Before he became a founder, Ian Shea spent eight years at DVR maker (and TiVo predecessor) ReplayTV. During that time, the company went through — among other things — a massive restructuring, layoffs, bankruptcy and a turnaround before finally being bought by DirectTV for an undisclosed amount in December 2007. “We went through it all,” Shea told me recently.
And as soon as the DirectTV deal closed, Shea sought out an operating challenge he hadn’t yet faced: a startup.
Since January, Shea has been working alone out of his house on Project Maestro, an online marketplace for connecting experts from any number of fields to individuals that want top-dollar tutoring. So a retired minor league pitcher, for example, might be matched to a high schooler aspiring to earn a college scholarship on his fast ball, or a gerontology nurse might be matched to an investing club for Baby Boomers. Maestro will also handle the scheduling and billing, much like a virtual talent agency might.
But starting an online marketplace is different from running a consumer electronics outfit. I asked Shea what lessons from ReplayTV he can apply to Maestro. What he shared was a simple recipe for incremental execution that will benefit any founder — one that doesn’t include a draft business plan until month six.
“The main lesson I got at Replay was the importance of metrics and milestones,” he said. Prior to its acquisition by DirectTV, he explained, Replay was owned by a Japanese company. “They stressed the importance of metrics. It was their culture, so it became our culture.” Replay subsequently starting published what it called the “Daily Flash,” a simple one-pager that showed daily service activations, the top three customer calls, DVR box returns and its total user base, “so we could see our churn.”
The measurable results proved to be especially valuable when DirectTV came calling — after all, investors need data to build their financial models. Venture capitalists do, too. So Shea recreated “Daily Flash” for Maestro, which he has graciously shared with us:
1. January: Create Vision
Daily task: Talk to 3-5 people about my idea to socialize thoughts. Did they get it? Transcribe notes.
Weekly task: Discuss idea with one potential adviser.
End of Month: Find 5 competitors that lack right product offering; use as anchor for counterstrategy.
2. February: Discuss Vision
Daily: Talk to 3-5 people about market problem. Transcribe notes.
Weekly: Begin discussing potential customers and product features. Transcribe notes.
Month end: Find 4 advisers on whom I can lean each day to discuss process, who will take me through the development of vision.
3. March: Prepare Written “Vision Brief”
Daily: Edit vision brief; consult advisers; edit again.
Weekly: Create contact list of people to receive brief; list specific feedback needed from each.
Month end: Complete 2-page vision brief; begin developing metrics for ‘Go/No Go’ on business, such as: Is potential consumer base big enough?
4. April: Test Vision
Daily: Send vision brief to 10 people. Personalize each email.
Weekly: At week two, begin scheduling daily meetings for face-to-face feedback from respondents.
Month end: Will have sent business brief to 300+ people.
5. May: Vet Feedback, Validate Vision
Daily: Take 3-5 live meetings with vision brief reviewers. Take notes, transcribe daily.
Weekly: Compare respondents’ feedback for common denominators in perceived market problem, and desired solutions.
Month end: Validate Maestro’s solution against commonalities. Decide whether to launch company.
6. June: Draft Business Plan
Daily: Chart growth phases and performance metrics; edit plan
Weekly: Source a law firm. Begin product specifications; begin talking to developers and consultants.
Month end: Complete draft business plan.
“How you filter information in the first six months is really critical to your learning,” Shea said. Setting up these “deliverables to himself” made it easier. “I could see clearly that if executed properly, this could be big. I should launch Maestro.” Shea is now in phase seven of his startup’s Daily Flash: “The Customer Development Brief.”
2 trackbacks so far
11:27 AM PT
[...] is, until I read this post on GigaOM this morning. Meet Ian Shea, sole founder and employee of what’s to be Project Maestro. [...]
12:07 PM PT
[...] Shea posted this excellent 6-month company launch ‘exploration’ plan. It’s a milestone based operating plan that doesn’t conclude with a decision or a [...]
14 comments so far
11:04 AM PT
I wouldn’t label ReplayTV a TiVo predecessor - in the scheme of DVR evolution I’d say they were peers in launching the concept. (RTV’s hardware launched 2-3 month’s prior to TiVo in 1999.)
Not sure which “turnaround” you’re referring to. I’m not aware of one. Which is unfortunate, because ReplayTV was superior to TiVo early on - grid guide, component output (480p), the ability to connect via PC to manage unit, including pulling content off, automated commercial skip, etc.
I imagine DirecTV bought ReplayTV for their IP/patent portfolio - not their customers. So daily metrics of a service (that hasn’t produced hardware in years, PC software killed, relatively few active customers) may be of little importance.
11:17 AM PT
Very nice post. It shows the good steps for making a successful START UP.
Cheers, Nag
11:45 AM PT
I don’t want to bash anyone here but it seems like not alot was actually done. Is there an alpha or beta of this product? This sounds like an old school way of doing it. The cost of development is pretty low these days.
12:35 PM PT
Great article! Thanks.
8:27 PM PT
Please note, very very few (if any) of the successful internet destinations today started like this…
flickr, youtube, facebook, google, ebay, craigslist, and on and on and on …
Can you imagine Chad Hurley spending 6 months “transcribing notes”.
Can you imagine in the list of accomplishments after 6 months, actually mentioning “transcribing notes”.
11:56 PM PT
Dave’s right, TiVo and ReplayTV developed in parallel. And while ReplayTV *announced* first, TiVo *shipped* first - the end of March 1999. TiVo had boxes on shelves before RTV.
And there was no ‘turn around’ for RTV. RTV basically went bankrupt, then SonicBlue picked them up, then SonicBlue went bankrupt and D&M Holdings picked up Rio and ReplayTV for a song. From that point on D&M pretty much ran RTV into the ground. They stopped all new hardware development, the 5k platform they picked up in the buy was the last, they never updated from there. They killed several promised software updates that were in progress at the time - MP3 support, USB WiFi, and RTV 4k-5k file sharing interoperability. There was one final major software update under D&M, then it coasted for years until they sold out their existing stock of hardware - and that was that. D&M tried a PC-based DVR package under the ReplayTV brand, but it really had nothing to do with the legacy products and it never sold well.
And Dave’s right on with the DirecTV purchase - DirecTV acquired the Intellectual Property, but not the customers (and therefore no burden of continued support). The customers, and that burden, stayed with D&M Holdings/DNNA.
12:26 AM PT
Ian, nice process you developed and followed for customer discovery on your new concept. I think there is great value in using this type of structure to manage the risk / level of commitment in moving forward with a concept. One challenge is the opportunity cost of the time spent – but learning more about the foundation of the company, its potential market, and its potential and specific customer base is powerful and quite important for a new company. Not to cross talk – but I disagree with the comment made earlier in the post about other successful companies not following this ‘old school’ process. The examples such as Google, eBay, and the like are not comparable in my opinion. There are many approaches to startups and company vision. If you were a swing for the fences only company, the statement earlier might have held. However, there are startups that have followed variations on this process that have market caps less than a nine or ten digit number that are still quite successful. We can overlook or forgot those in the population of companies considered…
Just a few late night thoughts - all the best
sb
5:01 AM PT
This doesn’t sound like a good way to start a company. Add Maestro to the deadpool!
8:31 AM PT
This is one way to look at starting a company, but if you look at a lot of internet companies that have been successful over the last 10 years (yahoo, google, youtube) they started with a good product that fit a need in a growing market. I think some entrepreneurs can get too caught up in vision statements. In this case Ian could have prototyped and launched the product in less than three months and gotten three months worth of real customer feedback and potentially had a business instead of a business plan at the end of month 6. Personally, I’d rather go fast and succeed or fail in that time.
6:58 PM PT
Take the best of everything.
This process is great. If you can compact it an do that in 6 weeks, thats better for you. Do it.
4:40 AM PT
Mike is dead right! Add Ian to the deadpool. His approach sounds wonkish and will likely fail.
10:51 AM PT
I love the idea! However, I also doubt his ability to execute such an idea. Building a nice prototype website can probably be done within a week. If Ian has little experience with technology and/or product management / UI, I’m not sure how good his product might be.
I hate to say this, but it’s easy for code-monkeys to launch something over the course of a single weekend. Bring in another equally as talented biz dev / marketing guy, and you have yourself some fresh competition :)
10:26 AM PT
Interesting thoughts. I like the listing of the “Daily Flash.”
3:31 PM PT
hi..
you guys (for the most part) are ludicrous. sure, you can throw together a site in a few days if you have the skills. but if you don’t, what then.. are you guys offering to help/be a part for free/equity. i say hell no!! you want to stand on the sideline and bitch. but let’s assume that you do create the site.. how the hell are you going to attract the customer base.. oh, that’s right.. you have no f*ng idea!! you just build it and it’ll somehow work..
not saying that his way is the best.. but his approach allows him to build a base of others who might have pointers/access to talent and the ability to make the damn thing happen.
you guys are a joke….
peace