Stanford BUS-217 - Latest Comments

Re: Bud Michael

Daniel Brown — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:24:59 -0000

I don't recall you mentioning the upload aspect, but I could have missed it. The thought of "sneaker-netting" USB drives of photos around was, I'll admit, a bit of a "show-stopper". Not to say there aren't people for whom this is a preferred approach, but they are (arguably) not a "growth market". Bret and I actually worked with someone for a while who was aiming a photography product at a somewhat older generation and it was clear that he was VASTLY limiting his audience and his chances for investors or partners.

I'm a tad hesitant to say that you SHOULD mention your intent it in since an investor is likely to assume (and hope) that functionality is in place. You rarely want to ask someone to invest in your dental practice by first investing in your dental school.I would, at least, allude to the fact that this is in your plan and say that you're looking to "bolster" your online submission system. If pressed, you may need to point out you don't have one, but if the rest of the plan is in place, this may not be a very big investment hurdle.

Re: Bud Michael

Bud — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:15:21 -0000

Great input. Agree completely on the limited days for USB format for sending us the photos. The game plan is to build out fully digital upload of selected photos from smartphones, iPads, etc. and directly from files stored on any of the cloud photo sharing sites. Our intent is to keep it very simple and go for the 75% - 85% of the consumers who want an easy way to share their life's events but don't want to be photo editors. Our research has shown that for these folks, less is more - fewer layout and design options actually reduces the purchase decision friction. Your suggestion for adding an educational component to our website makes great sense. Thanks!

Re: Bud Michael

Bud — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:04:02 -0000

Thanks for the comments. We agree that we will need to add the capability to select and send photos directly from smartphones and the existing photo management sites. Building out this capability is one of the immediate uses of capital (assuming we get some!).

Re: Kat Blasband Page

Brayton48 — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:32:02 -0000

Kat - brilliant presentation and very effective and creative. I was engaged. I hope you make it to the finals as i would like to know more. I am interested in knowing how you will get to the customer and convince them your services are worth using. There are so many ways to send e-messages today but how do you ensure I will learn about yours and use your service? Get me engaged once and keep me....how do you do that?

Re: Eske Rygaard-Hjalsted

Brayton48 — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:26:14 -0000

Eske - you did a great job presenting. I enjoy thinking about your idea and whether I would invest and/or purchase your product. I, of course, want to know more and hope you make it to the finals.

Re: Laurie Friedman

Brayton48 — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:23:51 -0000

Laurie - I agree with Bret's comments. I gave you higher marks than most on your presentation but that's partly due to the fact that I'm familiar with your expertise from your input and comments in class. Your depth of experience is impressive and a focus on that initially would help people feel more assured you can execute as planned and that your idea has merit. Best wishes.

Re: Jignesh Merchant

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:03:10 -0000

Indeed, great presentation Jignesh.

There were definitely a lot of "buzzwords" in there and those often confuse people even when they know what the words mean. While I don't know a lot about this area, I know enough to get the general idea. To Shushanik's point, you want it understandable to just about anyone; you may be pitching to a V.C. whose expertise isn't in this area, but you want him to tell his other V.C. friends about you so the message needs to be simple, memorable, and "portable" - i.e. one person can remember it well enough to relay to someone else.

It's definitely a challenge to communicate this kind of information in a short way, but I think it would help a lot.

Re: Kat Blasband Page

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:57:38 -0000

Agreed, kudos for a "different" way of presenting your idea.

The only comment I think I had was that the video felt like it was aimed an end-user rather than a potential investor or partners. It had all the emotion, but needed "nuts and bolts" about the business. Or, maybe it just needed to be prefaced as being a marketing tool.

I'm doing "introduction" videos myself these days so a good one always makes me wish I'd thought of it first. :)

Re: Shushanik Khachaturian

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:53:55 -0000

I agree with Bret on all counts; especially the "understandability" of your business.

At the end, however, I was a little confused about specifically what your intended business was. That was probably my fault. Your (charming) accent might have been involved and most people speak more quickly in a presentation. I would say, relax slightly, and even check in with the audience along the way; "Does that makes sense? Is everyone still with me?" You want to make sure they're with you along the way rather than have them try to catch up all at once at the end.

Overall, I think it's a great idea and look forward to it being successful (even if I won't get much out of it. :) )

Re: Giorgio Gentile

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:45:56 -0000

Clearly, this is a solid business and one I wish was located closer to me!

I think Bret covered it nicely, I would only add that you could have used a bit more ENERGY! You're a young guy, USE IT! Be confident, be honest, and certainly be louder. :) You want an investor to trust in you, believe in you, and that will require confidence.

And you and I chatted about this briefly after the class, but if there was some kind of differentiator, that would be great. My mechanic is closed on Fridays (which tells me they make too much money during the week!) so that's a potential weakness in them. Most mechanics seem to steer clear of technology - i.e. they don't use email, instant messaging, or do much in the way of social networks. This might be an opportunity to say, "Not only do we have the HISTORY of a solid business, we see opportunities for the FUTURE in how we communicate, promote, and encourage word-of-mouth marketing."

I think it'll be a winner!

Re: Trevor Felch and Kevin Chung

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:40:00 -0000

I don't think I had a chance to say this in the class, but I would have KILLED for a service like this about 10 years ago.

When I traveled for a living, I'd often want to know, not necessarily where ONE restaurant is, but rather where a GROUP of them are likely to be. "Hot spots", if you will. I was interested in regions, not locations.

I know this is a pretty competitive space with some big players already involved, but I have to imagine there's a way to make it unique and valuable.

And, yes, your presentation was stellar; but it might almost be TOO polished. You definitely want confidence and precision, but you also want it to "feel" real.

My 2 cents. :)

Re: Laurie Friedman

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:33:53 -0000

Indeed, starting a presentation to ANYONE - investor, partner, or end-user - with "I have 30 years worth of experience" instantly boosts your credibility. It's clearly a very solid business idea and now it's just a matter of executing.

I thought more about the story you had at the beginning of your presentation. I think showing a real example is valuable, but to Bret's point, it might belong later in the presentation. Say who you are and what your company intends to do early, and then support it with real-life examples if time allows.

I would also add, and this is an extremely minor point, that you made a common presenter's mistake - when the photo was missing from your presentation, you spent too much time on it. Dwelling on something wrong makes the audience tense, and it also weakens your presentation slightly by removing a bit of your confidence. If something's missing, the audience doesn't necessarily know that ("They never know what you DIDN'T tell them" is a phrase I've loved for years). Yes, the omission probably threw YOU off, but never let the audience know about it.

I think it's a great idea for a business and hope to see it flourish in the future!

Re: Bud Michael

Chester Manuel — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:30:59 -0000

You have a very clear and solid business presentation. This totally solves a problem that many people have. I am definitely guilty of not sharing all my photos. The business is very easy to understand and I like that you are targeting a market that all the big players are not going after. The most used camera on Flickr are the iPhone so I think having a cloud based dropbox type solution would be great.

Re: James Grealis

Chester Manuel — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:24:33 -0000

You have a great idea and I think the message just needs to get simplified for people to understand it. The service will definitely be of value to people. The customers you will get will also be just as economically valuable to businesses.

Re: Eske Rygaard-Hjalsted

Jignesh — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:21:18 -0000

This is a great app and one that everyone would like to use !!! Kudos for coming up with such a great innovative idea.

Just extending the thought a little beyond, as a normal practice we see that most of the people try and buy fresh produce, but then dump it in their refrigerator for next few days. What it means is, we artificially slow down the ripening process and I am not too sure how we can use this app. effectively in this case i.e. does the app. give accurate results even after the produce is stored in refrigerator?

Your thoughts please.

Re: Bud Michael

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:20:38 -0000

Being an avid (if mediocre) photographer, I love the idea of presenting my photos in magazine rather than hard-bound book form. I also agree with Bret that the "give us 150 pictures, we'll give you a magazine" is a concise statement which helps a lot.

Alas, the days of mailing USB drives is just about over and should be an "alternative" means of sending in images rather than the primary one. Moving physical media around limits scalability and costs you time and money. I suspect potential investors might shy away from being involved because of this one factor.

You'll likely also want educational content on your web site about how to get photos out of, say, iPhoto or Adobe Lightroom and into a format which can be uploaded to your site. The more you can teach people before they start working, the fewer tech support issues you'll have.

Most other companies (Shutterfly, Blurb, etc.) all have proprietary software to make layout simpler. Given the competitive landscape out there, you're going to need a point of differentiation which may actually be NOT giving people full layout flexibility. Having a preset template and they simply choose the order of the images might be less daunting than having full control.

Those are my thoughts. Hope that helps!

Re: Eske Rygaard-Hjalsted

Chester Manuel — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:19:45 -0000

I liked how you used the cantaloupe to demonstrate your product. It helped make your presentation memorable. Your slides were clear and understandable. Your use of the IR sensor is fascinating and innovative.

Re: Jignesh Merchant

Jignesh — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:11:21 -0000

James, Thanks for your feedback. Understand that it is difficult to comprehend the context of a B2B company in a three minute pitch as it usually requires some domain background - in this case Online Marketing. I will be very glad to do a deep-dive and provide more context to what we are trying to achieve here. Unfortunately, I am traveling on business this Monday and won't be able to make it to our last class.

However, can always meet in-person or provide more details over phone. I would like to surely propagate this idea further and get more people interested and also gather their valuable feedback - all this is essentially part of building a good vialble business.

Re: Eske Rygaard-Hjalsted

Daniel Brown — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:07:16 -0000

I agree with Bret on all counts. The currency format was a small issue, but it does indeed help to "know your audience".

About the only comment I would add is that you "gave away" the secret sauce; you (basically) told people how it all works. I think, on an emotional level, it "ruins the magic"; like a magician showing you a trick and then showing you how they did it. Any time there is I.P. involved (and there almost has to be or you wouldn't have a unique offer), I would say you should keep that fairly quiet. You can mention the other devices and how THEY work, but maybe just steer clear of fully explaining how your method works.

I also think the Steve Jobs tribute, while charming, might be a bit overboard and makes the pricing seem arbitrary. In chatting with other people in the class, the price seemed fairly high. It's also a bit confusing that you have two separate apps, but not the end of the world.

Can't wait to see it in action!

--Daniel Brown

Re: Jignesh Merchant

Shushanik — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:39:06 -0000

I would agree with James - it was hard to understand for me as well... What I understood though was great team and great market opportunity. May be try to bring the explanation a bit down-to-earth so that people who are not in the field could understand it as well. All in all, great idea. Good luck!

Shushanik

Re: Jignesh Merchant

JGrealis — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:31:55 -0000

The great Team experience you have on board came across, but I did not understand the funamentals of your pitch - maybe your target audiance will undersand better than me!!!. Maybe sit with some people who dont know as much as you do and see if you can build a story that they can understand. ...James

Re: Laurie Friedman

JGrealis — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:24:06 -0000

Laurie, I really like your idea and think it will be successful.... James

Re: James Grealis

Dhanush Balachandran — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:38:33 -0000

James, I liked your idea. I think if you could label the idea as "facebook profile" equivalent for assets, it would be easier for people to relate to. I do think that if you create profiles for your things in one place (like storing IMEI number of your phones or VIN number of your cars) that would be great. Today I keep a physical diary to keep a record of these things. I would love to move online provided its safe.