Click To Hit

As we fast approach the new site launch within the next couple of weeks, I started to think about the Web 2.0 Expo and what some of the important takeaways were for us as a team.

I’ve played MMORPG’s in the past, the last one I devoted any real time to was Earth and Beyond which took up a few weeks worth of my waking life back in 2002. From my guildies to my character growth the game play and social dynamics were completely immersive and very addictive, which is one of the reasons why I haven’t moved on to any others since it was shut down. I now prefer to relegate my online gaming experiences to short tactical based shooters such as Counterstrike Source and Battlefield 2142. It’s something I can dive in, acquire an hour or two of fun, and turn off without issue since there are no real strategic ‘goals’ I can lose myself in trying to achieve. Are these tactical shooters more rewarding than a good MMORPG? I don’t think so. You don’t get the same immersion or social reward that you can from games like WOW, but I also don’t face the issues I did in 2002 like a fiancé screaming for attention or work being put to the backburner that negatively affected my progress towards goals that influenced my real life.

This startup is my new immersion since I can lose myself on a daily basis, acquire the social interaction I desire, and accomplish the goals I set out to that materialize on a daily basis. Plus, I still have the fiancé screaming for attention so I know the addiction has to be similar in some way. The key difference though is that this immersion is also moving me forward in real life, as opposed to the fake one I create in someone else’s world who I have to pay to participate in on a monthly or episodic basis.

The reason I’m explaining all of this is because a few of the sessions we attended focused on how the science of online gaming is leading the world in social interactive immersion, and that the basic principals of this science are applicable to online social networks. I totally agree, with the important difference being that social networks can provide the same or better rewards emotionally, but similar to how this startup rewards me, some of them can also help you become more knowledgeable and powerful in this thing we all call real life.

We’ve designed our platform to have immersive features that allow users to socialize and interact in an environment with a shared goal. Similar to online gaming it’s a goal that all users share to one extent or another, and our community members all have to collaborate and work together to achieve their goals. Those that focus more at working with others will be more successful than those that are interested in the altruistic rewards, but all users will acquire the gratification they are looking for no matter what they want when they enter our community. The key difference though is that the rewards they will be able to achieve add to their real life existence on a daily basis, and it’s something where members will be able to earn tangible financial incentives for the effort they invest into the community versus us charging them for their contributions.

There are some very exciting things about what we are planning to launch, and I can’t wait to hear feedback from all of you when we pull back that curtain and show off what we’ve been working so very hard to create for you.

I have to say that the conference is very well attended, from Entrepreneurs to Investors to Services Providers, right down to a ton of Enterprises all looking to leverage the “user revolution”. I would estimate almost three thousand attendees have come here from around the world, and even though some of the sessions were a little disappointing from a content depth perspective, we’ve acquired some valuable learning and the networking has been amazing so far.

To our surprise we’ve run into quite a few domain professionals here at the conference. It’s refreshing to be able to connect with these contacts in a non domain centric environment and talk about some of the stuff they’re working on in terms of integrating a little “web 2.0 sprinkle”, as Richard Rosenblatt likes to call it.

The keynote yesterday was a little disappointing since it appeared to be more of a pitch on Amazon’s new development services, but it was pretty cool to watch Tim O’Reilly poke Jeff Bezos over the Alexaholic incident in front of such a huge crowd.

Today’s keynotes were much better. There was some fantastic data analysis from Dave Sifry of Technorati and Bill Tancer of Hitwise on traffic trends, new site growth, and the health of the blogosphere. Also, there was a great interview with Eric Schmidt where they delved into everything from Google’s new presentation addition to their docs and spreadsheets family straight to comments on the recent Double Click acquisition.

That’s about all the time I have to blog for now, but hopefully I’ll be able to do a more in-depth write up once I get back from the conference. In the meantime I’m going to lose myself in some more 2.0 goodness.

I’m off to San Francisco tonight to attend the Web 2.0 Expo this week. There are a few of us from the team flying down together so we’re really excited about losing ourselves in the scene, exploring as much learning as there is available, and hopefully generating a bit of a buzz about our little project.

I’ll blog a bit about the conference during the trip, so stay tuned…

One thing about a startup is that you’re continually being challenged by your budget. It’s a nasty beast that threatens the vision you’re trying to shape on a daily basis, and unless you learn how to tame it and make it work for you, you’ll face huge challenges down that final mile to your launch date.

One important factor in shaping the use of that budget is defining your weak points and addressing them. It’s pretty easy to identify strengths, but defining the areas you’ll need help with is something you should work hard to identify earlier rather than later. It can be scary, but identifying your weaknesses early is a key to any success in early stage companies. Once this has been achieved, you have a few choices of addressing them dependant on how strategic they are to your plans where consultants and contractors offer a boon of resources that usually provide a hell of a lot more bang for the buck than hiring staff.

You like to think you’ve covered your bases when it comes to the key components of your management team, such as technical, marketing, sales, finance etc… but working with experts who live and breathe one of these verticals daily makes all the difference. Working in a startup requires a generalist’s approach even when focused on a particular area, and just the mere distractions that occur on a daily basis can take away from the output in areas you consider yourself to be an expert in.

One thing I truly believe is that when it comes to certain key areas, you can’t “No Frill” your way to success, and I was reminded of that after a 3 hour brainstorming session with the brilliant Marketing/Design team we contracted to help us with the brand strategy of our closed beta. We went through a thorough RFP process to identify our vendor of choice, but after the legal contracts were out of the way the fruit really started to shine as we’ve progressed to digging in on actual work.

I’ve learned it’s very important to focus on quality versus quantity when outsourcing important segments of your project. Identify the best, because even though they may be pricier than someone in your family or network, the output is almost always worth the expenditure. Top firms, whether they are a law firm, design firm, marketing firm, or tax consultants, attract the best talent when they consider new additions to their team. That talent and the associated deep resources are what you’re trying to leverage with your limited budget. Even though they may take a somewhat bigger piece of your budget pie, the odds are in your favor that they’ll have the resources and creative to go beyond your expectations in filling out your weak points.