Tanto o artigo original do Evan Williams — fundador e criador do Blogger, hoje pertença da Google — como a versão do Carlo Domingo, estão tão bem escritas que decidi colocar aqui uma delas; a do Carlo. Porquê? Porque até concordo mais com a versão do Carlo. Simples.

E também porque acho que este artigo tem todo o interesse para a actualidade portuguesa já que temos um Plano Tecnológico — seja lá isso o que fôr — e que toda a gente brada acerca da necessidade de termos mais empresas em nichos de inovação —mesmo que não saibam o que raio estão a bradar.

Aqui fica então— em puro inglês para não deturpar o sentido — o artigo para leitura mais cuidada.

I have been reading with interest the recent post from Evan Williams about the “The ten rules for Web Startups”, too much has been already written about this so I am not going to comment further but reading the post got me thinking about how some of those rules apply to nearly every software company, whether is a startup or a mature one or whether is Web or not so here is how I will rewrite them so that any high tech or software company can use them:

#1: Be Narrow: that certainly does not necessarily apply to every company, for a large or mature company, focusing on a small niche might not generate enough revenue to be a worthwhile effort. I think that the best way to rewrite this rule to give it a more general meaning would be “be focused” (whether on a particular technology, or business model, or market, etc.). Being focused as a whole it is not easy to do so in larger companies, you have to be focused at the division or product line level though and the company can have a broader focus but in general, focus is a good thing.

#2: Be different. This certainly apply to any company, he mentions that whatever you are thinking to do in the Web is probably already being done by Google but if you are a company in the software or high tech space, most of the markets are today mature enough that whatever you are thinking on doing it is probably being done by someone else in a way or another so the only way to succeed is to be different and focus on the core competences of your company to make a difference in that space.

#3: Be casual: this might not apply the way is described to other companies but I think that doing thinks “without requiring lots of commitments or identity changes” can be rewritten in a more broader sense saying that software should not be intrusive, should not disrupt existing workflows and certainly should require a small learning curve and deployment timesuccessful to be successful.

#4: Be picky. This is right on the spot, every company has always too many PR, partnership, biz dev opportunities, features to implement, trade shows to attend or simply ideas about new things or markets so being picky is definitely a good think because no matter what company size or stage you are, resources are always scarce.

#5: Be user centric. This one certainly apply for almost any technology product (unless you produce some obscure middleware software) and most companies tend to use technologies or add features just because they are cool not because they make the user experience better.

#6: Be self-centered. This one applies up to some point but I think that for the majority of the companies, being self-centered is not enough and the more appropriate way to put it will be to “be costumer-centered” and always be thinking who your product can be make better for your costumers or how you can service then better.

#7: Be greedy. Well, any company is a corporation and by definition, you are there to make money for your shareholders so I agree that you always have to keep in mind how you are going to monetize everything you do, how to protect your margins by not giving away too much royalties or discounts to resellers, how to best spent your marketing money, etc. And as he says, having money flowing into a company puts you in a better position for anything that you want to do.

#8: Be tiny. This does not necessarily apply to all companies so I will rewrite it as “Be frugal”, you have always to keep cost in mind (whether you have 10 people in a project or 100) and how to minimize costs without disrupting the operations and companies with good cost controls are much stronger
companies.

#9: Be agile. Totally agree, you have always to be revisiting what you do and analyzing whether is working or not. One great quote that I heard recently from another CEO said: “the only think that is permanent in our company is change” and I really like it.
Change can be disruptive but as Jack Welch says “change is an opportunity for growth” so constantly adjusting plans and targets is much better than sticking to a losing proposition or hoping that by ignoring a problem is going to go away.

#10: Be balanced. This again applies to all companies, you have to balance the hard work with the fun at the company and outside it, this is key for having committed employees and retaining them which for technology companies is one of the biggest problems. I am actually myself reading David Allen’s GTD after founding about it at Mind Camp in Seattle and have already installed its Outlook plugin (with the infamous Delegate button).

#11 (bonus!): Be wary. My bonus one will be different, “Be paranoid” (check out Intel’s Andy Gove book “Only the paranoid survive” for a good reading on the topic) about your competition, new disruptive technologies, etc. In the technology world but specially in the software world, a competitor can pop up within days that can have a
huge impact on your company strategy or the revenue of a product line so you always have to be paranoid about everything that happens in the industry to react quickly.