1 Year After DEMOfall Fall - The Lessons Learned

It has only has been a year since the DEMOfall 2006, but it feels like it has been 10.

So much has changed since our launch. Truly, we have come a long way.

We are no longer an LLC like it says on the sign, we are now the AdaptiveBlue, Inc. And many more major things that happened since:

• Karen (Oct), Rion (Nov), Jeff (Feb), Patrick (Mar) and Fraser (Sept) came on board
• BlueOrganizer was selected as a recommended add-on
• We got funding from Union Square Ventures in February of 2007
• We released 3 major versions of the BlueOrganizer
• We launched SmartLinks and SmartLink Feeds
• We got coverage in major blogs and mainstream media, including TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, Wired, PCMagazine, InfoWorld and RedHerring
• We are nearing 1 Million Downloads of BlueOrganizer and 250 blogs with SmartLinks

While are moving ahead at the full speed, it is always good to take a moment to reflect on how we got here. What important lessons did we learn in the last year?

1. DEMOfall Was Worth It Because Success Breeds More Success

A year ago it was a major decision for us to go to DEMO. I sat down with my wife to discuss if we can afford it. We hesitated. Andy was not sure either. Then two people convinced me - my father in law and Bernard Lunn, a close friend and former business partner. They both said:

If you do not go you will never know what you missed out.

They were right. We did very well at DEMOfall last year and that success was instrumental to the future success. Our downloads went way up. Shortly after the DEMO BlueOrganizer was selected as one of the recommended add-ons. And we got the chance to talk to Union Square Ventures. None of this was accidental.

This is the thing that business people know cold, and technologists often miss - Opportunities breed more opportunities. Chance not taken is the opportunity lost. Every connection, every meeting, every conversation matters. And every user conversation matters even more. Here is why.

2. User Support Is Like A Box Of Chocolates, You Never Know Who You Are Going To Get

Consider how we were selected for DEMOfall. One day a user pinged me via Skype and asked for help - her BlueMarks disappeared from the second computer. After a 20 min session, the bookmarks were restored. Then the user typed:

“Oh by the way, I love BlueOrganizer. I really do. My name is Carla Thomson and I work for Guidewire. What you are doing here is truly fascinating. How would you like to talk to Chris Shipley about DEMO?”

I could not believe my luck. The same night I got a call from Chris Shipley. We talked for 30 minutes about our vision of Smarter Browser and Smarter Web. In the end of the conversation she asked:

“Alex, how would you like to launch BlueOrganizer at DEMOfall?”

I was stunned and flattered.

3. Execution Is The Queen, Iteration Is The King.

The success at DEMOfall gives you a chance to bubble up. But it will not last long unless you take it and run with it. At the very foundation of our company and culture is the speed, precision, focus on the execution and most importantly iteration. We recognize that

a) we are working on a really complex problem.
b) the market constantly changes.
c) everything moves super quickly.

Because of these factors we move towards our goal iteratively.

We do not believe in years of stealth mode, massive re-writes and 5-year business plans. We stand here for speed, elegant code, quick decisions and frequent releases. We believe in user and market feedback. The only way to get this feedback is to get out there. The agile, iterative way, in which we evolve the solution to the problem and build our business so far has been working well for us. We are planning to stick with this approach.

4. Follow Your Vision Because It is Likely To Be Right

Every company begins with the vision, with a strong conviction that there is a better way. This original vision, is with you through good and bad days. Like you, the company and the market, the vision change. But not fundamentally. We started AdaptiveBlue because we believed that the next web lies at the intersection of personalization and semantics. We are convinced that getting to relevant information faster is important to people. This was our vision. This is still our vision and it will be our vision going forward.

At times, it might seem like you are off. People might say that it is too complex, too ambitious, too simple, to primitive or may not be monetizable. Listen to people, but do not discard your vision. More likely than not, your original vision is correct. If it was compelling enough for you to stop what you were doing before, it must be powerful. More often than not, your vision is right. It is your delivery, presentation and execution that need to be cleaned up.

5. Always Ask For Advice, But Don’t Always Follow It

No complex problem was ever solved by one person. Remember that before Einstein was the Einstein he was a clerk at the patent office and had a ton of other geek friends. As the company you will get a lot of advice - solicited and unsolicited. Always take it. Any feedback is better than no feedback, any advice is better than no advice.

First, when you get the advice it is because people care - they think you are onto something important. Secondly each piece of advice either enlightens you, because it tells you something new or it helps you re-affirm why you think certain idea is off.

However, do not follow all the advice you get. Remember that on some issues there will be as many opinions as people. More importantly, remember that others do not have a complete picture of what you are doing. Only you do. Their advice could be good, but it may not be complete and might not apply to your situation. Any piece of advice needs to be filtered through your exact situation and then you make a call where to follow it or not.

6. Geography Matters. Flexibility Matters More.

AdaptiveBlue is a very modern startup. We do not have an office, we are all in different locations, all working from home. Our primary communication tools are email, Skype and Basecamp from 37Signals. Being distributed around the globe at times makes it difficult to communicate. Sometimes we just wish that we could be in the same place in front of the white board, so that we can sketch the ideas, get quick feedback and come up with the solution on the spot.

Alas, it is not possible, so we adapt to the situation. We quickly learned what works and what does not work. We try to streamline our communication. The number one tool is, without a doubt, Skype. More often than not, we use it as a chat client. When chat is not enough, we call. We use email, but less than before. Instead, we now use messages on Basecamp. They are better than email because they make it easier to follow the conversation. We organize everything that we do around milestones and todos on Basecamp. And then we simply knock them off, one by one.

And while we all sometimes we wish we could be in the same place and have a face-to-face conversation, all of us cherish and appreciate the benefits that we get of working from home. It is very special and very modern. We do not spend time in traffic, we do not have to get up at 6 a.m. to get to work and we get the added benefit of coding in pajamas. It is strange and wonderful at the same time.

7. Working Smart Is Not Enough, You Need To Work Hard

There is a conventional wisdom that says that people sometimes try too hard. Maybe it is not about working harder, but about working smarter, they say. Well, here is the thing - there is a ton of smart people out there. All these smart people come with a ton of smart ideas. In our day and age to compete you need to be smart and work very hard.

Each Saturday when I open up my laptop I am reminded of the title of the classical Russian science fiction novel - “The Monday Begins On Saturday”. How very true for us here at AdaptiveBlue. We work very hard here, because there is no other way. What we are set to accomplish takes up all of our energy and time. This is the nature of the game.

8. No Matter What, It Always Boils Down To People

And the last insight is nothing new at all. In a startup, everything boils down to people. There is just handful of us here and everyone’s contribution matters. Each member of AdativeBlue team, everyday makes a big push. It is the collective of these pushes that propels us forward. A startup with people who do not care, who are passionate about making it happen will just fall apart.

So What Is Next For AdaptiveBlue?

In a short period of time we put AdaptiveBlue on the map as a company with a unique vision for a smarter web. We have hundred thousand users who use our products and give us feedback. People talk about us, about our products, our technology and increasingly more about our vision.

People take us seriously.

As we are heading into the second year after our launch we are focused on what is ahead. We have a vision of a service and a compelling story for our users. What we are executing towards is exciting because it is broad, unique and, we believe, useful. The pieces that are already in place - the BlueOrganizer, the SmartLinks and our widgets are the foundation for the future and will be all connected together. In just a few months it all will be our in the wild.

But in the mean time, we are taking an iterative step forward - automatic SmartLinks will be launched next.