The World According To Rags

Getting A Job At A Startup

I often get asked about how to get a job at a startup by people looking to switch careers.  Basically, it's all about signaling.  If your background consists of working at large companies considered to be non-entrepreneurial environments, or else in a different industry, then why should a startup take a chance on you?  There are no signals that you would thrive in such an environment and so the risks are, at least on paper, greater than if the startup were to hire someone from the industry.  Here are a few thought processes that startups go through when looking to hire:

-Can they thrive in the unstructured yet fast-paced environment of a startup?  Can they 'roll up their sleeves' and make a difference?  Will they be a cultural fit?  For example, the resume from someone that has worked at a large company for many years most likely would not have many encouraging signals that they would excel in the startup world.

-For business development/sales candidates, can they be effective on the 'sell-side'?  It's one skillset to do 'buy side' biz dev at a large media company where everyone is pitching you to license them.  Quite another to try and strike distribution deals when you're at a little known startup.  

-Advisory vs Operational. Often times people from advisory professions like consulting, law or advertising want to 'go client side' and on the operational side.  A history of being on the advisory side is very much a yellow flag for hiring managers at startups when looking at candidates.  Again it's a different skill-set to be an operator vs. advisor and so it's important to show evidence that you can 'get things done'.

-Why us?  Having and showing passion for the mission at hand goes a long way, especially with early stage startups.    There are many ways of showing this interest to your prospective employers.

I could go on but, if you don't come from an obvious background that a startup would consider, get creative about how you can signal to them that you'll be a risk worth taking. 

The Redemption of John Forte

I subscribe to the WXPN World Cafe podcast and just finished listening to the one about John Forte.  Like their other shows, they intersperse interviews between songs that the artist performs live.  This one was particularly fascinating because John has quite the story to tell, which he does in equal measures of eloquence and wit in the interview. 

To sum up: boy from Brooklyn raised by single mom gets scholarship to Exeter. Gets into music/A&R. Ends up producing & rapping on Fugees' The Score multi-platinum record. Makes lots of money. Spends it. Dropped by label. Gets into drug dealing to earn money.  Gets caught, sentenced to 14 years. Sentence commuted by Pres Bush thanks to Carly Simon & Orrin Hatch.  Now performing music, teaching & working with prisoners' charities.

I remember hearing about Pres. Bush commuting his sentence and thinking that it wasn't right for someone to not pay their dues because of their celebrity.   I was wrong.  Taught me a lesson of not judging without knowing the facts.  There is no doubt about his guild however he's certainly contributing a lot more to society outside of prison than locked up.  I hope he continues to make great music.

Creating A Content Business Online: The Song Remains The Same

I recently spoke to someone looking into starting an online content venture.  He has an idea for a video/podcast series that would fulfill a gap in the market.  He comes from a 'traditional media' and production background and had questions on the monetization front.  To boil it down, he has 3 options:

1. Charge users: Given the type of content, this is unrealistic although there could be incremental revenue to be had via mobile and download distribution.  But it would be incremental at best.
2. Get sponsors to underwrite it: It's a concept that would do well in a sponsorship format.  The trick here is to get the sponsor.  It is tough to do so if one has no relationships, no audience (remember, this is in concept phase) and no track record in getting an audience.  He is very credible on the content front so advertisers would have no doubt on the quality of the content, but how would a sponsor know how much and what kind of audience they would reach?  Some sites sell content sponsorships on spec but these tend to have established relationships and a track record established their credibility.
3. Sell/license concept to distributor:  Like most production companies, he could bring in a distributor - everyone from a tv broadcaster to a portal like myspace or aol - to fund the production and, depending on the terms, license it outright or share risk/upside. 

Realistically, #2 will only work if he can somehow bootstrap his concept into life and prove the ability to attract traffic - no easy proposition.  So #3 may be the more feasible option for him, especially if he can retain control over brand, drive traffic to his site and share upside.  The good news is that, unlike 4 or 5 years ago, production costs have plummeted and technology is no longer a barrier to distribution.  But, in some ways, that makes it harder to build a business and be heard through the noise.  Companies/sites like Break, FunnorDie, NextNew and others are starting to figure it out.  I think companies that produce great content will continue to get rewarded but the dynamic will be different, which may be fodder for another post.

Observations From The Monaco Media Forum

Just back from the Monaco Media Forum and following are some observations:

• The free vs. paid debate was top of mind.  The debate between Arianna Huffington and Mathias Dopfner was the best industry related panel discussion that I can remember.  Rafat agrees.  The two actually agreed on a lot but, when they disagreed, they were articulate, scathing yet respectful, and funny.  
• Jon Miller said it well that there are tensions out there that will get resolved in the coming 18 months.  I thought he was a great speaker as well.  Rafat made him squirm but he held his own.
• There wasn't much talk of the recession/financial crisis.  Yes, it was mentioned now and again but most people seemed to be looking forward.  This is a good thing.
• There is latent discontent with ad agencies and the agency model from marketers.  I spoke to a couple and they complained about the cost structure of their agencies for what they get and that their agencies still didn't get digital.  I sense disruption in the big agency model in the next 5 years.
• Spencer Reiss had a last-minute addition to the quick pitches with Feng Jun of Aigo.  They are the largest digital consumer product company in China with over 1000 employees.  It made it clear how American/Western European the conference was.  More speakers/people from so-called emerging markets would enrich the experience.
• The invite-only aspect of the event made for high quality attendees/networking.
• Monaco is as glitzy and classy as they make it out to be.  Walking into the dinner at the hotel de Paris felt like the set of a Bond movie.  The decor was ornate, gilded and roccoco.  Very impressive.  But I couldn't live there.  I was craving a slice of pizza at night and, of course, nothing to be found.

All in all a worthwhile event.  Thanks to Tom and Spencer for getting me there.

Facebook & Privacy

I was talking to some friends about how they use Facebook to stay connected to people of various degrees while still retaining their privacy.  I've been reticent to upload photos of late for this reason.  One of my friends mentioned that she tends to start people off on limited profile and then selectively takes them off the list based on how close she is to them or how frequently they are in touch.  I thought this was an interesting strategy and have decided to try it myself so just put a bunch of my Facebook friends on limited profile.  If you're one of them, hope you're not offended as I try this out!

Blackberry App Request: Expense Tracking

Doing expense reports is the bane of my existence.  I was just reminded of this while spending a tidy couple of hours doing expenses for the past 6 weeks.  Ugh.  I wish there were an easy-to-use app on my Blackberry that I could use to help track expenses during downtime in cabs, airports, stations, etc. and easily have that formatted and exported into a spreadsheet.  Yes, I could whip out my laptop but that's not very practical.  Or perhaps an app like this already exists?

20% of WMG's Revenues Are Digital

WMG recently announced that about 20% of its global revenues are now digital.  WMG has been aggressive in going digital and it actually surprised me that the figure was as low as 20%.  It may seem hard to believe for many of you, but a lot of people are still buying those shiny, plastic discs. 

Happy (Belated) 3rd Birthday, MocoSpace

MocoSpace celebrated its 3rd birthday yesterday.  They have been on a tear of late in terms of traffic and I'm confident they will continue to thrive with plenty of cash in the bank and, most importantly, a vibrant community.  Congrats to Justin, Jamie and the rest of the team for such a great achievement.  Here's to many more birthdays.

Also worth reading is Justin's take on the doom and gloom that's pervading the headlines.  Of course I have echoed some of the doom myself, having some major battle scars from the dotcom meltdown, but he's right: we should not only hope the naysayers are wrong, we should work to make sure they are! 

Stream08: WPP's "UnConference"

I was fortunate to be attend Stream '08, the "UnConference" put on by WPP.  I thought it was a good experience last year and so I was looking forward to it.  The sessions were more substantive this year (good job, David!), which was echoed by others that had attended in the past.  The highlight for me was hearing Sir Martin Sorrell give his thoughts on the future media through the lens of what things will be like in 2012.  Among some of his thoughts and predictions: Havas & Aegis will merge; News Corp & Disney will continue to thrive; Time Warner's situation is more complicated; Google's fate lies within itself - he can see no external factors that threaten it.  His grasp and understanding of various media and geopolitical topics was really impressive.  So much so that I wonder why he isn't in some sort of public office.  Apparently it's much rarer in the UK for people in business to jump into politics.

Some other observations and highlights:

• Jason Calcanis, provocative as ever, talking about trends in startups based on his vetting of applications to the TechCrunch 50.  USA continues to dominate but Israel & South Korea were over-represented and he's amazed by the innovation from these two countries.  OTOH, he doesn't see much innovation from Western Europe, and challenged German startups to truly innovate instead of copying.  
• The elephant in the room was the financial crisis and looming recession.  It didn't come up in many conversations although it did during Martin's talk and also by Jason who thinks it will be much worse than the dot-bomb meltdown.  
• Online video and its monetization is top-of-mind for a lot of people: there were 6 or 7 sessions dedicated to the topic!  
• Lior Manor, the Israeli Infotainer, showing off some of his tricks.  Amazing stuff, and I learned a couple of tricks myself!   

Thanks again to WPP and the Stream team for putting on such a worthy event.  

Sidetaker: Weigh In On Other People's Relationship Problems

AdAge's Mat Zucker (via Jason Hirschorn's Media ReDEFined feed) posted about Sidetaker  It's a site that lets the crowd opine on the relationship problems posted by its contributors.  For instance, this one was posted by a boyfriend who thinks his girlfriend has been gaining too much weight, with her (funny) rebuttal posted next to it.  I took her side as did 62% of the responses.  I liked the part about his snaggle tooth.

It would be interesting to know the demographics of the respondents for any particular side.  Anyway, Sidetaker isn't exactly a forum for mediation or resolving deeply personal issues.  But it's kind of addictive to not only read both sides of an issue but also see whether the side you take aligns with the rest of the community.