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Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

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Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#41

Post by pace »

mgkimsal wrote: post #36
pace wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody can - spend a lot of time with new products and tech (no achievement) - try them really out (no achievement) - do interviews and they are not fantastic (no achievement) - nowadays build a huge network w/Facebook, G+, LinkedIn (no achievment) It is no achievement to blog while sitting for years at Microsoft doing some wishy-washy corporate job. But it is an achievement to build a startup, get traction and ra…

He hasn't been at Microsoft in years, and has taken positions at 'upstart' type companies or divisions within larger companies (podtech and rackspace spring to mind). His 'blogging from his safe job' involves a fair amount of travel, disruption to routine home/family life, and an insane amount of work that goes in to his productions (hint - he does a lot of video, not just 'text blogging'). All that said, I think he…

Either you start a start-up or you don't -- just being employed by an startup doesn't make you a good advisor for founders -- again Scoble never founded something, he is just blogging while having a safe job.

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#42

Post by mgkimsal »

pace wrote: post #41
mgkimsal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He hasn't been at Microsoft in years, and has taken positions at 'upstart' type companies or divisions within larger companies (podtech and rackspace spring to mind). His 'blogging from his safe job' involves a fair amount of travel, disruption to routine home/family life, and an insane amount of work that goes in to his productions (hint - he does a lot of video, not just 'text blogging'). All that said, I think he…

Either you start a start-up or you don't -- just being employed by an startup doesn't make you a good advisor for founders -- again Scoble never founded something, he is just blogging while having a safe job.

If "founders" are that selective and narrow about who they take advice from, they're going to have much bigger problems down the road.

That accountant they use? Never built a startup.

The lawyer who's managing all their contracts? Never built a startup.

The bankers at Goldman Sachs who's taking them public? Never built a startup.

Yeah - to hell with all of them - they've never been a "founder" so what the fuck would they know about "founding" something, right?

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#43

Post by jeffclark »

coderdude wrote: post #40

Gruber: Tells you to develop apps for iPhone -- doesn't develop apps for iPhone Scoble: Tells you how to create a successful startup -- never even tried Can we start getting some advice from people who actually do this shit for a living?

That's one of the biggest issues with "experts": those that appear "successful" are just the ones that can get the most media.

I'm not suggesting you ignore the media, but put it into perspective: The guys actually creating things don't have time to be writing about creating things on Google+.

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#44

Post by jiggy2011 »

mjbellantoni wrote: post #33
jiggy2011 wrote: post #24

If it doesn't do something with both Facebook and Twitter (with Google+ to come) then you are gonna look lame. Am I the only person who feels slightly bored that about 50% of startups I hear about are basically all about sharing links on social networking websites?

Not at all. Am I the only person who feels that social media is a lot of work with little reward?

I feel that we must have exhausted social media for the time being , how many different ways do we need to share stuff with each other?

Wouldn't it be more interesting to find new stuff that people can do with computers. We have all of these "Post PC" devices now, but to be honest I feel I have yet to see a killer application for them.

From what I remember in the early 2000s these social websites mostly started out as some geeks spare time project to show off their mad php skillz , some of them gained traction and become fulltime businesses some didn't. Now everybody seems to want massive financial backing and rockstar MIT programmers to build them.

I remember using late 90s versions of ICQ which was remarkably ahead of it's time and I'm surprised it never gained more traction although later versions seemed like a regression.

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#45

Post by damoncali »

pace wrote: post #12
revorad wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we listen to him? Because he spends a lot of time looking at new products and technologies. He really tries them out. He does fantastic interviews with founders, often asking quite good questions about the products. He's built a huge network of people who consider him a credible source for new product recommendations. Getting featured by him can be huge for an early stage product. Just because someone is a…

Everybody can - spend a lot of time with new products and tech (no achievement) - try them really out (no achievement) - do interviews and they are not fantastic (no achievement) - nowadays build a huge network w/Facebook, G+, LinkedIn (no achievment) It is no achievement to blog while sitting for years at Microsoft doing some wishy-washy corporate job. But it is an achievement to build a startup, get traction and ra…

Everyone can, but almost nobody does. He's walking encyclopedia when it comes to this sort of thing.

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#46

Post by teamlaft »

nandemo wrote: post #31
david927 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No please do take this as advice on how to get a startup off the ground. There's more here than "Scoble wants polished startups." What he's saying is that many products are similar to other efforts with additional features. That's not going to cut it. Page Rank wasn't a little bit better than existing search engines. It wasn't Yahoo but with feature x,y,z; it was a completely new approach to vetting results. I won't…

I don't know, he doesn't sound like he would've given a damn about PageRank if Sergey and Larry had gone to talk to him back then. He might have dismissed the first version of Google because they didn't index as many pages as the leading search engines. Look at his own example: > Another company tonight that I met showed me a similar app, when I started it up (I do that while you talk to me) it gave me an error. Gone…

re your point: "For all we know that company might have created some revolutionary technology but, who knows, their build system is still crappy and they forgot to change a symlink somewhere?"

if you're prepping for a meeting with such an influential person (regardless of your thoughts about him, his opinion carries weight in tech circles) wouldn't you triple check everything and make sure it's ready to go so you don't blow your one big shot? in that situation people should be prepared and have a backup device ready with the app loaded to shove in his face instead so he could still mes around with it

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#47

Post by mindcrime »

YourAnMoran wrote: post #29
jiggy2011 wrote: post #24

If it doesn't do something with both Facebook and Twitter (with Google+ to come) then you are gonna look lame. Am I the only person who feels slightly bored that about 50% of startups I hear about are basically all about sharing links on social networking websites?

Well I agree. There are billions of bucks to be made in the domains of enterprise and industrial applications, and social network integration is not really a business case there - maybe just a potential security issue. Since when did start-up become synonymous with consumer application start-up?

Since when did start-up become synonymous with consumer application start-up?

If it makes you feel any better, our startup is enterprise focused. Not everybody is focused on just consumer apps.

I don't know about you guys, but I am enticed by the idea of selling something to organizations that generally expect to (and do) spend actual money on products and services. The whole advertising based, or even freemium model, world of consumer apps just doesn't resonate with me. Not saying it doesn't work, obviously it does. Just saying that it doesn't feel like where I personally want to be.

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#48

Post by jiggy2011 »

mindcrime wrote: post #47
YourAnMoran wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I agree. There are billions of bucks to be made in the domains of enterprise and industrial applications, and social network integration is not really a business case there - maybe just a potential security issue. Since when did start-up become synonymous with consumer application start-up?

Since when did start-up become synonymous with consumer application start-up? If it makes you feel any better, our startup is enterprise focused. Not everybody is focused on just consumer apps. I don't know about you guys, but I am enticed by the idea of selling something to organizations that generally expect to (and do) spend actual money on products and services. The whole advertising based, or even freemium model…

Your right, almost all of the consumer apps seem to revolve around ads and harvesting data. Is there not a market for pay-for consumer apps that let people do something interesting with their devices?

Re: Scoble: Why I'm treating startups more critically lately

#50

Post by mindcrime »

JulianMiller520 wrote: post #37

I'm reminded of a scene in the now-defunct "Playmakers" TV series. It entails a football player mouthing off to an aide who then bets the player that he can get the ball further down the field than the arrogant player. The player takes the bet and launches the ball a solid distance down the field. The aide waits for a maintenance cart to drive past. He tosses the ball into the back of the cart and watches as it rolls…

The player takes the bet and launches the ball a solid distance down the field. The aide waits for a maintenance cart to drive past. He tosses the ball into the back of the cart and watches as it rolls past the player's ball.

There's a similar sequence in the movie "Tin Cup" where two golfers make a bet about who can hit a ball the farthest. One hits his ball actually onto the golf course where lands in some grass, rolls a foot or two and stops. The other guy hits his ball onto the highway where it lands on the asphalt and rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls...

The player assumed that winning the game depended on his arm alone when the truth was many things had to align with that arm to win games. The vantage point from the turf isn't the only one.

Indeed. Having something like that to break one out of one's tunnel vision and preconceived notions can be a powerful thing.

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