- How to choose the right project.
I don't know if you're like me,
but I've probably got about 50 different domains
for projects that I'd like to start,
and at some point I need to decide,
which one am I gonna pursue?
You know, I think that's the biggest challenge
as an entrepreneur that has a lot of ideas,
a lot of creative juices is,
we can start a lot things,
but at some point, you're gonna have to pick the right one.
And what I wanna share with you guys today is
three strategies that I use
to figure out which projects I work.
Now, I've been fortunate enough to have built,
you know, two venture-backed companies,
but in the beginning of starting those,
I actually had about two or three other projects
that I was doing in parallel,
and then I eventually chose the one
that became that start-up.
You know recently, Clarity, my last company, was acquired,
but when I started that,
I had PhotoVino, and another app called Secret Sender.
And I tell you that, guys, to give you some context,
but I totally get what you're going through,
if you're currently working on multiple projects,
I've been there, and these three strategies
will really help you pick the right ones.
The first one is, what trend is going on in the industry
that makes your idea the right one to pursue?
You know, like, when I'm thinking
of companies I've invested in,
as an Angel Investor,
I've invested in about 30 plus companies,
and the question I love to ask the founders is, why now?
Why that idea, now in this market?
So think about it for your idea, and your project,
what is it about the current state of trends,
and if you haven't seen Mary Meeker's Internet Trends,
she does it every year,
so just search Internet Trends Mary Meeker,
she gives the data to support the different trends.
So you wanna kinda figure out
what's going on in the market that you can map to,
that your project or idea feels like
it's gonna be an upward trend.
Because it doesn't matter, you know,
if you're 2008 and starting a social media website,
if you follow, or if you kind of rode that trend line,
you know, high tides raise all boats,
you would've done well,
and I was fortunate to start Flowtown in 2008,
a social marketing tool,
and we got acquired in 2011,
because we were part of that trend.
That whole thing, the whole market was going up.
Your idea, your project in that,
and that's the way you wanna do it.
So why now, what trend?
Answer that question.
That's step one to figuring out
which project to filter through.
If that one looks good, the second one is
what domain expertise do you have, that's unique?
What are uniquely qualify,
what experience do you have previously, that makes you,
this is the other question I ask, the right person?
Why you?
Why should you be the one solving this problem?
What have you done in your life?
Where have you worked?
What experience do you have?
What hobbies do you have?
You know, I still remember the conversation
I had with Laura Fitton.
She was the founder of a company called oneforty,
which was, back in the day,
I think it was 2008, 2009, the app store for Twitter.
And you know, when you think about unfair advantages,
here's a person that not only had a huge
following on Twitter,
but she owned oneforty.com,
which is a pretty amazing domain,
she just finished writing the book Twitter for Dummies,
so super deep domain knowledge,
and huge audience and reach,
and when you ask yourself, who better in the world,
somebody more passionate than Laura,
or more domain experience,
you couldn't have found anybody to execute on that problem,
and that's why a couple years later
they got acquired by Hubspot.
So I share that with you guys,
because I really think that you need to ask yourself
what have you done,
and why are you the right person to solve this problem?
And then the third thing.
If you get through those first two filters,
the third is, what are you most passionate about?
I know we talk about passion, but here's why.
You know, when you think about projects, the one,
Steve Jobs said this best.
He says, "You know, it's not about passion
"just because you wanna be excited about going to work,
"but it's about passion,
"because when things just seem
"like they're not gonna work out,
"when the whole world is against you,
"when every idea seems to fail,
"it's the ones that are most passionate about the idea
"that are gonna pursue it, that are gonna persist,
"and those are the ones that are gonna have success."
It's almost like, you know, are you crazy?
Are you a little insane?
Because from the outside world, from normal people,
your pursuit looks a little crazy.
But for me, the reason why it's important to have that,
is because it should energize you.
You know, if you have three different projects,
one's kind of like, a really great idea,
but you're not really passionate about it,
the other one, maybe on the outside
it doesn't look like a great idea,
but for you, and your alignment, and your vision,
and what you want to do in the world,
it is the one that gets you energized, and excited,
and jumping out of bed in the morning.
That's the one you're gonna wanna follow.
So those are the three areas.
The what trend?
Why now?
You know, what domain expertise you have, why you?
Or what are you most passionate about,
or which one gets you most energized?
Those are my three strategies
for choosing what projects to pursue.
I hope you found that useful.
Please like this video, and leave a comment below,
and let me know what project's exciting you right now.
I'd love to hear from you guys below in the comments.
I wanna challenge you all
to live a bigger life, and a bigger business,
and I'll see you guys next Monday.