Back of the Napkin: Ideas to action.
I remember 1994 very fondly. My son Nathan turned 2, my wife was expecting our second child and he was born that year (Lucas). I turned 30 that year.
It was also the year I started my first company. I had this idea that was bouncing around in my head. I felt a need to let it out. If you have read my other post, you will know that I believe that when you set out to start a company, you need to have a great idea, but you don’t want to fixate on the solution, you want to focus on the problem. The solution should be something you are willing to mold and shape. To toss out bad ideas in favor of better ones. Thats why I love napkins. They are easy to throw away.
Early in that year, I remember sitting with some people I was trying to pitch on my ideas. It was very early in the process. We sat at a bar over a beer, and I was explaining my idea while scribbling words and pictures on the back of a bar napkin. As the conversation went on, with volleys of questions and answers, statements and challenges, opinions and fact, the energy grew, it was an electric moment. By the end of the evening, I had hooked my first colleague to join me in my pursuits.
The back of a napkin can be a very powerful tool. It helps you clarify, to impress. The person sitting across from you stares at it intently, as since you have such a small space to write on, what you write must be keenly important. Since you need that napkin to write on to begin with, sends the message that you have an abundance of thought on the topic just waiting to pour out into some concrete form.
In the ‘About eLuNa Ventures’ section of my site (see sidebar), it says we are in stealth mode with a new concept. Well the concept is taking shape. Better yet, has taken shape. I’ve bounced the ideas off of enough people now to take the next step. The mystery of the pitch up until now is that it shifts dramatically at times, less so at others, but it is fluid, changing, morphing. Then, when you think you have it, it shifts some more. It will continue to do so, but at a certain point, you know in your gut that you have enough to go. I would say there is one fundamental difference between my current exercise and the one I undertook in 1994.
In 1994, my target was to use technology to improve a process and to solve a problem. In 2008, my idea is to change the process or model so to speak in such a way as that the model becomes the solution and the technology is merely a vehicle to implement that change.
Where much of my designs in 1994 were based around technology designs. Much of what I am doing today is based on changes in the basic tenets of business and those changes create opportunity for infrastructure and technology that combined with the new model become represent the grail of the new economy.
As a side note: Sorry if I am still being esoteric and obscure, but we are STILL in stealth mode. So… Live with it.
And what about my napkins? Well I have many of them. Pages and pages of ideas all jotted down. My process is a bit different now. I use more of a free association exercise today. I lay out several pieces of paper and just write down ideas as they come to me. I categorize each piece of paper based on an idea or a concept and as I think about things, I flip from page to page to draw lines, and write down notes in a loosely organized fashion.
I think I probably have over 50 pages of my virtual “napkins” now. Honestly I haven’t counted. Last night was one of my final tests. Could I convey my message to a protoypical adopter in such a way as this is something he would pursue. GOT HIM! Validation. Yeah, I pitched it to potential partners, vendors, investors, and customers. I am on the road right now seeking my initial sponsors. (I will go into the concept of sponsors in my next blog)
But if you can’t attract your target, your mainstream adopter, your prototypical end user. Then you have a basic flaw. Sure, there are also potential flaws in whether there is a market, or how big the market is, or how ready the market is. But we are not at that stage in the development of this model. Where we are is at the point that we have thought through enough of the model, came to conclusions, formulated ideas, and understand the dynamics well enough that we can boil the message down to a point where it can be conveyed in a short period of time, with a logical flow, and supporting arguments that by the end of an hour session with a prototypical adopter, he was hooked and excited.
Best part was he didn’t go into the meeting expecting a pitch. I’ll explain why that is a good thing some other time. But suffice it to say, you need to attract the BOIDS. Without BOIDS, a flock will never form. There has to be enough of an attraction in the message itself to seed desire and interest. A desire to be part of it.
So alas, I am very excited. I think its time to take my 50 plus 8×10 “napkins” and turn it into something more formal. A plan.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.