Babson Talk

My friend Li Hong pushed me to attend a Babson University event last Wednesday, and I'm glad I went. Mike Michalowicz was speaking on behalf of Obsidian Launch, which is a type of early stage incubator for first time entrepreneurs.

He started out with a lot of inspirational/motivational comments, which reminded me a lot of Rich Dad, Poor Dad lessons. These type of pep talks about attitude adjustment are commonplace in the real estate industry. There was not much new information, but it was good to remind myself to be cognizant of self-limiting beliefs.

There were several points in his talk that piqued my interest. One unique aspect of Obsidian Launch was the incorporation of a sports psychologist. In retrospect, it actually makes a lot of sense. The difference between a good and bad day can be as simple as an attitude adjustment. And when those bad days come, involving professionals can potentially help accelerate the recovery process. In addition, a lot of people may not realize how powerful words and beliefs are. I am typically not the type to believe in psychological "feel-good" techniques, but there is so much that we do not understand about the human mind. He also mentioned that they only accept single founders in their program. Because they offer a support system of staff and mentors, it doesn't feel like you are starting and running a company by yourself. Another point that caught my interest was defining a 10x differentiator between you and other competitors. This is just another way of describing an unfair competitive advantage. Either you offer some unique feature, ease of use, price difference.

What interested me the most was when he talked about the "Gathering of the Titans" which is an event sponsored by MIT. He spoke of how one guy ran up from his seat and out of the room to the closest Staples. There, he bought a voice recorder, copy paper, and started sketching. After he finished, he immediately faxed his sketches to the office, got on the phone to organize an office meeting the next day. Why did he do that?

He was in the lawn care industry. Typically, home owners give you a call, sets up an appointment, someone comes out with a van, measures the lawn and gives a quote. The cost of these quotes was substantial, taking about six months before lawn care companies could recoup the costs of giving estimates. When he was sitting in the conference hall, playing around with his laptop, he realized that with Google Maps, he could measure the lawn size via the internet from his office instead of giving out estimates. This key insight changed his business, and gave him a key competitive advantage over his competitors.

All in all, pretty interesting.