And after a few months of head banging, trying to get the market problem to fit the Big Solution, many of these entrepreneurs give up.

I would submit to you, however, that this is the absolutely wrong thing to do.

Instead, you should consider something abjectly blasphemous: changing your solution.

To what?

Start by asking yourself this question: What is your problem?

Let me elaborate.

We at Intermz recently wrestled with our Big Idea. After months of research and design, we launched what we thought would be the revolutionary learning tool, a sort of three-dimensional Wikipedia that could double learning speed and make learning new things as natural as breathing. People would contribute fabulous content that would change the way we learn. We were really happy with it. But when we launched it, no one used it.

What was our problem? To make our big solution feasible, we went with a big assumption: that people would write content.

We realized later that what we were asking people to do was much harder than we thought. Writing compelling content about a topic in terms of a different topic is rare skill. (Maybe 1 out of a 100 people can do it, and far fewer than that will actually do it for free.)

So what did we do?

We reinvented ourselves by setting out to solve our own problem: change our solution from a learning tool to a learning program. We are now going to teach people (students and corporate employees) how to use analogical thinking to get ahead. By doing that, we get to change our product without abandoning analogical thinking, our Big Idea.

And for the first time, we had found a cohesive direction that addressed a problem with wallets attached to it. (The training industry has a well established business model with understood revenue sources–unlike our original ad-based public website product.)

So, if your startup is at a crossroads during this economic crisis, and you’re thinking about walking away from your dream, stop and think. Ask yourself, “What is my problem?”

But, however much Internet entrepreneurs love the rapid pace of the tech world, I want to share a little advice with you: Sometimes, it’s ok to slow down. Sometimes, it’s better to wait.

We often feel like we need to act and react as quickly as our industry changes. If we don’t, we might feel disconnected, out-competed, or, even worse, irrelevant. Those can all be true. But sometimes moving too fast, making a change before you are ready, can be far more destructive than any of those things. 

Stop and consider this: Many of us are entrepreneurs because when we get an idea, some vision, we can’t help but act. But if we start spending more time reacting to the outside world than acting based on our vision, we can lose our way. Being lost or lead is not why we do this. We are entrepreneurs because we need to define our own paths, our own destinations.

The next time you’re in a panic and feel the need to react, or even act prematurely, stop and think. Be patient while you try to understand what is going on around you, and keep asking yourself (or yourselves) why. Figure it out, and don’t do what you wouldn’t normally do just because you’re under pressure. If you discover you need to respond to outside forces, do so. But you might be surprised how often that is not actually the case.

Remember, great goals are usually only attained by disciplined deliberateness. Steady steps over time. If that approach isn’t exciting and intruiging enough for you and your business, consider that is the reason so many entrepreneurs don’t make it. 

Don’t do what they do.

Do what you do.

Handling Nervousness

I don’t typically get nervous before these kinds of things (I usually get the adrenaline rush afterward), but I did get a little nervous before this interview. It’s really important that you calm your nerves ahead of time because being calm helps you respond to the interviewers questions how you would normally respond to them–accurately and naturally. (Sometimes, nerves can make you say something you didn’t really want or mean to say.) Remember, whatever you say could end up in a widely-read newspaper or blog.

I beat nerves by engrossing myself in something I have already been thinking about, and that’s completely unrelated to what I’m about to talk about. For me, it was basketball; I’ve been trying really hard to improve my offensive game against taller players, so I thought only about that for a little while before meeting Tina. It took my mind off of the interview and put me into a much more relaxed mode. So much of nervousness comes from the anticipation of what’s going to happen. So, if you can forget about what’s going to happen, if you can prevent yourself from anticipating, you can calm down a whole lot. Being relaxed really helped how the interview flowed. I was able to respond faster, more accurately, and probably more intelligently.

Nervousness can be a pretty nasty thing; while you’re being nervous, you’re often wondering if the other person can tell or not, which can you even more nervous.

Do your homework

Read recent articles that your interviewer has written. Get familiar with her beat and the questions she might ask. You want to get to know your interviewer.

If you can, mention some of the pieces of hers that you read, especially if they relate to what you are talking about. During my homework, I ran across a great article Tina wrote about a photographer turned coffee proprietor. She asked him what the switch from photography to coffee was like. He said, “I feel like I’ve gone back to what my photography career used to be like when I used to make black and white prints … It’s doing something that’s handcrafted, that’s hands-on, is as much science as it is art …”

In other words, his response was Coffee in termz of Photography, which was a perfect way to illustrate the concept behind Intermz to Tina; I was able to put Intermz in termz of one of Tina’s own experiences.

Doing these things go a long way toward building report, which will make the interview process more enjoyable for both of you and encourage future encounters. What reporter would want to repeat a dry, one-way interview?

Give your interviewer what she wants

How will you know what she wants? Ask her! In your communication up to the interview, ask her what material you should prepare. She will tell exactly what she is looking for. In my case, Tina wanted me to talk about the site, the business, give her a demo, talk about Startup Weekend (where the team was assembled), who was involved, and where we are going.

I prepared written notes in advance so I would be ready and confident to give her exactly what she was looking for.

And if there’s any other relevant material, like blog entries you’ve written regarding your company, print them out.

Having written and hard copy material ready was really helpful for me because, in a few cases, she didn’t need me to answer her verbally, forcing her to write down what I said; I could just hand it to her. Saves her time. Believe me, this is a good thing.

Now that you know how to give her what she wants, know how to give her what she really wants.

Give your interviewer what she (really) wants

What do reporters really want? They want to write a compelling story. So help them. Give them as much compelling information about you and your company as you can. Don’t continually wait for her to ask you questions.

Stories about your company’s background, how the idea started, and what your dreams and aspirations are, are prime material. Make sure they include people and those peoples’ experiences. Why? Because people stories bring a personality and humanness to her article (and your company). The reason the most influential people are often the best story tellers is because stories are enjoyable and people tend to remember them. That’s also why stories can make great press material. During my interview, I talked about how my parents are all black belts in martial arts and used the martial arts philosophy of adaptation to get my brother and I involved in tons of variegated activities like boating, opera, painting, gardening, and music writing. I then told her how our upbringing ultimately lead to the idea behind Intermz–learning new things quickly by using what you already know.

Having said that, don’t continually talk, either. When she does ask questions, answer them and make sure you answer them thoroughly. This shows that you are listening and believe that she herself, the interviewer, is asking an important question–and not that she is just a way for you to get your company’s name printed in a paper. Pay attention to your interviewer. It’s not entirely about you. It’s a two way street, just like any good social interaction is.

Put yourself in her shoes. Remember that her desire to write compelling story has three main purposes:

1. To give her readership something interesting to read.
2. To help expose your company and what you’re doing.
3. To give her more credibility as a reporter who breaks interesting news.

So, do your darndest to fulfill those purposes. Give the reporter an interesting story about you so she can give the public an interesting story about you and advance her career. It’s good for both you and her.

Be enthusiastic

At the end of the interview, I apologized to her for monopolizing so much of our time with my own talking. She said it was the best kind of interview because she didn’t have to draw things out of me, and because she could tell I was really enthusiastic about Intermz. Enthusiasm is infectious. While reporters aim to take a neutral positions on their stories, it’s hard for them not to pick up on your enthusiasm, which may ultimately come through in her story about your company. Even if she doesn’t get enthusiastic about what you’re doing, at least that energy will come through in your quotes.

Jason Calacanis of Mahalo and Weblogs wrote a really great article on the importance of enthusiasm when talking to the press (or anyone, for that matter).

Answer with complete sentences

This is a tip I got from my dear friend Rebecca Reynolds, a journalist from Milesmedia.com. Answer using complete sentences so that it’s easier for your interviewer to quote you. Remember that written sentences are completely different from spoken sentences. So if your interviewer isn’t able to quote something you said so that it makes sense to a reader, she might not use it–even if it is a great quote.

Also, for less careful reporters, there’s always the chance that they might take your quote out of context entirely (either accidentally or even deliberately).

Balance volume with clarity

This is a really difficult thing to do, especially on the fly, but it’s actually something Tina suggested I do when I asked her if I should keep listing off different uses for our service.

You should try to say a lot of interesting things without overwhelming your interviewer with too many different things. Remember, she has to go back to the office, digest everything you said about your company, and condense it into a compelling story only a few paragraphs long. Keep focused on the stuff that best represents what you are doing, and try not to add anything redundant or confusing.

For instance, when giving an example of how your product or service can be used, stick to one or two interesting ones. More than that, and your interviewer may have to figure out for herself which ones are the best to write about–which may not jive with what you would have picked.

Hopefully, Tina will get to publish our story. If she does, I’ll link to it here.

Good luck, and go get ‘em.

Why

A newsletter is your way to broadcast a message about your product or service to a crowd that has already identified themselves as interested parties. There are three primary reasons to REGULARLY send a newsletter to them:

1. Provide useful information or interesting ideas for people to chew on. The best way to be relevant is to be useful.
2. If you are useful enough, that will spread by word of mouth.
3. Keep your product/service in their minds. Coke doesn’t advertise so they can attract new customers; they advertise to keep existing ones.

How

Keep them short and focused on one point. Long, rambling newsletters are seldom read. Plus, if you put too much into one newsletter, you’ll have fewer opportunities to send more of them. (See point three above.)

Make them compelling by telling a story that makes the reader a character in that story. I recently wrote a newsletter titled “The CLARITY machine.” It drew a comparison about how Intermz.com is like the machine ophthalmologists use sharpen your vision and make the world more clear. It put the reader in the ophthalmologist’s seat by reminding them of the time when the doctor would ask, “Which is better, A or B?” Then it drove the point home that Intermz does the same thing for your learning; you can switch between lenzes until your topic of interest becomes clear.

You can read the whole newsletter at:

http://www.intermz.com/blog/2008/08/16/the-clarity-machine/

When

As regularly as you can. Humans are wired to look for patterns, and when they see one, they lock into it so they can anticipate what will happen next. We are actually pattern recognition machines. If you give them the “next,” which is the next newsletter, it will reinforce your presence in their minds. This all sounds very pop psychology, but it’s true. Repitition is the key to remembering. (Of course, Intermz is the key to learning

Good luck and go get ‘em.

What is Startup Weekend (from a founder’s viewpoint)?

Their website defines it as “an intense 54 hour event bringing together brilliant tech minds (developers, designers, marketers, ect.) together to create a company (or as many as the community wants) from concept to launch!” Well, from a founder’s standpoint, it ended up being a lot more than that.

Startup Weekend actually began as a kind of “traveling Y-Combinator.” If you’re not familiar with Y-Combinator, they run annual gatherings of startup companies that Y-Combinator fund at a seed level and helps them get going. Y-Combinator then takes a small share of those companies. One of the biggest drawbacks for founders is that Y-Combinator is stationed in CA and not all founders/startup-teams can get out there for a couple of months at a time. In contrast, Startup Weekend holds events in all parts of the country (as determined by vote) and no longer take a financial interest in your company. They gather a group of incredibly generous  local volunteers like Laura Fisher who organize and manage the event, which basically gives you a space, an Internet connection, and a bunch of willing people to throw stuff at (and believe me, they will throw stuff back at you, too).

For Intermz.com, it was definitely intense, and it is definitely helping us go from concept to launch. But I want to share with a lot of the other more subtle (and less subtle) benefits that a founder can gain from events like this.

Self-selected crowd

This might seem really obvious, but if you are a founder looking to recruit people to get behind your vision, you can waste a lot of time sending emails and trying to convince folks to actually join your team and do work for your idea.

Imagine being able to give your pitch to a room full of people who have already said, just by being there, “I’m here to work. Just convince me your idea is worth working on.” Then it’s simply up to you to give them a good reason. Intermz ended up attracting one of the largest groups at Startup Weekend which had a diversity that is became the major factor in our progress.

Energy, inspiration and momentum

This is the soft stuff that I don’t think gets talked about enough. Don’t discount the soft stuff. Startups are based almost entirely on passion and energy. Why? Because you’re probably not going to have any money in the beginning and the work is going to be really hard–and your statistical chances for success barely register. The only thing that keeps people (including the founder) working on an idea is love for it and how much belief there is in it.

As I see it, entrepreneurship events help ignite and sustain that belief in one most-important way: When you see that other people believe your idea, it makes you, the founder, believe in yourself. That belief translates into apparent commitment, which signals to the team that the people are in place to make it really happen. Before Startup Weekend, I began to have doubts about my idea, which made me doubt myself. But the response Intermz received at the event gave me, and us all, reason to row in the same boat.

Network

So you’re in a room full of other like-minded, enthusiastic people. If you wanted to talk to, get advice from, and get help from like-minded, enthusiastic people, why would you not go to an entrepreneurship event? Always keep in mind that these events are full of self-selected people who are like you. Help them and they will help you.

Opened up

I would wager that how you think you can achieve success before you attend an event like Startup Weekend, and how you think you can achieve success afterward are going be shockingly different. Not only that, I would also wager that after such an event, the plan will be clearer, the goals better defined, and your confidence will go up. (This all assumes of course that you had an idea that attracted enough help.)

You may not enjoy the process of getting your mind opened, but if you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably not learning. Engaged people are going to ask the tough questions that help you focus and understand.

Entrepreneurship events make this kind of eye-opening a very good thing because: 1) You’re getting feedback from people who presumably want the idea to succeed (or they wouldn’t be there), and 2) they aren’t you.

Who entrepreneurship events are not for

These events are not for people worried about non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and the like. There is an implicit code at these things that if you come up with an idea, no one will try to rip it–otherwise these events wouldn’t work. If you go to one and expect people will sign your NDA, don’t count on getting people to join your cause.

The reality

To make your web-startup, or any startup for that matter, succeed, you’re going to need people with ideas, passion, and the willingness to work. Without them, you can only go so far. I challenge you to find a better way to recruit more of those people in one place than by attending an entrepreneurship event like Startup Weekend. Go find one and give them a good reason to join you!

Good luck, and go get ‘em.

I could not agree more. (Besides, who would disagree with Guy?)

However, what I did discover (completely by accident), is that your pitch alone might not be your strongest possible way into peoples’ minds. You might also need supporting material scattered throughout the Web to support what your pitch even though it is not explicitly mentioned. Having material out there can be critical for adoption.

For example, a highly valuable member of our team told me that he would not have joined the Intermz mission based solely on the 30 second elevator pitch I gave at Ann Arbor Startup Weekend–despite the fact that my pitch was well-received by many others. Instead, the reason he joined was because he had done some hunting around himself before my elevator pitch and found a demo video posted on the Intermz site. The demo video is what sold him on the concept. So if that demo video had not been available for him to hunt for on his own, he might not have joined up.  This scenario applied to someone who decided to commit work to the project. Imagine how powerful it could be to a user.

So, my advice to you, have material out there for people to find, especially if you can’t always reference what that material contains it in your pitch. People are getting better and better at going out to the wide Web and finding things for themselves. Make sure you have something out there for them to find that will support or supplement anything that you pitch.

Good luck and go get ‘em.

But what if, like many web services, your audience is ultimately very broad? Intermz’s audience, we have concluded, is “people who want or need to learn something new.” Obviously, because we’re a web startup, that group is also constrained to who have an Internet connection or access to the Internet. Well, that doesn’t narrow the pool down by very much; we’re still talking about hundreds of millions of people. Truly, who doesn’t need to learn new information in this age of information?

But the problem with having a hundred-million target audience is that it’s extremely difficult (nay impossible),  to create a workable plan to get to them. At least at the startup stage.

So, what do you do? Well, we have artificially narrowed our target audience down to students and faculty of the two or three major universities in the Ann Arbor, MI area. We’ made this the first group we are going to target and will move to a wide audience if we are successful. Doing so has made our planning process (and hopefully our execution process) a lot more manageable.

Moral of this story? On your way to changing the world, start small. And work your way up.

Good luck, and go get ‘em.

Three months after starting Intermz.com I released a public version. I was the only person working on it and promoting it and, needless to say, it didn’t go very far. For the most part, only my friends and relatives were interested enough to sign up for the newsletter, but no one except for me actually wrote any content for the site; the site’s success relies entirely on the availability of useful content.

Fast forward to June, 2008. I had been working my full time job while doing small things with Intermz every now and then, but it was pretty much dead in the water. A press release garnered quite a bit of new traffic, but none of it stuck. At that point, I started to question Intermz’s potential for success. Should I abandon it or should I go for broke? My fearless wife quickly came to the conclusion that I should go all out and face my dream–move to Silicon Valley  (without her) and try my luck there.

So that was the plan.

Until Startup Weekend came to town.

Imagine 54 hours of nothing but a bunch of dreamers and doers trying to turn a concept into a company. That’s what Startup Weekend was. And at the end of it, seven amazing new members had joined the Intermz vision with a passion I never thought anyone could have about it. We are on a mission now–to release, by October, a version of Intermz.com that will be difficult to ignore.

(Go to Intermz.com and sign up!)

We hope to change the world in one of the most fundamental ways you can–eliminate its fear of the unknown.

Know it all.

Good luck, and go get ‘em.

So check back here for each new installment in this new series.

Good luck and go get ‘em!