virgin as competition. He believes this is good for the whole business. He says competition brings more exposure in the press, which is beneficial for both parties.



BETTER THAN VIRGIN’S OFFER?

Michiel Mol states SXC has some sig-nificant advantages over Virgin Galac-tic’s space program. One of the biggest is their technology. SXC uses a shuttle similar to modern day airplanes. It uses regular F16 jets and the shuttle takes off and lands just like a regular airplane. Meanwhile, Virgin uses a “mothership” to deliver the passengers to space, which makes the whole process more compli-cated.

SXC will launch from Curacao a beauti-ful island in the Caribbean, while Virgin will be based out of New Mexico, USA. Michiel says their shuttle is bigger than Virgin’s and passengers will benefit from this extra space while enjoying the mi-crogravity experience.

One of the biggest concerns about civilian space travel is safety. Even NASA had se-vere accidents in the past. The Columbia and Challenger disasters are still remem-bered. Michiel Mol says that “Our biggest priority is safety and we take every meas-ure that is possible to make a safe flight to space. Royal Dutch Airlines - KLM is our partner and they are the oldest air car-rier in the world. KLM was founded in the year 1919. KLM was the first continental European airline to launch scheduled ser-vice to New York. We are confident about KLM’s security standards and advanced technology”

SXC plans to make the first commercial flight to space by the year 2014. Test flights will begin as early as 2013.

After the test flights period is com-plete the first commercial flight will be launched. It is currently unknown who will be the first passenger to go to space. SXC has a special program named the ‘Founder Astronaut Program” and the first passenger will be chosen at random from its ranks. Michiel Mol says they cur-rently have 83 people in the list including well known celebrities like Victoria Secret model Doutzen Kroes and the World’s No. 1 DJ Armin van Buuren.

SXC’s space ship is capable of making 5000 flights to space and the cost of a ticket is $95.000. Mol says they have the capability to make up to 4 flights a day.

The space ship will have 1 pilot and 1 pas-senger. Because of this configuration, the passenger will also be the co-pilot of the ship. Passengers will get special training before the space mission.

Michiel Mol states that SXC have already sold over 500 tickets and more tickets are being sold every day. If you are inter-ested in going to space you can take a look at their website www.spacexc.com.

Michiel Mol says their space ship has a larger cockpit than Virgin’s, which makes the non-gravity experience more fun.



POWERED BY KLM

SXC offers two different astronaut pro-grams to its customers. The first is the exclusive Founder Program. Only 100 cus-tomers will have the honor of being part of this program. They will make the very first space flights with SXC. Numerous people have already joined SXC. Recently, Victoria Secret model Doutzen Kroes and the World’s No1 DJ Armin van Buuren have signed up for the Founder Program.

It is still possible to be one of the 100 exclusive members and to experience the space flight as one of the first SXC astronauts. By signing up for the Founder Astronaut Program, customers will enjoy exclusive extras, such as a complemen-tary training mission and a 3 night stay in a luxury hotel on Curacao.

Once all 100 places are filled, SXC will or-ganize an event, whereby they will host a raffle draw. This raffle draw gives every Founder Astronaut the possibility to trav-el into space as SXC’s first passenger. A requirement for this program is to fulfill a direct payment of $95.000 (est. €65.000) within 7 days of signing the contract.

The alternative to the Founder Astronaut Program of SXC is called the Future As-tronaut Program. After all founder astro-nauts have been into space, future as-tronauts will follow. A slot number will be assigned after the customer has signed the contract. This program also includes a 3 night stay in a luxury hotel. SXC re-quires for this program a payment of $50.000 within 7 days of signing the con-tract. The remaining $45.000 can be paid in the months prior to the actual flight in 2014 or 2015. You can reserve your ticket at www.spacexc.com



THIS IS HOW YOU WILL SEE EARTH FROM SPACE.

SXC’S SPACE SHIP IS POWERED BY F16 JET ENGINES AND USES REGULAR JET FUEL

1)Pre-launch protocolContrary to other spacecraft devel-oped, including the Space Shuttle, the Lynx is equipped with four revolutionary rocket engines, which can be shut down and restarted at any time during flight. There are no disposable carrier rockets, carriers or landings at sea. The Lynx sim-ply departs from the elongated track at Hato airport, Curacao, and lands there again after its flight. You will find your-self sitting next to the pilot, going over the take-off checklist. The four engines are started. Your space travel has be-gun.

2) Breaking the sound barrierYou experience the powerful thrust that is familiar to jet pilots and For-mula 1 drivers. Before you know it the Lynx is accelerating incredibly fast on the long track. The landscape on both sides turns into a big green-blue blur. Then you go up. Fast and steep… As you speed towards the sky, the enormous dome offers a spectacular view. Within one minute, you are breaking the sound barrier and you follow the footsteps of Chuck Yaeger.



SPACE FLIGHT IN 5 STEPS:

3) Going faster than a bullet!Take-off alone is an extremely rare ex-perience, the magnificent acceleration, caused by the four engines, the view of the bright blue Caribbean bay, islands the size of the Netherlands turning into little dots… Then, you reach Mach 3. A rarity that not even F16 pilots experi-ence.

4) Engine cut-off; Earth as only 500 peo-ple have seen hereAt an altitude of nearly 60 km, the pilot switches off the engines and the para-bolic flight commences, during which the crew experiences weightlessness for a few minutes. Eventually, the Lynx reaches its maximum altitude of 100 km., the official frontier of space where it is completely black, despite the sun-shine. The full curves of the Earth are clearly visible from here. The overview stretches from Florida to Brazil, with the dazzling Caribbean as a centre piece.

5) Returning back to EarthFrom 100 km. the floating flight back to Earth begins. At an altitude of 60 km, the spaceship slowly turns into a glider. At around 10 km the spaceship beings a pull out maneuver to lose speed. Dur-ing this maneuver you will experience about 4.5G’s for a few seconds, some-thing that usually only fighter jet pilots experience. After about fifteen minutes of gliding flight (often referred to as floating ‘on the wings of an angel’), the Lynx lands at Spaceport Curacao like the space shuttle. The entire flight will have taken almost an hour.

OnE “ROUnDTRIP” TO SPACE COSTS $95.000 TOTAL JOURnEY TAkES 60 MInUTES REACHES 103kM ABOvE THE EARTH SURfACE 5 MInUTES Of MICROGRAvITY EXPE-RIEnCE MAX GfORCE: 4.5G MORE THAn 500 TICkETS ALREADY SOLD!



INTERESTING NUMBERS:

2019 UnTHInk ABLES

The futurist Herman Khan introduced the idea of “thinking the unthinkable” as a way to loosen up the imagination in trying to forecast the future. Most of the time we are unable to guess the future because we are inhibited by conventional wisdom - something that everyone knows is true. For in-stance everyone (including me) knew

blabla that an encyclopedia written by amateurs that could be changed by any-one at anytime was simply a silly, impos-sible idea. That prevented anyone from forecasting wikipedia. Herman Khan stressed that we should assume what we know is wrong and begin to imagine how the unthinkable may be possible.

[2019] AARGH... COMPUTERS DO kILL!

TEXT KEVIN KELLY WWW.kk.ORG

7 QuESTIONS WITh buSINESS MENTORING ExPERT AUGUST 2011 KEVIN KELLY / 2019 UNTHINKABLES 32

In 1993 Brian Eno and I exchanged a bunch of “unthinkables” via email and later published them in the Whole Earth Review. A few examples of mine:

BARBECUES OUTLAWED -- Because of high carcinogenic content, noth-ing barbecued or burnt may be sold, nor barbecue paraphernalia. Private barbecues (cannot be seen from street, etc.) become hip underground.

DIRECTED TAXES -- Software gains allow a certain portion of taxes to fall to the discretion of the payer. John Public can assign X amount of his taxes toward one service, to the exclusion of another. It’s a second vote that politicians watch closely.Computer screens (both CRT and flat screens) are found to be dan-gerous to the health. Working at a computer is viewed as a toxic job.

People with lots of money give their children small companies as birthday and Christmas gifts.

Some of Brain Eno’s:

Manufacturers of underwear finally realize that men have different-sized balls.

Everybody becomes so completely cynical about the election process that voter turnout drops to 2 percent (families and relatives of prospective politicians) until finally the “democratic process” is aban-doned in favour of a lottery system. Everything immediately improves.

It turns out that nearly all the conspiracy theories you ever heard were actually true -- that the world really is being run by 150 malevo-lent men with nasty prejudices.

Smoking is proven to be good exercise for the lungs.

Genetic research shows that it is possible to create gifted scientists, great artists, sublime linguists and supreme athletes. Everyone starves to death through lack of farmers, cooks and waiters.



In October 1999 I generated some “unthinkables” for the Global Busi-ness Network I thought might hap-pen by the year 2019. I uncovered this submission recently, and since these all seem as unlikely now 12 years later, I thought I would put them out there in case the next eight years are really amazing.

The first irrefutable biological evidence of the only native North American ape is found – some hair and a bit of blood – which under DNA analysis proves the existence of a rare and ancient great ape known locally as Big Foot. This leads to a well-funded and concerted cryptozoologi-cal effort yielding scientifically documented encounters with tthe animal 2 years later.

A rash of new-age-techno cults sweep an exhausted Russia. The variety and zealotry of their beliefs (quantum power, northern light signals) and their remarkable in-fluence in national politics make Californian new-age cults seem tame and Sunday-school straight.

Environmentalism is embraced by the conservative Christian right.

Amazon builds its first bricks-and-mortar superstore. Gotta keep those 75 million customers happy.

Polygamy is granted legal status in the US.

The fertility rate in China drops below the replacement level, and nothing the government can do can get Chinese couples to have more than 1.5 kids each. For the first time China encourages immi-gration to keep its huge economy going.

At the present rate I think I will be wrong on all these…

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/ar-chives/2011/06/2019_unthinkabl.php

By the year 2019...



LINKING ThE WORLd TO ThE WEb

TRADITIOnALLY IT ALLOWED US TO COnnECT PLACES. ‘WEB 2.0’ COnnECTS PEOPLE, AnY-WHERE, AT AnY TIME. THE In-TRODUCTIOn Of GOOGLE WAL-LET MAY JUST BE THE TIPPInG POInT fOR nfC-TECHnOLOGY TO ‘CROSS THE CHASM’ AnD MAkE IT THE UBIqUITOUS TOOL In THE HAnDS Of COnSUMERS THAT ALLOWS US TO COnnECT TO ... AnYTHInG.

TEXT: Edwin W. Kalischnig

ThE INTERNET IS EVOLVING.

AUGUST 2011 EDWIN W. KALISCHNIG / LINKING THE WORLD TO THE WEB 35


n May 2011 Google announced that it plans to offer a mobile payment sys-tem based on Near Field CommunicaI

tion, better known by its acronym ‘NFC’. The ‘Google Wallet’ will allow consumers to pay for goods and redeem coupons simply by touching a point-of-sale (POS) terminal with their NFC-enabled phone that run Google’s Android operating system.

Many more NFC-enabled handsets will need to hit the market in order to make it a suc-cess and Sony Ericsson is one of the first to announce an NFC solution for their Android-based smartphones. But also competitor Apple is rumored to be looking at NFC for their iPhone while RIM introduced its first NFC Phones - BlackBerry Bold 9900 & 9930 - and Nokia unveiled it’s N9 NFC phone.

SO WhAT IS ALL ThE fuSS AbOuT ANd WhY ShOuLd WE CARE ?

NFC is an advanced type of Radio Frequency IDentification. RFID allows the wireless ex-change of small amounts of data between a tag (chip with a small antenna) and a reader. There’s a good chance you already benefit from this technology in your daily life as it’s used in office access cards, car immobiliz-ers, ‘smart’ passports, pets and in supply chain equipment. NFC technology is geared to be used in close proximity, typically up to about 2 inches or 5 cm.

AN NfC-ENAbLEd dEVICE CAN bASICALLY dO 3 TYPES Of ThINGS:

EMuLATE CARdS

TALK TO PEERS

REAd TAGS

The NFC-chip can be programmed to ‘pre-tend’ to be your credit-card, debit-card and any other card for that matter, including a hotel key card, public transport card or loy-alty card. This is also the mode that Google Wallet uses and which makes use of the ex-isting infrastructures set up for contactless payments. With an NFC smart phone you don’t need your wallet anymore, the phone IS your wallet..

Two devices that are equipped with NFC and are close enough, can communicate with each other. Using this mode, you could make payments directly to another individ-ual or a small business just by tapping the two phones together. Cash is no longer re-quired. In the same way you can easily ex-changing business cards, cinema tickets, set up multiplayer games or share applica-tions on your smartphone.

The NFC reader reads information from tags that others have put out in the real world. Tags on posters, stickers and other ‘things’ may contain data that the phone can use or which points to specific websites for more information. You could tap the phone on a movie poster and it would begin playing the movie trailer.



The combination of these capabilities with the power and the security of a smartphone will allow an enormous amount of new ap-plications. It enables businesses not only to connect to consumers in ways not pre-viously possible, but also gather valuable market research data regarding those cus-tomers like demographics, location and interests. If a consumer scans the tag on a pair of jeans in a mall, he benefits from authentication of the product, searching for the lowest price in the area or finding more information about it. The brand-owner will receive data regarding the type of jeans in which customers are interested and can correlate that information with sales data to understand customer preferences by demographics, location and so forth. Very powerful real-time information, enabled by NFC technology.

Applying NFC to public transportation tick-eting for example, can allow a traveler to purchase tickets online and have them pro-visioned on an NFC phone over-the-air (OTA), thereby enabling the handset to function as a train or bus ticket. With knowledge of which train or route is being taken, the tran-sit operator can then send related informa-tion to that individual. Meanwhile, coupons, promotions and advertisements for various products and services could be transmit-ted to the commuter’s phone, taking mobile marketing to a new level. Similarly, in a pay-ment application, a bank or other financial institution could provide customers access to other banking services.

NFC-enabled mobile phones have obvious advantages for both businesses and con-sumers. Mobile payments are just the tip of the NFC iceberg. StartUps as well as exist-ing companies will jump on the endless op-portunities for One-to-One Marketing, Mo-bile ticketing, Health monitoring, Hospitality and Banking services, In-Store coupons and other types of innovations. Linking the world to the web is the key here.


TexT: JEffREY buSSGANG

5 LESSONS ENTREPRENEuRS CAN LEARN fROM ThE NAVY SEALS

AUGUST 2011 JEFFREY BUSSGANG / 5 LESSONS 38


There has been a surge in interest with the world of the Navy SEALs since the Osama bin Laden action (this piece in the WSJ was a par-ticularly good profile) and I confess to being caught up in it myself. One of my portfolio company CEOs, Will Tumulty of Ready Finan-cial, is a former Navy SEAL (1990-1995). Will was kind enough to introduce me to a SEAL classmate of his, Brendan Rogers (SEAL 1990-2000), who joined me and 20 NYC CEOs/found-ers from the tech scene last night to talk about the SEALs - the training, the planning and the operations behind their combat oper-ations - as well as draw out some relevant les-sons for entrepreneurs. Brendan went on to HBS and McKinsey after the SEALs and then started his own hedge fund with a partner, so he had an interesting, multi-faceted perspec-tive.The discussion was wide-ranging and enter-taining. The five key lessons Brendan high-lighted were as follows:

What’s hard is good. SEALs go through an intensive 6 month training program called Basic Underwater Dem-olition/SEAL training (BUD/S), which is designed to test a candidate’s physical and mental limits. Traditionally, by the time of SEAL graduation, the attrition rate is as high as 70%. SEALs quickly learn that the punishment and pain of training hardens their minds and bodies and adapt to embrace the tough environs. Brendan pointed out that start-up executives who go through hard times should learn to relish them, recognizing that the hard times will toughen the team and train them properly for “battle”.



80% training, 20% execution. SEALs are in-credibly well-trained and when they are not on actual combat deployments, they spend the vast majority of their time training for a number of different types of missions. In contrast, at start-ups, executives typically spend 100% of their time executing and 0% of their time train-ing. Brendan emphasized the importance of training and practice in all areas - employee on-boarding, management practices, etc. He com-mented on the importance of training for unex-pected situations. The simultaneous shooting of three Somali pirates at sea as part of a hos-tage rescue two years ago was an example of the kind of outcome possible when SEALs train under all possible conditions. The CEOs in the room had wide eyes and were certainly thinking hard about their training regimens and scenar-io planning after that example.

Every seat counts. Brendan pointed out the price of settling for mediocrity, even in a big organization. Every SEAL needs to know with 100% confidence that the man behind them will be able to save their life and get them out of a bad situation. The CEOs in the room were asked if they could say the same about their management teams and if those man-agement teams, in turn, could say that about their lieutenants. One CEO objected that he had 1000 employees in his company and couldn’t possibly hire all “A’s”. Brendan replied by citing the example of D-Day. Eisenhower planned D-Day with a small number of subordinates who he turned to and said, select 12 men underneath you who can trust with your life to execute this mission. Each of those men did the same. And so on and so on. That cascad-ing effect resulted in the successful employment and combat engagement of over 2 million troops throughout Europe. The lesson? Don’t let a large organization be an excuse for mediocrity.



Everyone is expendable. The SEALs are trained in a nearly identical man-ner and no one SEAL is indispensible to the unit or the mission. The nature of combat is that anyone can be lost at any time. Entrepreneurial com-panies have a harder time execut-ing on this philosophy since there are specialists and superstars, but Brendan’s message was to make sure contingency plans were thought through for any set of personnel cir-cumstances.

You never know the measure of a person until they are tested. As mentioned earlier, the SEALs train-ing program weeds out 70% of par-ticipants. Brendan conveyed that the people he thought would never drop out did while others proved to be more resilient and tougher than imagined. Until your people are really tested (see “what is hard is good”), you can never be sure who will step up and who will falter. One sure sign, based on pattern recognition, is that those that talk tough and are full of bluster are predictably those that are the first to blanche in the face of adversity. Quiet strength and determination in a start-up are invaluable. When you see it in your people, bottle it.

Everyone left with a great appreciation for the brave men who serve our country so ably, and the system behind it that produces such a consistent, excellent “product”. Brendan is also the co-founder of the Navy SEALs Foun-dation, a non-profit that helps take care of the families of SEALs when things don’t go as smoothly as they did in Pakistan a few weeks ago. I was inspired to make a dona-tion to the organization immediately after the dinner. You can read more about them here. [http://www.nswfoundation.org/]

One final humorous note - Brendan observed that the spouses of Navy SEALs are as tough as nails themselves and impossible to im-press. They still make their spouses take out the garbage, do the dishes and change dia-pers - no matter how impressive their accom-plishments in the field of battle. I suspect many start-up executives have similar, ap-propriately humbling marital arrangements!


AUGUST 2011 GADGETS / JOYSTICK-IT 42

ARCADE GAMInG fEEL

ATTACHES TO ANY TABLET GAMING DEVICEJOYSTICK-IT

EASY TO REMOvE

AWESOME?

WORkS WITH AnY TOUCH SCREEn

The JOYSTICK-IT Arcade Stick is a solid aluminum joystick that attaches to any tablet gaming device to provide precision control of touch screen games. “Out of the box, the JOYSTICK-IT works with thousands of different game apps,” says Ty Liotta, head of ThinkGeek product development. “We chose to use solid-milled aluminum because it was lightweight but also provided the most realistic arcade gaming feel.”

Priced at $24.95, you can grab it from www.thinkgeek.com

The device works with any device which features a capacitive touch screen, this includes the iPad and

many Android tablets The device works with any device which features a capacitive touch screen, this includes the iPad and many Android tablets.

The device works with any device which features a capacitive touch screen, this includes the iPad and

many Android tablets. The JOYSTICK-IT is easy to remove and requires no batteries to operate.

AUGUST 2011 GADGETS / CHROMEBOOK 43

fIRST CHROMEBOOk

AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL NETBOOKSChROMEbOOK

kEY SPECS

EXCLUSIvE

STARTS UP fAST

We have been waiting for this since Google first announced its Chrome OS in 2009 – a vessel for their web based operating system. The Samsung Chromebook has arrived! The Series 5 weighs 3.3 lbs and has a battery life of up to 8.5 hours, including five hours of video playback for all-day use without the need to recharge. The Samsung Series 5 packs power with an Intel Dual-core processor.

The Series 5 launched in the U.S. on June 15th at Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. The Wi-Fi + 3G model retails at $499.99, and the Wi-Fi only model at $429.99.

The average out-of-the-box laptop starts up in about 45 seconds. The Series 5 starts up in a fraction of the time; less than ten seconds.

When waking from sleep, it’s ready to go in the time it takes to open the lid.

0.79-inch thin case

2 USB ports

Full-size Chrome keyboard

Oversized multi-touch trackpad

Intel® Dual-core Processor

12.1-inch SuperBright Display

16:10 Resolution

Support for removable media cards (SD, SDHC, MMC) for photos,

videos, music and documents

8.5 Hour battery

HD Webcam, built-inatter digital microphone and stereo speakers

AUGUST 2011 GADGETS / MIX WALKMAN 44

InnOvATIvE

ZAPPIN’ JAMMIN’ LOVIN’ !MIx WALKMAN

WHAT IS COOL?

€$¥

SInG ALOnG WITH YOUR

fAvORITE SOnGSony Ericsson’s latest candy bar phone, Mix Walkman offers a new and innovative way to listen to music. It comes with a ‘Zappin’ key to make it even easier and more fun to search for your favorite song. Simply press the Zappin key to preview the chorus of the next track and decide whether it is a favorite you want to listen to.

The price hasn’t been announced yet, but it is expected to hit stores in September 2011.

A karaoke function also enables the vocal track

from any song to be lowered instantly so you can sing along with your

favorite tune.

3” touch screen3.2 megapixel camera

13h music listening timeWIFI/EDGE 88 grams

AUGUST 2011 GADGETS / AR-DRONE HELICOPTER 45

REMOTE COnTROLLED HELICOPTER

PERFECT GIFT FOR HOBBYISTAR-dRONE hELICOPTER

InTERESTED?

TODAY’S TECHnOLOGY

AR Drone helicopters are the perfect gift for hobbyist and those who want a remote controlled helicopter experience unlike any other.

Visit www.ardronehelicopters.com to see firsthand just what these magnificent remote controlled helicopters are capable of. Consumers can see firsthand by watching one of the many videos on how this helicopter operates. Products can also be purchased directly from the site and shipped to directly to your home.

AR Drone helicopters are sure to be on the list of every person who enjoy electronics

and the capabilities of today’s technology.

AUGUST 2011 GADGETS / MSI G SERIES 46

HIGH PERfORMAnCE nOTEBOOk

MOBILE GAMING FOR GAMERSMSI G SERIES

YEAH!

WHAT’S COOL

WHAT’S MORE?

Only “truly” high performance notebook computers can meet the needs of demanding gamers. MSI released its G Series of gaming laptops, including the 17.3-inch GT780 as well as the 15.6-inch GT680, GE620, at CES 2011. They all come equipped with the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 quad core processor and top-end discrete graphics cards.

The MSI GT680, GT780, GR620, and GE620 notebook computers feature the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 quad core processor. The GT780 and GT680 also come with top-end nVidia GeForce GTX Series discrete graphics cards, while the GE620 come equipped with nVidia GeForce GT Series discrete graphics cards.

Some models also pack MSI’s own turbo boost. What’s more, the top models feature accelerated dual

solid state drive (SSD) architecture

Gamers can now go into battle knowing

that they are packing the most powerful

hardware available.

You’ve created buzz and awareness about your business, you’ve gained permission to educate and you’ve even started to build trust through your content and SEO work – prospects are coming to know, like and trust you – you’ve achieved the equiv-alent of marketing nirvana, right?

Text: John Jantsch

AUGUST 2011 JOHN JANTSCH / 7 QUESTIONS 47

Text: John Jantsch

Well, not exactly. In fact, you’re also making your case in logical terms, you’ve offered up a perfectly competitive product or solution, one that everyone should buy, only to meet with one of the most powerful forces in na-ture – resistance.

I’m no science wiz, but I’ve always loved the idea of resistance in physics as a metaphor for the kind of resistance many business owners encounter when trying to spark a sale. Resistance is the ability of a substance to prevent or resist the flow of electrical cur-rent.

Many times we can present a solution and price that seems like the obvious and logi-cal choice, but can’t seem to make the sale. What we sometimes fail to factor, however, is that while a product may have a logical price of, say, $10, the buyer’s emotional price – “I don’t trust myself to implement this so-lution, I don’t know enough to believe this is the answer, the cost of potential disruption is too high” – has effectively raised the per-ceived cost beyond recognition – and that’s the resistance you must address.

You must bake resistance crushing tactics, products, services and processes into your overall mix and marketing approach.

Below are seven questions that every busi-ness owner must answer, as part of what I call The Marketing HourglassTM, in order to lower or overcome resistance for their prod-ucts and services and create competitively sustainable momentum.

Although you may have created the perfect solution there are times when people need a little taste before committing to the entire purchase. It’s essential that you find ways for people to sample your products or exper-tise. You can do this by creating starter of-ferings that are free or low cost, packaging information products that make your solu-tions accessible, or presenting educational workshops that teach while putting your approach on display in a non-sales environ-ment.

This one frightens some people, because they fear the repercussions of every custom-er demanding a refund. Of course, if that’s even remotely possible then you’ve got big-ger problems than marketing. The fact is most businesses offer or honor an implied guarantee – if a customer feels they didn’t get what was promised we often resolve this by offering a refund. So, why not lower the implied risk of doing business with you by finding a way to offer a compelling guaran-tee up front. Tell the world you’re so confi-dent in the results you can bring that you’ll assume all of the risk in the transaction.

What are your free or trial offerings?

What is your guarantee?


Text: John Jantsch

Even if you offer the perfect answer the cus-tomer must still factor the change in routine, disruption or down time, and chance that something will not go as planned into the de-cision to switch to or adopt what you’re of-fering. It’s essential that you consider ways to shoulder some of this burden by creating support processes and assurances that all but eliminate this potential snag. This may include doing prep work unrelated to your product or even offering to switch the client back if they don’t realized the promised benefits.

WhAT IS YOuR “MAKE IT EASY TO SWITCh” OffERING?

The question of buying or not buying often comes down to total value and total value is built by surrounding your core offerings with additional products, services and value enhancing features that may or may not be directly related to your product or service. For example, if you sell a product, then offer-ing training or providing a maintenance plan as part of deal may tip the scales in your fa-vor. If you’ve developed an expertise in some area of business that could benefit your cli-ent base, say blogging or SEO, you may find that you can add value by teaching these skills, no matter what you sell.

WhAT ARE YOuR CORE OffERING ENhANCEMENTS?

Offering a variety of prepackaged price points makes it easier for some prospects to make a decision about your products and services. There is a strong psychological pull in this approach and some firms find that,

WhAT IS YOuR GOOd, bETTER, bEST APPEAL?

although most of their sales come from one package, the existence of the other options helps to overcome resistance because peo-ple feel they get to make a choice. This can also create some distinct competitive dif-ferentiation as well.

The offer of exclusivity or community is very appealing to most, no matter the industry. The airlines, rental car companies, credit card companies and even the local coffee shop, have based a large part of their ex-istence on the loyalty club and membership program model. I believe any businesses can explore ways to promote their best cus-tomers into some form of exclusive mem-bership offering. This can include things like special discounts, networking opportuni-ties, advance product features and premi-um content

WhAT IS YOuR ‘MEMbERS ONLY’ OffERING?

I’m a very strong advocate of assembling a team of best of class providers that can help your clients with any facet of their busi-ness or personal needs. When you become the “go to” person for your clients, you dra-matically increase the value you provide in the relationship. I believe you can take this a step farther than many people do and pro-actively promote access to your network as a benefit of doing business with your organ-ization. Of course, this mindset requires you to build strong and tangible relationships with your strategic partners, but if you do, and you take this proactive pairing approach you can dramatically enhance your own of-ferings while simultaneously creating refer-ral relationships that will open the doors to additional opportunities.

WhAT ARE YOuR STRATEGIC PARTNER PAIRINGS?


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fINANCING OPTIONS

CuSTOMERSWhen referring to equity investments, friends and family are probably the most common method of financing for startups. However, the most common technique that startup businesses use to raise capital to ‘get going’ is by selling their goods or services to the customer.

Customers are a great way to finance a business for many reasons: First, customer financing is typically non dilutive. They want something from you other than equity in your business. Customers help you introduce your product to the market; they will help debug and improve the quality of your product. An early customer will give you credibility with others in the market and an early customer may spend more with your company down the road.

The most popular method of customer financing occurs by selling the customer on the product before it is commercially available. This way, the customer helps bear the burden of the investment advance of the product being available

to build or finish the product and is a guaranteed client when the time comes.

It is possible that an early customer might ask for a level of exclusivity with

the product or even some free equity in the business, but typically just wants the finished product & nothing more.

So why doesn’t every startup use this approach? Well, it

isn’t always possible to find a customer who will put up money in

and ready to use. It takes great sales ability to convince a customer to invest in something that isn’t built or isn’t finished. Be aware that even if you can convince a customer to do this, there are some possible ill effects.

First and foremost, building a product explicitly for one customer often makes it less applicable to the market as a whole. An early customer who provides funding to build your product may want it tailored specifically for their own needs. A highly tailored product is often not as well suited to a broader market.

Second, you risk building a “fee for services culture” in your company with this approach. Some companies build products for customers for a fee. Other companies build products and sell them “as is” to customers. The latter is a scalable model for building valuable companies. If you use customer financing, you risk being pulled into the former. Customer financing is much more difficult, if not impossible, in consumer facing services. It is far more applicable in business facing services.

Those are the pros and cons of customer financing. If you can convince a cus-tomer to put up significant capital in advance so you can build or finish your product, you should consider it very seriously, as it has been the launch pad for many successful companies.

Documents

Startup Magazine - August 2011