#TWiST 18

Guests:

• Mike Jones COO of MySpace
• Peter Hirschberg of The Conversation Group

Interview: at Digital Family Summit

• Community nuisances and their evolution help breed success in social media.
• Even though you are a large behemoth the tides can change quickly with social sites.
• Did Facebook out develop MySpace?  Once you reach a certain size innovation with scale becomes difficult for any company.  Mike explains that once you reach scaling limits you have to turn inward and focus on platform issues instead of innovation so you can plan for the future.  MySpace has been focusing on this so he is excited that they can know do things they couldn’t in the past.  He explains that these things are hard to balance because tech. companies often grow so quick.
• (13 min.)Why has Twitter taken off in such a huge way ie. it has caught the attention of celebs?  Twitter has become the core people are building around it (an ecosystem) and it has no competition, it serves media companies well, builds communities fast, real time gives instant feedback and the minimalism is elegant and the communication is simple you don’t have to be a great writer.
• Expect big changes at MySpace, they are done dealing with scaling issues and will be entering a phase of innovation.
• (20 min.)What is the future of MySpace?  Games and music are interesting, content aggregation, public content in nature, younger demographic and will have an entertainment focus.
• How do you go from 10 friends to 10,000, how do you go viral?  The question cannot really be answered, there are techniques,   Peter explains that it is very easy for a company to look inward instead of focusing on the user.  They should be trying to figure out what they can give the user that is important to them, that they will want to share.
• When does social media hit the too big to succeed point?  The gaming of the system hurts ie. spamming, too much irrelevant noise.
• They discuss virtual currency as being is interesting, it will eventually become a revenue stream when advertising isn’t enough but it will be slow to adopt the benefit is it is psychologically easy.
• TechCrunch50: 700 people applied and they had to make a video (pitch),  companies were made up of a smaller number of people creating amazing stuff with a lot less money, massive focus on creating a business, people brought in clients and contracts.

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#TWiST 17

About gdgt (like “gadget” — or g-d-g-t) is a new kind of technology site — a social gadget platform that enables you to connect with the community through your gadgets, and connect with your gadgets through the community. It’s a place for you to engage with your devices and hang out with people who are as passionate about their gear as you are.

gdgt is all about providing you with useful, contextual information — both from here and around the web — to help you get more out of the products you already own, as well as help you discover that next great device to add to your collection. We hope that gdgt will be the last personal technology destination you’ll need, and the place to call home for you and your gadgets.

Want to create your own gadget list and start connecting? Go here to sign up for an account.

Interview:

• Peter was friends with Nick Denton of Gawker and while having a drink they talked about blogging as a business and no one at the time was really covering tech. and gadgets (2001ish), so they created Gizmoto.

• Peter and Jason’s connection was the movie High and Low, Peter mentioned it in a post and Jason commented, which helped create the relationship that led to Engadget.  Jason offered to make Peter a partner but leaving a successful blog was very risky.  He knew his vison was different than Nick Denton’s he wanted to build a team and blog full time.   Peter after some soul searching realized being a partner was more compelling than being a paid employee.  Looking back Peter didn’t think of himself as an entrepreneur until well within Engadget, his dreams were always to be just an editor.

• Ryan also took huge risks he was working (and making more money) for  a CMS company, left and worked for free for a couple months and took less pay because he believed in Engadget.

• 3 things made Peter reach out to Ryan:

• • • Ryan was a creative writing major
    • Tech. knowledge
    • NY attitude (combination of skepticism and  enthusiasm)

• They really believe in the team blogging approach, many people don’t realize the strategy that goes into a successful blog.

• How is gdgt different?  It’s not a blog, but a site about gadgets.  They wanted to have a site that lists what you have and what you want in a community (crowd source) type atmosphere.  Whereby people create relationships through what gadgets they own.  One surprising use is more and more people are listing gadgets they have used in the past.  Jason comments that it is a great resource if you are having a problem with a gadget.  He gives an example of his Mabook Air not streaming video well,  he went to the site and someone else had already brought the problem to Apple’s attention.

• Peter comments, that they feel like they have tapped into something (similar to the early Engadget days) and they have a clear vision of where they are headed but understand they have a lot of work to do.

• Once they launched a lot of their planning went out the window, it helped them focus on what was working and what wasn’t.

• What is the big lesson that they learned now that they have their own business? Ryan,  At Weblogsinc you took care of the editors making sure they had what they needed.  They feel the users are their editors, without them they won’t succeed.  Peter, find people you trust and don’t micromanage them, let them do their thing.  Offer a good quality of life, have fun at work, dinners, LAN games, etc.

Twitter Questions: (54 min.)

• Will gdgt ever have a blog on it?  Not in the traditional blog sense, it doesn’t fit into their vision.

• Were you guys ever worried about not getting the posts right at that fast pace, or did you just count on editing them after being posted?  Peter comments the pace was intense at one point he was doing 25 to 30 posts a day, he worried about accuracy but much of what they did was self correcting, in that, the commenters helped correct mistakes.

• Will gdgt ever offer an option to nuke the ads?  They have never found a site where that really works, they wish they didn’t need them but the current business model realities require them.  They try focus on quality ads that don’t have annoying features.

Interesting References or Quotes:

• Jason feels that having dinner together creates a special relationship.

• Jason, If you ever have a doubt about someone there is no doubt.

• You are your people.

• The best bloggers are the best commenter’s

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#TWiST 16

TechCrunch50 Company Highlight:

(19 min.) Ethan Anderson of Redbeacon:

• They are currently executing on sales and marketing plans and have partnership offers, people have even offered to work for free because they love the idea.
• Jason comments that Ethan knows how to pitch, he basically explains it in plain English.
• The unique thing about Redbeacon as compared to it’s competitors is they only take 10% for the first job, if your service is great the customer is yours for life.
• Robert Scoble admitted via Twitter that they should have won. (that Tweet was not fun to find, have you ever looked at how much the Scoble tweets)
• 15 days before the event was a huge sprint to get ready, on top of getting ready he was refining his pitch in addition to dealing with the logistics of the cupcake delivery.
• Redbeacon will conduct a full launch in (San Francisco) early October

(35 min.) Aaron Cohen and Nate Westheimer of AnyClip:

• Father son team (incredible)
• First presentation a 4.5 out of 10, however after refining the pitch their presentation rocked TC50, per Jason one of the best ever.
• Nate comments that Jason’s advice during prep was very precise and helpful.
• Aaron and Nate comment they will survive because they are creating a relationship with the movie industry, they extended the hand of friendship to Hollywood even before TC50.

Interview:

(52 min. ) Brandon Kessler (or is it David Hyde Pierce) of ChallengePost

About ChallengePost, We all wish for things: A new iPhone app that points me toward deals at my favorite retailer; a cheap, small solar-powered generator; a better way to teach kids math. ChallengePost allows you to create and join challenges to accomplish goals. It also allows organizations to sponsor competitions of the same variety. Once a challenge is created, other people can JOIN the challenge and pledge money or simply appreciation. Those incentives, which are payable only if a challenge is solved, encourage others to solve a problem and earn their rewards. Solving a problem or getting a wish granted always needs a first step. Get started today with ChallengePost

• As a freshman in college he saw the Dave Matthews Band and ended up doing all the radio promotions for them and as a sophomore he started doing all their street promotion. As a Senior year he started Messenger Records.
• How did you recruit street teams online, do you have a message board, email or something if you want to join? That’s it, if you want to help out and put flyers in stores we’ll get you in for free and send you stuff, you’ll be on our team. That is how he met Steve Wozniak.
• He knew that problem solving could be more efficient, knew it was important but didn’t know how it would work or how to monetize it, he saw a challenge for a dual boot to a Mac, and was blown away by the marketing and the concept.
• “I support this” button is a pretty innovative and compelling reward for the challengers and the developer, both stand to gain.
• Brandon always has flyers, stickers, or posters for promotion on hand, when asked how do you get someone to allow you to place flyer in their window he says ask permission and ask nicely.
• Jason’s ChallengePost Campaign, he likes the “crime around me” idea.

Notable Events:

• (27 min.) Jason, says that to anyone who wants to give away at least $10,000 at TechCrunch50 to their winner the floor is yours, He and Mike will allow you to present on stage.(1:58) Jason describes the Mike Arrington relationship with TechCrunch50.

Special Announcements:

• (54 min.) Jason’s favorite restaurant in San Francisco is 5A5 steak lounge.

The News: (1:19) with Lon Harris (This Week in YouTube)

• I will be leaving the news segment to speak for itself (primarily as a time saver) by leaving a time stamp, my goal is for this site to be a reference site , not a news site, if something noted is beyond this week’s news , I will note the comment.

Notable Quotes:

• (08 min.) Jason, you have to love your sponsors, you have to give them that love, you have to show it to them, that’s business.
• (12 min.) Jason, Starting is easy, finishing is hard
• (30 min.) Jason, TC50 It’s a business competition.
• (51 min.) Jason, you have moments where you can take on the world and moments when you are totally incompetent.
• (57 min.) Jason, nobody wants to do the hard work.
• (59 min.) Brandon, you have to be out there to create your own luck.

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Roelof is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on services and software investments. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2003, Roelof served as the Chief Financial Officer of PayPal (EBAY). Earlier, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. Roelof is a certified actuary (Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries), and has a BS in Actuarial Science, Economics, and Statistics from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Interview: (02 min.)

• Is innovation dead? No I think a lot is happening, look at Twitter for instance.
• Jason comments that the expensive chocolate bars have disappeared and Roelof explains that Sequoia is no different than any other company and has cut expenses during the recession.
• They discuss that a year ago many of the Sequoia companies cut expenses before any hardship and are happy they were preemptive.
• Roelof comments that there is still a lot of uncertainty in the economy.
• Silicon Valley innovation isn’t driven by consumer credit so Roelof thinks the tech industry is in good shape.
• Many companies may have cut a little deeper than necessary and you are starting to see some hiring.
• What is the proper amount in your estimation for a startup to have in the bank how many months of cash? 3 or more years is better, but if you need to spend to meet key milestones and shrink your runway to 18 to 24 months it may make more capital easier to obtain at better terms and the founders are left with more ownership of the company.  Sequoia’s goal is to target 50% ownership for “the people in the building” upon exit any less is not great.
• Roelof gets approx. 200 request a week to speak to him.
• Jason asks what is the best and worst part of working with him?  Effervescent, tireless enthusiasm, he like working with someone he needs to reign in and not have to push, he worries about focus, Roelof comments that he struggles doing many things well and to focus on the main idea.
• Sequoia has been very active this year; a lot of the best investments have been in the dark days.  If you can carve out a niche in the tough times it will be easier to succeed when times improve.

Ask Jason: (12 min)

• They have a status changing app. for Facebook and the terms of service just changed now their app. is handcuffed and have seen a dramatic drop in users, they just reached an agreement with Facebook and things are great again. What is your opinion about basing a business around someone else’s platform? What are good strategies? Jason prefers not to build on someone else’s platform due to this downside.  What he would do is use their distribution to build a brand that transcends their platform. ie. try up sell consumers to use a toolbar something outside of FB to build a relationship. If you are going to build off their platform create a relationship with the platform owner in case problems come down the road.  Create a portfolio of applications so you aren’t reliant on one single app. for success.

• Lee – Online charity where people donate their services (type idea, very tough to hear), How can I get people on board to make money but not rip anyone off? Be very transparent and open about what you provide and the service charges, full disclosure is key. Charities have expenses; your service would be no different. Lee, is a developer but wants people to believe it’s a real company, what is the best way to achieve that? Go to 10 non-profits and ask them to be default partners and ask them if you can use their logos or say you are partners. Try getting the charities to help you with distribution and that you are a service that is an option.  Enable people to broadcast their causes through Facebook or Twitter, this will help with distribution.

Jason’s Shark Tank: (35 min.)

• Steve Hamilton, Biglocal.ca, (I hate to say this but this is an example on how not to pitch an idea, I felt like he was reading from a sheet of paper) Jason asks, in plain English to explain what your service does? Steve is still a bit wordy, better, but wordy. Jason and Roelof refine what he does as dynamic ads and landing pages.  The idea isn’t very scalable it is easy to start one client and you are profitable but you don’t need venture capital, the question is: how does this business scale? Either the technology has to scale or distribution which is difficult in the local market.

• From Michigan, idea: desktop box appliance that is powered by the cloud. Several companies have pitched this idea, VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), problem is in licensing a lot of people need to get paid, very low margin, market dynamics make it tough. Jason’s idea try this in a vertical (such as law firms), be careful jumping in front of the Google and Microsoft train.

Notable Quotes:

• (05 min) Roelof, In some cases some people may have been over aggressive in expense cutting but it’s one of those, you know, which of the two alternatives would you rather have just cut a little more and make sure the company survives or don’t trim too fast and you don’t get to survive. Of the two, I think I would be a little bit more conservative. You want to accelerate out of the corner (break into and accelerate out)

• (28 min.) Jason, Nothing in life that is valuable, is easy.

• (42 min) Roelof, states a simple method to pitch your idea: give one declarative sentence what the company is, state the problem (who is your customer and what their problem is), give the solution.

If you find this useful or interesting please hit the “retweet” button up top.

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Episode 14

Date: Sept. 4, 2009

Live at Sequoia Capital, including Mike Arrington

Guest: Garry Tan, Co-founder of Posterous

Posterous is the dead simple way to put anything online using email. We launched in July 2008 and we’ve been steadily growing and adding features.

We love sharing thoughts, photos, audio, and files with our friends and family, but we didn’t like how hard it was… so we made a better way.

That’s posterous. We’re super excited to see what happens when blogging becomes as easy as email, and we hope you enjoy posterous as much as we do. Thanks for trying it.

Interview: (03 min)

• Where did the idea come from?  Email is the simplest way we all communicate why not just email something and have it integrated into many services.
• To start an account it is very easy just email a picture to post@posterous.com
• Jason and Mike use the service but the beauty is someone who doesn’t know how to blog can get started right away
• How much money have you raised?  $15,000 originally from  Y Combinator
• What are the terms and why did you choose Ycombinator? They got about 6% of the company  for about $15,000.  It wasn’t about the money it was more about connections, they have weekly dinners (about 20 to 25 startups per session) and it has that fraternity feel, a Band of Brothers.
• They raised $725,000 Angel round (pre-series A, convertible round with a Cap.) they have used less than half, they want to stay lean (4 people: 3 fulltime and 1 contractor) only a month ago they got an official office.
• Been in operation for 14 months, experiencing 25% growth monthly
• A feature Jason wants to see is default settings for different formats ie. pictures go to Flickr, Posts go to his blog.  Garry comments that it is more than likely going to happen.
• Who do you call when you need advice? Our lead investors
• Garry admires and respect?  Jeff Bezos of Amazon, he is doing great with whatever he touches.  Jason agrees he is the most underrated CEO and does great stuff.
• How do you make money?  Never answered
• What did you do before Posterous?  Product Manager for Microsoft (02-03) he thought the internet was dead, he learned what to do and not, basically do less.  He learned it was difficult to get a feature in a product and then just as difficult to take it out.  Cannot move quickly as a company.
• Garry is a big believer in less is more, people try to add too many features, do less.
• What are the challenges?  What is the hardest thing?  “Cutting to the bone” with resources
• What is next?  Keep growing, full template themes.
• What do the other users (Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) think about Posterous?  No pushback yet, they built it because people wanted it.

The News: (40 min.) with Tyler Crowley

• Facebook mobile connecting 65 mil. people on mobile phone app, stunning but not surprising, people use FB like their inbox in a way competing with Gmail.
• Former CEO and Co-founder of FeedBurner, is now the COO at Twitter.  What does this say?  Dick Costello is the next CEO, succession plan, they get to see how they work together for when the company goes public.
• Ebay signs agreement to sell majority stake in Skype for $2.3 bil., founders are suing, Skype is an amazing product, Jason’s question, why haven’t they been able to grow the company?

TWiST Sponsors

Episode 13

Date: Aug. 28, 2009

Guest: Matt Mickiewicz, Founder of SitePoint, 99Designs, and Flippa

SitePoint is a fast growing online media company and information provider targeting the Web professional market, specifically Web Developers and Designers. The company has five major revenue streams: advertising and sponsorship, content-based products both online and in retail, software, and more recently streaming video subscriptions and classified listings. SitePoint is currently the 978th most visited web site in the world!

99designs is a disruptive startup which connects passionate designers from around the globe with savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.

It’s definitely a cliché but there’s no other way to describe it — 99designs was started by designers for designers. Our role at 99designs is to provide a friendly, professional, and secure environment where designers from all walks of life can compete on a level playing field – where they can show off their work, improve their skills, communicate with peers, and win new clients.

99designs was founded by Mark Harbottle, co-founder and chairman of sitepoint.com, along with internet veterans Lachlan Donald, and Paul Annesley.

Flippa is the leading marketplace for websites.

As a buyer, you get to choose from the widest range of established web sites, with comprehensive information about the business helping you to make the correct decision with confidence.

As a seller, you have access to a huge crowd of interested and informed buyers keen to bid good prices for premium product. The hard work you’ve invested in building your business will be rewarded

Special Announcements:

• (04 min) Jason’s Review Challenge, plain and simple he wants feedback on the show good or bad.  So he has created a contest to review this episode and the winner gets a $500 iPhone gift card.  Post it and send the link to contact@thisweekinstartups.com
• 4 remote shows coming up, next week live from Sequoia (2 conferences and 2 from Sequoia)
• We Live In Public, tells the story of the effect the web is having on our society as seen through the eyes of “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of”, visionary Josh Harris.  If you buy a ticket (in the next week) the first 100 people to email a pic of the ticket to contact@thisweekinstartups.com you will receive a Mahalo pack.
• New segment “Jason’s Shark Tank”, 3 minutes to pitch your idea (similar to Dragon’s Den)
• Jason will be the first user of the professional user account for Twitter.

Ask Jason: (22min)

• Stewart Moore from Maryland

• • How likely is it for someone to start a consumer hardware company? Very expensive, you are competing with the big guys.  However, things are changing and a few smaller companies have succeeded Flip and Slingbox.  Flip was very simple, no features and went against the norm.  Their have been failures OQO, make sure your idea is different.  He wants to create a device that can download and create podcasts.  Make sure you do a 100 to 1,000 unit run and have people order in advance and start the work when you get 500 orders then you do it.  Consider using Kickstarter to help fund your idea or ChallengePost to help you get the design work done (one of Jason’s Angel investments).

• Tim Holladay, Splat Technologies, mobile app. development.

• • How does a small fish know if a big company is really interested, what is the next step after initial interest? Great question, you may have to go through 5, 10 meeting to get anything done.  They are big companies and it takes a long time to get anything done.  Protect yourself assume it will not happen and run your business is so.  Ask them during a meeting is this something that you may be able to execute on in 30 days, 60 days or 90 days and based on what they say let them know you have 3 other clients interested and you will make sure to get back in touch with them in said period.  Jason prefers the slow approach to salesmanship when people seek him out.  Consider a free, opensourse version to let them see something and if interested you can make a full version.  Jason prefers a visualization approach give them something to see.

Jason’s Shark Tank: (42 min.)

Shaan Siddiqui

• Idea: Emotify, Tag content based on how they feel and create user media packages.

• Jason’s Recap: The Delicious / Stumbleupon of emotions, you have the core of an idea.  BuzzFeed has a tool that is similar.  It is in the feature phase, let me guess you are not sure exactly where this will go, can the feature turn into a product and then a business.  What have you done before? 2^nd startup, self funded, spent $25,000, worked on a year and a half too long and it failed but he has moved on.  Jason would have to meet you he prefers crazy passionate entrepreneurs.  How does this go from this being an interesting feature to a product?  Will this become a destination site?  Shaan didn’t answer with conviction, he said basically maybe.  This concerned Jason because he thinks it would be a good destination site and wanted to see passion for the idea.  What did your parent’s do?  Father – Teacher, Mother – Manager of a local supply firm, You grew up middle class?  Yes, what kind of car did your parents drive?  Accord and Civic.  Did you go to college? Yes, paid for college himself.  How much money would you need and what would you spend it on?  They are about 8 weeks from launching, they have a workable link.  They need runway, for servers and a site redesign.  They received some money from a local angel.  Jason wants a java code to help him make his site better.

• Matt’s Recap: He like the idea of content across multiple websites and multiple mediums and possible curated content.  What he didn’t hear was, how will this make money?  Right now Shaan is expecting advertising but the business model isn’t fully developed.

• Tyler’s Insight: One of his favorite feature is the Tweetmeme button, it allows you to Retweet right away.  Within 6 months he is reaching Digg like numbers, it gives instant feedback.  Will this be a similar simple feature?

• End Result: Jason is intrigued and Shaan is onto something, he can’t say yes or no on the spot but you fit his profile, you are cheap by nature.

John Theriault

• Idea: Vivolve, a life profile site for teens to start building a career resume, free for teens and recruiters, business model based around data subscribers.

• Jason’s Recap: Your ability to pitch this is terrible but your idea could be brilliant.  Basically, LinkedIn for High School students allowing them to start a resume 8 years before you start looking for a job.  The name is terrible, work on branding.  Why did you come up with this idea?  He was a sports writer and saw good student athletes struggle to create a helpful online profile to get recognized.  After some thought and explanation the name is sinking in.

• Pointer’s on how to pitch by Jason: Present the problem or frustration you solve or make an analogy in the first 10 seconds and then move on to idea.

• Matt’s Recap: It has a lot of potential; I like how your idea started down the sports niche.  You could track stat’s and charge recruiters for access by making their lives easier.  Once you start perfect the sports niche you could evolve the idea into other areas.

• Tyler’s Insight: The internship space and application space is lacking.

• End Result: Jason would like to see the sight, he loves the idea of a LinkedIn for teens and will follow up.

Discussion: (1:18)

• Matt came from a working family and built everything from the ground up.
• He was 15 years old when he started the precursor to SitePoint, he was learning how to build a website as a hobby and started finding cool things but everything was scattered about.  He compiled all the data into website called Web Master Resources (1997-98)that linked to all the resources, he quickly became the go to destination for website building.
• They bootstrapped all the way and bartered for everything from software to email lists.
• While in High School he was taking advertising orders, success was quick.  His parents didn’t think the success would last they thought it had no legs.  However, when it succeeded he skipped going to college, the only thing he may have missed out on is the social aspects of college.  Jason eloquently says the chicks.
• 2000-01 things got tough when money dried up, advertising shrunk but never had to lay anyone off.  What they did was study how people used their website and the most popular feature was, “print this article”.  They wanted to explore printing up their most popular articles as cheaply as possible and created, in his words a crappy little 200 page book but sold 20,000 for $35 apiece, which led to the books they continue to publish.
• When 99designs was started the going rate for a logo was $5,000 – $20,000, so expensive many people didn’t even get a logo.  The average price for a logo on 99designs is $300.
• There is a movement among graphic designers against spec work and is trying to get people to stop participating at 99designs.
• 99designs has 44,000 designers in their community.  99designs provides lead generation for other work for designers.  Their lead designer in Romania made $80,000US last year through their site and probably much more on the side.
• Flippa, new site recently created is a marketplace to buy and sell websites.

The News: (1:34)with Andrew Warner of Mixergy

• Apple’s Snow Leopard released with few added features, is this the end of innovation in desktop computers?  No, I don’t understand this release, I guess the big feature is exchange and speed.  However, it won’t be too noticeable.  Will you be upgrading in this office?  No, I don’t even think we did the last upgrade.  Jason would like to see more innovation in monitors.
• NFL banded Twittering during games.  Ocho Cinco found a work around by sending a signal to a friend at the game to send out tweets.  Is this a distraction to work or a great publicity stunt?  Jason, doesn’t like the idea he is a work and should concentrate on the game and let his play speak for itself.
• Yelp has an augmented reality feature, will this become a mainstream?  Very cool not sure if everyone will have a use for it.  Therefore, not that big of a deal.
• Microsoft photoshopped out a black man out of its Polish site and replaced  him with a white man.  What do you think?  Somebody is an idiot; I don’t know what they are thinking.  I don’t think it was malicious but someone not thinking the situation entirely through.  What steps do you take at Mahalo to prevent social oops?  He is very clear that you represent your company even if it is on your private Facebook account.
• Wall Street Journal reports Steve Jobs is obsessed with the tablet computer, do you think this will be a hit?  Depends on price, will it be a better experience than the iPhone, iTouch.  He doesn’t see it being a huge hit, very niche.
• Bit.ly, shortening url for other sites.  Are people making a mistake by turning over their URLs to shortening services?  Benefit are the statistics and eventually most people will have their own service.  They need to guarantee the service will be up no matter what happens to the company, until then I would be concerned.

Dead Pool: (2:10)

• Tipjoy, micropayment company
  • They will be competing with Paypal
  • Not big enough of a difference

Notable Quotes:

• (50 min.) Jason, If you’re not crazy I would never invest in you, if you’re like a normal person that disqualifies you from my investment fund.  My investment thesis is, I like crazy unreasonable entrepreneurs.
• (59 min.) Jason, A-B-C, Always Be Cheap as a startup.
• (1:59) Jason on relationships, Grab time when you can and do something epic.

Relationship Ideas:

• Do something that will make all the other girlfriends / spouses jealous
• Bring your significant other to conferences
• Gift idea, bring it to another level not by spending more but be creativity and make an effort (ex. Buy a box of chocolates, remove some of the chocolate and place something nice in the box)
• Take a hike with a great view, surprise her with a some wine, cheese and crackers.  Small surprises.

Insights From Tyler!!!:

• (16min) If you think you are a social media guru if you have not seen this movie (We Live In Public) you are nothing.

Homework: (2:04)

• Go to audiblepodcast.com/twist – Sign up for 3 months send in receipt to TWiST and receive a Mahalo pack and $20 for the first 50 people.

• The Accidental Billionaire, due next week

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy
• Audible

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Episode 12

Date: August 14, 2009

Guest: John Ham, CEO & Brad Hunstable, President – Co-founders of Ustream

Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand.

Watershed is the private label version of Ustream’s proven and chosen Flash-based live, interactive broadcasting platform.  Ustream’s technology has powered live broadcasting for Barack Obama’s campaign website as well as for numerous other high-profile partners.  With Watershed, customers will be able to broadcast live on the Internet using a fully customizable player with a variety of different features and options including chat, privacy, and analytics.  The product is an all-in-one, easily deployed self-serve solution for both large and small organizations.  By using Watershed, customers will be able to build genuine communities and relationships around a shared online experience.

Special Announcement:

• Audible will be sponsoring the homework segment.  www.audiblepodcast.com/twist
• No show Aug. 21^st next show Aug. 28^th

Ask Jason: (20 min.)

1. Peter from Chicago, GeekStack, 99Designs contest.
   1. How does someone with 2 kids, a mortgage and a job create a startup? A year ago Jason would’ve said it will be very hard. Now that his wife is pregnant he believes it is possible.  When you are young you are also naive and believe you can do these grand things.  However, Evan Williams of Twitter is creating something and is a little older.  You will need help, try finding someone like you that has done this before and may have some money to help you invest, define the scope of the project and your spouse must be onboard.  Focus on planning, don’t react to the environment.
2. Sean
   1. How important is it to finish school or get an advance degree?  When hiring how important is education vs. experience? The greatest entrepreneurs didn’t go to school.  However, there are skills you can learn in education, marketing, finance, etc.  The fact is you will learn more on the job than anything in school go get an internship at a startup and be great, be humble and do what they ask no matter what.  When hiring Jason likes humble and kick ass a degree is not the most important.  John looks for character traits, relevancy and fit.  For engineering, if you are good you are good; it isn’t about where you went to school.

Discussion: (08 min., cont. 45 min.)

• Ustream has an iPhone app that was approved by Apple.  You basically have to create something and hope it gets approved.
• They started talking about it in summer 06 and launched Feb. 07, it was originally create to help soldiers communicate with family.  They both went to West Point and served 5 years in the Army.  The limitations the Army placed on them time wise and to communicate help the idea of Ustream, they wanted to create a one too many model.
• About 9 million viewers, service can be embedded.
• What is the business model?  Ustream is for consumers and is an ad supported model and is working, bottom up growth.  Watershed is the white label version for enterprises and is flexible for a product.
• Try get funding when the market is at a high valuation is basically double when the market is low.
• No Jimmy Wales comments from Jason unbelievable, Lon brought it up but not Jason.
• Brad and John, what would your employees say is the worst thing about working for you? Brad – unreasonable at time, high standards.  John – can be intense, if we say we are going to do something, execute.

Questions: (52 min.)

To John & Brad:

1. Was the last round (of funding) of only 2 million a down round? No, it was an option from the A round of funding for existing investors to reinvest.
2. Mboyle, Does Ustream have plans to get into the set-top box market like Netflix and other internet video startups are aiming to? There is a lot happening in that market, we want to be in front of eyeballs, ultimately yes they want to be in the space.

The News: (55 min.) with Lon Harris

• Facebook purchases FriendFeed, if they use best practices from each, it is a good deal.  Precursor to Facebook search.  FriendFeed had too many features, they were great technologists but not good at branding and needed to put a halt to some of the features.
• Hollywood studios are trying to keep Redbox from getting new DVD’s right away, will this encourage piracy?  Hollywood understands windows, Jason doesn’t like the idea he would rather pay a premium for movies that are still in theatre.
• Apple iPhone video (shot with a 9mm and burned), will people turn on Apple?  Everyone at Apple is taking it to heart, I am sure they are saying who cares what the bloggers think.  I think their should be a bill of rights for the purchaser.  Some recognition so that third party companies can use their products.
• Graffitigeo, rate your town, things rise and fall like Digg but with a game aspect, it is a good idea?  Yes, but Yelp will kill them, one feature doesn’t make the product, Yelp has a massive community.
• Boxee, received series B funding (6 mil.), long term goal to get into user TV’s and game consoles.  Jason, I don’t know if I need Boxee.  John, what exclusive content is on Boxee, why use them?  John the cable guys and Directv know they have to do something to compete.
• Bing shopping network improving, in 4^th place, up 169%, how do competitors respond?  Not much they can do, Bing has momentum, Microsoft is trying something new.
• Radiohead only releasing downloadable singles, will albums die?  Yes, most people buy singles and bands are catching up to user behavior.  Jason likes a subscription model.
• TechCrunch 50, Penn and Teller launching a new consumer tech product, can you give us a hint?  It is awesome, no hint.
• CheddarGetter, they handle all startup payments.  Jason, good idea.

Dead Pool: (1:22)

• Bubbleshare
  • Flickr too big to compete

Notable Quotes:

• (01 min) Jason, Message to Apple fanboys and girls, We spent 30 years of the industry trying to make it an open system the internet, applications, everything is open the reason why there is such colossal growth, is the reason why Ustream can do what they do, Mahalo does what it does, Twitter does what it does, is because of an open platform.  Nobody will invest in a closed platform and if you do invest in a closed platform it will come back and bite you in the ass.  There is no reason why Apple cannot make the iPhone a little more open.  Have some objectivity and don’t be a sellout to the open internet and technology.  (I shortened the quote a bit, listen to show for full quote)
• (13 min) John, There was a problem they were living it but not aware of it till they started talking about it.
• (38 min) Jason, The opposite of entrepreneurship is academia.
• (44 min.) Jason, I would give everything I have for 15 minutes with Osama Bin Laden.
• (1:00) Lon, Twitter is new, when you discover Twitter, it’s not like anything, it is sort of text messagy it’s sort of a lot of other things but it’s not anything you have used before you first use it you have that oh this is cool kind of moment, Facebook is really a continuation of Friendster and MySpace.
• (1:21) Jason, message to the young stupid people of the world, when you are work, do not do things that are illegal.
• (1:51) Jason, Always fight for your boss never argue the side of the vendor, if you are new never leave the office and not ask the boss if you can help out.
• (1:57) Brad, on your first day on the job if you are in a meeting don’t talk too much, watch, listen and learn.

Insights From Tyler!!!:

• (05 min.) Apple was built on fighting the machine, Steve Jobs was a rebel.
• (59 min.) FriendFeed was one of the few Twitter API partners that get the full version, now Facebook has access.
• (1:30) The reason Radiohead can do this is they are now independent and don’t have to produce an album like artists that are signed to a label.

Homework: (1:33)

• New assignment – The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy
• Audible

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Episode 11

Date: August 10, 2009

Guest: Peter Pham, CEO of Billshrink, Co-founder of Beta South

BillShrink is a free, personalized savings tool that helps you
save money on your everyday bills. We put the power in your
hands by presenting comprehensive, unbiased choices so
you can select options best for you.

The concept behind the company was born when co-founder Schwark and his wife tried to compare rates when changing their family cell phone plan. Overloaded with data on coverage, features and pricing, Schwark (who conveniently is a data analysis wizard) realized that this was a problem best solved by technology. Two years and many fancy algorithms later, BillShrink saves the average user $1500 and continually provides money-saving recommendations through timely email alerts to keep people saving even more.

Ask Jason: (06 min.)

1. Lisa Kant
   1. How do you get good effective press around your launch, when you don’t have a PR firm or access to bloggers? Jason is not a fan of PR companies, to get press be amazing and be everywhere.  Try engaging bloggers before you need the press, create a relationship by posting (in comments section) something insightful with a link to your company blog.  The product is everything and creating real relationships, Peter is a big believer in Dale Carnegie and How to Win Friends and Influence People.  Obsess about your market and whatever space you are in when you pitch them they are going to understand what you do.  INSIGHTS FROM TYLER!!! – Shorter is better, when people reach out to bloggers they write something big and professional, he feels the shorter and more casual the better.
2. Michael Rubin
   1. Called in on TWiST Episode #7 for advice about a slacker partner, after taking Jason’s advice things worked out in the end and equity of the project was readjusted.

Discussion: (30 min.)

• Peter came in as CEO, the idea was done before (Lower My Bills by Matt Coffin) Matt moves on, has success and invests in Billshrink.
• Billshrink analyzes cell phone, credit cards, and gas bills giving you a recommendation on what plan works best.
• T-Mobile is a big backer of Billshrink, they are focused on making customers first and want you to go to an independent site in order to prove their worth.
• Billshrink also looks at coverage maps when considering a recommendation.
• Raised 8 million in B-round
• About 10 years to become CEO.
• Jason feels you either need to make the product or sell the product to become CEO.
• The experience of startup to hyper growth to exit at Photobucket has proved invaluable.
• He focuses on culture as CEO.
• Netflix internal 128 page company culture document is amazing.
• Tyler feels the worst thing about working for Jason is he is always “on” and expects you to be “on”, relentless in business.  Lon feels the worst part of working for Jason is that he is too passionate about the business and sometimes his decisions feel like snap decisions and the 90 degree turns in direction are hard to follow.     Mark feels the worst things are his temper and the second keeping up with the 90 degree turns as much as possible.  Jason feels the worst thing about working with him is he is unreasonable.
• Billshrink will move into more verticals, building brand and trust

The News: (1:13) with Lon Harris

• Twitter down for most the day, Georgian attacks the reason – not a big deal, Twitter is working on scaling issues and things will improve.
• Digg, testing Digg ads, users vote on ads the more people like the ads the cheaper it is for sponsors – Jason loves the idea, Advertisers will create better ads.
• Listia like Craigslist but you get virtual currency for free stuff
• Microsoft held contest for Bing jingle – Is Microsoft trying to do bad marketing, INSIGHTS FROM TYLER!!! Very low budget and trying to be not what they are, trying to brand it around a scrappy company.
• Rackspace still doing well, not unexpected
• Urban Spoon taking on Opentable – probably not a good idea, if I am close why use it.
• Thank you for the plug.

Dead Pool: (1:30)

• Bix
  • American Idol online, was a good idea, probably no passionate founder

Notable Quotes:

• (13 min.) Jason, PR people are friction and what you want to do is develop a direct relationship with the CEO and the journalist blogger.
• (41 min.) Peter, I find that build a great product that has its own virality but if you leverage really big partners and other people where it is a win win situation right typically where you provide something they provide something typically they are bigger and have more users we went from zero users to 60 million users in 2 years.
• (49 min) Jason, Leaderships and the best leaders, realize they are flawed.
• (1:56) Lon, I’m giving you gold here

Homework: (1:35)

• Robert Johnson, How the Mighty Fall, What did you learn from the book? The prideful sense that we deserve success, success is because you earn it not because we have the smartest guy running the show.  You must remain hungry and disciplined.

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy

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Episode 10 (on Location at Twiistup)

Date: July 31, 2009

Guest: Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix

Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city.

A Top 10 online newspaper destination (comScore, March 2008), the site links news from 50,000 sources to 360,000 lively user-generated forums. Topix also works with the nation’s major media companies to grow and engage their online audiences through forums, classifieds, publishing platforms and RSS feeds.

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Topix LLC is a privately held company with investment from Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Tribune Company.

Special Announcement:

• (43 Min) Is expecting a Daughter Dec. 10^th, he is scared to death, (he has no idea what he is in for, as a first time parent you think you know how things will change but you don’t).  Yes, his career as an entrepreneur is over.

Ask Jason: (07 min.)(Live Questions From Audience)

1. Ben Langfeld, student from Manchester, How far in the future should a startup predict trends? Jason likes to enter a market that is partially developed but not commercialized and figure out the business model that works.  Chris sees the opportunity in improving what has already been created i.e. Google improved search.  Your business model should be able to make revenue within the first couple of years, if not you may be too ahead of the times.
2. Fransisco Dow (sp), producer of Twiistup, Is it inevitable that an internet company will go stale? i.e. Friendster, AOL.  Chris, I think that you have a serious need to get I don’t want to say big but well known as quickly as you can because the newness is a huge part of what the tech business covers the tech business wants to cover new, once you are around for awhile you better have some revenue, eventually you have to substitute buzz for revenue.
3. Don Dodge, Microsoft, What new trend or angle in your companies made you want to pursue them? Chris, they felt they had technology that differentiated them from Google news, more directory and categorization based.  Focusing on being different and more local than Google news proved the most sustainable product for them and then added comments more community based.  Jason, wanted to mix search in a way that wasn’t just algorithmic he wanted to create a combination of algorithm, community, and Q&A based search that would be fulfilling.
4. What do you think is the best way to start a business, do you have a business model first or do you get the audience first then monetize? Jason, depends on your funding, sometimes your funding is only concerned about number of eyes and during a recession they maybe only concerned about monetization.  You should have an idea of the business model but have an incredible product.  Chris, strategy in hearts called “shooting the moon”, if you go for it you win big but if you lose a little bit you lose everything, that is kind of what happenes in startups.  If you look at the biggest guys in web space they were more worried about audience, the key is to create a monopoly.
5. Brady Brim DeForester (sp), What advice do you have on being more worried about your product than your competitors? Jason, you have to qualify your competitors some are noise and some are the real deal.  Both Jason and Chris were very concerned about talent, Jason offered Peter Rojas equity stake in the company.
6. Fransisco, Is it smart to look at 16 or 17 revenue streams or just focus on one, two or three models? Jason, depends who you are talking to, if you go into a VC and say we have X possibilities but recognize only 2 or 3 are possible that is ok.

The News: (57 min.) with Lon Harris

• ATT&T blocked 4Chan forum, Jason, ATT&T sucks
• Lolligift, too much for the office, success may hinge on design.
• Jam Legend, you can upload a song from your library, if you can share it you will be sued even if not you may be sued because it is the music industry.

Dead Pool: (45 min.)

• Yahoo! search

Good move for Microsoft, Yahoo! Had 20 % market share and gave it away.

They syndicated search to Google back in the day and they are doing it again with Bing, history repeats itself.

• Searchme
  • Bad idea, how is a visual interface better than text?  Does anyone flip through iTunes album covers to pick their music?
• Newsgatoronline
  • Never saw the business in RSS readers, it will be built into a browser, mail client what would be the business model?

Notable Quotes:

• (14 min) Chris, I think that you have a serious need to get I don’t want to say big but well known as quickly as you can because the newness is a huge part of what the tech business covers the tech business wants to cover new, once you are around for awhile you better have some revenue.
• (34 min.) Jason, I’m going to rally my entire company around beating him and that can be a very good way to use a competitor.
• (35 min.) Chris, One of the few places where there actually is competition is for talent, that is a place where, that is the one thing I have a lot of friends that are great entrepreneurs, the one thing don’t poach my staff, that is the one place where people are competing.

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy

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Episode 9

Date: July 18, 2009

Guest: Loren Bendele, CEO, Savings.com

Our Mission: Simply put, our mission is to help you save money everyday. Built on best-of-breed technology, we offer the best collection of coupons available online to help you find the best savings opportunities. At Savings.com, you are in control of a vast array of resources to help you find coupons and save money. From big ticket items like desktop computers and jewelry to electronics, toys and gifts – we help you search for the best deals available on the products and services you want. It’s that simple.

Pure and Simple

We are 100% dedicated to keeping this site Pure&Simple.  What do we mean by this?

Pure:    We do not decide which coupons are the best coupons – our members do.  Our members and our coupon hunters find the best coupons on the net and then the Savings.com community decides which coupons are the best coupons.  If the community uses a coupon a lot and rates it highly it will rise to the top.  If the community does not like a coupon it will die a miserable death.  Ok, that’s being melodramatic, but it will at least fall to the bottom of the list and not be seen very often.  We do not accept payments or any types of incentives from stores to make their coupons rise to the top.  If a merchant wants their coupons and promotional offers to rise to the top, they have to create the best coupons.

So how do we get paid?  We do get affiliate commissions from some of our merchants for some sales we send their way.  However, our Pure engine does not take this into account when sorting and prioritizing the coupons.  If a member submits a coupon for a merchant that does not pay Savings.com a commission, we still treat this coupon like any other coupon on our site.  If that coupon becomes the most popular coupon on the site it will be the first coupon on the first page ahead of other coupons that do pay us commissions.  By using member ratings and usage as our voting system, we let our members decide which coupons are the best coupons.  This is what we mean by Pure.

Simple:    What good is a community driven site if it is difficult to use?  Instead of creating a forum where our users post traditional threads to talk about coupons, we created a simple search engine and category list so you can quickly and easily find exactly what you’re looking for.  Members can leave comments on our coupons and promotions but we have those comment sections directly on the coupons to keep the site as user-friendly as possible.  You don’t have to search through pages of forums to find a great coupon.  Our goal is to have Savings.com be the first and last place you look to find the best available coupons for whatever it is you’re looking for.  You can type in what you’re looking for, browse categories or browse your favorite stores to quickly see the best coupons as rated by our member community.

‘Pure and Simple.  It’s not just a catch phrase, it’s our boss and it dictates all we do.’

Special Announcement:

• Jason joined the Full Tilt Poker Team, Jason feels online Poker should be legalized and brought into the US and that it would help balance the budget.  He placed 3,000 out of 6,500 he is extremely frustrated about being bounced out of WSOP 2009, the games man ship was amazing.  Full Tilt may become a sponsor.

Ask Jason: (18 min.)

1. Nathon Stobezki, runs a fashion website (www.myownrunway.com) and is a college student.  What is best way to fund  a beta phase?  Network at events meet VC’s and Angel Investors , start following VC blogs, post intelligent comments, product must be worth investing in, Understand what your product is and put numbers to idea to show grow  / potential, try a soft sell approach, try an affiliate type product, iterate and change things if necessary(20 min)
2. Pete Jimison, Started a venture with brother about 6 months ago a Social Media Application (about 1,000 users).
   1. How should I prioritize, should I be protecting my idea or focusing on the business instead?  If it is web based it will be tough to protect your idea (if the idea is good it will be copied), focus on business, momentum and scale, listen to customers, figure out how to grow the product, create a long term strategy, what is end goal, ask Angel and VC investors for advice not money.  Error on the side of being open instead of trying to hide your idea from investors.  It is all about execution.  Try figure out the numbers around your business model and tell a compelling story.
3. Gabrielle Pascoe
   1. What is an acceptable salary for a CEO in the investor’s eyes?  Be very careful, some VC’s believe a big salary is a big red flag.  No VC will want their CEO to have to worry about their family.  $100,000 to about $350,000 depends on how backed the company is, if investor is an Angel they may expect a smaller amount but if in a venture round it will be higher.   Have the conversation with the VC.  They will look at your previous salaries.
   2. When you start to engage an investor how long till you get the money?  It depends on the economy your network, track record, it will probably take three or four meetings.  More than likely take longer than you think, be able to prove the money and growth be ready to bootstrap, if necessary.  Be persistent.

Discussion: (48 min.)

• Jason feels Loren’s business is unique and he has learned a lot from their friendship.
• Grew 400% last year and on track to grow 400% this year.
• Raised Venture capital last year (USVP).
• Deals come from across the board (community, companies, aggregator, users and affiliate networks).
• Re-launching in 2 weeks, adding community element to get more deals.
• Primarily paid if they are driving a sale.
• Value is the new black; it is cool to save money.
• What is more powerful for building a brand? A social or financial contract – Social once people start getting paid for content they do it for the money, fastest way to ruin a community is to pay them.

Questions: (1:10)

To Loren:

1. Twitinerate (sp), How much was the domain? 2 million, really good terms, name helped a lot in the early days.
2. Rpaskin, What do you think is the value of startups focusing on “cool” new “buzz” full technologies like Twitter or iPhone apps?  Everything needs to be risk adjusted analysis (what is value of idea times what is likelihood of success ex.  $1,000,000 x 50% =$ 500,000 opportunity, good gut check) becomes a prioritization que.
3. Robertrasmussen, Where do you see savings.com in the next 5 years and do you aim for certain vertical categories/industries?  In 2 years they are, one of the top 10 in coupon field by next year he wants to be in top 3, more concerned with creating “deal pro” relationships.
4. Mask, Who will get to 1 billion users/visitors Twitter or YouTube? YouTube (Tyler’s audio too low too hear)

The News: (1:21) Lon Harris

• Twitter / TechCrunch document leak – We have free press and it is better to have that than not, TechCrunch didn’t steal documents, just reported information.
• Piper Jaffray, wrote a proposal to Google that YouTube should charge for a nominal fee for some content, a tier system – bad idea, YouTube will be profitable, they need to preserve user experience.
• Blackbox Republic raised million in funding for a sex positive social network – Jason doesn’t think it will work.
• National Institute of Health wants health experts to update Wikipedia – do you think this will make Wikipedia a place to go for health information? The internet is the place to start and then you go to a Doctor and fact check.

Dead Pool: (1:42)

• The Printed Blog
  • A compilation may have been a better idea.
  • Blogs are too diverse to narrow down to print, unless you focus on one topic area.

Notable Quotes:

• (26 min) Loren, Persistence, don’t forget you are going to get a lot of no’s so every no you get is one closer to a yes.
• (46 min) Jason, In the early stages Angel investors in the first round, VC’s call it they want the juicy white meat they want to be the first person to the turkey, they want to be the first person to the chicken, they want the low valuation they want to get a nice 20, 30, 40% slice of that pie so that when you raise subsequent rounds they’ve already got 30% of the company a million bucks, 3 million bucks, or 500,000 whatever they got, so the next guy who comes along who wants 5% has to pay 5 million or 2 million or 1 million to get a smaller piece of the pie.
• (1:48) Jason, Dear stupid people of the world, do not trust any information you find on the internet, any information you find in the library and newspaper when it comes to life and death decisions if somebody in your family is sick or you’re sick go to the emergency room do not look for the solution to your swine flu on the interwebs, go to the doctors if you feel sick, it’s not the end of the world, there are walk-in clinics that cost what 50 bucks? What is the problem with the stupid people of the world who refuse to go to the Doctor.

Homework:

• No homework this week

Tech Crunch Ticket:

• Pete Jimison
• robertrasmussen

Full Tilt / Mahalo gift package:

• cherman_follow
• theHunterOwens

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy

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