Got an idea? We’ll help you lasso the moon.
3 min read - by Jon Busby - CTO
Why we should all try entrepreneurial thinking, and three examples of why it works.
We all have our comfort zones. We’re all busy dealing with the day-to-day stuff.
That being the case, sometimes it can be tempting to just stick with what we know; to go with the status quo. But while it’s tough finding time to indulge, explore and experiment with new ideas and innovations, it’s also important. Very.
Especially these days, when opportunities often come and go in the blinking of an eye.
And the thing is, we all have ideas. In the shower. On the commute. Even in our dreams. (Do you keep a notepad next to the bed? I know I do.) And while such notions don’t often come to fruition, a quick look at what happens when they do shows just how valuable they can be.
Not convinced? Try these:
1. Gmail
Gmail began life thanks to one engineer – Paul Buchheit – and his frustrations with trying to find particular emails. Using Google’s own technology, Buchheit created a search engine for his own inbox and showed it to a few colleagues. They wanted it too. The rest is history. (Check out the overview in Time).
Value today? Erm, well, massive. And its influence is almost incalculable.
2. Slack
One of the fasted growing companies in Silicon Valley for the last three years running and a very big noise in internal communications and business collaboration, Slack started rather more quietly. In fact, it stemmed quite literally, from a ‘Tiny Speck’.
2011 saw Tiny Speck, an online gaming company, build a 2D browser-based game called ‘Glitch’. It failed the following year. But during its development the company had also built a range of pretty cool internal messaging tools. In 2013 these became ‘Slack’. Its marketshare since has been anything but. (See the FastCompany overview).
Value today? $1 billion plus.
3. Facebook’s ‘Like’ function
It’s hard to imagine Facebook without its ‘Like’ button, but it was actually four whole years after FB’s launch in 2005 that ‘Like’ first made an appearance.
Originally dubbed the ‘awesome button’, the idea emerged during an internal hackathon in 2007 and it very nearly never saw the light of day thanks to being vetoed at a ‘Zuck’ review. Nuff said. (Though there’s a great overview over at Quora)
Value today? A mere $410 billion.
Here’s the point. Every idea is worth consideration. Good ideas needn’t be new ideas. And great ideas needn’t be big ones (look how much value ‘Like’ has managed to add to the online media universe.) We’ll leave you with one final thought though:
Great ideas are worthless without execution
To put it slightly differently, by itself an idea is worthless. But combined with successful execution, an idea can change the world.
Here at twogether, we truly believe that’s what marketing is all about. Ideas, well executed. It’s how we bring technology to life.
So if you’ve had a brainwave – however small or insignificant you might think it is – we want to hear about it and help make it a reality.