My Big Hairy Audacious Goal

The 7 principals from Good to Great.
1. Particle Principals
2. Confront the brutal facts
3. Stockdale paradox
4. The Hedgehog Concept
5. A culture of discipline
6. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop
7. Building vision


My BHAG

Using the 7 principals from Good to Great my BHAG is to build a

Blog on a Blog - Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis was a blog I decided to look at today. Jason is an internet entrepenuer, starting up in 1976 a computer newsletter that has exploded into at 300 page annual report. He is nicknamed "yearbook editor of sillicon valley". Since he has started up and ran several buisnesses becominf CEO of Netscape and Weblogs inc, and starting up Mahalo, a people powered search engine.
Jason has a blog that would intrest many in his feild. Aside from his personal posting's of pictures of his dogs and his last nght dinner, he likes to give his insight's into everythng from politics, to the newest videogame releases. But what's of most interest is he likes to blog on state's of certain internet companys, and what they are doing right, and what they could work on fixing. It is an interesting read on a CEO's view on other competitive and non-competitive online websites and buisnesses.

Guilt Today in Luxury Buying

In today's economy, customers are suffering from buyers guilt. Luxury outlets like La Senza and Guichi are losing customers to the guilt of walking outside of stores with big shopping bags filled with expensive items. This is one reason for the rise on Internet shopping this year.

BMW is a luxury brand that is directly affected by this customer guilt. Their customers are looking for other buys to not feel the guilt of spending lots of money and looking flashy in a shaky economy.

If I ran the BMW company, I would fight back this guilt with offers and unique specials that no one else would offer in a time of uncertainty, and give incentive to buy because of a deal you could find no where else

For instance, my company could fight guilt by offering a free set of rims or Mag's on your BMW, to increase the value of your purchase, thus justifying the customers purchase of a luxury item.

Grafitti Removal Service

A franchise was offered to the sharks in one episode of the Shark Tank. It was a graffiti removal business, which operated out of a single truck per operation, and used a secret chemical which would be used by the business.

The offer from the Paul, the business owner, was $350,000 for 15% equity in the company. Kevin O'leary immediately made him an offer of $350,000 for 110% because of how young the business was.

Two high offers where made for 75% of the business, but both we're rejected by Paul, knowing that the business had more potential than that. Those offers would also make Paul an employee of his own business and not a sole owner.

I believe this episode was a good example of the sharks jumping the gun, and underestimating a company. If they had looked at the company honestly, I believe they would see the potential in it and offer a reasonable investment.

Souls Calling

Gena Cotria appeared on the shark tank proposing her buisness for investment. Her buisness was a gift and accessory line of products aimed at having a positive impact in the world. She was asking for $150,000 for 25%.

Gena was quickly shot down by the sharks when she said that she had invested $100,000 into the buisness, but have only made $18,000 in profit last year alone.

Instead of investing in Gena's buisness, the sharks all decided to add their word of advice. Kevin told her that her emotions should not be a force behind a buisness, and that her buisness is worth nothing because "numbers never lie." There was a consensus between the sharks, all beleiving that she should let the buisness go.

Jump Forward

Today we watched an episode of sharktank. Two entrepreneurs where selling their high school football social network site for 15% for $150,000. The end offer was $600,000 for 50% because two of the sharks wanted in and they believed that the company needed more money to succeed.

I liked this episode becaused it showed the value investors will have in a company with a good idea. Two of the sharks fought over the company, and began to raise eachother for the invsting in the company. Eventually they both saw that working against eachother, one of them would have to pay more than they should. So they asked the entrepenuers to leave and agreed on a 50-50 deal in company.

I beleive this was a good deal on all sides because the entrepenuers had gained much more than they went in asking for, and both of the investors shared 50% of the company with half as much money.

SHARK TANK - Mr. Poncho and the Uroclub

A young couple from New York introduced their product on the Skark Tank. A little designer pocket that acted as a case for ipods and phones, and a little coil for your headphones to not get tangled. The product was immediately shot down by the sharks, as the idea was not very new and unique and really had no potential for a business. I agree with the sharks, as if I, myself, wouldn't buy the product, I would not invest in it.

The second entrepreneur was a urologist / Golfer who was marketing a product by himself for golfers. The idea was a club that you could discreetly pee into to relieve yourself on the golf course. Although most of the sharks saw it as a novelty item with no real potential, one shark, and avid golfer, bought the product for 25,000 for 70% of the product. This was a good deal on both sides I believe.