Steve Hoffman

First off, what makes an app or site viral?

1) Your app or site needs to have a unique feature that creates value for users.  Typically, users will download your product for one clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this, and everything else you offer is either a bonus or a distraction. There might be other features in your app, but you need to know what the main one is. You also need to know exactly how this feature translates into value for your users. Your app should be simple and straightforward. Less is more. Don’t obscure the value proposition in any way. Value can be content, functionality, entertainment, etc. Value can also be an action or reaction, like a check-in. Or value can mean saving money or time. Just know what the value is and focus on the features that enhance this value.

2) The experience must be repeatable. You don’t just check-in once and it’s over. The opposite is true. The more you check-in, the more value you build. Truly viral apps enable their users to create value the more they use the app. Each repeat use builds upon the last. Think of Facebook. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. No one sees the true value of Facebook the first time they use it.

3) The value is shareable. Virality must be integral to the app. Look at Eventbrite. It took off because it’s inherently viral. If you’re having an event, you must send out invitations. Another great example is YouTube. No point in making a video if no one watches it. As soon as YouTube made it easy to share videos, it went viral.

4) The value must be unique or offer a significant improvement over what already exists. No point in making an app that is just a copy of something already out there. Who needs another YouTube?

5) Your product taps into the existing social graph of your users. In other words, it gives them a reason to engage with their friends and enables them to do so in a meaningful way. Are you sharing tips on restaurants? Are you helping users to save money? Are you showing your friends something interesting that they could use?

6) Your app must have instant utility, meaning the value is apparent immediately. You don’t want to ask your users to wait a week to get value out of your app. It needs to happen now.

7) Lastly, you need to be able to measure the viral coefficient and work to push it above 1. A viral coefficient of 1 means that for every user you invite, you can expect that user to invite one additional user. This is truly organic viral growth. Most apps never get to this point, but even if your viral coefficient is 0.5, you’re still gaining 50% more users than you would with a 0. The key is measuring and tweaking every element of your app so that you can maximize the virality.

I hope this helps!  Let me know if you have any additional tips.

They also have a nice roster of mentors and solid industry connections. Most importantly, they have a program that they put you through to make sure you’re prepared to spend their money wisely.  Are you up for a trip to the great white north?   If so, Extreme Startups is worth considering.  And they have a sense of humor…

Check this out:
SECRET LAWS OF STARTUPS

Here’s what they’re looking for…

Extreme Startups funds technology-oriented companies with a focus on web or mobile-based software, but they are open to companies in any space with compelling ideas and solutions.  Teams with the best chances of acceptance will present a combination of market knowledge, technical expertise, and a demanding audience hungry for their solution along with founders who aren’t put off by the challenges that launching a successful startup presents.

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Topics:

• Market Data of 2011
• M&A Deals in 2011
• IPOs in 2011
• Multiple Perspectives on Recent Exits
• How Companies Should Prepare for Liquidity

Moderator:
John Bautista, Partner, Orrick

Panelists:
Villi Iltchev, Senior Director of Strategy and Corporate Development, Salesforce
Jim Fowler, Founder & CEO, InfoArmy (Previously founded Jigsaw which was acquired by Salesforce in May 2010 for $175M)
John Moriarty, Managing Director, RW Baird
Joseph Steger, Global Transaction Advisory Services Technology Industry Leader, Ernst & Young

Please accept or decline by Tuesday, February 14, 2012.

If you have any questions, please contact Joyce Chuang
at 650.289.7178. ]]> http://www.foundersspace.com/events/panel-event-ma-and-ipo-market-update-with-salesforce-former-founder-of-jigsaw-rw-baird-and-ernst-young/feed/ 0 http://www.foundersspace.com/tech/need-help-creating-great-looking-apps-tapptics-to-the-rescue-2/ http://www.foundersspace.com/tech/need-help-creating-great-looking-apps-tapptics-to-the-rescue-2/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:21:57 +0000 Naomi Kokubo http://www.foundersspace.com/?p=9547

For any of you who attended our session on “How to Create & Market Award-Winning Apps,” you’re already aware that having a great-looking app is not a luxury any more.  It’s a necessity.  And if you ever hope to get featured by Apple, it’s a must have.  A poor looking UI or not-so-great icon can kill your chances of ever getting to the top of the App Store.

With competition for attention at an all-time high, you need to go that extra mile to get your app noticed.  But what if you lack the talent to design a nice interface or create the killer icon?  And what if you cannot afford to hire an A-List designer?   Well then, Tapptics is what you need.  They offer courses on everything from app design to icon creation.  And even better, they give you free templates!

• The iPhone Interface Design Training Course is broken down into individual lessons about specific common elements of interface design. You can start at the beginning and complete the course straight through, or you can pick and choose the individual lessons that you need to learn aboutright away.
• In the Outsourcing iPhone App Development Series, you’ll learn how to select the right dev team for your app project. This is a vitally important step and you will learn what to look for and what to avoid.
• The iPhone Icon Design Course provides you with the fundamentals of designing mobile app icons, and tips about making your icons unique and widely appealing.
• The iPhone XCode Training Course shows you how to code custom graphics for multiple iOS elements. This course includes in-depth instructions on writing the code and provides example XCode projects from other iPhone apps.
• In the iTunes App Store SEO Course, you’ll find lots of juicy tips about how to keep your iPhone app in front of as many eyeballs as possible for as long as possible. These techniques will help you maximize your app’s opportunity for success.

So what are you waiting for?  We’re using Tapptics for our apps.  You should too!

The latest version of the Adobe Flash Player runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android 2.2+, RIM QNX and Google TV. Earlier versions run on PlayStation 3 (Flash 9), and PSP (Flash 6). Adobe Flash Lite runs on Wii, Symbian, Maemo Linux, Windows Mobile, and Chumby.  In contrast, some video sites, including YouTube, Vimeo and blip.tv, have implemented a degree of experimental support for HTML5 video. Steve Jobs noted that Flash is not an open standard – it is controlled by Adobe Systems, whereas HTML5 is largely controlled by a committee (WHATWG) made up of three companies: Opera Software, the Mozilla Foundation, and Apple.

Some users have complained about the relatively high CPU usage of Flash for video playback.  This was partially because the Flash plugin did not use the GPU to render video. Adobe has responded to some of those criticisms in the 10.1 and 10.2 releases of the Flash plugin by offloading H.264 video decoding to dedicated hardware and by introducing a new video API called Stage Video.  In addition, the use of the newer ActionScript 3.0 inside Flash movies instead of the older ActionScript 2.0 improves code execution speed by a factor of around 10. But older websites that use ActionScript 2.0 will not benefit from this. Another reason for poor Flash performance is that some Flash developers incorrectly code their Flash files which can be a problem with “HTML5″ animations as well.

Constructing Flash websites using Adobe tools is relatively easier than with integrated development environments for CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.  However, many of Adobe’s tools are expensive.  It obviously takes time for tooling for HTML5 to get on the market.  Adobe has released a first version of a Flash to HTML5 conversion tool for existing content and are working on creating new tooling for HTML5 as well, like Adobe Edge.  Because HTML5 is an open format (like SWF) any toolmaker can build them, the first ones like Hype are already on the market.

To help you decide between the two, OneMoreLevel.com has crafted a side-by-side comparison of the two…

Founders Card

FoundersCard is now two years old and has over 5,000 members.  So what is it?

FoundersCard lets you receive discounts and deals from a whole bunch of businesses, like 10% off of everything at AT&T, 10% off Groundlink cabs, instant “Silver access” on Virgin Atlantic, 50% off domains at Hover, and a free account at Shoprunner — to name a few. In total, the startup has about 96 companies offering its members benefits, including 44 lifestyle companies, 16 travel companies, and 36 business companies.  In addition, members enjoy access to frequent networking events held throughout the year.

So what’s the catch?

There’s an annual fee of about $495.  Hmmmm… Is it worth it?  You decided.

Naomi Kokubo

Question: My startup is launching a new website.  It’s in “alpha” right now.   I need to test it out before it goes to public “beta”.   What’s the best way to test a new website on a budget?  I can’t afford costly focus groups or expensive usability studies.

Answer by Naomi Kokubo, Editor of Founders Space

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get good results.  I seldom use focus groups or other more expensive methods.   From my experience, the best and cheapest way to test out a  new website is to invite “new” users (often friends and colleagues) to try it out.  Instead of telling them what the site is and does, you shouldn’t say a thing.  Instead, you quietly  watch over each user’s shoulder and take notes as they try to figure it out for themselves.

I actually find that the less I say, the more I learn.   I make a point of listening to what the users say, and I don’t answer any questions until the session is over.  Another good trick is to ask the users to say everything that comes into their heads as they use the site.  You’ll be surprised at what comes out of their mouths.

Even if a user gets hopelessly stuck and you’re itching to help out, don’t do it!  Ask the user to keep trying and see what happens.  Take detailed notes the entire time, and share those notes with your entire team.

This method works like gangbusters.  It’s easy to get too close to a website and lose all perspective.  This allows you to see the site through the eyes of a virgin user.    In fact, this method works for testing any type of software, from a video game or iPhone app to an enterprise solution.

I hope this helps make your site a winner!

Presenters: Jon Baer of Threshold Ventures, John Giddings, angel investor, and Joseph Perkins, Orrick, moderator.

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SPEAKERS

Jon Baer of Threshold Ventures is a senior executive who brings a unique perspective to the world of startups. He has been both a venture capitalist as well as the founder and CEO of two venture backed companies, eBoomerang, an enterprise software company which was sold in 2006 and Artificial Muscle, Inc., a spinout from Stanford Research Institute (SRI). As a principal and founder of Threshold Ventures, Jon works with companies around the world, serving as an advisor/mentor, working on specific projects and when appropriate, taking on interim operating roles. He has worked with a wide range of software, telephony, hardware and services businesses. Earlier in his career Jon was a General Partner at Oscco Ventures, a Sand Hill Road early-stage venture capital firm which was one of the pioneering firms in Silicon Valley. He has invested in a range of companies including Landec, Peerless Systems, and Coinstar.

John Giddings is the co-founder of The Silicon Valley Angels (now Tech Angel Group), which focuses on high tech seed stage opportunities and Clean Tech issues. He also is Principal of Clean Tech Integration, a consulting practice specializing in technology, business plan and funding services for clean tech start-ups, due diligence projects for venture capitalists, and analysis on the clean tech industry for Wall Street. John recently joined the adjunct Faculty of Santa Clara University’s Graduate School of Engineering as a professor of entrepreneurship. He is on the Board of Directors for HBSTech, and the Industry Advisory Board for the Santa Clara University School of Engineering. He is also editor of The Solar Evangelist Blog, offering insight, commentary and advice for the new solar industry toward delivering on the promise of Gold from the Blue Sky. His home is in Los Gatos, California and this summer he climbed Mt. Fuji–for work.

Joseph Z. Perkins, a corporate associate in Orrick’s Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Emerging Companies Group, which advises emerging companies and venture capital firms.  Mr. Perkins’s practice focuses on providing private venture financing and merger and acquisition services to Internet, high tech, and clean technology companies.

If you haven’t heard of it already, 500 Startups provides early-stage companies with funding ranging from $10K to $250K via seed investments.  They offer a startup accelerator program and new micro-fund models, like the Twilio Fund. With over 160 experienced startup mentors around the world, a cool creative workspace in the heart of Silicon Valley, and a vibrant community of startup founders, we think 500 Startups is a winner!

Here’s a bit about their philosophy:

• DESIGN Great products start with a great user experience—one that makes customers happy and brings them back for more.
• DATA Successful startups can make informed product and marketing decisions, know how much customers are willing to pay, and what it costs to acquire them.
• DISTRIBUTION Startups need scalable, cost-effective customer acquisition.