What's wrong with being a dreamer?

I was recently called a dreamer. I took that as a compliment because I knew their intention was to say that I look at life as it could be, not as it is and that I am willing to take the risks to make my dreams into reality.

I am an entrepreneur by nature. It doesn't matter what environment I am in I am always looking for ways to improve, innovate and optimize.

But is being an entrepreneur equivalent to being a "dreamer"?

Before answering that question I pulled the definition of a dreamer. The definition of a dreamer is "a person who lives in or escapes to a world of fantasy or illusion"

The most successful people that I know in business or in their personal lives are those that are willing to push the limits. They aren't scared of failure, but believe prudent planning and the willingness to take risks will result in success.

The dreamers are those that never take action.

But don't be mislead; success is about more than just taking action. It's about having a plan, understanding how to analyze small successes and failures along the way, adjusting as needed, listening, learning and not giving up unless you've exhausted all of your options.

Now I know that last comment may have a lot of eye brows raising "unless you've exhausted all of your options." Let's be honest with ourselves; there are a lot of directions that look good on paper today but fail tomorrow due to sudden and mass technology shifts, economic downturns, new business directives or any other initially uncontrollable circumstances. What I have seen across the board with many of the most consistently successful individuals is their ability to adjust quickly. If the numbers say it isn't working, it isn't working.

Don't be a dreamer, be an innovator... a big thinker... an entrepreneur... Listen, Learn, React!

Going Viral

What does going viral really mean? Going viral is that moment when your users are willingly carrying your message or sharing your product to their friends, family and colleagues at a rate that eliminates or significantly diminishes the need for traditional marketing or advertising support.

Going viral sounds easy in theory but it is very difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain for an extended period of time driving continuous organic growth.

How do you know when your business or product has hit that tipping point? Your business is at this tipping point when you start to see a numerical logic to growth that to most will look like a sudden spike but to your analytics managers shows a model for how each new or engaged user impacts growth including the source of the new user and activities of the engaged user that lead to sharing and sign ups.

How do you build a strategy for going viral? This is the most difficult part. Sometimes we think that companies just get lucky. In my opinion there is no luck in going viral.

The ability to go viral begins with the right type of content and user experience. What is truly unique, engaging, share-worthy, competitive, fun... There are many attributes to a product or content that can make it go viral but the one common denominator is user value. What value does the user get from sharing your content or site?

The value can be simple ego "I am the best and I want everyone to know"... think farmville and mafia wars... The value can also change. Look at foursquare, at first it is just fun "I am here" checking in seeing who else is doing what, that fun progresses to ego "I want to be the mayor of my favorite bar and I want all of my friends to know I am the mayor of our favorite bar". Then the value changes to "where are my friends tonight? Johnny checked in at Monks, Alice is at Continental Midtown and Tony is at Chickies and Petes".

Value is the one thing you can't fake and that's why the simplest activities or pieces of content can go viral. Whether going viral is enough to make a cool idea a good business... that is a different story all together. Maybe one day we will stop repeating the same mistakes "get a bunch of users and figure out how to monetize them later"... sound familiar... the bubble...

Raising Money for a New Venture

There are many things that quite frankly get the door closed or lead to the inevitable "string along".

Raising money really is an art form because you have to know more than the buzz words, typical paths, etc... but you have to know the little nuances such as "how do you value a company that has no tangible assets, very little revenues, but has growing traffic, a niche market and a business model that scales?"

How much should you ask for and how much should you be willing to give up? What introductions get meetings and what introductions lead to investments...

One of the most important things is gaining trust and confidence. Would anyone invest in a perfect stranger over a longtime friend or colleague who they've made money with or have seen make money for others?

At the end of the day venture investors are money managers. They have investors in their funds that require returns through responsible investing.

The truth of it is, most startups never get funding outside of friends, family and maybe a loan/line of credit.

The key is to build a business that is sustainable, not one that you want to get funded. If your business requires $1 million plus in funding you better be talking clean tech, bio tech or infrastructure. I think the days are gone or numbered where web-based product startups without a ton of traffic and meaningful revenues get funding over $250,000.