Startups Everywhere

We officially announced the 280 Group last week and I've been meeting with old friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

I'm amazed at the number of people who are working for bootstrapped startups right now. I don't get the sense that the media or anyone else has a real gauge on the amount of activity going on.

This reminds me of the theory that technology continues to move forward despite the ups and downs of business cycles (processors get faster, hard drives get bigger and cheaper, etc.). It seems that with the wealth of low cost office space, spare cycles from people not yet fully employed, and other abundant resources in the valley that the startup engine is continuing to move forward as well.

It will be interesting to see how many of these can get some traction and come out of stealth mode.

The "What's in it for me" factor

I've been testing some of the new products that have just come out and have seen a few demos recently of products that are going to be announced this Fall.

One of the things that I use to judge products is what I call the "What's in it for me" factor. Simply put yourself in the shoes of you target customer, assume that you have a very limited amount of time and bandwidth (like 30 seconds), and see how quickly you can get to a one sentence answer to this question.

Everyone does this to some degree when they see a new product, but consciously thinking about it can quickly help people get past the "this is a cool product/technology" reaction into the "and how viable is this really" mode.

Here's an example:

Centrino processors:
What's in it for me? 5 hour battery life on my laptop. Got it. The WiFi built in is gravy.

Plaxo contact manager:
What's in it for me? Never have to manually update your addresses again. Got it. Compelling enough to start asking some secondary questions.

Linksys Wi Fi camera
What's in it for me? Check up on my house any time using a web browser. Got it. Not sure if it is compelling enough (maybe now that there teenagers in my house)

You get the picture...try using this next time you hear a product pitch/demo and see what kind of response you get.

Square Footage, complaints and the Silicon Valley work force

I've noticed that my friends who have left Silicon Valley tend to do 3 things:

1.) Come back often to visit

2.) Announce the square footage of their new homes in other places (I got a house with XXXX square feet for only $XXX,XXX seems to be the first thing out of their mouths).

3.) Complain a lot about the Bay Area when they are here

I find this trend interesting. I think think the root of it is that people like living here (the ocean, Carmel, wine country, the Sierras, Yosemite, Mount Shasta, San Francisco, the weather, the redwoods, etc.), but they are resentful that it costs so much and that they end up moving away.

The question is, as things continue to pick up will people be willing to move back? I'm betting not - I think once you have made the break you are gone for good.

Does this mean we'll have a shortage of seasoned, good talent in a few years?

Or will companies have to pay hefty salaries and hiring bonuses as they did in the past to lure people back?

A Wave of Cool New Products

There was a time back during the height of the boom when I distinctly remember being overwhelmed with the number of great new products and ideas flooding the market. Ironically I remember complaining about it - there wasn't enough room in my brain to absorb it all and make sense of it.

During the past 2 years we've had the opposite - few if any interesting or compelling new products and ideas, and plenty of time to absorb the technology level we're currently at.

Frankly this reminds me of when Netscape was starting. Then a few other hot companies popped up with really interesting ideas. Then more. (of course, then greed and fear kicked in and the rest was history)

In the past 2 weeks I've heard about six or seven very interesting new products, both from startups and a few big companies. Products that have the potential to become as ingrained in our lives as eBay, Google and some of the others. I'll be writing about these products in the 280 Insider newsletter.

It's starting to get interesting again...