{"id":968,"date":"2015-06-10T10:27:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T10:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.startupremarkable.com\/?p=968"},"modified":"2015-06-10T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T10:27:39","slug":"how-to-talk-10x-bigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howardkingston.com\/how-to-talk-10x-bigger\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Talk 10x Bigger about your Startup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I\u2019ve been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time travelling between San Francisco and London (where Adludio has its HQ)<\/p>\n<p><strong>During these visits I became aware of a fundamental difference in the way entrepreneurs talk about their startups<\/strong> in the Valley and the UK (and probs everywhere else in the world), I believe this is a key step of marketing your business successfully, which in turn can impact on the potential success of the business.<\/p>\n<p>In this post I\u2019ll describe what their key difference is, and I\u2019ll give some guidance how any entrepreneurs can change their way of thinking to be more \u2018Silicon Valley\u2019 like (should that be something they wish to do).<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Perception is everything<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>In the Valley people talk about things differently.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the UK (London to be exact, which is arguably the best startup hub in Europe, and everywhere else I\u2019ve lived, including Australia in Ireland), when asked to describe their startup, founders will explain in the following way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What their startup does<\/li>\n<li>How it\u2019s doing<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s coming up next<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Seems pretty normal right?<\/p>\n<p><em>However when I first went to San Francisco, I immediately noticed that people did things differently<\/em>. People would describe their startup as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We are this billion dollar idea<\/li>\n<li>Here are one or two examples of what we\u2019re doing in the now<\/li>\n<li>But these are just early proof points of our billion dollar idea goal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Subtle, but very important difference.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Beer Spittingly Big<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ll try to explain this difference with a story of how I experience this firsthand. On my first trip to San Francisco, on my thrird night I was out with a fellow UK founder Andy Crump, who\u2019s done excellently with his startup Mitoo. We were in a bar, having a beer and I began chatting to one of Andy\u2019s friends who was also in the startup world, after about 15 mins of talking about some random topic, I asked him about his startup, and what it did.<\/p>\n<p>His answer was as follows:<\/p>\n<p>(read the below in an American accent)<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018We believe this internet is broken, <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So we\u2019re re-writing a new internet\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When I heard this, I embarrassingly lost control of my reactions and literally burst out laughing in his face (I was standing right beside him), thanksfully without spitting out all my beer!<\/p>\n<p><em>You\u2019re doing what??<\/em> I asked.<\/p>\n<p>I had never heard of something so ridiculous. This guy was clearly genius, or was smoking something I had to try.<\/p>\n<p>Losing the fight to stop laughing I began asking some more question to try get a \u00a0grip on what thi guy was talking about.<\/p>\n<p><em>So\u2026do you have ay customers, are you going for investment?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He replied calmly:<\/p>\n<p><em>We\u2019re backed by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Peter_Thiel\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Thiel.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I stopped laughing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I still don\u2019t know if the guy was smoking stuff or genius, but after speaking to him I was now leaning to the latter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Big Impression<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The rest of that night, and the following day I tried to get my head around what had just happened. It wasn\u2019t about what his company was trying to achieve, or that he\u2019s backed by one of the best investors in town, but rather I was stunned by how much of a physical and emotional impact this guy\u2019s explanation of his startup had left on me.<\/p>\n<p>It had given me a physical reaction. It was big. It was different. I speak to startup founders every day, few of which I remember but speaking to this guy had made such an impression on me and I remember his startup to this day (and I\u2019m writing about it!).<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Purple Cow<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In one of his most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable\/dp\/014101640X\" target=\"_blank\">popular books<\/a> Seth Godin writes about the importance of being a Purple Cow. In the book he say that if you drive through some fields of cows, you might be excited by the first cow you see, but then they will all blend in to be the same. However if you then saw a cow that was Purple, you\u2019d go \u2018wow\u2019!<\/p>\n<p><strong>This guy I met was a great example of a Purple cow,<\/strong> he talked really big, was different, and wasn\u2019t afraid to have someone almost spit their beer in his face with laughter when they hear about his idea.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder how many times he was told he should tone down his idea? Because it\u2019s \u2018ridiculous\u2019 or \u2018sounds crazy\u2019?<\/p>\n<p><strong>But he didn&#8217;t, I bet it spurred him on to talk even bigger!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over the rest of my trip in San Francisco I noted that most other successful entrepreneurs all talked in a similar way (note, this was a trait that I only saw in the successful ones).<\/p>\n<p><strong>It all focused on their billion dollar idea. How they would change the world. And they described it in a compelling narrative. Not what whey were doing right now.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It works because people are used to hearing about startup ideas that are good, interesting and useful. Probably an incrementally better solution. That\u2019s very nice.<\/p>\n<p>However when people hear about a startup idea that is insanely big, it paints a picture of the future, and people think to themselves:<\/p>\n<p><em>What does this guy know that I don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One of the most overused data points is that 96% of startups fail. If you\u2019re daring to be in the 4%, why not dare to be insanely big.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>How to tell a big story<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Talking a big story is something\u00a0I\u2019ve noticed that many entrepreneurs struggle to do. The way that they talk about their company is at best, incrementally better than what\u2019s out there, and at worst, just a set of features<\/p>\n<p>Usually for one of two main reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are too deep in the trenches of what they\u2019re working on, to have the perspective of the long term impact of the world what this could become.<\/li>\n<li>They started with a nifty solution to a problem, but just struggle to connect how that problem could become something much bigger than that<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few weeks ago, on another recent trip to San Francisco I found myself in Palo Alto, at the house of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kteare\" target=\"_blank\">Keith Tier,<\/a> co-founder of Techcunch and a bit of a Valley legend. At one point this subject of talking big came up, and Keith explained how to convince people of the importance of it:<\/p>\n<p>Keith:<\/p>\n<p><em>Imagine you\u2019ve decided to write a novel, the greatest novel that\u2019s ever written. How might you start?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Howard:<\/p>\n<p><em>Erm, ok I\u2019d decide a general topic I wanted to write about, I\u2019d start thinking of a structure, and I\u2019d think where I\u2019d want it to end up at the ending &amp; work back from there.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Keith:<\/p>\n<p><em>OK cool. So imagine you decided that you didn\u2019t plan it like that. Imagine you had an initial idea and then just started writing it. What do you think the outcome would be like?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Howard:<\/p>\n<p><em>Probably just a rambling, story that doesn\u2019t really go anywhere.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Keith:<\/p>\n<p><em>Exactly. That\u2019s my point. When you\u2019re talking about this big vision for your business, it\u2019s not that you\u2019re lying, or talking b.s. \u2013 you\u2019re talking about the end point for your novel. So make it the greatest novel anyone\u2019s ever read.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Doing this is Hard. How to Take Action:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Steve Job\u2019s keynote speeches looked calm and effortless. But the reality is that months or practice went into each keynote he delivered. .<\/p>\n<p>Your company, or startup&#8217;s narrative is no different.<\/p>\n<p>Here are three ways I suggest to try:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Find Help<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s almost impossible to do this in isolation or alone, you\u2019re just too close to what you\u2019re building to have big picture perspective. Pick a few people (two or three is fine) that are big thinkers and good storytellers (you know the type), and ask to buy them coffee once a week for the next 3 \u2013 4 weeks until you nail it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Test &amp;\u00a0Iterate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We all have a plan until we get punched in the face&#8217; &#8211; Mike Tyson<\/p>\n<p>Go and test your story in the market. Investors are perfect people for this (you probs don&#8217;t want to go straight to Sequoia as a first go \ud83d\ude09 Expect to get punched in the face a few times, when your beautiful story gets shot down. But this is just part of the process. Thank people for their feedback, ask for suggestions and move on. You&#8217;ll get there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Go Bigger<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you think you&#8217;re onto something, push further and go bigger. What you have already is good, but good isn&#8217;t a billion dollar business, go bigger. Feel uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<p>Now is probably a good time to take a trip to San Francisco to test your latest story with the best.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Telling a compelling story, that is really big and inspiring is a vital skill of an entrepreneur. This story is usually a projection of what the future will look like, not something that is a feature of a product. They may essentially be the same thing, but the way they are described are very different, and will result in a very different reaction from the person to tell it to.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Your Turn<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>How have you created a story around your product, or startup or company in the past? Do you think you need to talk so big to be successful? Please share your ideas in the comments below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I\u2019ve been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time travelling between San Francisco and London (where Adludio has its HQ) During these visits I became aware of a fundamental difference in the way entrepreneurs talk about their startups in the Valley and the UK (and probs everywhere else in the world), I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Talk 10x Bigger about your Startup - 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