Don Dodge writes about a recent panel he participated in with Ajit Nazare of Kleiner Perkins. Nazare outlined his 7 rules for startups:
KP’s 7 rules for start-ups
- Instant Value to customers – solve a problem or create value with the first use
- Viral adoption – Pull, not push. No direct sales force required
- Minimum IT footprint, preferably none. Hosted SaaS is best.
- Simple, intuitive user experience – no training required.
- Personalized user experience – customizable
- Easy configuration based on application or usage templates
- Context aware – adjust to location, groups, preferences, devices, etc.
I find the context awareness point very intriguing. Wish that I’d been there to hear the panel. Naturally, I believe that context awareness is a critical element of producing truly useful software, and true context awareness is difficult to achieve in all cases. Take presence, for instance. Most implementations require you to set a specific presence status. Some can anticipate some kinds of presence (“oh… there’s been no typing for a while… you’re probably away from the PC”). None can automatically set all presence settings based on context. Perhaps that’s too much to ask, as well. Who knows?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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