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Marc Andreesen: Edison vs Tesla (“Whose fault was that?”)

Brian: How do you talk to people though who have that chip on their shoulder, like, they look at someone like Elon as like, “Well, hey, that guy’s just as a showman!” Do you know what I mean? Like, not him specifically, but they almost feel like it cheapens what they do; like…

Marc: Oh, this is actually interesting. Elon actually used to tell us, it’s the Edison vs. Tesla thing.

So actually, in Edison’s day — so, you know, Edison is credited for phonograph, indoor lighting, all this stuff; and then Tesla was this guy, had all these super genius, like, there’s this huge debate over AC vs DC electricity, and there’s an ultimate power grid that we could have that runs a DC that’s much better, and Tesla had that idea — and there’s this whole thing.

And so there’s this kind of engineer archetype of like Edison was the showman, he was a mediocre engineer but he was the showman. And Tesla was the unappreciated genius. And it’s a perfect example of this. It’s like, okay, well, whose fault was that?

Brian: Right. Right… you’re saying it was Tesla’s fault.

Marc: Like, what kept Nikola Tesla from like — I mean, the stuff Edison did to go promote his stuff, like, it wasn’t that — it’s the same thing; it wasn’t that hard to figure out. There were lots of people in that era that wanted to finance, you know, as an example, Edison raised all this money. There were lots of people who wanted to finance electricity. I mean, talk about like a growth market.

Marc Andreessen on The Moment with Brian Koppelman*

*Full transcript here.

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DriverlessSpecodile (The DC Podcast Spec)

This is an attempt at speccing the DC podcast using questions from Seth Godin’s This is Marketing.

1. Audience: Who do I seek to serve?

What is the world view of the audience you’re seeking to reach? 

The Driverless Crocodile podcast is for people who believe that the world can be better – in big ways or small – and they have a responsibility to do or make something to make it so… and want to. It’s for people who believe that tools and ways of understanding help.

I will focus on people who want to hear and read about ideas and tools to help them make change happen (build the future), and to learn from other people who are doing similar work – people not necessarily much further along in the journey than they are.

What are they afraid of?

Probably, like me, they’re afraid of not making a positive difference, not being able to gather people to their vision, or not being able to find a sustainable funding model for the work that they do. They might be afraid of what will happen if people like them don’t take action to change our trajectory.

2. Purpose: What change do I seek to make?

What change are you seeking to make? 

I’m seeking to make more positive change happen then otherwise might be the case. I hope to do this by:

  1. Sharing a vision of the world as it is and of the possible (the Steve Jobs thing) so that people believe they can cause change (“if these people did it, I can”)
  2. Articulating values that they probably already have – to strengthen values by talking about them, justifying them and possibly challenging them.
  3. To share tools, strategies, models that people will find useful and be able to apply, equipping them to build a better future.
  4. Start conversations and connect people who share this vision and values.

What story will you tell? Is it true? 

I promise that engaging with what I make will help you… turn the idea or desire for change that you’re mulling over into something real – or eliminate it as a possibility after trying it out.

How will it change their status?

My audience might be on their way to losing some types of status (wealth, position) on their way to gaining another kind – they may come to measure their own status in terms of vision, self-respect because they can make things happen and get more done, status from people who share their worldview and aims because of their contribution.

3. Mechanism and Ecosystem: How will it work?

How will people hear about it?

  • Existing readers of DC
  • Word of mouth – me to some friends, them to their friends (if it’s worth spreading)
  • Guests telling their friends – and then onto word of mouth
  • Perhaps some will share on facebook

What happens when people use it?

They listen in their podcast app or online… I need to look into the best way to share it.

How will they tell others?

Wherever they meet and talk about things with their friends

Where’s the network effect?

Hopefully though guests recommending other guests.

Where does the money come from? Where does it go?

My money, my time, to do this. Anything else (amazon links, sponsorship) is an unlikely bonus.

What asset are you building?

An ‘evergreen’ web of writing, links and recommendations that I would have loved someone to introduce me to 15 or 20 years ago.

4. Impact: How will we know if it’s working?

Are you proud of it?

That’s a good first check.

What change do you hope to see?

See above.

Where do we go next?

If it works, and it gets easy – up the tempo, find more interesting guests.

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As powerful as a smile

Real marketing is built into what you do and why you do it. It’s part of your story, something that you do organically when your business is aligned with your mission and values. Kept promises, free returns, obsession with the details, returned emails, clean tables, and attentive staff – all of this is your real marketing.

Real marketing creates a deeper impact, leaves a lasting impression, and is as powerful as a smile.

Bernadette Jiwa – The Fortune Cookie Principle

Why do people come to you for the thing you provide?
What do they get? Why do they want it? How does it make them feel?
What makes them come back?
Do they tell other people about you? What do they say?

What do your actions / words and tone of voice / website / way you dress / your office / commitment to doing things well say about who you are and what you’re doing? Do they say the same thing?
For a non-profit organisation, do you smile at your donors and your clients in the same way? (you should)
Are you an example of these things for your team? How do you articulate them to the team, to new members, to partners?

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DC Podcast: Spec-tacular (spec for a spec)

This is a ‘spec for a spec’ pulling together some threads from This is Marketing (‘The Simple Marketing Promise’, ‘Marketing in five steps’ and ‘Simple Marketing Worksheet’) and this page.

1. Audience: Who do I seek to serve?

What is the world view of the audience you’re seeking to reach?
My product is for people who believe…

I will focus on people who want…

What are they afraid of?

2. Purpose: What change do I seek to make?

What change are you seeking to make?

What story will you tell? Is it true?
I promise that engaging with what I make will help you…

How will it change their status?

3. Mechanism and Ecosystem: How will it work?

How will people hear about it?

What happens when people use it?

How will they tell others?
Where’s the network effect?

Where does the money come from? Where does it go?

What asset are you building?

4. Impact: How will we know if it’s working?

Are you proud of it?

What change do you hope to see?

Where do we go next?

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In their hands

Make something people can use.

Put it in their hands.

See what happens.

If they’re eager to pay – attention, time, money – you’re onto something.

Watch them. Listen to them. Tweak it. Make more of it. See what they think.

If they tell their friends – and if their friends tell their friends – then you’ve got it.

What change do you seek in the world? Who are the people you seek to serve?

You’ve got it when they’ve got it.

You’ll know you’ve got it when you meet someone for the first time, and the thing you made is already in their hands.

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A downhill slope (find others)

If you’re in a book group, social pressure is going to get you to read that book. The act of joining the book group is the hard part. Once you’re in the book group, the books are going to get read, because now you’re playing a game. It’s a game you’re enrolled in, it’s one you want to move forward.

…

The easiest way to start creating this game dynamic is to form a group. To find others, to find others and challenge those others to play the game with you. Because we all know that solitaire might be a little fun, but solitaire isn’t the kind of game we dream of when we dream of games.

We do better when we do it together.

Seth Godin – Akimbo – The Wedding Industrial Complex

.

Make it happen. Find others. Say the words.

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Bootstrapping the non-profit organisation Rule 5: Own your Assets

This is the fifth post in a series applying Seth Godin’s rules of bootstrapping (see also here) to building a non-profit organisation.

Build and own an asset that’s difficult for other people to reproduce

.

This is an interesting one in the non-profit world, because an attitude of generosity – of wanting to see problems solved more than we want to build empires – suggests that we should welcome others working in our ‘market’ as allies rather than competitors.

But there’s an important point about attitude here – we should always be building assets, and the most valuable ones we can build will always be those that are difficult for others to reproduce.

These assets might be products – in our case, curriculum and reading books. They might be services – delivering teacher training.
They might be processes – the ways that the pieces of what you do fit together to create value.
They might be things like reputation, trust, and relationships.

Investing in building any of these assets – from building a physical product to making a spec or howto for a process, to training your team – is always worth the time – a gift to your future self.

Here’s a thought experiment that links back to this post from a few weeks ago. Imagine that each central piece of your (charitable) business model was widely available at low cost (what if you open sourced it?). In the absence of each piece, what about your organisation means that people would still want to work with you? How would your clients answer this? How about your donors?

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Pretzel. Coffee.

I liked the look of the pretzels. I fancied a coffee.

There were a range of combination deals featuring pretzels and iced drinks, but none with coffee.

Seperately, they were overpriced. They would have been overpriced anyway, but in the absence of a deal I was definitely no longer willing to pay, and they lost a customer.

A combination deal featuring pretzels and coffee is worth more than the sum of its parts.

How can you combine your products of services to make them worth more to your customers, at little or no cost to you?

Offering exactly what your customer is looking for not only adds value – it also builds trust by showing that you’re thinking about them.

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Marketing the internet

Often, we market products or services that solve problems that people already know they have. We offer a better app, or a better screwdriver, or a better way of doing something, and our job is to convince people that it is better – ‘better-enough’ that people are prepared to pay the cost of switching. 

That’s one way to sell.

There’s another, more fun way, that I was reminded of on an episode of Econtalk, where Russ Roberts interviews Tim O’Reilly. O’Reilly talks about writing and selling the ‘first popular book about the internet’, The Whole Internet Users Guide and Catalogue. When the book came out, there were only about 200 websites world wide.

A key moment came when Brian Irwin, his VP of marketing told him:

Nobody cares about your book. What we ought to do is go out and market the internet.

Brian Irwin / Tim O’Reilly

So they started talking to people and holding their own conferences and events, and sure enough, when people wanted books about the internet – how to use it, how to code and run websites – they bought from O’Reilly Media.

O’Reilly says that in those days, people would talk about his company’s books as “the books that built the internet” – and that it was true. Future web billionaires built their empires using O’Reilly’s 30 dollar books, which led them to coin their slogan:

We create more value than we capture.

Tim O’Reilly / O’Reilly Media