Who is on my team? Dealing with outdated concepts of work, play, and life

As many of you know, I have been focused the past year on team communication, and very proud that soon Zula, Inc. will release iPhone and Android based service to the world (more platforms to follow). Like all good ideas, this one is not alone. Almost a year ago, when Jeff Pulver and I took a decision to pivot what we were working on to center on the need for a new paradigm in team communication, not many people were talking about it. Now there are some nice competitors to look at, which is better than being alone, believe me. But when I look at some of our competitors, I am bemused that many forward thinking people still are stuck on outdated concepts of team, and of work. For that matter play and life, and how they intersect with work. Too many are still looking at hard divisions between work and play. Also coming out with products for team communication that require you to be part of the same "organization" as your team members. But life is not so binary anymore. We don't only belong to one team, to one organization. We "know" people from many different touchpoints, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, and yes, even G+ (there are a few diehards out there). Teams get formed on a constant, ad hoc basis, and for many of us we spend much of our time interacting with folks who do not have the same domain name in their email address. In other words, teams today are not internal creations -- they are dynamic situations, with team members being invited through the different mediums of our digital lives.

Why Do They Beep As They Pass My By??

For the past four years I have been lucky to have easy access to trails in nature, both for running and biking. But sometimes I need to go for short distances on the main roads, and have experienced an interesting phenomenon. A good percentage of the drivers in these parts (Northern Israel) will beep as they pass me by -- at first I thought it was a reflex time delay, that they mean to beep to alert me they are coming but the actual beeping only happens once they are already passing me. I actually don't like drivers who beep me from behind, as it is usually more startling than helpful, but the intentions are clear, to provide me warning that a car/truck/bus is approaching from behind. But why when passing me? Running yesterday I finally came up with a theory. Completely unscientific, as I have not had the luxury of actually speaking to any of the beeping drivers, but here is my optimistic hunch. The beeping when passing is a sign of identification and support. Even though we are theoretically competing over the same thoroughfare, the drivers want me to know they are with me in spirit, and perhaps even are envious. They are telling me: "Brother, we are with you." This all reminds me of what it is like to be the CEO of a start-up in a space that is quickly becoming competitive. There is limited bandwidth in the world for successful start-ups in the same product space -- top few companies will usually make it, the few after that will drift along, and then massive amount of start-up roadkill... So who are the drivers that beep as they pass me by in my role as CEO of a start-up? An interesting group. There are the other CEOs -- the more experienced know that coopetition is always good, and keep an open channel to the CEOs of competing companies. Just in the past two weeks I have communicated with the CEO of two well funded companies in the messaging space. Yes, we are competitors, but we also identify with each other. Other beepers along the start-up highway are VCs that are not quite ready to invest -- but want to remain in the loop. No, they are not just afraid to say no (well, that too at times) but rather are ready for you to pass them by on the road to success, because they just around the bend we might meet up again. Or the next time we are on the road together. So they beep -- they make connections, introductions, offer (at times) useful critique. And then there are the journalists covering the space, the analysts, and more. All jostling on the same road, and as we pass each other we "beep." This is all when it works according to my rules of coopetition. For those are pur capitalists -- well, they don't beep when pulling alongside. They just run you over! May you blessed to find many of those that beep as they pass by! Shabbat Shalom.

I didn't mean to Link(edIn), but...

"Can ______ access your contacts?" is part of the the modern mobile version of next...next...next of PC and web apps. Last week I was talking to Zula team about particular point of UI and referred to LinkedIn's iphone app design, and was told I was using old version. Checked, and yes, heaven forbid, I was using an outdated version. So I went to App Store and updated. Got a pop up message from LinkedIn asking "Can LinkedIn access your contacts?" Now, as LinkedIn is all about creating and managing network of contacts (yeah, they do lots of other stuff, but at core is the network) I just assumed in the past I had given LinkedIn permission to acccess my contacts. I also assumed that such a "successful" and well known company would be careful about unintentional spam -- and that the permission to access my contacts was designed to allow me to proactively invite people in my contacts to be linked to me. Wow...was I wrong. A few seconds (literally) after I hit yes to LinkedIn's request, my phone and ipad started to go crazy with notifications from people accepting my request to connect on LinkedIn. Seems the folks over there at LinkedIn took my "yes" as permission to upload my contacts and blast a LinkedIn connect request to every last person who somehow ended up in my contacts database. I am talking about people I may have traded one email with, folks I haven't spoken to in 15 years, and other random entries in my contacts... As a result of the LinkedIn spam attack in my name I gained hundreds of new LinkedIn "connections." And days later they are still rolling in. How does this make me feel? Well, at first was embarrased, then realized that it was even worse, for many recepients of this spam felt like I was reaching out on purpose, and many questioned why. Others were happy to hear from me. Many pitched me their current start-ups. And some just said hello. All in all a somewhat harmless experience, but shows off the shallowness of the average LinkedIn network. I was also astonished at how wide the LinkedIn network has become...a majority of my contacts have LinkedIn accounts. And I am not just talking about the VCs and entrepreneurs I know, I also mean the gardener I haven't used in 5 years, my son's nursery school teacher, and many more. Like Facebook, LinkedIn has succeeded in becoming part of the fabric layer of our digital lives. It doesn't mean I actually need to use it, but it does mean that the value of LinkedIn is almost priceless, because after such a wide net is cast, the company can take their time monetizing. We are all there already! Now that I have another ~600 connection am I better off? Well, can't hurt. And that is the key here. As long as a mistake like I made is harmless, LinkedIn and similar companies will continue to expand their networks. This also assumes that I do not share or expose information on LinkedIn that I have any concern about people seeing. As I almost never use LinkedIn, that assumption in this case is correct. I long ago realized that there were so many holes in the fabric of Facebook that their "privacy" controls were meaningless, and adopted the policy of only sharing what I was 100% proud of anyone seeing. Thus I don't care that much about who are in my FB friends list. But even so, if I have absolutely no idea who is sending me FB "friend" request I tend to ignore it. As I saw with LinkedIn, some people will accept anyone (hey, they accepted me...). Bottom line: no real harm done with inadvertently allowing LinkedIn to spam my contacts, but did remind me to be more careful with what I say yes to -- and impressed me with wide network LinkedIn has created and how quickly many jump to accept every new connect request. My hope for the world is that some good comes from all of these "connections."

Riding the Wave/Rising Above the Noise

This past weekend I spent time with my younger children at the beach. It was a perfect day, water refreshing, sunny but not scorching, and waves just the right size for my almost-6 year old and ten year old sons (Mishael and Nachum). Shefa, my two year old daughter, was with me... But back to the boys. Within a few minutes, they had mastered the art of the boogie board, and wave after wave served as an endless God given ride, more fun than anything Walt Disney or Six Flags Adventure ever dreamed up. As I watched them, and allowed Shefa to dip her feet in the waves, I was reminded how much of start-up life is trying to catch a wave -- and then stay on top. As many of you know, I have been part of the start-up ecosystem long enough to see wave after wave, sometimes catching a ride up but also at times crashing down, and yes even a "wipe-out" or two (or more, but that's a different discussion). Back to wave catching. Obviously when there are many waves, easier to catch one. On the other hand, it means there is great turmoil in the market -- and thus no time to rest between waves, to plan properly -- simply need to react. And of course there is the "fear" that there is even better wave coming... The kissing cousin of "Riding the Wave" principle in start-up life is "Rising Above the Noise." When there are many waves, there is noise in the system. All the surfers come out at once, and all of a sudden it gets crowded and noisy. Noisy in a real sense, and noisy in the way that the endless ocean all of a sudden feels crowded. Now, in the back of your mind, you know that it can't stay this way -- eventually some of those surfers will get tired, and will go home. But what about you? As an entrepreur, do you have the stamina to keep paddling, and the skill set to rise above the noise, to get noticed by the cheering throng on the beach -- so that they start rooting for you to catch the best waves, to stand up on your board and make the magical seem effortless. In an another post I will take apart a recent rejection I received from a potential investor regarding crowded market and differentiation, but for now let me bless all of us that we manage to keep our heads above the water, catch a wave we like, and ride it in. For those of us serial entrepreneurs -- same blessing, but repeat. :-)

Catching The Wave (or the next one...)

So I am not the first VC/Entrepreneur to write about "catching the wave." A big part of start-up success is timing. Being pre-mature or late to the game are ingredients for failure. Perfect timing is a lot like surfing -- need to catch the wave so you go soaring with the tide. Of course, like with surfing, catching the wave is not enough -- it is just the beginning. But an essential beginning.

But I want to take the analogy a bit further. Sometimes you manage to stay at something long enough (or return to it after a hiatus) and you can actually experience second or third waves.

I have been involved in start-up life on a professional basis since 1994. Almost twenty years (pretty scary thought!!). I am now seeing the second and sometimes third waves within specific industries. I am blessed to still be active, and with enough strength (mental, emotional, and physical) to continue to "catch the wave."

As an example, as some of you know, I co-founded a start-up last year with my good friend Jeff Pulver, called Zula. We are focused on how teams communicate, and developing a platform to allow for team/group conversations to continue beyond the conference room. But more on that in a later posting...Important part of the story is that Jeff and I are engaging a field that we first worked in 18 years ago. We have participated in and witnessed multiple waves (and sometimes tsunamis) within the communications industry. It doesn't make the surfing any easier, but it does give us the perspective that waves do not come one at a time, and often difficult to tell exactly when to push off and hang ten. But try we do.

A friend called me the other day to say I needed to come pick up a box of stuff I had left in his store room when we moved up to Hanaton. I skimmed through the contents of the box this morning, and found presentations I delivered for Delta Three back in 1998 and 1999, as well as business plans for other start-ups. When looking through the Delta Three presentations I reminded myself just how pre-mature we were, although we still managed to catch early waves in the changing landscape of how people communicate.

I also reminded myself how visionary we were were -- the problem is vision does not allow for success. I can envision a wonderful wave, but if I don't get my tuchus off the beach there is no chance I will succeed to fly through the surf.

Of course surfing doesn't come naturally to all of us, and even for those that it does, intense training and planning is required to face the big waves.

May we all be blessed to catch the waves we want, at the time we want, and ride them to shore. Again and again.

Getting Your Timing Right

Yesterday a friend came to visit me...someone I have known practically all my life. Every so often we do a check-in. He commented that I (and also Haviva) are usually a few years or more ahead of the curve... Now he was saying this both as an observation and to some degree a compliment. But reminded me how important it is in start-up life to get timing right. Being the "first" to do something is not always the best practice. When I started in the world of VoIP, most consumers barely had a PC, internet connectivity was a new thing and far from what we enoy today, and most important, most people did not have speakers or a microphone attached to their PC...so obviously voice over internet in 1996 was a bit challenging in the consumer market. Things change fast -- by 2003, when Skype launched, there was a critical mass of people with broadband internet, speakers and microphones were standard. The timing was right. In 2006 I funded a cross-platform app store for mobile apps. The iphone and AppStore did not yet exist. Mobile devices were a huge pain in the neck, with hundreds of variations of operating systems. We did not succeed. A very short while later the iphone launched, and was successful to some degree because of the AppStore. In politics works the same. If you "launch" your political movement before the stars are aligned you will not succeed...I remember the many years that Women of the Wall struggled to get attention...now a front page story and the Prime Minister leading the way to a radical reshuffling of how the Jewish world will relate to the Western Wall. When I became a vegan over ten years ago soy milk was not even thought about, today at every Aroma or Starbucks it is the choice of many. And I was so pleased to see at an Aroma in Haifa yesterday that they now have vegan pastries! Vegan has become cool! Of course, being way ahead of the trend for healthy eating has obvious benefits to me on a personal level -- launching a product too far ahead of the curve usually does not yield good results. All in all, living beyond the bleeding edge works for me personally, but when I am managing or investing in a start-up these days I give a lot of thought to timing -- and hopefully will get it right more often than not!

Remember, forget, Remember. Repeat.

My day so far -- started (after getting kids to school/nursery) with early morning meeting at the winery on marketing strategy, spinning out potentially [yet another] start-up inspired by problems discovered in wine industry. Then got into my electric car, drove to Tel Aviv for UI (User Interface) meetings with my Zula team. Later I am due to participate in comensation committtee meeting of NoProblem Baord of Directors, then back home to Hanaton, later tonight community meeting...

Bottom line, a life full of life, of innovation, of newness, of planning for tomorrow. Not a lot of time for remembering or dwelling on the past.

But on Highway 6 this morning I stopped along with millions of other Israelis as we heard the siren calling the country to attention. For two minutes we stopped, and we remembered. Of course there are those who participated in longer ceremonies today, as we commerate Holocaust Rememberance Day. But many, if not most Israelis are busy. We have way too many holidays and commemeration days as it is, last week Passover, next week Israel Memorial Day and immediately after Independence Day. Few weeks later Shavuot.

So how in 2013 with all of our instant everything, do we deal with the commandment to remember?

I think by putting our brains on a cycle. We remember, for a moment, sometimes for more, and then we forget. Because as I stood there for two minutes (length of average YouTube posting), I said to myself that if I remembered all the time, I could not function. I would simply be overwhelmed, by both the horrors and wonders of the past.

We are a people of the book -- for thousands of years the main way of memorializing -- of making sure that we do not forget. What does a book look like in 2013? 2014? How will we remember?

I don't have any answers, but I do know that somehow we need to keep on with our cycle of Remember/Forget/Remember...repeat. Alway searching for the balance of memory and action, of tradition and modernity.

I conclude with the call that has echoed for decades: Never Again. Some things should not be repeated.