A group of entrepreneurs share their insights from SXSW.
We’re in Austin this week attending the South by Southwest Interactive conference, an annual gathering of who’s who and what’s what in the technologies, start off-up, and organization-building space. I (Karl) attended the conference with seven other entrepreneurs, all of whom are in the process of building organizations. Many of their businesses touch technology, interactive advertising, or rely on venture funding, so the conference and the attendees had been extremely relevant. But, I wanted to know, how does SXSW support you build your enterprise?
The conference is vast. In truth, it really is more like eight or 10 conferences in one, with dozens of sessions going on at when and parties focused on distinct interest groups. Right here are the takeaways from our group:
1. Create relationships with your buyer very first and focus on the technologies second. As well several businesses do this backwards.
two. When building a organization, never focus on what you know, focus on what you don’t know: your consumers. You want to develop a enterprise focused on their needs, not yours.
three. It is better to have ten clients who love your item than one hundred who like it. Optimize your enterprise toward your most useful buyers.
4. Figure out exactly where the puck is going, not exactly where it is. Market to who your buyers will be a year from now rather than who they are right now.
5. Know your currency. What is the buyer searching for a lot more of and what are they prepared to spend for? The group from Dropbox identified that space was their currency. They learned that clients were employing Dropbox for photographs, which brought on them to gravitate toward mobile. This drove their organization in a new direction.
6. Defining your market place is more about defining your client than your demographic. Just because you have two clients who are white women in their 40s does not imply that these two females have the same consumer requirements.
7. Live your organization and place yourself in your customer’s footwear. The founder of Airbnb does not have a house. He lives in the rental houses his website offers to buyers.
8. Rather than feel about social sharing among your consumers, make it easier for buyers to use what they are already making use of. Buyer delight will lead to social sharing.
Perhaps the most interesting comment I heard was from Alex Campbell, founder and chief innovation officer at Vibes, a mobile advertising company. “SXSW is no longer about technology,” said Campbell, who has been to several SXSW conferences. “SXSW is about SXSW. It has turn out to be more about the knowledge than the technologies globe around it.”
My question is, if people come to SXSW to find out about SXSW rather than the actual globe, will SXSW 1 day turn out to be irrelevant?
Share your knowledge about SXSW with us at [email protected].
