Podcast Transcripts are attached Forum Directions: Listen to the podcast below, From Idea to Completion, and answer the following: Do you agree or disagree with the speaker's response to the quest

Robin: This is episode 17 of the APUS entrepreneur podcast series and I'm Robin [inaudible 00:00:13]. Dr. Cassandra Shaw is here. Good to have you here, Cassandra.

Cassandra Shaw: Hi Robin. Great to be back.

Robin: And Yinon Weiss is our special guest today. He's the CEO and a board member of RallyPoint. Welcome to the show.

Yinon Weiss: Thanks for having me.

Robin: In this episode we're going to explore the ideation process. What do we need to know, Cassandra?

Cassandra Shaw: Robin, this is a great topic for today and I'm excited to have Yinon from RallyPoint with us. So, Yinon, for our listeners, just give us a brief summary of what RallyPoint is.

Yinon Weiss: Sure. RallyPoint is a professional and social network for members of the military and the veteran community. It's been compared to like a LinkedIn for the military. It's a online network and community where military members and veterans can connect with each other. They can ask questions. They can explore career opportunities and find different answers to their questions.

Cassandra Shaw: Oh, that's fantastic. So, I'm sure with the ideation phase for you, the idea came at some point. Would you say the idea came from when you served in the military or when you went into the workforce?

Yinon Weiss: I think as happens with a lot of entrepreneurs, the problem was identified when actually immersed in the environment. So, the challenges that are faced by people in the military and the challenges that are faced by those who are transitioning from the military I felt when I was in the military and when I left the military, but the idea for a solution for it didn't occur to me until I actually left that enviroment and went to Harvard Business School and was in the workforce afterwards and identified tools, like LinkedIn, that I was not really exposed to very much while I was in the military. My familiarity with the problem set came from my military experience but the solution really only came after I was exposed to new tools when I left the military.

Cassandra Shaw: What were some of those new tools you were exposed to?

Yinon Weiss: In the military, people [inaudible 00:02:12] ... When I was in, I got out a few years ago ... People didn't really use professional networking or networking tools very much. It's a little bit contrary to the culture of the military as I'm sure many of the listeners know. The military is very much a culture of do your job, focus on your task, and everything will take of itself if you do well. But, that's not how the private sector functions. It's a lot of relationships. It's a lot of having mentors and resources and having a broad network to rely on. So, when I got to business school, I was exposed to a lot of this. Like LinkedIn, for example. I didn't join LinkedIn, like many military members, until I decided to get out because I thought "well, what good is it going to do for me in the military," which is a mistake, I learned later. So, I came to business school with something like 40 contacts. It was like everybody I could ever connect with in my life and I was very proud. I got 40 connections. By the time I left business school, I had 1500 connections and was able to basically have access either through my direct contacts or through my contact's contacts to basically anybody at any company in the world. Any major company in the world.

So, tools like LinkedIn. Twitter as well. Twitter, I think, is misunderstood by a lot of people. I mean, sometimes people think it's just a childish thing, but in reality it's ... Like, most networks, it's what you want to get out of it that you will get out of it. So, a lot of these networks and social tools that I was exposed to in business school and in the private sector are things that were little bit more foreign to me in the military. I wasn't familiar with them.

Cassandra Shaw: Do you think that ideation always equals opportunity?

Yinon Weiss: That's a good question. I think without ideation, it's almost impossible to get to the final solution. A lot of inventors in history or people who are thought of as inventors did not actually invent what they're known for. So, like Thomas Edison didn't actually invent the light bulb. Steve Jobs did not invent the MP3 music player nor did he invent a smart phone. All these things existed. They just weren't perfected and they weren't timed right and they weren't built ... They didn't solve the consumer's problems. I think all solutions take ideation. I'm not familiar with any business or any product that ... Here's my idea and then it just goes to market and then it never evolves. I guess that doesn't mean it's not possible but I think ideation creates a better service, creates a better product. It's just like in the military, you can have your initial plan but the initial plan never goes perfectly executed. It usually goes, have to change it quite a bit. So, I think it's very similar in business.

Cassandra Shaw: Yeah, Yinon, that reminds me with 3M with the post-it note, many people attribute Arthur Fry. While he created the post-it note itself, he didn't create the adhesive. It was his colleague and it sat on the shelf until there was a need for it. So, the timing ... You're right on that. That's a great point to make. So, what are some points that entrepreneurs tend to overlook during the validation stage?

Yinon Weiss: So, for us, I think it was putting too much weight into marketing surveys. We learned in business school and in our classes about focus groups and market research and so we did a lot of surveys and a lot of trying to validation in that sense, which is a good idea. It's got to be taken with a grain of salt because people will often answer in surveys with the way they think they're supposed to answer or what they think is the right answer or they will answer kind of off the cuff without really having the commitment behind it. So, for example, if you ask a group of 100 people here's a service. Here's a professional network, would you use it? You're probably going to get a lot of people that say, "Yeah, sure I would use it." Not all 100, but you're going to get a lot. But, then if you actually say "okay. Here's the app. Now, go download it and use it everyday." You're going to get a lot fewer of those people who said yes initially. So, I think ... And, that's okay. I think that should be expected. Take it with a grain of salt and doing market research but understanding that answering a question in a survey is not necessarily a predictor of behavior.

Cassandra Shaw: And that's a good point. I would say, too, that the questions that are asked. The entrepreneurs need to make sure they're asking the right questions and not such a broad question either but more related to what they're looking for.

Yinon Weiss: Right. We had some of the projects I did before RallyPoint, for example, was experimenting with different consumer services and would ask questions like are you interested in the service and how much would you pay for it. A certain percentage said yes and a certain percentage gave a dollar amount. But then, if you, the next day, say okay, "Here's the site to sign up. Please enter your credit card," then all of a sudden it's "Well, well. Uh. You know, I didn't mean that for me. I just thought it was a good service and that's how much I thought somebody else would pay for it." Action is what speaks. So, whenever doing business validation, trying to mirror the behavior that you're actually trying to test and validate is incredibly valuable in research and will expose whether or not the product or service that you're trying to build is really valued the way you think others would value it.

Cassandra Shaw: So what would be some tools that entrepreneurs could use outside of the survey for validation?

Yinon Weiss: The minimal viable product idea. And that's to actually build a basic ... the minimal structure of what you're trying to test. And so, for example, if you're offering a product or service, to build a Google ... One of the things I like is Google Forms. It's really simple. Anybody can build a form. You can put up on a simple webpage and ask for ... You're not supposed to take credit card information on there, but you can attach a form to it and say please fill out your information here. Here's the service. To see how many people actually transact with that. So, if a 100 people say they're interested in the service, how many people will actually sign up? And, you can set up a website very easy. One page, two page website. And just see if people actually do the behavior that you think you want them to do. Even if what you're offering is very minimalistic. Doesn't look very pretty, isn't fully functional. While that will undermine a little bit the conversion rate, I think it does a lot to validate what you're trying to do.

Cassandra Shaw: So where do you see yourself or RallyPoint in both the active duty and veteran communities?

Yinon Weiss: I'm extremely excited by what RallyPoint is doing and the potential of RallyPoint. We are really changing the paradigm of the way people in the military and veterans are able to communicate. So, we have an E5 from the California National Guard that's able to communicate with an O5 colonel in the Pentagon. And the colonel in the Pentagon is being a mentor. This is not fraternization. It's professional. It's the same discussion that they would have if they met in person. But, we're just facilitating that conversation. We're able to break down a lot of barriers of communication and I think that's one of the great powers of what the internet has done in the last 20 years. Right? it breaks down communication barriers. It makes it easier to find the resources and the people you're looking for. So, that's one of the things that RallyPoint is doing is allowing people from the reserve component or the National Guard to communicate with those active duty.

It allows people who are pre-commission to communicate with people of different specialties in the military. It allows people in the military to communicate with veterans of a similar background in the industries they're interested in and find out about should I work in this industry. Well, what does that even mean? What is this industry about? How do you enjoy working at this company? So, somebody who's in the military ... Let's say, I'll just use an example, is an infantryman is interested in a certain field. He can find other infantrymen in that field that got out two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, 20 years ago. Reach out to them with a few clicks and say "Hey. You were in the same unit I was in, and you're in this company. Can you tell me more about it?" Is this something that you think is appropriate for somebody of my background? How should I think about it?

Breaking down the barriers of communication and making communication so much more efficient. Between the different branches of service. So, a mechanic in the marine corp who's working on a helicopter can talk to a mechanic in the army who's working on a helicopter because in reality, those two have more in common a lot of times, professionally, they might do with people of different specialties within their service. So, breaking down the barriers to communication and allowing people to discover content that they're looking for that helps their professional and social life as it relates to their military identity are capabilities that just didn't exist very readily before RallyPoint.

Cassandra Shaw: This is so exciting because it really helps to break down ... You mentioned the communication barrier but also just geographic boundaries and even "delving into other organizations" like the marines and army. Crossing the line, so to speak, and really opening it up for a true mentoring relationship and just communication. It's really a fantastic idea.

Yinon Weiss: Right. I think a very good approach to business is the business should reduce the friction of what people want to do anyway. There's different schools of thoughts in this, of course. Right? There's the Steve Jobs approach that says "Well, people don't know what they want and I'm going to build it for them and they'll know it when they see it." There's also the approach of people want to do things everyday with their lives and we need to make that as easy as possible. Right? That's definitely the approach that RallyPoint is taking. We know that people in the military want to be able to communicate with members from their old units, members from cross-branches that have a similar background. People who are transitioning want to talk to veterans. Veterans want to talk to other veterans in their hometown. Veterans want to talk to people that are in their old units and be a guide and be a mentor. That is part of the military identity. Right? To be able to help each other. So, we're working on making that as easy as possible. That's one of the things, I think, attracts a lot of people to RallyPoint.

Cassandra Shaw: So, what would the goals be for RallyPoint? And, where do you see the future of the company?

Yinon Weiss: For us, a two week, two month, two year, 20 year or 100 year goal. I guess, long term, going out as far out as I can think of in a calendar, it's really to improve the culture of the armed forces. Or, I should say, to enhance by creating more transparency. Creating more meritocracy. What I mean by that is by transparency, by giving people information to make the best decisions possible in their life. When somebody's joining the military or just getting into the military, they don't know a lot. Maybe they're in a small team that is not able to give them the guidance. Somebody else in a small team on the other side of the world is able to give. So, we need to expose that person to information that will allow them to become a better service member. And, same thing for people later in their career when they're making significant career decisions.

When I in the military, I knew very little about my chain of command. I read maybe a bio during the change of command ceremony. I knew some basic information about them, but I didn't know what schools they went to when they were my rank. I didn't know what education they had, what training they had. So, if I'm looking at somebody in the military and I say, "well, that's a great leader" or "that's somebody that I ... That's the position I want to be at someday." I didn't have information of what's their background and what did they do to get to where they are. So, to me, that is a sense of transparency. What are people's backgrounds, experiences. What decisions have people made? Where are people stationed? What opportunities are there?

I met a F18 pilot on RallyPoint who's currently a marine corp F18 pilot who's doing an exchange program in Australia with the Australian air force. What a wonderful assignment. He told me he found out about it because somebody posted a flyer in his squadron and it fell down on the floor and he went down to pick it up. That's the only way he knew about that opportunity. Right? So, there's just not a lot of information flow like that in the military. That's part of the transparency we want to increase.

Then, the second part is meritocracy. RallyPoint is set up on a answers and voting structure. So, anybody can ask a question and anybody can respond and anybody can vote that response or question up or down. You'll have junior enlisted asking questions. You'll have senior officers asking questions and you'll have the opposite responding to each other. People vote the answers up and down. So, the best answers rise to the top. People's input into the community is valued by other members. It's not valued ... It's independent of their training. It's independent of their rank. It's independent of their perceived position within the organization. It's based on their knowledge. So, people actually gain what we call influence points on the site by being recognized by your peers. That's the meritocracy component of it which is to keep recognition for people with the best knowledge.

Providing transparency, providing a sense of meritocracy are two things. I think everybody agrees but I think a lot of people think that the military could benefit from having at least some more of that. That's part of what RallyPoint is trying to provide in addition to everything I spoke about earlier. Providing easier connections, better communication, et cetera.

Cassandra Shaw: It's just so exciting and I think it not only breaking down barriers, but it makes people approachable like you mentioned a CO and maybe no one really knew his background, but being on RallyPoint, you see it, he's there and it makes him more real and approachable. And, I think that's exciting as well because people do leave the military and enter the civilian workforce. They can have those connections to help them with what they want to succeed. I think it's just an exciting idea that you've developed and implemented.

Yinon Weiss: Thanks. We've had really strong feedback from our members, from our community. Our community is self managed. We have member administrators that we give special rights to. They're able to manage the community themselves, so it's really self-policed, if you will. It's incredibly professional. Everybody is presented by their real name, by their real rank, by their real picture, by their real unit or company. So, there's a lot of civility in there because you don't really say anything on RallyPoint you typically wouldn't say in person to somebody. So, there's a lot of civility. It's a lot of professionalism. That goes across multiple parts of the spectrum of topics. So, there's lots of topics about professional issues. There's also lots of topics about social issues. But, the common thread is that people, for the most part, are very professional and courteous and I think that's also reflective of the military identity that our members bring.

Cassandra Shaw: I want to thank you so much for being here today with us and our listeners should have gained a lot of information, a lot of helpful tips from your experience and with ideating. So, I'm going to send it back over to Robin.

Robin: Great advice, Yinon. I hope all of you listening enjoyed this episode. There's plenty more on the way. Until next time, this is Robin [inaudible 00:17:58]. Now get back to work.

Speaker 4: This podcast is protected by the Creative Commons share like non-commercial, no derivative 3.0 United States license. Thank you for listening.