THE DREAM IN ACTION

When people think about a “one liner” they usually think of pick up lines. I do. But, pick up lines rarely work – I heard. You bust out a one liner at a bar and you’ll probably end up slapped or alone. If you want to prove me wrong next time you’re at the bar I recommend one of my personal favorites…

Baby, if you were words on a page, you’d be what they call fine print

But it’s probably no surprise that a solid one liner probably won’t work on any self respective female. Where it will work however, with your startup. A solid one liner can provide focus and direction for your company. A solid one liner helps all of your efforts focus on what Guy Kawasaki would call, “making meaning”. In looking at some of the startups that are most influential to me right now it because very obvious to me that having a solid one liner is very important to get the message and the focus right out in the open for all customers and employees to focus on. It will help drive everything from product development to company culture.

- Inbound Marketing System

Hubspots claimed inbound vs. outbound marketing system is what they are all about. The important thing is to be found by the people looking for you vs. trying to find the people who aren’t looking for you. They’re marketing team has done a phenomenal job with webinars for small business owners and strong tools for grading your site or twitter account. Hubspot focuses on improving a companies marketing with a different approach, and it works.

- Easy to use web-based application

No matter how many times you watch Jason Fried speak about software development, or how blogging has helped their company, or why they wrote and now sell the ebook, Getting Real: The Book – The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application, he always comes back to the same thing – Make simple, fast, and useful software. Easy to use web-based application is by no means an official mantra. In fact last week they asked the community on their blog, “how would you describe what 37 Signals does?” So, they clearly don’t have it down to an exact phrase but when the same message is said in different words everytime it still becomes very powerful. Especially when they back it up with great products.

- A little feedback goes a long way

Rypple is a startup out of Toronto that builds a piece of software that promotes and makes feedback simple in the workplace. It’s easy to use and has a great workflow. In fact, it has to be easy to use because the point is for non-Gen Y’ers to embrace more feedback for Gen Y’ers. Rypple’s tag line of “a little feedback goes a long way” is the heart and soul of their software. Make feedback simple to improve the workplace and the work lives of Gen Y’ers who want it.

- Powered by Services

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos has explained that Zappos does not focus on doing customer service but rather making service part of the company culture. “Powered by Services” is a tag line and a mission statement for Zappos and is very accurate. Customer service is not just something that each employee practices but it is the life blood of the company, they truly are powered by a service culture. This has been the focus for Zappos and it is very obvious. Zappos has been highlighted as the go to example for great company culture that has lead to great business success.

Follow the leaders and work on developing your core focus. What is your startups One Liner?