Forget an MBA, be a Cab Driver

I am almost forced to write this blog. Just had an interesting conversation with a cab driver outside my office building. School dropout, married.

Quote from the cabbie

"agar yeh aise hi chala toh ek saal mei Mercedes le lunga"

Translation: if this goes the way it is right now, I will buy a Merc in the next 1 year.

How much money does this guy make?

• Earning per day - per car: INR 3500/ $66 (after fuel cost of 10 rides)
• He owns a fleet of 3 cars (old Tata Indigo's). So the daily earning goes to INR 10,500 per day ($175)
• Multiply that by 30 days a month: INR 3,15,000 ($5250)

Now INR 3,15,000/ month is a salary which even a senior manager won't be close to making every month, in India (Im not generalizing).

Cost to the driver

10 trips from Delhi - Gurgaon - Delhi (average 200kms) daily, is INR 500 ($8) worth of Diesel (fuel).

So, forget the MBA, drive a cab!

“Your Product is a Piece of Sh#t”: How My Company Responded To This Tweet

Back in 2010, popular pizza chain Domino’s took a whole new approach to business following a major PR disaster set off by a highly inappropriate video shot by two employees on the job (which involved cheese being put up noses and onto pizzas). As part of its drastic shift in strategy, Domino’s reached out to customers with a survey asking for immediate and honest feedback on its product. Then, in a twist, it decided to make public some of the results, which were largely negative. Customers told the company that its pizza crust tasted like cardboard, its tomato sauce had the consistency of ketchup and that they felt frozen pizza was superior to Domino’s. Yikes.

Then, something amazing happened. Domino’s actually did something about it. It launched a campaign called Pizza Turnaround to reinvent its pizza “from the crust up.” The strategy worked. Within months of releasing its new and improved pie, Domino’s reported one of the largest quarterly same-store sales jumps ever recorded by a major fast-food chain. And since then, Domino’s has continued to foster open dialogue with its customers using a variety of emerging digital channels, like social media. (The brand currently has an impressive 10 million fans on Facebook.) The whole approach must be working—Domino’s, which was founded back in 1960, has seen its stock surge from $7.73 in 2009 to more than $70 in 2014.

The point here is that negative customer feedback is always painful but, when used right, it can be an invaluable asset in business. Bill Gates may have put it best years ago when he said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” The good news is that right now learning from customers is easier than it’s ever been. With the proliferation of social media, any business can engage in open dialogue with customers via networks like Facebook and Twitter, at a fraction of the cost of, say, putting together a massive customer focus group.

Recently, my own company unveiled a major makeover of a key piece of our core product—the Hootsuite dashboard. Users see the dashboard—which organizes multiple social media accounts into one screen—each and every time they log into Hootsuite.com. And, well, over the years, the UI had aged a bit. Since we launched in 2008, social media has grown much more sophisticated; we wanted a new dashboard to reflect this evolution. We also wanted to acknowledge and respond openly to the input we receive from our users.

So to kickstart the project, we first sorted through user feedback from one of our main company social media channels, our Hootsuite Twitter account, looking for some of the worst, most critical messages about the look of our dashboard. Then, instead of tucking them away in a file folder somewhere, we decided to bring them into the light. Our engineers and designers went to work addressing these issues, while our creative team put together a YouTube video to own up to our flaws. Inspired by comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s hilarious "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets" segment, it should be good for a quick laugh.

After months of work, we launched our new dashboard several weeks ago, using the “Mean Tweets” video to promote the changes. We’ve received some great responses from our users, and also heard back from people who say they appreciate our modern and transparent approach. It’s a great lesson: openness, humility and transparency is really the only way to move forward. It’s something we’ll be keeping very much in mind as we roll out more improvements in the months ahead.

*****

What I’ve Learned After One Year at a Startup

I made it folks. One year ago, I joined a Boulder, Colorado marketing technology company called Kapost. At the time, it seemed like a potentially risky move. I was recently engaged, leaving a company at which I felt secure, working with great people and for a great person. A year later, it's the least risky and best decision I've ever made.

Throughout this year I've been documenting my evolution as a new employee, sharing what I had learned after one month and four months, and my awe of the people I've worked with and for. This is another in that series, documenting lessons from this past year at Kapost.

You Can't Fear Change

For those following along at home, this is a recurring lesson. In fact, it's probably the number one theme. In the past year we've altered the way we do business (3-4 times by my count), adjusting appropriately as we learn what works/doesn't. We've grown from a company in the teens (I was employee 19 a year ago) to somewhere around 60 employees. I think. I honestly can't keep up. In my first post on this topic I bemoaned the construction of a cubicle wall that divided the room, however noting:

"...aside from whining about it in this post, I’m not throwing much of a fit, because I know this too will change.

If we continue to grow as rapidly as we have been – and as rapidly as the company is planning to – we literally will not be able to fit everyone in the office space we’re in now. There will be another move, and maybe we’ll return to an open, lively, & energetic workspace. The point is, change happens at breakneck speed at a startup and if venting in a blog post like I just did isn’t enough to help you keep moving, you’ll struggle to catch up."

It did change. We kept growing. We kept playing with the layout of our space. Now we're moving to a bigger space in a month or so and an even bigger space a few months after that. This constant adjusting of ideas - and in our case physical space - can't rattle you if you want to last in a startup

On a smaller scale, our marketing team has been under constant change this year. We're now at the largest we've ever been staff-wise, but we've had to get to that point by overcoming the departure of 6 marketers in the process. Sometimes we filled positions, sometimes we created new ones. If there's one thing our team knows, it's that the way things work now, sure as hell won't be the way they always work.

Fortunately, we're the kind of team that just keeps rolling.

You Can't Stop the "Up"

So, remember that part above where I said the marketing team lost some folks this year? Well, among them were our web designer, front end developer, marketing automation & Salesforce admin, and our director of marketing. Ridiculously talented people in critical positions. I can't stress that enough. In fact, the latter two were the ones who built Kapost's original marketing structure from the ground up. You don't just replace that overnight.

But despite these key setbacks, our marketing goals remained in place. We still had to produce and still had to produce more each month. So we did (for the most part). We found a way to keep momentum, because, well, we had to. In order for this company to grow, we as a company need to continue to produce, to innovate, to stretch ourselves to be the best version of Kapost we can be.

I'm proud to work at a company where that is not only a mandate but a common understanding and something we all push for. We all know, that as tough as things get, we'll keep going and keep this company booming. So far so good, and we're not stopping any time soon.

Don't Hire Jerks

Now you might be thinking "no shit, Coate", but the reason Kapost has been able to handle change, turnover, high demands from prospects, customers, board members, investors and so on is deeply rooted in an old SlideShare presentation by CEO Toby Murdock. On slide 5 Toby lists Kapost's cultural values.

Numbers 3-6 make up the part I have most commonly cited when people ask what I enjoy most about Kapost. It started with good people, it's grown with good people, and it will continue to grow with good people. As we've grown I've never questioned a hire. With very few exceptions, the people who have walked in the door have belonged, have been all-stars at what they do, and fit in as those they've always been a part of this.

I've also watched as wave after wave of new hires has been welcomed by those before them. There is no sense of "us vs. them", "originals vs. newbies". There's no overt favoritism solely toward longevity. Appreciation, sure, but I mean to say a person is able to walk in to Kapost and do a great job from day one, because they already have the trust of existing teammates.

The great part too, is that the awesome people that have left this company this year have been awesome to the company on the way out. Our marketing team survived a potentially treacherous transition period because none of those key departures left on a bitter note (awesome people are in high demand and they were demanded elsewhere is all), and were willing to do everything they could to make sure we could keep going in the interim, often going above and beyond what's typically expected.

So yeah. Don't hire jerks.

Style Doesn't Matter...

Referencing that SlideShare deck again, #7 reads "We evaluate by results." One of the joys of working for a startup is how freeform a lot of work tends to be. Goals are in place, along with general process guidelines (sometimes), and then it's "okay guys, go get 'em."

This is where innovation comes from - finding different ways to get somewhere. Experimentation has its place, so does unconventional thinking. There's no format, really. It's purely about getting things done, however that looks.

While I referred above to a unity among Kaposters, you wouldn't notice it directly by looking around the office. I see a diversity of workspace and clothing choices, of work styles and work schedules. We aren't a group of look-a-like do-a-likes but we're getting it done. There's something to be said for that.

...Though Apparently Neither Does Cleanliness

Kaposters. Dirty dishes in the bucket. Seriously.

Also, what's going on here?

Or here?

Clean up after yourselves, adult humans.

So that's year one for me. Hope you enjoyed reading my experiences this crazy year as much as I enjoyed having them.

Cold Drinks or Tyre Cleaners

Today afternoon, I was buying newspaper from a bakery-cum-general merchandise shop in my locality in Bangalore. Another customer came and asked for a bottle of Pepsi. Shop owner gave him instead a bottle of Thumps Up. I told the shop owner, he asked for Pepsi and you are giving him thums up. He told me, customer will accept any one. I was perplexed. I asked the customer, is it so? He said yes, because I am buying it not for drinking but for some other purpose.

Now suspense was thicker. I could not hold myself. I enquired little more, during conversation he told me, he has bought this thumps up bottle to clean the car tyres. I could not believe him.

I simply followed him, and what I saw, one boy was cleaning the car of his owner. This man also got involved in cleaning the car with that boy. I asked him to show me literally how he is going to use thumps up for cleaning the car tyres. I asked his name, he was Ram Milan. He told me, Sir, you will have to wait, first we will clean the whole body then in last we will wipe the car tyre with thumps up.

I was ready to see the experiment from my own eyes, so simply I killed some 20 minutes reading the newspaper. Till then they had completely cleaned the car. Meanwhile the car owner also came. I told him, I am waiting to see some experiment; it will be an eye opener and lesson for my life. He started laughing, and told me that he is using all these cold drinks, pepsi, coca-cola and thumps etc. to give shining to the car tyres. He told, all cold drinks will work.

Now Ram Milan, took the bottle of thumps up, poured the drink in a mug and soaked it in a piece of cloth, and started wiping the outer side of the car tyres.I could not believe my eyes. To be fair with these cold drink companies, I can tell you it worked wonderfully. Tyres were looking brand new. Thums up!!

Owner quipped, new tyres!!

Now time was for me to take lesson, never to touch “Tyre Cleaners” in my life.

Do you get some lesson from this story? Am sure, at least you can give your car tyres a brand new look. Whether you will drink it or not, is your choice.

For cold drink companies, I have a simple question, what are you selling? Cold drink or “Tyre cleaner”?

A BIG Thums DOWN..

Thanks for not buying popcorn from my son

(This an article adapted from Mr Trey Tompkins article at linkedin. I was feeding to my regular dosage of Linked in articles when this one struck me.)

If you declined my son's offer to buy popcorn from his Cub Scout Pack yesterday, I owe you one. I'm serious.

I spent yesterday afternoon outside the exit of a local home improvement store with my six year old son and two other father / son pairings from his Cub Scout Pack. They were performing the seasonal ritual of selling popcorn to help raise money for their Pack's activities.

Through their efforts, they raised about $200 in about two hours. That seems to be pretty good production for three elementary school kids.

In watching my son and his friends "work", I was struck most by two different but ultimately related things.

First, many individuals who they talked to seemed so uncomfortable in saying "no". Everyone was very polite and many offered reasons for not handing over money to the kids. However, it was obvious that saying "no" made some of them uncomfortable.

Looking back on it, they needn't have felt any remorse or guilt at all. Those folks were doing my son and his friends a great service in teaching them valuable lessons about sales and achievement.

In sales, no matter how good your cause is (or no matter how cute you are in your little scout uniform) people don't owe you anything. They have to have a reason to want your product or "service". Most people who donated or bought popcorn told the kids that they wanted to support the scouts because they themselves or their children had been scouts. My guess is that they knew the good works that scouting does for kids and it made them feel good to make a small investment in that.

Also, even if someone values your product service, they might not be in a position to buy at that moment. Maybe they aren't carrying cash or they already bought from a kid in their neighborhood. Which leads to my second "aha" observation. Those kids heard a lot of "no" responses and yet they just kept on asking people exiting the store if they would like to support their Pack. They were so excited when someone eventually said yes.

After the Popcorn Sale, I took my son out for a quick dinner at a local restaurant. Over dinner, he told me that selling is hard work because you have to let so many people tell you "no" before you ever get someone to tell you "yes".

If you politely refusing to buy popcorn from him yesterday helped teach him this lesson at age 6, I owe you a debt of gratitude.

Thanks again!