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? 🙂

@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” 🙂

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

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! 😉

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!