Month: April 2011

When the Verizon iPhone came out I immediately picked one up after struggling with Att for years.

Yes the voice network is better on Verizon. At least in the places i travel most in the united states.

But on Friday I switched back to Att.

I switched for a number of reasons

-the inability to use data while on a call is frustrating. I tether my MacBook air to my phone and so this limitation sucks. Or when Im talking to Lauren and we are trying to choose a restaurant. Or talking about a business deal and I can’t talk and review a document that the sender wants me to review.

-Verizon may have a better voice network but it’s I felt the speed difference on the data side. 3G on Verizon is much slower than Att. And I often saw my Verizon phone in 2g mode.

-I get out if the united states a few times a year. In that scenario the Verizon iPhone turns into an iPod touch. Not what I need.

-and lastly the Verizon iPhone felt like prison. I like the ability to move my sim card to different handsets and try new devices. Last week i was at dinner with Peter Rojas and he showed me the new gsm Motorola Android phone. I can’t just pick up that phone and give it a try with Verizon. I’m locked in tight.

So I’m back. I’m back to a faster and more flexible place. And I’m at peace with the trade off.

(excuse any typos. wrote this on my phone)

Ultimately every startup has to decide who is their customer. That priority needs to take precedent over all other decisions even if it means giving up “low hanging fruit”.

When I meet a startup that says we are building a consumer app and also a white label app, my first reaction is to cringe.

There is nothing wrong with a b2b or white label business. And certainly there is nothing wrong with building consumer apps. But to try to do both is beyond challenging.

When I provide this feedback, some folks agree with me and others disagree. Those that disagree sometimes tell me it would have been better if Twitter also built an enterprise version of Twitter and a carrier product as well.

And then we end up agreeing to disagree.

I feel pretty strongly about this. One of the reasons I think Apple is so successful is that they are focused entirely on the end user.

John Chambers, the Cisco CEO recently wrote a memo about their challenges. The consensus seems to be that they took their eye off the networking ball by straying into new markets.

Take a look at Cisco’s consumer products like a typical Linksys router and compare it with an Apple Airport Extreme and you can tell who is focused on telcos/service providers and who is focused on the consumer.

I’m not trying to disrespect Cisco. They are an amazing company with terrific people and will continue to have a successful business for years to come.

But Cisco is an example that even companies with huge balance sheets have a tough time focusing on two different customer types.

There are exceptions. Take Amazon. Amazon.com is one of my favorite ecommerce sites online. They are hyper focused on the user. But Amazon Web Services is all about developers and businesses. This is highly unusual but they have made it work beautifully.

Startups are constantly racing against the clock. THey don’t have the resources of a Cisco or Amazon to experiment with multiple customers. The majority of startups need to be hyperfocused.

So pick your customer ignore all the temptations.

We have a number of startups in our portfolio that build iOS and Android apps.

To my knowledge, none of them pay for traffic to their apps.

But they constantly get pitched by different 3rd parties with the promise of better exposure and distribution in the app store. 

Some offer to buy low cost traffic on Google adwords and then deep link into iTunes.

Others have cross platform in-app ad networks that distribute apps.

Others have figured out ways to “optimize” within the rules of various app stores.

I know plenty of big and small companies that pay for distribution. And it’s quite possible and maybe inevitable that our portfolio companies will pay as well. Maybe some of them already do this and I’m just not aware of it. 

But it’s a bit sad to me. The notion of an app store has many flaws – most notably that Apple can block or hold up a new app from their users. But I did appreciate that an individual can build a meaningful business by building an app. If current trends continue I worry that this will become much more difficult.

I hope I’m wrong. Social networks, blogs and other social apps should continue to provide the most meaningful and important sources of traffic to your apps. If my friend tells me to try out an app, I’m gonna do it. 

But everything I hear is that these optimization and paid techniques will become key things to consider to getting your app out there.

So perhaps I’m just being naive. 

What do you think? Will the highest bidder get the most exposure as we saw with Facebook apps. Or can a meritocracy win out in the end?