Imagine that you've got a rising band with catchy tunes and moptops -- then you notice these guys... [+]
Imagine that it’s early 1964, and you’re in a band of four guys who have a knack for very catchy tunes—and you’ve even got a distinct look, performing in suits while sporting moptops. You know it’s just a matter of time before Destiny calls you onto the big stage. But then you turn on the Ed Sullivan show one night, and you realize that someone’s beaten you to your dream.
What’s next, then?
Guillaume Decugis and his colleagues at Goojet had such a moment a few years ago, when Steve Jobs (the Beatles, Stones and Led Zeppelin of the tech world all rolled up in one turtlenecked icon) unveiled
“I was watching the keynote, and I thought “Wow,” Decugis recalls. Apple was delivering what Goojet had in mind.
Goojet was based on a brilliant idea that could have or should have succeeded spectacularly. The company recognized that the burgeoning realm of mobile was a new world that begged to be conquered. They saw the need for new approaches, because the traditional portals that worked on a large desktop wouldn’t work on a compact smartphone.
“We thought widgets could replace the old model,” Decugis says. Goojet thus set out to create a mobile widget platform that would contain a social aspect—one that would allow users to benefit from the collective wisdom of the crowd.
But when Jobs proudly announced the App Store, Goojet realized that a tech giant had beaten them to the hill they intended to be kings of.
How would they react?
Here’s where it gets tricky. I’ve spent many years working with a range of management experts: Most of them talk about the overriding need for optimism, for determination, for relentlessness.
When a giant like Steve Jobs tells the world that he's got a game-changer, it's not easy to keep... [+]
In Goojet’s case, their employees rolled up their sleeves and tried to find an improved approach to Apple’s apps. They argued that Goojet's approach was simpler and better than needing to try to pluck out the right app from a rushing river of Apple apps.
Still, Goojet struggled. Optimism and determination? They tried that, and today Guillaume is not sure it was the right advice for every particular situation.
“I think we should have pivoted quicker,” he says in retrospect. “We were too optimistic. We took a long time to realize the reality of the situation.”
Yet Decugis concedes that there is no easy formula for entrepreneurs in this area. “It’s a blurred line,” he says, regarding when to stay on course and when to pivot.
When finally the epiphany came that it was time to move on to the next thing, they were able to make “a nice exit” and move on to the next project, Scoop.it. But the lesson Decugis took away is that that the pivot took a year longer than it should have. Indeed, the human aversion to sunk costs can influence even the most coolly rational of entrepreneurs and competitors.
The secret of Scoop.it’s rapid success is that it builds on, and redeems, some of the philosophical underpinnings of its Goojet predecessor. It has taken some of the core concepts of Goojet and made it relevant within today's context.
Today, Decugis reflects on being a serial entrepreneur by way of Winston Churchill’s maxim about how success involves being able to go from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
A native of France who came out to study at Stanford and is now based in San Francisco, Decugis has taken a shine to surfing along the California coast. He draws other business parallels from the surfing realm.
“Surfing makes you humble,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes after nearly drowning, you realize you have to do some things differently!”
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