I am in love with Siri. I though I would never use it, but now I see it as another wonderful paradigm shift from Apple — just like the introduction of the iPod, iPhone and iPad forever changed the way we interact with music, phones, and computers, Siri will change the way we get things done.

First, let me be clear that I am not an Apple fanatic. I like Apple just fine, and I think their technology products are brilliant. But I don’t sit on the edge of my seat waiting for every crumb of new product news, and although I think that Steve Jobs was a genius, I’ve never been tempted to watch one of Apple’s product launch “shows.” And, I actually have a windows laptop, not a Mac.

I will admit that I was very excited to get my new iPhone 4s, and I did order it online a few hours after it went on sale. But I was not particularly excited about the new phone itself — ironically I was REALLY excited to be getting rid of my iPhone 3g. While the 3g had started out awesome, it had a crappy camera, no video and no multitasking. Even worse, it had become so slow that it was unusable 75% of the time, seemingly always when I needed it most.

So, I immediately loved my new 4s. I could take great pictures and HD video, even if I didn’t have my full-sized cameras with me. And I could multitask my apps, which eliminated some real annoying inconveniences. I had heard the buzz about Siri, but I didn’t think I’d every have a need for it. But once again, Apple showed me that I actually really needed something that hadn’t even been on my radar. And now, there is no going back.

Without actually using it yourself, it’s hard to explain just how awesomely powerful and convenient Siri can be. But I will try…

Yesterday I went on a run. I was listening to an iPod playlist while I used RunKeeper to track my progress and manage my interval sprints. Suddenly, I got a text that I knew was important. In my pre-4s days, I’d have to stop, take out my iPhone, kill RunKeeper, fiddle with the phone, read the text, and then type a reply. Then I’d have to fire up RunKeeper again, get incredibly annoyed that I lost both my RunKeeper stats and my only half finished interval coaching log, put the phone back in my pocket, and start running again, after having lost all my momentum.

The Siri microphone icon. "What can I help you with?"

That’s just one example. But there are many more. Driving in the car is another place where Siri excels. I press my headphone button, hear Siri’s beep, and say “Call mom.” Siri responds with “Calling Mom and Dad Lichtenberger. Home,” and I’m connected. (And yes, Siri knows how to say “Lichtenberger” — better, in fact, than most people I meet.) Or I can say “Directions to Laser Quest in Danvers” and Siri will bring up Google Maps with driving directions from my current location. Or I can say “Text Mark,” and Siri is ready to take dictation and send a text. And the whole time, I never took my eyes off the road.

And, curiously, Siri also has a sense of humor. Ask her “How much wood does a woodchuck chuck?” and she will reply with either a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference “42. Everyone knows that.” or an homage to Monty Python’s Holy Grail, “That depends on if the wood is African or European.” I love it!

While you might not understand it without experiencing it, I know that I can never go back to my pre-Siri days. It is so incredibly convenient and useful, I don’t know how I lived without it. I guess it’s the same as not comprehending how I could go through life without 800 songs, my latest photos, a camera and camcorder, a few of my favorite movies, and GPS maps with driving directions — all in my pocket everywhere I go.

I think that Siri is a game changer and soon it (and it’s inevitable competitors) will be a part of everyday life, just like smartphones, Google, and Facebook.

My mom wanted to surprise her sister in Switzerland with an iPad for Christmas. Naturally, my mom has no idea how to buy an iPad in Switzerland (or even in the US). So, she calls from her home in LA to my home in Boston and asks for help. The resulting transactions were thing of beauty.

I though it would be best to buy it via Apple in Switzerland. That way it would get there faster, avoid any export restriction issues, and arrive pre-configured to run in German, with German packaging and instructions. I guessed that Apple must have a Swiss Apple store online, so I tried http://apple.ch. Genius! Immediately I’m being asked if I want to proceed in German or French. (I pick German.)

I navigate to the iPad page, pick the right flavor iPad, and proceed to checkout. Now I’m asked to enter either my iTunes login or proceed as a guest. Will apple.ch know my USA iTunes account? Why yes it does. Brilliant! My billing info is filled out and ready to go.

I enter my Aunt’s address near Zurich as the delivery address, include a gift box and a gift message (which my Mom gave me over the phone), I agree to the Apple Store terms of service, and I’m ready to complete my transaction. I click the (German) buy button. Darn it! My AMEX is declined. I thought this might look fraudulent, and I was apparently right. Nonetheless, now I’m a bit annoyed and wondering what kind of hoops (and how many levels of automated attendants) I will need to jump through to get AMEX to approve my next attempt.

And then, literally within 5 seconds of the Apple Store’s tactful “declined” message, my phone rings. It’s an automated fraud alert agent from American Express. Before the automated AMEX voice can finish saying “This is American Express fraud protection…,” an email from AMEX shows up in my in-box telling me there has been suspicious activity on my card. Back on the phone, it takes only about 90 seconds of answers to the AMEX auto-attendant, and before I know it they are telling me “Thank you, you’re all set. If your charge attempt was declined, you may now try it again and it will be accepted.” Ridiculously (and wonderfully) efficient.

I bounce back to the Apple store, still open in my browser. I click the buy button again. One second later Apple is thanking me for my purchase. With free shipping from Apple, my Aunt will be playing with her iPad by Friday. (Today is Wednesday.)

Wow! I spend all day online, and between my startup and personal life I buy lots of stuff online from lots of sites. Some experiences are good, some mediocre, many are bad. But how beautiful was this? Apple has always been known for savvy and efficient design, so it’s less surprising that my interaction with them went so smoothly. But AMEX could not have done a better job either — while both protecting me and then immediately and painlessly enabling me to proceed.

Apple and AMEX know what they are doing, and most other companies could learn some excellent lessens from them. Which reminds of a recent experience with AT&T. But that was such an absurdly bad experience that it’s worth it’s own post…

The New York Times has an interesting article, Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs, about Seth Priebatsch, founder of local mobile gaming startup Scvngr. It also features commentary from local VC Paul Maeder at Highland Capital Partners.

The article is mostly a look inside the life and mind of Seth Priebatsch. On the plus side, the now 21-year old started his first company – a real company with 8 offshore employees – when he was 12, his Scvngr startup has 60 employees and has raised $750k from Highland Capital and $4 million from Google Ventures, and he can read upside down just as fast as he can read right-side up. On the minus side, he barely knows how to drive a car and, since his office at Scvngr is also his bedroom, he literally has zero life outside of Scvngr — no socializing, no girlfriend, no books, no bars, no tv, no movies, no days off, etc..

Entrepreneurs Need Hypomania – But Not Too Much

The interesting subtext of the article talks about the traits required to be an entrepreneur. You need to be at least a little crazy to do it. As Paul Maeder says, “You need to suspend disbelief to start a company, because so many people will tell you that what you’re doing can’t be done.”

Entrepreneurs need some mania to fuel their quest. But it’s a fine line. As psychologist John D. Gartner puts it, “If you’re manic, you think you’re Jesus. If you’re hypomanic, you think you are God’s gift to technology investing.” Just the right amount of hypomania gives you the confidence you need to take the necessary risks and the energy you need to maximize productivity as you aggressively go after your goals.

But too much hypomaina can hurt your cause. If you’re arrogant and obnoxious without good interpersonal skills and some sense of humanity, then you’re going to drive with your blinders on 100%. You won’t be open to alternate views and other good ideas. And you’ll likely have trouble getting along with others — including co-founders, employees, and investors. That’s a recipe for failure.

Don’t Be Like Seth: You DO Need to Have a Life

I wish Seth lots of success, and he seems like the kind of guy that will indeed succeed — either with Scvngr or something else. But unlike Seth, I think it’s important to have some life outside of work. Taking some real breaks is important and necessary for your mental health and beneficial for both your perspective and your creativity. If you can’t step back and get some perspective, you’ll be in a world of your own and you’ll start making misguided decisions. And if you don’t give your brain a break, you’re limiting your creativity. I can’t count the number of times I’ve solved tough problems or had (seemingly to me) great ideas when I wasn’t consciously thinking about them — while on a run, at the beach, in the shower, etc.

Many VC’s are happy to see you spending every waking moment on your startup. But that’s not only unhealthy, it’s simply not required. There are plenty of super successful people who don’t.

For example, look at Google. Their 20% time policy genuinely encourages (requires) employees to spend 20% of their time on personal projects that really interests them. Google is doing just fine, and some of their most successful offerings started as personal projects. And look at 37signals founders David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried, who wrote an entire book (Rework) with a central premise that you don’t (and shouldn’t) work more than 40 hours a week. In addition to writing a best-selling book, they started a very successful software company and created Ruby on Rails. That’s not a bad resume.

Life is short, and it’s good to have one.

Misguided: Disruptive Ideas and Mark Zuckerberg Syndrome

The NY Times article also mentions Next Zuckerberg Syndrome — investors’ “urge to find another Mark Zuckerberg before he starts another Facebook.” N.Z.S goes hand-in-hand with the obsession of both entrepreneurs and investors to find the next disruptive technology. But from my perspective, this thinking is totally misguided.

Yes, companies like Netscape, Google and Facebook have created fundamental changes to the way we live our lives. But that wasn’t their initial goal. They set out to solve a problem or to solve a problem better. I hear too many entrepreneurs looking for that next big thing that will make a billion dollars. If that’s your goal, you will almost certainly fail. Instead, focus on a problem that you know and fix it. Don’t worry about how big the problem is or if it will change the entire world. Worry about fixing the problem well and the rest will follow. You might not change the whole world, but if you fix the problem, you will change at least part of it. And more likely than not, you’ll be be very happy about it.

Footnote: The (Irrelevant) Princeton Connection

To throw in a total non-sequetur, on a personal note I found it interesting that Seth dropped out of Princeton. He got his funding from Highland’s Paul Maeder (also photographed and quoted in the article) who also went to Princeton. And his big round of funding came indirectly from Google, home of Princeton grad Eric Schmidt. I guess it’s a small world.

Update:

Matt Douglas, The Startup Swami, seems to agree that Seth needs to get a life.

I checked out the September Mass Innovation Night #MIN18 and saw some cool products. The best was Vizit from Isabella Products. They had a good pitch and a great product that solves a 10-year old problem.

Digital Photo Frame Problem Solved

Vizit is a digital photo frame like you’ve seen and heard about for the last 10 years. A nice way to display and view some of the 5 million digital photos you have taken over the years. But they have a super slick implementation that solves the two biggest digital frame problems: how to get pictures on it and how to keep it updated with new pictures.

Vizit solves the problem by using a mobile device embedded in the frame. This allows you to email a photo directly to the frame. It’s genius! You can give the frame to your mom, snap a cell phone photo of your son’s first soccer game, email it to the frame, and before you even leave the field your mom will see her grandson playing soccer! There are no USB cables, no downloads or uploads, no memory sticks. Just email it and it shows up.

You can also control the frame from a the Vizit website. So you can prune out old pictures or add new ones from there. Or if mom accidentally deletes a pic, you can add it back. The frame is always relevant and current. Very cool.

Ridiculously Easy Setup

Another problem they solved is making it very simple. Since it uses embedded mobile, it receives photos via a cellphone network. This means there is zero setup. You take it out of the box, plug it into a power outlet, and you are done. Your mom doesn’t need to have wifi and she doesn’t have to configure anything. She plugs it in to the power outlet and it just works automagically!

Vizit needs to Connect with TurningArt

A few days ago I discovered TurningArt at the Web Innovators Group. Basically, they provide a Netflix DVD service for framed art. The service and implementation are very cool, and TurningArt won the WebInno Audience Choice Award. But it seemed obvious to me that they should supplement their physical frame and delivery system with a digital plan. That would allow all kinds of options for changing the artwork, making recommendations, finding new art, etc. I spoke to them about it, but unfortunately they had no plans for a digital offering.

Now that I’ve discovered Vizit, I think it’s a perfect fit for TurningArt. It should be very easy to enhance TurningArt to control the Vizit frame. They’d then have a ready-to-go alternative to delivering their art and expanding their market. And it would be great for Vizit, too: they would gain a whole new market for their frames.

Stay tuned and we’ll see if they connect. It’s a no-brainer that would accelerate the success of both their products.

The most interesting part of the 27th Web Innovators meeting in Boston was the panel discussion on “Self-Funded Success Stories.” Laura Fitton, the Founder/CEO of oneforty did a great job moderating a panel discussion with Steve Conine, Co-Founder of CSN Stores, David Hauser, Co-Founder of Grasshopper, and Todd Garland, Founder of BuySellAds.

All three guys founded self-funded startups that have become relatively successful. Over the last 8 years, Steve’s CSN Stores — basically Amazon for niche verticals like luggage.com — has grown to 600 employees and over $300 million in revenue. David’s Grasshopper provides virtual phone systems targeted at startups – in the last 7 years they’ve grown to 8 employees and have served over 100,000 entrepreneurs. In about 2 years, Todd’s BuySellAds has grown to several employees and allowed him to quit his day job at HubSpot — BuySellAds has served well over a billion ads.

You Will Run a Better Company If You’re Self-Funded

All three guys were very happy that they managed to avoid taking any outside funding. They all grew organically, starting with either 1 or 2 person teams. The consensus was that, contrary to popular wisdom – self-funding made them much more agile and got them to market faster. They didn’t have time to waste, because financial pressure forced them get a product out the door immediately so they could start generating revenue. As David Hauser put it, “VC-Funded companies have the time to dick around.” Self-funded companies don’t. They need to focus and execute quickly, or they will die.

They also thought that the lack of funding helped them make better hiring decisions. Every hire’s salary was coming directly from their own revenue stream, which impacted their own salaries directly. Burning someone else money on a bad hire is less painful than burning your own, so whether intentionally or subconsciously, you’re likely to make better decisions when your own money is on the line. Steve guessed that if you work really hard at hiring, you might get it right with 70% of your hires. But if you have someone else’s money to spend, that might drop to a 50% success rate, which will cost you a lot of valuable time and money.

You Don’t Need a Business Plan

It seems that none of these guys had a business plan. Everyone laughed at the premise that you must have one. This seems to echo the thinking in David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried’s book Rework. Everyone had a spreadsheet model that “proved” they could make money, but no one had a formal business plan. Todd joked that he majored in Portuguese and when he started he certainly had no idea how write a one.

Self-Funding Requirement: You Need To Be Tech Savvy

Interestingly, I noted that all three entrepreneurs where tech guys or had tech co-founders. To me, this is a key requirement for self-funding. Unless you have a prior success and lots of cash to put into your startup, then “self-funded” likely means bootstrapping. And since you don’t have money to pay for the initial development, you need to be able to do the development yourself until you generate enough cash-flow to hire an engineering team. If you’re a pure bus/dev person with a good idea, you won’t get anywhere unless you team up with a tech guy or girl to get things off the ground.

The 27th Web Innovators meeting in Boston was another great networking night with some interesting companies. I thought the best startup was TurningArt. They essentially provide a Netflix service for artwork from new artists. Both the idea and the implementation are great. But I must admit I was a little disappointed when I realized that it was a physical service just like Netflix DVD’s — I’d prefer digital.

How TurningArt Works

When you subscribe to the service, TurningArt sends you a special frame (you have a few choices) and an easy-to self-mount artwork print from an online artwork queue that you build and maintain on their well-designed website. At an interval of your choosing, they send you a new print. As you get each new piece of art, you send the old one back in the special, reusable packaging. Exactly like Netfilx DVD’s.

One non-Netflix-like feature is that your monthly subscription fees earn you credit towards buying an original print. This is quite an interesting wrinkle, and a good feature.

What I’d Rather See: Digital Art Work

Although TurningArt is pretty cool, what I would RATHER see is digital art that updates from your queue automatically. In this case, I would envision that they would provide you a well-designed digital picture frame with built in wifi. Once you set it up, you simply manage your queue anyway you want and the frame updates it’s self with new artwork automatically. You could get quite fancy with this by enhancing the interface to let you control the display in all kinds of ways. For example, you might set it to automatically change art before dinner time each evening and again each morning. Or you might let it make recommendations based on your preferences or based on artwork or artists that you have rated — a great way to find new art that you like. The possibilities are endless.

I asked them about this concept, but sadly they had no current plans to pursue it. Perhaps they’ll go digital in the future. If not, someone else is sure to do it.