天美传媒

天美传媒 welcomed celebrated entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author and social media maven, Guy Kawasaki, to the Barcelona campus for an extraordinary session with MBAs last night. A capacity audience had the chance to put their questions directly to the former chief 鈥渆vangelist鈥� of Apple, who shared his personal view on entrepreneurship in the digital age, and advice for anyone thinking of starting up. The session ranged over pitching to investors, developing prototypes, how technology is leveling barriers to entry in entrepreneurship, and what Kawasaki describes as the importance of 鈥�catalyzing fantasy.鈥�

Infinite Monkeys

Free access to new tools and resources and social media, says Kawasaki, are making it easier than ever before to start companies. 鈥�The barriers are lower now, which is good because it鈥檚 cheaper and more straightforward to start up. But it鈥檚 bad, because everyone is doing it now.鈥� In an increasingly competitive startup landscape, with 鈥渋nfinite monkeys,鈥� the number one priority, says Kawasaki, is to have something to demo to potential investors.

It鈥檚 all About the Prototype

Technology and innovation have changed the business landscape, he says, making it practically impossible to create a meaningful business plan. 鈥�You can鈥檛 forecast five years into the future. What you forecast for this year is already late.鈥� The key, he insists, is to build your prototype. And technology has also made this easier than ever before. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not so much about the business plan, it鈥檚 about demonstrating your idea. Forget about the excel sheet or the power point 鈥� if you don鈥檛 have the prototype, you won鈥檛 sell the idea. And if you get the prototype right鈥� you may never even have to pitch.鈥�

Catalyze the Fantasy

As and when the time does come to pitch an idea to investors, Kawasaki has some solid tips for aspiring entrepreneurs. You have identified the product that you want to use, your value proposition is inherent, your prototype is ready to demo. So how do you prove there鈥檚 a market for your idea? 鈥淲hen you are in front of investors your pitch should kick off with evidence that you鈥檝e bootstrapped and that your project is starting to take off with sign ups. The capital you need is for infrastructure to meet the demand. And this is where you catalyze the fantasy. You need to demo something so obvious that your investors will fantasize about how great it is, how people will use it and how much profit there will be to make from it.鈥�

Build the Product You Want to Use

Kawasaki, like Steve Jobs, is not 鈥渕uch of a researcher.鈥� No matter how much market research you do, he says, you cannot know for sure that your product will be a success. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always going to be a roll of the dice. Did the Twitter founders really know there was a market for 140 character messages? There were already five or six other search engines out there when Google started. Who knew it was worth jumping onto?鈥� Identifying opportunities is down to building the product that you would use yourself, he says. You need to want to use what you will invest your time building. 鈥淣ine out of every ten ideas will fail. And starting up is really hard. So you better love what you are doing.鈥�

Success is Built on鈥� Luck with Hard Work

Being first or best, says Kawasaki, does not necessarily guarantee success. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 better to be a fast second, instead of the pioneer. If you鈥檙e not the first, you don鈥檛 have to be first. And being first doesn鈥檛 necessarily parse to being successful.鈥� The secret to success, he says, if it exists at all, is about being able to work harder than the competition. 鈥淎 lot of it is down to luck 鈥� and I know that being lucky is not a viable strategy. But in my experience luck comes to people who work hard. If I had to define why I鈥檝e been successful, I鈥檇 say it ties to the fact that I can out-work others.鈥�

鈥淪teve-isms鈥� and Lessons From Apple

Kawasaki worked with Apple twice, taking up a role as Apple fellow in the late 90s to 鈥渞ejuvenate the Macintosh cult.鈥� The lessons he learnt there weren鈥檛 always easy to process. Fear of not living up to Jobs鈥� expectations was a motivating force, he says. 鈥淭he fear of Steve Jobs calling you 鈥榤ediocre鈥� or worse is the most powerful motivation.鈥� Jobs, he says, was a one-off, with a 鈥渄ifferent operating system to everyone else. People look at Steve Jobs and try to emulate him, but correlation doesn鈥檛 imply causation. Being arrogant or mean to others, or wearing New Balance doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檙e Steve Jobs.鈥� Apple would have done even better, he feels, had Jobs been 鈥渘icer鈥� in his inter-personal relations. 鈥淚 think the best thing any of us can aim for is to be competent. And to be nice with it.鈥�

Democratizing Technology

Kawasaki is currently chief evangelist of , an online graphic design tool. Evangelism in marketing, he explains, stems from a deep belief in the product. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about putting the user first. The traditional sales person has his or her own interests at heart. But an evangelist wants to make others believe in the product or service as much as he or she does.鈥� This shift in paradigm ties to the democratization of 鈥� or sharing accessibility to 鈥� technology; with industry innovation and digitization facilitating access to specialized, but user-friendly, tools. Difficult as trends are to classify, says Kawasaki, this shift is taking place around us, with plenty of successful models becoming household names 鈥� Airbnb, eBay and Bluebird among them. Social media and open source have changed the playing field, paving the way for the democratization of business. And this is set to continue, he says. 鈥淪ocial media is the best thing that has ever happened to brands. And it is the future of marketing.鈥�