A VC in Vacationland

Seeking the next gen supply chain technology breakthroughs

recent posts

about

  • Billy Mays: Crucial Lessons for Entrepreneurs??

    Italian street, with laundry hung to dryImage via Wikipedia

    Billy Mays, here….

    Well, not any longer, although his estate seems to think they can live off his residuals, since many of his ads still run.  It's sad to think we won't have Billy around to flog the inventor's latest "product you cannot live without".

    But are you thinking Billy Mays may not have much useful advice to offer the entrepreneur?  Don't laugh or even chuckle about the idea. What you can learn from Billy is crucial to your success, both in the marketplace and in raising capital.

    Billy is perhaps best known for his Oxi Clean commercials, where one softball size ball of detergent, chucked into your washing machine and forgotten, will do 25 loads of laundry. Simple messages, great customer testimonials and products that really worked were Billy's forte. He rejected perhaps 99% of the hundreds of inventors/companies that approached him, choosing only those products that met his three key metrics. And he and his inventors made millions in the process….

    And those metrics are same ones that can make an entrepreneur successful.  Say what you want about Billy (he was a very complex person: consummate pitch man, in your face presenter, dying with enough drugs in his body to start a pharmacy, etc., etc. ), but his message will live on:

    1. Keep the pitch short and simple–Billy's pitch, repeated endlessly on late night and prime time, were no more than 1-2 minutes long
    2. Be passionate in your pitches–Billy really believed in the products he sold, requiring numerous tests to make sure the product or service really did what it supposed to do. Once convinced, there was no stopping him. And his presentations showed that passion…not like that phony Shamwow guy.
    3. Address clear customer needs–Billy wanted products that anyone could use, not just a select market segment–who does not have dirty clothes (Oxi Clean)? Needs a knife to cook (Samurai Shark)? Want shiny clean floors (Orange Glo)? or, my favorite, who has ever wished they could permanently cement their mother (or father)-in-law to a chair (mighty putty)?
    4. Have believable customer testimonials–Billy did not use actors, but recruited users who were true believers. Who could not like the housewives who had orgasms over their newly waxed floors? 

    We will miss you, Billy…late night TV will never be the same.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
    http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • No Excuses: E Books out of Stock in November?

    Sony Reader, PRS-505 modelImage via Wikipedia

    Hey, we are not speaking about two years ago when Amazon ran out of Kindles.  E Books have been a big success for Amazon for a long time, in spite of the fact that only 1% of the population uses it.  That's still a lot of sales.

    And now Sony and Barnes & Noble did not make enough to satisfy even preliminary demand in November? What gives here? The B&N Nook is out of stock on the company’s web site and it is now taking orders for devices that will ship next year. Analysts say that the Nook wasn’t ready for shipment in huge quantities and B&N probably launched it anyway to head off sales for Amazon’s rival Kindle eBook reader.  The Sony Reader, another e-book competitor, also is not guaranteed to ship by the holidays, according to Sony's Web site. "Pre-orders will ship Dec. 18 thru Jan. 8. Actual delivery date cannot be guaranteed," the site says.

    Are Sony and Barnes & Noble that bad at forecasting? It will be interesting to hear the forensics on this debacle.  E Books have the potential to be the product of the year.  Amazon will reap the lion's share of the profits…again. Oh, there is Spring Design's Alex as well, but that is not expected to ship until, you guessed it, spring.

    Update: according to Paid Content, one newcomer that did make that promise will be missing: the iRex DR800SG, which had shelf space guaranteed at Best Buy and planned initially to be on some of them by the end of October. That slipped to November, then again.  iRex Technologies execs have declined interviews or detailed comment but a company rep told paidContent today it “has experienced unexpected delays” and isn’t issuing a new delivery date yet. That will have to wait until early January—at the earliest.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
    http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • Supply Chain Innovators: Delphi Trade

    A new investment fund has been launched, aimed at helping US exporters with weak credit (read: auto companies) export products to lucrative markets.  Delphi Trade, founded by Craig Allen and other export finance veterans, opened for business in late September. In the longer term, the fund will finance exports in developing markets, but in the shorter term has numerous opportunities in the US.

    Supply chain finance companies help exporters with weak credit ratings sell products to buyers concerned about payment risk.  Delphi helps companies capture new markets as well as serve existing customers by forwarding money to buy pre-sold goods and then passing them on to the end buyer, collecting a trade margin as its payment.

    Manufacturers benefit because Delphi begins delivering payment immediately after a deal is signed, as opposed to months down the road when a product is delivered. The accelerated cash flow then can be used to purchase materials for production.

    Although auto companies will be their initial focus, energy markets are also under evaluation as are other commodity markets, such as mining.

    Check them out at Delphi Trade Inc.

  • Book Review: Our Iceberg is Melting

    Cover of "Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changin...Cover via Amazon

    I may be the last person in the business world to read John Kotter's Our Iceberg is Melting. I usually avoid parables and fables couched as business books. But I was asked to read the book as part of an ongoing transformation at one of the non-profits we consult with on a regular basis. And I am a convert to how the book can be very useful to start-ups, successful companies, non-profits and even your own life.

    Why did I change my mind?

    First, it's short and to the point. My wife read the book to me in a recent drive from our home in Maine to a meeting in Boston, about a one and one-half hour drive.  Yes, my wife reads to me often in the car.  We both enjoy it. We both found the book entertaining and educational at the same time.  We often stopped reading and guessed at how some of the main "characters" (the penguins) would behave in various situations. We ended up having a lively discussion at dinner before the meeting about the messages in the book.  No business book has ever created so much interest and dialogue for us.

    Second, it's all about involvement and communications, stupid. One of the major failings I see in companies and relationships is the inability to draw affected people into a decision process and using everyone's input to craft a solution. The book describes in detail both how to do this and what issues one may encounter in the process. No one likes change. Period. And Kotter speaks in detail how best to get people to accept and even embrace change.

    Third, we all better listen to the lessons. Our world is constantly changing as is our relationships with our friends and loved ones.  Embracing the ability to change and having a process to adapt is crucial to our survival. Remember that we are all here because our ancestors were the ones that embraced change and survived. We need to keep learning that lesson in our organizations and personal lives.

    Finally, we have the opportunity to change. I don't care how rich you are and can avoid change, or how you think you might be isolated from the huge changes that our going on in our world. You aren't. Stupid as it may sound, there is opportunity in crisis. In the world of start-ups, for example, all the old paradigms on building a successful company are obsolete. Take the current opportunity to change as your chance to redefine your business model before it is too late.

    For $12 or so on Amazon, this is the cheapest advice you can get on how to be successful in life and business.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • MIT Plans New Online Publication About Entrepreneurship

    MIT Sloan LogoImage via Wikipedia

    According to Xconomy, MIT
    is planning to launch a student-led online publication focused on
    entrepreneurship by the end of the year. The fledgling publication will be called the MIT
    Entrepreneurship Review (MITER) and will aim to serve as a resource for
    entrepreneurs and to raise the already high profile of the prestigious
    school in the business world.

    The publication is being organized much like a law review, seeking
    student editors, based on merit, to provide editorial content, said
    Eduard Viladesau, a graduate student at the MIT Sloan School of
    Management, who is one of the founders of MITER. The plan is to have
    weekly columns that focus on entrepreneurship issues in the energy,
    life sciences, and IT sectors. The publication’s editorial review board
    currently consists of several MIT faculty members such as Bob Langer
    and Michael Cima who have experience in inventing technologies and
    founding numerous startups. (Our own Bob has also agreed to serve as an
    advisor to MITER.) It’s also expected that other entrepreneurs and
    business leaders who are affiliated with MIT will contribute articles
    to the publication.

    While academic publications such as the Harvard Business Review
    cover entrepreneurship as well as other business issues, Viladesau
    said, the MIT Entrepreneurship Review plans to have an exclusive focus
    on entrepreneurship. The content of the online publication—which will
    include case studies, startup profiles, and analyses of major trends or
    problems facing entrepreneurs—is expected to be more technical and
    analytical than, say, stories in the popular press. But the articles
    will not be peer-reviewed or as elaborate as those found in a
    traditional academic journal. The Web-based publication will be
    available for free on the public Internet.

    “We have three main missions,” Viladesau said. “One is to build and
    promote the thought-leadership brand of MIT.” The other two goals of
    the publication are to serve as a resource to entrepreneurs and to
    attract top students to the school.

    The concept of a Web-based and student-run entrepreneurship
    publication was previously adopted at Stanford University. Stanford’s
    Entrepreneurship Corner, or ECorner,
    is a free online publication that features videos, podcasts, and
    written resources for entrepreneurs. Viladesau told me that MITER will
    initially have mostly written articles, but future plans include videos
    and other multimedia offerings like those found at ECorner.

    Viladesau told Xconomy that the idea to found the publication came from Bill Aulet, acting director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center
    (and an Xconomist), who recruited Viladesau to help transform the idea
    into reality. Aulet is now advising Viladesau and two other Sloan
    students who are managing the development of the publication. (MIT
    professor Ed Roberts, the chairman and founder of the MIT
    Entrepreneurship Center, is on the editorial advisory board of MITER.)
    The group is expected to hold a competition to select student editors
    for the publication, and each of them will receive a $1,000 cash prize
    for winning a slot on the editorial team. The publication could launch
    as early as late November.

    Happy Turkey Day…be sure and eat too much and fall asleep on the couch as Dallas & Romo lose to the hapless Raiders….

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management: Redux

    Over ten years ago, Frank Britt, Donovan Favre and myself first published The 7 Principles of Supply Chain Management.  The article has remained popular over the years, mostly because many companies still have problems adjusting their supply chains to changing market conditions.

    Steve Banker, supply chain analyst at the ARC Advisory Group, recently published an expanded commentary on one of the principles, Customizing Your Logistics Network to Meet Customer Needs, which has some interesting "updates" on our ideas that are worth reading.

    Enjoy!

  • Buffett’s Big Bet and the Ghost Fleets in Malaysia

    Warren Buffett has made a huge bet on global economic growth by purchasing the remaining stock he does not own in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) for $26 billion. BNSF, the nation's second-largest railroad, is the biggest hauler
    of food products for export such as corn, and coal for electricity, making it a key indicator of
    the country's economic health.  The railroad
    also ships a large amount of consumer goods — including items imported from Asia
    — from big Western ports like Los Angeles and Seattle. Buffett says in interviews that this is a long term bet on the strength of the US economy, as well as a play on energy prices, as railroads move freight at a much lower energy cost per ton-mile than trucks.

    But just how long term is the bet? One can gain some insights from a fascinating article on the ghost fleets of Malaysia, recently published in the UK's Daily Mail.  Hundreds of ships from every nation-tankers, container ships, dry bulk and specialty carriers sit idle just east of Singapore.  It will be years before global trade returns to the pre-crash levels.  With over 12% of the world's container fleet idle, it will take some mighty fast growth in Europe and the US to return many of these behemoths to the trades.  And many may never return to service.  If consumption growth picks up in Asia and India, which governments are encouraging, the ships will never be needed to move goods within domestic markets.  You can also bet those consumers will not be buying a lot of US and European products any time soon, based on iPhones pitiful recent sales in China, among other indicators.

    So Warren better plan on living another decade or so to see this investment pay off. Even our grain and coal exports–major traffic flows on the BNSF–are seeing major competition from Australia and South America, putting further pressure on potential commodity trade growth out of the US. All in all, Warren may have made a savvy buy for the long term, but owners of A&B shares in Berkshire Hathaway should not expect a lot of near term returns from this investment. Let's hope it is not another ill-timed foray by Warren into the transportation sector, like the US Airways bet. If it does turn out to be a poor investment, then we may be all in for an extended period of poor growth….not a fun thought.

  • Green Logistics: ReCORK and SOLE Footwear Alliance

    Re use wine corksImage by H Robertson Photography via Flickr

    About a year ago, I posted on the ReCORK/Whole Foods partnership to recycle used corks from wine bottles. Now we know what is going to happen to some of these corks. ReCORK announced on 5 October that they are partnering with SOLE Footwear of Canada to reclaim and "up-cycle" a portion of the billions of natural cork wine closures (trade-speak) currently discarded by US and Canadian consumers.

    According to the press release, SOLE is a leading manufacturer of footwear products with distribution throughout North America.  The used corks are re-manufactured into a cork blend for their footwear products, which both enhances the "material properties" (whatever they are) of the footwear products while extending the useful life of the cork for years to come.

    ReCORK's recycling partners include American Airlines/Sodexo, The Wine Tasting Network, Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, Rodney Strong Wine Estates, Cakebread Cellars, Rutherford Wine Company and Plumpjack, among many others. So far, over 4 million corks have been collected, with minimal promotion.  The alliance with SOLE will allow ReCORK to substantially expand their collection efforts.

    I wonder if the new footwear products will be cork specific–the Cabernet loafers or the Chardonnay slippers come to mind. And can we smell the fruity nose of each wine as we walk in the new footwear? Will the soft cork innersoles invoke a pleasant, summer's day walk in the vineyards?  Doubtful, although the fact that the corks do not end up in a landfill or furnace should make wine lovers feel good.  Now if we can do something about those bottles….

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • You See Your Ideas….

    Porsche Type 12, Model 1:5 at Nuremberg Museum...Image via Wikipedia

    I know..this is a weird title.  But it has deep meaning.  One of the interesting aspects of life is that "you see your ideas", that is if you are planning on buying a VW Touareg, you now see them all over the place where you never noticed one before.  There must be a special place in the brain that stores these ideas and creates awareness when that idea surfaces in your vision.

    This is very much how a VC's mind works.  I have a set of ideas about where the world of technology is headed and when reality makes those "ideas" pop up in front of me, my brain becomes interested.  This can happen anywhere–on the web, at a conference, visiting a university and meeting researchers, etc.  I never know where I might find something that will relate to that idea in my brain.

    This does not mean I immediately "do something" about that reality that relates to one of my ideas.  Often, I let it "marinate" in the brain for days or weeks before knowing if I might pursue it.  If the new reality is someone with an entrepreneurial idea, I generally wait to see if the person can develop the concept into a viable business plan.  The world is full of good ideas.  I do not have time to develop them, only encourage entrepreneurs to move forward.

    Often, the person with the new concept is taken aback.  "I thought you were a VC and funded new businesses" is invariably the retort after I tell them to go off and develop the concept into a business plan.  I am, but it is not my job to bring it to market, only to provide advice and funding.

    My basic advice to new entrepreneurs is to "see you ideas" as well.  You must be aware of the marketplace where your ideas will land and how customers will perceive your idea among all the great and competitive ideas that exist in this marketplace.

    What's the picture above all about?  It's a prototype for the first VW bug, designed by Doctor Porsche. I wonder how many people looked at it and thought that a "people's car" was a joke.  Nope.  It was one of the biggest automobile ideas of the 20th century.  But it was not the design, it was how it was marketed, manufactured and sold that made the difference.  All successful entrepreneurs have a broad "world view" of their marketplace and how their idea will succeed. They see their ideas….

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js

  • Marketing & Sales Innovators: Yext

    Auckland 2004 Yellow Pages booksImage via Wikipedia

    OK, I know a lot people think that Howard Lerman, founder of Yext is a jerk, did not invent anything, will fail, or, if you prefer add your criticism in Comments below. But hey, the guy just raised $25 million from some pretty smart VCs, including IVP (a Twitter investor–but please save the rants on that one as well for the moment). According to TechCrunch50 attendees, his demo left a judge "speechless" and resulted in a traffic jam at the podium of VCs trying to give him their business card.

    So why does Dave think he is not a jerk?  Yext is already making $20 Million a year going after the Yellow Pages (YP).  There is not a more miserable example of old media trying to hang onto their water-soaked remnants of the past (has anyone out there ever received a dry YP on their doorstep?) than the YP.  Ever try using their website and get sent to the Australia YP instead of New York?  Real easy to happen, that one is. Yext is going after the YP's business with on-line ads for local businesses which generate real phone calls from people looking to use their services. Not such a great idea you say?  lots of competitors, right?

    But do the competitors have the right business model? Perhaps not. At TechCrunch50, Yext previewed a pay-per-action, not a pay-per-click, business model,
    were the action is a relevant call that actually drives new business. I will spare you the technical details, but the platform sits behind the old-media sites like a mailbox and collects details on inbound calls for the business When a business signs up, Yext places ads in local YP websites–YellowPages.com, SuperPages.com, Local.com, etc. Responses to these ads flow through the Yext platform and are instantly available to the business for action. Wrong numbers, junk calls and (oops!) marketing calls are placed in a junk folder for the business to later sort through, just like Outlook.

    Lerman is so confident that the pay-per-action model is the future for his business that he has switched all of his 20,000 customers over to the model.  That takes big you-know what's.

    What's the downside?  First, Yext is only active in 12 local categories–like auto repair, chiropractors(that's a weird one), gyms, vets, and yoga, or .005 percent of YP categories. He plans to use the new venture money to expand categories, hiring sales people to go after key verticals. He also plans to be big in the mobile space and allow all sorts of apps developers to tag on new goodies.  The big challenge will come from the well funded, legacy players in this space, who will probably buy the guy out for $250 or more million and then sit on/not use/screw up the technology (think MySpace).  We'll see real soon on this one. Rupert, where are you?  This is a perfect space for you.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js