Thursday, 28 November 2013

PROFILE: Chad Hurley's Success Story

Chad Hurley's Success Story
Co-Founder of Youtube
"There is no old media. There is no new media. There is one media with one common purpose: to inform, move and inspire the world through information, art and entertainment. Together, we can find a solution that will benefit everyone in this ecosystem, from consumers to advertisers to the content owners alike."
Nowadays, millions of people all around the world every day spend hours in front of their computers watching videos on the internet and commonly on YouTube. But who is behind this idea of genius? The people responsible for it are Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. This success story is focused on the amazing life and road to success of Chad Hurley and his enormous contribution to the world of Internet.
Born and raised near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, Hurley showed his interests in arts during high school, which gave him a fine start for his light future and aroused his interest in computers and media. No wonder he was also a member of the Technology Student Association. Except his educational strength, Chad was into sports so he was a stand-out runner for Twin Valley High School's cross-country program. Hurley received his bachelor's degree in fine art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and was ready to jump into the limitless business world.
His first chance to prove himself was by the time he was finishing college. He received an offer from PayPal to make the logo of the company which was topical for the next couple of years. While working there, he made a lot of new friends and some of them later became his employees and even business partners. After PayPal was sold, Chad used his bonus to finance his future project.
The success came soon as he founded YouTube, a video sharing website, in 2005. It quickly became one of the most famous online communities and was ranked as the 10th most popular website just a year after its launch. The journalist Scott Woolley said that the site was "at the forefront of a new video revolution on the Net. The upstart's birth coincided with a magic moment in the Internet history, when online video became cheap enough to give away." The idea of the two technology pioneers turned out to be such a revolutionary force and community-creating phenomenon, that in 2006 it was sold to Google for the stunning price of $1.65 billion. Thanks to his remarkable achievement, Chad was ranked at 28th place on Business 2.0 Magazine's "50 People Who Matter" list, which came out later the same year.
Today Chad is extending his activities in other spheres, so he was involved as a major investor with Team US F1 in Formula 1. Proud father of two children and beloved husband, Chad Hurley is not only the perfect example for successful young entrepreneur but a symbol of the balance between professional and personal life. His inspirational success story shows us what is like to be perseverant and purposeful. Hard work is always been rewarded so don’t wait, get started!
(First published on: www.boompedia.com)

7 Steps for writing a Business Plan

Start with a ‘story’ - ‘See the film in your mind’ about your venture – what do you want to do, how large do you want it to be, what will make you happy, what are your aspirations, etc. Imagine it as a business a few years down. This gives you a good view of ‘what you want to aim for’
Work out rough milestones and goals: Your long-terms goals and aspirations should then be broken into short-term and long-term milestones, which are the stepping stones to your eventual destination.
Think deeply of how you will implement it: This is the critical aspect of planning your implementation. This also gives you a view of the cost structures, the infrastructure & people needs, processes, etc.
Work out the ‘structure’ of an excel sheet: Now, after you have done the thinking, it is time to use
an excel sheet to evaluate if there is a business case in what you plan to do. Before you start entering
numbers, work out the ‘structure’ detailing every cost head and revenue stream.
Start working in the excel sheet – assumptions are critical: An excel sheet exercise with the
wrong assumptions is going to give you a very wrong direction, and perhaps wrong hopes. Be realistic.
Work on multiple ‘scenarios’: Life does not play out the way you plan it. Real life situation will be
different than your excel sheet plans. It is therefore essential for entrepreneurs to work out multiple
scenarios to see how the business will pan out under different outcomes.
Finally, articulate it into the ‘presentations’: Once your ‘Business plan’ is ready, you then
articulate it into different presentations. You can have an executive summary for introductions, a 8-10
slide ppt for first meetings and more detailed documents and presentations for follow-up meetings
where specific details are going to be discussed.
(Courtesy: The Hatch)

5 Ways to Set a New Company Up for Success

Starting your own business forces you to face your limitations, test out every idea in the real world and accept that sometimes what looked great on paper can be downright 
difficult to execute. But if you can, you should try your hardest to land an early success. After all, doing so can help boost your credibility, encourage potential investors and give you some money to build other businesses down the road.
So the question is, what can you do to encourage a more successful outcome? Here are five ways to set up your new venture for success:
1. Set low expectations. You may believe that your new product will change the face of the industry, and it very well might. But if you start talking up those expectations even a moderate success won’t measure up. By starting with a conservative approach, a modest success will be noticed and you will be perceived as even smarter than you are.
2. Start local. By developing and testing your idea or product in a local environment, you have substantial advantages from the start. Marketing and distribution costs will be much lower. Your most powerful network — that is, people you know — will be engaged, and you can do any polishing you need to do before spending big bucks on an untried process in a larger market. It’s also easier to get publicity locally, and, with luck, the buzz will spread as your company expands.
3. Grab low-hanging fruit. Pretty much every product or service has at least one super-strong potential buying group. Focus your efforts on that group with everything you've got. Market, distribute and support them, and, chances are, your sales will soar. That win will encourage you to expand to more difficult buyer groups. The other advantage to this approach isn’t particularly fun to acknowledge, however. If the low-hanging fruit doesn’t drop into your hand the way you expected, maybe there are problems with your business that you haven’t foreseen. You can find that out before you do a full market push.
4. Start with a single, likely client. Suppose your product would be a great fit for a variety of retailers such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart and Target. It might be tempting to go after all of them at once, hoping that one will pop. This choice scatters your energy, and, if you fail, you have nowhere to go. Instead, choose only one possibility; the one you think is most likely to say yes. Visit the stores, determining where your product would belong and how much shelf space would be needed. Research their customer base and determine which customers would be the most interested and why. Consider options such as Costco’s road shows where you don’t get permanent space but instead have a week to sell what you can — moving from one location to another. Put together a presentation that shows you did your homework. Your chances of a yes are improved by this approach, and, if the answer is no, find out why and use that feedback to hone your presentation to selection No. 2.
5. Partner with another successful firm. Suppose a complementary and not competing company has the visibility and attention you want for your company. See if you can come up with a temporary partnership that will allow you to benefit from their strengths. For example, if your company offers a revolutionary knee brace for runners, talk to a local shop that caters to that group about offering a presentation on your new product. Consider giving the shop owner 50 percent of your sales dollars. It may be a wash for you in terms of revenue, but you've gotten your product in front of real customers.
What other tips would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments section below.
(This story originally appeared on 'Young Entrepreneur')

9 Ways to Beef-Up Your Business Skills on the Cheap

MATTHEW TOREN
In a perfect — albeit creepy — world, all entrepreneur-hopefuls wouldn’t need to mess with getting an MBA. Their business acumen would be engrained. That’s true to some degree. Some people can, as they say, sell ketchup popsicles to people wearing white gloves. But it’s hardly common knowledge to know how to manage employees or keep track of expenses or even devise a marketing plan.
For that, you need an education. But you still don’t necessarily need an MBA. Here, we break out nine low-cost, limited-time programs and offerings to help you get a toehold on the basics of business:
1. Community college courses: Audit courses if you can. After all, you’re there for information, not a degree. Want to make sure the instructor meets your goals? Try going to the class one night the semester before and ask to sit in. Most faculty will let you do that once. Or ask students how competent the instructor is. The website RateMyProfessors.com may also be helpful. Not interested in next Tuesday’s content? Skip class. Once you have the syllabus you can redesign the course to fit your needs. You’re auditing, remember?
2. Seminars: Sometimes these activities can get expensive. But if you look around, you can often find less expensive takes on the same topics. How do they do that? The seminar host is hoping you’ll buy CDs and books. Although you should prepare for some sales activity in the program, you don’t have to buy anything to get good basic information for a song.
3. The internet: Ted talks, blogs, websites (like this one) are loaded with information you can use. Make a list of areas where you feel weak and create your own training program. By searching on one topic every couple of weeks and taking notes, you’ll be surprised at what you can learn.
4. Magazines: These can be a rich source of information on business in general or your specific industry. Some of the industry-specific subscriptions can be expensive, but they’re worth it. If you’re not sure if the content will be valuable, check the magazine’s website to see if they have an accessible archive of back issues or ask for a trial subscription.
5. Build your own learning group: Do you have friends who are entrepreneurs or small-business owners who feel the same lack of business knowledge? Create a roundtable of them scheduled every couple of weeks. You can take turns exploring and sharing information on a topic or invite an expert to join you for the evening to answer questions.
6. iTunes U: This can be a terrific resource to hear from some very savvy people, often free or at a low cost. Download talks and listen while jogging or driving. Ivy-league professors have lectures available — both audio only and video. One online reviewer said: No dress code, bathroom breaks whenever, phone calls and texting are allowed. Only complaint is that my classmate meows sometimes, but that’s not really a big deal.
7. Local associations in your field: Many industries have associations that meet regularly, with speakers presenting on subjects that may interest you. As far as annual dues go, you should think of it like this: For the cost of a few lunches, you can stay on top of industry issues and learn more about business — not to mention, network with people in your industry.
8. Books: There are some great books out there on entrepreneurship, and many of them can help provide insights on how you can improve your business skills. I have one suggestion for you (shameless promo here) Small Business, Big Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did It Right. If we didn’t think it was a valuable book, we wouldn’t have spent the time and effort it took to write.
9. Just do it: Yeah, I know, stolen from the shoe folks. But jumping into the fire is going to teach you a lot. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, just do the best you can. Because after all, it is your business and no matter how much you work to learn, you’re the one responsible for your decisions.
What other resources would you suggest? Let us know in the comment section below

How do we know that we are ready to launch a start up with a product or service?

There is a saying “If you have 10 hours to cut a tree, spend 8 hours sharpening the axe”.
Similarly, launch when you know you have all the competencies and the resources required to run the business. I.e. when you have worked out your business plan, evaluated the business case, spoken to customers and are convinced that the value proposition makes sense to them,
when you have tested the product, when you have understood the dynamics of marketing & sales, when you have evaluated the cost of acquiring customers, when you have identified – and somewhat validated – all the assumptions that you have used in your business plan…. that is the time when you are ready to launch. And of course, you need to ensure that you have the required capital to sustain the business till you either (a) hope to become self sustaining of (b) when you hope to raise external capital – whether as a loan from banks/family/friends or as risk capital from angel investments/ VC/family & friends. HOWEVER… despite all this, and even after you are ready, you will have to evaluate what is the best time to launch. E.g. if you are selling something to schools  which they will use in their classrooms, launching in the middle of a school term may not be prudent.
(First published on 'The Hatch')

by MATTHEW TOREN There’s a big difference between visitors and customers. The logic is simple: Would you rather your startup have 10,000 monthly visitors to its site with a 10 percent sales conversion or attract the attention of 100,000 visitors with only a few finally deciding to buy from you? This question, as simplistic as it is, remains a big source of frustration for many online entrepreneurs. They often invest a lot of time, energy and finances to drive traffic to their sites, only to find out these people are not even the ones they want to fish out in the first place. So how can you steer clear from the many traps of aimless traffic generation? Here are five tips: 1. Be a problem solver. You have to admit that at least part of business success has to do with the timeliness of your products or services. You must answer people’s needs. The key is settling into a business that has problems you really love to solve, with customers whose pressing needs you are very good at addressing. When you’re able to identify your niche, you don’t only go out there to earn, you have a unique passion and an offering that suits the needs of those people. 2. Get into your customers’ psyche. People buy not only because they need things, they often buy to satisfy something deeper in them. It’s often the feeling they associate with a product that they finally make the decision to buy. Everybody needs a pair of shoes, but not just any shoes can satisfy that need. This is when branding, reputation and customer service come into play. In fact, this is why there is marketing in the first place. Get into what excites and interests your target market. This is the only way you can tailor-fit your campaign to the people who would not think twice of paying for what you have to offer. 3. Where are your customers? In online marketing, determining how your market interacts with the Internet is very important. It gives you leads to “where” they are online. Online behavior can point you to what sites they frequent, the social-media networks they prefer, the news they’re more likely to read and so on. If you know where they are, you can be sure to focus on places you need to have a commanding presence. This assures you of a steady stream of traffic of ready-to-pay customers, and it prevents you from effectively barking up the wrong tree. We all know how costly and time consuming that can be. 4. Do you really know them? To really pinpoint who your target customer is, you’ll want to dig in deep… find out how they tick, if you will. The key is to learn about them, even change with them over time. So basically, this means you can’t just buy one customer list and operate off that in perpetuity. You’ll need to continuously find out about your target audience. Are they reading things you should be reading? Do they shop at stores you’ve never heard of? All of these puzzle pieces could fit together and help you identify the bigger customer picture, if you’re willing to spend time accumulating them. 5. Close in on the deal. Once you know your customers and understanding where they are and how they think, you can specifically design an online marketing campaign that appeals to those people who would love to pay for your products or services. By being a problem solver, you’re forced to know yourself and understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. But understanding who you want to engage with online really seals the success of your business. What customer-targeting strategies would you suggest fellow entrepreneurs follow? Let us know in the comments section below. (First published on :youngentrepreneur.com)

Nikhil Arora, 25, and Alejandro Velez, 24, didn't plan on being mushroom farmers. In 2009, during their last semester at the
university  of California, Berkeley, Arora lined up a corporate consulting job and Velez nabbed one in investment banking.
But a lecture on sustainability in a business ethics class changed all that. Their professor mentioned that he had heard it was possible to grow edible mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds.
"No one had ever taken that idea and done anything with it commercially," Arora says. Intrigued by the idea, the students took to Velez's fraternity kitchen, where they set up 10 paint buckets of used coffee grounds fertilized with oyster mushroom spawn. Ten days later, they had sprouted their first crop.
They conceived a business, fueled by a $5,000 prize from a campus innovation competition that allowed them to buy a van and rent a 200-square-foot warehouse. "At that point, that was like giving a million dollars to us," Arora recalls.
Two weeks shy of graduation, Arora and Velez nixed their plans to join corporate America. They spent the summer couchsurfing and giving themselves a crash course in urban farming, tweaking variables like humidity, airflow and temperature. The investment paid off. That October, they sold their first mushrooms to Whole Foods Market in Berkeley. "We still have that invoice on our wall," Arora says.
Soon they branched out into manufacturing and distributing indoor grow-at-home gourmet mushroom kits using recycled coffee grounds as "soil"; this became the basis for their company, Back to the Roots. "We started off doing the fresh mushrooms, then both the mushrooms and kits, and now just the kits," Arora says. "We were almost out of business doing both ... realizing they are very different operations--consumer-branded product vs. fresh produce--and we had to pick one to really execute."
Today, Back to the Roots operates out of a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Oakland, Calif., selling its DIY mushroom kits to 2,500 retailers internationally, including Whole Foods, Safeway, Home Depot, Loblaws in Canada and Three-Sixty in Hong Kong, as well as directly to consumers online. Revenue reached $1.3 million in 2011 and is projected at $5 million this year. Consumer purchases of the $19.95 mushroom kits through the company's website account for 20 percent of all revenue.
To produce the at-home kits, Back to the Roots collects at least 40,000 pounds of used coffee grounds each week from 30 Peet's Coffee & Tea locations. This spared landfills 1 million pounds of coffee grounds in 2011; this year, Back to the Roots is on track to recycle 3.6 million pounds.
Arora and Velez take pride in having grown their sustainable food business organically, without VC or equity funding. To date, their most substantial cash infusion has been $125,000 in prizes from business-plan competitions, including two worth $50,000. To help ensure their employees share their enthusiasm, the owners divide half the company's profits among the 31-person team at year's end. "It's a fun way to align everyone to the same goal," Arora says. "We're all growing together. We really want to build a lifetime, generational brand."
(First published on entrepreneur.com)

5 Tips for Targeting Your Ideal Start-Up Customer


There’s a big difference between visitors and customers.
The logic is simple: Would you rather your startup have 10,000 monthly visitors to its site with a 10 percent sales conversion or attract the attention of 100,000 visitors with only a few finally deciding to buy from you?
This question, as simplistic as it is, remains a big source of frustration for many online entrepreneurs. They often invest a lot of time, energy and finances to drive traffic to their sites, only to find out these people are not even the ones they want to fish out in the first place.
So how can you steer clear from the many traps of aimless traffic generation? Here are five tips:
1. Be a problem solver. You have to admit that at least part of business success has to do with the timeliness of your products or services. You must answer people’s needs. The key is settling into a business that has problems you really love to solve, with customers whose pressing needs you are very good at addressing. When you’re able to identify your niche, you don’t only go out there to earn, you have a unique passion and an offering that suits the needs of those people.
2. Get into your customers’ psyche. People buy not only because they need things, they often buy to satisfy something deeper in them. It’s often the feeling they associate with a product that they finally make the decision to buy. Everybody needs a pair of shoes, but not just any shoes can satisfy that need. This is when branding, reputation and customer service come into play. In fact, this is why there is marketing in the first place. Get into what excites and interests your target market. This is the only way you can tailor-fit your campaign to the people who would not think twice of paying for what you have to offer.
3. Where are your customers? In online marketing, determining how your market interacts with the Internet is very important. It gives you leads to “where” they are online. Online behavior can point you to what sites they frequent, the social-media networks they prefer, the news they’re more likely to read and so on. If you know where they are, you can be sure to focus on places you need to have a commanding presence. This assures you of a steady stream of traffic of ready-to-pay customers, and it prevents you from effectively barking up the wrong tree. We all know how costly and time consuming that can be.
4. Do you really know them? To really pinpoint who your target customer is, you’ll want to dig in deep… find out how they tick, if you will. The key is to learn about them, even change with them over time. So basically, this means you can’t just buy one customer list and operate off that in perpetuity. You’ll need to continuously find out about your target audience. Are they reading things you should be reading? Do they shop at stores you’ve never heard of? All of these puzzle pieces could fit together and help you identify the bigger customer picture, if you’re willing to spend time accumulating them.
5. Close in on the deal. Once you know your customers and understanding where they are and how they think, you can specifically design an online marketing campaign that appeals to those people who would love to pay for your products or services. By being a problem solver, you’re forced to know yourself and understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. But understanding who you want to engage with online really seals the success of your business.

What customer-targeting strategies would you suggest fellow entrepreneurs follow? Let us know in the comments section below.
(First published on :youngentrepreneur.com)
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