My inspiration for this blog comes from two sources:

1. Boohoo: Book written by the founder of a company called Boo, which raised $135 million over 18 months and then went bust
   • 
2. James Eder: Founder of Studentbeans.com who I met at LSE

The reason why I think Boo.com went bust was, lack of financial management and no focus on product (the actual website which sold sports gear). Looking at some of the successful applications (and/or websites), there approach was bottom up. Eg: Skype, YouTube etc.

Bottom-up approach the individual base elements of the system are first specified in great detail. These elements are then linked together to form larger subsystems, which then in turn are linked, sometimes in many levels, until a complete top-level system is formed. This strategy often resembles a “seed” model, whereby the beginnings are small but eventually grow in complexity and completeness. However, “organic strategies” may result in a tangle of elements and subsystems, developed in isolation and subject to local optimization as opposed to meeting a global purpose.

These sites spent years working on their application, getting real users to their site, building their product from the feedback they received from their users. Once the product is right and you have the users, raising finance is almost trivial. Yes you need to get the critical mass but that will not happen solely on the basis of Marketing and Sales. This brings me to James from Student Beans. Whilst answering questions after his talk, James mentioned “Get your product right and you won’t need any marketing”. I’m aware these were not his exact words but that’s the gist of it.

I agree with James but also feel marketing and sales are very important. If you have your product right then it will generate enquiries.

This is relevant to people who are building a social network, sometimes the notion is to heavily market it: Pay per click, press releases blah blah and forget that the focus was the social network. Another factor is the design, Boo.com spent a lot of emphasis on design (or rather forgot the actual user):

The designers had forgotten that getting people to use the website and purchase items outweighed the “sexiness” of the design

If entrepreneurs and companies should keep the design rich but at the same time not too complicated, so its not multi-browser compatible. Users generally like simple looking websites which work! What impresses them is the functionality not just the design alone. Eg: Facebook, Myspace etc

Blogged with Flock

Tags: boo.com, studentbeabs.com, bottom-up, design