Among countless technology management books out there, there is one that truly stands out in my opinion. Clay Christensen’s “The Innovators Dilemma” has attracted the attentions of some of the world’s most influential technology leaders including Steve Jobs and Intel’s former CEO Andy Grove. The theory behind the book is a really powerful one that brings to light some of the reasons why an industry can get disrupted. Today, the mobile web seems to be a technology enabling innovations that could disrupt many industries. Therefore, I thought it might make sense to re-examine this theory and corroborate whether or not the mobile web qualifies as a disruptive innovation enabling technology.

Christensen’s book describes a strange paradoxical phenomenon observed in the evolution of many industries:

Industry leading companies eventually decline and die by doing everything right.

How can companies that do everything right decline and die? How can it be possible that companies with countless resources, benefits of the incumbency and very smart people in charge, allow small new players to enter the industry and eventually replace them? After studying several industries, Christensen discovered the dynamics of what he defines as “disruptive innovations”. A disruptive innovation according to Christensen is not a breakthrough technological innovation that makes things better. Instead, a disruptive innovation takes advantage of a new technology and transforms a product that was formerly complex, expensive or inaccessible into one that is simpler, more affordable and accessible to a new segment of customers.

Leading companies generally focus on innovations that make their products better (more powerful and with more features). As the logic of a customer-centric organization would suggest, these companies focus on providing ever-improving products and services to their customers. On the other hand, “disruptive innovators” take advantage of emerging technologies and deliver a new products serving the same needs but with less quality, for a lower price and in a simpler way. Of course, incumbents don’t pay attention to these new technologies at first: their customers wouldn’t want lower quality of products! And why invest in a market-segment that seems smaller and less profitable than the current one? It doesn’t make sense. However, this does make sense for small, emerging organizations that don’t have customers that would complain about lower quality and don’t have internal financial benchmarks to compare profitability.

As it turns out, the lower-cost/lower-quality products developed under the new technology get better and better with time. Then they start going ‘up-market’, reaching a bigger population of customer segments. The customers of the incumbents start learning about these new good-enough and more affordable products and switch. By the time incumbents notice this, it’s generally too late and they don’t have the new technology as a core competency to play under the new rules. Even if they do recognize it in time and put a team together to try to catch up with the new technology, the team generally finds too many internal roadblocks provided by the old paradigms (marketing, production, finance, etc). Consequently incumbents are replaced and die. Not because they were stupid, but paradoxically because they did everything “right”: they invested in innovation, they improved their products and services, they cared about their customers and they paid attention to the financials of the business.

Christensen suggests that the only two ways to avoid disruptions are acquiring the emerging players or setting up separate startup-like business units to work on the new technologies.

Mobile as an enabler of disruptive innovation

I find this theory fascinating and the dozens of real world examples Christensen studied demonstrate its validity. Now, is the mobile web actually a disruptive innovation-enabling technology? I believe it is, for the following reasons:

• Mobile products are forcibly simpler, with less features and one could say “less quality” than desktop products, given the smaller screen and the mobile use-case
• Mobile products are initially adopted by a lower-income market segments like teenagers or young user
• Mobile unit purchases are (still) lower than web unit purchases
• Mobile allows access to lower prices through geo-relevancy, real-time last-minute deals
• Mobile devices are growing exponentially, thus giving access to products to an ever-growing new part of the population
• Mobile requires a new and different set of skills: UX/UI design, product development, distribution, etc.

Therefore I believe that the mobile web does represent a technology capable of enabling disruptive innovations with the potential of creating new companies that challenge and replace incumbents in various industries. We are still too early to confirm it, and the examples are just developing. The ‘expensive’ acquisitions of Instagram by Facebook and OMGPOP by Zynga might be expressions of the phenomenon. Yahoo, Google and other big web companies have been eagerly acquiring mobile startups as well. We have yet to see a mobile company replace a web incumbent but the high growth of companies like Path, Snapchat, Uber, HotelTonight, Shopkik, Square, Waze, Foursquare are promising. Only time will tell. Meanwhile entrepreneurs are having a go at developing disruptive mobile products for many big complacent industries. We at WeHostels are already well on our way. :)

For a long time I’ve wanted to articulate the reasons why I believe that travel is important and what really drives me to build what we are building.

There are a lot of big problems in the world. So why work on an apparently trivial problem as to help people travel more and for less? Isn’t this a #firstworldproblem? Isn’t travel a luxury of spoiled societies? I don’t think so and I will try to explain why.

In my opinion the biggest problems that humanity faces today can be summarized in these categories:

• Environment: Environmental risks that threaten human life (Climate change, clean sustainable energy, water sustainability, overpopulation, bio-equilibrium, etc.)
• Inequality: Lack of access to the benefits of technological advancement to a big portion of the human population (Extreme poverty in both poor and rich countries, hunger, curable diseases, lack of access to basic education, housing precariousness, etc.)
• Security: Lack of security and peace (Armed conflicts in the world, risks of nuclear war, terrorism, lack of respect to human rights, religious intolerance, etc.)
• Human development: Enablers and blockers to human development (Education, health-care, government, innovation, media, happiness, etc.)

Now, it turns out that most of these problems are quite interrelated. For example: as long as we don’t develop and deploy sustainable sources of energy to satisfy the energy needs of the world, it’s likely that armed conflicts and/or abusive governments will continue in the regions of the world with reserves of fossil energy. Which increases the chances of terrorism. Further more, as long as the economics of energy continue favoring armed conflicts, it is likely that more spending will go to defense/military than to research or education that could positively impact health-care and inequality. And on and on. It is difficult to get to the root-reason of all the problems because they are all very interconnected. While it is difficult to get to the root-problem, it is perhaps easier to think what it would be a root-solution that would branch into more and more solutions.

After thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion that this root solution might be unity.

The day that we can finally recognize at a global level that humanity is one single family and that we are together on this, we will be able to face all the big challenges of the world and start working together on all the solutions. Can you imagine what we could accomplish if all the governments of the world had one unified agenda, instead of country-specific agendas? Can you imagine what we could accomplish if we put all our resources, technology and talent into education, research and technology innovation with the goal of solving the grand global problems?

Yes, I am also a believer on the driving force of competition. I do think that the competitive spirit of humans drives innovation in situations of competition. But I think that “coompetition” (cooperation + competition) has proven possible. We can still compete, while all being in the same page on the big problems to get solved together. X-Prize and similar initiatives are great examples of healthy competition as driver of world-changing innovation.

I recognize that we have made tremendous progress on building unity in the world. We have never before in history of humanity been so peaceful and cooperative between nations. Organizations that we take for granted today such as United Nations and the World Economic Forum only have a couple of decades of existence and would have been unimagined not long ago in human history. The general spirit of tolerance and fraternity that we observe today when it comes to race, religion, gender, sexual orientations is not seen before in human history and only one generation ago was far from where is now. The “Y generation” is more open and global than any previous generation.

But there is still a lot more to do in this front. Still the global forums are polluted with special agendas and don’t include many important countries in the dialogue. Still intolerance, bigotry and egoism influence the behaviors and decisions of our leaders and our populations at large, in every country of the world. We are close to a ‘critical mass of unity’ that would allow us to really take on the grand challenges, but are not there yet. Therefore I believe that we must continue re-shaping the culture and the values of the new generations in order to achieve such unity.

So what about travel?

In the book “The Innocents Abroad” Mark Twain put it in a beautiful way: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Even with all the advancements of communication technologies that allow us to connect and ‘travel without traveling’ (google, skype, facebook, etc) I think that the words of Mr. Twain remain true. I firmly believe that when we travel, especially when we are young and forming our values, and especially when we travel in a genuine and independent way, a unique sense of awareness arises about the unity of humanity. It becomes so clear that we are one single family when we connect with others that are different than us, but essentially the same. When we travel we open our minds and our hearts. We can see with more perspective the global challenges that we face. We become better citizens of the world and better leaders of tomorrow.

Education and media are strong shapers of values and culture and we definitely must work on these areas too. But making it easy for people to travel has proven to be a very effective way to create new generations of global minded individuals.

We are a family a 7 billion humans as of today and only 160 million get to travel at a young age (which is already an amazing record number!). If we are able to make it easier and more accessible for more young people to travel I believe that we can contribute to increase unity in the world. And I believe that once we achieve the ‘critical mass of unity’ as a consequence we will start really solving the grand problems and building an amazing future for humanity.

So, that’s why I believe that travel is a driver of global change and it should be in the agendas of governments worldwide. That’s why I think that the travel industry is important and that it needs more innovation. That’s why we started our company and why we go to work with passion every day.

The old notion that in order to do something extraordinary one had to be “at the right place, at the right time” is no longer valid.

It might have been true in many cases in the past. Henry Ford was in Detroit at the beginning of a mechanical revolution and was lucky to stumble upon a motorized machine at a young age. Picasso traveled to Paris at the beginning of a modern art revolution in the capital of the arts in Europe. Steve Jobs was born in Silicon Valley and got to play with a computer right at the birth of the computing revolution.

But I am of the belief that the ‘right time and the right place’ are starting to no longer be necessary conditions for extraordinary achievements and global impact.

The web has made the world totally connected and has democratized the access to information and resources. Real time access to events, trends and people across frontiers is today free and within reach to anyone. International communications and mobility has never been so accesible and inexpensive. Capital and talent cross borders with an ease not seen before.

I was born and raised in Concepcion, Tucuman, Argentina. From there, after researching on Google I sent through the web applications to scholarship opportunities all over the world, until I got granted one to do my masters in Barcelona, Spain. With the help of Linkedin, Twitter, Angellist and Skype I raised a round of investment from investors in nine different countries (Chile, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, France, USA, Ukraine, Argentina and Brazil) most of whom I never met in person yet. With a talented team distributed between New York, Colombia, Argentina and UK we built and shipped mobile applications that are being downloaded and used by hounders of thousands of people all over the world. We are still in our way to do something truly extraordinary, but our story is already showing the possibilites of a new connected era.

The right place is wherever you can find a connection to the web, i.e. almost anywhere in the world.

And the right time is now, almost all the time these days. The revolutions and cycles of technological, economic and cultural nature that used to occur every a couple of decades in the past, now happen every a couple of years or sometimes even months. Driven by exponentially accelerating technologies and the immediacy of widespread of ideas and information, new world-changing opportunities arise more often than ever. And it will continue to accelerate. New revolutions are poised to start at any given moment in almost every field.

So, there you go: You are at the right place and at the right time. Go make something extraordinary.

“Know the terrain of the battle” Sun Tzu

Our company WeTravelers (operators of WeHostels) is competing in the highly-competitive huge $300 Billion industry. Therefore I am deeply interested in learning about the landscape of liquidity for investors in new ventures in the industry. Although some organizations such as PhocusWright, Eye For Travel and others have done specific researches on the industry, I couldn’t find a cadaster of all the liquidity events in the industry. So I did my own research based on information available in the web regarding all the IPOs and Acquisitions of the industry since 1999. I’m happy to share the results with the world here in my blog. I have also uploaded the lists as answers to questions in Quora. I will keep updating the lists and adding more information about each specific event.

IPOs:

· Sabre   (IPO in 1996)
· Expedia   (IPO in 1999)
. Lastminute.com (IPO in 2000)      
· Priceline   (IPO in 2001)
· Orbitz   (IPO in 2002)
· cTrip   (IPO in 2003)
· Travelzoo   (IPO in 2004)
· Home Inns   (IPO in 2006)
· Travelport   (IPO in 2010)
· China Lodgnings   (IPO in 2010)
· HomeAway   (IPO in 2011)
· Amadeus   (IPO in 2011)
· MakeMyTrip   (IPO in 2011)
· TripAdvisor   (IPO in 2012)
· Kayak   (IPO in 2012)
· Qunar   (filed to IPO in 2012)

Acquisitions:

·        LendingTree   (acquired by Priceline in 1999 for $M)
·        GetThere   (acquired by Sabre Holding in 2000 for $757M)
·        Travelscape   (acquired by Expedia in 2000 for $89M)
·        Vacationspot   (acquired by Expedia in 2001 for $71M)
·        Travelocity   (acquired by Sabre Holding in 2002 for $420M)
·        Site59   (acquired by Travelocity in 2002 for $43M)
·        Classic Custom Vacations (acquired by Expedia in 2002 for $78M)
·        Metropolitan Travel (acquired by Expedia in 2002 for $M)
·        Newtrade Technologies (acquired by Expedia in 2002 for $M)
·        World Choice Travel (acquired by Travelocity in 2003 for $50M)
·        Hotwire (acquired by Expedia in 2003 for $663M)
·        RentalCars (acquired by Priceline in 2003 for $M)
·        LowestFare (acquired by Priceline in 2003 for $M)
·        All State Tours, Inc. (acquired by Travelocity in 2004 for $25M)
·        TripAdvisor (acquired by Expedia in 2004 for $212M)
·        Activity World (acquired by Expedia in 2004 for $M)
·        Egencia (acquired by Expedia in 2004 for $M)
·        Orbitz Inc. (acquired by Cedant Corp in 2004 for $1112M)
·        Hostels.com (acquired by Hostelworld (Web Reservations International) in 2004 for $3M)
·        SynXis Corp. (acquired by Sabre Holdings in 2004 for $40M)
·        Travel Web (acquired by Priceline in 2004 for $30M)
·        IgoUgo.com (acquired by Sabre Holdings in 2005 for $M)
·        CyberRentals.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        GreatRentals.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        A1Vacations.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        TripHomes.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        Holiday-Rentals.co.uk (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        FeWo-direkt.de (acquired by HomeAway in 2005 for $M)
·        Booking.com  (acquired by Priceline in 2005 for $150M)
·        Vacation Villas International (acquired by WVR Group in 2005 for $M)
·        Travelweb Ltda (acquired by Submarino SA in 2005 for $1M)
·        ebookers (acquired by Cedant Corp in 2005 for $324M)
·        Gullivers Travel Associates (acquired by Cedant Corp in 2005 for $1100M)
·        Zuji (acquired by Travelocity in 2006 for $37M)
·        VRBO.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2006 for $M)
·        TravelJigsaw (acquired by Priceline in 2006 for $103M)
·        Active Hotels (acquired by Priceline in 2006 for $161M)
·        TravelTainment (acquired by Amadeus in 2006 for $M)
·        LookTours   (acquired by Viator Travel in 2006 for $M)
·        First Choice Hollidays (acquired by LateRooms Ltd. in 2006 for $150M)
·        Globe Travels (acquired by Sify Limits in 2006 for $M)
·        Changes in Lattitudes (acquired by Dynamic Leisure Group in 2006 for $1.5M)
·        Whatsonwhen Ltd (acquired by John Wiley Europe in 2006 for $M)
·        Silver Lake (acquired by Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific Group in 2007 for $5.3B)
·        E-site Marketing (acquired by Sabre Holdings in 2007 for $M)
·        Arbritel.fr (acquired by HomeAway in 2007 for $M)
·        VacationRentals.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2007 for $M)
·        OwnersDirect.co.uk (acquired by HomeAway in 2007 for $M)
·        Agoda (acquired by Priceline in 2007 for $170M)
·        Smarter Travel Media (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2007 for $M)
·        BookingBuddy.com (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2007 for $M)
·        SeatGuru.com (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2007 for $M)
·        TravelPod.com (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2007 for $M)
·        Travel-Library.com (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2007 for $M)
·        Venere (acquired by Expedia in 2007 for $475M)
·        Sabre Holding (acquired by Silver Lake Partners in 2007 for   $5400M)
·        LowFares.com (acquired by Oversee.net in 2007 for $M)
·        FlipKey (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008 for $M)
·        The Independent Traveler (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008 for $M)
·        Holiday Watchdog (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008 for $M)
·        Virtualtourist (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008 for $M)
·        OneTime.com   (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008 for $M)
·        Worldby.com (acquired by Venere in 2008 for $M)
·        WorldRes, Inc. (acquired by TravelHero.com in 2008 for $M)
·        HotelsbyCity.com (acquired by Priceline in 2008 for $M)
·        Hostelworld.com (acquired by Hellman & Friedman in 2009 for $450M)
·        Lonely Planet (acquired by BBC in 2009 for $200M)
·        Kuxun (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2009 for $120M)
·        Homelidays.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2009 for $M)
·        Travelguru (acquired by Travelocity in 2009 for $10M)
·        Adventure Central (acquired by AdventureLink in 2009 for $M)
·        Zenon NDC Limited (acquired by Sabre Holdings in 2010 for $5.5M)
·        HolidayLetings (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2010 for $M)
·        BedandBreakfast.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2010 for $M)
·        AlugueTemporada.com.br (acquired by HomeAway in 2010 for $M)
·        TripIt (acquired by Concur Technologies in 2010 for $120M)
·        Mobiata (acquired by Expedia in 2010 for $M)
·        OurExplorer (acquired by Viator Travel in 2010 for $M)
·        DiscoverTour Guides (acquired by Tours4Fun in 2010 for $M)
·        Tripology, Inc. (acquired by Rand McNally & Co in 2010 for $M)
·        swoodoo GmbH (acquired by KayaK in 2010 for $M)
·        TravelMuse (acquired by Travel Ad Network in 2010 for $M)
·        eDreams (acquired by Premira in 2010 for $362M)
·        Go Voyages (acquired by AXA in 2010 for $370M)
·        Ruba (acquired by Google in 2010 for $M)
·        Where I’ve been (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2011 for $M)
·        EveryTrail (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2011 for $M)
·        ITA Software (acquired by Google in 2011 for $700M)
·        Zagat (acquired by Google in 2011 for $200M)
·        Opodo (acquired by ODIGEO in 2011 for $614M)
·        Accoleo (acquired by Airbnb in 2011 for $M)
·        Hotelicopter (acquired by RoomKey in 2011 for $M)
·        Dealchecker.co.uk (acquired by EasyVoyage in 2011 for $14M)
·        eLong   (acquired by Expedia in 2011 for $126M)
·        Zoombu (acquired by Skyscanner in 2011 for $M)
·        Cheap-Flights.to (acquired by Beachfront Solution in 2011 for $M)
·        Travelforce (acquired by Egencia in 2011 for $M)
·        10Best, Inc. (acquired by NileGuides in 2011 for $M)
·        eat.shop guides (acquired by TravelShark in 2011 for $M)
·        Gowalla (acquired by Facebook in 2011 for $M)
·        Second Porch (acquired by Homeaway in 2011 for $3M)
·        Realholidays.com (acquired by Homeaway in 2011 for $2.1M
.        BUNAC (acquired by STA Travel in 2011)
·        NileGuide (acquired by Trevora in 2012 for $M)
·        Toprural.com (acquired by HomeAway in 2012 for $14M)
·        Uptake (acquired by Groupon in 2012 for $19M)
·        Travesse Lifestyle (acquired by Perfect Escapes Inc. in 2012 for $M)
·        CrashPadder (acquired by Airbnb in 2012 for $M)
.        Frommer’s (acquired by Google in 2012 for $M)
.        Wanderfly (acquired by TripAdvisor in 2012 for $M)
.        DailyBooth (acquired by Airbnb in 2012 for $M)
.        Fondu (acquired by Airbnb in 2012 for $M)
.        WorldMate (Acquired by CWT in 2012 for$20M)
.        PremierTable (Acquired by HotelTonight in 2012 for $M)
.        Rumbo (Acquired by BravoFly in 2012 for $M)
.        HotelTravel (Acquired by MakeMyTrip for $25M)
.        Kayak (Acquired by Priceline in 2012 for $1.8B)
.        Trivago (Acquired by Expedia in 2012 for $632M)
.        TinyPost (Acquired by TripAdvisor in 2013)
.        LonelyPlanet (Acquired by Keller Media for $70M)
.        JetSetter (Acquired by TripAdvisor for $M)

Note: This data has been gathered from different sources in the web, and may not reflect the accurate information about these deals. Feel free to edit the answer if you see any mistake or want to add additional information.

I recently was invited by Forbes to write an article on “why companies should invest in mobile now?”. Given that we recently decided to kill our website and invest all our efforts in mobile only, they correctly assumed that we should have 1 or 2 good reasons. I came out with 6 reason of why every business should be investing (at list attention) to mobile. Here let me share the article with you (and here the link to the post in Forbes). I hope you enjoy!

6 Reasons Your Business Should Invest In Mobile Now

In the ’90s, the Internet emerged as the new technology that was going to transform our businesses, and ultimately our lives, forever. The financial markets got overly excited, which then led to a market craze. At the same time, many business owners remained cynical about the Internet’s impact, and didn’t react enough or at all.

A few years later, online companies like Amazon, eBay, Expedia and Netflix consolidated and grabbed hold of a huge part of the business of both big companies (such as Barnes & Nobles, Best Buy, Blockbusters, etc.) and small businesses alike, as consumers massively transitioned from offline to online researching and shopping.

We are now at the beginning of a transition that will likely be even more disruptive than the “offline-to-online” shift: the transition from browsing the Web on personal computers to mobile devices. It’s happening at an astonishing speed. And yes, it’s going to have a big impact on every industry — including your own.Here are 6 critical reasons why your business should hop on the mobile train before it’s too late:

1. Your customers are transitioning to mobile at lightning speed. A recent report by Googleshowed a major growth of 411 percent in mobile searches for last minute hotel and accommodation bookings from June 2011 to June 2012, while desktop searches decreased 79 percent. eBay accounted for a staggering $5 billion in mobile transactions in 2011 and expects to see $10 billion in mobile transactions this year. With nearly as manymobile devices as people in the world, and more iPhones being sold than babies born in the world every day, the mobile commerce revolution is just getting started.

2. Your customers have their phones with them all day long (even at your store). One characteristic that is really specific to this particular technology is that people have their connected phones with them all the time. This means that they can browse and shop at any moment of the day: when they are in a taxi, when they are waiting in a line, and of course, when they are walking inside a store. An interesting phenomenon is arising in which brick-and-mortar stores are becoming the showrooms for mobile retailers. In fact, earlier this year, The New York Times reported that Target,unhappy with being an Amazon showroom, decided to stop selling Amazon Kindles. The solution may actually be to have an amazing mobile experience and make your customers aware of it, so that they buy from you instead of your competitor.

3. It is a global phenomenon that could expand your market. Unlike the online revolution of the 90s that grew significantly deeper within the United States before expanding to other areas, the mobile revolution is growing equally fast internationally in both developed and emerging countries. In fact, mobile services like Instagram and Flipboard have seen their user base grow ataccelerated speeds in countries like China, Brazil and Turkey, among others. In emerging countries, an interesting phenomenon is that many users are getting online for the first time through mobile devices. This new potential reach could mean market expansion opportunities for your business.

4. Users have an emotional relationship with their mobile phones. Research has shown that people have a more emotional relationship with their mobile phones than they do with other forms of computational devices. Businesses can benefit from this by providing an intimate and personal experience in mobile that extends the emotional connection to their products or services. Companies like Fab have done a great job at including a social component in their mobile apps that create a more emotional shopping experience. At WeHostels, we are working on similar efforts in the hostel booking space. Your mobile team should think along these lines.

5. Your competitors are probably not moving fast enough. As described in the book The Innovator’s Dilemma, when any new technological innovation disrupts the way an industry works, the majority of incumbents will be either unable or too slow to adapt to the new paradigm. It is reasonable to assume that a similar situation will occur with mobile. Therefore, this might represent an opportunity for your business to move faster than competitors and build a sustainable competitive advantage. The speed at which your company embraces this new technology may be a determining factor in whether your business sinks or swims.

6. Starting early will pay off. Mobile as a commerce platform entails unique challenges, and it will likely take some time for companies to arrive at the right mobile product and strategy. These challenges include a new form of user interaction (screen touch and swipe vs. traditional point-and-click), new distribution strategies (app discovery vs. SEO) and payment systems, among others. Starting early will definitely pay off. Even if the money coming in from mobile devices today does not represent a big percentage of your revenues, it is better to start tuning the machine with time. This way when they do represent a significant part of your bottom line, you will be prepared.

If you haven’t already begun paying attention to this this new technological paradigm, and investing resources accordingly, you are probably already a little late. Adapting will require a different skill set in your technology department, the ability to move fast and thrive in a changing environment, and the commitment of the management team to make bold decisions. In any case, technological disruptions always represent exciting times in business; look at mobile as yet another opportunity to create better solutions for consumers and society as a whole.

This post is sort of a note to myself. As we’re in the first months of existence of our startup inBedme, and as a first time startup CEO I find myself often thinking about what the #### I should be doing these first few months to make it happen. I have been talking to several mentors, advisors, fellow entrepreneurs, researching, and putting my observation skills to good use. With that I came up with a sort of basic list of the main things a CEO  (in this case me) should do the first few months of the startup (in this case a consumer web startup). [so warning made: don't do this at home because it comes from an unproven CEO].

1. Set up the vision of the company

Draw a mental (or paper) map of where the company is going to go, what is the market you’re tapping into, how you’re gonna get there, what’s the problem you’re solving, who’re your customers, your competitors, your acquirers, what are the key challenges you’ll face, what are the key team members you’ll need, what are the values behind the mission, how you’re gonna change the world forever. Prepare yourself to communicate this vision to the world. Tell a compelling story.

2. Enlist a team and engage them with the big vision

Recruit a highly skilled team to cover all the main key areas of the company at this stage. Get them excited with the big vision, convincing them that is worth joining you at such an early stage. Make them partners of the company. Make sure they understand the company’s roadmap and their role/mission. Put them to work. Hire fast, and fire fast.

3. Design the Product

Envision the product. Design the product. Define the key parts of your product. Think about what is going to make people love the product. Give the product personality and a soul. Play with your competitors’ products and learn from them. Keep in mind the user. Even if you are not technically prepared to actually build the product, have an obsession with the product and its design (remember Steve Jobs quote “design is not how it looks, it’s how it works”). Make sure that a MVP (minimum viable product) is built fast. Apply the Lean Startup methodology.

4. Deal with all the legal stuff

Get an awesome lawyer, and negotiate with them good terms. Make sure you protect the IP of the company and that there is not any issue uncovered: start 100% clean. Incorporate the company and get prepared all the agreements you will need. Make sure your lawyer teaches you and defends you more than your grandma does.

5. Get good backers

Get mentors, advisors, accelerators, godfathers and any sort of authoritative figure that will help you with advice, intros and validation in front of others. Convince them with your passion, and put them to work for you. Learn from them and from any source of knowledge available.

6. Establish Key Partnerships

You need key partnerships to help you gain time in terms of reach, distribution, technology, etc. Partnerships with big established companies also give you credibility. As the CEO, you should go and establish these partnerships selling the big vision of the company to the potential partners.

7. Fundraise

Raise money so that the company gets the necessary resources to actually play the game and has enough time to figure out what the f•ck your product actually is, and get market/product fit. Do a killer 6 slides deck. Shake your network, increase your network aggressively. ABP (Always Be Pitching). Get an anchor investor. Build momentum. Avoid bullsh•t investors. Control your emotions. Close, get the cash and move forward (with out any sort of celebration, there is nothing to celebrate). Keep fundraising.

8. Evangelize and connect

Get out and tell everybody about the company. Attend events and conferences that make sense, connect with other entrepreneurs, participate in competitions. Get Press. Connect with the bloggers, with the community of potential customers, with potential partners, with the competitors, with anybody in the industry. Do shameless self-promotion (but with taste). Harness social media. Build a brand. A brand is about values.

9. Get the initial traction

Get the first 5,000 users. Yes, you the CEO should find the first few thousand users, even if you have to spam the sh•t out of all your friends and acquaintances. Obsess with traction. Design the dashboard with the key metrics (the real key metrics and the vanity metrics too [you'll need them for the press and for some investors]) and get really obsessed with the progress of these metrics, check out the dashboard daily. Optimize the landing page, A/B test everything, learn from the feedbacks, iterate, change the product accordingly. Move faster. Be bold. Don’t sleep.

10. One more thing: Say No.

Focusing is about saying no. Say no to anything that can take time out of your calendar that doesn’t actually add real value to the company. Even those tempting things. Even if you p•ss people off. Say no to any feature that is not core in the product right now. Say no to any expense that doesn’t directly increase the valuation of the company. Say no to any activity that is not essential at this very moment.

Dream Big. Or go home.

Being in Chile at this moment, as an entrepreneur taking part in the Startup Chile program [in which the government granted us with $40K and plenty of support to grow our company from Chile, thus creating jobs and innovation for the country..], I wanted to share my view of today’s demonstrations here.

Today we witnessed one of the biggest students demonstrations in recent years. We were advised by Startup Chile staff about the situation, so most of the entrepreneurs worked from home. I worked from a Starbucks downtown (still don’t have Internet at my place!! #$%!) and after that I walked to a fellow Startup Chile entrepreneur’s place, witnessing first-hand the demonstrators and police in the street.

I’m writing this because I just saw a post on the popular entrepreneurship blog Launch, reporting on the situation and its impact on the Startup Chile entrepreneurs, in a certain tendencious way. I didn’t like it. Being originally from Argentina myself, and having lived in several countries (Spain, France and the US) I know how these kind of sensationalist headlines create distorted perceptions of a country and the actual situation there.

Sincerely, I’m not that informed about the issues that are being discussed in the country regarding their education system that are causing the protests, so I haven’t formed an opinion about the situation. However, I do think that people’s demonstrations should always be envisioned as a healthy democratic exercise. Especially in countries that have experienced authoritarian dictatorships in the past century, in which people weren’t allowed to express their opinions publicly.

So I wanted to send a message to all my entrepreneur friends applying to the Startup Chile program: there is nothing to worry about! Chile is an amazing and safe country, fun, beautiful and a great place to do business. In any democracy and dynamic social system, there are issues that the society discusses, and street demonstrations are part of these social dynamics. So, move your ass and complete your application for the program, because there isn’t enough place for everybody!! ;)

Last week I was flattered by an invitation to be interviewed by the prestigious Argentinian foundation Fundación del Tucumán, that fosters business education and entrepreneurship in Argentina. They were interested about my experience as an entrepreneur and my lessons learned on the road. Here I share the interview, translated by Google Translator (not bad job!). You can find the original version in Spanish in this link.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Ideas are overrated, what counts is execution”

Confirming assumptions, defying stereotypes, inspiring, suggesting and sharing. All this Diego Saez-Gil is doing in a talk about the sides A and B in the life of an entrepreneur. His itinerary anti-salaried-job: Tucumán (Argentina), Barcelona and The Big Apple. Tips, anecdotes and reflections.

Diego Saez Gil graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. He started working for Pluspetrol, then he jumped to Altran, and while pursuing a Master’s degree in Spain, he got hired by one of the Big4′s: PricewaterhouseCoopers. His executive career was underway, and smooth to the eye. But a trip to New York would change everything …

Early 2010. For several months, Diego had been feeling the desire to start his own company. And in a corner of the Big Apple would occur the “click” that was necessary, both figuratively and literally. ”I got involved by chance on the project of creating Off Track Planet, an online community that offers interactive travel guides, personalized and based on the new mobile technologies and social networks. I met Fred, who would be one of my partners, in a hostel in Brooklyn and started to build the business plan. After a while, I decided to do this 100% and I jumped: I sent an email quitting to PwC and dropped my NYC-Barcelona flight, “says Diego. ”I talked to my girlfriend at the time, and I called my mom. Although they didn’t understand me well, they supported me. There was a huge adrenaline and some fear, but somehow I had a feeling deep inside me, saying ‘It is the time, I’m ready’” says the 29 years old now full-time entrepreneur, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of his brand new start-up.

Diego will participate in Tucumán, next April, in the event Endeavor NOA, which the Foundation is sponsoring. Already planning to visit his province, he talks about his doubts and certainties, about the what’s, why’s and how’s of being an entrepreneur.

Fundación del Tucumán: What do you think about the label “entrepreneur”? What does it mean for you, essentially?
Diego Saez Gil: I like it! and I feel is very good that people started using this word in Argentina (a few years ago no one used it). What I think distinguishes the “entrepreneur”, from for example an “executive”, is that the entrepreneur starts from scratch, from nothing creates something innovative that has value to the world. For me, it has a certain epic and romanticism, like explorers or adventurers have. Still, I think there are many ways to be an entrepreneur, anyone can do it, whenever it detects an opportunity and go for it to build something new. The entrepreneur does not seek to be rich as its first objective, seeks to change the world.

FT: To be an entrepreneur, what personal qualities are most valuable or useful?
DSG: At a personal level, I think it’s important to have the ability to convey a vision and enlist everyone in that vision, inspiring them with a valid purpose, convincing them that it is achievable. An entrepreneur must be a good “storyteller”. Much of the initial work is to tell a compelling and exciting story , and enlist others in the mission. At first there is nothing more than a team, an idea and a minimum product, and with that you have to get on board employees, partners, suppliers, customers, investors, and even your family and friends to you support.
Besides this, I believe that certain personal attitudes are critical, such as persistence, positive attitude, self-motivation and self-confidence. Adversity and rejection are daily bread, which demands tremendous attitude.

FT: What about the technical and professional skills…?
DSG: I think three key areas of skills, especially at the beginning, the entrepreneur ideally should have: Product Design, Team Building and Sales. In addition, Business Development (being able to design a Business Model & Plan) and Finance are important. And of course, knowledge the industry in which you’re getting into.

FT: How is your day today as an entrepreneur? In short, what’s your schedule different from that of an analyst on one of the “Big4″ consulting firms.
DSG: My current schedule has a lot of writing and answering e-mails, coordinating and having meetings (in person or via Skype), planning with my partners or alone, organizing action and plans, evaluating progress and feedbacks, creating presentations, researching on the Internet, staying informed (via Twitter, blogs, online newspapers, etc.), going to networking events, etc … At PwC my schedule included much time in front my dear Excel sheets, or analyzing and preparing documents, and some meetings from time to time. The main difference actually is the weekly schedule at the Big4 was 9×5,  and now is 24×7.

FT: Let’s do a ping-pong! in a couple of words, for an entrepreneur… what is exciting?
DSG: to create something new and big.

FT: … counterproductive?
DSG: Make red tape.

FT: … dangerous?
DSG: not survive the “death valley” (the first 1 or 2 years of a venture, in which most of them fail)

FT: … the rewards?
DSG: View others inspired by your vision.

FT: … essentials?
DSG: The passion.

FT: What do you remember, read, think or hear when the “emotional rollercoaster” tuck down? What motivates you in the inevitable moments of down …?
DSG: Uff …! I appeal to all types of inspirational material: on YouTube, blogs, books …Of course, the stories and testimonials from entrepreneurs who I admire (Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Wences Casares, Marcos Galperin), as all them went through similar challenges; also stories of individuals who overcame very adverse experiences and emerged triumphantly (like Mandela, Frankl, the Andes rugby players), and spiritual literature. I also remember challenges that I overcame in the past, to remind me that I have the strength to surmount the current challenges. And I even sometimes listen to music that inspires and motivates me, ranging from Beethoven and Fito Paez, to Green Day …You have to grab onto anything! The important thing is to never let the down stop you.

FT: To those who feel “what” would you recommend to start thinking seriously about becoming an entrepreneur?
DSG: As we are liberate ourselves from dogmas, family and social mandates, mental limitations and fears … our heart tells us what we really want to become. And then, we should listen. We have to believe again that dreams can come true. So, if you feel that you just want to create something new, move out of the comfort, take risks, lead a team, plan and execute, and be the master of your own destiny, then perhaps entrepreneurship is for you. But hey! It’s a really hard lifestyle. However, since Argentina and the world needs more entrepreneurs, I think it’s important that we all should start to take responsibility. Also the society should start appreciating the value of entrepreneurs.

FT: They say that opportunities to are all around, you just have to look thoroughly… in your case, how did the idea for Off  Track Planet? What was the reasoning behind the construction, conceptually, of the website?
DSG: Totally, there are thousands of opportunities out there, and I think today is easier than ever to detect them and start. Off Track Planet’s idea came from the founders’ needs while traveling, that we thought might be better solved with the new technologies.
Freddie, my partner, had been backpacking Europe and noticed that the printed travel guides could be much more useful on-line, interactive and personalized to your travel tastes. Anna and I had also been traveling and had noticed how two phenomena had emerged that were to profoundly transform the web: the iPhone (which sparked the mobile revolution) and Facebook (which made social networks massive). Then, starting from a basic need that we had (organizing and planning our trip), we thought how we could use new disruptive technologies to best meet this need. I think that’s a good way to find ideas: find own needs or problems and think how they could be better solved with available technologies.

FT: If there is something like a 101 for an entrepreneur, what advice would you give to someone who already has his idea and is seeking “partners” to start-up (financiers, investors)?
DSG: I think the first thing to do is to put together a team of co-founders, the team is the most important thing. And then just start building! Investors and partners will show up later. ”Bootstrapping” is the best thing you can do, which means to start without external investment, reducing costs to a minimum while maintaining side incomes (to survive), and thus building the team, the product and the networks, focusing on monetization and grow early. Then go out and find investors.

FT: Now, what “safeguards” must be taken not to give away and / or left to steal the idea, the single most important asset you have until then?
DSG: Regarding protection of ideas, I think that ideas are “overrated” in general. What really matters is execution. An idea without execution is worthless … unless you have a unique scientific formula, or something like that. That’s why we almost never ask people to sign NDAs. There are people who keeps having ideas, but never performed. So my advice would be: Just launch! Test, get feedback, adapt, improve, and keep running. Seldom successful start-ups keep the original idea, often they mutate into something different from what the founders originally thought. From Google to Twitter, nearly every start-up mutated their original idea.

FT: For those who still don’t have an idea, where would you advise them to explore to find a potential venture?
DSG: I think we’re at a unique moment for start-ups related to the Internet. Apart from the high scalability and low entry barriers that we know the Web has, I think we are at a historic moment: the first 20 years of the Web has passed, in which the “foundation” of the new connected society has been built. We have finally reached really high penetration of the Internet globally, we’ve made progress in storing and processing of large amounts of data, we’ve learned about User Experience, etc … It is up to us now, the new generation of entrepreneurs, to build the “buildings” of this new reality.

FT: The mobile revolution …
DSG: It is estimated that in some few years on average each person will have 5 points of access to the web, including perhaps a couple of mobile devices, your car, your house, your TV, etc. Almost all human activities will be transformed from education, to shopping, even to go fishing!
On the other hand, it is more accessible and cheaper than ever to build Internet-related products: with two kids, from any garage in any corner of the planet, there could be the next Google or Facebook being built. Wouldn’t be great that they were from Latin America?!

I want to share a poem that my brother Juan Pablo sent me in a hard moment of my life, that inspired me to stand up and push. These days I was deciding to become an entrepreneur. From time to time I came back to it, to get inspiration. I hope that through this blog can inspire somebody else.

IF (by Rudyard Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!