Googlising the world and other sources of venture ideas and opportunities

I am always trying to find fresh ways to look at the world and to identify opportunities for my ventures. One of my favorite sources is reading what smart forward-looking people are talking about or writing about. I use their views on the way things could unfold to better define a venture idea or to help push an existing idea further forward and make it more specific yet.

These are a few people who I think provide great raw materials.

Jeff Jarvis is a talented writer, blogger (its worth reading his Buzzmachine blog) and academic. He has just written a new book "What Would Google Do?" that should provide some fantastic ideas about what happens if you apply Google's business model in other industries. As he says "The idea: I try to reverse-engineer the success of the fastest growing company in the history of the world, the one company that truly understands how to succeed in the internet age, and then take those lessons and apply them to a number of industries, companies, and institutions, from carmakers to restaurants to universities to government." Many interesting new venture ideas embedded in there I am sure.

Thomas Friedman recently wrote about a similar idea - what would happen if Steve Jobs took over the American Car Manufacturing business. What would the iCar look like? Reading through his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, as well as his previous book, the World is Flat is a great source of ideas on where there are emerging opportunities in the world linked to changing demands on energy consumption and living patterns.

Malcom Gladwell's books are full of ideas. I found Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers to be fascinating and motivating reading.

From Blink alone I developed two business ideas that I launched. One idea came from him talking about a fantastic music testing business called Promosquad. Check out the site and you will find a place where you can listen to and give your opinion about new music. I loved the idea of using crowdsourcing to help identify strong new musical talent, and I saw ways to apply this in the publishing world. On the back of that idea I launched Rapport, an on-line book concept and book cover testing venture that has had some fantastic successes helping publishers make reader-informed decisions about what covers and blurbs will best market a book.

I'd be interested to know what other books you have found are good ones for stimulating ideas and fresh takes on how the world is changing.

An exciting moment – our innovative product nominated for an award!

One of the things that I miss as an entrepreneur is that you never really get feedback. You typically don't get feedback from your peers. Reviews are not really part of the daily business when your team is busy just trying to ensure the venture is successful!

So perhaps that is why it is very satisfying when you can have a moment of vanity and celebrate someone else saying something that you are doing is good. Of course, the best way is when people are willing to pay your business large fees or end users are adopting the product or service.

Today we got the other kind of celebration – our business was nominated for an award – TV Show of the Year. Granted this is only in Finland, but that is where we have piloted a new concept of linking mobile phones to a programme. And it seems that people have liked it. We're excited to take this concept further, so a nice way to see some recognition. Here is a link to our nomination – now fingers crossed! http://www.kultainentv.fi/finalistit.php.

 

Social Venture Competition - The Power of Us: Re-Imagine Media

Ashoka, one of the leaders in the universe of social ventures, has launched a new social venture competition.  

www.changemakers.net

They are taking a very unusual approach to their competition - every entry is "open source" with a discussion of each project idea done transparently.  

If you are feeling motivated - this is a perfect time to enter the competition.  There is one running now - would be unfolding during the early stages of NBV.  If you win, it could provide $25,000 to get a new venture moving forward.

Worth a look!

Books on networking

There are innumerable books on networking. As with any business book, I find the best thing to do is read them quickly and pull out the nuggets that are helpful to you.

These are two books that had some useful nuggets for me recently.

Despite the title of Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi has some useful ideas on how to build momentum for your career and your business developing and leveraging your contacts. For those of you who are expert at this, you won't learn much. For those of you who are developing this skill, you may find his ideas helpful.




A new book by two INSEAD professors. Haven't read it yet - but I like what they are writing about in their blog so I think that the book is probably worth a read. Will let you know. Have ordered copy for my return to London next week.

Good Venture Blogs

I have been digging though a large number of different sources of information for entrepreneurs. Of what I have come across - this list below is a great distillation of helpful, relevant sources.

Please do add comments with other sources you think should be added to this list!


VentureBeat: "VentureBeat's mission is to provide news and information about private companies and the venture capital that fuels them. VentureBeat will focus initially on Silicon Valley, and gradually expand to cover innovation hubs around the globe. Its mission in each region will be the same: to provide insider news and data about the entrepreneurial and venture community that is useful to decision makers."

TechCrunch: "TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to covering new companies, we profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space."

OnStartups: A blog by successful entrepreneur Dharmesh Shah that shares tips, strategies, insights, and musings on startups for those bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

VentureHacks: "We like helping entrepreneurs succeed. We provide advice and introductions. We're hamburger helper for entrepreneurs. Our Hacks provide advice. They answer a common question from entrepreneurs: "Can you help me understand term sheets?" Recommended introduces entrepreneurs and investors. It's like match.com for investors and entrepreneurs.

VatorNews: "The Vator.tv Newsroom is a trustworthy beacon to the world on the technology startup spirit and the investing which turns these dreams into reality."

PartnerUp: "This blog is dedicated entirely to entrepreneurial, startup, and small business topics and will feature a variety of content ranging from Q & As with successful entrepreneurs, startup news, tips and advice on building a business, and more!"

Hacker News: Recent articles and blog posts read by the Y Combinator crew. The best news from around the web on startups and entrepreneurship.

ReadWriteWeb: "ReadWriteWeb is a blog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis. It began publishing on April 20, 2003 and is now one of the most widely read and respected blogs in the world."

Independent Street: "News, trends, tidbits and tools for and about entrepreneurs."

Entrepreneurial Generation: "Inc. contributing editor Donna Fenn is currently at work on a new book about Gen Y entrepreneurs, those born between 1977 and 1994. Both this blog and the book will examine the kinds of companies this generation -- one of the largest and most entrepreneurial in history -- is creating, along with the new perspectives they bring to financing, building, branding, and managing their companies."

Leveraging Ideas: "Ideation on social mediea, venture capital, and startups."

Forbes Entrepreneurs: "Entrepreneurs, Small Business News, and Information"

The Next Big Thing: Get the latest news, insights and analysis from Microsoft's Emerging Business Team.

Startup-Up Bits: The latest from the Times' technology blog.

Mashable: "With more than 5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social networks. Mashable will put your brand in front of the most tech-savvy early adopters, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, influencers, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers and members of social networking sites - an increasingly influential demographic."

The Startup Laywer: "Startup law blog about corporate law, venture capital, securities, and M&A."

The Startup Diaries: From Harvard Publishing..."This blog chronicles the trials and tribulations of David and two longtime friends who are trying to start an Internet music company called Jamseed. All three have day jobs, all have failed in the past with new ventures, and all hope that this company will bring them entrepreneurial redemption."

Risky Business: "Matt Bandyk, a reporter for U.S. News, explores capitalism from where it all begins, with the entrepreneur, whose risk taking and experimentation provide the roots from which the rest of the economy grows. As much courage as it takes to create one's own business, even the entrepreneur needs some help, and this blog will look at news, trends, and practical advice for starting and running a small business."


BUZZ in theHUB-Boston Startup Watch: "Buzz in theHub now a part of www.genotrope.com the Career site with Smarter matching technology that finds you opportunities at Boston area start-ups and emerging technology companies. Tom Summit has been helping Boston Area Start-ups and Emerging Technology Companies build teams for close to 20 years."

Life Beyond Code: "Rajesh has been involved in building companies since 1993. Rajesh believes that building entrepreneurs is equally or more important than building companies."

Growthology: "Research and policy for entrepreneurial economies."

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: "The tell-it-like-it-is guide to cleaning up your business, even if your at the end of your roll."

Valleywag: Tech gossip from Silicon Valley.

Texas Startup Blog: "The Texas Startup Blog is part of the SpringStage Startup Network. SpringStage is a network of community catalysts who are in tune with their local entrepreneurship and startup scenes. The network will formally launch in early 2009 as a blog network. This is the first step in ensuring that there is a visible resource in every community for early stage entrepreneurs."

TechStars Blog: "TechStars is really different. It's a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund located in Boulder, Colorado which is quickly becoming one of the country's top startup hubs."

Startuparabia: "StartUpArabia, founded in March 2008, is a weblog dedicated to new Arab technology startups and services, profiling and reviewing them, providing interesting market news and information, and sharing tips and advice for the entrepreneurs behind them."

StartupHustle: "The adventures of marketing an internet startup."

The Eco-Capitalist: "Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, writes about how you can break the traditional business model and create a business where you drive profit by doing the most environmentally and socially responsible things."

A VC: "Musings of a VC in NYC."

Xconomy: "Xconomy is dedicated to providing business and technology leaders with timely, insightful, close-to-the-scene information about the local personalities, companies, and technological trends that best exemplify today's high-tech economy."

GigaOm: "The GigaOM Network of sites provide one of the leading daily online news reads for the key influencers in the emerging technology market place. We deliver technology news, analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband and online games to Web 2.0."

Ask the VC: "Relevant issues in the venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem."

Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog: "Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm that manages over $2 billion of capital commitments. We closed Lightspeed VIII, an $800 million fund, in early 2008. Over the past two decades, our investment professionals have backed more than 150 companies, many of which have gone on to become leaders in their respective industries."

DealBook: Venture Capital from the New York Times.


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Source for Venture Replication Ideas

As we know - often the easiest way to succeed as an entrepreneur is replicating a successful venture that is working in another market or geography.

The trick is to identify those ventures early enough so that you have a first mover advantage in your market.

Here is one site that seems to helpfully flag innovative new startups. For the entrepreneur, perhaps it is a good place to look for ideas to replicate!

http://www.killerstartups.com/