Viralogy

Twitter: @Loic
Websites: http://www.loiclemeur.com/, http://seesmic.com/, http://www.leweb.net/

Why you should watch this interview:

Loic is such an amazing entrepreneur.  He was featured by Business Week as one of the 25 most influential people on the internet.  He’s super busy with his current company Seesmic, and yet, he still takes the time to meet people in his community and build relationships with other young entrepreneurs.

This interview was made possible because Yu-kai Chou and Loic met through a post that Yu-kai wrote entitled: Seesmic Desktop vs Tweetdeck.  Loic noticed the amazing review that Yu-kai created, and took the time to reach out to Yu-kai and meet him up in Northern California for coffee.  That’s a perfect example of a successful entrepreneur who is not too big to talk to his community.

Throughout the interview, you’ll notice that Loic stresses the importance of building a community.  You are ultimately building a product for the people, not yourself.  Focus on your customers, build relationships with them, and adapt quickly to the feedback that you get.  If you want to become a successful young entrepreneur, then you need to watch this interview.

Enjoy!

Conversation Breakdown:

How different was the blogosphere in 2003 compared to now?

If felt like Twitter now, because people asked you “Why are you blogging?  It’s weird.”

If you don’t share, you’ll be in trouble because you need to have a brand around your community.  Even if your business fails, you can still build a successful company be leveraging the strong community that you have previously built.  If you don’t share, you’re done.

Loic’s mentor was Joe Ito, who introduced him to blogging back in 2003.

Where did the inspiration for Seesmic come from?

The video part came from the fact that it’s very powerful.  Loic was frustrated and he wanted to know his community much better.  There is a lot of value in not only having the real names, for example Facebook has your real identities, and video takes relationships into a deeper level.

Seesmic didn’t take off as fast as Loic thought it would.  If you’re too early, then you fail.  Video conversation will only happen in a few years; it’s not a technology problem, it’s a human problem because people are shy.

At the same time, Seesmic acquired Twhirl because Loic thought it was important to stay in touch with your community all day long.  They got to 1.5 million downloads and decided to switch their focus to Seesmic Desktop instead of Seesmic Video.  The focus is to help people build their community online and interact with their community all day long.

Loic wants Seesmic to be the tool that is the BEST to build our community online.

As an entrepreneur, how do you know when you still have to be persistent and push your idea, or when it’s time to change direction and switch your company direction?

It’s when you’ve feel that you have tried enough.  In Loic’s case, they had great feedback and community around Seesmic.  It was growing, but not exponentially.

There comes a moment when you think, “have we tried everything?”  Most likely you haven’t, but if you have tried almost everything, then it might be time to move on.  When you have tried your hardest and it doesn’t take off, and when you see that your competitors haven’t taken off either, then it is time to change direction.

Keep trying as hard as you can, but there comes a moment when you need traction.  And if you see traction somewhere else, then you need to jump on that opportunity.

The number 1 quality of an entrepreneur is the ability to change and react to the market.  It’s not about where you start, but where you take it.  For example, Skype started as a wifi sharing device, very different from what it is right now.

It’s about catching the right waves that will take you to a successful startup without too much effort and funding.  Don’t change direction ALL the time; keep the focus, but adapt to the market and environment.

What’s more important: Market Research before you start or Diving in head first and changing as you go?

The best market research for Loic is cheap as soon as possible.  Loic dives in head first and if it sticks, then he keeps pushing the idea.

“If you’re not ashamed of your product when you launch it, then you have launched too late”

You may get a lot of bad feedback, but as long as you show that you’re changing and fixing things, people will like the product and enjoy the community because they’re a part of the changes and revisions that are being made.

Le Web took 5 years to make successful.  The lesson learned is that successes take a very long time and it takes a passionate entrepreneur who believes in the idea.  Your product or service will change along the way, so it’s all about adapting while receiving feedback and watching the market.

For the young entrepreneurs watching this, what are the last bits of advice that you would like to give them

Execution matters the most.  Don’t think too much and just go because whatever you think in the beginning is usually wrong.  React to what people say and if it doesn’t grow, then you do something else.  The idea itself is not very important.

Don’t listen to people that tell you that you will fail because it’s mostly jealousy.

The most important part is to get a community.  It’s NOT the post on Tech Crunch; it’s the 1000 posts from smaller blogs.  Some people only focus on getting great PR for the launch, but more important is building a community of strong users.

The way to do this is to share a lot.  Loic shares through blogging, Tweeting, and Facebook.  Share interesting things because if you’re Tweeting about your company all day long, then people won’t find value in that.

Loic has created a mailing list for Seesmic users that want to be a part of the Seesmic team.  It has grown to 50,000 members because Loic focuses largely on building a community with his users.