Below are two vsnap thumbnails. Which vsnap would you prefer to watch?
Emotionally, you are drawn to click on the first photo. With the second photo though, emotionally you are slightly repelled. And those reactions will be pretty much universal. This is because the human brain is very sophisticated in terms of responding to facial expressions. In other words, this is not superficial stuff — it’s actually written into our neuroanatomy.
So, to create more effective vsnaps, look at the camera and smile before you press the record button. Then hold that smile until recording starts. This will give you a thumbnail that people are drawn to click on.
This particularly matters when you’re recording your signature vsnap, since that thumbnail will be featured in the actual email notifications that recipients receive. If you don’t know about signature vsnaps, here’s a short post to help you with the details: Signature Vsnap 101.
Note - the start of recording is a little bit different on the mobile apps than on the web application. On mobile, recording starts right after you hit the record button, and you’ll see the counter on your screen. On the web, there is a red “3-2-1” countdown and then recording actually begins when the audio bar (on the right side of your recording frame) comes to life.
“Back to the Bat Cave, Robin!” That’s in almost every episode of Batman that I’ve overheard while making my kids’ breakfast.
“Back to the lab, without a mic to grab…” That’s Eric B. and Rakim from one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever. No, I won’t send a vsnap with me performing the whole song, but here’s the YouTube video:
“Back to the Tree Fort, Team!“ That’s me, today, to the Vsnap team after learning that Vsnap has been named a Finalist for the 2012 MassChallenge Accelerator. We are stoked. Tons of work to do. Gotta go!
But first …
Sincere thanks to all the judges for committing their time to vet the applicants.
Sincere thanks to the Governor and Mayor for their political leadership, and to Joe Fallon for donating the space.
Sincere thanks to all the sponsors for making this amazing experience possible for us and all the other entrants. You are helping to bring high-impact solutions and profound social change to fruition.
Sincere best wishes to all the entrants, those who are moving forward and those who are not. Every entrepreneur knows the pain of being passed over. I certainly do. I also know that it means nothing in the big picture. It is not an indication of success. And sometimes, it’s an event that comes with great learning and motivation. So, I say again, with great sincerity, to all the teams not moving forward, be proud and push onward and let me know if we can be helpful in any way. We’re very proud to be in the startup scene alongside you, and we hope that we will share opportunities to help each other going forward.
And sincere thanks to the MassChallenge founders and staff for all the vision and effort that you pour into this baby in order to help startups like Vsnap.
We’re wearing two hats this year: the Finalist hat and an Alumni in Residence hat. The latter is a real privilege — we get an extra role meeting and greeting and trying to be helpful to all the other finalist teams. Looking forward to meeting you all!
You need a place where you can make a difference. We need you to come and make a difference. You must believe that things would be better if the businesses and brands in your life communicated with you like human beings.
Be in touch. You should have experience designing for mobile, and working with responsive design. We look forward to learning more about what you love.
Recently, Tech Cocktail started a new speaker series, SESSIONS, that brings experienced entrepreneurs into an intimate setting where people can hear their stories and learn about building a business. Last Monday, I was able to attend their first event in Boston that focused on the theme of turning startup ideas into action. TC had 2 amazing speakers for the event, Jeff Janer of Springpad and Jessica Kim of BabbaCo.
Janer has started 5 companies, 3 of which have been acquired. His talk focused on…
Surrounding yourself with 8s and 9s. In his newest company, Springpad, I believe he said 7 of the 17 employees he’s working with came from his previous companies. He’s a strong believer of networking like crazy to find really great candidates and avoiding headhunters when possible.
Begin at the end. Know where you want your company to end up. Is it an acquisition or will you become the dominant force in your industry?
Have contempt for obstacles. Always a good tip for entrepreneurs, be passionate and don’t allow things to get in your way.
Sales cures all. Focus on sales as soon as you can and don’t be afraid to actually sell your product/service early on when starting up your company.
Find product market fit. Also, figure out if your product is a nice to have or a have to have.
What’s Janer’s secret sauce? His answer, “Timing and luck.” Of course, hard work is essential if you want to make the most of those two.
Kim spoke about how her entrepreneurial career started off while she was in college. She felt like a local pizza shop’s outsourced banana bread wasn’t up to par, so she offered to make her own loaves for them to sell. The encounter spawned her first company, Jessica’s Wonders, that started off selling baked goods to local shops and later landed Stop and Shop as a client. Her startup advice revolved around what she referred to as the 4 Ps of entrepreneurship:
Passion. Kim started BabbaCo when she became a mother and wasn’t seeing products in the market to meet her baby’s needs.
People. She’s also a big believer in creating a rock star team, right down to the service providers. Early on, Kim shared her vision with her mailman and when they weren’t ready to ship during the regular pick up time, he’d come back later!
Perseverance. She found out that her mother had cancer right before she had an interview on national television. Puffy face and all, Kim stood in front of the cameras and did the interview. (BTW, her mother is fine now.)
Purpose. Her baby’s needs turned into a mission of helping other parents and making their lives easier and more fun with BabbaCo products.
Both speakers had such a great presence but different ways of storytelling and it was an amazing event all around. Thank you to Boston community manager, Melissa Pocek (whose photos I used in this post) and the Tech Cocktail team and volunteers for putting together such an informative event. Also, congrats to Eli Sapir of Apptopia who won TC’s Hottest Startup in Boston poll and got to pitch at SESSIONS.
The next SESSIONS event in Boston is June 27th. RSVP here. Looks like they have events coming up all over the country too, so check out their event schedule for details.
Vsnap’s mobile app (Android / iOS) helps you look your best in two ways. First, the camera in your smartphone is almost always higher quality than the one in your laptop. And second, you can record your vsnap in a spot where the light is good. This video shows you how.
Note - if you want to attach stuff that’s on your computer hard drive but isn’t in your Dropbox account, no problem. Just touch “Cancel” on the mobile app, and then choose “Save”. When you sign on to Vsnap on the web, you’ll see that video in your “Drafts” folder. You can go back and change the title or description, and add any attachments. This also lets you pull recipients from your Vsnap contacts — something that’s coming soon on the mobile app.
