Why not us?
by Fred Roed on 31/01/07 at 8:41 pm
4 comments
I often ask the question: ‘Why not us?’
There is a company called 30boxes.com which has recently become a darling of the technology media. It’s an online calendar that owes its success to allowing its users to link the calendar with their social networking accounts like Flickr and Facebook. Bets are on to try and figure out which big company will buy it in the next 6 months. Google? Yahoo? Microsoft? One of the big media conglomerates? This company is set, and its founders are getting ready to join the ‘let’s buy an island for fun’ crowd.
Consider that YouTube was recently sold for $1.6b or so. MySpace was recently sold for $0.5b or so. Both companies were started by a couple of entrepreneurs, probably on a napkin, in a coffee shop, less than 5 years ago.
Let’s not forget another company started by a couple of entrepreneurs, not yet 8 years out of the garage. Look at your screen now (if you’re using a PC), and more than likely its brand will have already snuck into your personal space, nestling comfortably on your taskbar. In case you’re wondering, I’m talking about Google. (The logos on your desktop are probably Google Desktop Search and / or Google Talk.)
A little closer to home, in the suburb of Durbanville, Cape Town, a digital certificate company dared to take on the might of the incumbent, Verisign. The company, Thawte, was sold by a little known South African entrepreneur for $0.5b in 2001. 25 year old Mark Shuttleworth was an instant billionaire in South African rands. A 4 year old company, Thawte also had its roots in a humble garage.
When I first read about 30boxes.com (in a copy of Time magazine at my doctor’s office), I imagined a huge Google-style building with lava lamps and smoothie machines – and with loads of cocky computer geeks on skateboards.
I was amazed to discover that they had a grand staff quota of 3 people.
Our small business has 4 employees. So, why not us?
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Stii
Jan 31st, 2007
Can’t see why?! There is no reason why it cannot be you or me.
Adriaan
Feb 1st, 2007
Fred
Anything is possible, the biggest thing is just to be patient. In a recent article from a US venture capitalist it was said given the odds and the vast number of tech start-ups vying for Google’s or Yahoo’s attention, it would be easier to win the US Lottery than building a business to be sold to one of the big guys. I focus on building businesses to be the big guy one day. It also helps to build a business without focussing on re-selling but with just a hint of strategic positioning to eventually create some annoying disturbances on the big guy’s radar. If he hates it, he might just buy it to get rid of it. If he likes it the end result is obvious…………
Andrew
Feb 1st, 2007
The only type of thing that Google or Yahoo would buy would be a mass-market application/business such as YouTube or an online Calendar, which can potentially attract a billion eyeballs to see their ads. There is a lot of competition in these markets (hundreds of calendar apps, hundreds of video sites), and only a tiny few bubble to the surface.
On the other hand, you can aim to create a product or service targetted at a small niche – eg a calendar application to help sheep farmers in the Karoo plan their feed times. You will never be bought by Google, but you have a much higher chance of supporting your family for the next few years.
Pharrington
Mar 21st, 2007
With such websites as this and topics being covered by it,it’s truely one of the basic catalyst mechanisms that can see entrepeneurship culture booming and expanding to all economic enviroments across the globe.
According to my perception this will depend how these media conglomerates view the company (30boxes.com) (1) is it a potentiall profit generater (2) if the answer is yes, how sustainable can it be ?.Briefly they would be analysing it’s feasibilty study.Which means you would have to do that before they do it.