It’s a great time of year in New York… brisk mornings, cool nights – the smell of Autumn is in the air. It’s also the Jewish New Year – a time for new beginnings with renewed focus. The icing on the cake was seeing Bono and the U2 band sing their hearts out last night at Giants Stadium. What a great show; it cleared my mind and fired me up.
It’s hard not to succumb to the negativity going on in the world. Choose your poison – personal cash liquidity, politics, the economy, health care, big government, personal health challenges, dwindling retirement savings, spiraling college expenses, blah blah blah. It’s time for a “time-out” from those boring conversations, and time to focus on entrepreneurs, a material driving force for growth in our country.
Over the past several months I’ve had the pleasure of engaging with both media company executives and entrepreneurs in the digital media space. Both similar in traditional ways, yet fundamentally different in DNA and overall commercial approach. I want to use this opportunity to ‘wake-up’ some media executives to the importance of supporting entrepreneurs. Given the challenging macroeconomic climate and overall capital investment fear, many entrepreneurs are being choked. This is not a good thing for the digital economy or media companies, as entrepreneurs provide a bloodline of growth. Their novel ideas translated into real businesses through the effective use of technology, passion, knowledge, internal fire, and people skills is a wonderful thing. Of course, I am biased being an entrepreneur myself. However, I can’t sit back in silence when I see seasoned entrepreneurs that have nurtured and grown exciting digital businesses struggle being under-capitalized. As an entrepreneur I lived the under-capitalized life twice and can truly appreciate the challenges there. Not fun.
Listen-up media executives — below is a list of six good reasons to meet some entrepreneurs:
- Timing is Right. Early 2009 digital media and Internet venture funding has been quite dry. We’ve happily seen that change recently with lots more activity. Although valuations have come down, entrepreneurs have a strong desire to find good partners and close funding or exit.
- Media Companies Need More Survivors. All stereotyping aside, when I meet with media company folks I typically hear the same challenges; “not enough people,” “too much work,” “budgets have been cut,” “it’s too hard to get that done,” “that won’t get approved,” “takes too long,” and the list of reasons things can’t get done goes on and on. Entrepreneurs don’t give-up so fast for a few reasons. First, they make due with much less people, cash, and time. Second, entrepreneurs typically focus on the “why” questions to solve bottlenecks and confront the challenges head-on. Yes, that is easier said then done, however having honed survivor instincts allows them to overcome the myriad of obstacles on a moment by moment basis. These skills are typically learned by experience and many media executives would benefit from working alongside entrepreneurs who can potentially help to effectively navigate business obstacles.
- Media Executives Need to Learn How to Worry About Making Payroll. If you survey a list of early stage entrepreneurs you will likely find cash conservation as one of their most pressing issues. It’s what keeps them up at night and a driving force in many business decision. Recognizing payroll is likely one of the largest monthly expense – it is carefully scrutinized often from a value creation basis. Every two weeks when that business bank account balance goes down the founder(s) renews the push for more revenue or operational efficiency. This kind of payroll stress is not something a media executive experiences in quite the same way. Yes, media executive manage operating budgets, revenue targets, etc. yet a paradigm of difference as compared with the entrepreneur. It’s more personal to an entrepreneur. I would like to see media executive compensation more closely tied to the performance and value creation of their respective payrolls.
- Entrepreneurs Don’t Thrive in Bureaucracy. Within larger media companies there are many stakeholders and complexities that make it difficult to quickly and efficiently bringing innovative products and services to market. It’s the old cliche: if you want something done quickly, give it to a busy person. By the nature of their situations, smart entrepreneurs have no tolerance for bureaucratic issues. Tthey navigate issues, find the right people, and make it happen. Media company folks could benefit from finding ways to work with entrepreneurs to navigate the bureaucracy and bring timely innovation to their customers, integrating trusted media brands, in scale.
- Outbound Marketing Not as Effective as Inbound Marketing and Entrepreneurs Live That Life. The quantitative performance of traditional outbound marketing (direct mail, radio, TV, print, etc.) continues to lose its effectiveness. That said, making due with much less by being an expert in inbound marketing tactics (SEO, Landing Page Optimization, Social Media, etc.) is the life of a entrepreneurial digital marketer. Media company marketers are learning how to do this with the help of consultants and agencies. However, they could significantly benefit from the experiences of a digital marketing entrepreneur.
- Entrepreneurs Live by Quantitative Metrics. There have been times while consulting to media companies that a debate arises with anecdotal support for a shift in strategy. It can become a delicate discussion, yet always comes to a head by attributing real data and metrics to mitigate investment risk and solve commercial issues. Yes, judgment calls and visceral intuition based upon experience are critical, yet managing a business based upon quantitative performance metrics has always worked for me. These are typically tools most savvy entrepreneurs put in place early on. More importantly, investors and board members demand this kind of management.
Net net, there are some smart entrepreneurs out there with great products and services looking for capital or an exit.
