Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Less than a week ago, I emphasized the importance of having an exit strategy as part of a business plan. Foreseeing the future is not easy; predicting the impact of changing course is easier.

The news about the demise of the Bido service arrived in ‘shock and awe’ waves yesterday; most domainers are not prepared to see enterprises vanish without much of a warning.

And yet, it all comes down to that exit strategy I referenced, the triggering of a process that calls for one’s attention with a large, flashing ‘Game Over’ sign.

From the very beginning, Bido took on a unique role in the domaining market, as the only auction start-up created by domainers for domainers from the ground up. Technologically speaking, the bidding platform utilized many mechanisms of promoting, reviewing, discussing, buying and selling domains. If you think of domains as a product, Bido created a platform that encompassed a generous set of playgrounds to encourage a transaction.

Was the Bido business model right or wrong?

There is truly no direct answer to that; as the platform evolved tremendously in the two years since its launch. It changed and grew according to feedback and according to the ever-changing conditions of the domain market.

To outright state that Bido failed, one needs to have experienced the dot com boom and bust era first hand. Trust me, I was there and despite closing shop Bido did a whole lot better than many start-ups of the late 90′s; it actually created the technology and the processes that will be further utilized in future ventures.

As Philip II of Macedonia told his son Alexander the Great, “…seek thyself another kingdom, for this which I leave is too small for thee.” Domaining is a small, niche market. Bido created an application and a platform slated for bigger things.

Experience is not gained from success, it’s attained by failing and discovering what went wrong during the course. This is exactly what the Bido guys will be doing right now, after their exit strategy alarms kicked in.

A big thank you to Sahar Sarid, Jarred Cohen and all of those who worked at Bido.

How many times have you stayed up all night, doodling the outlines of that new project that somehow managed to crawl into your mind?

Ideas are concepts that are triggered by external stimuli. They are paths formulated along the neurons of your brains. You begin to materialize them once you describe them – once you get them out of your own head!

These plans often arrive in the form of a business plan or venture. Your brilliant concept expands itself on paper, assumes a life of its own, becomes an entity that lives and breathes your own dreams.

All of a sudden, you are on your way to creating *the* killer application or *the* ultimate web site for a product or service no-one thought before. Nobody is going to stand in your way!

But what is the most important part of your business plan?

As humans, we always look up, further. The Greek word, “anthropos” means exactly that – “he who gazes up“, towards the sky and the stars. As humans, we often get caught up into our own dreams and ideas.

Your business plan needs a safety switch, a security line. An exit plan.

By defining at the beginning what will happen when your own plan won’t succeed, you are defining the minimum percentage of your success. With an exit plan, you are not limiting yourself, you are simply ensuring that you won’t get burned if things go wrong.

Exit plans can be as simple as points along a timeline. They can be as complex as a set of processes that will engage once certain parameters fail to produce certain results. They are there to ensure that your vision is realistic and that should you fail you will be able to recover quickly and fully.

In the world of domaining, investments in one TLD or another, a specific market or a certain vertical need an exit plan. Times are fluid and focus becomes blurry, but with an exit plan you will be able to predict the signs of losing the game – thus winning it in the long run!

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