Laurent Kretz on Posterous

"Hello all, my name is Laurent. Today, I bought a PC."

My new Foursquare app:

I gave a talk last week at HEC about why you shouldn't start a startup, and some supposedly good ideas if you still do. 

Here are the slides I used, feel free to give some feedback!

Note: I wrote this post 2 years ago, while living in New York. Lately, friends have asked tips about New York, so I figured I should just repost this. If some things have changed since (closed places, other tips in the same areas, ...), please comment !

Definite non-touristic guide to New York City (?)

Or: What to do in New York with your mom?? I know, this is a difficult question. For some, it's even more difficult when it comes to your mother in law, although the solutions are more simple: loose her in the Ramble of Central Park or enroll her on a hot-dog-eating contest and forget to bring her water.

But you don't want that for your mom, of course :)

So, my mom came to visit this week [ed: July 2009] in New York, and didn't want the tourist experience. She came a few times already, each summer actually, so she's seen the what is to be seen. She now wanted to do what I would do on a regular week. As I figure I might not be the only one in that case, and although the audience for this specific post might be very niche, here was our program !

Thursday July 3rd

I'll wait for her with pickles and a mint tea from the Hummus Place, on St Marks Place. My mom is arriving with the Super Shuttle, $21 from JFK you can't beat that ! We land on the terrace of Cafe Luca, a bit further on St Marks and then have light dinner at Pepe Rosso (free wine for ladies on Thursday nights!).

Friday July 4th

Brunch at Yaffa café, a must see in the East Village scene. We then head south to the Bodies exhibit, and chill out at Pier 17 watching the NYC east river Waterfalls afterward.
Time to eat: as my mother is learning Mandarin, we try to practice and get lunch in Chinatown at Dim Sum Go Go. For digestion, we have a healthy walk back home through Chinatown, Nolita (North of Little Italy), Lower East Side and East Village. We then rest home watching a movie (We own the night, not good) while it rains.
In the evening, we head out to see the fireworks on 14th and Avenue C before meeting some friends at Père Pinard [ed: CLOSED] on Ludlow and Stanton (promising ourselves to get back there for the roasted Camembert !!!). We all together enjoy a last (few) drinks at Backroom, a speakeasy supposedly secret bar from Lower East Side.

Saturday

We have a late brunch at Café Mogador only made of mezze: babaganoush, hummus, roasted eggplants, cucumber yogurt, feta cheese and of course Moroccan mint tea ! Once finished, we slowly wander through the village heading to the subway: we're going to the first PS1 Warm Up of summer 2009 !!
Inside the museum, the exhibitions are really interesting this season, so we stay there for a while.
After a couple of hours, we start walking through Hunters Point streets and head over to the Water Taxi Beach, to have a drink watching the sun set before the Beach Party. A bit tired, we get back home around 10pm, order in some Thai food from Sea on 1st Ave and watch a good movie (In Bruges, best movie I've seen in 2009 so far !).

Sunday

We get up late, and watch the (amazing breath-taking fantastic best-ever) Wimbledon finale between Federer and Nadal. After the second rain interruption, at 2pm, we think it's time to leave and bet on the winner (I'm supporting Nadal, she's supporting Federer). We walk west to Washington Square Park (still under construction - what a bad schedule from the city ! - and what a DUMB idea !!), and south to SoHo through West Broadway. We're lucky and watch the last sets of the tennis finale in front of Felix. We take the subway to 72nd street and enter Central park at the John Lennon's memorial and I tell my mother about the conspiracy theory behind the murder. We pass by SummerStage and then walk north in Central Park up to 110st Street and then towards St John The Divine's Cathedral, which renovation is almost finished.
We then visit the campus of Columbia University - my mother never saw it and I love the main square between the Memorial Library and the Butler Library. We continue north along the Hudson, pass by General & President Grant's Tomb, and end up at Dinosaur BBQ (131st Street and Riverside drive) for a feast of hot chicken wings and blue cheese sauce !!
We finish up the day by crashing the sofa watching 300. What a week end !! 5 days to go... :)

Monday

We meet at the apartment after work, and walk down to Delancey through east village and Lower East Side. We catch the J/M/Z to Williamsburg, wander around the orthodox Jewish area - something you don't see every where: this Hasidim community (Satmar, Lubavitch) is the largest worldwide and always reminds me of Meah Shaerim in Jerusalem.
We walk back north to Bedford, have a beer and dinner at The Lodge (Grand St and Havemeyer). We continue north passing by two cool restaurants where we might come back: Fette Sau, a low key relaxed bbq restaurant with tons of different beers and a cozy simple terrace, and the Roebling Tea Room that has a very appetizing menu, i.e. lots of cheese :).
We end up on the terrace of a nice little italian restaurant on the corner of 9th Street and Wythe St.

Tuesday

My mom woke up late and walked alone for the entire day. We meet after work in the City Hall park, close to the fountain and under the beautiful Woolworth Building. We cross the Brooklyn bridge heading to DUMBO, and walk around the Brooklyn bridge park sunset (there happens to be a filmset for Ugly Betty).
We have dinner at Water Street Pub and Restaurant.
We end up the evening crashing down on sofa for Gone Baby Gone (amazing movie !!).

Wednesday

We meet for lunch midtown, then my mother goes to the MoMa.
We meet again after work midtown, cruise down park avenue for the "Heads" exhibit, have a beer at Rodeo Bar on 27th and 3rd avenue. We then have a delicious Indian dinner at Banana Leaf, one of the 1,349 Indian restaurants on Lexington between 27th St and 29th St (the second Indian corner of Manhattan, with 6th Street).
We end up this beautiful night with some drinks at the Rare View on 37th and Lexington, a rooftop bar with a very nice view.

Thursday

After a busy morning doing some shopping and a quiet afternoon reading in the park, my mother meets me at the Apple store on fifth. We walk down fifth avenue and head home to pack: she's leaving tomorrow !
A last drink and dinner in Lower East Side, and it will have been a busy week !

Hope this program can give you some ideas if you're visiting New York, or have friends visiting !

Lately, I've been putting together a list of things that make social apps viral, mainly looking at the startups that inspire me most in that area (social). So this is loosely gathered from looking at Hashable, PlanCast, Quora, Foursquare, LikeALittle and the likes. It's just a candid look at those - and others in the same space - startups to extract what might have been part of the essence of their viral growth.

In other words : they all include some or all of the following points.

What this list is : my thoughts on the (killer) ingredients that can make your startup viral if you have the first mandatory ingredient : an interesting concept.

What this is list is not : a to do list if your startup is a social startup. It might guide, inspire, pin-point, but you'll need to adapt. Also, it's not about transactional businesses and eCommerce. 

In search of the perfect social app

There's no such thing as a magic wand you wave over your ruby and heroku to make your app take off. But, by using the following techniques or approaches, it might just help. Again, your product should be around a key, simple and interesting concept to start with : broadcast your location to your friends, keep track of your interactions with your social graph, ask questions to a panel of experts, ... But once you've got that down, here's how it might take off. 

Some features are critical : your product should have them. Some are important : it might help to include them. And the last ones are nice-to-have : if you still have time to code, well think about those.

Nothing breathtaking here, just some observation, listing and common sense.

Critical

• You have a unique & key feature that creates value for users

Your users use your product for one very clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this. There might be other features on your app, but there's a main one clearly defined. And by using this feature, they get value. It is simple, it is straightforward. What does value mean ? Value can be content (Quora answers). Value can be an action or reaction (check-in, "count me in" on a plancast). Value can mean earning or saving dollars. 

• Your key feature is repeatable

You don't just check-in once. You check-in multiple times, each time creating value for you and others, because you share it.

• The key feature or action is sharable

Your application has integrated virality. It tweets your check-in. It shares your plans on Facebook. It alerts your network with a new answer on Quora. It tweets a new connection on Hashable. Your users actions have 600M+ ears (FB + Twitter) - speak to them.

• Your product uses the existing social graph of your users

By using your application, your users discover, inform, keep in touch, classify, meet, ... people they know (n), or people they might know (n+1). Give them the opportunity to discover friends already there, invite friends that haven't arrived at the party yet, and inform others by making their actions public (i.e. Hashable #intros on Twitter).

• It has instant utility and is different at each visit

The first time your users connect, they get value : they find interesting content on Quora, they see what they friends have planned on PlanCast. If they come back tomorrow, they'll find something new has happened : your app is real-time, or keeps track of my social graph actions on it. 

• It's based on 1 of the 7 deadly sins

This one is an addon on Dave McClure's Startup Viagra presentation (slide #8). Your key feature should be adapted to 1+ of the 7 deadly sins: it should get your users fame (pride), sex (lust), money (greed), help them save time (sloth), give them info about people they know (curiosity). If you corner one of those, it's already a good start. 

Important

• Users can follow or friends things

Follow a subject, follow a user, friend a member, ... Make it easy to do so. Each time such an action is taken, you get 1) a way to recontact the member and 2) an excuse to contact another member or potential member. Deeply linked to ...

• Your app sends notifications

Each time your users have a new friend request (Foursquare), a new followers (aaaarg Quora), a new comment (Facebook), they are invited to a plan (Plancast), they get intro'ed by someone (Hashable), they get a notification. Whether it's by email (best), on Twitter (good) or Facebook (ugly), they get it. If they don't visit, at least they are reminded you exist.

• You application is a platform based on platforms

Because it's deeply linked to/on other platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Plancast, ...), there is instant content once your users get in. Moreover, users don't even have to use your app or the platforms to benefit of you key feature : you post Hashable connections on twitter ; you twit your location from Foursquare. Also, thanks to your API, your very unique feature is usable anywhere else.

• You application is playful

It has game mechanics incorporated. By using your app, your users get made. They get points, badges, hashcred, connections, whatever make them feel better - and especially better in the eyes of their social graph since whatever you use to reward them is shared on twitter and Facebook. 

Nice to have

• Charge from day 1

Whether it's a premium, or a specific addon product from your app, integrating PayPal is easy. Separate clearly what is free and what could be paid for, and set a price to it. I reckon this is not critical, but you could make some small revenue. And generating revenue, even small, is good. Really.

• Your app has links, other links and more links

People love to click. Never ever let them in front of a wall or dead-end street. Take a look at any Quora page vs any Facebook page: you'll find way more <a> tags on the Quora source code than on the Facebook one (around 30%+ on average). Links are important : people click on them.

• Your app powers its users, and plays with their pride

I answered x questions on Quora, I shared y plans on Plancast, I made z introductions on Hashable. I'm a heavy user. People see me being a heavy user. Deep inside, I'm proud of being that early adopter. If you make it easy for your users to feel this, they'll be happy to do it again. 

All this feels very 2010, and I would have been famous if this had been my first post last year. But it's here, and here to stay.

So what's your take on it? What did I miss? How is the order? Tell me! 

All cities have history, except Damascus, from which the history began.

Old Syrian saying.

For Xmas, we spent a short week in Lebanon and Syria. With my girlfriend and my father, we flew to Beirut and a returned from Damascus. 

For the first time in my life, I decided to travel without a camera. It was a premiere for me, and I wanted to experience the travel raw through my eyes and not through a lens. Besides, this was my third trip to Syria, so I already captured everything I wanted :)

Lebanon hasn't struck me as beautiful, maybe not the good season. But it was really surprising. Really. In brief, a week later, this is what struck my mind:

- Anywhere you are in Beirut or along the coast to the north, there are at least 10 cranes around. Buildings are popping up like mushrooms everywhere.

- Lebanese are hedonists. Terraces, cafes, clubs, restaurants, crowded pedestrian streets at 11pm, they love being out, being social. For a country that has known more wars in the last 50 years than many other countries, the contrast is surprising.

- There's a Porsche at every Beirut corner. A bit further, there's a Lamborghini. Oh, look out : a Ferrari ! The 16th arrondissement in Paris is the 3rd world.

- In the middle of the brand new sky-scrapers and shining old streets, you'll find older buildings riddled with gunshots and RPG holes. 

- Take the road to the Bekaa Valley : you were in tshirt in Beirut, you'll build a snowman after a 30mn drive.

- In Baalbek, you'll find a complex of roman temples that will make the Acropolis of Athens look like a miniature. It's massive. It's impressive. It's HUGE. And it's beautiful.

- In Baalbek, people will try to sell you fake antiques, sun-faded and dusty postcards, and Hezbollah tshirts. Hmm.

- On the coast, Byblos is a nice old city. Actually pretty old, as it competes with Damascus for the title of "oldest continuously inhabited city". Besides, it's nice and quiet, with beautiful streets, port and ruins.

Passing the border to Syria was as easy as 1-2-3 : take a cab/bus from Beirut to the border (2 hours drive), find a cab willing to get you to Damascus (negotiate firmly), only then get your Lebanon border stamp, and go get your Syrian visa ($29). All-in-all, it took an hour from the Lebanese border to the Syrian border. Count about 30mn drive to Damascus when you're done.

Syria is beautiful. It's the third time I travel to/through Syria, and I still intend to come back. Here are some things I would say to summarize:

- People are amazingly nice - if you don't get 10 smiles or nods in a 5mn walks, then you might not be in Syria. 

- Syria in old - dozens of civilizations have enriched this amazing country with buildings, habits, food, language, art, diversity and especially people: there are brown and white skins, blond, brown and red hairs, brown, blue and green eyes - it's really surprising. 

- Damascus has seen traces of inhabitation since 9,000 BC. That's 11,000 years ago. 

- The amazing Umayyad mosque in Damascus (pics from last year) was built on a Byzantine Christian church, built on a Roman temple of Jupiter, built on a Aramaean temple of Hadad. That pretty much summarizes Damascus and Syria as a whole.

- Food, food, food: as in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan (but under other names), we stuffed ourselves with hummus, falafel, kibbeh, labneh, kebabs, fattoush, muttabal, shawarma and about 20 different pastries all based out of honey, pistachios and butter :)

- Hammam!! We indulged ourselves in eleven-centuries-old hammams. Great experience: just come in, and enjoy. It's a thousands year-old ritual, still practiced as it was back then. Finish up relaxing with a Nargileh and tea.

- Taking a break from Damascus, we hit the road to Palmyra, an oasis in the desert on the caravan road from Damascus to the Euphrates. It was part of Solomon's kingdom, Greeks and Romans added to the constructions, the Aramaeans and Nabateans passed by. It's beautiful, and loaded with history.

- The old city of Damascus might be a 2km square with Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Orthodox and Armenian Christians, Druze, ... It's a vibrant community. There's no tension, no fear. In restaurants, they all eat together. On new year's eve, they would all dance and sing together. It's a thousands miles from any cliché you might have.

There are many other things I could say, or would like to say. I've been lucky and traveled in all middle-east countries in the recent years. History, ancient or contemporary, is there - always - to be seen, experienced, felt. You literally travel in times, but only for the better. 

The oasis of Damascus has been at the crossroads of many civilizations for thousands of years, and like the tide going out, they all left fragments on this fertile soil that could only enrich the heritage of this amazing land.

We have some cool experiment at SubMate, check it out:

A few weeks from now, we'll be releasing the new, improved version of SubMate. The real vision, the real v1.
We would like to share the love with startups or media outlets. So we're glad to announce the SubMate Launch Partners program.
Become a launch partner, and be a sponsor of SubMate in your city(ies). We'll get feedback and use cases on our platform. You'll get some exposure. It's free, it's simple, check it out.

More info on SubMate's blog, and you can also check out the program here: SubMate Launch Partners Program.

Note: sorry for the exceptional French, this won't happen again I swear !