Ignition Series

Hard data are not available but based on my experience billions of dollars each year go poof in the payments industry from investments in products that crash and burn soon after launch. These products didn’t have a sound ignition strategy which should be the foundation of all payments innovation. This series describes what an ignition plan is, why every entrepreneur inside and outside of major corporations should have one, and why investors and directors should insist on seeing one.

Click here to download the Ignition Series eBook

I. Why Every Payments Product Needs an Ignition Strategy

An ignition plan won’t guarantee success. But it does force entrepreneurs and investors to think carefully about how they are going to get both buyers and sellers on board, in sufficient numbers, and quickly enough, to ignite. In doing so they may realize that ignition is too difficult and save their money.

II. What the Little Engine that Could and Nuclear Physics Have to Do With Ignition Strategies

The basic problem for a two-sided business is that it needs “critical mass” to get ignited. That’s a concept from nuclear physics and a pretty good analogy to what goes on with two-sided platforms.

III. Blast Off! How Two-Sided Platforms Ignited

Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg and his partners made it look easy. The social networking platform ignited almost immediately after it was introduced at Harvard College.

IV. Why Even Great Payments Ideas Crash and Burn

This brings me to a stark point: There are lots of great ideas out there, but precious few entrepreneurs who can turn great ideas into successful businesses.

V. How Long Does a New Platform Have to Ignite or Fizzle

Not long is the short answer.  A completely unscientific but reasonably educated guess is a couple of years.  Here I explain why. To some degree all new firms face an hourglass.  Most firms fail and do so, mercifully, quickly.  That happens because the firms aren’t nearly as good as they thought they were.

VI. Ignition Strategies: How to Launch a Platform Business 

Getting a new product off the ground is one of the great challenges in business. That’s well documented for entrepreneurs. VCs don’t get any return from more than 40 percent of their first-round investments and get back less than they put in for two-thirds.

VII. Formulating an Ignition Plan 

If you want to start a platform business in payments — or in any other area that involves the coordination of multiple stakeholders — you’d better have an ignition plan. Once you start the business, you are facing a countdown for achieving critical mass and launching the business successfully.

Click here to download the Ignition Series eBook