Pollenizer: Building and Investing In Australian Web Startups

Pollenizer was approached Chris Gray in June to run a focus workshop for a web business Chris had founded (working title ‘Pledgespace’). In the first half of the 4 hour workshop we worked on customer discovery (micro-segments, customer values, creating 10 X value). We iterated on this process to create a focused customer development plan. [...]

Briefly, I mentioned a quick business idea to Dean and Justus from Spreets. It was an alternate way to use the same technology to grow a new revenue stream. Dean’s response; “One day, but right now, I’m not wasting a single second or cent chasing anything else.” Great answer. It doesn’t cost much or take [...]

More often than not, we have a lot on our plates. Usually when this happens, it’s very easy to be tempted by distractions. I found this blog post by Darren (which is aimed at bloggers, but applicable to web businesses) at problogger.net truthful and interesting. It can be difficult to remain focused when you’re constantly [...]

Below is a short video of Donald Trump at the Real Estate Wealth Expo in Los Angeles in 2007, answering a question about focus and his own experiences. Focus is important to not only new businesses and entrepreneurs but those who are ‘old-hands’, who may lose sight and become complacent due to a lack of [...]

Social media enterprise 3eep experienced the depth and breadth of Pollenizer’s expertise in getting its online community SportsPassion off the ground. From technology strategy and implementation to product and market development, the Pollenizer team played an integral part. SportsPassion’s suite of free online community tools allow team managers and teammates to better communicate and collaborate, [...]

Based in Barcelona, Linqia used Pollenizer for a technology assessment, product focus and QA. Linqia defines itself as “The Social Network Marketplace” and connects brands and their agencies with social networks. “As a start-up with limited funding and access to top talent, we were fortunate to cross paths with the Pollenizer team who could offer [...]

I often get asked what’s the real value of ‘theoretical’ type business planning for a nascent start-up. The question that usually pops up is: why would anyone want to spend time painstakingly planning when circumstances are so uncertain? Questioning planning is only natural. After all planning takes time, the output is ‘soft’ and generally slows [...]

UPDATE: The March Workshop is sold out, so here is the April Web Focus Workshop registration details.

‘Sr. Bee meets Sr. Sunflower‘ by robstephaustralia via FlickrImage is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence Some quick thoughts on one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur (or intrapreneur) – holding both a big vision and a brutal focus in your mind at the same time. They sound like contradictions and [...]

I was cruising the Demopit at Techcrunch50 and spotted Tim O’Reilly a serious tech veteran and celebrity. I thought I’d stop him and get his thoughts on focus. Of course I’d sure he’d give us sage advice on why they should be brutally focused. I was wrong. Tim O’Reilly On Why Startups Need to Explore [...]