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TWiST Episode 15 Review, Getting Down To Business – MIA

Posted by SRSimko on September 17, 2009 · View Comments 

ToroIn this episode of TWiST, Jason hits the ground running.  Things start-off with a brief but very insightful conversation with Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital.  They talk about whether innovation is dead, how the economy has affected tech. and where we are in their opinion in relation to the recession.

Jason quickly gets down to business with the “Ask Jason” segment fielding 2 question and promptly moves into “Jason’s Shark Tank”.  The pitches in my opinion were weak but with ok ideas.  Roelof who has seen more pitches than we can probably imagine gives some pointer: state your idea briefly, present the problem and move on to the solution.  The only problem during these segments was the audio of  the callers, it was difficult to hear, during one of the calls a mike is placed on the speaker phone which helped out a lot.

At the end of the show Jason asks Roelof, what are his strengths and weakness.  Roelof comments about Jason’s passion and work ethic but worries about his focus at times.  Things promptly wrap up in one hour and I have to say technical difficulties aside this is one of the best shows I have seen.

I do have to apologize this review was created from notes I made while watching live.  I prefer to watch the show twice before making a judgment.  Case in point was when Mike Arrington was on last week I didn’t like him live but after watching a second time I changed my mind.  So if you watch the show and think I am way off base, I apologize Episode 15 seems to be MIA.

Episode 15 Rating: Toro 9

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  • I think you are correct, any business that relies on another business takes a gamble. Some more than others, Facebook and Twitter seem to embrace openness. However, things can change and every business needs to be ready for that day. Just like every company pitching at TC50 needed to be ready if WiFi went down. The analogy is a little apples and oranges but backup plans are necessary.
  • Scott, another great post. I am glad that "Ask Jason" returned this week. It is one of my favorite part of the shows. I thought that the discussion with the gentleman from Toronto regarding his frustrations with the growth of his business's application on the Facebook platform. Jason provided great advice about the need to build relationships with the key people at Facebook so that growth isn't hindered, but also commented on the need to look at distribution beyond.

    Roleof, on the other hand, acknowledged that there are business development challenges with Facebook, but rightfully complimented it on its openness versus predecessors like Yahoo and eBay who did not encourage the growth and development of new applications from the outside.

    Also, like Jason, I am curious about the development of Farmville outside of Facebook. My ten year-old daughter sooooo wants to play with it, but I won't let her bend the rules and lie about her age so she can play with it on Facebook like some of her friends.

    I look forward to today's TWIST. I hopefully will be able to watch in real time!
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