the 12 most intriguing questions from mitef cambridge podcasts

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THE 12 MOST INTRIGUING QUESTIONS FROM MITEF CAMBRIDGE PODCASTS Randall Cronk greatwriting.com @randycronk

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Page 1: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

THE 12 MOST INTRIGUING QUESTIONS FROM MITEF

CAMBRIDGE PODCASTSRandall Cronk

greatwriting.com@randycronk

Page 2: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

People We Asked• Guy Kawasaki

Co-author, The Art of Social Media

• Vivek WadhwaFellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford

• Paul EnglishCo-founder, KAYAK.com and Blade

• Christopher AhlbergCEO and Co-founder, Recorded Future

• Joe SpeedDirector, Internet of Things, Linux Foundation

• Dr. Mildred DresselhausMIT Institute Professor and Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner

Page 3: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

People We Asked (cont.)

• Joe CurtatoneMayor, Somerville, MA

• Dip PatelFounder, EcoVent and winner of 2013 MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Student Pitch Off Competition

• Mike RosenAttorney and Partner, Foley Hoag LLP

• Marc MarguliesFounder, Margulies Perruzzi Architects

• Jonathan KnowlesSenior Strategy Advisor, Autodesk

• Bernd SchonerCo-Founder, Thing Magic, and Author, The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide

Page 4: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #1: Is social media a good marketing tool for a B2B tech startup? Person asked: Guy KawasakiCo-author, The Art of Social Media

Page 6: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #2: How can small and poor startups afford to tackle big problems? Person asked: Vivek WadhwaFellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University

Page 7: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“It’s not like you have to raise millions of dollars in

venture capital anymore. It use to be that before

you could start a company you would need to go

to a venture capitalist on Sand Hill Road or Route

128 in Boston and beg them for money and they

would sit in their castles and decide whether they

would invest in you or not. Screw them now. We

don’t need [them] anymore.”

Posted 1/23/15

Page 8: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #3: How do most tech startups fail?

Person asked: Paul EnglishCo-Founder, KAYAK.com and Blade

Page 9: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“I think most tech startups fail … because

they solve stupid problems. Part of that is

[not] validating if there really is a problem

here that technology should be created for

or not. And how real is that problem. That’s

important for the entrepreneur to always

have a good grasp of.”

Posted 1/16/15

Page 10: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #4: As a startup, how were you able to sell into so many large enterprises right out of the gate? Person asked: Christopher AhlbergCEO and Co-founder, Recorded Future

Page 11: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“I think the things that people forget about these kinds of

companies is how large these companies are, how many things

they have to deal with, how 95% of their budgets goes for

maintenance and things that they already own. Like even if they

have infinite budget, and infinite people and infinite everything,

there’s only so much attention they have that they can spend on

things. So to actually get that differential piece of attention is really

really hard. So, that means you have to solve a problem that has

urgency associated with it, that has money associated with it, and

has people sort of available to actually apply their attention and

their money to it.”

Posted 1/14/15

Page 12: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #5: What is the #1 mistake startups make in the Internet of Things space? Person asked: Joe SpeedDirector, Internet of Things, Linux Foundation and AllSpeed Alliance IoT Open Source Project

Page 13: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“The one pitfall I sometimes see of some startups in the

IoT space is a little bit of hubris where they may think

they can solve IoT by themselves — that they’ll invent

some bit of technology, some protocol, and they’ll be

able to evangelize and be able to get the entire the entire

market to adopt [it]. And I just don’t think that’s realistic.

I think the way to do it is via collaboration. If you have

some innovation, some bit of tech, that you want the

entire market to use, the route to market for that is

collaborate and have that become part of something

bigger like the AllSeen Alliance Open Source Project.”

Posted 12/17/14

Page 14: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #6: Are you a feminist?

Person asked: Dr. Mildred DresselhausMIT Institute Professor and Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner

Page 15: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“I’m not really a feminist. I think women’s lib as they

call it has been a good thing. But I really don’t spend

my time doing that so I’m not a feminist in that

sense. In my family life and all of that I sort of know

my place and behave more like a conventional

woman, how I was raised. So, basically speaking, I

can play both roles as appropriate.”

Posted 12/13/14

Page 16: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #7: How do you build Somerville’s reputation as a tech center?

Person asked: Joe CurtatoneMayor, Somerville, MA

Page 17: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“We do not want to be static. We do not want to be

part of the status quo. We do not simply want to

replicate what someone else has done. . . . And I

pride myself on having some of the smartest

people — smarter than me — in this administration

that you can bring in for talent. But who are

abnormal. Who have a passion for curiosity. Who

seek new ideas. Who take smart risks.”

Posted 12/23/14

Page 18: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #8: What’s your advice for other student entrepreneurs?

Person asked: Dip PatelFounder, EcoVent and winner of 2013 MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Student Pitch Off Competition

Page 19: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“You can always do something to get towards your

goal. A year ago we had to raise a million dollars

and were like, “How the hell are we going to do

that?” It’s overwhelming, and I think it leads to a

lot of paralysis. People get scared. But what we

learned through the competition mentorship, and

also MIT and TechStars, is: what can you do today

to help you get to that goal? Do that.”

Posted 11/15/14

Page 20: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #9:

Do Massachusetts’ non-compete laws put this state at a disadvantage versus other tech centers?

Person asked: Mike RosenPartner, Foley Hoag LLP

Page 21: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“I would suggest that the Massachusetts versus

California dichotomy, which is very much a part

of the non-compete debate right now in

Massachusetts, is perhaps too simplistic. There

are many other places, in fact most other states,

all but just a few, in which non-competes

continue to be enforceable and where there is a

vibrant startup and technology economy.”

Posted 10/30/14

Page 22: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #10: What’s the key to effective space planning for innovative companies?

Person asked: Marc MarguliesFounder, Margulies Perruzzi Architects

Page 23: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“What we really try to encourage everyone

involved in the process to do is to think

more deeply about how they actually are

going to do the business [in the future],

not necessarily just how they’ve done it in

the past.”

Posted 10/5/14

Page 24: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #11: What trend in new product design has got you most excited right now?

Person asked: Jonathan KnowlesSenior Strategy Advisor, Autodesk

Page 25: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“One of the things that definitely excites

me is how we will use biology to make the

things that we want in the future. … And

this isn’t something that we’re just making

up. It’s something that we are actually

working with, right now, as a matter of

fact,

Posted 9/27/14

Page 26: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Question #12:

What’s the hardest thing a company needs to get right when it acquires a startup?

Person asked: Bernd SchonerCo-Founder, Thing Magic, and Author, The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide

Page 27: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

“One of the tricky things to get right when you do

make an acquisition [is that] you’re not just buying

the company and the technologies that are there

— you’re buying the creativity and you’re buying

people that invented that technology … despite

that financial incentive, the mind of that

technologist may be somewhere else…. How do

you create an environment where that person is

still motivated to give his or her best work?”

Posted 5/24/14

Page 28: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

Links

• MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Websitewww.mitforumcambridge.org

• MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge Podcasthttp://bit.ly/wzpcVw

• Questions and feedback on this deck:Randall [email protected]

Page 29: The 12 Most Intriguing Questions from MITEF Cambridge Podcasts

THANK YOU!