What is Coachy? 

Coachy is a new marketplace where coaches are matched up with people who want to learn new skills with 1-on-1 live video sessions.

At launch, Coachy is starting with French and Guitar lessons but as we learn and grow we’ll be adding more segments to the mix.

What would you like to learn? (seriously, we’d love to know! Tell us on our Facebook page)

With Coachy, you can learn from the comfort of your own home at any time suitable to you. Plus, you can learn from people all over the world.

As we’re in beta, we’re keen for feedback of all kinds. To learn as much as possible, we’re currently offering free lessons in return for a quick survey afterwards. If you’re keen, please drop us a line at hello [at] coachy [dot] com.

Or if you’d simply like to keep in touch, sign up to our Facebook or Twitter feeds.

We hope you enjoy Coachy!

We’d love anyone who’s interested to come along to the Hive (180 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills) at 6:30pm for some drinks and swap stories.

Chris is co-founder of Uinfoshare and has some great experiences about starting a business in France, and some of the exciting trends coming out of Europe.

If you’d like to come along, please RSVP here.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Throughout the three days, I linked the lessons to startups and how they can be applied each day. Here are some of my takeaways;

“The shitty first draft”
This is a tool to get you to fail as fast as possible. When beginning a new task, give yourself a 10 minute time limit to get something out. Yes, it’ll be shitty. But at least you’ve started and removed your fear of failing – Nothing is perfect the first time around. From there you can iterate and move forward.

See Mick’s talk at Vivid about failing fast

Take a holistic approach to problem solving
Too often we’re in a rush to find the solution without exploring the whole problem fully. It’s important to balance a holistic view of your industry with a deep understanding of customer needs. To do this in the workshop we created a Value Network Map (or Actors Map).  

First step is to brainstorm all the people involved in your industry – from CEOs and board members to customers, PR, Social Media, shop owners, operational managers. You’ll have a long list. Next, prioritise them – Who are the people most important to a great customers experience? Stick them on your Value Network Map with the most important people in the centre. Draw lines connecting people with working relationships. You may end up with a mess – But it makes you realise all the things that are happening around (and influencing!) that one transaction you have with your customer.

Have a questioning mind
Use the 5 Whys as often as possible. Accept that you’ll make 1000s of assumptions along the way. To get to the heart of your customers motivations, you need to live the customer journey BEFORE, DURING and AFTER their interactions with you. Create personas and storyboards for your actors. Get to know them and grow them as you learn more and more about how they connect with your business.

Web businesses can be theatrical.
Create a good story. Take your customers on an emotional journey. Marc referred to this as the “Boom! wow, wow, wow BOOM! Ahhhhh“, or more commonly the dramatic arc. Surprise and delight your customers with something amazing at the beginning of their journey. Then, entertain them with simple cues, before an incredible finish, and giving them something to remember you by.

Create a design-friendly environment
Get rid of imposing furniture. Create lots of blank wall space for post-it notes and butchers paper. Make people feel comfortable and creative. Break down stereotypes. Let people be silly. Create a space which inspires sharing.

And finally….

Design thinking is for everyone, not just designers.
It was so fantastic to take myself out of the everyday and experience a new perspective. As you know, when you’re building a startup it’s easy to get wrapped up in it all (which is important too!). But I urge you to get out and learn about something new (and not necessarily related to your startup). Inspiration lies everywhere. And your startup will be all the richer for it.

http://au.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/video/watch/27390848/

Recently, Mozilla launched a new programme called Web FWD, where  young businesses are invited to spend 4 weeks in the Mozilla San Francisco HQ building their products.

They’ll have access to Mozilla-spiked resources and, at the end of four weeks, an MVP ready to launch.

Pollenizer’s Phil Morle is a mentor, along with guns from the Mozilla team, VC’s and entrepreneurs. Check out the full list of mentors here.

The program runs on a rolling submission schedule with the first spots opening in August.

You can find more (and apply!) at the Web FWD site.

As customer development managers and marketers, it’s easy to fall into pushing your product to the detriment of your story. You’re so desperate for a email sign-up, a sale, a Facebook Like that you push and push to get it, rather than let the story sell itself.

To find your story, you have to put yourself in your customers shoes and imagine their circumstances, their problems and their motivations. They get your features. They get the benefits. But how does it fit into their life?

Mitch’s post urges marketers to pretend they don’t have all the tools available (the nicely packaged product, clever social media campaigns, showy apps etc.) and instead focus on the compelling story.

Nowhere is this more true than for lean startups where we don’t have the fancy resources, let alone an fully-functioning product, to help us sell.

In the Pollenizer customer development team, we have to constantly re-evaluate the story of our products as they shift and morph from one week to the next.

If you think you’re getting distracted with all the options for your start-up, Mitch’s advice below is a great grounding reminder.

Forget about the fluff and focus on;

1. A compelling story.
2. A defendable and unique market position.
3. Making your content as shareable and as findable as possible.
4. Doing nothing that doesn’t add economic value to the brand.
5. Connecting to the people who truly do want to be connected to you (not just the ones who “like” you on Facebook because you’re subtly bribing them).
6. Quit pushing your Marketing department and agency to be more innovative. Most brands aren’t even doing the basics right. No need to worry about innovation until you have a foundation for success.
7. Don’t try for viral. Getting something to go viral or getting thousands of people to connect to you is a false God. If you go back to creating a compelling story, it will go viral and get many followers by the very nature of it.
8. Copying is not flattering. It’s boring. It’s even more boring when the copy isn’t better than the original.
9. Don’t underestimate your consumer. They’re smart, they’re connected and they’re smarter than you.
10. Get rid of the fine print. Nobody reads it and nobody understands it, but worse: it’s mostly used as a bait and switch.
11. Contests and couponing works… sadly. So, do it, but promise yourself that your marketing won’t be entirely driven by it. You’re better than that.
12. People will come and people will go, but your integrity is all that you have.
13. Technology is not what’s stopping you… your ideas are.
14. Real relationships are not built on offers… they’re built on long-term value.

All great points. What’s your favourite? Do you have any more to add to the list?

Yahoo!7 acquires Spreets – leading Australian and New Zealand online Group Buying
company

SYDNEY, Australia, 20 January, 2011 – Online media company Yahoo!7 today announced it has acquired leading Australian online Group Buying site, Spreets Pty Ltd, including its New Zealand operations.

Spreets (spreets.com.au and spreets.co.nz) was the first Group Buying site in ANZ having been in operation for almost a year with 500,000 members and more than 274,000 vouchers purchased since inception.

The Yahoo!7 business delivers a new audience to the Spreets site through distribution on the Yahoo!7 Network as well as access to the benefits provided in Australia and New Zealand through its joint venture partners Yahoo! Inc. and the Seven Media Group, including marketing and promotions.

The acquisition helps Yahoo!7 to deliver on its Local and Social strategies as well as providing further diversification of revenue streams outside of display advertising.

“After carefully reviewing the market it was clear that Spreets is a market-leader in what is becoming a highly competitive and fast growing market. The Spreets management team in Dean McEvoy and Justus Hammer come with strong expertise and experience in the Australian Group Buying market,” said Rohan Lund CEO of Yahoo!7.

“At its core Spreets is about leveraging insights to deliver the best local deals through an online social experience, and this maps perfectly to the Yahoo!7 Local and Social strategies. The acquisition of Spreets means we can bring the best of Yahoo!7 to grow the business even further,” he said.

According to Dean McEvoy, CEO of Spreets, the Group Buying model has rapidly evolved over the past year delivering cost-effective marketing to small businesses and addressing an unmet and growing demand from consumers for online coupon deals.

“Australians and Kiwis love an amazing deal and Spreets has seen significant growth delivering over $40 million in savings to consumers over the past year. We’re proud to be an Australian born company leading the market in this rapidly evolving space,” he said “We’re thrilled with the acquisition by Yahoo!7 as we see the huge potential that one of Australia’s leading online media companies, which has huge momentum in the market, will bring to the Spreets business.”

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Media Contacts:

Amanda Millar
Trade Marketing and Communications Mgr Yahoo!7
Tel: 8288 4758
Mob: 0407 454 229
Email: millaram@yahoo-inc.com

About Yahoo!7

Yahoo!7 (yahoo7.com.au) is one of the most comprehensive and engaging online destinations for Australian consumers and advertisers. Formed as a 50-50 partnership between the Seven Network Limited (ASX: SEV) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Yahoo!7 brings together the successful Australian internet business, Yahoo! Australia & NZ, and the online assets and television and magazine content of the Seven Network, one of Australia’s leading media companies. The company also combines the strengths of Yahoo! search and communications capabilities and its global internet network, with Seven’s rich media and entertainment content and marketing capabilities..

/media release

Congrats to Dean, Justus and the hard working Spreets team for really driving hard at this incredible new space for the last twelve months. Big congratulations also to the Pollenizer team, particularly Oliver, Jon, Fleur and Phil, for their enormous contribution throughout the year. A massive effort and a job well done.

Today’s deal in Sydney – $90 for $181 at Jordons Seafood Restaurant.

Tomorrows deal? Sign up!

News Coverage

Yahoo!7 Acquires Spreets: Leading Australian and New Zealand Online Group Buying Company – Yahoo!7 Advertising

Yahoo!7 buys online deals site Spreets - Sky News Australia

Yahoo!7 buys only deal site Spreets – The Age

- Sydney Morning Herald

- Herald Sun

- Brisbane Times

- Perth Now

Yahoo!7 buys only deal site Spreets – Australian Financial Review

Yahoo!7 buys only voucher site Spreets – news.com.au

Yahoo!7 acquires Spreets in $40m Deal – AdNews

Yahoo!7 buys group buying site for $40m – B&T

Yahoo!7 buys Spreets for $40m – mUmBRELLA

Yahoo!7 buys group buying site Spreets – iTWire

Yahoo!7 buys Spreets for $40m – Delimiter

Yahoo!7 snaps up Spreets for $40m – ZDNet

Spreets sold for $40 million in the biggest and fastest group buying deal of the year so far – Anthill Online

Yahoo!7 invests in retail – Inside Retailing

Yahoo!7 acquire Spreets for $40m – Startup Smart

brandsExclusive Congratulates Spreets and Yahoo!7 – brandsExclusive

Spreets acquired by Yahoo!7 for $40 million – Dynamic Business

Read the media release below for more info:

Group buying site Spreets receives $2 million investment and joins forces with brandsExclusive in new billion dollar industry

Australia’s first group buying site Spreets (www.spreets.com.au) has received $2 million in funding, with backing from two major European investors, Klaus Hommels and Oliver Jung.

Hommels, whose investments include Facebook and Skype, and Jung are currently concentrating their efforts on group buying sites around the world.

This new type of venture uses the power of social networks to offer significant discounts to consumers, while promoting local businesses. National deals start today with an offer from hip noodle-house Wagamama. Buy a $7 Spreets voucher and get $20 to spend in the restaurants. Groupon (www.groupon.com) in the USA is the world industry leader, valued at more than $1 billion after just 18 months.

Leading Spreets are some of Australia’s most respected entrepreneurs, Dean McEvoy, Phil Morle and Justus Hammer. McEvoy’s first business, Booking Angel (www.bookingangel.com), a restaurant booking system, was voted #7 in the BRW top100 web 2.0 businesses.

Previously CTO of music-sharing site Kazaa, Morle is now director of web venture incubator, Pollenizer (www.pollenizer.com). Pollenizer is renowned for its ability to bring focus to ideas and help develop them into successful businesses.

Online marketing expert Justus Hammer, who helped build GetPrice (www.getprice.com.au) into Australia’s leading shopping comparison site, gave up a senior position at Google to join the Spreets team. “I called Google up on what was meant to be my first day and told them I had a better offer. Spreets is a once in a lifetime opportunity”

Today, Spreets launches with a new design and announces an ongoing partnership with shopping club brandsExclusive (www.brandsexclusive.com.au). brandsExclusive’s 350,000+ active members quickly benefit with instant access to Spreets offers nationwide. “We offer premium fashion and lifestyle products at up to 70% off,” says founder Daniel Jarosch. “So when we came across Spreets we knew it was the perfect fit”.

Spreets has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with plans to open in Perth already underway. “In this competitive and fast-growing space we’re not just about daily deals, we’re about helping busy people discover things they never knew they loved,” says McEvoy.

Sign up at Spreets to have deals delivered direct to your inbox.

Follow Spreets on Twitter and Facebook

At present there are over 400 million active users of Facebook worldwide, and 50% of those active users log on daily (Facebook Press room).

So it’s no surprise that businesses are now using Facebook groups and pages to promote their goods and/or services.

But what are the differences between the two? And which is more appropriate for your business?

A quick search tells you that groups allow their members “to connect, share and even collaborate on a given topic or idea.”

Meanwhile, Facebook pages help “define the identities of the people and brands with which you interact.”

But what does this mean in a practical sense? This is what I’ve discovered;

1. Facebook groups are a space designed for personal interaction to harvest deeper discussion between users about a particular topic area. If you want consumers to become more of a community where they can organise themselves and communicate easily, in relation to a particular topic area, then groups are for you.
2. Facebook pages are used to build a fan base for users to congregate to; and where public figures/organisations can broadcast information to their fans. If you’re aiming to create brand or product awareness and want to target specific types of consumers, then pages are for you.

Here is a table outlining more specific differences;

Although the book mostly markets itself to workers keen to stand out within an organization, there are important transferable messages for entrepreneurs.

In Linchpin Seth introduces a new way of thinking around artistry. An artist, he says, is not just someone who creates works with paint, clay or photos. An artist can be anyone, in any industry. What makes them an artist is the passion and ambition with which they work. If you adopt this artist mindset and approach, you eventually become a linchpin (and, as Seth argues, successful).

Entrepreneurs are, in many ways, artists by definition – wanting to create something new and different. But as we know, there are successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful ones. So what’s the difference? Seth discuss some fundamental attributes:

Artists ship their ideas out early and often
Successful workers don’t get to where they are by being perfectionists. They launch early, fail fast and learn even faster. They aren’t afraid of getting laughed at.

Artists say No to the Resistance
The Resistance (image below) is the little voice in the back of your head which talks you out of doing something. Successful people have the guts to say no to the resistance, and take the leap.

Artists choose to do the work
Artists have control over their work. They’re the ones that put in the 10,000 hours. They’re the ones who decide to make sacrifices in order to get the work done.

Artists give gifts
They know it’s the little unasked extras which make the difference between a good service and a great one. People like extras. They’ll come back wanting more. And one day, they’ll pay for your services, and even wait in line.

Artists do things differently
Artists aren’t cookie-cutter compliant. They respectfully challenge the rules, and dare to live outside the square.

And in the end, this is Seth’s main point. He urges you to stand out. Don’t be scared to be different – from your friends, your colleagues, your family. Give your startup its best chance of success, and put it out there. You never know, you might just succeed.

Have you read Linchpin? What are your thoughts?

And for more on this approach, download Seth’s manifesto Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent from Change This.