How to Create the Next Facebook

How to Create the Next Facebook

Have Passion for What You Do
You may have a great mission but it must be something you are extremely
passionate about. If not, it will be mostly hollow. As a blogger for Forbes.com,
I hear a lot of pitches from startup entrepreneurs and it is usually clear when
they are not excited about their mission or that they do not even have one!
I can only select a few startups about which to write, and they need to catch
my attention quickly. If the first few sentences of their pitch e-mail are not
interesting, I’ll probably just transfer the message to the “Media” section of
my Gmail account. Rarely do I look back at any of them. And even those
companies that pique my interest and with which I agree to set up a meeting
to hear what they have to say, I find that many of the presentations are
lackluster. The founders usually spend too much time on their background
and the technology of their product. When it comes to explaining their
company’s vision and strategy, their message is usually muddled, which is an
ominous sign. Based on my experience, I know that many of these companiesI could go on for several pages documenting all the dud presentations I’ve
seen and heard, but let’s focus on the positive, shall we? Let’s look at one of
the exchanges I’ve had that stood out. In september 2007, I had a phone
interview with Mint.com’s founder, Aaron Patzer. The company, as most
people know by now, allows users to manage their finances better by importing
their financial information from banks and credit cards into one central
database. Mint.com then provides helpful reports, charts, and financial tips
and suggestions to its users.
Although the product itself was intriguing—and a possible disruption to
Intuit’s Quicken franchise—this was not what made the call memorable.
Instead, it was Patzer’s pure enthusiasm for what he had created. he talked
about how Quicken didn’t work for him and how he wanted a product that
. simply put,
mission to make it easier for people to manage their
.
.com account. his enthusiastic presentation revealed that he had a classic
. What’s more, by showing me that he, himself, used Mint.
. security is a big-time concern for users,
herculean efforts he had made to ensure
.com would keep its users’ personal financial information safe. All in
all, it was an impressive demonstration and I was not surprised that Mint.com
became an instant hit. fearing the disruption, Intuit shelled out $170 million
to buy Mint.com in september 2009.
Although passion is not a prerequisite for success—I personally think nothing
really is—passion is high on my list of factors that ultimately help good
companies thrive. Passion is infectious. It fosters enthusiasm among the
employees, the customers, and the media. It’s a powerful force. Perhaps most
important, passion helps founders maintain their drive to work hard and
succeed. Wouldn’t you rather spend your time working on something you
love? no wonder top entrepreneurs often say they would work for free.
There are few entrepreneurs who are more passionate about what they do
than Rick Alden, who took up skiing at a young age in 1970 and then got
hooked on snowboarding in 1985. Wanting to bolster the sport, Alden formed
national snowboard, a marketing company that specialized in snowboarding
events. Ultimately, national snowboard’s work became a key factor in making
the sport a huge success. After he sold the company in the mid 1990s, Alden
then started Device Manufacturing, which focused on developing snowboard