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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

#61

Post by coderdude »

danielamitay wrote: post #57
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.

I do not take seriously critique by anyone who judges something they can't (or don't) do themselves. Even Roger Ebert is at least a screenwriter as well as a film critic.

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

#63

Post by tokenadult »

david927 wrote: post #34
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…

he doesn't sound like he would given a damn about PageRank He wouldn't have. If probably wouldn't have -- if they pitched the idea but the site wasn't working. But the first time I used Google I said, "Wow! This is vastly superior to anything else." If I understand him correctly, he's not saying, "Don't launch until it's perfect." He's saying, "Differentiate yourself." He can't see that if your site doesn't work or i…

But the first time I used Google I said, "Wow! This is vastly superior to anything else."

That was exactly my experience. I first became curious about Google because it was spidering my personal website, well before when Google became the name of the project. By tracing back where the Web spider came from, I tried out searches, and by the time Google was Google, I was recommending it to all my friends as much superior to AltaVista (the king of the hill in search in those days), and all the more superior to the also-rans in search. Being substantially better at something is what every startup needs to achieve.

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

#64

Post by jroseattle »

Scoble is the TMZ of the tech industry. I view him largely in the same sense as paparazzi. He has a video camera and a bunch of followers, but little in the way of substance.

His past proclamations, i.e. Google Gears will kill MS Office, Google Chrome OS has already won, put him on very shaky ground with me from a credibility standpoint. That said, I don't discount all future comments from the guy.

In this post, he does offer up some sound advice: clear use case, compelling product -- but really, if you're in the business this shouldn't be news to you anyway.

Unfortunately, one is forced to look past the short-sighted, the mis-aligned or the presumptive to find any take-away value. Focus on a use-case, but make sure the app works for everybody? Magical applications are those where people make comments right away? Without Facebook or Twitter integration, your app is lame? The narrow-minded-ness of these comments simply reflect Robert's lack of scope on the world.

The fact that he's arriving at these conclusions now shows more about his thought process than anything else.

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

#65

Post by mikedougherty »

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?

Hopefully they're all too busy making stuff to bother blogging about it.

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

#67

Post by flipside »

coderdude wrote: post #61
danielamitay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do not take seriously critique by anyone who judges something they can't (or don't) do themselves. Even Roger Ebert is at least a screenwriter as well as a film critic.

Just because somebody doesn't do what you're doing doesn't mean they can't be right. Good advice is good advice, whoever says it.

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

#68

Post by funkah »

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?

I'm not sure what you mean about Gruber, he doesn't really do advocacy like that. Sure he thinks the iPhone is really great and all, but I don't see him telling people to develop for it. They already are, he doesn't need to.

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

#69

Post by DeanCollinsLCC »

Every shitty startup can get press??? I'd like to know how??

I'd love to get an article on Techcrunch for our startup http://www.LiveFanChat.com

So far we've had articles for http://www.LiveBaseballChat.com / http://www.LiveFootballChat.com and / http://www.LiveNascarChat.com in fan blogs etc but Techcrunch etc have never responded to any of our emails.

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