Startups

Turner talks about how the James Bond character was done in the third person in the game and his style and control comes from the mechanics of how he moves. He is always the master of his environment, she says.

Turner talks about lessons learned in game development. The first lesson, she says, is that the product is only as good as the people that build it. The second lesson is to be a customer. In order to create a good product, she notes, the team was using the product everyday. The last lesson is to know when to add more features and when to cut and ship the product.

Turner explains that while console teams can be upwards of 100 people, GameBoy games can be built with 10-15 people. This core group of people is divided up into engineering, art, animation, game design, and production. The product cycle was optimized to get the best product out as quickly as possible by condensing the concept cycle, focusing on a target, and rapidly incorporating feedback, she says.

Reedy talks about what the success in the engineering organization of a high growth company is. The business has two levers: the website, which is the product, and the product enhancements that eBay does as well as the marketing. The engineering group is pragmatic and focuses on value. Time to market is very important. The technology is made for the business and for the future, she says,and is flexible and continuously improves.

Reedy talks about how eBay uses the community and their feedback for every new feature they develop. eBay is not a product but a platform, she says.

Reedy talks about how the eBay team came to the rescue in September 2001. The team was given only three days to launch The Auction for America, which required 20 hours alone for coding and additional time for testing. One hundred people worked on this over the weekend and they had the product one hour before the deadline. No one said we can't do this, she says. The teams had to collaborate and work together to get this done.

Reedy talks about eBay's site statistics - on an average day a vehicle is sold every 2 minutes, a car part or accessory sold every 3 seconds, diamond jewelry sold every 83 seconds, and timberland shoes sold every 10 minutes. eBay brings buyers and sellers together, she says. The company has 83 million registered users with net revenue pf $531M in Q3 2003.

Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), explains that VC firms are supposed to think first about maximizing investment return for investors--but they also have a perfect opportunity to change the world through entrepreneurs. When DFJ evaluates an opportunity, they look at whether it extends lives, makes a sustainable planet, provides better energy with renewables, and even narrows the rich/poor gap, he says.

Smith talks about how a series of experiences prepare an entrepreneur to found a new venture. Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem in a better way and finding a way to make it happen, despite everyone telling you it cannot be done, she says. People did not believe Teach for America would work, but Smith and founder Wendy Kopp realized people weren't becoming teachers because they weren't being recruited and the process to get certified was too bureaucratic. They created a model in Teach for America that solved these problems, and were successful, she adds.

Smith explains that venture philanthropy means investing in ventures that lead to greater changes in the overall system to improve education for kids. The entrepreneur is a part of a much larger system and the aim is to leverage the investments to provide the greatest possible impact. This strategy has led to three key activities at New Schools: the creation of a network to generate more hybrid leaders and inform policy makers, a charter accelerator fund to create charter schools, and a performance accelerator fund to help schools become performance-oriented.

Smith explains that fundraising is very hard in the non-profit sector. New Ventures typically co-invests in A rounds with other venture capital firms, typically newer groups that have an openness to thinking about new solutions and understand the power of entrepreneurs. Generally, deals are in multi-millions with clearly defined milestones over several years.

New Schools is non-profit fund with only a social return; any earnings are reinvested into the fund, says Smith. Ventures are chosen for their social impact.

Smith talks about how the VC model allows for larger investments over a longer period of time. Also, the investment tends to be in organizational infrastructure rather than a service. VCs are more focused on growth than bottom-line success, she says. An entrepreneur must be disciplined and willing to walk away from people who do not share the same values.

Smith believes that extracurricular activities are essential. Funds are being cut currently because, in trying to achieve funding equity, everyone's funding was reduced instead of simply increasing funding to those who needed it. Fixing this is a matter of political will, she adds.

Musk talks about how PayPal is a perfect case of viral marketing where one customer acts as a sales person by sending money to a friend and hence recruiting another customer. By the end of the second year, PayPal had a million customers with no sales force and no advertising budget, he says.

Musk talks about how Space X is comprised of 30 people. They outsource all the heavy machining like welding etc. There are no lawyers at SpaceX and Musk explains why.

The essence of viral marketing is making one customer sell to the other, says Musk. Instances of this include Friendster, hotmail, PayPal. The customer must love the product experience to recommend it, he notes.

According to Kaplan the best qualities of successful entrepreneurs are: 1) They believe that they can make a difference. 2)They have a passion for making things happen. They don't just sit around talking, they go out there are make it happen. 3) They have unjustifiable optimism. They believe they can succeed in the face of evidence proving the contrary. 4) Tolerance for uncertainty. 5) Genuine concern for other people.

Jerry Kaplan, serial entrepreneur, executive, technical innovator, and author, elaborates on the five biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make: 1) Having unclear goals and an unclear mission. 2) Trying to prove that they are smart. 3) Greed - doing it for money. 4) Hiring people that they like rather than people that they need. 5) Not knowing when to let go.

Thompson talks about customers being the main driving force behind the business and business model. He gives examples from Symantec about the need to be close to customers. He also focuses on the need to concentrate on the business needs over the business model.

Estrin explains how it is important not to confuse marketing with reality. Know when you are marketing and know what is real. Make sure you listen to real customer input, she cautions.

Estrin talks about how the last cycle is about connecting embedded devices, as opposed to connecting computers. The real win in this is when we can build a completely new architecture for networks that are self-configuring, she says. Interesting work in academia is targeting this area. She talks about technology enablers in this cycle and the focus on low power, and not performance.

Estrin explains the reasons the consumer market is hard for startups is: 1) The amount of marketing dollars to reach the consumer directly is larger than startups can afford 2) It takes a lot of alliances to be successful and this is hard for a startup to do

Neeleman believes the success of JetBlue to this point is the company's price points. I pray for the day our competitors can match our fares, he says. Currently, competitors are desperate to gain back market share and have been undercutting prices. The success of JetBlue is because of loyal customers. We have somehow been able to levitate above a commodity business, as Dell or WalMart have done well during bad industries, he adds.