La revue Obscura a décidé de se consacrer au CEO de Nike : Mark Parker et précisément sur son nouveau bureau situé au siège de la marque dans l’Oregon. Alors que nous avions présenté en exclusivité sur Fubiz l’ancienne version, le bureau rénové fourmille de pièces de collection et de références à Nike.
Como é ter uma idéia e transformá-la em uma empresa bem sucedida? Para responder isto (e me desculpar pelo corrido post de ontem), fui conversar com Mark Lawrence, fundador e CEO do SpotHero, um serviço que procura vagas de estacionamento próximas ao local onde você está ou precisa ir aqui em Chicago e permite a reserva e barganha. Tudo online e fácil. Não é exatamente a primeira empresa a ter esta idéia no mundo (o B9 já comentou sobre uma iniciativa similar em San Francisco), mas com certeza vem fazendo um barulho aqui na cidade e, claro, tem potencial para expandir-se e ganhar usuários em outros locais.
O SpotHero começou a ser desenvolvido em outubro de 2010 e somente foi lançado em julho de 2011. No começo, ao invés de ir direto aos grandes estacionamentos da cidade, a idéia foi negociar com proprietários individuais, negociando vaga a vaga, aos poucos. Quando perguntei se esta era a sua primeira tentativa de montar uma empresa, Lawrence explicou que sim, mas que já teve outros negócios, comparáveis com ‘barracas de limonada’.
Em 2012, o pequeno negócio ganhou seu primeiro aporte. A empresa foi uma das 10 selecionadas para participar da aceleradora Excelerate. Sobre a experiência, Lawrence a descreve como “incrível e totalmente válida”. “As empresas ganham um investimento de 25.000 dólares por 6% de participação, mais 50.000 dólares em dívidas convertíveis, além de todo o processo de mentoria da aceleradora”, explica.
A aceleradora geralmente escolhe serviços que já estejam minimamente constituídos, precisando de uma força para tornarem-se grandes negócios, ou ganhar escala. Para o Spot Hero, valeu o fato de ter o serviço disponível antes de iniciar o processo da Excelerate.
Em pouco mais de um ano de operação, portanto, o site conta hoje com 250.000 acessos por mês hoje em dia e tende a ficar mais conhecido localmente, pouco a pouco e crescer. Chicago tem algumas semelhanças com as cidades brasileiras, e uma delas é o fato de muitas pessoas utilizarem carro para se locomover em detrimento do transporte público. Trata-se portanto de um serviço útil.
Outra coisa que ajuda são os fortes investimentos que chegam à cidade, com total apoio de governo e prefeitura locais. Perguntei se este foi um fator que pesou na escolha por Chicago, mas Lawrence disse que não. “Somos de Chicago, tínhamos um problema para resolver que era um problema pessoal, que conhecíamos. Aproveitamos o bom momento que a cidade vive, com esta incrível ajuda à comunidade de startups”.
Ainda sobre Chicago, Lawrence ainda comenta que são poucos os serviços conhecidos do grande público, como os do Vale do Silício. Mas há uma série de startups e oportunidades para soluções para grandes empresas e que elas têm se saído muito bem.
Finalmente, pergunto sobre o plano de expansão da empresa. “Pensamos em expandir para Milwaukee e Washington D.C. Numa segunda etapa, pensamos em expandir para o Canadá e Inglaterra”. Brasil? Talvez no futuro, mas Lawrence admite que não é um plano tão próximo. “(A expansão) é uma história a ser escrita ainda”.
Quando comento que há iniciativas brasileiras interessantes, mas que não contam com a ajuda de numerosos investidores e dos governos, Lawrence dá o seu recado final à entrevista: “Não é necessário ter um ambiente tão favorável para criar uma boa empresa. Não importa tanto. O principal é começar e quem dirá se a idéia vale a pena é seu consumidor”.
Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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It’s one of those tough predicaments: your client wants to be the spokesperson for your new TV spots…well, his new spots. He’s the man driving the company-the brand-no matter how much time you’ve put into it.
A very charismatic and charming man, unfortunately he’s “got a face for radio,” standing 5′ 5″ tall with wispy hair that seems to start in his ears and wind it’s away around the back of his bald head. From the looks of it, the ears have never seen a trim. (Yummy…)
CEO's Melon
You weigh the options; he’s definitely not stupid, so the whole “we need a perfect fit for the brand persona” BS angle is dead. In his mind he’s part of the brand’s image, and he is to an extent, just not the TV extent. If you tell him that, the account won’t be in jeopardy, but the relationship will be strained. Then again, saying that he’s the perfect fit is a straight-out lie. Plus, you’ll pay for it in terms of reputation and credibility. Slinky’s will start showing up in your office…to remind you of your backbone. So, what to do?
If you are thinking correctly, you’ll head down to Media and see if they can dig up research on the effects of CEO’s in TV commercials. (That’s what I’d do.) They won’t have the information, but they’ll have an idea on where, and how, to get it. Remember to always love your media department…
In this case, they provide you an Ad Week poll done on LinkedIn. According to the Ad Week article:
When a company uses the CEO in its advertising, do you find the message more credible, less credible, or does it make no difference? Overall, “makes no difference” won a plurality, with 49 percent of the vote. But “more credible” beat “less credible” by a wide margin, 36 percent to 14 percent.
The poll addresses other CEO characteristics such as age, company size, gender, etc, and is available on LinkedIn.
So, unless there’s another way out of it, it looks like your spots will revolve around the CEO. Yet, it could be worse…you could be working with kids and goats…
Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.
Craigslist may face criminal action in South Carolina unless the online classifieds service stops running ads the state says promote prostitution and pornography, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday.
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster probably never guessed that his name would be involved with murder, a sociopath, and angry Americans. After all, he simply ran a classified ad website…what kind of trouble could he get into?
Well, he may spend time in the big house if he is not careful…although it is highly doubtful. However, he has taken his share of legal and public flogging, so much so that he has responded via the Craigslist blog:
“When critics rush to tar craigslist as especially dangerous, it’s important to put things in perspective,” he writes. “Craigslist users have posted more than 1.15 billion classified ads to date, easily 1000x the combined total ever posted to the print publications involved in all of these ‘print ad murders.’”
In its “terms of use” section, Craigslist says it is not responsible for ads on its sites. Which is basically the same as the disclaimer that smoking can kill you on the outside of the cigarette box.
Sex on Craigslist is not hard to locate: Just go to the “personals” and look for the link that says “misc. romance and casual encounters.” Now it is true that Craigslist is not the first public “portal” that has been used for people trying to hook up for sexual activity…MySpace, Chat Rooms, AOL…they have all been exploited for sexual purposes. With any service that is used to put two people together that have never met, there is a good chance that the person you meet may not be the person that was portrayed. It’s one of the pitfalls of personal “online” branding: we have the ability to be who we want to be.
Mr. Buckmaster does have a valid point in that predators have found prey via other methods, and not just Craigslist. However, when newspapers used to run classified advertising, there were no pictures of naked women, no promises of sexual gratification-and if there were, they were veiled as something else entirely.
It’s really nobody’s fault anymore. Craigslist is just another company that is not responsible for the indirect damage they’ve enabled. The CEOs of banks, automakers, mortgage lenders…it’s not their fault, either. Let the public beware! After all, they were just trying to make a little money. So some people died. Other’s lost their life savings. It’s not our fault.
However, as the world becomes interconnected, some sort of responsibility must be taken by those that provide the means. We assume that others are as ethical (for better or worse) as we are, and it is not too much to ask for a little corporate responsibilty, as well. If someone was hurt on your property although being warned prior to the fact that danger existed, there would still be culpability inolved for having something of danger exposed to the public.
It’s not that I think Craigslist is guilty; rather, I feel that they should take some of the responsibility. Yet, the fact that Craigslist has entirely blamed everyone but themselves, and has even researched other murders that have happened via classified ads seems a bit caustic and a little too casual. Luckily, the killer was caught quickly…maybe at the beginning of a serial killing spree. What would Craigslist have done if there were ten murders?
Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
