Dull thoughts in a sharp world.

Definitely makes me miss Asia.

a journey through asia from ivan vania on Vimeo.

Solid presentation by Tara Hunt:

How do you identify opportunities?

According the Steve Blank, McClure, and the many of the mentors/VC/advisors in Silicon Valley, this notion of hitting the ground and asking your customers seems to be the route. Customer development is a huge step in identifying problems as well as opportunities. User-centric design and product seems to be a winning strategy.

But what questions do you ask, how do you phrase questions, how do you conduct usability test, and how do you objectively find opportunities.

If I asked, “would you like to see pictures of nearby bars and restaurants when you searched for a rental?”. 9/10 people would say yes. But if you phrased it, “would you rather see pictures of nearby bars or floor plan information”, the answers would be drastically different. I also like forcing negatives, eg “What are three things you dislike about this idea?”

When doing customer development, seems vital to be able to objectively solicit information from users.

On the other side, many entrepreneurs believe much can be determined by data and research of trends. How many people are searching key terms, how have other startups have launched the feature set successfully, etc.

Personally, I’m a fan of just asking a sampling of your customer base.

“It takes only five users to uncover 80 percent of high-level usability problems” Jakob Nielsen

So elite companies tend to poach when seeking top talent.  This is because the best people are usually not unemployed or surfing craigslist for jobs.

On that note, why do VC’s not poach more?  (Not for employees, but for investments)  Would seem logical that startups seeking investments are less likely to be rockstars than startups that do not need investment.  Again, there is actually a lot of complexity involved and yes, most startups need capital just to get off the ground.  But why not try to reach out to entrepreneurs/startups at a greater clip than just relying on deal flow from inbound pitches.  I know this happens, but it seems more passive.

In a big city like SF with tons of students and entrepreneurs, you would think there would be more late night spots to work and study. Been trying to find the best ones, so I’m going to keep an ongoing list of spots open late in the city.  Here is also a pretty thorough list: http://www.posthoc.com/24hours.htm  (Will update as I visit them)

24 hours

Laurel Heights – Starbuck – http://www.yelp.com/biz/starbucks-coffee-san-francisco-110

Polk Gultch – Bob’s Donuts – http://www.yelp.com/biz/bobs-donut-and-pastry-shop-san-francisco

Noe Valley – Happy Donuts – http://www.yelp.com/biz/happy-donuts-san-francisco-2

Inner Richmond – Allstar Donuts & Sandwiches – http://www.yelp.com/biz/allstar-donuts-and-sandwich-san-francisco-2

Laurel Heights – Lucky Penny – http://www.yelp.com/biz/lucky-penny-restaurant-san-francisco

SOMA – Starbucks – http://www.yelp.com/biz/starbucks-coffee-san-francisco-136

Union Square – Cafe Mason – http://www.yelp.com/biz/cafe-mason-san-francisco

Open till 2 am

Union Square – Sugar Cafe – http://www.yelp.com/biz/sugar-cafe-san-francisco

Open till Midnight

Open till 10 pm

Western Addition – Cafe Abir - http://www.yelp.com/biz/cafe-abir-san-francisco

Inner Sunset – Blue Danube – http://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-danube-coffee-house-san-francisco

Had dinner with a few entrepreneurs/ a few VC folks; group included the COO of italki,com, CEO of Circolos.com, folks from DFJ… My takeaway is that entrepreneurship in China is a vibrant and growing opportunity, especially for ABC’s.

Seems that business models that work in the US are being quickly brought to China and working well. Literally, exact knockoffs of the US sites down to the pixel. Makes me wonder how much is about management teams, iterations, marketing, branding, community outreach, etc… when it just seems that the marketplace is the core component here in China. Be a fast follower on a solid product and maybe that’s enough.

Other technologies that I think can do well as a knockoff in China:

Vark.com
Techmeme.com (or any meme site)
Anything mobile. Cell phones are everywhere.
Yelp.com

Pretty impressed that the Chinese gov’t would block both Facebook and Twitter.  I understand the “logic” behind blocking Twitter (and youtube); it’s a tool to broadcast ideas.  But Facebook is similar to email, more a communication tool to your network than a broadcast tool to the world.

The web is still an equalizer, but seems to come with some caveats here in China.

14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was a bit exhausting, but I’m finally here in Shanghai.  Literally at a Coffee Bean near Jing An Si (Jing An Tempe).  It’s been 3 years since I’ve been back to China, 6 years since I lived here, and it’s changes quite a bit.  But here are some random notes in Day 1:

1)  Sat next to a US citizen who’s teaching english in Shanghai.  He pays $60 a month for his apartment.  Might as well be stealing from the Chinese.

2)  After sitting on the runway for an hour, they announced we could get off the plane.  The entire plane went up in a loud cheer.  Chinese people – 1 Swine Flu – 0.

3)  Taxi driver spent the entire 45 minute ride explaining to me the system behind Shangna’s… chinese brothels.  I proceeded to tell him that is illegal in the US, and he prompted relied in Chinese, “That is stupid.”

Man, there are lots of people here in China.  I forget what it’s like to get bumped on a minute by minute basis.