The image above contains some of the most interesting data a business could have on an individual. This is heat map of my foursquare checkin’s in San Francisco. It’s powerful data, and it’s only static. Here in lies the info to make assumptions & predictions about my behavior that will changes services I use and businesses I interact with drastically. As a location drivin transportation company it is data like this that will allow us to fundamentally disrupt our market.

This information did not exist even 12 months ago. The services that now collect this data with decent contextual awareness are just recently being enabled by the right devices & the right changes in user behavior. The checkin is a beautiful thing & not just for the foursquare’s and Yelp’s of the world; it’s services like ours that may stand to benefit the most. Here are a few areas that I get most excited about when contemplating how to apply this data to make your life easier and our business stronger…

Marketing

Think about how accurate user location data changes the marketing game. If presumably I checkin to 50% of the venues that I visit on a daily basis, this map does a pretty good job of showing someone where not to advertise if they’re trying to reach me. It’s clear where I spend my time, and it’s clear where I don’t. Now I know not everyone uses these social location services but when this data gets aggregated across a particular demographic or user population you get very targeted results on how to reach that customer group offline.

When applying context (which I discuss next) in these marketing channels you can almost tell what a person will be doing, where they’re doing it, and when. The advertising dollars saved are enough to get excited.

Context

The next factor of awesomeness that this particular map doesn’t yet capture is a sense of contextual awareness. How easily, with foursquare’s new categorical breakdown of venues, could you tell me where are the bars I’m going to, where are the business meetings I’m attending, where are the houses that I’m hangin’ at, etc. What is context:

• time
• activity type
• social

These contextual filters provide yet a deeper layer of understanding to the consumers behavior. Each layer of context that is added to this map the more powerful it will become. The opt-in checkin that foursquare has created is brilliant because it enable someone to feel very comfortable with sharing tons of data. Which in turn allows services to create more value for those users.

What we’re excited about is tying checkins together and realizing that certain combinations of checkin types require different types of transportation and different experiences. By understanding context around checkins we can understand how best to serve our users and be efficiently available for them, when they want us, without them having to tell us ahead of time. For example, you’re at your favorite sushi restaurant with your significant other, we think you’ll likely head to the movie theatre and we’re happy and ready to take you there :)

Logistics Optimization

With an understanding of where our users spend time, and when during the day those transitions occur, we have the ability to offer an incredibly efficient and simple service. As MG at TechCrunch said this week in a post about social location features; the check-out feature or the designation that you’re actually leaving a venue, will likely come very soon. Great! This makes it even easier for us to offer service at the exact times, in the exact locations, that users may want.

With our Uber fleet that is growing quickly, it’s quite possible that we can use information like this that is either publicly available or shared by our users for this specific purpose, to never have to wait for a cab again. With a single click we may know what type of service you would want depending on the context of the venue your checking into & out of.

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The opportunities for this type of contextually filtered data to influence location driven services like ours it unreal. I’m so excited for things like background processing in iOS4, and check-out features from our beloved check-in apps. The real time monitoring of this data is really where it’s at and the better the technology gets and the more transparent the user behaviors become, the smoother overall experience we’ll be able to offer.

via mario.nolla

I’m now working on startup numero 3. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process but I’ve not really enjoyed the process, yet. As in, I’ve not made it. I’ve yet to create anything that was sell-able, sustainable, or strong enough to go full time on. So, I decided to make a list for myself of the first 25 things that I should do before really diving into the next one. Each step or tip has a link to resources on making that step happen. Follow these steps (not necessarily in order) so that you don’t have to use tip #26.

Here’s what you’ll first need to do in order to really start on the right foot.

1. Get Your Head Right
2. Build The Right Foundation
3. Put Your Lipstick On and Pucker Up
4. Getting Attention
5. Oh Yea, You May Need Money

Get Your Head Right

There are so many great blogs out there with experienced advice on starting businesses that it’s foolish not to read them. Spend some time learning from the experience and mistakes of others.

“Smart men learn from their own mistakes, Genius’s learn from the mistakes of others.”  -Unknown

1. Start a Business with Passion – Loic Lemeur is one of the most passionate entrepreneurs I’ve watched. He talks about how to start with passion.
   
2. Read Getting Started - This book by 37 Signals is one of the best books for starting a technology business. How to develop with style, speed, adn efficiency using Agile. Learn from the great companies especially when the provide such a valuable & insightful resource.
3. Treat Competitors with respect – Again, Loic is experiences and has learned to benefit from competitors. Learn how to work competition to your advantage.
4. Learn from The Top 10 Startup Mistakes – Not knowing what mistakes you could potentially make is your first mistake. Know what to avoid when starting up.
5. Learn from Millionaires (if you want to be one) - Who better to learn from than the folks who’ve already made the cash.
6. Solve problems before they exist - Preventing problems is the most valuable action you can take. Learn how to solve before they start.
7. Get inspired from Mixergy interviews – Andrew Warner provides personal insight and detailed, challenging interviews of enterpreneurs who’ve gone through what you’re about to take on, and have succeeded. Also check out ActionsTalk.com for tacticle startup spotlights.

Build The Right Foundation

Legal structure and accounting are not fun, the suck, but they are very important so take the time to setup the right foundation and structure to avoid future drama. Here are four steps with resources to setup the right foundation.

1. Choose between Inc. vs. LLC - Legal structure is important and you’ll need to decide what the goals of your company are. If you plan to one day go public LLC may not be your best option, however if you plan to privately own LLC may be much simpler to get launched.
   
2. Accounting Sucks but someone’s gotta do it - Accountings goal is your “score”, but it’s task is your records. Here’s the basics to accurate record keeping. Learn how to record these transactions that change the balance between your startups assets (code?), liabilities (debt?), and equity (your shares!).
3. Save money using Docstoc templates – Save tons on legal documents and templates using Docstoc’s resources, this doesn’t mean you won’t need a lawyer but rather will cut your legal fees.
4. Open a Business Bank Account &/or Accpet CC’s and Online Payments– A great first step to setting up the feeling of ownership is for each partner to put in their determined share (in cash) into a bank account. This will be the building block for determining allocation of shares and equity.

Put On Your Lipstick and Pucker Up

Having a polished web presence is NOW absolutely critical for your company. Whether you’re a web based startup or a offline consultancy it’s critical that your customers can find you easily and find out about you easily. Put on your make-up.

1. Set up a blog with WordPress.org – Get a SEO friendly blog up so that the Google Bugs can scan it and share it. Having a .html file up with one page just won’t cut it anymore. Hosting is cheap, WordPress is free, and your excuses are dying fast. Get on it!
   
2. Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design – The ten most egregious offenses against users. Web design disasters and HTML horrors are legion, though many usability atrocities are less common than they used to be.
3. Google Website Optimizer – A free tool that will help you maximize your conversions. The web is a metrics driven industry to know how people are interacting with your website.
4. Signal vs Noise is a blog with amazing design tips from amazing designers (37 Signals) - A design and usability blog by 37signals.
5. Find out who is clicking where - Use CrazyEgg, a simple tool that shows you how website visitors interact with your website. Knowledge is power!

Getting Attention

You can have a great product or service, but if no one sees it you will never make any money. Now this doesn’t mean you have to hire a marketing firm to help you out, but you could learn some basic things about Internet marketing.

1. Get on the blogs - Mike Arrington of TechCrunch wrote this post on how to get your company blogged.  Tim Ferriss used blogs to get his book to a NYTimes Best Seller, do the same thing! 
   
2. Yes you have to worry about SEO - Niel Patel wrote this article on how to optimize your blog to be found by search engines. With the right content 50% of your traffic may come from search engines so make sure to understand these basics.
3. Web businesses are Metrics based so use Analytics - An Hour A Day – Avinash Kaushik, a Google’s analytics guru, simplifies web analytics and what/why you need to understand your analytics.
4. MailChimp – Collecting email addresses to build your audience and leads is super valuable. MailChimp is the easiest system I’ve found. Sending mass emails can be difficult to impossible without using a 3rd party service so this is a inexpensive and valuable option. 

Oh Yea, You May Need Money

Without experience, raising capital is a pain in the ass. If you want to do it you’ll need to understand the minds of the folks your asking. Learn how to give the right kind of pitch, know the terms, and understand what they’re hoping to get from you so you don’t get screwed.

1. The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint – Save yourself the embarrassment and understand what type of pitch investors want to see before you give’m your ‘dog and pony show’.
   
2. Venture Hacks – I’ve learned so much about the VC industry from this site, it’s an incredible resource.
3. Building the budget and revenue model -Ross Kimbarovsky of crowdSPRING breaks down his tips for building a budget and rev model. Investors really won’t talk to you without it.
4. Understanding Angel Investing - Understand what an Angel Investor is looking to get out of the deal is important before dealing with one. If you can understand their goals and tailor the deal to those goals, you’re much more likely to raise funds.
5. How To Raise Angel Dollars - Learn how to raise money without giving everything away. At the end of the day you want to own your company not just work there so read how to raise Angel funding.

Wrap Up

That’s 25 Steps, with resources to get going on your startup… also, here’s a bonus source if you don’t follow the above resources well enough. I’ve done it twice :) so don’t worry if you have to scrap it and start over, you’ll learn everytime then you can build your own list of must do’s.

1. Closing Down :( a startup - If things don’t go as planned, make sure you shut things down the right way.
   

Let me know if I missed anything critical or if you have steps and resources that should be shared!

Image by Strife81 via Flickr

I went through some of my oldest blog posts this morning and found one to be particularly appropriate. In a time of leaning business practices and tight funding opportunities it is even more important to focus on businesses that will generate revenue! Sometimes this requires us to put aside ideas that need 1M views and a fancy advertising strategy to be profitable and remember the brick and mortar style businesses of days past. The question is, does a startup have to be sexy?

07.27 2007

Does it have to be sexy?

I was reading an article in Fortune Small Business magazine and I started to question the Web 2.o draw. The article was, “Old Dogs, New Tricks – How smart entrepreneurs find innovation and profit in sleepy industries. (May 2007)” Why is it that so many of us 20 somethings immediately think web start-up when we hear or think about being an entrepreneur? Why does it have to be some sexy idea that nobody has ever thought of? Why does it have to change the world? The article featured a man who bought up tired, less than successful radio stations in small markets, and another who ran a airport parking service. Sure, it’s been done before BUT that doesn’t mean that you can’t run a very profitable company that is equally as fulfilling that isn’t called Google or Yoono or del.icio.us or Ooxma. What about Jeff’s Dry Cleaners or Rich’s Rugs or Uptown Mattress Shop? The main thing is that you like what you are getting into, that you are passionate about the business your starting. If you are a software developer or a computer science major, get after it, make up a crazy name and make millions by selling one square inch of advertising space, show Zuckerberg who’s boss! But just because you’re young, smart, motivated and starting a business doesn’t mean it has to be cutting edge and innovative. After all we all, don’t we all need a mattress?

I’ve read marketing books before and this one is different! The idea of the purple is this…

When you drive by a boring road in the mid-west (and they all are, I speak from experience) you see cows a plenty. You don’t notice them at all, one cow after another and it literally has no affect on you whatsoever. But, if one day you were driving down the same boring mid-west road and you saw a purple cow you would FREAK OUT. You wouldn’t know what to do and you’d probably stop to look at it. But if later that day you continued to drive down the road and every cow was purple you wouldn’t stop anymore. You’d probably still be stunned that you saw purple cows but how long do you think that would last? Eventually you wouldn’t even care that there were purple cows at all.  You’d continue down the boring mid-west road just as you had when the cows were black and white.

At first as Godin explains, a purple cow is something remarkable. It commands demands attention. But, eventually even the remarkable becomes the ordinary and something else ‘remarkabler‘ takes its place.  Godin teaches in Purple Cow how to continually create remarkable products! This book and Godin’s thoughts on the subjects of R&D vs. Marketing and how they are inter-related are invaluable. This book is a must read for any start-up, marketer, or product developer.

Godin’s sums it up best (as the author should) “Marketing is way to important for the marketing department”.