April and I checked out Creative Mornings earlier today in East Atlanta. We enjoyed a presentation by Michael Tavani, the founder of Scoutmob, a badass mobile consumer app in Atlanta. There was a great crowd (~200+) and a nice entrepreneurial message, plus lot’s of designers, developers, and marketers. These were my big takeaways.
- The mission of Creative Mornings ATL is to help you be better at what you do as “creatives”.
- There are no great ideas on paper. You’ll only find business value when you jump in and execute.
- There are no sacred secrets to startups. Don’t be afraid to tell everyone your ideas. They will only help.
- When starting a business, find a wingman with complementary skills.
- Hire for passion. It’s the only way to find the right people for your company.
- Focus on creating something remarkable before you deal with anything else.
- Content matters (the 1st two Scoutmob hires were a designer and a copywriter).
- Focus on delighting users any way you can (Scoutmob created a “stache cam” feature in their app that people loved).
- Brand is your differentiator, not technology.
- It’s easy to make an impact in Atlanta.
- Nothing is better than being in the game (if you are interested in startups, join one and participate).
Creative mornings is a great Atlanta event…especially if you’re in the content, user experience or marketing world. I’m excited about the next one.