When I tell people what I’m doing now, they always ask me about what I think is hot and upcoming. They always wonder what I think makes something worth looking into and potentially the next big hit in Web business. I guess they want to know the secret formula or something.
Sometimes I hate answering this question. It is almost like the question I always get asked in seminars when I present: What are your favorite websites and why? It seems that I always should have a ready answer in my pocket to give them. And sometimes it’s hard. Hard to remember all the websites I surf to each day, or those that I encounter through referrals or friends, or hard to articulate why I like something or why I don’t. So now I get into the practice of thinking more deeply about each website I go to and try to have some kind of answer to this question.
As I now must have for “What does Dshen think is hot on the Web and why?”
So I thought I’d write some of them down here so at least you can see what I’m thinking about these days:
1. I find the viralness and the spontaneous emergence of communities intriguing. Sometimes you can’t predict when something will take off. The non-prediction aspect is both frustrating and invigorating; as business minded folks, you want to be able to say that this community will work and I can make money of it or not. The reality is that a lot of these communities take off on their own. It has been shown to me that the “put it up and see what happens” strategy works so well here. If I don’t connect with a community or what brings it together, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be huge or work for others. Which brings me to my next thought…
2. It’s all about the niches. The Yahoos and the Googles of the world have already taken care of the broad swaths of internet turf. But they are so huge that it’s hard and not justifiable to attack niches. This is where I think smaller companies can do a great job at tackling niche markets and flourishing. With the internet lowering barriers of reaching people, small niches that were hampered by geography and other factors can all of sudden congregate and be powerful through the internet, which has no physical limitations. So communities of interest can form and be really huge.
3. In the future, the power will really be spread out to the people. I really like startups working on concepts which empower people. One big example is how MySpace is showing that the record labels aren’t as necessary as they were years ago when there was no internet. Musicians can now effectively get their music out to the masses and make money without the marketing power of record labels. If the labels (and music studios, and other similar huge old world entities) don’t change their thinking, they will all die a slow death. Throwing lawsuits at it will slow it down but my belief is that such movement of democratizing the old world is unstoppable and inevitable.
4. Equally important and relevant to me are the people working on it. I find there are two types of people. Those who are very open minded and those who are not. My belief is that the open minded people are more creative, more adaptable, and be able to accept new ideas and directions than those who are not. I try to avoid working with those who think their way is the only way and don’t really listen to what I have to say, or what others have to say for that matter. In my 10+ years of working on Web products, I have been surprised so many times at what works and what doesn’t that I’ve lost count. You have to have the ability to go with the flow and shift and adapt. Being too rigid brings a lot of risk, which brings me to the next point…
5. I see building applications on the Web has a huge probability game. Nobody is guaranteed for success but yet that shouldn’t stop you from putting something up and seeing what happens. And whatever you do, you keep stacking the odds in your favor. You keep testing and adjusting. You find smart people to bring onto your team. You network continuously to make sure you get the best ideas possible. Keep stacking the odds in your favor and you may just find that someone who isn’t doing this is all of sudden left in the dust.
6. A buzzword favorite. I like companies who work in the long tail (see book of same name The Long Tail by Chris Anderson) which is akin to giving the power to the people.
7. Another buzzword favorite. I like companies who disrupt old traditional ways of doing things. Those who take on big, huge, slow companies in big and huge industries by doing something in a different way that cuts costs and delivers better to their customers. Love it. Think iTunes to the music and TV industries.
Other stuff: Gotta be innovative, gotta be engaged with the Web. Being tenacious and never giving up. Unwavering belief in success.
That’s it. Now to work on my favorite websites list haha.
