What I Learned at TechCrunch50

Larry Chiang loves watching people learn and network. Because he is taking a break from self-promoting and hosting after parties, he is documenting what people learn at industry conferences. TechCrunch50 is the hub of all things tech and Web 2.0. Here are the nuggets of knowledge unearthed at 8th and Brannnan in San Francisco CA.

By Larry Chiang

I love entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs in the midst of stretching themselves reveal their true character. Here are nuggets that were emailed to me and crawled via Twitter

Dan Martell of FlowTown says, “Branding isn’t a slogan or logo. It’s what you do everyday.”

Jeremy Toeman of Stage Two Consulting: “Thing i just learned at #tc50: geeks impress easily with loud rap music and hits from the 80s”

Chris Tolles If Larry Chiang hijacks your @MattCutts meeting, laugh and laugh but get him back later when he’s vulnerable.

Mark Suster You can snarf some content all the time, all the content some of the time, but you can’t snarf all of the content all of the time.

I learned from YextCalls that it is possible to close a deal via the phone (versus buying clicks that don’t convert). Robin Wauters has more on Yext at TechCrunch.

I learned from Ethan at RedBeacon that exchanging cupcakes for attention works surprisingly well. Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch has more.

Brad Jeffererson from Animoto said something smart but I am forgetting what it was.
UPDATE: Brad said, “I manage the top press people – No way am I going to delegate 100% of that because I am not going to let anyone screw that up.”
UPDATE: Mike Arrington of TechCrunch just said in a tweet: If you don’t know animoto, get to know animoto. they are just flat out hot.

These are from Pokin Yeung from Dave McClure’s FB Rev. He mocks my bullet format with a numeric presentation of his own. Yeung says, “Three important things that I didn’t learn in B-School

1) Set hypotheses, then work to test them out

The whole premise of being an entrepreneur is that you see a perceived need.  This means your business is based around some sort of hypothesis with a lot of uncertainties.

So run your business like a science class.  Build an experiment, set hypotheses, and figure out how to measure your results.  So long as you stay focused on understanding your uncertainties, and on what needs to be proven, you’ll be able to stay on track to grow your business without getting lost in features.

2) Ask for help

In school, you tend to be rewarded for getting the right answer the first time, and for doing it yourself.  In business, the difference between success and failure can all be in based on whom you know.  So what do you do if you’re new to the industry like we were and don’t know a soul because you just moved from across the continent?

You reach out and talk to someone.  Anyone.

No kidding.  See a blogger?  Email them.  Hear a great talk?  Go up and say something.  Recognize someone in the coffee shop?  Walk up and say hi.

We wouldn’t have come as far as we didn’t without the great advice and contacts we made, and every single person we met through reaching out and asking for help.  So don’t try to go heroic on the do-it-yourself. Reach out.

3) You don’t have to be perfect

In school, the objective is to get the A+.  You want to hand in the perfect project or deliver the perfect presentation.  In business, getting to perfect means your competitor’s scrappy little basic product has already grown to 10 times your size.  All that is important is to get something out to test your hypotheses, and start getting feedback.  So release something when you’re at a C and stop aiming for the A.

4) How did we get our first three to five thousand users?

We got our first users by piggybacking off existing networks.  We knew from the start that the travel market was crowded.  We also knew building our own site and expecting it to be popular and useful would be pure folly.  So instead, we went to where travelers were.  They were already on Facebook sharing experiences with friends, so we set up our Facebook Application, Travel Brain and used that to build a sufficient community.  Once our site was ready, we kick started our site with a contest and invited the Facebook users to come.
– Pokin Yeung
http://www.geckogo.com/

“Shows like TC50 require a presenting company to make your message memorable, to “rise above the noise”. Few will remember the details but they can remember a name.

To do this you have to work the room. Walk around, spread your message to anyone who will listen. Everyone at a show is there to meet and learn, so don’t be shy!  Also I wanted people to leave with something in their hand with logo and message on it that thy would keep. So I printed on aluminum bottles and used them to start and end converations.”
-Scott Milener AdRocket

Working at a startup causes time dilation.  There will be a milestone that we passed or a task that we completed that will fell like ages ago, but when i check my calendar it was just last week.  The outside world move much slower than you remember, and you have to ask people that live there for things way before you think you’ll need them.
– Trevor Austin, uDorse

1. The difficulty of creating a product is almost irrelevant to its value. Some entrepreneurs, especially engineers, are attracted to challenging products. Joost is technically impressive, but didn’t solve the more important problem of content acquisition and marketing. Joost users didn’t have enough reason to spread it virally like Skype users did. By comparison, Twitter, Facebook, and eBay are technically trivial; Facebook was built in a weekend. However, these products solve big problems with a clear, effective marketing plan. Just because something is hard to create doesn’t mean it creates a lot of value or can get traction.

2. Doing is more important than studying. I am a Stanford drop-out. I loved my classes, but learning entrepreneurship through homework is like trying to become a surgeon by reading. Starting a company will teach you tactical details, social skills, and especially perseverance that no classes can. It’s not a big deal if you get a C in finance, but it’s a big deal if you don’t close funding with a week of payroll left.

– Mark Goldenson http://www.breakthrough.com

This post was edited by Larry Chiang. To submit guest posts, email larry @larrychiang dot com