Hirsh – the voice of reason

Where there’s black there’s white.  Where there’s night there’s day.  Where’s there’s fish there’s chips.  And where there’s Slo there’s Hirsh.  In life there are opposities that can’t exist without each other.  They compliment each other.  They need the other one to make sense of themselves. 

For where I’m the one who comes up with mad-cap ideas about what we can do on our site and generally get carried away with things, Hirsh is the voice of reason that brings me crashing down to Earth with an almighty crash.  It’s not a bad thing though – it’s probably needed and I’ll happily admit it.   If it wasn’t for Hirsh I’d get a little bit carried away and try to build a house without building the foundations.  I’d be trying to run before I could walk, and the likelihood is that it’d all come crashing down before my very eyes.  Hirsh puts the business perspective onto things and the reality check that says that whilst something may be a good idea, maybe it’s an idea that can be put on the shelf for a later date.  His logic is that we’d be better off concentrating on the basics to getting our site live rather than spread ourselves too thinly.  I have to say, and it pains me to admit it, Hirsh is right here.  Let’s concentrate our efforts, time and resources on developing a great quality site with fewer applications and pages.  This way we can have a more realistic chance of actually getting the site built and launched in the first place rather than having to delay it because we’ve been too over-ambitious and then as time ticks by come to the point where the site is never actually launched because there are too many obstacles in the way and we lose the will and desire.   The argument goes that if we launch a streamlined site and it’s deemed a success and people start to use it, then our investment in phase 2 launch of an extended or more comprehensive service would be totally justified. 

With this in mind we decided to divide the launch into 3 phases – phase 1 would get the core content out there.  It was where we hoped we could build up a bit of a following and grow our name and popularity.  Phase 2 was about adding in some more fun features, to make the site more exciting and encourage people to stay on the site for longer and importantly to keep on going back for more.  Phase 3 would see us adding in some features and tools that could help extend our service but also make a little bit of money at the same time.  That’s not really what this is all about but for our time and investment we need to try and make something back.  If we do it in the right way we hope that people would understand this. So all in all Hirsh’s vision was a far more sensible approach, and one that I’m happy to agree with Hirsh is spot on.  Like that classic expression people use to justify simplicity, less is more.  Less helps gives clarity and warms people up for the time when more is allowed to be added.

Site map city

I spent a lot of time working out the pages that we needed to have on our site and where they fit into the scheme of things.  I considered the user journey and thought long and hard about how I would want to interact with the site and what I would like to experience on it.  I’m no expert in any of this I have to admit, though I used my logic to give this a stab.  I didn’t have all the right software to do it properly, and a real UE architect would probably laugh in my face if they saw how I developed my wireframes and site maps in my round about kind of way on PowerPoint slides and pieces of paper, but I like to think that they made sense and gave us a solid starting point to take things forward and put some kind of order and structure in place of the chaos.  Sometimes it seemed a bit overwhelming, like a heavy load of information that we were trying to put into order, almost like a big jigsaw at times. 

We decided to devote one after work session at Score Towers to sense-checking the site map.  We literally walked ourselves through the site by printing out the draft wireframes and laying them neatly out on the floor of Hirsh’s office.  It was quite an effort to fit all the pages on the floor and quite a few times we needed to change the order of the pages or add some in to smooth out the flow of the journey.  But it was a great, worthwhile exercise for us to go through.  Score Towers became site map city for an evening, a really exciting place to be actually.

Building the identity (logo)

With a name decided and the character illustration style identified we were finally able to start thinking about what our logo would look like.

Again, as with the characters and the names it’s hard to know exactly where to start as there were so many options available to us.  What font should we use? What colour?  Did we want it to look simple and be a stand alone word or did we want to incorporate an icon into the name.  Would it look better if we used a combination of upper and lower case letters or should we stick to all lower case?  And would any of the letters be treated in a different way to stand out a little but more, maybe making them bigger or giving them a slightly different colour?  Each decision made here could have a significant impact on the overall look of the logo so we had to get it right.

We started by trawling the Internet and looking for some cool looking logos that we could use as a benchmark.  The obvious good examples are twitter and skype.  Actually it’s strange to see that so many brands use a really similar logos at the moment- basically a bright blue colour curvey font with a white curvey border surrounding it.  Blue definitely seemed to be the colour of the moment for one reason or another.  It’s probably because it looked so good – cool, modern, trendy and most importantly of all, eye-catching.  We also found some examples of web 2.0 logos, to give us an idea of what we needed to do to ensure that it had a modern look that we wanted our site to be known for.

We decided to brief a designer that Hirsh had met through his company – just to see what he could come up with.  We really hoped that we would be blown-away with the results, as it could be the making of our brand and take our identity to a new, more complete level for the first time.  We gave him a detailed design brief and waited a few weeks to see what he would come back with.  When we heard that the designer was ready to send over his design concepts we were really excited.  But to say that we were disappointed when we saw them was a huge understatement.  It felt like such a huge letdown.  Actually I was pretty gutted really as it was clear that we still had a lot of work to do on this and were as far away as ever from having our logo finalised.  The design concepts that we saw were fairly bland and unmemorable.  One design in particular used a combination of pink and orange colours that I’d never dream of using in a million years.  It’s not that they were bad designs; it’s just that they were totally not right for what we wanted.  I guess it all comes down to personal opinion and this is what makes it so difficult because what’s good to one person may be bad for another.  The feeling and impression given may be totally different. 

Going through this process made me realise more than ever how hard it was to describe to people what we actually wanted.  It made me think that it’d probably be easier to do it ourselves.  I felt like a frustrated designer – I have all these mad ideas in my head but don’t have the tools or skills to transport them into reality.  As far as we were concerned we never wanted this deisgner to ever darken our door again.

We took the matter in our own hands and started playing around on Photoshop to see what we could come up with.  Surprisingly, and in little time at all, Hirsh developed the core of our logo which has stayed the same ever since, though there have been a few slight modifications.  Instantly we were happy with it, probably because it resembled the blue/white web 2.0 look.  It felt like we were cheating a little bit, but we liked the design and that was the most important thing.  There’d be no point in developing something alternative just for the sake of it.    It made us realise that there’s probably a reason why a lot of logos were designed this way in the first place.

We may not have the most unique logo in the world, but with a strapline explaining what the website is about, a set of character icons for each theme and a strong brand name, we felt that we had a powerful brand identity.  This was really important to create a solid foundation to grow.  Any of these brand identity elements may change and be enhanced along the way – they’re definitately not set in stone – but we feel that we’ve at least given ourselves a fighting chance of making something of the site and giving it a platform to stand out amongst all the other sites our there doing similar things to us.

Building an identity (characters)

With a name finally sorted it was now time to start thinking about building up our whole brand identity.  Obviously we needed to develop a cool logo to go with our cool name (it feels weird that I still can’t tell you what our name is – I’m a bit paranoid about revealing it too early – is that weird?) but we also felt that adding a character or a group of characters would also help us to stand out and be a bit more memorable against the millions of other sites out there.

It was difficult to know where to start with this though.  Would it look right to incorporate a character into our logo or should it be a stand alone asset?  Should it become so integral to our branding that the name and logo cannot appear without the character - or should we treat it in a slightly more subtle way so that it has its own identity and lives by itself?  How many characters should we have?  Was it even the right thing for us to add to our brand or was it just some strange notion that we got into our heads that it would be a good idea?  There were so many unanswered questions yet the only way we could really find out the answers was to explore our options and try a few things out.  With this in mind the first thing we needed to do was to decide the design style that we wanted our characters to be drawn in.  There were loads of options open to us and some really talented designers out there, which made it pretty diffcult to know which look to go for.   

We decided quite quickly that we didn’t want our characters to look too realistic - we didn’t want it to become lifestyle based nor represent a real person because it may alienate people who are not able to identify with it.  Instead we wanted the characters to be more fun – to go with the whole ethos of the site that we were trying to build.  We liked the idea of using really simple characters, drawn in the Southpark kind of style.  These could be made to look quite cute, and if we did it in the right way would hopefully appeal to people across the whole age spectrum, young and old alike.  Obviously we couldn’t just copy the Southpark style though – as well as the obvious copyrigth issues we didn’t want people to think that we couldn’t think of anything by ourselves.  We wanted to at least try to be a little different and create our own unique identity for our brand.  Eventually we decided that the characters should be cute enough to retain an element of fun, but not too cute because we didn’t want to appear too child-like or look like we were trying a cheap trick to atract a young audience.  The best way to describe what we were looking for was a set of ’fun characters’ but fun in a cool kind of way.  It’s hard to explain what I mean by all of this but hopefully you can at least begin to see what I mean?

Our guiding light was an old illustration that Hirshy’s cousin had developed for another project.  It hit the spot on both the cute and the cool angles so we became set on this style.  It really helped us to now be able to visualise what we were after rather than just have a feeling that it was the right style to pursue.  The only problem was that there was only one existing character like this and it wasn’t 100% right for us to use ‘as is’.  We made some tentative enquiries about him producing about 10 or so characters for us (one to reperesent each theme of or site) and wrote a design brief to explain what we wanted.  Just like us though he has his day job and a family to look after too, so with the best will in the world found that he didn’t have enough spare time to help us out.  It was really frustrating because I felt we were so close yet so far but had now hit the proverbial brick wall.  

So we were forced to ponder: ‘who else can design in that style?’  We had to once again consider our options – either change the style to match an illustrator who was available and willing to help us or else find an illustrator with a similar style to the one we were after.  As a last resort we could also approach an illustrator and ask them to copy the style but I had nagging doubts about the viability of this - was it a faux pas in the etiquette stakes?  Would the illustrator take offence that we didn’t like their own personal style?  Would Hirsh’s cousin be put out or would he actually be flattered that we loved his style so much that we wanted to find someone to replicate it? 

Keen to progress with things and make a final decision we began to search for some examples online.  I’d used this website called i-stock to find some images for work before, so thought this would be a good place to start.  I wasn’t really sure what I was going to find or what to even search for.  Who knows, maybe I’d even find something totally new and unexpected that would throw the cute and cool idea out of the water.

I searched for ‘characters’ and ‘illustrations’ and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.  It seemed that there were at least of couple of genuine contenders – I became a bit more confident that we’d be able to find something here rather than have to find and commission an illustrator, which would also cost a lot more to do compared to i-stock images where you just pay a one-off cost and you can then use it pretty much as you please, aside from for commerical reasons which require a different (and most expensive) license.  The only downside to buying on i-stock was that other people could also use the image too, as the buyer has no exclusive rights to it.  So in this case we’d have to rely on building up a strong brand presence so that the images become synonymous with our site and so it looks like other people have copied us if they happen to stumble on the same images.  Anyhow, we were confident that the way that we were going to use the characters – one for each event theme – would be unique so overall the threat of others using it to the detriment of our site was minimal.

It was a pure eureka moment when I stumbled on a set of characters that were almost exactly the style we were after.   In a way they were even better than the illustration we’d used as the benchmark.  They had big eyes and cute faces, and were wearing the sort of clothes that could represent our themes well.  We were also allowed to adapt the images – change the colour or the props that they were holding.  It was a brilliant moment, one where all my fears about never being able to find a high quality affordable solution was extinguished in a moment.  

Just like the name of the site had felt right once we found it after an almost endless search of hundreds of names, so too did the design approach that we were taking for our characters.  I had this gut instinct that it would work, and in these situations with so many options open to you, you need to somehow find a way of making a decision.  It may not be the right one in the end, but no one can fault you for having the guts to make it in the first place.  Only time will tell.

Finding an identity – the endless search for a name

Finding a name for our site was probably one of the most important yet challenging things that we needed to do.  It was such a frustrating experience; at times we felt that we were fighting a losing battle and thought that we were never going to find one (or at least one that was any good).  And without a decent name there’d probably be no point in launching our new site because from the outset we’d be on the back foot - the only thing people would know was that it was a new site with a rubbish name – not exactly the glowing endoresement we needed to gain popularity and encourage people to start visiting and using it.

Some people say that all publicity is good publicity but the way I see it it’s like holding up a photo of an ugly girl and trying to explain how beautiful and amazing she is.  It’d be really hard work to convince people and not many would believe you.  And it’s all very well saying the politically correct things like beauty is only skin deep, that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and that there’s far more below the surface if only you were to give her half a chance, but  at the end of the day people don’t have the time or patience.  Rightly or wrongly they want to make a quick judgement for themselves.  This is why it was massively important to find ourselves a great name.  We only have a few moments to grab someone’s precious attention and when we do, we need it to evoke a  really positive response.

So we wanted our site to have a catchy name.  We wanted it to capture peoples’ attention - to stand up and be noticed against the millions of other site names and brands out there.  At first it seemed easy – we had an almost endless amount of letter and word combinations at out disposal from the English alphabet.  The world was our oyster – we could think of anything.  Yet I guess it was this that made it all the more daunting - I mean where do you start?

Every time you think you’ve thought of something that works you discover that the domain name has already been taken, usually by a random company or individual who wants to make a few quid out of selling it.  So you think you’ll be clever and take an iteration of that name only to find that these ones have been taken too, usually by the same people.  It drives you crazy because the domains are sitting idle waiting for someone to build a proper site on them.  It’s wasted - you want to provide a new service but feel like you are being scuppered by greed.  But it’s like being blackmailed because if they know you want it they can hold you to ransom; so you try to beat them by coming up with something else.  And with every name that’s ruled out you find yourself becoming ever more desperate.

Eventually you begin to consider names that you’d previously ruled out; suddenly they seem like good options.   That’s until you do the 24-hour test and revisit them the next day only to conclude that they do actually sound quite rubbish afterall.  The odd one may pass the test and also be available so you think you’ve struck gold.  But your dream is finally shattered when someone tells you that the only name still left in the equation sounds naff and that they’d never even consider looking at a site with a name like that.

So where do you even start when trying to come up with a decent name?

The latest fad seems to be find a  crazy word – most likely one that’s made up or one that’s obscure and not used in our everday language – before giving  it some credibility by post-rationalising it’s meaning.  This is where you get to be really creative – a means of justifying the bizarre word that you’ve selected to represent your product.  And as long as it vaguely makes sense then you can choose any meaning that you see fit; no-one can really challenge it because it’s just what you think.  You may even decide to strengthen the rationale by giving the word a place of origin.  Perhaps it was a word spoken by an ancient African tribe.  Maybe it was a Mauri word that means ’strength’.  Suddenly the random name sounds a little bit more credible.  It’s fun too because it’s so unexpected.

Think Google.  Think Opodo.  They sound pretty cool huh? When they were first launched I didn’t really have a clue what they were all about.  There was nothing in the name to tell me what these sites actually offered.  Yet there must be something in this approach because they haven’t exactly done badly have they?  Maybe it’s the intriguing sound of the names.  It might be that they sound cool, modern and the type of site that you’d want to recommend to your friends - at least to give youself a bit of kudos and make it look like you’re up to date with the goings-on of the Internet revolution.  They’re quite catchy really.  I can imagine that in the early days people probably asked each other if they’d heard about this cool new site called Google.  The response would most likely be:  ‘Google, what’s the hell is that!?’ It sounds a bit funny to say that now doesn’t it what with the powers of hindsight and all that.  Google is now one of the biggest companies in the world so they must have done something right.  Maybe I should take a leaf out of their book – I could think of worse examples to follow.

Okay I’m not going to get too carried away – I appreciate that a name is only one part of the overall branding jigsaw and that if there’s no substance to the product then you may aswell pack up and go home.  You’d be exposed in a second for being a bit hollow – you look good but dig beneath the surface and there’s nothing much there.  But it is at least a good start, a very important part of the equation that needs to be considered from the outset.  Find the right name and tongues will start wagging.  And if the tongues wag then the name is spread through one of the most powerful tools in our armoury – the word of mouth.

So what other options were there for us?

Another angle we wanted to explore was a rational name – a ‘do what it says on the tin’ kind of name.   Names like sportsdirect or lastminute.  In a second you have a very good idea of what these sites are all about – maybe not exactly what it does but the name at least gives you a clue.  The obvious benefit to this approach is that people would know quite quickly what the site is trying to sell or promote.  It doesn’t take any real explanation so the audience can make a quick decision about whether they’re interested in exploring the site or not.  This approach definately worked and seemed the safest and most obvious way forward for us.  Somehow though it didn’t seem quite adventurous enough.  It didn’t quite excite us in a way that the actual idea of our website did.  It seemed to be a bit of a mismatch.

So what other choices did we have?

Maybe a name that offered the best of both words.  Something that sounded fun and exciting to catpure the imagination but with an underlying rational name that would at least help people to understand what it was all about.  We felt quite strongly that we needed to incorporate the rational element.  I mean it’d be like shooting ourselves in the foot if we couldn’t even give ourselves a helping hand by inferring what the site offers in its name.

Names like hotmail or easyjet spring to mind as examples of this.  The ‘mail’ in the ‘hotmail’ is obviously a message about sending mail; and the ‘hot’ part could refer to it’s importance or the cool method of sending it.  The ‘jet’ in ‘easyjet’ is the rationale part of the name alluding to the method of transport whereas the ‘easy’ may reference the ease at which you can do this – no hassle and no strings attached.  Without even knowing if I’m right about the exact meaning I can be pretty sure that I’ve captured the essence of what the brands are all about.  And that says it all really.

Even though we were pretty sure of our approach we still had to find that elusive name. We brainstormed for what seemed like an eternity.  Weeks and months passed by. On the odd occasion we thought that we’d actually found one, only to be scuppered by the painful reality of the domain name check.

In the end we were becoming so desperate that we started to think irrationally.  Names that we never thought possible suddenly sounded good.  We were becoming deluded.  To prove how difficult it was I sometimes typed in the most random name I could think of just to see if the domain name was available.  Even these were taken.

Then one day, I had a eureka moment.  As if a gift from God, out of no-where this little voice suggested a name.  It was fun and trendy.  It was functional too.  It would be fairly memorable.  And more importantly it was available.  Without any time to spare we went online and purchased the all important .com and .co.uk domains.  (I’ve always thought that it’s not worth choosing a name if these are taken because it smacks of desperation that you couldn’t find anything unique).

We felt elated.  Suddenly our project had an identity.  It was just the start but after many months it finally made us feel that our project was real and that we were on an exciting journey to somewhere.  We didn’t really know where that someone would be but at that precise moment in time we didn’t care either.

Time is of the essence

I wish it was like the olden days where we had all the time in the world to do what we wanted after school and at the weekend.  

We used to have so much time to play – whether it be football, computer games, play fighting, going to the cinema or bowling.  In the school holidays we had weeks at a time to do stuff, go round to friends houses, go shopping, watch TV, go away on holiday or generally cause a bit of mischief.  If only things were still like that.  It seems like a bygone age.

Now we’re lucky to grab a couple of hours doing the things we truly want to do.  We’re older now and supposedly wiser – which means that there’s an expectation on us to be more sensible and mature, work hard and get stuff done.  We’re not meant to have time to play with our friends all the time.  We have responsibilities now.  We have to spend three-quarters of our lives working.  With the remaining quarter we’re meant to spend time with our loved ones – gilfriends, wives, children.  If there’s any time left after this then we can play with our friends – but if anything suddenly crops up that’s deemed to be more important then playtime is dropped for another day.  It’s fair enough though.  Sad as it is and as much as we yearn for the good old days that’s just the way it’s got to be.  That’s life hey? All it means though is that our free time is precious and there’s a lot of demand on it.  We’re being pulled in all directions and there’s a huge amount for us to fit into it.  Which makes it all the more difficult for us to start up our own new business whilst holding down a day job at the same time.

I’m one of those types of people who likes to squeeze every last ounce out of my time and do as much as I can.  I like to make use of it by doing something constructive; whether that’s writing my book (it seems to have been going on forever now and is more like War and Peace but at least I’m giving it a go), writing poems or doing other pet projects, I like to keep myself busy so that I’ve got something to show for my time.  I don’t know how but I always manage to find time for the these types of things.  It’s probably because I love writing so much and desperately want to be good at something.  I want to do something that makes me feel proud. 

I find time here and there, snatched moments before or after work and at weekends when I don’t have anything planned.  I’d rather work on my own stuff than make random arrangements for the sake of it – each to their own but that’s just how I like to use my time.  Don’t get me wrong though - I usually have loads of arrangements, doing the things that I love doing like spending time with my girlfriend, family and friends, going for long walks in the countryside, eating in cafes and generally enjoying the fruits of London life.

Anyway it’s important that we keep the momentum going so we do try to make it one of our priorities to keep working on the site.  If we don’t then no-one will.  And if we can’t even make the time to work on something we love doing and believe in so much then we can’t expect anyone else to believe in it.

Hirsh and I make it our priority to meet up at least every week or two to keep things moving.  We don’t have a set night – whenever we’re both free really.  And as anal and official as it sounds we make an agenda so that we can make the most of our time together.  We brainstorm, design and discuss media and launch strategies.  It’s where we lay the foundation for the next few weeks of work where we have our own seperate tasks to get on with. 

It’s hard work finding the time (especially for Hirsh who also runs his own business and has a family with 2 young boys to think about and occupy him) – but I’m sure he’ll agree we wouldn’t have it any other way.  If it all works out if will have been worth it.  And if it doesn’t then we will have had a damn good time trying anyway.

The Score Towers heartland

Score Towers is the home of Score Communications, the London-based online communications consultancy that Hirsh owns and runs.  It’s an office on the 8th floor of  a 15-storey office block that dominates the skyline in North London, offering panoramic views of London to those who have the privilege to be invited to venture inside.

But Score Towers also hides a secret.  It’s the unofficial home for our website start-up.  I’m really conscious that I never mention the actual name of the website but I still think it’s too early to divulge too much information.

Score Towers is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.  It’s where we go to brainstorm after a hard day’s work, where we create huge sitemaps with pieces of paper strewn all over the floor, where we search for inspiration and plan strategies, where we start working on our fledgling designs and where we plot the rise and rise of our site.  All a bit dreamy perhaps, but if we don’t dream and aspire then we may as well pack up and go home.

Score Towers is also a food emporium – it’s where we get to eat gigantic Papa John’s pizza with garlip bread, chicken wings and chicken dippers, washed down with a large measure of Diet Coke (not much point in drinking ‘diet’ coke by this point, I agree).  It’s where we eat Marks & Spencer sandwiches, sushi or microwave meals.  We need to feed our brains to squeeze the inspiration out of them.

Only a handul of people have ever been invited into the Score Towers heartland.  It’s an honour for the privileged few, our partners or perspective partners.  It’s where we’ve vetted individuals for their credentials.  For those in favour Score Towers is like heaven on Earth.  But for the few who don’t meet our exacting standards, Score Towers leaves a mark on their lives from which they may never recover.  Indeed some unfortunate folk have been shown the door never again allowed to return.  They’re dismissed and told to never again darken our door.  A tiny minority have fared considerably better – leaving with an open invitation to come back whenever they want.  We like these people.

All in all, Score Towers is a demanding place to be.  The stakes are high but for those on side, the rewards can be beyond their wildest dreams.

Doing it with a friend

If you’re going to set up a new business you’d want it to be a fun, rewarding and successful experience.  Add into the equation the chance of working with one of your oldest and best friends and you’d be excused for thinking that it couldn’t get much better.

For me  it was a dream scenario in many ways and something that I’d longed to do for quite a while.  I know that an age old business rule is that you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure but I truly don’t believe that this hold firms in every single case.  I mean who was it who said this in the first place - probably someone who was caught up with the romanticism of working with a friend only to see their whole vision implode amidst a bout of bickering, resentment and greed.  I’m sorry, I may be a little naive when it comes to these kind of things but it just doesn’t wash with me.  Surely it wouldn’t be like this every time?

The chance, finally, to work with someone who I know better than most and who by the same token knows about all of my quirks, ways and personality traits is something that I didn’t want to miss out on no matter how many alarm bells were ringing.  Maybe I’d live to regret my blind enthusiasm and be an ‘I told you so’ victim, but I honestly think I’d regret it more if I didn’t even give it a go.

Anyway we weren’t taking ourselves too seriously.  Our main objective in this whole thing was to have fun.  Embarking on this project meant that we’d also be able to see a lot more of each other – and with Hirsh’s busy work and personal life schedule (he has a wife and two young boys) this was a really valuable thing.

As well as all of this I’d get to learn a lot about how to start up a business and how to build and market a site from scratch.  It’d be a great adventure and if just a handful of people ended up using it that’d be fine.  If we made a few quid in the process then so much the better but we weren’t really holding out for that.  Breaking even would be a miracle in itself and we’d probably be happy with that.  I think that sometimes in life it’s about more than just money.  This sort of experience is invaluable because it can’t be bought.

So I’ve mentioned the name ‘Hirsh’ quite a few times now.  In case you’re wondering exactly who is is, it’s probably worth me telling to a little bit about the inigma that is Mr Jonathan M. Hirshler (A.K.A Michael Jackson & Mask - but more of that later).

I met Jonathan (affectionately nicknamed Hirshy because there were so many Jonathan’s at school, including myself) on the first day of primary school.  We quickly became friends and started a beautiful and long-lasting friendship that has lasted until this very day.  It’s amazing to think that I’ve now know him for more than 27 years and we speak to each other just just as much now as I did all those years ago.  I think this is quite impressive considering how little free time we now have compared to our work free, care free days of old.

We found we had quite a few common interests, with football being the main one – whether it be physically playing it or else playing it on computer games.  There was this football game that we used to play all the time on the Amiga 500 called Kick Off 2.  I wasn’t very good at it so Hirsh beat me every single time no matter how hard I tried.  To even things up, and I don’t think he meant to be patronising, he once challenged to play me with his feet.  The anals of history suggest that he beat me that time but the truth was that it was a draw – Ok so not really a saving grace for me I understand -  I admit it was still quite a shocking result nonetheless.

And sadly for me and though it pains me to say it this theme of Hirsh being better than me at sport seemed to continue into the real world.  We played football together for our youth club team, S.P.E.C – and as a free-scoring, penalty taking, free-kick maestro,  attacking midfielder was always much better than me, a mediocre full back who scored one solitary goal in my entire football career (and that was a penalty in a game that we ended up winning 16-1 anyway).

Still that didn’t stop me from getting the edge over Hirsh in many ways.  Let’s put it like this – unlike me he wasn’t exactly a cool kid.  In fact he was quite geeky.  He used to walk around the school pretending he was Michael Jackson, and would be known to suddenly break into a moonwalk without any warning.  He was also a bit obsessed with this cartoon series MASK.  It was based on these characters who transformed into super heroes whenever they wore their masks.  Copying the cartoon catchphrase Hirsh used to run around the playground screaming:  ‘Masks On’.  And of course Hirsh always thought that he was right, so much so that I used to call him ‘10 million man Hirsh’ because he had the brains of 10 million men.  Or so he liked to think.

We stayed close friends throughout our childhood and into early adulthood even though we went to different secondary schools and universities.  We shared many fun experiences together along the way, from our school trip to Somerset, football training courses and holidays.  A sign of our strong friendship was when Hirsh asked me to be one of his best men at his wedding – I was deeply touched.

It pains me to give Hirsh the fuel to grow his head even bigger than it already is, and with the risk of sounding a like a cheesy old friend I have to say that I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for him.  Yes he can be annoying and does have his own individual quirks just like anyone else does (it’s sad to announce that he isn’t actually perfect) but this is part of his appeal.  I have to take my hat off to him.

Hirsh started his own digital communications agency over 5 years ago (Score Communications) , and through an unbelievable amount of hard work has seen it go from strength to strength ever since.  It takes a huge amount of courage to go it alone and no small amount of skill to make it work and prosper.  He’s a man not to be reckoned with – single minded and focus on his goals.  He’s living the dream that so many of us want – he’s doing his own thing.

I feel proud that we’re still such great friends after all this time.  And it warms the cockles of my heart that we’re embarking on this journey together, to add yet another chapater to our story of friendship.  Instead of playing Kick Off 2 we’re now playing a different kind of game, but the fundamental element is still the same – it’s just two people enjoying themselves.  Of course we’re both hoping that something can come of our venture but no matter what happens our friendship is the winner here.  I know that it’s a really cheesy thing to say but in my humble opinion it couldn’t be truer.

THE eureka moment

The world of digital is a really fascinating place.  There’s so much going on, it’s almost impossible to keep up with developments.  Every single day people out there launch new websites.  Some are products or services; others are information portals.  Some are created with the objective of making money whilst others are developed just for fun.  

As I write this there are developers out there working on what they hope will be the next big thing, though they won’t know how big or successful it will be until it’s been completed and until peoples’ reactions have been guauged.  And by the time they launch it the original set of circumstances that set them along the path in the first place will probably have changed anyway – maybe someone else got there first so they have to adapt or fully change their idea or maybe the social environment that demanded such a site has changed to render their development irrelevant.  Every day new technologies are being invented, and people’s demands and requirements change.  That’s what makes it such an exciting, wonderful place to be. 

As I searched for the eureka moment I knew that I wanted to work on a web start-up.  It was the place to be.  Obviously amazing social networking sites like Facebook have changed the face of the Internet, user participation and user generated content the most obvious hallmarks of the revolution taking place.  It’s so cliched and I hate to say it, but Web 2.o is a truly wonderful evolution that’s captured the imagination of almost every interest user; it transcends across all ages and gender – no-one is excluded.  

It’s easy for me to say I want to create the next big web 2.0 thing.  I think everyone is scrabbling around now for the new social networking phenonemon to grip the conscience of internet users and challenge the dominance of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.  Everyone is jumping onto the bandwaggon and dreaming of something big.  But it’d take a huge effort, loads of cash, an abundance of skill and a huge slice of luck to get anywhere near them.  They’ve evolved over years and have been there right from the start.  I guess we’ve got a right to believe and I’d be foolish to rule it out - anything is possible on the Internet as the world and it’s rules are turned on it’s head – but I’m also realistic to know that it’s a dream that most people are as far away from ever of fulfilling.  What about looking for something different – what’s web 3.0 going to look like?

I was realistic from the start.   Whatever I ended up doing would be cool but modest too.  I wanted to go on a fun journey and I wanted to learn along the way.  And if just one person ended up using my site then I’d be happy and it will have been worth it.  

So with modest expectations I set about thinking about a site that didn’t currently exist in cyberspace.  It needed to have minimal costs to set up and run, and I wanted it to rely heavily on one of the things I love doing the most – writing.  I’ve always loved writing and it doesn’t cost me anything to do it.  I wanted to use this to help me stand out against the rest.  It was really difficult to think of something that people would find useful. 

I wanted to focus on a genre that would appeal to people of all ages, men and women alike.  After many anguished and frustrating momnts, I  settled on the idea of developing a relationship portal.  It seemed quite a unique idea.   I also thought it sounded quite cool actually – a place for people to go to tell people they loved each other - whether in a relationship or as a way of passing a message onto a stranger.  It could be a kind of dating site too where people would be able to communicate with people they may have seen on the tube, bus or anywhere else as they go about their daily lives.  It would be a portal to link people to the best speed dating sessions and internet dating sites.  It could specialise in writing tailored love messages for weddings, engagements or other special, romantic occasions.  It could list all the places to go for stag and hen dos.  The list went on. 

My girlfriend of the time, Rachel, was a fantastic sounding board for the fledgling ideas, and offered some really good thoughts and interesting suggestions to help shape the content of the site.  I guess if I would have allowed myself to stop and think about it, I would have ruled out developing the site in a second.  But I allowed my energy and enthusiasm to keep the momentum flowing. 

About a week later, armed only with my enthusiasm and my notepad full of the scribbled down ideas I went to see one of my best friends, Hirsh, to share my thoughts.  I wanted him to be my second sounding board, my reality check.  I was quite worried that he’d think I’d lost the plot.  I mean, a site like this would was undoubtedly a huge undertaking and would probably take years and tens of thousands of pounds to build.  Still, once a dreamer always a dreamer.  If you believe hard enough maybe your dreams can come true.  Hirsh also runs his own web communications agency, Score Communications, so totally knows what he’s talking about.  He’s the voice of reason and knows a good or bad idea when he sees one.

To his credit, as I babbled on about my million and one ideas for the love portal site and gave my rationale about why it was different and that there was nothing quite like it out there, Hirsh at least pretended to be interested.  He nodded and listened intently, probably wondering how he was going to let his best friend down gently, how to tell me that there were two hopes of getting this site up and running: Bob Hope and No Hope.  Then in a rather magical moment, as Hirsh was about to lose the will to live whilst I was rattling through the ideas one by one, Hirsh stopped me, looked me in the eye, clicked his fingers and simply said: “That’s it!”  He didn’t need to say any more.  We’d found the golden idea that was to become a big part of our life.  It was that special eureka moment that I’d been waiting for.

As I headed home I  felt elated, chuffed that Hirsh liked one of the ideas enough to sit up and take notice.  It meant a lot to me because he know’s his stuff and I admire and respect him for it.  It’s weird to say but I felt as though I’d finally come of age.

Searching for the eureka moment

All I need is that one great idea; something that hasn’t been done before.  Something special; something exciting.  Is it really too much to ask my mind to think of something beyond the obvious?  It’s crazy to think that we only use a tiny proportion of our brains – it seems such a waste.  Imagine what we could do it we could use it all.  OK, I’m not asking to suddenly change from a mere mortal into a super brainy super human being, but please brain, just another 1% - can you do it?

With my wandering, energetic, pondering mind I really wanted to think of something to get me excited.  In a way I was looking for a pet project, something to keep me busy.  I’ve always feared plodding on with life without actually achieving anything of note.  OK, so arguably I have actually achieved a few things, some of which I’m pretty proud of.  Like getting 3 ‘A’s in my ‘A’ levels and a 2:1 BA degree at Birmingham University.  It was quite a hard slog to achieve these results and at the time I happily concluded that whatever happened next I would always be able to look back with pride at these achievements.  I was also the news editor of the uni newspaper and had a uni radio show with one of my best friends Barney which I was quite chuffed about.  In a way I thought that it didn’t really matter what happened to me next because no-one would be able to take any of this away from me.  I felt on top of the world – and if nothing else happened I would at least die a happy man.  

But here I am over a decade later, and I have this huge fear of wasting my life away.  I hate the idea of not leaving my mark, somehow.  I don’t necessarily mean in a groundbreaking way that will revolutionise life as we know it but something that I can personally be satisfied with.  Something to make me happy to be me when I wake up in the morning.  I don’t want to be one of those lazy types and I don’t want to waste all the little random thoughts that I have.  I need to find a way to bottle them up. I somehow need to channel them into something constructive, with an output that I can once again be proud of.  As we go about our daily lives it’s really easy to lose sight of doing the things that fulfil us personally.  Work life seeps all our energy so there’s very little left in the tank to do something for ourselves.  I constantly fight this battle. 

I’m a driven person – I really want to do well and achieve things at work, in my professional career.  But €somehow I don’t think this would quite be enough.  It would be equally satisfying to achieve something outside of my work life too, off my own back.  I’ve always prided myself on self motivation – doing stuff off my own back in my spare time.  I have a voice in my head that’s always telling me to make the most of life and enjoy myself, driving me forward and willing me to find a way to fulfil myself.

If only it were as easy as that.  But I owe it to my wandering, thought-provoking  mind to try my best.  That’s all I can do really, I can’t say fairer than that.