The ever-changing landscape of the tech industry and the importance of adaptation and innovation.: In the tech industry, constant evolution and adaptation through mergers and acquisitions are necessary. Additionally, creative thinking and capturing the essence of content play a crucial role in success.
Greg Isenberg's company, which was like StumbleUpon for video, was acquired by StumbleUpon itself, making it their first and only acquisition. However, StumbleUpon was later bought by Garrett Camp and Expa, who are now relaunching it as a new product called mix.com. This highlights the dynamic nature of the tech industry, where startups and products constantly evolve through mergers and acquisitions. It also emphasizes the importance of staying updated and adapting to changing trends and technologies. Additionally, the discussion on renaming the podcast showcases the creative process of coming up with a catchy and memorable name, as well as the need to think big and capture the essence of the content being produced.
Unbundling Platforms: Creating Tailored Communities and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs: The unbundling trend allows for the creation of standalone communities within large platforms, providing more personalized experiences and opening doors for specialized offerings and entrepreneurship.
There is a trend towards the unbundling of large platforms like Reddit and Facebook groups. This means that specific communities within these platforms have the potential to become standalone entities or have products and services built specifically for them. The concept of unbundling has been successful in the past, with examples such as Airbnb and StubHub emerging as separate entities from Craigslist. The unbundling trend is driven by the desire for more personalized and tailored experiences within these platforms. As more people seek niche communities and support networks, there is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to create specialized offerings that cater to these specific needs.
Creating a Strong Brand for Community Engagement: Building products and services for a community requires understanding their needs and values, engaging with them through creative marketing strategies, and identifying profitable opportunities within niche communities.
Creating a product and service for a community requires a strong brand that resonates with the audience. Discord, for example, excels in this aspect, not only by catering to gamers but also by understanding their specific interests and humor. They engage with the community through creative marketing strategies like videos that make users feel connected. In contrast, other brands like Skype often feel out of touch. Additionally, identifying niche communities within larger platforms, such as the mobility-related subreddits mentioned, can present profitable opportunities. For instance, the ROMWOD app generates significant revenue by offering specialized workouts for specific areas of the body. Ultimately, understanding a community's needs, preferences, and values is crucial for success in building products and services.
Uncovering Viral Content and Business Opportunities on Reddit: By exploring subreddits like "gift recipes," entrepreneurs can identify unique ideas that cater to gaps in traditional recipe search experiences, potentially leading to the development of engaging recipe platforms with significant market potential.
Reddit is a valuable source for discovering viral content and niche business opportunities. By mining subreddits, entrepreneurs can find unique ideas that have the potential to generate significant revenue. For example, the subreddit "gift recipes" showcases cooking recipes in the form of quick, visually appealing gifts. This highlights a potential gap in the traditional recipe search experience, suggesting that people are looking for alternative ways to access cooking instructions. By capitalizing on the storytelling format popularized by platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, entrepreneurs could create apps or platforms that offer concise, engaging recipe content. With a subscriber base of 2.2 million, the "gift recipes" subreddit demonstrates the potential market size for such innovation.
Unleashing Business Opportunities through Subreddits: Finding Markets, Understanding Demand, and Harnessing Community Insights.: Dive into subreddits, immerse in the community, and gain valuable insights to create successful ventures that cater to specific needs and interests, resulting in substantial revenue.
There are countless business opportunities that can be created using the concept of subreddits as an idea source. The hosts of the podcast discuss the potential for creating businesses based on specific interests and communities within Reddit. They highlight the importance of finding markets and understanding the demand and culture of different subreddits. Additionally, they emphasize the significance of names in building successful internet products. By diving deep into subreddits, reading top comments, and immersing oneself in the community, one can gain valuable insights and ideas for creating businesses that cater to specific needs and interests. This approach can lead to the development of successful ventures that generate substantial revenue.
Community understanding, visualization, code-free development, and innovative compensation are essential for product success.: Understanding the community, experimenting without code, and aligning compensation can increase the chances of creating a successful product.
Creating a successful product requires deep community understanding and involvement. By immersing oneself in the ecosystem, talking to users, and asking open-ended questions, valuable insights can be gathered to inform the product's development. Moreover, visualizing ideas with the help of a designer can enhance the conceptualization process. Another key point is the potential of creating products without code, which has become increasingly accessible. This allows for rapid experimentation and iteration. Additionally, self-funding and being willing to take risks are crucial for pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors. While profit-sharing may seem old-fashioned, it presents an intriguing opportunity to reward employees and align their interests with the company's success. Ultimately, combining community-driven insights, no-code development, and innovative compensation structures can increase the chances of creating a successful product.
Implementing Profit Sharing: Challenges and Considerations: Profit sharing can motivate employees, but businesses must establish clear rules and determine how much to reinvest or distribute. Transparency and gamification can enhance fairness and engagement.
Profit sharing can be a powerful way to incentivize and reward employees. The conversation highlights the challenges and considerations of implementing profit sharing in a business. It raises questions about when to declare profits and how much should be reinvested versus distributed. While there may be some gray areas in establishing clear rules, many companies have successfully adopted profit sharing models, such as allocating percentages of profits based on employee rankings or tenure. Transparency and open communication, like the example of Nathan Barry's company, can also be crucial in ensuring fairness and trust among employees. Additionally, the discussion brings up the idea of leveraging gamification and rewards to encourage savings and customer engagement, as seen in Yada savings' lottery-like approach.
Using Giveaways and Incentives to Drive User Growth and Generate Buzz: Carefully consider legal implications, use appropriate terminology, and assess the lifetime value of users to determine the level of investment needed for successful giveaways and incentives.
Giveaways and incentives can be powerful tools to attract new users and create engagement. Whether it's offering a chance to win a Tesla or sponsoring a popular stream, these strategies can be effective in driving user growth and generating buzz. However, it's important to approach these initiatives carefully, considering legal implications and using the right terminology to comply with regulations. Additionally, looking at the lifetime value of users and setting benchmarks can help determine the appropriate level of investment for giveaways. Ultimately, when executed well, giveaways and incentives have been proven to work and can help bring excitement and value to users' lives.
Effective Strategies to Increase Sales and Revenue: By incorporating add-ons and game elements into their offers, businesses can encourage customers to spend more, boosting profits and engaging their target audience.
There are certain strategies and tactics that can be used to increase sales and revenue. One example is using add-ons or additional offers after a customer makes a purchase. By introducing a game or chance element, like a multiplier or a giveaway, companies can potentially increase the average order value and encourage customers to spend more. This tactic has been successful for companies like the sports betting site Shaan mentioned and Publishers Clearing House, which reportedly made $1 billion in sales. These techniques appeal to customers' desire for value, excitement, and the chance to win big. By understanding consumer psychology and leveraging innovative strategies, businesses can effectively boost their profits and engage their target audience.
Harnessing the Power of Surprise to Engage Consumers: Incorporating surprises into products or services can attract customers, generate buzz and loyalty, and capture your audience's attention.
There are unique ways to create excitement and engagement with consumers through the element of surprise. Whether it's a mystery box with high-end products or a candle with a hidden diamond, these businesses tap into the thrill of unexpected rewards. This approach not only appeals to the customer's desire for novelty and surprise but also creates a sense of fun and anticipation. By incorporating this element into their products or services, companies can not only attract customers but also generate buzz and loyalty. So, if you're looking for innovative ideas to capture your audience's attention, consider incorporating surprise elements into your offerings and watch the excitement build.
#87 with Greg Isenberg - The Millions to be Made Unbundling Reddit
Members share million-dollar ideas and business ventures in a Facebook group. The episode discusses unbundling successful platforms like Reddit, discovering profitable niches using a specific formula, and using giveaways to grow businesses.
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Related Episodes
Managing an Exit - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - 88
Managing an Exit - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
This week on the podcast, Mike & Mike tackle the question of a startup exit or merger from the perspective of the employee within the organization, to the founder/leadership team, to the company who is making the acquisition.
Acquisitions & exits are tough, they become more complex as more information is shared, especially if too much of the wrong information is shared or gaps are left in the information. It is a delicate balance and a difficult dance.
We hope you enjoy the discussion, and look forward to your feedback on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Questions Addressed
- What are some of the things you should not take for granted during an exit?
- What about timing, and the way organizations handle setting expectations on the amount of time the acquisition should take.
- How does managing an exit correlate with a sales process?
- How do you avoid losing key people?
- Let's say you are the company who is making the acquisition - how do you determine what to do with the technology?
- What are some considerations that we should keep in mind from an employee perspective, founder perspective, and acquiring company perspective?
Key Takeaways
- Cultural differences and mindset that is different between an early stage company, and one who may be more established, and is leading the acquisition.
- Communication & setting expectations are important, from both sides of the equation.
- Transparency can be dangerous. If you are a small company, managing resources directly, too much information, shared too soon, can put an organization in a psychological holding pattern.
- Transparency can lead to uncertainty and can be a momentum buster.
- Anne Wolfe - Some of this information needs to be held as state secrets.
- If the performance of the company starts to suffer due to uncertainty, it can have a negative impact on customers & the organization.
- Understand the culture inside the organization, keep this in mind when considering communication.
- When it comes to timing, figure that it will take longer than initially anticipated.
- Always remember, you still have a business to run.
- Consider the worst case scenario - what happens if the acquisition does not take place? Be prepared to adjust, and keep operating the company.
- When managing pipeline, you usually have multiple opportunities in play to help mitigate risk.
- When managing an acquisition, as you get further down the process your risk increases if you lose focus, and the deal falls apart.
- Be careful about over-communication, this can lead to speculation, and you may lose key people as a result of uncertainty.
- People will make up the story.
- The transition from you are "on a mission" to you are "in a role" can create significant conflict and risk.
- Be careful about taking the parts away from the golden goose, you may no longer have a goose.
- From the enterprise perspective, remember to take a holistic approach to integration.
- An integration strategy requires multiple perspectives.
- Do your job, deliver on your role, minimize distractions.
- Don't forget about your customers & your employees
- Minimize assumptions, and leverage the collective intelligence of the organization to minimize the impact of blindspots.
Call to Action
- Share your personal experience with acquisitions either from the perspective of being the founder, an employee, or the acquiring company?
We are actively increasing our engagement on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and look forward to hearing from you. Please share your questions, comments, and recommendations with us via twitter at @catalystsale or @simmons_m
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In every business, in every opportunity, there is someone who can help you navigate the internal challenges and close the deal. There is a Catalyst. We integrate process (Catalyst Sale Process), technology and people, with the purpose of accelerating revenue. Our thoughtful approach minimizes false starts that are common in emerging markets and high-growth environments. We continue to evolve our practice based on customer needs and emerging technology. We care about a thinking process that enables results versus a process that tells people what to do.
Fintech Entrepreneur Aaron Schumm Show 034
Aaron is an accomplished fintech entrepreneur with a proven record. He is the founder and CEO of Vestwell. Prior to founding Vestwell, he created FolioDynamix. FolioDynamix was sold for $199 million to Actua who at that time in 2014 had a market value of $600 million ( ACTA).
We covered many important topics: Entrepreneurship, Product Marketing, Software Technology, Marketing, Brand Management, Operational Efficiencies, Strategic Consulting, Financial Services, International Management, Strategy, Financial Services, Start-ups, Business Strategy, Portfolio Management, Management, Business Analysis, Strategic Planning, Investments, Mergers & Acquisitions,
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In Episode #25 we reveal the five common mistakes people make when they're attempting to act and look like an authority.
What are you waiting for… lets get started!
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EP 160: The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition with Jonathan Tepper
America has gone from an open, competitive marketplace to an economy where a few very powerful companies dominate key industries that affect our daily lives. Digital monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon act as gatekeepers to the digital world. Amazon is capturing almost all online shopping dollars. We have the illusion of choice, but for most critical decisions, we have only one or two companies, when it comes to high-speed Internet, health insurance, medical care, mortgage title insurance, social networks, Internet searches, or even consumer goods like toothpaste. Every day, the average American transfers a little of their paycheck to monopolists and oligopolists.
The solution is vigorous anti-trust enforcement to return America to a period where competition created higher economic growth, more jobs, higher wages and a level playing field for all.
Today’s show is the story of industrial concentration, but it matters to everyone because the stakes could not be higher. It tackles the big questions of: why is the US becoming a more unequal society, why is economic growth anaemic despite trillions of dollars of federal debt and money printing, why the number of start-ups has declined, and why are workers losing out.
We welcome the author of “The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition” Jonathan Tepper
We talk:
- Monopolies
- Duopolies
- Oligopolies
- Competition
- Monopsonies
- Capitalism
- Antitrust
- Regulation
- The worker being squeezes
- The concentration of power
- The Rural v Urban Divide
- The Robber Barons
- The Origin of the Problem
- How concentration kills innovations
- IPOS
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Some possible solutions
More about Jonathan here: