Found+READ: Comments by Big V

Big V — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 04:43:56 GMT

But what is it that “makes” people share though? I doubt its a good product that people like to discuss.. Youtube is fun to share, twitter is addictive, facebook is more functionally useful when you share it – but none of these are really excellent products…

Big V — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 04:49:06 GMT

Om – this blog is an excellent idea and will be immensely successful for you. But the user experience on your site sucks. This is a new blog and you already have 9 links in your global nav. I will still read it because of the content, but please hire a good UI designer

Big V — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:38:20 GMT

I’d also add –
1. Jump-start the system quick and big. There is limited time available between when you launch and when your community should achieve critical mass and become self-sustaining and growing thereafter. You need good initial (and probably artificial) users to get it over the initial cusp. If you can’t get there soon enough, it will sizzle down forever.

Om – I think this where you need to intervene and continue to post some useful stuff initially to keep this community active. Its been very dry lately :)

2. People engage best when the topic is debabatle, controversial or an opinion is sought of them actively. Thats when they will express, if they have an opinion. Ex. the techrunch post on “Digg should sue Wired” probably generated the most user comments on Techcrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/01/digg-should-sue-wire…)
Another example is a posting on Signal vs Noise blog asking users to define the world in 10 words or less. It was probably one of the most popular posting on that blog, generating 241 comments. http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/363-define-the-real-wo…

Big V — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 03:40:19 GMT

kris kris -

By artificial, I did not mean hollow, incorrect or fake content. I meant “creating” users in artificial manner. A good community thrives and grows by word of mouth and marketing costs are zero. But to jump start it, we need to ‘create’ users; these could be our very very close friends, who we beg to participate more actively initially, or they could be acquired by spending a lot of marketing dollars upfront. ex. Google Answers started off with 500 experts that were paid. They jumpstarted the system with those initial contributors, but failed to open it up to the community at the right time. Playstation does a big marketing splash prior to each release, every new movie has a big splash prior to release – these are all ways to get the system ignited. If the initial splash is big enough, and the product is good, the early adopters will do the rest of marketing for you.

Om makes a good point – we are a vessel in the long term. Initially, we lay a few first eggs, then we just provide the breeding ground and let it multiply on its own.

Big V — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:44:15 GMT

Great post, David. I have often struggled on when exactly to give up on an idea and change course. While on one hand focus and persistence is a must-have to be successful, on the other hand – a constant reality check of potential impact is a must too. We talk about google too often, but what about Alta Vista and Inktomi – who focussed on search early on and gave up on their business model and changed course probably too early.
I haven’t followed any of the podcasting recommenders. Are any of your original competitors doing well now?

Big V — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:23:02 GMT

It’s a social networking community site focussed on wedding couples, very much like projectwedding.com. To me, the channels that I think will be most relevant to us are – a) PR / Blogger coverage (b) Viral© SEO / SEM.
Brand Mangaement is a long term thing, but I am curious if you have any advice on branding do’s and dont’s.

Big V — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:32:50 GMT

Thanks all. These are great comments and very helpful.

Sean – you rightly point out that customer churn will be the biggest issue and also leaves the business susceptible to new entrants.

Its good to know that its best to focus on one or two channels.

For viral, I was thinking more along the lines of an ongoing contest. Something like folks share stories of their wedding proposal (say) and the community votes on it and the winner gets a crazy luxurious honeymoon. I have no experience with contest marketing, so any thoughts would be welcome…

Thanks again!

Big V — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:19:39 GMT

Like many good answers… it depends.

It depends on what you intend to do with the product. Is it a revolutionary new product, or an improvement to an existing product. Is it easy for consumers to attach a value or reference price to it? What’s your corporate strategy – driving penetration or achieving profitability?

Big V — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:28:38 GMT

“After reading several articles on startup valuation and listening to Guy Kawasaki, it seems like basing your valuation on revenue projections is not a sound strategy”.

Are you sure? Revenue projections is the one sure way to assess a company’s potential.
I’d recommend you break it into two steps – (a) Revenue projections tell you big the market is – and how much your business could be worth and (b) “Assets, patented technology, user base” are just means of assessing if your business model is defensible? Is there a substinable advantage that you can build that will allow you to eat a large fraction of the total market?

If both (a) and (b) are in your favor, its all yours. Otherwise, good luck getting funded!