Presentation Transcript

1. Personal Libraries
2. Insight: No more bookshelves eBooks+150% YoY ‘10 Printed Books -20% YoY ‘10
3. Version 1.0: Personal Libraries
4. Original Idea: Personal Digital Libraries Import, organize and share thousands of digital papers
5. Our Intrepid Team Abhishek BhattacharyyaResearcherEx-NEC engineerMasters EE candidate Xu CuiDesigner/developerStanford Researcher Neuroscience, PhD Mike DorseySerial e-commerce entrepreneurMS/MBA candidate Becky NixonProduct managerEx-Director, Scion GroupMS&E candidate Ian TienDesigner/developer Ex-engineering manager, MSFT MBA/MPP candidate
6. Invincible Business Model: Version 1.0 SHORT TERMResearchers Lawyers Scientists LONG TERMAvid book readers Professionals FB/TW posts from users you know Company blog, FB, TW, support forums Libraries, Universities, Research Centers Bloggers and media targeting customer segment Academic Database providers Targeted marketing Product development Constant iteration & testing Import, organize and share thousands of papers

   something-something-something.com

   Affiliate program SEO/SEM/SM IE/FF/Chrome App Stores Original idea Developers Marketers AWS Infrastructure SEM Eng & Marketing OpEx Affiliate program fees Licensing Subscription fees Ad revenue
7. Here’s What We Did Version 1.0: Personal Libraries
8. Got out of the building
9. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Professors, Litigators, IP lawyers, Post-docs, PhD researchers, Engineering Students, Law Students…
10. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys
11. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords
12. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review
13. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review Market Sizing
14. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review Market Sizing 50 bloggers
15. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review Market Sizing 50 bloggers 6 Social Networks
16. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review Market Sizing 50 bloggers 6 Social Networks Usability Tests
17. Got out of the building 100+ Interviews Extensive Surveys 33,000+ Adwords Compete Review Market Sizing 50 bloggers 6 Social Networks Usability Tests Rapid Iteration
18. Here’s What We Found Version 1.0: Personal Libraries
19. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock A great business if we had more users…
20. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize Shorter pages raise conversions 80%
21. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize The Web Listens Sites will feature your service
22. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize The Web Listens BAD Academics = Cheap Teaching team saw pattern in our data
23. Run away from this customer as fast as possible.
24. Run away from this customer as fast as possible. They don’t want to spend money and will incur infinite support and infinite cost.
25. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize The Web Listens BAD Academics = Cheap Teaching team saw pattern in our data
26. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize The Web Listens BAD Academics = Cheap Negative Margins Working for peanuts, and hitting wild product success leads to economic failure
27. Here's what we found: Version 1.0 GOOD Subscriptions Rock Pipelines Optimize The Web Listens BAD Academics = Cheap Negative Margins ECM = Boring No adjacent pivots worked for the team
28. Version 2.0: Trusted Advice
29. Invincible Business Model: Version 2.0 Upwardly mobile young professionals making $2-10K of discretionary online purchases a year (excluding travel) FB/TW posts from users you know Company blog, FB, TW accounts Bloggers and Media targeting customer segment Retail marketing partners IE/FF/Chrome teams Affiliate Program Providers Developing trusted advice and advisors Web marketing Affiliate partnerships Constant iteration & testing Discover online goods recommended by friends at the lowest possible price from trusted vendors

    something-something-something.com

    Affiliate program SEO/SEM/SM IE/FF/Chrome App Stores Original idea Developers Marketers Content Library Install base Readership base AWS Infrastructure SEM Eng & Marketing OpEx Affiliate program fees Licensing Subscription fees Ad revenue
30. New Hypotheses
31. Here’s What We Did Version 2.0: Trusted Advice
32. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews
33. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys
34. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Landing pages tested on affluent, career aged professionals, approximately 70/30 male/female, N=800+
35. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research
36. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research
37. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research Revenue Analysis
38. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research Revenue Analysis Two Prototypes Insidely.com wantio.com
39. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research Revenue Analysis Two Prototypes Refined Personas
40. Young (18-34), affluent women ($50K-80K+) Young (18-34), affluent men ($50K-80K+)
41. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research Revenue Analysis Two Prototypes Refined Personas
42. Got out of the building, again 40+ Interviews Extensive Surveys Landing Page Tests Market Research Compete Research Revenue Analysis Two Prototypes Refined Personas
43. Version 2.0: Trusted Advice Top ~6M US Influentials (~$9B/year)
44. Invincible Business Model: Version 2.0 Upwardly mobile young professionals making $2-10K of discretionary online purchases a year (excluding travel) FB/TW posts from users you know Company blog, FB, TW accounts Bloggers and Media targeting customer segment Retail marketing partners IE/FF/Chrome teams Affiliate Program Providers Developing trusted advice and advisors Web marketing Affiliate partnerships Constant iteration & testing Discover online goods recommended by friends at the lowest possible price from trusted vendors

    something-something-something.com

    Affiliate program SEO/SEM/SM IE/FF/Chrome App Stores Original idea Developers Marketers Content Library Install base Readership base AWS Infrastructure SEM Eng & Marketing OpEx Affiliate program fees Licensing Subscription fees Ad revenue
45. Here’s What We Found Version 2: Trusted Advice
46. Findings on "Trusted Advice" GOOD Fast Interest Insidely.com Trusted advice site for Silicon Valley/Stanford MBAs Launched 2/15 425 visitors by 2/28
47. Findings on "Trusted Advice" Ranked #6 by Google for “Stanford Admissions Books” GOOD Fast Interest
48. Findings on "Trusted Advice" GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion 43% clickthrough on Top Admissions Books for Stanford MBAs article Compare to 0.5% clickthrough on ads ~100x difference
49. Findings on "Trusted Advice" Positive results on “Trusted Advice” Shopping Add-in testing GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion Needs Addressed See videos at http://factnote.com/c/e245
50. Findings on "Trusted Advice" Positive results on “Trusted Advice” Shopping Add-in testing GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion Needs Addressed Super easy to install and use. I really did enjoy it!  Great idea! I will keep the extension installed because I do think this is practical! I could see myself using this regularly
51. Findings on "Trusted Advice" Some negative results on “Trusted Advice” Shopping Add-in testing GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion Needs Addressed BAD Missing Features See videos at http://factnote.com/c/e245
52. Findings on "Trusted Advice" Some negative results on “Trusted Advice” Shopping Add-in testing GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion Needs Addressed BAD Missing Features I was a little frustrated when it didn’t find the item I was looking for I can find more thorough price comparisons elsewhere… I usually don’t shop in Chrome, so that’s an inconvenience.
53. Findings on "Trusted Advice" MBA Exchange spams us out of Google GOOD Fast Interest High Conversion Needs Addressed BAD Missing Features SEO Battle
54. Here’s Where We Ended Up Version 2.1: Trusted Advice
55. The adventure continuesTrusted Advice 2.0 Protection against SEO-spammers Next Experiments: Trusted Lead Gen Trusted Advice website powered by Shopping Add-in
56. Invincible Business Model: Version 3.0 PAT THE PROFESSIONALUpwardly mobile young professionals making $2-10K of discretionary online purchases a year (excluding travel) FB/TW posts from users you know Company blog, FB, TW accounts Bloggers and Media targeting customer segment Retail marketing partners IE/FF/Chrome teams Affiliate Program Providers Developing trusted advice and advisors Web marketing Affiliate partnerships Constant iteration & testing TRUSTED ADVICE Discover online goods recommended by friends at the lowest possible price from trusted vendors Foil advertorial spammers polluting the Interweb with toxic pseudo-content

    something-something-something.com

    Affiliate program SEO/SEM/SM IE/FF/Chrome App Stores Original idea Developers Marketers Content Library Install base Readership base AWS Infrastructure SEM Eng & Marketing OpEx Affiliate program fees Licensing Subscription fees Ad revenue
57. What We Learned Potential for disruption abounds
58. What We Learned Potential for disruption abounds Life is short, focus on big markets
59. What We Learned Potential for disruption abounds Life is short, focus on big markets All we need is to be relentless
60. We’ll miss E245 and everyone in it
61. Thank you
62. Customer Segment: Professional-class consumers shopping frequently online Pat the Professional Upwardly mobile professional (some Grad Students) Salary: $40,000 – 150,000/year Finance, Consulting, PR, Marketing Follows fashion/technology trends Spends $1-15K on discretionary items online Purchased online in last 30 days Demographics Male/female, aged 18-35 Minimum bachelors from expensive school Traits: Ideas from blogs & shopping websites Values celebrity trends & friends’ opinions Wants high ticket items at lowest price Event-driven shopper—new release or sale Motivation Craves new products Hates tedious work Identifies as influencer among friends Fears being cheated online Behavior Spends 5 hour+ monthly hearing about products Shares online and in person about products he loves Budget $2-10K+/year in discretionary online purchases “The XXX is awesome, I really want one. I know I just bought the YYY, but it’s probably time to upgrade.” ~5.9M “Pat the Professionals” in US Drawn from top 1/3 of 17.8M frequent online shoppers 17.8M based on 40.2M Professionals (2008 Census) * 0.762 US Internet Penetration (Nielsen 2010Q1) * 0.58 consumers shopping online in last month (Nielsen 2010Q1) Online Recommendation Market Opportunity (conservative strawman #s) Assuming 10% share, 5% affiliate fees Top Shoppers (~$7B/year spend): ~ $35M/year Professional-class frequent shoppers (~$1.8B/year): ~ $9M/year Other Professional-class shoppers ($0.7B/year): ~3.5M/year Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics