Plan To Soar!

More expert tips from Cornell's video library

My previous post mentions the excellent video collection at Stanford as a resource for entrepreneurs and the business community.  Cornell University, my alma mater, also has an extensive and valuable collection.  I would be remiss if I did not give you their link. (And I understand that Harvard has a collection as well.)  These as complementary collections in that they draw from different people, but all are experts and industry leaders. 

The Cornell eclips project has hundreds of nicely cataloged video clips.  They require registration to view these but this is a tiny hurdle.  This is their way to get you to agree not to use these for commercial purposes.  The videos are excellent, and they are available for you to view FOR FREE!

http://eclips.cornell.edu/entrepreneurs.do

You can also subscribe to their blog if you want to keep up with their constant additions.

http://cornell-eclips.blogspot.com/

Video library of entrepreneurs offers expert advice on innovation

Stanford Technology Ventures Program has a great resource open to all entrepreneurs:

Free expert counsel awaits online from such pioneers as the founders of PayPal, Google and Facebook. Anyone interested in turning their passions and interests into a financially rewarding venture can consult hundreds of industry executives without paying a dime for their time. Videos and podcasts sharing their wisdom are only clicks away ... http://edcorner.stanford.edu/.

The site includes topically arranged video clips, podcasts, book lists and links to direct the curious visitor to additional resources.

The brief video clips are introduced with succinct descriptions and captivating titles, such as "Five Biggest Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make" or "Top 10 Things You Must Have to Start a Business." For example, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, in less than five minutes shares five tips for entrepreneurs, with the number one recommendation being "just don't settle." Guy Kawasaki, founder of Garage Technology Ventures and former Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, shares how the key to a successful company is setting out to make a positive change in the world. He then gives three examples of ways to imbue your pursuits with meaning.

I selected a sample of their 800+ videos for you:

Title	Author/Speaker	Length	Organization
The Best Money: Customer Money	Heidi Roizen	1 min. 8 sec.	Mobius
Make a Plan	Randy Adams	2 min. 57 sec.	AuctionDrop

Make Meaning in Your Company

Guy Kawasaki

2 min. 37 sec.

Garage

Five Biggest Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make

Jerry Kaplan

7 min. 56 sec.

Winster

Tips For a Good Pitch

Heidi Roizen

3 min. 39 sec.

Mobius

The Biggest Successes are Often Bred from Failures

Randy Komisar

8 min. 0 sec.

Virtual CEO

The Importance of Vision

Jeff Raikes

3 min. 46 sec.

Microsoft

Role of Market Research

Jeff Hawkins

3 min. 49 sec.

Handspring

Entrepreneurship in Established Companies

Carol Bartz

1 min. 42 sec.

Autodesk

Innovation and Inertia

Geoffrey Moore

1 min. 44 sec.

MDV

Zillow Dodges Google as a Deep Vertical

It hadn’t occurred to me that Zillow and Google were in the same business, but they are both in the information business and make money off of advertising.  Here is a snapshot of Lloyd Frink, President & Co-Founder of www.Zillow.com, speaking this morning at Dean’s Breakfast Lecture Series at the University of Washington.

Lloyd is ultra-aware of Google and at least competes with them for energetic great talent.  Google doesn’t go very deep into vertical markets.  Lloyd points out that 130 people at Zillow wake up every morning focused very deeply on complex real estate transactions.

Zillow is a young company with a mission to empower consumers with real estate tools and information.  They are served 3.7 million consumers in August and still drawing off $57 million venture capital they raised.  Their business model is strictly an advertising play.  He commented that the companies that can win with this model are both the large sites with high volume and the small sites that can take advantage of Google’s Ad-Sense programs.  Lloyd showed a slide that shows how internet advertising spending is disproportionately low compared to the time consumers spend looking at that media:

                                    % Media Consumption             % Media Spend

TV                                           32                                                        43

Newspapers                               8                                                        30

Radio                                       20                                                        13

Internet                                   34                                                          6

Lloyd expects Internet spending to increase, but also individual advertisers. He anticipates a future where half there ad revenue might come from zipcode-specific advertisers.