the 12 most intriguing questions from mitef cambridge podcasts
TRANSCRIPT
THE 12 MOST INTRIGUING QUESTIONS FROM MITEF
CAMBRIDGE PODCASTSRandall Cronk
greatwriting.com@randycronk
People We Asked• Guy Kawasaki
Co-author, The Art of Social Media
• Vivek WadhwaFellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford
• Paul EnglishCo-founder, KAYAK.com and Blade
• Christopher AhlbergCEO and Co-founder, Recorded Future
• Joe SpeedDirector, Internet of Things, Linux Foundation
• Dr. Mildred DresselhausMIT Institute Professor and Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner
People We Asked (cont.)
• Joe CurtatoneMayor, Somerville, MA
• Dip PatelFounder, EcoVent and winner of 2013 MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Student Pitch Off Competition
• Mike RosenAttorney and Partner, Foley Hoag LLP
• Marc MarguliesFounder, Margulies Perruzzi Architects
• Jonathan KnowlesSenior Strategy Advisor, Autodesk
• Bernd SchonerCo-Founder, Thing Magic, and Author, The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide
Question #1: Is social media a good marketing tool for a B2B tech startup? Person asked: Guy KawasakiCo-author, The Art of Social Media
“It’s the only tool they have in most cases. A tech startup typically isn’t going to run a Super Bowl commercial.”
Posted 2/6/15
Question #2: How can small and poor startups afford to tackle big problems? Person asked: Vivek WadhwaFellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University
“It’s not like you have to raise millions of dollars in
venture capital anymore. It use to be that before
you could start a company you would need to go
to a venture capitalist on Sand Hill Road or Route
128 in Boston and beg them for money and they
would sit in their castles and decide whether they
would invest in you or not. Screw them now. We
don’t need [them] anymore.”
Posted 1/23/15
Question #3: How do most tech startups fail?
Person asked: Paul EnglishCo-Founder, KAYAK.com and Blade
“I think most tech startups fail … because
they solve stupid problems. Part of that is
[not] validating if there really is a problem
here that technology should be created for
or not. And how real is that problem. That’s
important for the entrepreneur to always
have a good grasp of.”
Posted 1/16/15
Question #4: As a startup, how were you able to sell into so many large enterprises right out of the gate? Person asked: Christopher AhlbergCEO and Co-founder, Recorded Future
“I think the things that people forget about these kinds of
companies is how large these companies are, how many things
they have to deal with, how 95% of their budgets goes for
maintenance and things that they already own. Like even if they
have infinite budget, and infinite people and infinite everything,
there’s only so much attention they have that they can spend on
things. So to actually get that differential piece of attention is really
really hard. So, that means you have to solve a problem that has
urgency associated with it, that has money associated with it, and
has people sort of available to actually apply their attention and
their money to it.”
Posted 1/14/15
Question #5: What is the #1 mistake startups make in the Internet of Things space? Person asked: Joe SpeedDirector, Internet of Things, Linux Foundation and AllSpeed Alliance IoT Open Source Project
“The one pitfall I sometimes see of some startups in the
IoT space is a little bit of hubris where they may think
they can solve IoT by themselves — that they’ll invent
some bit of technology, some protocol, and they’ll be
able to evangelize and be able to get the entire the entire
market to adopt [it]. And I just don’t think that’s realistic.
I think the way to do it is via collaboration. If you have
some innovation, some bit of tech, that you want the
entire market to use, the route to market for that is
collaborate and have that become part of something
bigger like the AllSeen Alliance Open Source Project.”
Posted 12/17/14
Question #6: Are you a feminist?
Person asked: Dr. Mildred DresselhausMIT Institute Professor and Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner
“I’m not really a feminist. I think women’s lib as they
call it has been a good thing. But I really don’t spend
my time doing that so I’m not a feminist in that
sense. In my family life and all of that I sort of know
my place and behave more like a conventional
woman, how I was raised. So, basically speaking, I
can play both roles as appropriate.”
Posted 12/13/14
Question #7: How do you build Somerville’s reputation as a tech center?
Person asked: Joe CurtatoneMayor, Somerville, MA
“We do not want to be static. We do not want to be
part of the status quo. We do not simply want to
replicate what someone else has done. . . . And I
pride myself on having some of the smartest
people — smarter than me — in this administration
that you can bring in for talent. But who are
abnormal. Who have a passion for curiosity. Who
seek new ideas. Who take smart risks.”
Posted 12/23/14
Question #8: What’s your advice for other student entrepreneurs?
Person asked: Dip PatelFounder, EcoVent and winner of 2013 MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Student Pitch Off Competition
“You can always do something to get towards your
goal. A year ago we had to raise a million dollars
and were like, “How the hell are we going to do
that?” It’s overwhelming, and I think it leads to a
lot of paralysis. People get scared. But what we
learned through the competition mentorship, and
also MIT and TechStars, is: what can you do today
to help you get to that goal? Do that.”
Posted 11/15/14
Question #9:
Do Massachusetts’ non-compete laws put this state at a disadvantage versus other tech centers?
Person asked: Mike RosenPartner, Foley Hoag LLP
“I would suggest that the Massachusetts versus
California dichotomy, which is very much a part
of the non-compete debate right now in
Massachusetts, is perhaps too simplistic. There
are many other places, in fact most other states,
all but just a few, in which non-competes
continue to be enforceable and where there is a
vibrant startup and technology economy.”
Posted 10/30/14
Question #10: What’s the key to effective space planning for innovative companies?
Person asked: Marc MarguliesFounder, Margulies Perruzzi Architects
“What we really try to encourage everyone
involved in the process to do is to think
more deeply about how they actually are
going to do the business [in the future],
not necessarily just how they’ve done it in
the past.”
Posted 10/5/14
Question #11: What trend in new product design has got you most excited right now?
Person asked: Jonathan KnowlesSenior Strategy Advisor, Autodesk
“One of the things that definitely excites
me is how we will use biology to make the
things that we want in the future. … And
this isn’t something that we’re just making
up. It’s something that we are actually
working with, right now, as a matter of
fact,
Posted 9/27/14
Question #12:
What’s the hardest thing a company needs to get right when it acquires a startup?
Person asked: Bernd SchonerCo-Founder, Thing Magic, and Author, The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide
“One of the tricky things to get right when you do
make an acquisition [is that] you’re not just buying
the company and the technologies that are there
— you’re buying the creativity and you’re buying
people that invented that technology … despite
that financial incentive, the mind of that
technologist may be somewhere else…. How do
you create an environment where that person is
still motivated to give his or her best work?”
Posted 5/24/14
Links
• MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Websitewww.mitforumcambridge.org
• MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Podcasthttp://bit.ly/wzpcVw
• Questions and feedback on this deck:Randall [email protected]
THANK YOU!