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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

#51

Post by nandemo »

teamlaft wrote: post #46
nandemo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well, I'm basically agreeing with drusenko. Scoble's advice applies to people who want to pitch him, not necessarily to startups in general, and especially not early stage startups.

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

#52

Post by tfb »

jeffclark wrote: post #43
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+.

Bingo. And we occasionally upvote comments such as this one when we're reading aggregated articles during short breaks between long development sessions so we can learn how to better approach entrepreneurship. :)

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

#53

Post by frou_dh »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #48
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I buy plenty of paid apps from the App Store that have no ads. I don't think that market has ever been better.

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

#54

Post by rokhayakebe »

praptak wrote: post #22

"Instagram? I had five comments within two minutes (and that was back when there was only 80 users on it)." Take note: ask your friends back at the HQ to pose as enthusiastic users while you're pitching your next app :)

Better yet, just Mechanical_Turk it. 2 cents per comment.

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

#55

Post by AznHisoka »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #48
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Actually I don't think there is. Consumers have gotten used to free, and 50% daily deals... The only way to make a profitable consumer business is to make the consumers the products themselves. This is with apps though, with hardware it's different obviously. There are some exceptions like Photoshop, and operating systems... but by and large, it's hard

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

#56

Post by adestefan »

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?

Scoble isn't telling you how to create a successful startup. He's telling you how to create something that he'll use and in turn hype and recommend. If that's what you want, then listen to his advice. Otherwise, just forget it.

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

#57

Post by danielamitay »

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?

Although I agree with the sentiment, this is a logical fallacy. Does an art critic need to be an artist themselves to be taken seriously?

Robert isn't telling us what makes a great company, he's telling us what has become a minimum standard.

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

#58

Post by coderdude »

adestefan wrote: post #56
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?

Scoble isn't telling you how to create a successful startup. He's telling you how to create something that he'll use and in turn hype and recommend. If that's what you want, then listen to his advice. Otherwise, just forget it.

He is telling you how to create a successful startup (see: the ordered list under "Some advice:"). He just also sprinkles in little hints on how to wow him personally. He talks about how he scolds CEOs/entrepreneurs because he doesn't agree with how they're doing things or what they think will make them succeed. Yet he can only speculate on what might make you succeed.

That's the same as Darren Rowse (problogger.net) not having a blog and never having blogged before but still giving you advice on how to become a pro blogger.

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

#59

Post by DeanCollinsLCC »

pace wrote: post #49

My thoughts to his post consolidated: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3243330

lol at Scoble was and always will be a blogger. he can still deliver a ton of traffic...and even better with his experience deliver a critical eye over what you've built.

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

#60

Post by DeanCollinsLCC »

i respect what he is saying that we have moved on from myspace and pets.com etc so you need to be more advanced.

it's still hard though to get from good through the iterations to great.

I've been working with my co-founders on LiveFanChat for about 12 months now eg http://www.LiveFootballChat.com - http://www.LiveNascarChat.com etc

We have a good userbase but something is still missing to "strike lightning".

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