Today I had lunch with Katie, my classmate from Startup Garage (This is probably the last class I will take at Stanford. It's basically a project based class taught by GSB..with the end goal of having teams of 4-5 students launching businesses after two quarters). We spent some time discussing our background and sharing opinions about startup idea each of us has.
Katie would like to build a business that helps people getting start on "new things" (this term still needs to be defined)...biking, surfing, hiking, stock-trading..whatever new activities that newbies usually need to rely more experienced friends in their network to help them get up to speed. Generally, the problem is that it is not so easy to find such experienced friends, especially as one moves to a new place. Her team has yet to decide whether to focus on specific activities (biking, hiking etc.), specific group of people (housewife, post graduate, young adult, retiree, etc.), or other things.
I didn't have that much time to give her opinions on this during lunch (I think I spent way too much time telling my own stories..haha). Anyway, here is some of my thoughts.
(1) I think there is a lot one can learn from the way students clubs on campus operate. Basically this is an easy specific case of what "making getting start easier" (I will refer to it as MGSE from now) may want to do. Basically, group of people (i.e., students) come to a new place, want to learn new stuffs, and seek friendly experts for help. I'm not sure about Stanford but back as an undergrad at Caltech I was in a ballroom dance club..starting with no experience and knowing no one there. I made so many friends and went up the point that I was comfortable enough to compete in my later year at Caltech. What impresses me the most about that club was that it almost, I would say, become a real business.. so many folks from off campus (some came from as far as UCLA) join, participate, pay fee, compete. The bottom line is, although MGSE will end up operating outside university, there is a lot to learn from successful club on campus.
(2) I think it might be useful to identify the "portals" where those newcomers to an area are likely to go through. My bike rental business, for example, is such a portal because any new visitor to Stanford will be likely to look for bikes (I would say 90+ % of my customers are "new" to Stanford). There could be many other portals: apartment for rent, housing office, international student office, IKEA.. If somehow MGSE can align itself near such portals, it might be more likely to catch more of those newcomers.
(3) I remember from the first Startup Garage info session last spring that one of the instructors mentioned a web application which allows people to "rank" experts in their online social network. For example, if I know that my friend S is very good at baking, I can give her stars (the way we rank businesses on yelp). Then, when people in my network want to look for advices in baking ..and see that S has lots of stars..then they can go find S.
(4) It might be possible to prototype different ideas quickly and cheaply by putting together BBQ parties, or fair, or something similar..to call out those who might be interested in or identify themselves in such and such categories MGSE want to narrow down..through such meeting it might be possible to do quick informal interview or survey..what kind of things people are looking for..and how much they want to pay for that.
(5) (This might be only distantly related to MGSE but I will mention anyway). I have read about an organization in Japan that helps bring together "experienced" elderly and "curious" youths/kids. One of the goal is to preserve "endangered" national heritages (like dance, craft, music, etc.) that are likely to die out when older generation passed away. Yet, I think another (and probably more important benefit) is that it bring back the sense of family/community...those elders feel that they still have some value (and not just let the time goes by in the nursing home)..those kids (mostly growing up in nuclear family...w/ busy parents..)..can feel connected to their roots.
..that's what I have for now.
12.20 am 11 Oct 2012 @ Palo Alto CA 94306
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