Looks like we are not a Dot-Bomb 2.0
Written on July 17, 2006 by Conor O'Neill
Taking the list of 11 suggestions for Not Being a Dot-Bomb 2.0 courtesy of the dead2.0 blog, I think our plan stacks up pretty well.
1. Have a revenue model, right now. We have two, the early model and the live-n-kicking model. I wouldn’t have got into this otherwise.
2. Be a complete business, not just a feature. Yes, completely covered. We ask the same question over and over: “why will people use our site?”. And the answers are solid.
3. Affect real people, not just bloggers. Amen, brother. Our business plan has been given to more non-techies than techies. Only one blogger has seen it. All of them _got_ it.
4. Get a real, memorable name. Ah shucks, and I just registered FlimFlamFoodle. We actually took two English words which mean something and jammed them together. Very old fashioned but totally memorable. Beats Argolon anyway 
5. If applicable, get unaffiliated with Web 2.0, because it is hype and will have a very negative backlash in a little while. The word-police are out in force again and I’m getting tired of it. We’ll describe our business in terms that are familiar to whoever we are talking to. If Web 2.0 is familiar then that is what we’ll use, if “one of those there web-site doo-dahs” is what gets the message across then doo-dah it is.
6. Find some friends who don’t drink the kool-aid and get their honest feedback. This should be everyone’s first step. My first port of call was a 67-year old technophobe. Handed him the concept document and said “read this and tell me if you have any idea what I’m talking about”. He got 95% of it. Next port of call was EI, they challenged lots of it but they also got it. Every person who constructively criticises just makes the plan stronger and stronger.
7. If you are revolutionary, make sure that a revolution is coming. We are more evolutionary but we still have to make judgement calls on the speed of some technology uptakes. Metrics, metrics, metrics.
8. If you are evolutionary, then there needs to be a big enough market to address with a “we’re a little better than them†vision. Our evolution is to take an existing successful business model and go about it in a far more scalable way. We are orders of magnitude better not a little better.
9. Fit your business into an existing food chain. We slot in just nicely.
10. Do not expect to be Google and, just as importantly, do not expect them to buy you. Nah, but strive to be them. You’ll get nowhere without ambition.
11. Ignore the hype and have fun. Most fun I’ve had in business in 10 years.
Technorati Tags: dot bomb, dead2.0
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Na - you are just picking the easy questions to answer
It is reassuring to be able to work your way down through them isn’t it Conor? When (roughly) will you be launching this?
keith
We have to build it first. Current plan is Q1 2007 for public launch.
That whole "building it" thing. It is so 1997. Can you just not launch now?
If only it would build itself
Test
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