So what can you learn if you didn't go to the event tonight? Here are some tips from Guy:
- make meaning - what need are you fulfilling?
- make mantra - why do you exist.... make a mantra instead of a mission
- get going - polarize people --- if you get people to either love or hate your product, you'll have more success versus if you just make a site for everyone which makes your product mediocre and you'll have evangelists that will promote your site for free
- define business model - be specific. KIS. Ask women before you go through with it (women don't have that natural tendency to "kill" everything).
- weave a mat - milestones, assumptions, tasks; Milestones like "finish design", Assumptions like "how many sales/day", Tasks like "rent office"
- niche thyself - think of a graph. the vertical axis is the ability to provide a unique product - horizontal axis is the value to customer -- you want to be up high and to the right
- follow the 10/20/30 rule - 10 slides in 20 min with 30 point font
- hire infected people (aka people with the same passion for what you are trying to do)
- lower barrier to adoption - the plug it in and it should work mentality
- seed the cloud - sales fixes everything
- bonus point: don't listen to the bozos (the people who say you can't do it, the negative boobs)
The one thing I didn't ask him, which I am most curious about was how in the world does he keep his sanity? He seems extremely busy: father, husband, Alltop.com, garage, VCs, etc. How do you find time to do what you like (hockey) and have fun with your family all the while staying on top of twitter, blogging, speeches and whatever else is going on in the industry? What does your house look like???
Random - If I could afford a maid maybe my house wouldn't look like a tornado sucked it up and vomited.