Graeme Thickins On Tech Start-Ups and Web 2.0

Graeme Thickins took the time to speak with us on his experience over the years watching start-ups come and go and Internet technology evolve. Graeme is a tech startup VP of marketing, longtime marketing consultant, startup advisor, content professional, new media strategist, writer, blogger…and surfer. Graeme is the founder of GT&A Strategic Marketing and also a new media consultant, with NewMediaWise.

Graeme is a popular blogger at Tech~Surf~Blog and New Media Wise. He also is an avid Twitterer who was named to the Top Analysts Who Twitter list on Technobabble.

StackSafe: You have seen so many tech companies start-up, what are the signs of a successful start-up?

Graeme Thickins: Having worked with more than 100 technology startups over more than 25 years, I’ve found that the most important attributes for success are these:

1. the intensity, vision, enthusiasm, and persistence of the CEO;
2. the quality of the team the CEO is able build around him or her;
3. the ability of the CEO (and the team) to articulate that vision, and to communicate it with clarity, substance, and style;
4. the ability of that team to constantly be selling forward, so customers really believe the promise of where the company’s vision will take them; and — note this point is purposely last –
5. a unique product or technology that is defensible and differentiated in the marketplace, which, along with the other points above, all contribute to a company’s ability to develop a brand and build lasting value.

StackSafe: What do you see as the biggest trend for start-up companies over the past six years you have attended DEMO?

Graeme Thickins: Undoubtedly, the two most important, broad trends are consumer web services, offering the promise of improving our lives and increasing our productivity, and, of course, anything to do with mobile communications and applications, which extend the web even further, and into the hands of literally billions more people.

StackSafe: What advice do you have for enterprise IT organizations who are looking for the “next great thing”?

Graeme Thickins: I would tell them to look to advances being made in consumer web services. It’s one of the most important trends in 2008 and beyond: consumer IT really has started to lead enterprise IT. We see it in things like the iPhone, and any number of Web 2.0 consumer services that are gaining in popularity, leading us to a whole new world of “Enterprise 2.0″ and collaboration in business.

StackSafe: How can Web 2.0 tactics be used as marketing tools for start-up companies in the B2B IT world?

Graeme Thickins: Well, the obvious one, first and foremost, is a blog. I seriously cannot think of a technology startup today that can’t benefit from having the entire founding team contributing to a multi-author blog. I’ve even seen several great examples of startups blogging pre-launch — that is, while they’re still essentially in stealth mode!

Yes, it can be effective even in these cases, as it helps in the process of starting to spread buzz about the team, in building a sense of excitement for what’s coming, and, of course (which may be the biggest reason for any company to be blogging), it can juice the company’s SEO bigtime, as long as it’s updated frequently.

Beyond blogging, though, just being active in social media I think is very, very important for the team, especially (but not limited to) Internet-related startups. By this I mean LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, FriendFeed — whatever your favorite flavor.

This is the new marketing, and startups who do not see how blogging and social media are changing the whole landscape of PR and marketing should get help, now, if they aren’t already diving in head-first to engage socially on the web. It’s a critical part of startup marketing and customer communications today, and it’s only going to get more important. The best part of all? It doesn’t cost much!

StackSafe: As a user of “web 2.0 technologies”, what are your thoughts on the downtime issues exhibited by several of the “web 2.0″ players over the last year?

Graeme Thickins: You know, I really don’t worry about it too much. I have faith that our very smart developers out there today will scale these applications over time. Yes, even Twitter — especially Twitter! I think it’s just an amazing new medium for communication and networking. And those are the two things that make my world (and that of my startups) go round…

StackSafe: What are your thoughts of adoption of web2.0 technologies into the enterprise?

Graeme Thickins: I think this is an extremely exciting new world of opportunity, for both startups and the enterprises themselves. I attended a really excellent first-year conference last fall called “Defrag“, which was focused on this space — including such topics as new collaboration technologies and social networking within the enterprise. It was a huge success, with a stellar list of luminaries attending and speaking. And it will be even bigger and better this November. [Contact me and I'll even give you my discount code... ] Again, the consumer and Web 2.0 is leading the enterprise. C-level execs who don’t appreciate this trend do so at their own peril.

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Filed Under: Interviews, Interviews-Analysts, Interviews-Bloggers