
The One-Person Product - mh_
http://www.marco.org/2013/05/20/one-person-product
======
stevenj
I know very little about David Karp. But after reading this, I'm a bit
surprised that he decided to sell Tumblr.

The way Marco talks about David's disinterest in money, and his singular
obsession with Tumblr, made me think he wouldn't even consider selling it to
someone else.

I'd be curious to hear his reasons for selling, as oppose to doing a strategic
investment like Facebook did with Microsoft at one point.

~~~
imjk
I think that's actually the point of the piece: David is so focused on product
that he doesn't want to deal with things like operations or revenue that the
deal makes sense. Yahoo will take care of those things, and David can focus on
the only thing he cares about, product.

~~~
joelrunyon
This seems disingenuous to me. A key part of creating a great "product" is
that it continues to support itself. Having a great product without having
some sort of a revenue stream isn't being hyper-focused - it's being
negligent.

Congrats to David on everything, but it seems very odd to try & separate
"product" from the revenue that it should generate if it's going to be a
business.

~~~
manmal
Call it "features and experience", then, not "product".

~~~
roc
"features and experience" are still contingent, in a very large way, on how
the business runs.

e.g. ad-driven vs freemium vs subscription, quantity and types of advertising,
etc.

Focusing on making the best product/"features and experience" without paying
(enough) attention to how it's supposed to make money to sustain itself and
fit into the world at large, is exactly how NeXT wound up with fantastic
computers and software that no-one bought.

~~~
manmal
That's what he has Yahoo's executives for, right? In a big company you need
not one, but many voices/advocates of different disciplines. His role is
important, because else they end up with a steaming pile of marketing gags
with no awesome product to make up for them. I would also not call Ad-
Driven/Freemium/Subscription mode "features and experience". Yes, this can
make or break the user experience - well if it would, then David would stop
them.

~~~
roc
You can't argue it both ways. He either still has power over what the suits
come up with for revenue, and thus hasn't actually abdicated any
responsibilities at all (just given some biz dev guys a little more autonomy)
or he _has_ given up those responsibilities and the day the suits press
forward with an experience-damaging move he doesn't like, he will discover he
doesn't _actually_ have full control over his product's features/experience.

e.g. if they say "tumblr's going freemium" the follow-on questions of "how do
we differentiate the experience of free vs paid and how do we communicate the
value of the upgrade?" are experience questions that need to be answered and
designed in a holistic and considered manner. [1]

[1] And that's why I say those modes are absolutely part of 'features and
experience'. Flickr just switched between two fairly-similar freemium models
and we power-geeks had a hundreds of comments debate over whether the
experience/value jived with the offering and/or was communicated cleanly.

------
famousactress
Curious: What does the day-and-night-iPhone reference mean?

[Edit: Genuine thanks for the explanation everyone, but boy am I sorry I
asked.]

~~~
seiji
_“I have two iPhones, one for day and one for the night. When the day phone
runs out, the night phone takes over. I never have to worry.”_

It's an advanced Self-Important Internet Dude move. Best not imitated by
amateurs.

~~~
vinceguidry
Why is this comment thread on top?

~~~
pvnick
Because people thought it was helpful. Perhaps you should apply to the content
police academy.

------
clamprecht
The post says he won't make "yacht-and-helicopter money"... I think
helicopters are cheaper than he thinks. On a billion-dollar acquisition, I
can't imagine the near-cofounder having less than 1% (hopefully quite a bit
more). This means at least $10M, which should be plenty for a helicopter.
Maybe I'm reading his comment too literally.

~~~
ismarc
For a helicopter, you need a hangar, a pilot, regular maintenance, insurance,
fuel/oil as well as membership/pad fees if you actually want to fly anywhere
besides airports. You could do a small helicopter for $200,000-$400,000 and
then about $30,000-$40,000 a year in recurring costs before pilot, fuel and
oil. You can expect $300-$400 per hour of flight time. If the 10 million is
invested and has a return of 4% annually, the helicopter will cost 10% of the
max you can pull out without depleting principle. That also doesn't include
loan payments if you didn't buy the helicopter outright.

So, helicopter money is a lot higher than it looks.

~~~
crucialfelix
"if it flies, floats or fornicates, in the long run its cheaper to rent it"

~~~
jjs
... but if it does all three, put a ring on it!

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mkoble11
_David pushed me to do amazing work that I didn’t think was possible._

A quality of a great leader.

Phenomenal post, thanks so much for sharing this.

~~~
z-factor
> A quality of a great leader.

That or exaggeration.

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jph
Congratulations Marco, to you and your team. Your writeup is great to read--
the history and growth of Tumblr firsthand. I'm excited to see what you all
build.

~~~
ihuman
Marco left Tumblr a while ago to work on Instapaper.

~~~
nhangen
apparently the parent didn't read the article.

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webwanderings
$6.2 million

[http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/inside-yahoos-tumblr-
dea...](http://business.time.com/2013/05/21/inside-yahoos-tumblr-deal-heres-
who-hit-the-billion-dollar-jackpot/)

------
sergiotapia
I like reading this guys blog, it's well written and weaves a nice story to
follow almost always.

It's a shame a lot of the Tumblr crowd are like this:

<http://www.reddit.com/r/tumblrinaction>

The technology seems great and simple to use.

~~~
guelo
That actually makes me more wary of reddit than tumblr. For others, the
llinked-to reddit seems to be mostly about laughing at and sometimes harassing
people on tumblr that have pride in alternative lifestyles or viewpoints.

~~~
rmc
Yes this seems like one of the anti-feminist 'men's rights activists' type
subreddits.

~~~
nawitus
Why do you have men's rights activists in quotes?

~~~
rmc
er, bracketing that I forgot to finish. I originally meant to write: anti-
feminist/'men's rights activist'

------
mikecane
>>>Even though Tumblr was never a one-person company, it usually felt like a
one-person product.

That.

I didn't stay with Tumblr long -- the limitations eventually got to me -- but
I always had the sense this was a product with a personality behind it, not a
committee.

------
paul9290
I'm pretty sure Karp announced their funding at the Nov. 2007 New York Tech
Meetup, if I recall correctly.

That was a darn awesome Tech Meetup (presented my 1st thing there & Marco
graciously took pictures of the event, some of me presenting too; thanks
Marco) as there were only two unknown start-ups presenting that night amongst
giants.

Congrats to them!

------
wprl
I'm always happy for other coders who are successful but comparing David to
Steve Jobs is a wee bit grandiose.

------
jhonovich
"David would come in with a grand new feature idea, and I’d tell him which
parts were infeasible or impossible, which tricky conditions and edge cases
we’d need to consider, and which other little niceties and implementation
details we should add."

David was the lead developer or?

~~~
random42
Idea/product guy.

~~~
prawn
Visionary. Steering the ship the right way (as it turned out).

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Scramblejams
"Acquisitions on this scale usually work well." I don't know what planet
Marco's on -- despite his citation of Youtube, acquisitions hardly ever work
well, let alone on this scale.

But he does have a habit of writing things with a straight face that other
people never would.

------
Sealy
An inspiring story written in a humble perspective. A story of keeping focus
in the face of funding problems that are all too common in early startups.

It reminds me of the Facebook story where some of the early founders wanted to
introduce advertising very early on.

------
mig39
Classic: "I won’t be switching to dedicated day and night iPhones." hahah!

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notlisted
Lovely article. Glad to have read it. Suspect Marco is a little modest about
his contribution, but great to hear he came out ahead, and then some.

Truly hope Tumblr can maintain its independence from the Yahoo hive
mind/wholesome image, just like Conde Nast has let Reddit's less-than-family-
friendly stuff thrive (smartest decision ever).

Despite all that, the $1B valuation is batshit, not unlike the housing market
in NYC these days ($1.6MM for his Brooklyn one bedroom?) I'm glad to be
escaping the clutched of NYC in several weeks from now. A yard!

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bestoftimes
Congrats Marco. You rock and deserve it.

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rodolphoarruda
Congratulations, Marco! Well done! And thanks for sharing the story. Very
inspiring, at least for me, at the moment I'm living now.

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pasbesoin
I still have my doubts, on more than one front, but that was definitely an
interesting and worthwhile read. I haven't been part of the Tumblr community
-- rather just seeing individual items when they are cited elsewhere -- so
this provides a bit of perspective especially as to its genesis.

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smartial_arts
Is it just me or it looks like another Instagram/Facebook deal? For sure, they
got great payouts, although it seems more like a lottery to me - how many of
those swinging for the fences actually manage to do that?

And was tumblr ever profitable?

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lifeisstillgood
Nice to peak behind the curtains - thank you.

Edit: deleted unnecessary commentary

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rayvinly
Flickr looks pretty good now. I think charging more for power users will work
out pretty well for Flickr. So I hope Tumblr will be similar.

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Edmond
well said... stay smart, you'll live a good life:)

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anon808
Marco makes a lot of Steve Jobs comparisons in the write up, genuinely
curious, did he work with Steve Jobs?

~~~
billforsternz
No, he did not. If you listen to his podcasts Marco's career is an open book.
Basically, college -> unremarkable first job -> Tumblr employee nbr 2 ->
Instapaper -> The Magazine.

~~~
epochwolf
While making money on doing podcasts and a blog on the side.

~~~
billforsternz
Yes but they are predicated on his successful career.

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cliftonk
Congrats to all the folks at Tumblr

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Aco-
Well I guess that answers how marco is doing RE: post acquisition

