Eating Cake While Being Punched In The Mouth

Running a company is like eating cake while being punched in the mouth. Sure, there is cake, and it is good, but after each bite, it is like being hit by Mike Tyson.

When building AI for sales teams, our company had over 1000 decision-makers lined up for a YouTube live presentation. I had practiced the script, my co-founder pulled out his professional video and audio equipment, and we reserved an excellent space to produce it.

Thirty minutes before going live, I arrived. My co-founder had prepared the space, an empty conference room with a cool backdrop. His video camera and microphone were connected to his MacBook Pro, and we were set.

After a quick practice round, we waited for noon to strike. The camera was pointed at me, and I tried to smile and welcome people as they arrived. However, soon, the comments were full of "I cannot hear you."

My co-founder frantically tried to fix the audio. I typed, "Working on the audio; give us five minutes." The number of viewers moved upward: 50, 75, 100, 300, 500, and so on.

Five minutes passed, yet there was still no sound. Then disaster struck. The viewers began leaving just as fast as they came, and quickly, the stream was empty. Just then, I thought, why not use the computer audio and video? While it was too late to do a live stream, we could still record the presentation.

After thirty minutes of talking without feedback, I got up and left. My co-founder quickly packed away his gear, and we both left the office frustrated.

Very few watched the presentation, and we were not able to get the prospective customers on a second call. We wasted their time and did little to build confidence in our technical ability.

The lesson

Keep things as simple as possible. Had we just used the MacBook's built-in microphone and camera, the presentation would have reached the audience.

The same holds for building a product. We often want to add features in an attempt to add value. However, we must focus on solving the problem instead of impressing our audience.