The Last Startup: Our Quest for a Process to Disrupt Everything
19
THE LAST STARTUP HOW THE SWAN FACTORY PLANS TO DISRUPT EVERYTHING – INCLUDING US! January 2015
-
Upload
dr-ernie-prabhakar -
Category
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
-
view
619 -
download
0
Transcript of The Last Startup: Our Quest for a Process to Disrupt Everything
THE LAST STARTUPHOW THE SWAN FACTORY PLANS
TO DISRUPT EVERYTHING – INCLUDING US!
January 2015
Ernest Prabhakar
Studied Physics for eleven years
S.B. MIT, 1988
Ph.D. Caltech, 1995
Studied Disruption for nineteen years
Boston Consulting Group, 1995 - 1997
Apple Product Marketing, 1997 - 2014
THE THEORY
Disruption
“Disruption happens when the strong are defeated by
the weak. More precisely it’s when those with
unconstrained access to resources have them taken
away by those with minimal or no resources.”
– Horace Dediu, Christensen Institute
http://www.asymco.com/2014/06/25/the-disruption-
faq/
Why Disruption Matters
“To be for disruption is to be for consumer choice,
for more people being served, and for shrinking
inequality.”
– Marc Andreesen, a16z
https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/539828973413228
545
The Hypothesis
Can we design a
repeatable, scalable & reliable
process for creating disruption?
Scarce Resources How To Get More
1 Novel Perspectives Recruit for Diversity
2 Idealistic Founders Hire for Values
3 “Simpler” Technology Appify Development
4 Bootstrap Market Relaunch Continuously
5 Courageous Capital Invest Internally
THE EXPERIMENT
100 Days Ago
Left Apple after 17 years
Eyewitness to the most amazing turnaround in
computing history.
Launched The Swan Factory, Inc.
Self-funded for three months to test my
hypothesis
1. Recruit for Diversity
Dr. Ernie, Overall Amy, Investors Dr. Andrew, Educators
Joe, OnlineWhitney, Collaboration Audrey, MediaDavid, Documentation
Daniel, Programmers
2. Hire for Values
Apple Christian Fellowship
The “Swanifesto”
Bring the Kingdom of God to Humanity via
Transformational Work
Bring Programming to Humanity via Meaningful
Experiences
Humanity: Relationships, Listening, Trust
Programming: Inspiration, Iteration, Preparation
Meaningful Experience: Initiate, Lead, Share
3. Appify Development
Experts Amateurs
Category Tool Product
Adoption Taught Learned
Focus Mechanics Concepts
Format Language Dictionary
4. Relaunch Continuously
Fast Cycles: 1 Month Research + 3 Months Development
Oct 1 - Dec 10, 2014: Hour of Node
Dec 27 - Mar 27, 2015: Self Service Kiosk
Simultaneously pursue multiple potential “exits”
Client contract with other startups
Standalone “cash cow” business
Asset acquisition to existing companies
5. Invest Internally
Scale horizontally by bootstrapping more teams
Manage excess profit via next-generation
democratic processes
Tithe 10% to non-profit holding core IP
Save 10% to internal “bank” for new ventures
Give the rest back to shareholders
THE DREAM
The Ask
$600K over two years
$100K per iteration
So we can take equity in promising startups
instead of paying clients
Goal is to become self-sufficient in two years
Ideally never need venture funding or IPO
Generate cash from spinoffs and joint ventures
Disrupt Everything
Startups / Software Industry / Venture Capital
Capitalism / Politics
Work / Culture
Us!
Success is making ourselves obsolete
