Customer Reviews

Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The whole first part of the book is basically built around one idea: mobile phone based "communities" & social networks. He keeps reiterating the same point in different ways while promising to explain how to do any of the stuff he talks about in later chapters. The first hundred pages come off sounding like a commercial for the author's other chapters or other projects.

By the time you actually get to the later chapters you'll find them very weak on any substantively useful information or action steps to emulate. The whole project just seems rushed to capitalize on current Web trends and makes a hypothesis of dubious relevance.

I read a lot of business books, and Smart Start-Ups is one of the best I've read in a long time.

I'm extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and online communities, and David Silver's book makes 3 key points that really hit home with me on a personal level:

1) The historical perspective of "Second Age of Communities" and moving away from infrastructure building to community building. This idea was intuitive to me, but the analogy of past guilds/unions rising to power compared to the present growth of online communities gave me an immediate "ah-ha!" moment.

2) Online communities need multiple potential streams of revenue to succeed. David draws from a few proven business models (like Mary Kay) to give very useful ideas on monetization. The idea of creating float to fund online communities is also extremely powerful.

3) Online communities not only as a business opportunity, but as an artistic expression and social movement. This part is excellent. Many business writers tend to be more one-dimensional and I found it inspirational that David alludes to artistic and historical contexts within his book.

In addition to all the innovative ideas, Smart Start-Ups provides useful tools for assessing the robustness of business ideas using David's First Law of Entrepreneurship and the Eight DEJ Factors scores.

Smart Start-Ups is a must-read if you are at all interested in online communities and entrepreneurship. The historical context provided in the book gives entrepreneurs and investors conviction that online communities are a macro trend and not a mere fad, while the example business models give concrete ways to approach the market for many years to come.

I can't think of a more enlightening book on the topic of entrepreneurship applied to the world of online and mobile communities (can't quite figure out why or how the editors skipped the mention of the mobile component in the title of the book either).

I picked it up by pure accident at a bookstore one day and now it's become an essential reference as I am working on the development of an online community for people affected by diabetes at tudiabetes.com. Although I am not in complete agreement with some of the strategies presented, overall David Silver provides up and coming entrepreneurs with a chockfull of ideas that will keep you making notes as you go through the chapters.

As a veteran online communiteer, I highly recommend this book for anyone considering venturing into the online (or mobile) world to colonize new spaces as we enter the new era of the internet.

'Smart Start Ups' does start up smart: interesting possibilities to consider. But then, page after page is spent trying to convince you that the future is this one way street of online communities. Only in the final chapters does the author begin to unravel what you need to know the most: the 'how to do it' part. But once the book is finished you will still find yourself wondering how to get started.

On page 63 he makes the claim that if Telecoms want to stay in business they will need to switch to the real estate business and sell all their downtown property that houses their switches and where their employees work NOW. In the next three to five years, downtown land will be worthless because retail stores are moving online and people will be tele-commuting from their country homes. He also predicts the demise of many industries over the next 3-5 years: Advertising, Automobile, Insurance, Banking, Mortgages, Law, Movies, Music, Computers and more.

I was tracking with what he says until he started claiming that Telcos would go away and then he lost credibility with me.

Don't waste your money. The amount of actually helpful information could fit in a thimble. The concept of the book has a great deal of merit, but there is very little support for the principles outlined for setting up an online community. There are many excellent examples of online communities that are up and running (like Amazon.com!), yet there are almost no existing business models discussed and analyzed in this book. The author's principles for setting up a community are mentioned over and over again, with almost no support from existing business models or any in-depth discussion of why they make sense. The book contradicts itself by telling the reader not to place advertising on their site, then later recommends accepting advertising as a means to generate income. The last section of the book provides ideas for "online communities", but in my estimation, these are just ideas for online businesses that can generate income; most of them won't create the interchange of information, ideas, and support that are the hallmarks of an online community. I think the principles of this book could have been covered in the span of two chapters, maybe 50 pages. This is an excellent topic, I hope that someone will publish a stronger book on the subject that's actually supported by solid research.

This is one of those books that you dream about after you read it. Don't read it at night--you won't sleep.

Ever wonder why all these social networking sites keep getting bought for these outrageous sums of money? It's in this book. It's written as a blueprint for starting your own online community. These will be the cities of the future, as Mr. Silver observes. The city builders are starting to emerge now. Fortunes will be made. This is the instruction manual.

If you have any entrepreneurial tendencies, this book should be required reading.

If you buy one business book this year make sure it's Smart Start -Ups .

Author David Silver has over thirty years experience backing entrepreneurial companies,and it shows from the getgo.Silver's message is simple ,within 3 years Internet Communities will be seriously big business,names like MySpace,YouTube,Facebook have been sold for millions or are being offered millions of dollars.The success of these embryonic companies has been built on two primeval human instincts ,the need to search and share.In the past it was tribal hunting of game,now its information ,globally in real time.When citizens have the urge to search and share common data/information -Communities are formed-Online.The money will go to those forward thinking entrepreneurs who aggregate,those search and share hungry individuals into Online and more recently Mobile(phone) communities.Despite being a highly respected VC not only in the business but on the lecture circuit,David Silver,many times emphasises that very little venture capital or indeed business experience is essential.The beauty is that like the Weight Watchers business model ,the assets are the subscribers themselves!.Or as Silver puts it, think like this `'My Community will not incur cost of goods sold and my members will generate the data and pay me for the privilege of sharing it with other like minded members''.Pure and simple if you build it they will come in their mobbing digital droves,wagging their ,music,pictures,videos,stories, behind them.So what ? heres what! get enough millions of like minded people together and the bricks and mortar boys (traditional business),will have ready made customer bases.If you are smart enough You will be the one selling You Tube est 2005 selling it to Google for $1.3 billion in 2006.If you take the Initiative NOW,you will be positioned to take full advantage of the coming WEB 2.0 ,i.e the age of communities.

But putting it that simply does not do Smart Start-Ups justice.This book is refreshing in non prejudice detail,and glorious insight.I would recommend this book be referenced over and over ,by those budding `'Communiteers'' as Silver calls them.From raising Capital,to the rules for creating Successful online Communities,to Reputation management it's all here.Traditional business is reeling ,the online/mobile consumers like you and me are calling the shots.There is serious money to be made ,by giving people something simple online/mobile ,that something, a digital space to share a common interest.I cannot rate this book highly enough and recommend it more as a vital handbook-than to be ever left on a shelf.

"Out of the many business books this book has been the most influential, resourceful and eye opening business book that I have read thus far...

Smart Star-ups is a must read (& follow) book for people who wish to harness and leverage the power of the internet and mobiles to create communities that will have a positive impact on individuals, society and global awareness.

We used this book as a fundamental guide to develop our global online community YNS.ME. Smart Stat Ups allowed us to ensure that we feature all the critical components that an online community requires to operate at the highest level for maximum effectiveness. David's way of addressing the key aspects involved in forming an effective online & mobile community allows any person who is open minded, driven and wishes to build a community around their passion or interest to create a multi million dollar venture.

David creates a sense of optimism, and encourages imagination of the possibilities plus technical know how. This helps you to overcome early obstacles and negative feedback that usually would be giant road blocks to any driven entrepreneur.

Even if your desire isn't to create an online community, reading this book will provide insight into the way people will search and communicate with others , gather information and meet people in the real world in the following years.

David thank you for your time, energy and commitment to writing this book, it will no doubt empower the people who create communities which will indirectly impact millions of people who are apart of the organisation."

My Favourite Quotes

"And the communities that encourage physical meetings of their members are among the smartest of start-ups." - David Silver

"..the age of communities will rely on persuading people to share." - David Silver

"Advertising will play a very small role in the age of communities. The wisdom of crowds will replace it." - David Silver

"never, never discuss funding, or capital that you may have raised. If asked about it, answer in this way" "We're member supported."- David Silver

Over the last couple of years I've become increasingly interested in social networking, but I really became anchored to the potential of this business arena when a friend of mine was funded for her new social networking endeavor, to the tune of $500,000, and asked me to help her with her marketing. During our discussions, she told me that reading this book essential if I wanted to truly understand the potential of social networking. I read it. I was blown away!

Whether you're working with a new start-up, an existing company, or you'd like to tap into the lucrative, and exponential growth potential of online social networks by starting your own business, this book is a MUST READ.