Interesting conversation #entrepreneurship #innovation #startup

@arpit105 and @ankeshk had a great conversation going on Twitter the other day. With the awesome two discussing brainy business stuff, this makes a good read! so here Is the chat with some of my tweets thrown in the mix. read on…

arpit105: “Good enough tech” Awesome article! http://tinyurl.com/ljsy2c (via @ankeshk @annkur)

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk this is the entire funda behind Wespro and chinese mp3 players.

ankeshk: @arpit105 hey buddy? hows work and Pune et al?

arpit105: @annkur I agree. I wonder what it takes to strike such an opportunity. How do I find one? @ankeshk Any clues?

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk I always put myself as the consumer n see. Bt that can be so wrong as we r power users,visualize the mass market consumer

arpit105: @annkur True. Being power users, we tend to think everything is mandatory. So, for which areas/products are we mass-market customers?

annkur: @arpit105 thats worth a thought. But todays power user, tomorrows mass market.

ankeshk: @arpit105 Find any industry. Select the top 1 and 2 product. List their qualities. Come up with the anti-product with opposite qualities.

@arpit105 Make sure the anti-product has the potential of a mass market. Or switch the industry…

@arpit105 Basically – a co. can distinguish only on price / product features / service / accessibility / overall experience… (contd)

@arpit105 Dominoes didn’t go for product differentiation. They went for accessibility differentiation.

@arpit105 Starbucks focused on the ambience and the overall experience to distinguish itself

@arpit105 And walmart went for product range and price differentiation

arpit105: @ankeshk I differ. If you select top 1/2 products, you may miss the opportunity of trying out a completely new approach. Think Pepsi/Coke

@ankeshk It is not so simple. ‘Anti-Products’ may never become market leaders. The point is to satisfy few needs that top products don’t.

@ankeshk Question is: How does one efficiently find out a big enough opportunity of solving such a need? Ethnography is one way. What else?

ankeshk: @arpit105 the goal is not becoming market leaders. The goal is creating new markets. No?

@arpit105 With Pepsi/Coke – you do the anti-product thing. And come up with Vitamin Water. And sell to Coke for $$4Billion.

@arpit105 Ethnography and research not really a good way of doing things as Steve Jobs tells us. People dont know what they want.

@arpit105 But if you want to start with consumers and not product positioning then this quote helps “Todays extreme is tomorrows mainstream”

arpit105: @ankeshk No. Creating new markets cannot lead to a market leader. You have to be mainstream-with-a-difference. iPhone is a phone too.

@ankeshk Vit Water story may work when the incumbents are desperate enough to buy anything they can’t kill. Oligopolic markets are not so.

@ankeshk Agree. If people knew what the want, product would be already be there in market na? πŸ™‚

@ankeshk “A disruptive technology, often enters at the bottom of the market, Then grow in power and sophistication to eclipse old system”

ankeshk: @arpit105 A disruptive technology is almost always an anti-product technology… iphone is as anti-nokia as possible…

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk this discussion reminds me of victor maniackam’s speech at #ssmum. Remember the bit where he said .. reading a gals mind?

ankeshk: @annkur missed that ssmum – but I agree – if @arpit105 can read gals minds he can easily find a few big ass opportunities

arpit105: @ankeshk Well, if only I could read girls’ minds!! I read in 10th “Wherever women are concerned, unpredictable always happens” πŸ™‚

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk request your permission to publish this conversation of ours on my blog plz πŸ™‚

ankeshk: @annkur hahaha sure – no problem with me. But if @arpit105 learns to read gals minds – I want in!

ankeshk: @arpit105 I’m a big fan of Maslowing too. But I’m at a loss at how to use it to come up with a big opp. The choices are vast…

arpit105: @ankeshk Even I can’t fathom that. People say that the most innovation occurs when founders are users. How many products can one use?

ankeshk: @arpit105 There are more systematic approaches to innovation too. Eg: TRIZ. But users will know more about problems that need solving…

arpit105: @ankeshk I never heard of TRIZ. But this looks interesting. Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem too. Otherwise we wouldn’t be discsing

annkur: @arpit105 @vivekk @ankeshk tweaking and tweaking until it gets through. No hanuman will come in my dreams and tell what will work

arpit105: @annkur Of course, no Hanuman will come. But if tweaking could alone suffice, it would be trivial. Question is: how to shift the paradigm?

annkur: @arpit105 oh you need to have some vision and direction to begin with. Dunno how to define that, but you never know where you end up…

arpit105: @annkur Vision and Mission can be about mundane things. Here we are talking about breakthrough innovations, that too ones which work

annkur: @arpit105 reminds me of the Paymate guy who got the idea when he had to make a small payment to a friend but had no chq, cash or atm

arpit105: @annkur Awesome example! That’s the thing I am talking about. That’s the origin of most innovative products. #ssmum rocks!

ankeshk: @arpit105 Oh TRIZ is very interesting. Very technical too. I got a book on it if you wanna read…

arpit105: @ankeshk Is it? Then I would need to read it. It did seem interesting on Wikipedia. Will borrow on thin book from you when we meet.

ankeshk: @arpit105 you know the story of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was made?

arpit105: @ankeshk No I don’t. Read the Wikipedia entry just now. Not much clues there of anything very deeply interesting.

ankeshk: @arpit105 The artists asked: which are 4 hot current trends?

@arpit105 1. Cerebus the aardvark was a cult classic comic of the time. Its about a pig superhero who drinks and cusses. Misfit animal.

@arpit105 2. Ronin is a hit comic by Frank Miller. Ninja movies do well too. Ninjas.

@arpit105 3. Daredevil is a hit too. Its about a blind mutant whose other senses are heightened because of radio active exposure. Mutants.

@arpit105 4. The New Mutants is another comic doing very well. Its about teenage mutant super heroes under going training. Teenage. Mutant.

@arpit105 Mix the 4 trends. And you have teenage mutant ninja misfit animal undergoing training. Create it and voila – you have a hit.

@arpit105 Mixing already existing hits = recipe for a big hit opportunity too.

arpit105: @ankeshk Wow! Thanks for so much gyaan. Seems great products are built by deriving from strong social trends/changes + tech to enable it

@ankeshk completely agree. Mixing is origin of innovation. iPhone = touch tech + need for intuitive UI. So what trends are you mixing today?

ankeshk: @arpit105 oh my startup is all about mixing 3 ecommerce apps out there right now with 1 more twist. But too early to talk about it in public

arpit105: @ankeshk Awesome! Am curious to know! Will discuss in private! πŸ˜‰

ankeshk: @arpit105 (The authors of TMNT did send out 180 PR kits after their first issue too. Hit product needs aggressive marketing to succeed too!)

arpit105: @ankeshk Disagree. Disruptive products cause disruptive usage. They would do best through WoM: “I used it, found it great. Would you try?”

@ankeshk Landmark Education is an example of a disruptive technology. People who have gone through it, can’t talk enough about it.

annkur: @ankeshk @arpit105 WoM cn be backed with some nice media. Making good into Killer!

ankeshk: @arpit105 WoM can totally be hacked. Tipping Point + Made to Stick = WoM. No disruption necessary.

@arpit105 Also – Landmark Education does follow Toastmasters / Tupperware model to add fuel to WoM – no?

@annkur I think media is an essential element in WoM – they are still the biggest influencers out there!

…. certainly not the end

I was left as a mute spectator for most part of the conversation …. Arpit, Ankesh – you guyz rock!

8 thoughts on “Interesting conversation #entrepreneurship #innovation #startup

  1. Thanks Annkur for chronicling the conversation!

    @Arpit – I thought it was fair payback – me playing devil’s advocate last time (wisdom of crowds conversation) – you playing it this time πŸ™‚

    I like this jugalbandi. It isn’t as much fun without a smart devils advocate.

  2. says

    Well, that conversation about WoC made me think more and more about the idea of crowdsourcing. You would be happy to know that my final semester thesis was branched out from the same idea. I researched on “Role of Editor in New Media”, with New Media being a system of sourcing information from the crowds and how dynamic re-alignment happens in the world of New Media. http://drop.io/arpit_resume/asset/role-of-editor-in-new-media

    Made some interesting discoveries:
    1. New Media is as effective as old, if not more
    2. It is certainly faster
    3. It is very dynamic with rapid re-alignment of the sources and channels
    4. There is a strong case of an ‘Opinion Leader’ to emerge.

    I did an extensive research by referencing some 60+ hardcore journalism research sources. It was awesome!

    Thanks for making me think, and re-think. It resulted in something I am proud of.

    BTW, I got a ‘AA’ (highest grade) on this 12 credit project as well πŸ˜‰

  3. @Mehul

    We made fun of Annkur after that.

    But other than that – didn’t go much further.

    Which is what this space is for though.

    We can continue the conversation here – including making more fun of Annkur. :p

    • Annkur says

      Yeah so I was termed as the Bandar who took the roti away while the cats were fighting … but hey you forgot one thing….

      I was also the one who got the cats together on the fighting ground (i.e. start the conv) πŸ˜›

  4. @Annkur

    Yes – we concur. You’re an evolved bandar! More proactive than reactive! :p

    @Mehul

    You made a classic mistake. You misspelled Annkur. But not to worry. Annkur made the same mistake on his facebook account too :p

  5. Hi!!

    Enjoyed the way the convo flowed!! From wat i as an amateur understood is that we are essentially debating on how does one become a game changer in an already established mkt..the camera link was great gyan!!

    An anti product is a negative line of approach whereas a disruptive one picks out the main points which an established product has missed or more commonly stopped focussing on as it probably has gone “up the value chain”…it reminds me of the mouse and elephant solving a maze..the elephant has a birds eye view but the mouse can SQUEEZE through…pick out the gaps and holes…

    An interesting case study is the Virgin group entering the commercial market..they opened up the market by making a forbidden world owned by “experts” and gave that power to the mass..

    please treat me as a novice n view my comments in the same light!!

    Cheers