Obama's rise: A fantastic case-study for new startups. | Hacker News Reader

Obama's rise: A fantastic case-study for new startups.

7 pointsideas1018 comments

I think new startup can learn a lot from Obama's rise, he was virtually a non-entity and no one could have believed he would oust Hillary Clinton. Defeating Hillary Clinton means defeating Bill Clinton, the heavy weight lobbyist, the money power, the experienced power-broker all together in one shot.

By winning the democratic nomination, Obama has proved that:

1. Where there is a will there is a way : Founders of new startup has to be determined and just start without afraid of anything.

2. Slow and steady wins the race: Keep improving your product/service on regular basis.

3. Technology is the key : see how you can use technology to bring the change that you're planning.

4. Newbie can take over giant: the new startup shouldn't worry about the giants. The will power and confidence will certainly keep you going.

5. Find the real problem and try to solve that: Founders should create product/service that solves the problem and concentrate on that by engaging to be customers.

6. Finally, its all about "team": Build the best of the best team, at the end of the day it is all about how good is your team and your team work.

There could be many more lessons that can be learn and YC readers can share it here...

The real reason for the Obama win is that he leveraged a small competition (Iowa) and seeded and worked hard on an initial user group (his initial supporters, equivalent to a beta group of a product), and with that, he created an explosive first splash, which got all the media talking about him (equivalent to your killa product getting splashed accross techcrunch, wired, etc).

And after that, he followed up and built a huge social network around the brand. He concentrated on brand loyalty, creating a unique and quirky brand that made his users feel cool, and making sure the donation (payment) method was very simple to use.

And he used newletters very effectively. What Obama did was a perfect example of a seamless product launch and perfect sales and post sales service.

The key was his core group of motivated users and his excellent organisation of them,

"and his excellent organisation of them"

I think people often underestimate his leadership skills. Campaigns are historically pretty messy affairs. His campaign organization was extremely well run-probably one of the cleanest and most efficient in recent history.

7. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. Obama was an amazing orator, and a great salesperson for himself. Find someone who can be just as convincing marketing/selling/evangelizing your product.

8. Love your customers. Obama got millions of people to give him money and he wasn't even giving them a product! The Obama campaign kept in touch with supporters by email, made them feel important and empowered. That's what matters at the end of the day.

9. Respect your competitors, but be intimidated. One thing that Obama never did was disrespect Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he was always confident and never was intimidated by Hillary's name and brand.

meant to say "9 ... DON'T be intimidated ..."

12. Stay calm. There will be drama and hardships along the way. If you react to every one of them or question your core values, you won't succeed.

13. Take a break to do other things. Obama plays basketball a few times a week. He took a weeklong vacation in the middle of the primary campaign. You need to take time away from your project--you'll be amazed what a little perspective gets you.

Agreed. Here's another thoughtful post on the subject: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/06/the_rise_of_a...

10. Involve your customers in your product, and provide easy ways for them to provide feedback. The Obama campaign assumed that campaign donors would want to get involved and gave them tools to do so (such as the phone lists).

11. Find your key differentiator and trumpet it (change). If your competitors cannot copy your differentiator effectively because of their entrenched positions, even better.

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