4 ms·

How Steve Jobs pitches a startup

81 points by paulsb 18y ago

jhancock 18y ago
Next was not a start-up by the time Jobs filmed this. They had been in existence for around for six plus years by 1991. It is a good vid though ;)
- nivi 18y ago
  I think every company that is trying to figure out its customer is a startup. =)
  - brianlash 18y ago
    By that definition GE (Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft...etc) are startups too.
    - nailer 18y ago
      Microsoft know their customers are consumers, and businesses who need lower-end servers (yes, they have other markets, no, this isn't where the Office/Windows revenue MS live on comes from. Pfizer's customers are sick people and governments who will pay for their drugs. Apple's customers are design-conscious individuals who like elegant, easy to use computers.
jmtame 18y ago
He did his homework and made a compelling presentation. And Steve is diligent as hell. Nice work on the pitch.
kwamenum86 18y ago
That struck me as a little long and that was only part 1. I guess even at that point Steve Jobs had enough clout to hold peoples' attention for 10+ minutes.
- dmix 18y ago
  This was filmed in 1991 and probably distributed on VHS. It was also probably cost much more then it would today. Also, the audience was most likely not the same as VCs today whose attention span lasts about 60 seconds during a pitch.
bigthboy 18y ago
I liked the video, he did a great job of holding my attention, as someone noted, for 10 minutes and at the end of part 1 I can say I clearly understood what he was talking about, and that's critical both when presenting to customers and presenting to partners/investors.
raheemm 18y ago
hmmph, his dress code remained the same even then - I thought it was a marketing gimmick - guess not.
- cubicle67 18y ago
  Jacket == turtleneck? Edit: I noticed the jacket when watching the Next keynote presentation (I'm a sucker for YouTube related videos :)
jodrellblank 18y ago
I found it interesting that he pointed out workstations and "PC and Macintosh", then directed NeXT into a new market. The same market that Apple went for after they bought NeXT. Was it Steve Job's influence on Apple to push them to do it, or were they after that market first and bought NeXT because they were a good way into the market?
- cturner 18y ago
  I don't think Apple went for or took that market. The right-hand side of the workstations diagram was mostly replaced by Windows NT - some exceptions in artsy professions which use macs (probably by a similar proportion to those that did before 1996). A combination of Windows and free unix have replaced the other side. Apple's focus and new success has been at and among home users, and things like iTunes and iWork. If they had been focussed on what was once the 'workstation' area we'd have seen far more emphasis on their proven development technologies and collaborative workplace technologies. WebObjects has survived, but it was looking dubious for years. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there was still more OpenStep deployed on traders' desks than OSX.
orib 18y ago
[digression] I find it interesting that "what's old is new again" theme strikes again. In this video, near the 7 minute mark, he's talking about moving applications off of mainframes/servers and running them as desktop clients for ease of development, speed, cost, and so on. Sounds kind of like the inverse of what people seem to be trying to do today with web apps. Again. And of course, this isn't the first time the cycle repeasts.
- richcollins 18y ago
  I think the Javascript frameworks will move us back in the direction that he was describing.
mhartl 18y ago
Whatever magic Steve Jobs has, for me it didn't come through in this video; I lost interest about three minutes in. I'd guess his much-vaunted 'reality distortion field' is much more powerful in person.
debt 18y ago
I love that he takes that accepted and rigid view of the workstation market and identifies a bunch of other smaller markets within it. It seems too often that cynics will write off those smaller markets because they believe in a more rigid and less complicated view of the marketplace.

81 points by paulsb 18y ago

Next was not a start-up by the time Jobs filmed this. They had been in existence for around for six plus years by 1991. It is a good vid though ;)

nivi 18y ago
I think every company that is trying to figure out its customer is a startup. =)
- brianlash 18y ago
  By that definition GE (Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft...etc) are startups too.
  - nailer 18y ago
    Microsoft know their customers are consumers, and businesses who need lower-end servers (yes, they have other markets, no, this isn't where the Office/Windows revenue MS live on comes from. Pfizer's customers are sick people and governments who will pay for their drugs. Apple's customers are design-conscious individuals who like elegant, easy to use computers.

jmtame 18y ago

He did his homework and made a compelling presentation. And Steve is diligent as hell. Nice work on the pitch.

kwamenum86 18y ago

That struck me as a little long and that was only part 1. I guess even at that point Steve Jobs had enough clout to hold peoples' attention for 10+ minutes.

dmix 18y ago
This was filmed in 1991 and probably distributed on VHS. It was also probably cost much more then it would today. Also, the audience was most likely not the same as VCs today whose attention span lasts about 60 seconds during a pitch.

bigthboy 18y ago

I liked the video, he did a great job of holding my attention, as someone noted, for 10 minutes and at the end of part 1 I can say I clearly understood what he was talking about, and that's critical both when presenting to customers and presenting to partners/investors.

raheemm 18y ago

hmmph, his dress code remained the same even then - I thought it was a marketing gimmick - guess not.

cubicle67 18y ago
Jacket == turtleneck? Edit: I noticed the jacket when watching the Next keynote presentation (I'm a sucker for YouTube related videos :)

jodrellblank 18y ago

I found it interesting that he pointed out workstations and "PC and Macintosh", then directed NeXT into a new market. The same market that Apple went for after they bought NeXT. Was it Steve Job's influence on Apple to push them to do it, or were they after that market first and bought NeXT because they were a good way into the market?

cturner 18y ago
I don't think Apple went for or took that market. The right-hand side of the workstations diagram was mostly replaced by Windows NT - some exceptions in artsy professions which use macs (probably by a similar proportion to those that did before 1996). A combination of Windows and free unix have replaced the other side. Apple's focus and new success has been at and among home users, and things like iTunes and iWork. If they had been focussed on what was once the 'workstation' area we'd have seen far more emphasis on their proven development technologies and collaborative workplace technologies. WebObjects has survived, but it was looking dubious for years. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there was still more OpenStep deployed on traders' desks than OSX.

orib 18y ago

[digression] I find it interesting that "what's old is new again" theme strikes again. In this video, near the 7 minute mark, he's talking about moving applications off of mainframes/servers and running them as desktop clients for ease of development, speed, cost, and so on. Sounds kind of like the inverse of what people seem to be trying to do today with web apps. Again. And of course, this isn't the first time the cycle repeasts.

richcollins 18y ago
I think the Javascript frameworks will move us back in the direction that he was describing.

mhartl 18y ago

Whatever magic Steve Jobs has, for me it didn't come through in this video; I lost interest about three minutes in. I'd guess his much-vaunted 'reality distortion field' is much more powerful in person.

debt 18y ago

I love that he takes that accepted and rigid view of the workstation market and identifies a bunch of other smaller markets within it. It seems too often that cynics will write off those smaller markets because they believe in a more rigid and less complicated view of the marketplace.