10 Laws of Simplicity and the Business of Undoing

I just finished John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity.  This MIT professor also keeps a blog on the same topic.  The ten laws are as follows:

• Reduce: the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
• Organize: organization makes a system of many appear fewer
• Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity
• Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler
• Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other
• Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
• Emotion: More emotions are better than less
• Trust: In simplicity we trust
• Failure: Some things can never be made simple
• The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

I couldn’t help but draw a connection between John’s laws and the book Blue Ocean Strategy, which proposes that to create uncontested markets, one must purposely NOT do what the obvious competition does.  Features must be taken out.  Different elements must be emphasized.  Like the example in the book of contrasting Cirque de Soliel with traditional traveling circuses, one must decide what they are about and prune the rest (take out the animal acts and appeal to adults, instead of children, for instance).  If you have ever seen a Cirque show you can attest to the emotion, context, and differences that make all the difference.  They were able to dance around the elephants in their industry, so to speak, and deliver a whole new experience and create an amazing franchise.

This is a lesson for any new business, especially one finding a space in between other established players who are always seeking to do more, appeal to more customers, and create more noise.  To be successful, I firmly believe that one must thoughtfully and purposefully “undo” the competition by doing less, but doing it better. 

Simplicity will be the hallmark of Remarkable.  It will do something better, faster, and more satisfyingly (is that even a word?) than all the other alternatives.  Simple. 

To Do Good

There is a famous company in Silicon Valley who built a business on the supposition that they should “do no harm” or said another way “You can make money without doing evil.”  In their case, it is boatloads of money and I enjoy using many of their products, so they are doing many things right.

That all sounds fine, but it seems to me that there is a higher standard than just to avoid evil?  I don’t want to stop there.  I want to build a business that does good.

To provide direction in decision making during these key stages of planning Remarkable by Creative Outlet Labs, I thought it might be good to get a definition of what doing good is.  The dictionary defines it as “moral excellence” or “of high quality,” among its dozens of definitions.   Useful, but not terribly prescriptive.  The good book speaks of it roughly like this: “In everything, set them an example by doing what is good.  Show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech, so that no one has anything bad to say about you.”  This is helpful, as well, as it emphasizes providing leadership, as well as doing good.

How do you demonstrate high integrity and quality in a business or product?  By focusing on customers and providing them tools they can use to make the world a brighter place.  By making “giving back” a key tenant of the product offering and of the company priorities.  By giving voice to people’s stories and memories, because everyone knows someone who is remarkable.

It may be a bit ambitious, but I have faith that a business build on the tenants of doing good, can…well…do good!

There will be more information in the coming weeks and months about the good we intend to do.  In the meantime, subscribe to this RSS feed and I look forward to connecting with you!

Behold the Plan A

The good folks at 37Signals, who it is no secret have greatly influenced my thinking on the topic, talk about the importance of self-funding a start-up.  Outside funding is “Plan B” as they like to say.  They come from a perspective of a start-up founded by developers.  Get 2-3 people, they contend.  Write code.  Get people to use it.  Charge them.  Rinse and repeat.

 

I have been advised by other entrepreneurs that I know to “hold onto equity” (because you can’t get it back easily) and to “hold onto my money” that I might have personally invested by finding a partner who can help me develop a product.    I am not sure how I do both of these things simultaneously, although both are great counsel from folks I trust who have years of entrepreneurial experience.

 

One of the best pieces of advice I received about funding came over a year ago from a serial entrepreneur that I heard speak at a Portland Business Journal event.  He talked about heading up a joint venture between two companies that shared ownership 50/50.  He said when they needed another round of funding, the 50/50 partnership failed to deliver because one company couldn’t afford to invest further, but didn’t want to give up control.  The other company wanted to invest, but was contractually limited from investing more than the other.  The business ended up failing and the take-away was that the capitalization method should match the business strategy.

 

So, what is the business strategy of Creative Outlet Labs and how I am answering the question of capital?  The strategy is simple.  To to good by becoming the leading provider of personal tributes, allowing individuals to appreciate, collaborate, and celebrate those who are remarkable.  To do this, we don’t need to be big.  We just need to be better than the alternatives and utilize all available technologies.  We don’t need to have the most features.  We need to focus and make it easy for people to get from point A (the idea and the occasion) to point B (a finished tribute) in rapid fashion.  We don’t need the backing of a large company to get started and make a difference (although perhaps that is an exit strategy).

 

So, for now, the capitalization plan is to self-fund and retain the equity.  I am a realist.  I know, the business and the products may not always be my baby, but I can ensure it gets off to a good start…narrowly focused on doing good.