I work closely with an outstanding man named Rod Underhill. Rod was a co-founder of MP3.com, the early dotcom rocketship that IPO'd for over $2 billion and ended up selling for $450 million. Rod often talks of the business prowess of Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com. Because of this high praise, when I can take something from Michael's brain, I jump at the opportunity.
I just read an interview of Michael Robertson about his new startup SIPphone. The interview itself is very informative. Michael talks about business models, he talks about open standards, and why MP3.com was such a big hit. He justified my theory of digital business models being the best businesses to start. A little creativity can go a long way.
"I like businesses that are purely digital, which can really change the whole economic structure. What I mean by pure digital is things you can digitize and shoot around on the Internet, such as news, music, videos, and phone calls. You can't shoot a pair of shoes, or a loaf of bread, or physical goods like that. If you can digitize it by moving to the Internet, it's going to happen. And with that change, it knocks out old incumbents and makes new room at the table for new leaders. You get a seat at the table with adults and make some money during that transition period. The businesses I do are pretty obvious to me because they are all about digitizing an industry that previously was more offline, and moving those industries 100 percent online."
Read the Michael Robertson interview here.
One last quote for your reading pleasure. I love the way this guy thinks!
"As an entrepreneur, stop talking about it, go do it!" ... "If you don't have a URL, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to read about your vaporware plans in the paper. You have to be different, and you have to move and move quickly."
Labels: entrepreneur