This post may serve to show that I am both (i) late to the party and (ii) inconsistent. When asked I will not hesitate to say that internet video bores me, and yet here I am posting two that I found terrific.
I am late to the party because the first one comes of out SXSW, a whole two months back. Apparently there was a spoof business plan competition panel there where people competed for the coveted prize of “worst website ever”. (Side note: I would have nominated AOL at basically any time since about 1994 and will vigorously defend that position, while acknowledging that it also cost me the chance to make a bunch of money in the 1990s.) The video is great because the guy spends five minutes explaining a business without ever actually saying what it does, and I’ve seen people do the same thing in real life too.
The second video comes courtesy of Brad Feld’s blog and lists numerous people who either failed miserably several times or were doomed to failure by teachers and others, and then went on to be extremely successful. It’s a useful reminder that life goes up and down- there is no linear path to success.
VentureBeat linked to a really clever video parody of the current web scene, linked below. I watched the whole thing, which is rare for me. The thing that is driving me crazy, though, is that I can almost, but not quite, place the tune to which the lyrics are set. If anyone can help me out please put a note in the comments.
Update: about 20 second after posting this I figured it out. The tune is Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire. I feel much better now.
I wrote a case study on Wallstrip that has just been published on Startup Review. Wallstrip is a really interesting little “test balloon” for what can be done with online video. Producer Adam Elend is also one of the brightest, most web-savvy guys anyone could hope to meet. His theme about “putting content where the audience is” is one of those things that sounds so elementary that once you’ve heard it you don’t understand why people aren’t constantly repeating it every day, all the time. The trick is that the simple phrase belies the difficulty of doing that properly.
To me, both of these efforts seemed like weak attempts to think outside the music distribution box. Yes, consumers are in Starbucks and they read the newspaper, but getting to them requires a bit more than just putting the music in front of them. These efforts lack authenticity, somehow- they seem like clumsy publicity stunts. Wallstrip’s genius is in being candid about foisting product on you, but being open enough, and entertaining enough in the process that lots of people don’t mind the pitch.
Intimacy, authenticity and getting to the audiences where they already live on the web- Adam’s insightful blog piece covers it all.
This week I published my second case study on Startup Review. A short summary of the study is below. Startup Review’s founder, Nisan Gabbay, is a great guy who came up with a brilliant idea to analyze successful internet companies and accumulate a library of strategies, tips and tricks other entrepreneurs can use. I am pleased to have been named a co-author on the blog and I am working on a new batch of studies now.
Jumpcut Case Study Excerpt Jumpcut is an online community for video creators. Jumpcut provides free video editing tools that let consumers upload short video segments and edit them online to add music and effects. Its Flash-based tools attracted immediate attention in the blogosphere and from consumers, resulting in the company’s acquisition by Yahoo! approximately six months after launch.
Because of its short operating history, Jumpcut makes an interesting study of the launch phase of a business without considering subsequent growth. The company (the business’s legal name was MiraVida Media, Inc. prior to the acquisition) worked very quickly to develop its product and build a team, and was then acquired before the product had time to make more than an early dent in the market.