

Are You a Seesmic or Balsamiq Entrepreneur? - bbuffone
http://www.bitsandbuzz.com/article/are-you-a-seesmic-or-balsamiq-entrepreneur/

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axod
Seesmic is just a plain terrible idea though. Growth first, profit after is a
great proven model which works well, but not if your idea is lame to start
with.

There's no evidence to suggest people want to view slow videos of people
making comments/waffling, rather than reading them. Seesmic traffic barely
registers.

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nickb
Most people don't bother about video comments since most of them are by people
who are promoting themselves and they're also very low on info density. You
can read a paragraph in few seconds and it takes you minutes to get the same
thing from a video comment. Video is perfect for teaching but I don't think
it's great for quick bursts of communication.

I think video comments are going to be irrelevant in the long run. It's
interesting to make a parallel with video phone. Video phone never took off
because people didn't want to be bothered with checking how they look before
they answer a phone. Fixing hair, shaving, etc... why bother with that?

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tptacek
The ROI "upside" to moon-shot companies like Seesmic is deceptive. Yes, the
success stories in the Seesmic bracket are 8-9 figure exits. But the founders
(a) see only a small fraction of that return after preferences and dilution
and (b) are disallowed from pursuing any but the most lucrative conceivable
exits; the rocket is strapped to their back, and it's the moon or bust.

The investment "risk" of bootstrapped companies is also deceptive. If you have
a business model that works, you don't need investment; if you'd benefit from
an investment, you pursue it at your leisure.

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dotcoma
Balsamiq: real.

Seesmic: bullshit.

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emmett
Google is an archetypal "Seesmic" startup. They didn't even start making money
for years. It just happened to work in that case.

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jonknee
Except Google was solving a real problem, Seesmic created the problem that
they solved. Some might find video comments cool, but if they ceased to exist
tomorrow the world wouldn't be much different.

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ntoshev
Sony Walkman also didn't solve any problem people knew they have at the time.
"Solving a problem" is a good approximation of something people want, but it's
not a perfect substitute.

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jonknee
Listening to music has been a fairly established wish for humans for thousands
of years. Video comments on blogs? Not so much. It's less useful than text in
almost all circumstances.

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mahmud
There are also hybrid models. A "market place" startup might introduce
individuals to other individuals or companies to individuals. In this case
there might be a per transaction cost or the startup might charge one party
and not the other.

In this case, the startup might grow horizontally with the freebie crowd and
obtain a large market share, then sell the audience to an interested party for
a fee. That's what my startup is doing :-)

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pclark
I think the term "lifestyle business" scares a lot of startups.

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sachinag
No, it scares investors, as well it should.

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henning
Which is why having outside investors isn't right for everyone. Who needs whom
more?

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ctingom
Definitely a Balsamiq style entrepreneur. I don't even think twice about ideas
that don't have a pricing model. I don't even seem to come up with them in the
first place.

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dpnewman
certainly combos also can include free and premium service.

with scale model -- you better have a landmark vision and the ability to
execute exceptionally well.

