Adii Pienaar

I wanted to elaborate on my thoughts about creating a business model by firstly solving a problem for yourself. Whilst this is an incredible way of building a business, there’s a few thoughts that I’d like to share on the matter:

• If you are solving a problem, it is likely that someone else may have that problem as well (and subsequently they may opt for your solution). If your problem is however very unique to yourself, the likelihood of widespread adoption of your solution becomes much less likely.
• The bigger and more generic your problem; the more potential profit & significance your business may have.
• The problem you’re solving may be more unique / niche / specific, but your solution needs to be simpler and more generic.
• Your idea has a greater chance of success if you are being sincere in solving the problem i.e. solve the problem first & foremost and then figure out whether it’s possible to commoditize & monetize that solution.

I’ve been watching the video of my recent presentation at NetProphet, in an attempt of improving my speaking skills going forward. So whilst there’s quite a few things that I will be looking to tweak going forward, I wanted to confirm one thing from the talk: the Adii on that video, is 100% me.

The way I think, talk & interact in that presentation is the same idea you’re gonna get when you meet me in person. I do this to make my presentations as conversational as possible.

This approach most definitely isn’t perfect, but it’s me.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve spoken at some local & international conferences and have EECI2010 in San Francisco coming up in a few days time.

Now I don’t consider myself to be a professional speaker and as a result I don’t need to get paid to speak at amazing events; instead I’m just honoured that there’s an audience willing to listen to what I have to say. But everyone has water & lights to pay for and as a result I do need my expenses covered to enable me to speak at these conferences.

So I’ve decided to take a bit of a hard line on asking for my costs to be covered when I’m asked to speak at a conference. I don’t do this to be a little diva, but speaking at a conference shouldn’t cost me anything other than the “working time” that I sacrifice to be there.

What do you think? Does this make me a little bitch?

Enjoyed this post, as it describes closely how I see myself as well in terms of loving startup life so much that I’m keen to do new, cool stuff going forward. For now though, I’m ecstatic at the journey that WooThemes is affording me! :)

So yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting up with the Tumblr crew and beyond being an awesome bunch of people, I also got some insight into the company / platform / community that they are busy building.

When I moved over to Tumblr in March, I had a few “concerns” about the changes I would need to accept in comparison to what I got used to over the years with WordPress. Today though, I can honestly say that my decision to move has been justified over and over again and after the insight that the crew shared yesterday, I think my decision will continue to reap benefits.

Here’s why I love Tumblr at the moment:

• It’s not a platform and it’s not a CMS; instead it’s a community where I’m enabled to share cool stuff with cool people.
• The ideas they are implementing with regards to monetization is extremely unique and I’m loving the opportunity to watch this journey & business model unfold from the sidelines.
• There’s a buzz about this place and as a result I’ve made quite a few new friends.