Usable Insight – Opportunist in Visionary's Clothing from @markgoulston
A really great post from Mark Goulston on opportunist and visionaries…
From: Mark Goulston, M.D. <mgoulston@markgoulston.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Subject: Usable Insight – Opportunist in Visionary's Clothing
To: jason@
A “One Trick Pony” Opportunist Does Not a Visionary Make – Are you listening Microsoft?
I recently appeared on This Week in Startups hosted by Jason Calacanis and we covered a lot of topics that several viewers wanted to hear more about. One of those was the difference between an opportunist and a visionary.
An opportunist by nature sees something that is already out there, and then focuses on a way to ruthlessly beat the competition, create barriers to entry and race ahead. That head start can give an opportunist a short runway advantage over the competition, but there’s no guarantee that others won’t find a way to catch up and beat them. Microsoft was opportunistic when it jumped out with Windows to lift sole proprietor status of the user friendly interface from Apple’s first Macintosh. It did the same again with Microsoft Office which quickly became the 800 pound gorilla, outmaneuvering WordStar and WordPerfect for market share dominance. But Google beat the crap out of Internet Explorer not to mention Yahoo as far as the search market is concerned.
Opportunists are about extending a grasp in an already competitive environment. They are about being grabby.
A visionary by nature is about seeing something that doesn’t exist. It’s not about extending human grasp and outgrabbing the competition; it’s about extending human experience and going beyond the imagination. Walt Disney was a visionary because he extended the human experience from what his wife referred to as a “dirty” amusement park into not just a “theme park” but “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
"When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point–mine wouldn't be. Disneyland would be a world of Americans, past and present, seen through the eyes of my imagination–a place of warmth and nostalgia, of illusion and color and delight." – Walt Disney
From a practical standpoint, one of the other advantages of a vision over an opportunity is that it extends your runway, because you are so far beyond everyone else. That may explain why Apple so fiercely guards the opening presentations of its visionary products. When they are finally revealed, it is so clear how they have outdistanced the competition that many would be competitors don’t even bother trying. Think of how the iphone has done just that to the competition and how unreliable and unsatisfying its competitors’ products have been (such as the Blackberry Storm).
One of the problems with a number of founders and entrepreneurs that I discussed with Jason is that many of them are the first to seize an opportunity (a la Microsoft) and are hailed by the world as visionaries, but then turn out to be “one trick pony” opportunists.
With some deep listening and a little prodding, such founders and entreprenuers have often revealed their paranoid fears to me of being exposed as an opportunist/one trick pony in visionary/successful businessman’s clothing. The more anxious they become that they can’t repeat that first success, the more often they become hostile, difficult to work with, “terrors” at work and then are barely able to contain their anxiety out in the investment world where they’re trying to court new capital.
What’s fascinating is that once they share this all too common fear, they exhale – physically, psychologically and emotionally. It is as if a huge monkey is lifted off their backs. It is also as if their minds were overloaded modems that have been disconnected, powered down, rested, powered up and then rebooted. Suddenly they have new bandwidth and begin to see other possibilities and they start visualizing. They also realize that even if they were the original visionary or opportunist or whatever, they don’t have to be the sole visionary anymore.
Jason Calacanis spoke about this in our interview when he explained how visions can be culled from all kinds of places by just listening and observing and having your people listen and observe what’s out there in the market place and what’s really on your customers and clients’ minds and in their hearts, their deepest fears and their greatest dreams.
If you have read this far, do you think there is a real distinction between opportunistic and visionary companies or is that a figment of my imagination? Please hit "Reply" to let me know.
Yanks in five baby….
—————
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com
Derek Jeter! MVP!
—————
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com
4th row behind the yankee dugout…. Frack I love my life! Chilling with @kijubi + Josh Harris of #WLIP
—————
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com
Feel sorry for Angels fans at tonights game… It will be heartbreaking for them on so many levels. #yankees
—————
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com
startups: please boycott 2009 New York Venture Summit
Another scam…. be one of the top 50 innovators… if you pay
$1,500!!! what a scam!
From:
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Subject: Fwd: VC Funding
To: Forwarded conversation
Subject: VC Funding
———————— From: Adam Negnewitzky
Date: Are you actively seeking funding? If so, let me know if you’d like to present at the 2009 New York
Venture Summit as one of 50 Top Innovators. This exclusive venture summit being held on June 17th, 2009 at Digital
Sandbox in New York City is bringing together over 500 Venture
Capitalists, Angel Investors, Corporate VCs, Investment Bankers and
CEOs of emerging growth companies. In addition to featuring 30 VCs on interactive panels; a keynote by
Peter Thiel, Co-founder of online payment site Paypal, President of
Clarium and Managing Partner of the Founders Fund , we will be
showcasing 50 Top Innovators from the Tech, clean-tech and life
sciences sectors. The deadline for presenting company applications is May 6th, 2009. Many leading VCs are already confirmed to join us including: Iftikar A. Ahmed, General Partner, Oak Investment Partners • Matt
Bieber, Senior Associate, Originate Ventures • Kevin J. Bitterman,
Principal, Polaris Venture Partners • Skip Besthoff, General Partner,
Castile Ventures • Steve Brotman, Managing Director, Greenhill SAVP •
Tom Cain, Managing Partner, Sail Venture Partners • Mary Lincoln
Campbell, Managing Director, EDF Ventures • Jon Chait, Partner, Dace
Ventures • David Dantzker, General Partner, Wheatley Partners •
Dominic Endicott, General Partners, Nauta Capital • Tony Florence,
Partner, New Enterprise Associates • Lewis Gersh, Managing Partner,
Metamorphic Ventures • Jay N. Goldberg, Senior Managing Director,
Hudson Ventures • David F. Hendren, General Partner, Catalyst Health
Ventures • Quinn Li, Director, Qualcomm Ventures • Scott MacDonald,
Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures • Jeff Maters, Senior Associate,
New World Ventures • Matt McCooe, Founding Managing Partner, Chart
Venture Partners • Charles J. McDermott, General Partner, Rockport
Capital Partners • Howard L. Morgan, Partner, First Round Capital •
Todd T. Pietri, Co-Founder and General Partner, Milestone Venture
Partners • Will Porteous, General Partner, RRE Ventures • Reese
Schroeder, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures • Daniel J. Schultz,
Co-Founder & Managing Director, DFJ Gotham Ventures • Lisa Skeete
Tatum, Partner, Cardinal Partners • Marc Sokol, Partner, JK&B Capital
• Ralph E. Taylor-Smith, General Partner, Battelle Ventures • Arthur
Tinkelenberg, Ph.D., Partner, Ascent Biomedical Ventures • Chris
Varma, PhD, Partner, Flagship Ventures • Noah Walley, Managing
Director, Investor Growth Capital • Oded Weiss, Partner & CFO, L
Capital Partners • Daniel B. Wolfe, Ph.D., Managing Director, Harris &
Harris Group among many others. Featured Company Benefits include: Recognition as Top Innovator
Access to leading VCs, Corporate VCs, private investors and investment bankers
Presentation slot
Three Complimentary passes for company executives
Additional discounted registrations
Two page Company Profile published in event guide distributed to all
attendees and investors
Media Exposure
Coaching & mentoring Fee to present: $1,485 Deadline: The deadline for applications is May 6th Let me know if you’d like me to send you a summary outline. Regards, Adam Negnewitzky Senior Associate youngStartup Ventures Phone: (212) 202-1002 Email: adam@youngstartup.com URL: www.youngstartup.com ———-
From: Erik Schwartz
Date: Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 6:05 PM
To: Adam Negnewitzky We are looking for funding. But. We don’t do pay to pitch conferences. I already know about a third of
your investors anyways and after 15 years in silicon valley I’m sure I
can network to the rest pretty easily. If you want to give us a slot because we do a great pitch and your
conference is better with great pitches we’ll check our schedules and
see if we can be there. Erik
STARTUPS: Please boycott AlwaysOn's Venture Summit Silicon Valley for charing $10k for 6 min pitch!
Just got this… we gotta boycott AlwaysOn until they stop charging
startups. Here are the details from a CEO who is being pitched on
$10k for six minutes.
From:
Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Subject: Venture Summit Silicon Valley is charging Startups 6-10k for
a 6 min pitch.
To: Jason Calacanis Hey Jason,
I have been following your stand against paid pitching to
VCs/angels/conferences. Venture Summit approached me a few days back
and they are charging $6-10k just to make a 6 min pitch and a few
minutes of Q/A from the audience. There is no panel. If you pay the
higher price you get a 40 minute demo table after the pitch. I find
this rather absurd. So I thought I let you know. Apparently they run
more than 5 other of the same type of conferences around the country.
Best,
CEO Begin forwarded message: >>>
>>> On behalf of AlwaysOn, I’d like to cordially invite Mugasha to participate in the CEO Showcase program at our upcoming Venture Summit Silicon Valley conference, taking place December 8th-9th at the Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, CA. The CEO Showcase program is a paid presentation and demo opportunity designed for private technology companies looking to raise visibility amongst an audience of investors, press, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives. Up to 50 qualified CEOs from companies seeking capital or potential acquirers will demonstrate their technologies and market strategies at VSSV.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Venture Summit is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political, and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Taking place alongside the CEO Showcase program will be keynote presentations and panel debates featuring influential venture capitalists and angel investors, corporate buyers, investment bankers, and entrepreneurs. AlwaysOn and Morgan Stanley will also announce the Global VC 50, featuring the leading venture investors who have performed well in 2009 and who hold the most promise for the future
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Below is a link to the Venture Summit agenda. I would be happy to schedule a call in order to answer any questions you may have about the event and the CEO Showcase program, or feel free to call me at your convenience at the number below. We hope to see you at Venture Summit Silicon Valley!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Venture Summit 2009 | December 8th-9th
>>> Rosewood Sand Hill | Menlo Park, CA
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Greg
>>>
>>> Greg Gausewitz
>>> AlwaysOn | www.alwayson.goingon.com
>>> Director, West Coast
>>> Business Development Group
>>> Greg@AlwaysOn-Network.com
>>> Office: (415) 243-0485
>>> Cell: (949) 697-7495
