Momentum

Designed for Success

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide.

Positioning: designed for success

This week, Ben Gott of Boxed Water is Better and TheCommon.org and Momentum Mentor Garrick Pohl of Crayon Interface joined our discussion on positioning.

Positioning:
Positioning statements – should be short enough to keep a person’s attention, but convey the essential meaning of your organization to potential investors and stakeholders. Generally the shorter the better. Your positioning statement should cut through the noise and simplify what you’re doing.

Momentum teams raised the issue of positioning their start ups in two different ways to best meet the needs of investors versus other stake holders. In general terms our Momentum Mentors recommend using the same positioning statement for both. Obviously this generality is not one size fits all, so in some cases it makes sense to use two positioning statements. Focus on keeping your statement(s) simple, regardless.

Insight from Ben Gott:

Design
I’m design obsessed. You can’t create the organic buzz that great design generates – we worked for that buzz from the start. I was probably afforded some freedoms with the design side of Boxed Water because it was something that I fell in love with, it became a pet project. Be sure to find an investor that allows you as much, if not all control, from the start to ensure your vision is exactly as you see it. I drew a hard line on almost every design aspect of my product. I knew that if I didn’t want the end result to sit on my coffee table, I didn’t want to create it. Don’t be afraid to be really excited for what you’re doing – create something that you want. Oh, and use Sans Serif fonts when you can.

A business isn’t built, it is designed.

Positioning
When you start thinking about your positioning statement envision the story line of your success, fantasize and build your statement with this in mind. Position is who you say you are, brand is what the market says you are; hopefully the two will align.

Niche thy self
There is value in saying no to some customers in the beginning. Don’t chase everyone. Chase people who will fall in love with you and what you’re doing – they will do your marketing for you. Niche is awesome, and it is working for me. Don’t listen and change for the market too much. I really believe that democracy can create mediocrity –especially in the design end of things.

Know what you can and can’t do
I jumped into this without knowing anything about beverage stuff, and I don’t think I’m very good at business, but I love it. That is what powers a lot of what I do. I’m really good about getting excited, jumping into and running with ideas. I’m not great at some of the parts in my business, but I surround myself with people who are great at that stuff. I know what I’m good at and what I’m passionate about and those are the things that I stick to.

Fall in love, stay in love
Make sure you love whatever you’re doing – other wise it sucks. Sometimes it still sucks, but at the end of the day that love will keep you going. If I hadn’t spent all that time working to shape almost every detail of Boxed Water I might have fallen out of love with it.

I’ve found through trial and error that it is easier to fall out of love with your start up if you get too far away from it. Outsourcing is great, but don’t lose that love for your end product or service.

Tips for start ups:

Sure, it sounds great to have 5 or 6 investors when you are starting up, but in reality you only need a few investors who really understand and appreciate what you are doing. A targeted or specialized investor can be critical to your success and reinvestment. It changes everything; working with investors who aren’t passionate about what you are doing is like being stuck in a bad relationship.

Simplicity is key.

When starting up a web based company, the freemium pricing model seems like the way to go. But, when you get free stuff – you probably don’t value it. It can be important to charge users of your product, even in the beginning. This creates increased perceived value and adds switching costs.

Building trust is so important in any business, but it is essential in web based business. Think about it as a consumer: any time you enter a new domain you want to feel comfortable with it before you invest your time or purchase something from it.

A big shout out to Ben Gott for sharing his exciting story with Momentum. You rock Ben!