BrainHuddle

Half-baked and glazed-over ideas

The cost of free

February 7th, 2012 No comments »

After teaching a free introduction to business model generation to a group of 9 entrepreneurs. I was reflecting on a discussion that I had with one of them regarding a decision they were trying to make whether to charge for a service or not. The concern was that they’d managed to create a community while not charging anything but wanted to find a way to shift their business model to a more sustainable configuration. The concern was that they would suddenly alienate the community they had built and that they in turn would have no customers. The counter argument is that they might actually get more customers because the price tag automatically conveys value (if I’m paying for it then it must be worth something).

If they do suddenly shut down then maybe there really wasn’t anything of value that they were offering or may be they’re just targeting the wrong audience. Many websites are able to leverage the traffic that free brings in order to sell advertising space, data, or get a cut of transactions. The right business models matter.

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Posted in General

Test 1…Fail

January 19th, 2012 No comments »

I attempted to organize a entrepreneur group this week by simply posting a handful of flyers and utilized the Meetup website. The result: the person I personally invited showed up and 2 emails from people who couldn’t make it. In doing something (anything) to get going I didn’t expect much but was curious to see what would happen. As I interviewed and corresponded with my “customers/users” it became apparent the problem that they were hoping would be solved was the lack of network or access to resources and not knowledge or support. They wanted to meet people that would help them start a start-up, their start-up.

So how do you solve that problem especially in order to create a critical mass that it makes it worth it to participate? Who do I believe has this problem? Those that don’t network or have enough work experience that expose them to others or are only exposed to a certain type of person. So the target’s are specialists such as the classic business and technology co-founders. Sell or build-those are the two skills I need to have my kids learn.

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Posted in Adventures in Ventures

Tags: entrepreneur events Founders marketplace matching

So it begins

January 13th, 2012 No comments »

Every year about this time I tend to get delusions of grandeur for what my New Year’s resolutions/goals are and subsequently find myself sick as if my body is trying to slow me down and focus on the marathon instead of the sprint. This year has been no exception except I’m not as sick as I usually get and feel like the vision is attainable. I’m hoping to help build an entrepreneurial community in my current state of residence (and any subsequent places of residence). I plan to attempt a local organization with regular meetings and events, a coordination of various awesome people and build a website as a central aggregation of online resources for the state.

Some of the first awesome people I have had the privilege of meeting is Cory & Lindsey Miller. They launched and run a non-profit entrepreneurial foundation called the <div>. It is a tech community hub dedicated to innovation, creativity and training for a better Oklahoma though it offers free webinars that are great for non-tech entrepreneurs that just need help getting up a website and entering the world of social media. They were kind enough to let me come and infect the minds of anyone that happens to show up to a Business Models for Beginners class. Here’s to a great year!