I started a workshop on experimenting (practicing) with two topics:
1 building a monopoly
2 building a team
Both topics (especially the one on monopoly) Peter Thiel did elaborate in “Zero to One” – so I plan to use the book as a major manual)
In short the team building game should be like:
“Hire well, manage little”. (Warren Buffett)
So hiring is the most important part of the building a team game… Management afterwards could be impossible if the first part (hiring) done wrong.
I plan to do something similar to:
https://alec.data.blog/how-to-build-a-team-that-works-by-tony-robbins/
The first step: to choose the first member of a team. Then the second candidate SHOULD BE approved by the first member. If he won’t approve it would be wrong just forcefully include the second candidate into the team.
The second game is the MONOPOLY or niche game.
I plan to play both games by creating FB groups and then managing it. Why?
Because starting a FB group is simple and easy (no need for money) and FB groups have some value so one can sell them, exchange them (barter), or to gift them as a way of payment.
The most important part in starting a group is choosing the right topic which should be niche or monopolistic. It means there’s should be no competitors on the topic.
The ULTIMATE GOALS of these games is preparing to the moment when time to come…
to create a startup and connect with PT because I believe he is the most interesting person on Earth worth to connect with)
DETAILS:
Now I’ll try to answer some questions you may ask on the topics)
1) A group (type X) can be grown in T time (weeks, months) .
1a) At what size is the right selling point?
1b) How secure is it that there is a buyer?
Selling is a choice not a priority.
The priority is to motivate participants of workshop.
For example: I can give away a group to someone as a payment. So in that case selling is quite safe because no money transfer needed, plus seller and buyer know each other. So it’s much safer game if to compare it to the normal selling.
Another point about selling:
It’s better to start to sell the group from the moment of starting a group)
People think selling is simple – you just need to post ad or something… but it’s a very tricky game so it’s better start to play the game ASAP. You can read on importance of selling in Zero To One.
There’s no such a thing as the right selling point.
PT said a startup is always priced wrong.
If a founder know how to develop a project – he will always get a lower price like it was with $1 bln deal when Yahoo tried to buy FB.
A quote from Zero To One:
“When a big company makes an offer to acquire a successful startup, it almost always offers too much or too little: founders only sell when they have no more concrete visions for the company, in which case the acquirer probably overpaid; definite founders with robust plans don’t sell, which means the offer wasn’t high enough. When Yahoo! offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion in July 2006, I thought we should at least consider it. But Mark Zuckerberg walked into the board meeting and announced: “Okay, guys, this is just a formality, it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. We’re obviously not going to sell here.” Mark saw where he could take the company, and Yahoo! didn’t. A business with a good definite plan will always be underrated in a world where people see the future as random.”
>>> How much time to spend every day/every week on growing the group?
The minimal commitment is to post something interesting ones a month)
Promotion of a group is encouraged but if it doesn’t sound like fun – no need to promote – FB will promote)
>>> What about some risk derived from the fact that the groups are dependent on infrastructure and guidelines. These conditions might change.
We shouldn’t put all eggs into FB basket. It’s necessary to chanel the flow of followers into Telegram, WordPress and something else)
>>> Competitors might have gotten the same idea, which can effect the possibility of growing groups and also their value amongst buyers.
I don’t care much about competitors – the major game of the workshop is to practice the monopoly game and practicing the building a team game. I don’t plan making any substantial money from FB groups farming. Starting a group is not a startup – so no need to expect anything huge in terms of money. I’m more focused on making friends that I can use when the time of a startup will come)
The idea is to create a niche group and when competitors will come it’s gonna be too late for them to catch up with us… and if they will be able to catch up with us it’s gonna be not an issue because we will switch to a real startup game – so the FB groups we were created would be a very small game for us with small value and minuscule interest)
Long story short:
If it sounds interesting – the minimal commitment is to post something ones a month in a group.
A minimal commitment for a project manager is to spend on the project one hour a month.
The person I need the most now is a project manager – so if you know someone who is interested to play the game please let me know)
Alec Game Blog 