@16V Blog: SaaS Vendors Should Learn from Netflix

I posted an article titled SaaS Vendors Should Learn from Netflix on the Sixteen Ventures blog after reading a story about the great, proactive Customer Service at Netflix. It made for a great analogy for SaaS Vendors (though Netflix itself is SaaS by definition), and by extrapolation Blockbuster (or an analog) is like a Legacy Software vendor. Be sure to check it out, but make sure you read the comments... already a great discussion going on there.

Follow me on Twitter @lincolnmurphy or @16v

@16V Blog: Maximize Revenue with Strategic Product Development Webinar - Recording, Slides, and Q&A

The Recorded Maximize Revenues with Strategic SaaS Product Development Webinar, Slides from the webinar, and answers to the Q&A questions that we didn't have time for are now available on the Sixteen Ventures blog. That was a great webinar and working with OpSource on that was a fantastic experience. I hope to do it again soon.

Traction

How often do you hear the word "traction" when talking about growth in market share? "All we need is to get some traction." Does it matter what kind of "traction" you get?

I was speaking to a colleague about this and the notion of those 4x4 Rock Crawlers came up as the most common kind of traction in early-stage companies. Its not ideal, its hard to get, and you might fall over. This type of traction is often seen by companies whose growth is due to the fact that their product solves a pain, but their growth is ultimately stymied by inability to accurately convey that message to their clients. In other words, their clients have figured out their value prop, even if they haven't!


I got this picture from Off-Road.com

This type of traction is often the result of failed marketing (or lack thereof) within the organization, but the fact that there is any traction at all is enough to encourage the team to keep moving forward as they have been. Ultimately, this type of traction is not sustainable and should be avoided.

The other type of traction would be that of a dragster... you smoke your tires at first to make them sticky, but from then on its a straight shot down the track. It is not without its risks of course... if you veer off course, even a little, you might quickly run into a wall. Or, if you take your mind off of what you are doing for just a second, you could run out of track and crash at the end.


I got this picture from here... its not in English so I don't know what it says

In other words, don't be fooled by this type of traction... it might not be as great as it seems. Ensure that the traction you are gaining is profitable or you could run out of track before you know it.

Finally, while I was searching for pictures to accompany this post I was reminded of yet another kind of traction... the kind that you endure in recovery from a neck injury! If you are unaware of the dangers of the other two types of traction, you might just end up here!


I got this picture here

Rick Bayless, Mexican Food, and Building a Business

Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Frontera Foods, and Mexico: One Plate at a Time was featured on the latest episode of CNBC's original series "The Entrepreneurs." I eat at Frontera Grill whenever I'm in Chicago (I will be up there in June and I can't wait!), I love his show on PBS, and after watching the latest episode of "The Entrepreneurs" on CNBC, well... I just like him and his story even more.

It is Rick's show on PBS that introduced me to him and I've been a fan ever since. The cool part is that his show was basically a marketing gimmick that he and his business partner Manuel Valdes, now CEO of Frontera Foods, came up with to further their brand. I didn't realize that. They saw how the Food Network was really growing and Celebrity Chefs such as Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay were using their new found fame as leverage to expand their restaraunt and product empires. Rick and Manuel decided that they didn't want to wait for the Food Network to come calling so they funded and produced the show for PBS themselves.

Now here is the very interesting part. The first season of Mexico: One Plate at a Time cost them $1.4M to produce. One season (26 episodes) of a cooking show broadcast on Public Television cost $1.4M, which they raised in the form of sponsorships. And it most likely took countless staff to pull it off, from on-location logistics, to post-production, the amount of hands in that pot were likely in the hundreds. This is not unusual... look at the credits at the end of a TV show or even more mind-blowing a Movie. Look at all of the people involved in creating and executing on the creation of that show or movie.

Amazing isn't it? Amazing that so much money, time, effort, manpower, etc. can go into the creation of even the simplest of TV show, and yet many entrepreneurs feel that they can build a Software Company by themselves and with little to no money. I mean, best of luck to you, but at the end of the day, if you want to create something that is an on-going concern, that generates profitable revenue in a sustainable and scalable way, you might want to ask yourself this fundamental question: Given what I have now and what I've put into this venture, is it enough to produce even one episode of a TV show? If not, then how do you plan to actually succeed in building a real business?

Fun fact: The last time I was in Frontera Grill, Lanie, Rick's daughter who is often on his show, was working. Okay, so perhaps I'm too big of a fan.

Check out the episode of The Entrepreneurs below:

Webinar: Maximize Revenue with Strategic SaaS Product Development

I just posted to the Sixteen Ventures blog that I will be doing a Webinar with Opsource on 5/6 at 9:00AM Pacific/Noon Eastern. The title is Maximize Revenue with Strategic SaaS Product Development. I'm really looking forward to this as I intend to bring up some topics that many SaaS Vendors have never even considered and yet only SaaS Vendors are in a position to benefit from them.

Oh, and this won't be just a big ad for Sixteen Ventures or Opsource. Both companies feel it is important to just provide great educational content that promotes thought within the SaaS community rather than have a 45 minute commercial for our services.

Be sure to check it out if you can make it. Also Follow @opsource @16v and @lincolnmurphy on Twitter.

Guerilla Marketing for a Good Cause

This is a brilliant strategy for getting an incredible amount of publicity for a relatively small amount of money (or none, read on). This is especially good if your business is something that resonates with people who listen to Public Radio. The idea is simple:

Offer a Challenge Grant on Public Radio

The process is simple:

1. Pick an amount: $500 or $1000
2. Pick a long time-frame, say 5 - 9AM (Morning Drive-time)
3. Pick a reachable, yet not-to-small of a goal (like 100 new members, or 100 renewing members, or 100 people from your profession)
4. Sit back and listen to your company name repeated over and over and over during key times of the day to a very targeted, loyal audience.

Here are the cool parts:

1. If your challenge is not met, you received several hours worth of free advertising since you were not required to pay out on the challenge. My suggestion is to let it ride... do that all day long until the challenge is met. Ideally you will actually end up donating the money; you want the challenge to be met, its just that if it isn't the first time around, that is just more publicity for you the second, or third times around.
2. When the challenge is finally met, your "advertising dollars" are tax deductible (see your tax professional of course!)
3. and you help a great cause
4. oh, and you build your brand with a very faithful audience

I spent a great deal of time in the car one day during KERA's (DFW Public Radio) last fund-raising drive and I listened to a yoga studio's name all day long (their challenge was not met while I was listening, but they kept letting it ride...)

Go do it tomorrow! Help end the fund raising drive faster (always a good thing) and get some inexpensive, yet very valuable marketing at the same time!

As always, don't forget to follow @keratx and @lincolnmurphy

New Post @16V: Announcing New Partners and Events

I posted a new entry on the Sixteen Ventures blog Announcing New Partners and Events. We've got some really amazing Webinars, Seminars, and Articles coming up over the next couple of months and I am really excited about it. The Webinar has not been officially announced yet so I can't say anything... next week, though! Stay tuned, for sure.

We also landed two new partners... Keychain Logic and OpSource. Very, very excited about that. If you don't know, those are two Major Players in the Software-as-a-Service industry.

Check out the blog post and don't forget to follow me on Twitter @lincolnmurphy.