So, you wanna do business with Google?

Once or twice a week, some budding entrepreneur emails me that they have "X", and that "X" has all manner of virtues, and that Google really needs "X", and can I please, pretty please introduce them to the right team at Google to work with them on bringing "X" to the world. After hundreds of such highly emphatic emails during my past 4 years at Google, I can safely say that regardless of "X", the chances of such emails achieving the intended results are slim. It’s not that I don’t care about “X”; “X” might be quite important but, for crying out loud, puleez do your homework.

Read this recent inquiry. I’ve made only a few deletions and obfuscations to protect the innocent.

Hi Alan,

I’ve recently been looking for contacts within Google to talk about "X".

So nice of you to choose me.

I came across your website and realized we’ve worked on projects together between blah. I can’t recall whether we’ve met, but your name was mentioned in a lot of my dealings with blah. I’m still in contact with blah, blah to name a few...

Nice try, but we never met.

My main focus after all this time is still "X", and the next big challenge is "X". Earlier this year we brought an "X" solution to market we are having great success, albeit rather stealthily. The focus of the product is blah. It is the only "X" solution that uses blah. We are the only platform to blah allowing blah. I have many roles within the organization and I am looking towards "X" using several lenses. As the blah for blah and I need to integrate "X" into the current roadmap. As blah and blah I need to focus on third party or Google solutions to support "X".

How nice that “X” is important to your roadmap, but what about our roadmap?

I know that Google has some "X" capabilities, but nothing has been officially disclosed. I would like to start at the top and arrange a meeting with you to discuss how we can work together… and maybe catch-up on some blah stories.

Nice ego-stroking attempt.

If that sounds harsh, tell me what would you do? In this case I replied to clarify what exactly the sender was proposing with “X” but after a couple of such exchanges it was clear it was going nowhere fast.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who approach me have simply not done their homework and usually expect me to figure out for them what they bring to Google. Keep in mind that Google has over 26,000 employees and thousands of projects. Google is moving a mile a minute. Poorly researched external requests are distractions at the best of times.

Here are some tips for improving your chances.

Know the answers to the following. Does Google really need “X”? Why does Google need "X"? Or what part of Google or Google users needs “X”?

Don’t simply ask to be introduced to“Y”. “Y” may be one of the busiest people at Google and even an internal introduction will go nowhere fast.

Read Google blogs (there are hundreds of them). Find relevant names or product managers and engineers and study them.

Requests for “let’s have coffee” are generally not realistic. I love coffee but I’d quickly overdose if I accepted every offer. Requests for information are more realistic, than requests for meetings.

Last but not least, if Google really needs "X", there is a good chance that one of Google's teams is already working on something like “X”.

In short, be prepared!

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Innovation in Indonesia

Selamat datang! (Welcome in Indonesian.) Last week I spent 4 days in Jakarta, a sprawling metropolis of 13 million people. Jakarta's size is nothing compared to the country as a whole, with almost 240 million people spread across 17,000 islands, but the city is without doubt the heart of Indonesia's thriving software developer community. Naturally, it's where Google chose to hold it's first ever Dev Fest in Indonesia, on the Anggrek campus of our host, Binus University.

As part of Dev Fest, I was on a panel with three Indonesian entrepreneurs and one entrepreneur turned VC. What impressed me about the panel was not so much the differences, but the similarities. Indonesian entrepreneurs, and aspiring ones, are grappling with the same issues as their counterparts elsewhere. But first some background about the tech scene in Indonesia.

First, mobile phone growth is exploding in Indonesia. Indonesian mobile web search queries, i.e., searches performed from a web browser on a smart phone, are the 3rd highest in the world, after the US and Japan. Anecdotally, this is evident driving around Jakarta, with the majority of people everywhere holding mobile phones, many of them Blackberrys. And I'm not just talking about the so-called "elite" district around the Hotel Indonesia (the "Ha Ee" to the locals, a beautiful hotel incidentally). Jakarta lacks high-speed mass transit and most of the driving around Jakarta is at walking speeds, so you've ample time to observe what's happening on the streets. I "squeezed" in 3 meetings over 7 hours on my first day in Jakarta, so I spent more time in the back of the car than in meeting rooms.

Second, the use of social media by Indonesians is equally impressive. Indonesia has the 3rd largest number of Facebook users (by country), after the US and the UK, and is rapidly catching up to 2nd place. Indonesians are also in love with Twitter, with ComScore reporting that 21% of the country’s internet population use Twitter. As a result, worldwide rising trends on Twitter often feature an Indonesian trend.

In short, Indonesian users are at the forefront of two exciting global technology trends that are converging, mobile and social.

Now back to the panel, introducing the panelists from left to right in the photo:


Selina Limman (@urbanesia), the founder of and CEO of Urbanesia, an online "lifestyle city directory" with a mission to make city living fun and convenient. Urbanesia blends mobile and social nicely, with business listings and user-generated content (UGC) for lifestyle and everyday needs, combined with location-based search for users to discover relevant content.

Willson Cuaca (@willsoncuaca), the co-founder of East Ventures, a new VC firm founded in Singapore, with a focus on early stage web/mobile startups in Indonesia and Singapore. EV has invested in Urbanesia and 3 other companies to date: Tokopedia, an e-commerce marketplace, Apps Foundry, a mobile apps producer for Blackberry, iPhone and Android, and Foound, a social mobile app to arrange hangouts, or is that a mobile social app?

Andrew Darwis, the co-founder and CTO of Kaskus, an online community with over over 2.1 million members, generating more than 600 million page views per month, the 6th most popular website in Indonesia and the most popular local website(source Alexa). Andrew describes Kaskus as "an info center where questions are asked and answered by the community members themselves.”

Fajar Budiprasetyo, the co-founder and CEO of Koprol, which he describes as a "geosocial network that focuses on conversation". Koprol was acquired by Yahoo back in May. Successful acquisitions like this are still relatively rare in Indonesia, but Fajar's US education and Silicon Valley experience no doubt gave him the edge.

And that guy on the right is me (@scruzin). I've done a few startups too; my last one being NetPriva which I sold to Expand Networks in 2007, the year I joined Google Australia.

See the trend? All three entrepreneurs and East Ventures are thoroughly embracing mobile and/or social opportunities.

Now for the similarities; the questions from the audience were pretty much the same as I would have expected from a similar crowd in Silicon Valley or Sydney. The following four questions are indicative.

* How do you choose between growing your company and selling it?
Answer: It depends, there's no right or wrong way.
* For web/mobile apps, what are the best monetization strategies?
Answer: there's lots of ways - ads, app marketplace sales, subscriptions, etc.
* How do you do you market your products?
Answer: good product market themselves, but failing that, use social media, build in social/viral features, such as refer-a-friend, rapid release cycles,strategic partnerships, etc.
* How can we ensure our startup succeeds?
Answer: have guts, go for it, don't worry about fear of failure, collaborate/network with your fellow entrepreneurs, never rest on your laurels, etc.

The main difference I observed is that in Indonesia today, there are relatively few local success stories; with role models in short supply, more people are still finding their entrepreneurial legs. If the enthusiasm of the participants at Dev Fest is anything to go by though, I fully expect to see some exciting innovations coming out of Indonesia in the near future. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.

Lihat nantil.

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Learnings of an entrepreneur - Bangkok edition

I'm in Bangkok for Google's first Dev Fest in Thailand. In a couple of hours I'll be on a panel discussing entrepreneurship so I'm jotting down ahead of time some of the things I'm going to talk about. (I lived in Japan early in my career where I worked in the Japanese language, so know how hard it can be to follow a speaker in a foreign language.) These are some of the most important things I've learned as an entrepreneur. One day I'll write the full version.

Caveat Emptor: The journey of an entrepreneur is a personal one. YMMV.

Learning 1: Do what you love

I fell in love with computers as a high school kid and never looked back. I give a lot of the credit to my maths teacher, Mr Ian Haines, who started the computer club.

Learning 2: Seek opportunities

I could hardly wait to see the world after graduating from Adelaide University and lived in Japan for several years. From Pachinko software (success!), to translation software (fail!), one thing led to another and I ended up in California.

Learning 3: Meet lots of people

Next I went to Stanford, I played with LISP machines and AI, but, much more importantly, I met lots of people; people who became future investors, fellow entrepreneurs, employees, and in some cases, lifelong friends.

Personal contacts are like innovation; you can never have enough.

Learning 4: Make sacrifices

Let's face it. It takes guts to be an entrepreneur and you're going to have to make sacrifices to succeed.

Learning 5: The 3 A's of entrepreneurship

Successful companies are constantly reviewing what is working and what is not, and adapting. My 3 As of entrepreneurship:

Audit - what you're doing, constantly
Admit - when things aren't working
Adapt - and survive

Learning 6: Get focused

Good technology and good people are not enough. You need to focus on the best opportunities.

Learning 7: Have fun

Life is too short for un-fun stuff. Having fun is the corollary to doing what you love, which completes the circle.

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