We apologize for taking so long on this Insider...just too much stuff going
on right now. Next one will go out within the next five weeks or so. And
as usual, please check out all of the book comments on Amazon
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738205737/ref=nosim/mousedandplat-20 and feel free to post your own...we love checking those things out!

Lessons Learned

Well, after a couple of months of some serious self-reflecting, the two of
us have finally made the decision to ‘officially’ search for new job
opportunities. That’s right, we’re movin’ on! Now, before the depression
kicks in for some of ya, let’s go over a couple of points. First, we never
intended to build a sustainable company. When we sat down to create the
business plan for this thing, it wasn’t to build out the next Sony or the
next Logitech. Our vision was simply to bring a new product idea to market,
sell as many as we could over an 18-24 month period, bank our millions and
then move on. Hell, even calling Platinum Concepts, Inc. a company is a
reach. It’s more of a project. (Most of you know by now that we were a
little naïve in our time frame and financial projections). Second, just
because we’re looking at other opportunities doesn’t mean the company goes
way. Quite the contrary. We’re still selling MouseDrivers, we’re still
building out distribution channels and we’re still trying to find somebody
to buy all of the MouseDriver assets. It’s just that the majority of our
time will be spent looking at our next individual career moves. To get a
better idea of what each of us is looking for and what we’ve been able to
accomplish over the past few years, just check out the links below and let
us know your thoughts!

John (www.mousedriverchronicles.com/aboutjl.htm) Kyle (www.mousedriverchronicles.com/aboutkh.htm)

So where does all of this leave the Insider? As we’ve said to many of
you, we’ll continue to write the Insider as long as we feel like we have
information and insights and as long as people want to hear them. Who
knows, maybe one of us will become a US President and everyone will finally
get realistic accounts of what it’s like to work in the oval office. The
bottom line: the Insider will live on….just have to figure out what
adventure it’s going to cover next. In the meantime, the two of us have
decided to focus the next few MouseDriver Insiders on the ‘real’ lessons
that we’ve learned during this entrepreneurial adventure. Now that we’ve
had some time to look back and reflect, it’s really easy for us to pinpoint
what we think are very key insights for anybody looking to start their own
company. We don’t have all the answers by any stretch of the imagination,
but we certainly understand what we did right, what we did wrong, what we
could have done better, what the emotional roller coaster is like and what
kept us going over the past 36 months. What we’re going to do is package
all of these insights into the next few Insiders and leave all of you with a
very nice close to the MouseDriver chapter. Hopefully (praying), we’ll be
able to invite you to join a new chapter of Insiders in the very near future
(as in ASAP!).

In case you haven’t figured it out, the MouseDriver story has actually
become bigger than the MouseDriver product. What started out as a simple
marketing strategy to tie a story (and an emotion) around our product has
led to an incredible amount of press, a cover story, book deals, potential
Hollywood opportunities, a phenomenal network of entrepreneurs, professors,
students, etc. and who knows what else. We’re not too sure exactly what
the ‘story’ did for us from a sales perspective…way too hard to measure…but
we’re pretty confident that it helped. But damn, can you imagine what sales
would have been like if we were able to build out all of our distribution
channels as the story was getting big. Timing is critical, right?. Anyway,
because the story is now bigger than the product, we’re seeing more people
associating MouseDriver with the thrilling ride of entrepreneurship rather
than a novelty computer mouse that looks like a driver golf club. Which is
fine by us…just means that we need to do what we can to continue promoting
MouseDriver as a metaphor for entrepreneurship and to continue motivating
and inspiring others to live the entrepreneurial experience. Things are
going well thus far. As of Monday, August 5th, 32 professors around the
world are using the Insiders and/or the MouseDriver Chronicles as an
educational tool in the classroom. Now that is cool!

So what are we doing to promote our experiences and continue building out
the ‘brand’ that MouseDriver has come to represent? Right now, we’re
focused on the website. . We’ve totally modified the website and made it
less product-centric and more community based. The idea here is to promote
the fact that MouseDriver has become a metaphor for the entrepreneurial
experience and to inspire and motivate others to take the entrepreneurial
plunge. While the site still needs a ton of work (keeping it simple right
now until we figure out what to add), we’ve managed to succeed in driving
some traffic to the discussion board. Now that we have some traction on
that thing, we’re going to spend a little bit more time making sure that the
board is providing tons of value to visitors. That means adding moderators,
changing/adding topics to reflect the needs of visitors, dedicating sections
of the board to certain groups (i.e. students and professors) and basically
taking a more proactive role in generating discussion. As the board
continues to gain in popularity, we’ll start adding other things to the
site…a resource section, an area to attach standard documents such as NDA’s,
sales rep agreements, etc, a chat room, etc. The vision is that this site
become THE place for entrepreneurs to ask questions, share ideas and discuss
their experiences. We’ll see…

 

What We've Done

• Redesigned the website to reflect more of the entrepreneurial experience
  that MouseDriver has come to stand for. Let us know if you have any
  suggestions.
• Contacted a bunch of ASI distributors and retail distributors in an effort
  to get them to pre-pay for large inventory investments. The jury is still
  out on this one.
• Spoke with a talent agency in Hollywood about the possibilities of putting
  together a talk show focused on entrepreneurship. We give this as good of a
  chance as seeing the MouseDriver TV Sitcom on the air next fall!
• Started to streamline basic operational stuff in order to cut down
  expenses.

Priority Goals

• Sell the company assets and return as much money as possible to our
  investors. This is, by far, our biggest goal.
• Put all of the Insiders in a very easy-to-read format so that anybody can
  download one document off of the website and check them out.
• Find out through discussions with professors and students how our story is
  being used in the classroom.
• Find jobs and start the next ‘adventure’!

Mood Meter

We’re stoked! There’s a certain freedom associated with
committing to a decision and knowing that you’re moving on with the next
phase of your life. We’ve had a phenomenal experience, one helluva ride and
the opportunity to accomplish some really great things. But it’s time to
move on, to leave this chapter behind us and to look for the next life
adventure. After all, isn’t life all about experiences? When we’re 80 and
pushin' shuffleboard in some retirement home, at least we know we’ll be able to
talk about those crazy three years in our late 20’s/early 30’s when we
decided to go against the grain and bring a novelty computer mouse to
market. Sure beats the hell out of wondering ‘what if’ and talking about all
of those great corporate retreats! :)

Questions, comments, or criticisms about the Insider? Email us at info@mousedriverchronicles.com.