How do you implement ideas? This course provides practical proven tools for transforming an idea into a product or service that creates value for others. As students acquire these tools, they learn how to tell bad ideas from good, how to build a winning strategy, how to shape a unique value proposition, prepare a business plan, compare their innovation to existing solutions, build flexibility into their plan and determine when best to quit. As a vital part of the course students conduct on-site interviews with entrepreneurs who have launched startups, and are eager to share their valuable insights with them. Upon completing this course successfully, graduates will be able to: 1. Transform ideas into real products, services and processes, by validating the idea, testing it, and turning it into a growing, profitable and sustainable business. 2. Identify the major steps and requirements in order to estimate the potential of an innovative idea as the basis of an innovative project. 3. Reach creative solutions via an iteration of a virtually endless stream of world-changing ideas and strategies, integrating feedback, and learning from failures along the way. 4. Apply the 10 entrepreneurial tools in creating a business plan for a new innovative venture. 5. Apply methods and strategies learned from interviews with startup entrepreneurs and innovators. 6. Communicate and sell innovative ideas successfully.
Interview: Rona Davis (WIX)
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From the course by Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
From Idea to Startup
102 ratings
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
102 ratings
Course 2 of 4 in the Specialization Startup Entrepreneurship
From the lesson
Sustain the Business
Meet the Instructors
Prof. (Emeritus) Shlomo MaitalProf. Shlomo Maital Sr. Research Fellow, S. Neaman Institute, Technion
Industrial Engineering
[MUSIC]
>> We're chatting with Rona Davis Tour, she's a Senior Public Relations and
Communications Manager with an interesting company called WIX and
we are on the roof of WIX's building looking at the beautiful Mediterranean.
I'll give the background very quickly about Wicks.
WIX is not a start up, it was a start up in 2006,
founded by two brothers and another person, a friend.
Starting in a completely different direction,
something to do with cloud storage.
They started to build a website, found it was extraordinarily difficult and
decided they would build a company around method, a platform for
easy templates to help people build convenient, easy to maintain websites.
So WIX now is nine years old, it's an established company.
It's done initial public offering of stock.
It employs over a thousand people.
$140 million in revenue I believe, maybe a little more.
You have the numbers and the reason we're here Rona is because
WIX's an adolescent company that has grown from a startup and
learned a lot of things along the way.
We're going to talk about some of the lessons WIX's
learned in growing from a startup to an established company.
So, let's start with what I think is perhaps one of the most interesting
stories, Rona.
Last January, we had the Super Bowl [COUGH] in the United States and
WIX spent a great deal of money and
a lot of effort in doing and buying a Super Bowl add.
Why would WIX spent all of that money, millions of dollars for a Super Bowl add?
>> Well, it was the perfect timing for a Super Bowl add for WiX.
We had four TV campaigns before, we had millions and millions of users.
And we decided, we need to move up.
So I don't know if everyone knows, but
a Super Bowl ad is people watch the Super Bowl for the ads.
They don't really watch it for the game.
>> What about Canada?
>> Nope.
>> That indoor league?
>> No.
>> What am I going to do?
>> Do what everybody else does.
Start a business, build yourself a website.
[MUSIC]
>> Welcome to TO's Humble Pie.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> With WIX,
it's easy to create a website.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Or build your own business.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Let's party.
>> Just click, drag and drop.
[MUSIC]
To create a stunningly beautiful, totally customized all pro website.
[MUSIC]
All by yourself.
[MUSIC]
>> Farm and carve, it's charcuterie.
>> You did that yourself?
>> Don't look so surprised.
Yeah.
>> Wix.com, it's that easy.
[MUSIC]
>> I'm going to get something real quick.
>> No rush.
[SOUND] >> If you're a well-known company,
you're going to have a Super Bowl ads, like all the big brands.
>> Right. >> And
we knew that this was our time to be there.
We actually didn't do a Super Bowl ad, we did a Super Bowl campaign.
It was for a whole month.
We had 16 social channels.
We released 26 videos before.
We had lots of engagements.
Engagements with users and with the people that we
wanted to be our users in order to raise brand awareness.
And one of the very interesting thing and lucky thing is that
the Super Bowl is the most watched American TV spot, but we were very lucky.
Because we got a good game and our ad was as at the end nd it was a game point,
so we had 110 million people Watching our 30 second ad.
>> Wow.
>> So that was just the end of the ad.
When we sum it up in the end, we had worth of $43 million in
impressions and broadcasting, and press.
So, I think it was worth our while.
>> It was worthwhile.
And of course, there was a lot to do with it related to luck,
because that last play was the crucial play.
One of the great all-time moments in Super Bowl history and
that's when your ad ran with all those eyeballs.
>> That's true.
Sometimes you have to be lucky in life and sometimes you are lucky, but
we also worked very hard.
We had 2,077 mentions in the press and
then 166 mentions in the top line where everyone can see what WIX is.
>> Wow.
>> They actually had a survey afterwards and
40% more people said, they knew what WIX was.
>> Wow.
So one of the tools we teach in this course, Rona is called platform and
the idea here is don't just build just one product.
Build a platform on which you can create a range of products and
I think WIX is a good example.
So WIX's began supplying easy to use covenant inexpensive templates for
building websites and then you discovered something that a lot of small businesses
want a website not as a website, but to do e commerce to sell their product.
So you evolved your business, you progressed
your business into a framework to help businesses do e commerce.
Can you talk a little bit about how that evaluation occurred?
>> That's true and since then we've had more things.
In 2012, we opened the app market where you can choose what app you need.
If its SEO or if it's a calendar or if it's an app that reminds you of
when your clients birthday is and we released WIX ShoutOut where you can send
a newsletter or you can send to your clients.
We have a special sale today or if you sign up you get 20% off.
We released WIX Hotels,
especially we found out that a lot of people need a website for a hotel.
Not only a hotel, bed and breakfast,
small little places where they don't have money to have this huge website.
>> Right.
>> And they could build it very easily.
And today, you could book your hotel or your room through something like that.
We keep on improving our product and
realizing what our users need and what users we have, so
we keep on thinking and also we get the ideas from our support.
People are calling, I need this, I need that.
>> Right.
>> We keep on thinking what else we need.
>> Interesting.
So a problem I discovered in high-tech companies Is that when
they grow bigger, they continue to preach innovation and
find it almost impossible to be innovative simply because of their big size.
People feel alienated and feel unimportant,
unempowered in a huge organization.
WIX is a big company now over a thousand people, but as I walk in the door and
come to your reception desk, it feels like a startup.
It feels like a small company.
How do you retain this feeling of smallness even if you are a big company?
>> I think WIX is different.
It really does feel like a startup, I agree.
As a worker, it feels like a startup to me.
We have companies within the company and then everyone belongs to a company,
so that already makes you feel like you have your own division and
then we have all these events to know exactly what's happening.
We have WIX news once a week,
all the employees get a newsletter of what's going on.
Of course, it's ShoutOut.
One of our products, we use that and then we have company updates.
Every quarter, the CEO, the president, the COO,
everyone comes and talks to us and explains.
And I think I can say, anyone who has a good idea or
feels like he has something that can improve the company,
he can always have a meeting with the COO, the CEO, anyone very high up.
That's I think very Israeli.
Around the world, you can't necessarily have a meeting with anyone.
But here in this company, you can get a meeting with anyone and
tell them your ideas and many times they will also happen.
>> Wow.
So when I spoke to one your founders earlier in an interview for
a column I wrote, the founder said that everything
happening in the company is known to every other employee.
And apparently, this transparency is a key part of the company's values.
How does this work in practice?
That everything happening is known to all the employees.
Tell us about ShoutOut, for example.
>> I think the better thing would be to tell you about the Pulse.
>> Yes the Pulse.
>> The Pulse is like an internal Facebook.
Everyone that does something or I do PR.
So if I have a very, very big article, I will put it on the Pulse and
then everyone can see it.
The Pulse actually is a different startup of two people that were here,
they worked for WIX and then they was that you need a Pulse.
You need something in companies that are growing very fast for
everyone to know about all the new things that are happening and
important things and they initiated the startup and
today, they have a startup and we use the Pulse within the company.
>> Cool. With your permission,
I'd like to ask you a personal question.
You're a mother, you have a small child, think she's 15 months old.
You have a really responsible demanding job.
Is it possible for women to work in high tech and still have a life and be mothers?
Is it possible to even start a company and still be a mother and raise a child?
>> Absolutely.
I think that if you want to do it, you can manage.
So I leave at four sometimes, because I have to pick him up from daycare.
>> [COUGH] >> But
then if I need to do things in the evening, I'll do things.
I'm very responsible.
I also come in earlier.
I come in, this is a high-tech company, people come around 10.
>> Right. >> I'm here at 7:30.
>> Wow.
>> And I get a lot of work done then.
I think that WIX is a great company, because they trust me.
They know that I'll work and I'll do what I need to do in order to succeed in my
job and there's lots of parents here, and lots of mothers, and lots of fathers,
and WIX supports it, and I think that's very important for a company.
>> In one of my columns, [COUGH] I spoke to a senior WIX manager several,
[COUGH] because WIX is leading an effort to organize companies or startups.
And they don't want to do exits even though their investors want them to,
because that's how investors get their money out, but
these startups want to be like WIX.
They want to grow and become an independent sustained company and WIX is
leading this effort has even created a small group of companies working together.
There's been a conference, presentation to senior government officials.
Tell us a bit about this effort of hard working busy company that
still tries to be socially responsible and create value for
its country, not just for its own company and shareholders.
>> I think we have a lot of knowledge in Israel and
I think we have a lot of hardworking people.
We also go to the army and that's a big influence.
We have a lot of people that go to a unit called a 8200 and
a lot of people there have had startups and even sold them,
but today, it's not only about the exit.
You can get rich fast, we know that.
But today, we want to establish a startup nation in Israel.
We want the companies to grow and sustain Israel and to bring all these good people
to work for these companies and that's why we initiated the Israeli growth forum.
We have lots of Israeli companies together with us and
we all want to grow and stay here.
That's why we're meeting with government officials and people who can help us
with regulation issues and other issues that we need to help us stay here and
grow the startup nation in Israel, because there is one.
>> A lot of interesting things and unusual things happen here at WIX.
Tell us some of the stories you think are useful for sharing with our students.
Our students some of them have jobs in high-tech,
many of them are considering starting a business.
What can we share with our students who are thinking about starting a business?
We're looking at a company like WIX, which has grown successfully.
What wisdom can we share with them?
>> Well, fist of all, if you're starting a business build yourself a website.
[LAUGH] >> Right, number one.
>> An online presence is very, very important.
>> Yes.
>> And you could do it easily with Wix.
>> Right. >> because you could do it beautiful and
you have lots of features.
That's the first thing.
But our CEO once told me that he thinks that he succeeded,
because he invented this company, because of a problem that he had.
He solved his own problem, he didn't imagine.
>> Right. >> Problems that other people might have.
He solved the problem that he was frustrated,
that he couldn't build the website.
It was too hard and it's too expensive, and that's why he did it, and
I think that's what's the key.
You have to look at yourself and what you need and
not imagine what other people need.
I'm not saying that that can't work, it can also work.
>> [COUGH] >> But
that was a good advice that he gave me.
>> That has come up again and again, Rona as we visit startups and
ask them about how they got the idea.
And so often, the idea happens, because there's something that I need and
it doesn't exist and I wish it did and I can make it happen.
And if I need it, perhaps a lot of other people need it as well.
I think that's a valuable lesson.
This morning, we were at a startup launch by senior citizens who
needed a place where other people over 50 could socialize, a real social network.
They, themselves, needed it and they were sure many,
many other people over 50 did as well.
The result was a successful business.
As a public relations expert,
what should I have asked you that I failed to?
>> I think I can say that the market is basically unlimited,
because today, we have 70 million users,
but everyone is actually a business.
Everyone's a small business.
It's the dog walker, it's the babysitter.
>> Right.
>> And then it's the PR firm and then the photographer and everyone needs a website.
>> Right.
>> So, I think what's very successful and makes me happy at WIX and
I know that our market can expand and expand and expand and
we could get millions and millions and millions of more users.
And of course, we're always improving and bringing more products, but
I know that we'll never reach the limit.
>> However, perhaps we can end on this note.
There is something that may limit WIX's growth and
it's not money or ideas or creativity, it's talented people.
I think the world and our country, specifically is facing a great shortage of
talent and you mentioned that one of your tests is to help recruiting great talent
by simply getting people to know about WIX and what a good place it is to work at.
Tell us a bit about this issue of finding talent,
finding good people in a market that's increasingly competitive.
>> It's true, it's very hard finding talented people.
But I think for WIX, it may be a little easier,
because we're an international company.
We had a Super Bowl campaign.
We had things that people in Israel, they don't get a big chance to work with.
I think that we do need to open WIX Academy to open other things,
other education programs to get people to work to
get people that can work here in Israel.
Israel like we said before is a startup nation.
Lots of companies are looking for these talented people.
>> Right.
>> But I think that in Israel, we do have these talented people and
I think we could more to create more talented people.
>> And perhaps, one insight I've gained from your great company, from WIX.
WIX is not the only company building websites and web based templates and
web based platforms, you have really stiff, fierce competition.
You're the only company so
far, as far as I know, that's done an initial public offering of stock.
That means that you maybe have a little bigger bank account,
a little more resources to enable you to compete.
But nonetheless, the point here is really simple.
If you have an idea to meet a need,
there are other people out there who are trying to meet it, as well.
If you can do it a whole lot better than the competition,
then you'll be successful.
Just because somebody is doing something already,
it doesn't mean you don't need to do it.
It just means you have to do it really, a whole, whole lot better.
So Rona, we've learned a lot.
Thanks a lot for the interview.
Best of luck to you and to your company, to WIX.
>> Thank you.
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