I was doing a bit of digital cleaning, clearing opening old files and organizing them when I found my notes for a presentation done by Michael Malcom’s from Kaleiscape.
The most memorable note I took was this popular HR saying: Hired for what you can do and fired because of who you are.
Here are some other memorable notes from his speech:
Revenue is a measure of value delivered; profit is about efficiency.
Business partnerships are like marriages. Shit happens and you can’t just sweep it under a rug…you have to deal with it right now.
Don’t build a perfect product when you first launch it since the customers can give you feedback and ideas you wouldn’t have thought of when trying to design the perfect product.
I love Google Video. They have all the documentries in the world there.
Here are some key points that I’ve made from Guy Kawasaki’s Art of Innovation presentation. If you’ve seen his Art of the Start presentation, then these will look awfully familiar to you. In fact, I think he even used the same slides…
1) The DICEE Concept
Deep – does what it should and antipicates what you need. A product that goes above and beyond in solving a need.
Intelligence – pretty obvious. Put some thought into your products/services!
Complete – great products/services also include the support infrastructure around them, such as support, forums, conferences, websites – everything.
Elegance – has to be easy to use without a 50-page manual.
Emotive – Your product/service should polarize people. Either people will love it or absolutely hate it, but the point is nobody will become indifferent to your product or service.
2) Ride the Curve but Don’t Stay on the Same One
Don’t be 10-15% better at what you do, instead be 10-15 times better. This means that innovators should not always build on existing product/services that they are currently offering in order to meet changing demands, but rather to seek out the possibility of the ‘next curve’ and build products for it.
3) Your First Iteration Will Suck, but That’s Okay
Here’s the truth about the tech business: We ship and then we test. Do this to ride the curve before anyone else, or the world will past you by.
4) Tips for Your Pitches – The ’10-20-30 Rule’
10 slides maximum
20 minutes for all the slides
30 is the optimal font size
The rest is for Q&A and other miscellaneous things.
You can view the entire video (~50 min. long) here:
Today, I did a 40+ min presentation in front of a panel of 4 judges for the Enterprise co-op option, which assists UW students with their startups. The option was started in 1999 and only around 50 applicants has been approved.
Now, I’m one of them
The presentation went really smoothly and I felt like I’ve expressed my passion and enthusiasm for my venture pretty well. Two of the judges are also involved with the Start Your Own Business Summer Program, so I think I have a pretty good chance on getting a government grant for my business in the summer as well!
The judges were also very helpful in informing me how big transactions in the marketing world are made. There are several challenges that they have brought up that I must think thoroughly over, but what a great experience it was presenting my business!
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