
The Very Strange Story of the Startup That Says It Made $10m Before Launching - chuck_taylor
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/leapfish_advertising_story.php
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a-priori
I have to say: watching that video made me want to grab a broadsword and kill
some Orcs or something.

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teej
That's because it's pretty "inspired" by Hans Zimmer. Compare their video here
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcMK1vPWFM#t=35s>) with Hans' Pirates of the
Caribbean theme (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVmjAM5o1jg>)

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rykov
Amazing - I thought of Hans as well, but a different movie - Gladiator.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFpZPZ_g4Hw#t=2m30s>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvTT29cavKo>

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bravura
This is ingenious. Imagine if you combined their sales technique with a solid
technology!

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brk
This was done in the 90's, but I can't recall the company name. I bought a
handful of keywords that related to my market at the time.

I expect this go-around to end equally badly.

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staunch
I said the exact same thing to someone, and couldn't remember the name of the
company either. It's killing me. Who knows the name of the late 90s company
selling keywords, like "pizza", for millions.

Update: Goto.com is what I was thinking of, I think.

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agbell
They became Yahoo! Search Marketing.

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dot
So people are paying to get listed in a search engine before it even launches.
What a scam.

Reminds me of online directory listing scams that get gullible small
businesses to sign up over the phone.

Also reminds me of the million dollar homepage, for some reason. Probably
because it's pretty clever :)

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JacobAldridge
I don't think they're paying to get listed in the search engine - they're
paying for exclusive rights to Keywords for a year, and with first right of
refusal next year.

Imagine you had exclusivity to a Google keyword like Viagra, Sales, or
Wedding? Crikey that would be worth a lot, so what if, just maybe, Leapfish
get it right and compete with Google? Their argument, which I guess current
customers have bought, is that surely that's worth taking a punt.

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CapitalistCartr
Leapfish can't both compete with Google,and be dependent on Google, which
their current model is. If they get "exclusivity to a Google keyword like
Viagra, Sales, or Wedding" Google will change to fix that problem. Competing
with Google's ownership of keywords on Google's own search engine ain't a
reliable business model. Anything that involves outsmarting Google is a weak
proposition.

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asmosoinio
I'm pretty sure JacobAldridge was using "owning Google keyword" as an example,
and did not mean that you could actually own a Google keyword today by buying
it from Leapfish.

You get exclusivity to a Leapfish keyword, and this might be the equal of
owning a Google keyword if they go big.

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JacobAldridge
That's exactly my point. It's a gamble - how likely is it any of the new
search-based start-ups will overtake Google? - but it could pay off.

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lloydarmbrust
So, their customers are spammers and MLMers then?

