MAGA HYPOCRITES CONTINUE TO LIE TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS

 

 

HOWARD TULLMAN AND LISA DENT DISCUSS THREADS ON WGN RADIO

 

Howard Tullman, general managing partner for G2T3V, LLC and for the Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC, joins Lisa Dent to talk about the successful rollout of Instagram’s new app Threads and how other tech startups can follow suit.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

FIND HOWARD TULLMAN  @HOWARDTULLMAN@THREADS.NET        

FIND LISA DENT                    @LISADENTSPEAKS@THREADS.NET

ALWAYS REMEMBER THE CON

 

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

The Five New Rules of Startups

The last couple of years--the pandemic, WFH, high interest rates--have turned the traditional startup playbook into a relic. Say so long to the hero entrepreneur (that's you, Elon) and one-size-fits-all. Say hello to flexible, committed teams, and taking mass customization to a new level. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1

 

There's some classic expression I recall from rocketry or artillery, which cautions that in terms of launch preparations "if you're off by an inch, you're gonna miss by a mile." This concept of precision planning is even more meaningful when you're talking about starting or growing a new business. If you don't get things right at the start, forget it. And if you don't regularly and consistently communicate the company's mission, vision, values, and goals -- especially in the new hybrid world -- you can be sure that you'll end up in an unhappy and unintended place.

But, as with so many "obvious" things today, it's not as easy as it was when most messaging was face-to-face and fairly simple and when - if you didn't really care that much - you could even get nicely laminated mission statements and inspirational wisdom for your walls from Staples or Office Depot. And the far greater problem is how the content of the messages has changed. While the forms and format may have stayed the same, the critical messages are far different now and the conventional wisdom and all the old texts just won't cut it anymore.

Even apart from the new pitfalls and land mines presented by concerns about political correctness, sensitive snowflakes and whatever the latest systemic grievances are, the ground rules for getting things done have changed. The strategies and standards we once relied on need to be updated to address the new normal in terms of things we've learned over the last few years regarding what actually works. You also need to pay attention in terms of the composition, concerns, and diverse interests of the new workforce as well. 

I'd say that there are at least five time-tested concepts and cliches that have outlived their usefulness in providing guidance for business builders and managers. Maybe they still work for coaches in high school locker rooms, but even there we're more likely to be dealing with Ted Lasso's truisms than getting any guidance from the Gipper.  

1.     The Lone Ranger is Dead.

Even if you're not convinced yet by Elon Musk's utter Twitter insanity that absolutely no one can do anything of value or importance entirely by themselves - not even Superman or The Lone Ranger -- the rest of the world has decided that the myth of the entrepreneurial Übermensch has outworn its welcome. Teamwork, collaboration, and cooperation will ultimately prevail over any one-man army. No one going it alone is going to get anywhere important because the challenges that disruptive innovation present in any area are simply too much for a single individual to absorb and process. Getting the right team assembled, putting all the players in the proper positions, defining a central set of objectives and goals, and then turning them loose to attack multiple aspects and dimensions of the problem, is the clearest and fastest path to success. Betting on a single jockey - even the most visionary leader - isn't the way to salvation. And the best part of this approach is that, done correctly, you'll always have people on your side.     

2.     Darwin is Dead

Another part of the entrepreneurial myth is that the strongest and fiercest competitor, be that animal or human, is the one most likely to prevail in the long run. Darwin never said this, although "survival of the fittest" has come to be the most widespread and convenient way to shorthand and represent his conclusions. "Fittest" doesn't mean that it's the strongest or even the most intelligent creature or business that survives.  It's the enterprise that is most adaptable and best able to quickly react to and adapt its behavior and offerings in a constant stream of changing conditions and challenges in the world.

3.     The Answer Man is Dead

If there's one consistent message from the ChatGPT revolution, it's that all the written and captured knowledge in the world is now accessible at relatively low cost and at amazing speeds. The answers are all out there.   But only if you know how to train your people and your machines to ask the right questions. Employers with an eye to the future aren't going to be hiring wise and shiny guys and girls who think they have all the answers; they're going to be looking for quieter people (from all kinds of different tech and non-tech backgrounds) who have an inquisitive mind, creativity in abundance, an openness to ambiguity and goalless planning, and an iterative and patient persistence. Interestingly enough, patience in the face of ambiguity isn't something we've ever associated with entrepreneurial DNA. In fact, it's almost always just the opposite - "ready, fire, aim" is the name of the game, accompanied by irrational optimism and confidence. Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.  And there's already a name for the new job: "prompt engineers" who are able to fashion and build streams of narrowing and iterative inquiries to best interrogate the new GPT systems, will be in great demand for many years to come. 

4.     Single Thread is Dead

For decades we've been taught to focus, to put all the wood behind one arrowhead, and to direct all of our energies and attention, aggressively and full force ahead, toward a single, optimal solution.  Hedging your bets was discouraged by great entrepreneurs, who preached the gospel of "go big or go home." Of course, these were the winners talking after the fact and not the folks on thin ice. The evaluation procedures and ultimate decision making were similarly constrained - almost every choice was framed in an either/or context - mainly for simplicity's sake. No one wanted to confuse their board of directors by asking for a decision among too many competing choices. But now optionality is central to the smartest strategies - considering multiple alternatives at all times leads to demonstrably better results.  Preserving as much flexibility and avoiding irrevocable commitments to a fixed path as late in the operations as possible is the way to assure the best outcome. The more choices, the merrier. In the ideal world of tomorrow, it will never be too late or too costly to turn back or alter the course regardless of how far down the path you've progressed. Teaching your people to keep checking and to welcome necessary course corrections rather than opting to ignore or avoid them will be crucial.    

5.     One Size Fits All is Dead

One of the most obvious objectives of every smart startup is scale. Getting bigger is almost always the path to getting better: better operating results, easier fund raising, improved customer confidence, and the ability to recruit and hire better and more costly talent.  And the most fundamental key to scale is streamlined replicability: doing whatever it is you're making, selling, building, or otherwise providing to your customers and clients flawlessly, efficiently, and over and over again. The second most important element in this equation is standardization. Bespoke and a là carte are the worst possible words that a young business builder can hear. One size, one product, one deliverable that fits any and all comers is key. That's the main reason that all the early Model T Fords came only in black, although quirky Henry Ford also determined that black dried faster than any other color.

We used to tell young entrepreneurs to stick to their knitting and do one thing really well. Once they've solved the basic creation and delivery problems associated with their initial product, the best news was that the CEO could finally stop selling and go on to other new things. But before that time, it was all about offering one size that fits all. Unfortunately, that's no longer the way the world works.

Today, instead of trying to convince people to learn to use a new product, every product needs to be fitted to meet the people's desires and requirements. And those progressive demands continue to grow and accelerate over time.  We're fully into the era of mass customization where a successful company needs to be all things to all of the people all of the time. While this is much less of an issue for digital products and software services than for hard goods, it still represents financial risk due to increased complexity, product mixes and support costs. This is radically different from the times when early development and marketing costs for a new product could be offset and recovered as the company grew through economies of scale.

Bottom line: toss the books and go back to the basics, but with an eye to the future. Teamwork, adaptation, iterative inquiry, optionality, and product personalization at scale are the keys to the kingdom of tomorrow.

JUL 11, 2023

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN BY HOWARD TULLMAN

 

In a World Ruled by Giants, Staying Small May Be the Smarter Play

Too many startups are built for growth -- in sales, product offerings, and staff. That can make them overextended or attract competitors. Think instead about building to be bought. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1

 

I suppose in a country where constant change, reinvention, and disruptive innovation are so critical to our future that we should be grateful for the regularly refreshed stream of eager and strikingly ignorant wannabe entrepreneurs who attempt to build new businesses. I've been there many times. And let's be clear that their energies and efforts fuel and support entire industries of investors, advisers, educators, marketers, and techies. So, the whole painful process makes economic sense even if a staggeringly large proportion of the money invested ultimately ends up being wasted.

It's just a little sad to know how many of them will never get their startups out of the gate and how few of them that actually do will ever survive more than a year or eventually thrive. We never seem to tell them that well-known truth or alert them to the many pitfalls along the way. We think we're helping them by wishing them well and encouraging them on their journey. I think we can do better and give them some concrete advice and some practical plans for how to best navigate the shoals and the sharks.

If they knew the unlikely odds of success or how painful and hard the process of building a new business has become in a "winner take all" world controlled and dominated by predatory platforms and structured by tech-driven oligopolies, it's pretty clear that millions of them - even given the lack of viable alternatives these days - wouldn't start down the path. We're never going to convince them of the odds, and millions of new businesses are still being launched every year, but the competitive environment really has changed over the last decade. Going forward, the survivors are going to have to use new more conservative strategies and adjust their expectations as to what's a reasonable outcome for all the interested parties.0

Right now, I'm watching new entrants, entrenched institutions, regulators and legislators, as well as long-established managers, agents, and gatekeepers engaging in the NIL space (name, image and likeness), which is all the rage in college sports. The battle lines are being drawn in this emerging new area of competition, which surprisingly has virtually nothing to do with A.I. or image recognition, annotation, and interpretation. However, it's certain to be another toxic environment where we'll see rampant dream snuffing, early entrepreneurs bigfooted and crushed by the eventual entry of the big guys, and opportunities to make real economic and equitable changes rapidly evaporated by the politicians and institutional powers.

Not the most pleasant prospects, but a clear and present warning to anyone looking into any greenfield space, especially one that involves big money, college sports and student athletes. I realize that the prospect of a novel market segment free from the threats and promises of A.I. is almost inconceivable right now, but you can rest easy. Because the NIL marketplace has everything to do with the economics, players and livelihoods associated with millions of names, images, and likenesses as well as the data and stats that swamp our smart phones and clog our social media channels daily. 

We've recently seen the froth, frenzy, and failures in the world of legal cannabis cultivation, commercialization, and consumption, and in online betting. There are certainly instructive parallels in the broken hearts and dreams, wasted millions, hypocritical politicians and lip service efforts toward equity and inclusion. Ultimately the clean-up consolidations and rollups engineered by the usual suspects have rapidly contracted and oligopolized those industries.    

There's also a lot to be learned from the abrupt surrender and sellout by the craven senior management of the PGA Tour to the sports-washing Saudis in secretly signing the LIV merger deal without bothering to share the critical terms or even to alert most of their own board members to the pendency of the arrangement.  In fact, if you ask me, almost nothing beats the scummy way the PGA bosses left their own players in the lurch after those guys acted honestly and with some dignity while some of their peers and fellow players fell all over themselves chasing the big bucks being thrown around by Saudi leader Muḥammad ibn Salmān and his minions. Notwithstanding the many hypocritical early statements by the same money-grubbing PGA slugs who wrapped themselves so piously in chauvinistic pronouncements flavored with 9-11 trappings until the dollars got large enough, they swiftly caved like the greedy phonies they've always been when the cash register started ringing in earnest.

The message which every startup builder and entrepreneur needs to hear and take to heart is that when the elephants dance, the grass takes a beating.  More simply stated, in almost every instance where the big guys wake up and wade in, the little guys lose. Sometimes it's just mountains of money; sometimes it's lobbied legislation or new regulations that abruptly and unfairly tilt the playing field; sometimes the nature of the emergent technology really dictates a "winner take most" kind of outcome; and other times it can be quiet collusion among the market leaders that skews the situation.

But to be sure, however the game ends up and whatever the particular drivers turn out to be, it's likely to be rigged and it's never gonna be bent in favor of the little guys, whether they're new entrants, small players, customers or consumers. The "house" always wins in the end, but the smart little guys can thrive in the cracks and with the early crumbs if they're quick and clever. And that's my main interest in the coming conflagration.

If you're intent on entering one of these new marketplaces and you want to survive, here are five critical rules to keep in mind.

(1)   Stay Simple

Launch with an MVP (minimum viable product/application) as soon as possible and don't spend a lot of energy enhancing or upgrading the offering. You won't have the time or resources to educate and support your users -- rely on them to learn on their own or from their peers. Simple is smart, swift, and viral. Complicated is painfully slow and looks more like a chore than a challenge.

(2)   Stay Low

There's no upside in the short term to press, PR, conferences, or competitions. Noise attracts premature and competitive interest, knockoffs, and rip-offs. If you've built something that does a great job of getting a simple and important job done quickly and well, the promotion, word of mouth and spread will take care of themselves. You want to get broad (widely distributed and adopted), but not so big that you become a target too soon.

(3)   Stay Focused

Do one thing really well and avoid the temptation to grow and expand horizontally or vertically -- building new functions and app extensions simply adds costs and complexity. Not every app needs email and only your engineers love bloat and feature creep -- your customers don't really care.

(4)   Stay Small

Simple, smart offerings don't need staff. They don't need support or middle management or extensive infrastructure and overhead. The world now understands that the best businesses are as virtual and hybrid as possible and are focused on access, convenience, and utility rather than space, facilities and headcount.

(5) Stay Skinny

The name of the game is getting in and out -- the design and the execution plan are all about creating a valuable and attractive asset that can be economically acquired -- before you find your business being crushed. You can't attract a buyer and make a reasonable return for your team and your investors if you've raised and spent too much for an acquirer to find your business attractive and accretive. Too much funding can make you soft and lazy, not tough and to the point.

Bottom line: these aren't guidelines to build a business intended to last a lifetime, mainly because the current market conditions in almost every new industry are so hostile to that prospect that it's not a realistic objective or plan. The simple goal these days is to get in, get broad, and get out. Build to be bought.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 Everyone 

is 

downstream 

from 

someone 

else.