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Lesson #2: “So what if it’s just fun?”
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"We were working at Odeo, but we weren't as passionate about the podcasting service as we should have been," recalls Stone. "We weren't using it, and that was a problem. Twitter got started because Ev gave us some freedom to think along different lines." That freedom meant that Stone and Dorsey had two weeks to build a demo of their new idea. "Build it, try it out over the weekend. If it sticks we may keep working on it," recalls Stone. "I was ripping out carpeting during a heat wave and then my phone vibrated in my pocket, and it was Ev. And it said he was sipping pinot noir. I realized I was totally engaged in this product. So we decided we should keep working on it."
Once the prototype was completed, the trio thought they had something compelling. "Early on someone said ‘Twitter is fun but it isn't useful,'" recalls Stone. "Ev said, ‘Neither is ice cream.' So what if it's just fun?"
From the beginning, the co-founders approached their company a little differently than most. They did not know how they were going to make a profit from it, and they were not sure who exactly would use it. But what they did know was that they liked using it.
"There are different ways to approach startups," says Williams. "One thing I admired about Google is we said, ‘This thing is huge, and we're going to kick ass at it.'...The other approach is ‘This might be a thing if we pull it off.'"
"I ran into this when we were at Google with Blogger," he says. "People asked how big is the market for blogging. I said, ‘I don't know, but if we make it awesome lots of people would do it.' With Twitter there is no market, other than we knew it was cool."
Stone admits, "If anything we sort of thought it was a waste of time. Some of our engineers thought it was a waste of time."
The turning point for Twitter came during a South By Southwest festival. "SXSW 2007 was a huge watershed moment for us," says Stone. "For the first time, we saw real potential in the tool. We saw people tweeting about a good session to go to."
Today, despite the popularity of the service and the new near-celebrity status of its founders, the three entrepreneurs have managed to keep themselves in check. Why? Because they are just having fun.
"I send updates a few times per day, at most," says Stone. "I think when people Twitter 20 or 30 times per day that's too much. They are boxing everyone else out, and people stop following them because they need a break."
Still, they continue to enjoy all that their business has brought to them, including a new vocabulary. "It's pretty cool to invent a technology with its own set of descriptive terms," says Stone. "People ‘twitter' and ‘tweet' and someone came up with the word ‘twoops' to refer to a message you meant to text your friend, but you sent it to Twitter by accident."
Lesson 2 So what if its just fun
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithExecutive consultant, sales coach and speaker, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, partners with innovative and crazy busy leaders who want to dramatically improve their team results. What this looks like differs for each firm and why a free strategy session is offered just by calling 219.759.5601 CDT USA to have a conversation about the results you are seeking. If you prefer you can forward a request to coach@processspecialist.com Her book, Be the Red Jacket is a no-nonsense and quick read to help discover potential gaps that may be keeping you from your goal to increase sales. The forward is by Evan Carmichael of EvanCarmichael.com Remember if you think you cannot or you think you can either way you are right. (Henry Ford). Sales Coaching Tip: Change your thoughts; improve your results. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Joe EvansJoe Evans serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Method Frameworks.
Method Frameworks serves Commercial enterprises with strategic and operational planning solutions using the firm’s proprietary Plan4 process. Visit Method Frameworks at www.methodframeworks.com.
Joe is a published author, frequent speaker and recognized expert in corporate strategic planning . Want more corporate strategic planning insights? Read Joe's blog. Also, request to join the "Strategic Planning Xchange" now by following this link to the Strategic Planning Xchange. - Visit Joe Evans's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan). - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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