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Patio11 says Hello Ladies

by akshat on 3/26/11, 12:55 PM with 114 comments

• by patio11 on 3/26/11, 3:16 PM

  Posted with slides on my blog.

  http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/26/software-for-underserved...

  I had been waiting for the video to come out -- they usually use them to promote the Business of Software conference. So, let me make my one plug: go to the Business of Software conference. It was one of the highlights of my professional career, and I got advice and inspiration that directly helped get AR launched the following month. This talk barely gets in the ballpark of quality of some of the presentations -- and the real reason to go isn't the presentations, but to meet people who doing great things in software. (More than once I found myself asking "Who the heck let me sit at this table?! This guy bootstrapped a business which sells nuclear power plant control software and now has N employees and Y million revenue. I make bingo cards for a living!")

  Thanks for the praise by the way.

• by aw3c2 on 3/26/11, 1:41 PM

  Non-blogspam link: http://businessofsoftware.blip.tv/file/4933754/

  Alternatively a direct link to the 70MB M4V (H264 & AAC) source (so you can avoid Flash, even though Blip.tv has HTML5 I think): http://blip.tv/file/get/Businessofsoftware-PatrickMcKenzieMa...

  It's a video called "Patrick McKenzie. Marketing to minorities".

  Title of the talk was "Software for underserved markets", he talks about women. It's quite short (<10 minutes) and full with wit and energy. Great fun to watch.

• by edw519 on 3/26/11, 4:42 PM

  Patrick, I'm really glad to see you use the reference from the Atlantic article in your presentation. It was one of the most memorable "testimonials without even being a testimonial" I've ever read about the use software for a higher purpose:

  Next, Mr. Taylor announces it’s time for Multiplication Bingo. As Mr. Taylor reads off a problem (“20 divided by 5”), the kids scour their boards, chips in hand, looking for 4’s. One girl is literally shaking with excitement. Another has her hands clasped in a prayer position. I find myself wanting to play. You know you’re in a good classroom if you have to stop yourself from raising your hand.

  My reaction, which hasn't changed, from 11 months ago:

  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1267630

  The full article:

  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/01/what-makes...

• by noahc on 3/26/11, 1:42 PM

  The best line is when he says, "features.html should 404."

  What he says is basically:

  1. Develop a niche, and this is probably easier if you target women.

  2. Sell an emotional experience, not features.

  3. Tell stories because software is boring.

  4. Profit!!!

• by nhebb on 3/26/11, 2:41 PM

  That was a great speech. After ruminating a bit, I'm still left with the sad thought that I have no clue how to put this information to use. I just went through my last 100 orders and 29 were women, so there's room for improvement. I just Googled a few variations of "how women buy on the internet", which resulted in a bunch of sites for little blue pills and Russian brides, I didn't find any useful studies. It would be a good reading topic if anyone knows a source.

• by follower on 3/26/11, 2:13 PM

  Wow, really nicely done. Sure, some nerves and timing issues but really impressive outside that, particularly as an non-natural public speaker.

  Of course, the true measure of public speaking is how many people act on the message. :) Would be interested to know what feedback patio11 has received on that front.

  Are the slides available somewhere? Couldn't find them on his site.

• by revorad on 3/26/11, 1:46 PM

  "Software is just the monetisation engine for the emotion business."

  That makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

• by marklittlewood on 3/26/11, 7:45 PM

  It is difficult to understate how good Patrick was.

  BoS has some of the best speakers in the business. Some you will have heard of - Seth Godin, Joel Spolsky, Geoffrey Moore - some you won't have heard from even if you have heard of them - Peldi at Balsamiq for example. http://businessofsoftware.org/prevyear.aspx

  Patrick only had 7 minutes 30 seconds but he rocked the house. He will be back this year we hope.

• by singular on 3/26/11, 1:52 PM

  Brilliant talk - but for some reason I always envisioned patio11 as being quite considerably older...!

• by swah on 3/26/11, 1:34 PM

  This was great, but he seemed a little nervous, although his text was perfect.

• by bearwithclaws on 3/26/11, 1:37 PM

  Very impressive, Patrick! Love the energy and humor.

  Just wondering, how many times you practice it? (I'm guessing at least 5 times)

• by marklittlewood on 3/27/11, 9:49 AM

  If you are going to pick something up and post it on your Posterous, ignore the copyright notices, then post it on Hacker News, it would be really lovely if you could include one small link back to the event page you took it from.

  http://businessofsoftware.org/

  Thanks.

• by davidw on 3/26/11, 2:20 PM

  Interesting and very timely, I think a significant portion of the audience for http://LiberWriter.com will turn out to be women.

  So... what kind of easy to create image can I put up to show how things work in a more 'human' way? I like the spareness of the design and I'm not paying for a designer until I start making steady money so "go pay a design guy a lot of money" is not a good answer.

• by csavage on 3/26/11, 1:32 PM

  This is a man who understands why people buy stuff. Awesome to see him talk.

• by keyle on 3/26/11, 2:02 PM

  This was brilliant. To me the best part was about bringing the emotional connection to customers right from the home page. Sell them the success they're subconsciously seeking.

• by jasonlotito on 3/26/11, 3:46 PM

  Such a simple talk, such simple advice, but I learned so much. So much is obvious upon reflection, but great advice usually is. Awesome job.

• by jenndox on 3/26/11, 5:37 PM

  Thanks for explicitly calling out that it isn't that people sell poorly to women, but that we sell poorly to everyone. It is a very useful turn to take when thinking about market segmentation. Great talk!

• by marklittlewood on 3/26/11, 4:24 PM

  If you are thinking of going to Business of Software this year, the first Early Bird discount finishes midnight PST on Sunday night. Over 150 places of 380 total gone already.

  http://businessofsoftware.org/

• by dutchrapley on 3/26/11, 2:41 PM

  This is great. Goes along with Zed Shaw's philosophy on the selling and purchasing of enterprise software - steaks and strippers. Features are boring, steaks and strippers aren't.

  http://vimeo.com/2723800 (17:53)

• by jwwest on 3/26/11, 11:04 PM

  This was an awesome presentation, quick, funny, to the point.

  However, it brought up some interesting questions for me. How many people can truly create software for the sole purpose of selling it? Unless he really likes Bingo cards, he worked on this software not out of love but love for money.

  This isn't a bash, I'm insanely curious actually. The more I think about it, the more I know that I cannot create software for women because I have absolutely no interests that would coincide with an underserved market. Maybe I'm just not creative enough? And honestly, for me to create an awesome product, I'd have to be invested in it somehow.

• by chopsueyar on 3/26/11, 1:36 PM

  Patio11, good speech and funny, too. Awesome job, man!

• by bane on 3/26/11, 5:39 PM

  Great talk! Funny, engaging, involved the audience, full of great content.

  I certainly learned something, already rethinking a few parts of our messaging.

• by noonespecial on 3/27/11, 12:29 AM

  I wondered at first how Patrick could squeeze success from something like Bingo card creation.

  I don't anymore.

• by jdp23 on 3/26/11, 3:47 PM

  I think of it as a two-dimensional market segmentation perspective: gender on one dimension, race on another. In a lot of segments, almost everybody is fighting it out in the "white guy" quadrant or at least the "guy" half. Take the Q&A space, for example: Quora is 80-90% guys, and so is StackOverflow. So there's room for competitors targeting the "niches" that actually make up most of the population. And there are similar dynamics in most market segments ...

• by marcamillion on 3/26/11, 7:32 PM

  I have been highly anticipating this, and it's better than I thought it would be. A bit awkward at times, but that's what makes it so endearing.

  We can see how genuine he is.

  Good job Patrick!

• by sdizdar on 3/27/11, 5:50 PM

  Excellent presentation. Brilliant. I'm always told that sell process is actually selling one of these four things: fear, greed, vanity, or insecurity.

  But that is easier said than done. I have no clue how to achieve that (I'm still in "sell features" mindset). I would like to hear is there are any good examples of software product or server which does that well.

• by kellysutton on 3/26/11, 11:09 PM

  Kind of along the lines of this is Spolsky's advice that he would give out at the Dev Days conference tour he does/did with Carsonified: How is your software going to get someone laid?

  While a little far-fetched, it does help keep everything in perspective although it serves the young guy demographic a bit more.

• by chapel on 3/26/11, 1:39 PM

  Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed the presentation and have a newfound respect for patio11. Not that I didn't enjoy listening to him on the Techzing Podcast.

• by ct on 3/26/11, 1:33 PM

  At the end of the video Patrick mentions his website has some example businesses for women. Anyone have the link to that page?

• by Vivtek on 3/26/11, 10:18 PM

  Fantastic presentation!

• by some1else on 3/27/11, 11:25 AM

  Business of Software is the best for sharing these videos. Thanks Joel/BoS!

• by shadowpwner on 3/26/11, 3:36 PM

  Random, but is the intro from the "Stuff You Should Know" podcast?

• by pbhjpbhj on 3/26/11, 8:33 PM

  I hate hero shots, do we have to have hero shots?

• by akshat on 3/26/11, 12:56 PM

  Sorry for the karma bait title :)

• by code_acdc on 3/27/11, 2:09 PM

  Very interesting prespective

• by dawgr on 3/26/11, 10:21 PM

  Expect a surge in period tracker web apps.

• by mistermann on 3/26/11, 1:32 PM

  Doesn't work on iPhone?