I've navigated five technology system transitions across 30 years. Now I work with revenue-stage SaaS CEOs on the AI transition - privately, as a thinking partner, with no agenda but theirs.
Engineering, product, executive - three disciplines, full depth. Chief architect. VP Product. CPO. CPTO. CEO. Four exits across every stage.
Most advisors see one slice - technical, product, or business. Three disciplines in full depth makes it possible to hold all of them simultaneously, without losing resolution when the conversation moves between them.
The CEOs I work with have read everything worth reading. The gap isn't information — it's that none of it maps onto their specific situation, and they've run out of people who can help make that translation without an agenda.
An interesting pattern to make a brief pitch
I had an interesting discussion with Kelly Looney today regarding positioning. Based on his experience, (as I interpret it )positioning starts with identifying and sharing a world-view and then describing what you do (of benefit), in the context of that world-view.
For me, it seems an interesting pattern to use to compose a simple pitch of an idea (e.g. for a startup). So, here's some attempts to try that pattern out:
(worldview) Desktop apps and Web-based apps will co-exist for the foreseeable future. The web-based application market is strong + beyond conventional desktop browser access, access continues to improve (e.g. iPhone and other mobile web devices). At the same time, there is a resurgence in elegant desktop applications for the Mac - and their ease of use and aesthetics are unbeatable. Right now, it's a frequent forced commitment to choose (for a particular function) between working on the desktop or in the clouds. The longer this goes on, the more important it will be to banish that artificial choice - and allow both transparently.
(benefit) We build productivity applications that transparently offer the best for your use regardless of whether your are on a Mac or via the web - we take care of making everything work together.
(worldview) There are often repeated patterns (e.g of activity, thought, etc.) that occur across many disciplines. Recognition and sharing of those patterns will have some unknown and unexpected benefits.
(benefit) We have developed an open community system where patterns are documented, explained, discussed, organized and connected to actual uses in the real world.
Nice.
Down To The Desktop Or Up Into The Clouds
I think that my recent purchase of the iPhone has tipped the balance in quandry I’ve had.
It goes something like this: I’ve wanted a better tool to manage my professional relationships (something I’ve been thinking of as a personal CRM). As a result, I’ve been looking for what Mac apps fill that niche - and there are some nice candidates (e.g. Contactizer, Daylite, even Crm4Mac). At the same time, I see web-based solutions as well (and here’s the ‘in the clouds’ part), such as Highrise, Etelos, even a customized SugarCRM.
Unfortunately, none of these has the right set of features - which would have closed the deal and locked me in (either as a source of recurring revenue for the SaaS solutions or as a grateful customer for a Mac app)
At the same time, it’s itched my concern about whether to committee further ‘down’ into my local box with a Mac app or ‘up’ into the clouds with a web app.
All that leads to this - now that I’ve used my iPhone for a few days, and I’m successful at doing some of my basic tasks on it (e.g. reading blogs, web pages, email) it’s tipped the balance ‘up ot the clouds’. In other words, with no clear feature leader, I will make a solution work that’s an SaaS so that I can use it on my iPhone whereever and when ever I want.
Seperately, I’ll blog about what I really want in a Personal CRM.
My profiles, managed by me...
So if vertical social networks become popular, then the horizontal problem becomes intestering, e.g. how to manage one identity across multiple services. OpenID provides authentication, but nothing beyond that. What about profile data ala Google’s form-fill?
How? Consider this - if an OpenID enabled set of tools existed to extend OpenId so that when you registered, a plugin (ala greasemonkey) would run to take your OpenID related profile data and place it into the registration.
It would require a community of trusted “registration plugins” to be created that used your augmented OpenID data.