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Your Startup Cannot Learn Anything Useful from the Google+ Product Launch
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A few weeks ago, we got a lot of flack (as well as a lot of support) for our post on why intrapreneurs are nothing like entrepreneurs. We even got a few full-fledged responses, such as this one, and this one. A lot of our critics brought up Apple and Google as prime examples of intrapreneurship (they’re exceptions more than rules). But even if Google is entrepreneurial, there is very little that a startup entrepreneur can learn from how they launch a product or business vs. how you might have to do it.
To illustrate, let’s take the recent launch of Google+. Google+ is making waves — it’s the first big thing to come along that the pundits might have you believe has any potential of disrupting Facebook (although some fervor has dissipated since the first few weeks). And despite its early success and accolades, there can be no doubt, even in the mind of the most fervent proponent of the intrapreneur, that the launch of Google+ was very different from the launch of any start-up’s product.
And so while it might be tempting to dissect Google’s product launch and think there are lessons (good or bad) for your startup’s own launch, the reality is there is little to nothing to learn by comparing your fledgling startup’s launch and the launch of a product by a behemoth company. And here are just a few of the key things you don’t have that Google does which make learning from Google’s launch of Google+ a waste of time for your startup:
1. You don’t have data on your customers. Startups if using customer development or lean startup tactics may have a good sense for the market for their product based on a few data points/conversations, but there is always a risk that the customer base doesn’t materialize because you just don’t have enough data points to know. On the other hand, corporations like Microsoft, Apple, and Google (especially Google) already have a wealth of information on their customers/users. They have your email, your internet browsing and shopping habits, and can tailor and create their product to these specifications. As a start-up, however, you need to build this valuable information from scratch.
2. No customers already know you. Google (and Apple and many S&P 500 companies) already have ardent followings who hang on their every press release or conference for the latest product updates. As a start-up just starting out, you don’t have such a foundation. Once you’ve targeted your audience, you need to make them pay attention to you without the support of an established brand. And that means anything from blogging to press releases to leaving comments on other folks’ blogs to infographics.
3. You have no distribution. Related to the point above, the Googles and Apples of the world have distribution channels which is often a start-up’s biggest problem. Google, however, can roll out that nifty black toolbar (denoted Sandbar) at the top of the page to pull all Google account holders into using — and returning!– to their new social product. While people grumble about the trouble of maintaining two social networks and may be slow to switch over from Facebook, Google+’s one great advantage in its attempt to unseat the incumbent is the vast amount of time people already spend using Google products. The unifying Sandbar, and that little red box displaying your notifications addictively draws you back to Google+, whether you’re using Google Search, Reader, Maps, or Gmail.
4. The press doesn’t give a crap about your startup. And finally, arguably the biggest difference between a corporate launch and a start-up launch: Google didn’t need to fight for publicity in launching its new social network. In fact, it faced the opposite problem: it almost got too much attention and couldn’t keep up with the invite-requesting hordes. Each feature was put under scrutiny, and analyzed through the same critical lens that had already killed past social attempts Buzz and Wave. A start-up, on the other hand, often needs to pray that the bloggers and media find their story interesting enough to cover or that they know someone who knows someone.
Google and Apple should be lauded for their abilities to innovate but as a startup entrepreneur, there are few real lessons to learn from how they do business today because they’re at a scale very different from you (at least that’s the case today).
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