Start Changing Something Trivial

“People are impressed not when you succeed economically, but when you make difference in the world. We are engineers who are committed to our profession. Our dream is to create a product that will be used by millions of people,” said Adobe Systems co-founder Charles Geschke, whose popular programs include PhotoShop, Acrobat and Adobe Illustrator.

An author of this book and co-founder of a company that finances venture start-ups said, “People use software you created as if they were already there.” In response, Geschke said, “I really like that fact.”

Who created the e-mails, blogs, search engines, online payment systems, and Web 2.0 that have turned the 21st Century into the century of the Internet? Who came up with these revolutionary ideas and how did their companies succeed? This thick 670-page book has a rather simple theme and story-telling structure. The author interviewed all 32 creators of “ideas that changed the world” to write the book. The book looks at successful venture companies such as Apple, Yahoo!, Adobe, Hotmail and Google.

How these companies managed to start their businesses and successfully conduct themselves in their initial startup period, which is very important. The 32 CEOs talk about how they started their business in a frank manner and along the way. “Something magical happens,” according to the author.

The 32 CEOs share a few commonalities. They did not have grand aspirations, but were determined to change or fix something inconvenient or broken. Sabeer Bhatia, co- founder of the Hotmail e-mail service, was exchanging e-mails with another co-founder, Jack Smith, to develop a program in the middle of the 1990s. Because Smith had quit his job, he was working from home, while Bhatia was at his office. Back then, people had to connect to a modem to connect to a mail server, but due to a firewall at Bhatia’s office, he could not communicate with Smith using e-mail. Taking advantage of the availability of the web-browser as long as it was connected to the Internet, they invented Hotmail.

Genuine ideas are not a necessary and sufficient condition for success. Another common feature among start-up founders is that they were up against resistance from in and out of their companies, and had difficulty getting credit for opening up their businesses. Paul Buchheit, the lead developer of Google’s web-based email client Gmail, used to work for Google, a firm that encourages its employees to think creatively. But as its main focus was search functions, his idea was subject to controversy. His e-mail system was revolutionary because it allowed people to in e-mail messages, but he was living under the fear that his project could have been cancelled. Hotmail’s Bhatia, in the meantime, saw his company was appreciated way below its actual value because of a malicious investor he ran across. It is notable that Hotmail was acquired by Microsoft for $400 million even though the initial price offer was $160 million. The initial price was large already, but Hotmail founders were able to negotiate the price by successfully offering a counter-proposition, citing that there was little chance of others developing similar technology.

Another common characteristic of the successful founders was that they continued to pursue innovation and were never content with what they had. Adobe Systems successfully enabled connecting computers and printers freely by networking them, but did not stop there, and worked on Adobe Illustrator, making it possible for graphic artists to use pen and ink to draw. Geschke said, “All products will have their peaks and troughs, so you have to make investments for five and ten years from now.”

Insightful quotes from other visionary venture founders are mentioned in the book and include: “Do not try to change the behavior of users. People do not want to do that. You have to make them feel like it is a little change. When change is little but critical, the possibility of making it will go up.”

“Success lies in things that are simple. What we created was nothing extraordinary. We integrated a few functions to create something really simple, because that is where the real power comes from.”

“If you want to catch a duck, you should shoot not where ducks are herded, but in the direction they fly. If you focus on current market situations, by the time you introduce your product to the market, there will be already many competitors.”

All these quotes based on their experiences are truly timeless maxims.

zeitung@donga.com