A bit out of my usual territory, but there are some classic interview no-no's cited in Jennifer Tortorella's blog here which made me smile.
PS For those of you recruiting in the IT Industry on the East Coast you would struggle to do better than work with Jennifer.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Reflections on the Valley
I was recently in San Francisco - only the third time since we founded our start-up in the UK and again I was struck by the vast differences between the culture in the Valley versus here in Europe.
I met several seasoned entrepreneurs on their fourth, fifth, six start-up who were younger than me - three years into my first at 36.
The scarce commodity in the Valley is coding. If you are a quality coder with an idea then you can invest time and energy in an idea and find a receptive audience to listen to your plans with a view to backing you. The model is that if you then generate traction a management team is drafted in to provide the professional backbone to the company.
That model does not exist in Europe - indeed though increasingly scarce, coders are seldom the most highly paid individuals within a company. Looking at the network operators in the mobile space the order of pay for mid level employees would probably run: strategy, business development, marketing, portal management and then coders. This has much to do with the sourcing of these employees: strategists tend to come from management consultancies with associated salaries versus self made, home made developers.
In the US it is the ingenuity of the developer which is seen as the secret sauce of the company and backed. In Europe, it tends often to be the Management Team even at a seed level and a developer on their own is perceived as less credible.
The best advice I would give to any UK developer with an idea would be to up sticks and go to the Valley for two years. There will be so much opportunity in that time that it would never be a wasted experience.
At one event, I heard Steve Ballmer say that the gift he wants to give to his children is a love of technology and the inquisitiveness to use it to try new things. I can totally understand how his environment and the investment environment in the US fits this answer. In the UK, I think that this would be a less clear cut ambition. Vive la change!
I met several seasoned entrepreneurs on their fourth, fifth, six start-up who were younger than me - three years into my first at 36.
The scarce commodity in the Valley is coding. If you are a quality coder with an idea then you can invest time and energy in an idea and find a receptive audience to listen to your plans with a view to backing you. The model is that if you then generate traction a management team is drafted in to provide the professional backbone to the company.
That model does not exist in Europe - indeed though increasingly scarce, coders are seldom the most highly paid individuals within a company. Looking at the network operators in the mobile space the order of pay for mid level employees would probably run: strategy, business development, marketing, portal management and then coders. This has much to do with the sourcing of these employees: strategists tend to come from management consultancies with associated salaries versus self made, home made developers.
In the US it is the ingenuity of the developer which is seen as the secret sauce of the company and backed. In Europe, it tends often to be the Management Team even at a seed level and a developer on their own is perceived as less credible.
The best advice I would give to any UK developer with an idea would be to up sticks and go to the Valley for two years. There will be so much opportunity in that time that it would never be a wasted experience.
At one event, I heard Steve Ballmer say that the gift he wants to give to his children is a love of technology and the inquisitiveness to use it to try new things. I can totally understand how his environment and the investment environment in the US fits this answer. In the UK, I think that this would be a less clear cut ambition. Vive la change!
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Gaming: how serious are you?
A friend of mine alerted me to a product from a company called Zeemote which was also featured on CNN during the recent Mobile World Congress (click here for the video which also features a bonus through an unintentionally hilarious introduction to Samsung's iPhone killer).
It is a one hand games console for the mobile phone. Such innovation and innovators make the world a better place without a shadow of a doubt.
Will it work?
Nah. Though I'll willingly eat humble pie if I am wrong.
There are too few people that serious to want to gain this advantage on a mobile game and those that are that serious would rather invest their time at getting better on the Wii or PS rather than the phone. I also think the action of having to hold the phone steady in one hand while using the other is a little impractical – but I am just picturing a crammed tube journey perhaps with the eight people jammed against me thinking I am having a seizure.
It is a one hand games console for the mobile phone. Such innovation and innovators make the world a better place without a shadow of a doubt.
Will it work?
Nah. Though I'll willingly eat humble pie if I am wrong.
There are too few people that serious to want to gain this advantage on a mobile game and those that are that serious would rather invest their time at getting better on the Wii or PS rather than the phone. I also think the action of having to hold the phone steady in one hand while using the other is a little impractical – but I am just picturing a crammed tube journey perhaps with the eight people jammed against me thinking I am having a seizure.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
A rare insight into T9
This video is a real gem for those of you that have not seen it at some stage.
Monday, 18 February 2008
I think Vodafone gets it
Below is an excerpt from a Press Release from Vodafone:
I think this is a smart move from Vodafone which again demonstrates its strategic maturity compared to its peers. To be more than a bit pipe it needs to be a portal of choice for the end user. In fact, I would argue for its stock market valuation it needs to be a portal first and an operator second. I think this hire is an excellent statement of intent in this direction as well as bringing top tier resource again into its management structure.
Vodafone Group Plc today announces the creation of Vodafone Internet Services which will lead the development and delivery of Vodafone’s current and future consumer propositions for the internet. Vodafone has appointed Pieter Knook, a senior vice president of Microsoft, to the newly formed role of Director of Internet Services.
I think this is a smart move from Vodafone which again demonstrates its strategic maturity compared to its peers. To be more than a bit pipe it needs to be a portal of choice for the end user. In fact, I would argue for its stock market valuation it needs to be a portal first and an operator second. I think this hire is an excellent statement of intent in this direction as well as bringing top tier resource again into its management structure.
Thursday, 14 February 2008
User tenacity: why operators need to shape up
Some of the team members have returned from the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. There was one anecdote that I found fascinating and another wake-up call to the operators - are they listening?
On T-Mobile the cost of mobile data roaming when abroad is £7.50 per MB - this means the BBC homepage alone costs £2.25!!!! Sensible as they are the guys recognised this as a rip-off and bought local SIM cards to pay local rates while they were there. By the by, this is now standard practice for any sustained trip in our company.
They went further. They downloaded JoikuSpot which allowed one of them to establish their phone as a Wifi hotspot using the local data connection and then routed all other WiFi enabled phones through that.
Granted that these are techy savvy users I will take the point that this will not worry T-Mobile too much. However, what tech savvy users are doing today is test prototype methods for avoiding costs tomorrow for the mass market.
If T-Mobile had charged less then the team would not have gone to such efforts, but their pricing is well above the sweetspot and this behaviour ensued. Remember that SMS evolved only because it was cheaper than voice calls - one can hardly call the interface user friendly.
As a result of their pricing T-Mobile did not receive one cent of revenue from a significant number of high using early adopters.
On T-Mobile the cost of mobile data roaming when abroad is £7.50 per MB - this means the BBC homepage alone costs £2.25!!!! Sensible as they are the guys recognised this as a rip-off and bought local SIM cards to pay local rates while they were there. By the by, this is now standard practice for any sustained trip in our company.
They went further. They downloaded JoikuSpot which allowed one of them to establish their phone as a Wifi hotspot using the local data connection and then routed all other WiFi enabled phones through that.
Granted that these are techy savvy users I will take the point that this will not worry T-Mobile too much. However, what tech savvy users are doing today is test prototype methods for avoiding costs tomorrow for the mass market.
If T-Mobile had charged less then the team would not have gone to such efforts, but their pricing is well above the sweetspot and this behaviour ensued. Remember that SMS evolved only because it was cheaper than voice calls - one can hardly call the interface user friendly.
As a result of their pricing T-Mobile did not receive one cent of revenue from a significant number of high using early adopters.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Danger!
In the midst of the noisy flurry from this year's annual jaunt to Barcelona for the mobile industry was this announcement concerning the purchase of Danger by Microsoft. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed but I hope that the Danger guys are happy - some of the nicest, happiest and most genuine people I have met in the industry. At times I know it was a hard slog but this would appear to be a great outcome for their efforts. Well done to Hank, James, Jamie and the rest of the team.
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