Think Like MacGyver
When I was flying to Detroit from the Dominican Republic I did what I normally do. Open up my laptop, plug in my headphones, and zone off into some Louis C.K. or Jim Gaffigan standup.
Then I got a tap on my shoulder – my brother wanted to listen. I only had one audio output, so it looked like we had to go one earbud each. But wait, my MacGyver kicked in. Here’s what I had:
What would you do? Tell him he could listen to the soundtrack from The Incredibles while I laugh myself to tears? Give him an earbud and subject both of us to a terrible audio experience? Nah, we used what we had and made it work.
Here’s what I did:
- Made a Wi-Fi hotspot
- Converted the video into a .mp4 with VLC
- Loaded up MAMP
- Dumped the video into the the MAMP folder
- Connected the iPhone to my MacBook’s Wi-Fi
- Streamed on the iPhone
- Both lol’d at 30,000 ft
Turns out I didn’t even need the rubber band or paper clips!
Startups need to think this way. Take what you’ve got, and multipurpose it. Sure, having an audio splitter would have done the trick, just like having an extra iMac for the conference room would make meetings easier. But instead, buy a nice 27” monitor and adaptor so you can just plug your existing assets into it. Think carefully about spending expensive investor money when you don’t have to.
