GigaOM » Chris Albrecht Archives

Should your startup be thinking about the federal government?

Chris Albrecht — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:30:42 +0000

Between SOPA, PIPA and the JOBS Act, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. have had a lot to talk about recently. Aside from headline-grabbing legislation, between work Visas and patents, there’s a good chance that at some point, your startup will need to interact with the federal government. And when it does, Michael McGeary is there to help.

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McGeary is co-founder and director of Engine Advocacy, a new lobbying organization, whose mission is to “create an environment where technological innovation and entrepreneurship thrive by educating, collaborating with, and involving startups in shaping policy.” For example, when the fights against SOPA and PIPA arose, Engine Advocacy built an app that generated 30,000 calls to legislators. They also published a letter from 15 tech CEOs against SOPA in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post as well as collaborated to schedule and amplify the impact of the January 18th blackout.

So as you are out building your business, how should you concern yourself with the government? When you first start out, McGeary says, you probably shouldn’t. Stay focused on your product. But be aware that the government is there, and rather than reacting to proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, the entrepreneurial community needs to be more proactive.

McGeary sat down with us for a brief video chat about how startups should start thinking about the federal government, and lessons founders can learn from political campaigns.

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MindSnacks CEO: “Shut up and listen,” the importance of empathy

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:00:09 +0000

Do you put yourself in your customers’ shoes? Not literally, of course, but are you able to step our of your hectic workday and really imagine what it’s like for someone to use your product? MindSnacks CEO, Jesse Pickard believes empathy is an important and overlooked trait for entrepreneurs.

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Pickard credits being the son of a psychiatrist and a small business owner for what he believes is his empathetic approach. According to Pickard, MindSnacks, which makes mobile games that teach languages, has a diverse audience that reaches everyone from children to the elderly. For Pickard, it’s important to step back and really see how all these groups might view a new game character or even how big an “explosion” in a game is.

Empathy can be turned inwards, to your own organization as well, especially when it comes to hiring the right team. Will your company provide each applicant with the challenges and rewards they need to succeed?

We spend a lot of time thinking about the tactical side of being a startup founder, but it’s important to remember that the softer skills, such as empathy, are important. Watch our interview with Pickard and leave a comment. If you feel like it, that is.

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Author Paul Miller on The Digital Workplace and the evolution of the office

Chris Albrecht — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:30:19 +0000

In his new book, The Digital Workplace, author Paul Miller doesn’t hail the death of the traditional office, vanquished by a rise in Web workers. Rather, he sees a more symbiotic relationship between the physical and digital work spaces.

The traditional office has reached an evolutionary plateau, according to Miller, but the digital tools we use to communicate both inside and outside of the cubicle will continue to improve to create more visceral experiences for the workforce. At the same time, Miller believes that the physical office remains important to provide social glue for the organization and head off total isolation of its employees.

Miller sat down with us for a brief video interview to talk about some of the key concepts in his book as well as the evolution of the digital workspace.

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Localmind CEO on how to make habit-forming products

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:30:33 +0000

Think of the number of apps you’ve downloaded to your phone. Now think the of number of apps that you actually use. It’s probably only a handful. Turning an app or a product into a habit for users is a tricky undertaking for a mobile developer. So how do you make your app or product or service as vital as email, Facebook and Twitter?

Localmind founder and CEO Lenny Rachitsky has devoted a lot of time to thinking and exploring that very question. Localmind is a service that lets users ask questions such as “Is Bar X crowded?” Through Localmind, someone at Bar X will reply.

In today’s episode of See Founders Run, Rachitsky walks us through some of his experiences, and how he wants Localmind to be less of a novelty and more of a habit for his users. In this short video interview, he explains:

The importance of cues, routines and rewards
The power of the push notification
Finding a big enough problem to solve to make a product a habit

Be sure to check out other episodes of See Founders Run:

Derek Dukes on product iteration
Snapguide’s Daniel Raffel on hiring a killer launch team

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Steve Blank on small startups, big execution & Steve Jobs

Chris Albrecht — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:30:20 +0000

When Steve Blank talks about entrepreneurship, people listen. When he writes a book on the subject, like his latest effort with co-author Bob Dorf titled The Startup Owner’s Manual, it’s a good bet it will be on many founders’ bookshelves.

Blank co-founded the CRM software company E.piphany and the video game business Rocket Science. His current gigs as an entrepreneurship professor at Stanford, UC Berkeley and Columbia give him a unique insight that combines a historical perspective with a look at the next generation of entrepreneurs.

I sat down with Blank at his ranch in Pescadero, where we talked about his book and his take on the state of startups and entrepreneurship. Some key takeaways:

Startups are not smaller versions of big companies, so don’t try to be like them
Startups are about searching for a business model, not executing a business plan
Contrary to the myth, Steve Jobs interacted with consumers more than you think
Amazon has been hugely important to the boom in startups
Today’s students have a “wonderful entrepreneurial arrogance”

Watch the videos below or listen to the audio only of the entire interview.

Download: steve-blank-audio-only.mp3

PART 1: Startups are not small versions of big companies

PART 2: Forget a “business plan”

PART 3: The myth of Steve Jobs and customer interaction

PART 4: The overlooked importance of Amazon

PART 5: A sneak-peek at the next generation of entrepreneurs

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Gumroad’s CEO on great design and advice for young entrepreneurs

Chris Albrecht — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:30:06 +0000

Sahil Lavingia has a gift for building what people want. A look at his resume reveals he was a designer for Pinterest, built the iPhone app for Turntable.fm, and now he’s the founder of Gumroad, a startup with the modest ambition of enabling people to sell anything (a song, a snippet of code, an icon design) to anyone.

Oh, and though it feels cliche to mention, he’s only 19 years old.

Upon talking with Lavingia, however, that number quickly recedes into nothingness. He is smart. He’s well connected. And he’s gathered a lifetime’s worth of experience, which he sat down to share with us. All you wannabe Zuckerberg’s out there should take note as Lavingia gives us his take on:

Designing great mobile products
Advice for young entrepreneurs
The benefits of worldly exposure
What’s next for Gumroad

Lavingia on building great products:

Lavingia’s advice for young entrepreneurs:

Lavingia on the benefits of living abroad:

Lavingia on what’s next:

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Got lots of gadgets? ItemBase wants to manage them

Chris Albrecht — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:30:18 +0000

If you’re looking for a new gadget, there are tons of places to help you find what you need. But as you buy more and more gizmos, it can be harder to keep track of all your stuff. That’s where ItemBase wants to enter the picture.

ItemBase is a Berlin based startup that promises to keep track of what you own (including all the receipts, warranties and user manuals), discover new things to buy, and sell the stuff you no longer want. It was founded by Denmark native Stefan Jørgensen who came up with the idea after realizing he had scads of old mobile phones floating around his home and no idea what to do with them.

The company received seed round and launched a private beta in Germany and Denmark. Jørgensen is on the hunt for $1.5 million (USD) in new funding as he looks to open up ItemBase to the public in the next couple of months.

I met with Jørgensen at the recent Founder Showcase in San Francisco, where ItemBase actually won the pitch competition. He stopped by for a quick video chat to explain ItemBase and talk about why he created it.

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Wanted: Big community to unlock big data in big brain

Chris Albrecht — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:06:52 +0000

When it comes to “big” data, you’re hard-pressed to find a subject bigger than the human brain. Electron microscope images of a cubic millimeter of brain matter are equivalent to a petabyte of data, according to Sebastian Seung, professor of computational neuroscience at MIT, who is on a mission to map the “connectomes” (pronounced like “genome”) inside our heads. Well, inside a head as connectomes are unique and may be the foundations for how our memories — and identities are formed.

As you could imagine, mapping connectomes is a pretty big undertaking, and Seung believes high-powered artificial intelligence isn’t enough. Which is why he’s turned the process into a game, launching Eyewire.org to ask people to join in his cranial crusade.

Watch our video interview with Seung where he explains what connectomes are, why they’re important, and how growing up with coloring books makes you a perfect candidate to help with this project.

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YumvY aims to make recipes easy for wannabe chefs

Chris Albrecht — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:48:31 +0000

There are no shortage of fancy recipes online. But once you’ve got that recipe for grilled brick chicken with a peach glaze and side of asparagus puree — unless Mario Batali is your personal sous chef, it’s hard to juggle all the ingredients, slicing and cooking times to make everything come out perfect.

That’s where Sari Louis’ bootstrapped startup, YumvY, wants to help. YumvY is a Web-based application that parses through a recipe and provides GPS-like instructions for the user. It tells you when to chop vegetables, when to start boiling the water and how long to sear the steak, etc., complete with a timer for each step.

I met founder Louis at the recent Founder Showcase, where he pitched his idea to a panel of VCs. While the crowd ate up his pitch, YumvY didn’t win, and panelists pointed out two of the biggest hurdles for YumvY: getting content partners like Food Network and Epicurious to make their recipes YumvY friendly, and the possibility that those content partners will just make their own version of YumvY.

But those scenarios haven’t taken a bite out of Louis’ entrepreneurial spirit. He took a moment to chat with us for a quick video where you can see how the service works, the technology it’s using as well as his passion for both food and his startup. The site launches next week for alpha testing.

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How to hire a killer product launch team

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:00:51 +0000

When Daniel Raffel started working on Snapguide, he knew that building the right launch team was as important as the idea itself. As he looked for the right partner and developers, he looked back at all his previous team experience — including his time working in star chef Thomas Keller‘s kitchen.

In this episode of See Founders Run, Raffel shares:

What you need to do before you even think about hiring
How you can research potential hires
How getting personal can help you compete for top level talent
The team-building philosophy he learned from Thomas Keller

Want more great guidance from a startup founder? Check out our episode with Jetpac’s Derek Dukes on running product iterations.

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