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Bold Book

Introduction

• Exponential entrepreneurs are those who take advantage of today’s rapid growth in technology and advancements Parts of the book, the BOLD lifestyle:

1. Use today’s exponential technologies to easily formulate successful companies
2. Understand mental structure of exponential entrepreneurs and ultimate human performance
3. Effectively utilize today’s modern hyperconnectedness

1 - Bold Technology

1- Exponential Thinking

6 D’s of Exponentials

(These 6 D’s are in sequential order)

1. Digitalization
   • The process of digitalizing something greatly increases the potential reach of the product
2. Deception
   • Our blindness to witnessing exponential growth ex) 0.01% to 0.02% to 0.04% doesn’t seem like much
3. Disruption
   • The disruption of an old market using new technology
4. Demonetization
   • Happens when products are no longer paid for and are instead free
   • Companies who offer free products seem to be doing well
5. Dematerialization
   • The vanishing of goods themselves
6. Democratization

• When products are available to the average consumer instead of only the rich

• It’s important to be able to think more long-term when you’re managing a company

2 - Exponential Technology

• 3D printers are revolutionary
  • Disrupts the global manufacturing industry, has a $10 trillion marketplace
  • Super accessible and convenient

3 - Five to Change the World

Networks and Sensors

• Networks are connections of signals and information
• Sensors are devices that detect information, and can be hooked onto networks
  • Arduinos are cool

Infinite Computing

• Processors are becoming better and cheaper fast
• The cloud allows for extreme accessibility

Artificial Intelligence

• 80% of jobs reolve around service:
  • looking, reading, writing, integrating knowledge
  • AI and computers are starting to be efficient at these things

Robotics

• The fastest growing industry in the world
• Drones, robots

Genomics and Synthetic Biology

• Treats DNA as software

2 - Bold Mindset

4 - Climbing Mount Bold

SKUNK

• SKUNKS are innovation accelerator groups that tackle hard goals
• SKUNKS are effective because the goals align with values
• Entrepreneurs try to reduce risk, but are not afraid of it
• By seeking immense (10x) amounts of growth, we can probably achieve a fraction of it (2x), which is better than aiming for 2x and getting 0.4x growth

Motivation

• Money can only motivate so much
  • Once a person is able to meet their basic needs, the motivation from money decreases
  • Instead, it’s replaced by:
    • Autonomy
      • Wanting to be in control
    • Mastery
      • Being proficient in our control
    • Purpose
      • The meaning in our control and journey
• Flow
  • There are 17 triggers for flow

Google’s Innovation Principles

1. Focus on the User
2. Share Everything
   • Cooperative innovation
3. Look for Ideas Everywhere
4. Think Big but Start Small
5. Never Fail to Fail
   • Rapid iteration
6. Spark with Imagination, Fuel with Data
   • Measure progress and results to make decisions
7. Be a Platform
   • Platforms can become monopolies
8. Have a Mission that Matters
   • Root of genuine efforts

Flow Triggers

Environmental

1. High Consequences
   • Danger than can affect our wellbeing (physical, emotional, creative, social)
2. Rich Environment
   • Combination of novelty, unpredictabilty, and complexity
     • Danger and opportunity, extra attention to each event, and an overwhelming amount of info
     • It’s important to foster these ideas into the environment
3. Deep Embodiment
   • Paying attention through multiple sensorys treams
     • ex) Montessori classroom

Psychological

1. Clear Goals
   • Emphasis helps us visualize the end results with clarity
2. Immediate Feedback - Helps us know our peformance in real-time, allowing us to make adjustments as we see fit
3. Challenge/Skills Ratio
   • The challenge should be in between boredom and anxiety
     • Keeps us locked in the present

Social

1. Group Flow is when a bunch of people are in flow state together
   • Serious concentration, shared and clear goals, good communications
   • Equal participation, element of risk
   1. Familiarity
      • Having everyone on the same page with language, knowledge, and communication style
   2. Blending Egos
      • Everyone is contributing and cooperating
   3. Sense of Control
      • Combines autonomy and mastery
   4. Close Listening
      • Being present
   5. “Yes and…”
      • Provide new momentum for the idea
      • Don’t say no, like improv

Creative

• Being creative is importnat for flow and approaching new solutions
  • It’s to be bothered by the impossibility of things, wanting to find solutions to them

Flow FInal Thoughts

• Flow is a part of being human

5 - Secrets of Going Big

Credibility

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• Being under the credibility line makes us think things are ridiculous
• Being above fully convinces us

Steps

1. Familiarity
   • To gain investors, we need to be reliable and consistent in our achievements

2. Slow down, build credibility

3. Messaging Matters
   • have an intricate plan that can be understood by outsiders

Stone Soup

• The stone soup story shows how one’s ideas can act as a foundation of a promising product, and through the further contributions of other people, we’re able to take it to new heights
• Passionate people utilize stone soup by attracting others who share their vision
  • A person’s passion can be so strong that it can just be a mere by-product of one’s passion

Peter’s Law

• We can make our own laws by reflecting on our life and seeing what decisions and behaviors have been important to our success 1. If anything can go wrong, fix it! (To hell with Murphy!) 2. When given a choice—take both!
  • go to school and start a business 3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes. 4. Start at the top, then work your way up. 5. Do it by the book . . . but be the author! 6. When forced to compromise, ask for more. 7. If you can’t win, change the rules. 8. If you can’t change the rules, then ignore them. 9. Perfection is not optional. 10. When faced without a challenge—make one. 11. No simply means begin one level higher. 12. Don’t walk when you can run. 13. When in doubt: THINK! 14. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing. 15. The squeaky wheel gets replaced. 16. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live. 17. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself! 18. The ratio of something to nothing is infinite.
  • Doing stuff is more important than planning to do stuff 19. You get what you incentivize. 20. If you think it is impossible, then it is for you.

21. An expert is someone who can tell you exactly how something can’t be done. 22. The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea. 23. If it was easy, it would have been done already. 24. Without a target you’ll miss it every time. 25. Fail early, fail often, fail forward! 26. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. 27. The world’s most precious resource is the persistent and passionate human mind. 28. Bureaucracy is an obstacle to be conquered with persistence, confidence, and a bulldozer when necessary.

6 - Billionaire Wisdom

• Thinking at scale is important

Advice

1. Risk taking and risk mitigation 2. Rapid iteration and ceaseless experimentation 3. Passion and purpose 4. Long-term thinking 5. Customer-centric thinking 6. Probabilistic thinking 7. Rationally optimistic thinking 8. Reliance on first principles, aka fundamental truths

Elon Musk

• Strong passion
• Have friends that can give you feedback so you can adjust ASAP
• He values his physics mindset
  • Looking at fundamental truths and connecting them in abstract ways
    • People tend to frame things narrowly, but in reality, we should think broader
• Choose what to do through importance and probability for success
• Nevr leave money in reserve

Sir Richard Branson

• Passion yet again
  • Loves having fun
    • If he finds it fun, other people will too
• Experiments and isn’t afraid to try new things

Jeff Bezos

• long-term thinking and customer-centric thinking
• He puts emphasis on fast shipping and lower prices because such aspects of e-commerce are never going away
• Thinks invention is directly proportional to experiments ran
• Try to be a missionary, someone who is passionate for their products or customers, not a mercenary, someone who only wants to flip their product

Larry Page

• “I have a very simple metric I use: Are you working on something that can change the world? Yes or no? The answer for 99.99999 percent of people is no. I think we need to be training people on how to change the world.”
• Google’s products were mostly made through the failure of a different product
  • Their failure to make AI resulted in adsense

3 - Bold Crowd

7 - Crowdsourcing

• Crowdsourcing is when you take something that is generally done by employees and putting that task in the hands of consumers
  • Crowdfunding is getting help from a community
    • ex) Gofundme, Kickstarter

Case Study 1 - Freelancing

• Freelancing websites help connect those who with poor conditions with those looking for potential
  • One can use the help of freelancers to help create their own products
  • Ideas can turn into a reality through the skills of others

Case Study 2 - Filmmaking

• Filmmaking was revolutionized to become a crowdsourcing business

Case Study 3 - reCAPTCHA and Duolingo

• reCAPTCHA helps digitize books through the efforts of others
• Duolingo takes the interpretation of others to translate things

How to Crowdsource

1. Tasks
   • Define the microtasks of a project and use the appropriate crowdsourcing websites to get the jobs done
     • Microtasks are bite-size, well-defined chunks of work that can either independently solve a small problem o or collectively solve larger problems
       • Fiverr, mturk
   • Macrotasks are tasks that can’t be broken down, independent, require a specific skill or mindset, and take x amount of time to complete
     • Freelancer
2. Assets
   • Assets are things of value to oneself/business
     • apps, websites, software, videos
   • Creative assets (logos, videos)
     • Tongal (video), 99designs (logos)
   • Operational assets (software, databses)
     • Topcoder (hackathons), Gigwalk (information-gathering)
3. Testing and Discovery Insights
   • Testing insights examine assumptions and practices through info-gathering
     • ex) Surveys, customer feedback, case studies
     • utest (software testing)
     • reverbnation (music distribution)
   • Discovery based insights
     • Asking people for solutions and inventions
       • Quirky (gadgets), Threadless (shirts)
       • See abundancehub.com, crowdsourcing.org
4. Best Practices
   1. Do research in picking the right person and website for the job
   2. Just get busy and start doing things
   3. Message boards are insightful
   4. Be contextual and specific with your requests
   5. Prepare data for your projects
   6. Verify your workers through small requests
   7. Define clear, simple, and specific roles
   8. Communicate clearly and often
   9. Be open minded for new ways of thinking
   10. Go for quality first before price
   11. Be prepared for the abundance of ideas
   12. Be adaptable in your working methodologies
       • Remote chatting, etc

8 - Crowdfunding

• Money is the biggest and most common challenge for entrepreneurs
  • Fortunately, crowdfunding is super helpful
    • Helps you start by starting and gives momentum
    • acts as a responsibility for you to finish

Types of Crowdfunding

1. Donations
2. Debt (peer lending)
3. Equity (offering portions of their company)
4. Rewards/Incentives (Products)

Case Studies

1 - Pebble Watch

• Was able to raise 10 million despite their goal being $200,000
• Sold 400,000 watches because of it

2 - Tesla Museum

• Raised 1.3 million to make a nikola tesla museum
• Was nonprofit, and backers didn’t get anything in return

Qualifications for Crowdfunding

• You have a late prototype product that would be appealing to backers
• Team is correctly assembled and capable of executing
• Product is tailored towards targetted community and customers
• Team can make connections to large communities/public relations/media sources
• Product solves a problem, improves a product, or tells a story

Benefits of Crowdfunding

1. Market validation and demand measurement
   • Desired features, colorways, accessories
     • Genuine desires as people are spending money
2. Raises investment capital
3. Creates a customer base before your product is even released
4. Cheap cost-per-customer acquisition
5. Spreads awareness about your product and ideas
6. Cash-flow positive

Execution

1. Choosing your crowdfunding idea (product/project/service)

   • Something you and other people are passionate about
     • ex) Videos, videogames, prototypes, service

2. How much? Setting your fund-raising target

   • Crowdfunding platforms are only successful if they meet the minimum threshold
   • Crowdfunding should only help fund a project, not make a profit
     • Total should comprise of minimum costs for progression, +10% for fees, +cost for rewards
   • Set stretch goals to promote backing past your threshold

3. How long? Setting your campaign length and creating a schedule

   • 30-50 days is common for successful backings
   • Add 30 days if you lack a team, community, <50k goal, >250k goal, >1 million goal
   • Be okay with delaying a launch

4. Setting your rewards/incentives and stretch goals - $25 is most commonly bought perk - Make them unique and limited 5. Building the perfect team - Team > Product - Roles include: 1. Celebrity - Does updates, face of main ad, CEO/charismatic person 2. Campaign manager and strategist - Parnterships, distributions, logistics of launch 3. Expert - Someone who can answer hard questions from customers 4. Graphic Designer - Advertisements, logos, etc 5. Technology Manager - Setting up websites, streams, and team resources 6. Public Relations Manager - Social media 7. Connections Person - Has network of important people, money, and ideas - Has a large following themselves, knows about distribution and success - Marketing strategies 6. Sharpen your axe: planning, materials, and resources - Planning and Coordination - Have a detailed strategy and map with calendars, meetings, and check-ins - Bi-weekly check-ins with everyone involved - Materials - Literal materials as well as renders of product - Resources - Time, money (refunds, fees) 7. Telling a meaningful story (and using the right words) - Words and phrases associated with reciprocity and authority produce the best responses, while projects that focus too much on the need for funds fail - Language: 1. Reciprocity (those who backed us will receive) 2. Scarcity and rarity (given the chance) 3. Social proof (has pledged) 4. Social identity (Accessible to x group) 5. Similar values and jargon 6. Authority (can afford, will be) 8. Creating a viral video: three use cases, shareability, and humanization - Use cases should showcase different groups to broaden market - Show people in the team and their related ideas - Demonstrate the use of the product - Under 5 minutes - Get feedback 9. Building your audience—the three As - Affiliates - Choose appropriate incentives - Advocates - Followers - Activists - Those willing to do extra work for the campaign that will receive greater rewards 10. Super-credible launch, early donor engagement, and media outreach - Have endorsements, press conferences, acts of security for your followers - Send emails to eager customers - Build hype around your launch - Do more than just post a launch, keep making posts and creating digital media - Ask help from media outlets and relevannt influencers 11. Week-by-week execution plan: engage, engage, engage - Continuing engagement can influence customers to upsell 12. Make data-driven decisions and final tips

• Optimize market and launch timing
  • Trends, competition
    • Ask questions, listen to community
      1. Segment the audience. By reaching out to specific groups of people within the community, you can draw better conclusions.
      2. Ask only one question. People are busy. Answering one question is easy and doesn’t take too long. Ask the right question.
      3. Expect exaggeration. Be aware that people tend to choose the extremes in surveys. When it comes time for them to actually contribute, only a small percentage will actually put up the amount they selected in a survey.
  • Monday/Tuesday is best

9 - Building Communities

• DIY communities are groups of people who form to create a massively transformative purpose (MTP)
  • Volunteers and are passionate about an exponential technology
    • Digitalization paired with exponential technology has led to outstanding efforts pooled into subjects

Case Studies

Galaxy Zoo

• A person publicized a website that links different picture of the galaxy together, and it led to worldwide collaboration
  • We are not alone, there are plenty of other people who share the same passion

Local Motors

• An open-sourced car company
  • Held competitions, targetted specific conditions (offroaders), then community voted on their favorites
  • Engagement happened where people kept the conversation and innovation going

TopCoder

• Turned coding into a huge competition
  • Helped scout promising coders
  • Helped businesses have their problems solved easily
  • Made programming social

Benefits of Building a DIY Community

• If there is no existing community for your passion, go for it
  • People want to reinforce their identity and talk/interact with others about it, so people will gravitate towards it

Reasons for NOT Building a DIY Community

1. Greed
   • You should be focused on the MTP, not the cash
     • Monetization would happen later
2. Fame
   • You should be focusing on publicizing the community, not yourself
3. Short-term desires
   • It’s a big commitment, and people are interested in long-term aspirationists

Stages of Community Building

1. Identity (MTP)
   • Consider the group of people you are trying to attract
   • Be clear in what you support
     • Tell a story
2. Designing a Community Portal
   1. Design anything as the beginning
   2. Provide directions for navigation
   3. It should be easy to join the community and register
   4. Convincing information
      • Should encourage belonging, support network,s greater influences, curiosity
   5. Put a spotlight on popular content (contests, front page)
   6. Scalability
      • Probably not facebook
3. Providing Community-Building Resources
4. Early Days of Community Building
   • People are more willing to contribute when group sizes are smaller
     1. Be the first mover
     2. Choose early members (10-15) to help build the community
     3. Make newcomers feel belonged
        • User milestones
     4. Listen to feedback
5. Creating Community Content
   • Content categories include:
     1. Future (predictions, plans)
     2. News about progress
     3. Interview of staff
     4. Advice for members
     5. Outside guests
6. Engagement and Engagement Strategies
   1. Reputation (points)
   2. Meet up (discussions)
   3. Challenges (preferrably promoting collaboration)
   4. Visuals?
   5. Connect other people to each other
7. Managing a community
   • Friendly dictators
   • Be lenient
   • Don’t be a sellout
   • Don’t neglect already existing members
   • Find people to delegate stuff
8. Driving Growth
   • Evangelism
   • Partner with similar communities
   • Incentivize competition
   • Find a rival
   • Find creative ways
   • Host events
   • Optimization tactics (adwords, advertising)
9. Monetization
   1. Be transparent with your intentions
   2. Share the proceeds with the community
   3. Sell things that others want
   4. Premium memberships

10- Incentive Competitions

• Helps find various technical approaches
• A lack of constraints can lead to stagnant progress
  • Constraints promote innovative thinking (moonshots)
  • Consider the netflix recommendation competition

Things

1. The only constant is change. 2. The rate of change is increasing. 3. If you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will. 4. Competition and disruption are no longer coming from some multinational company overseas. They now originate from the guy or gal in a start-up garage harnessing exponential technologies. 5. Given Bill Joy’s famous comment “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else,” how do you tap into these individuals? 6. If you’re dependent upon innovation only from within your company, you are dead. You must harness the crowd to remain competitive.

Benefits

1. Attracts new capital to innovators who are capable of solving problems
2. Pays only the winner
3. Atrtracts people and raises awareness of problems
   • Heightens market demand
   • Brings experts together for collaboration
   • Can provoke governmental change
4. Evens out the playing field
   • No education requirements or experience
5. Shifts paradigms through innovations
   • Inspiration, hope, risk-taking
6. Creates cooperative impactful industries

Motivators

1. Recognition
2. Money
3. Desire for solving the problem

Planning a Challenge

1. Declare simple, measurable, and objective rules
2. Define the problem rather than solution
3. Choose the structure of the declaration (deadline, end)
4. Provide security on why it is possible
5. Make the challenge difficult but not impossible
6. Consider the reward
7. Provide a satisfying finish
8. Distribute side prizes
9. Have sponsors and backers
10. Globalize it
11. Determine intellectual property

• Philanthropic. Winner retains IP.

• Philanthropic. IP is put into open domain.

- Commercial. IP is owned by the prize sponsor.

- Commercial. IP is licensed (or shared) by the prize sponsor. 12. Have a business model after the contest 13. Set rules

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