Guy Kawasaki on Truemors (Was it a $12,000 success of failure?)

Wait, let me get this straight: Truemors is good because anyone can post to thousands of people, and Truemors is no worse than the rest of the blogosphere. This is how it is positive for the world?... You lost me Guy.

Thanks Vince, point noted.

Jeremiah, saying that someone made ass licking homage isn't quite the same as calling him an ass licker, just as making stupid comments doesn't necessarily mean someone is stupid.;-)

I agree that the screen movement is distracting.

Honesty is good, David. It's one of those things where you have a new situation, "So, they're talking about money, what do I have in royalty free backgrounds tha might go here"- you go to the vault and pull something out and put it in there. Before too long, it's 8:30 Friday night- and you say "Guess that looks good! *grinning and whincing*- Ya wrap up and split know it's at the least, OK.

:-)

Rocky-

Green screen work was distracting.

And a little cheesy, if i'm honest :-)

Guy

What you did for 12k is amazing. Corporate web budgets at previous companies I've worked at swallow that in a day with a tenth of the buzz that you got.

But of course, with you being a celebrity, people pay attention to anything you do. If I launched Truemors, it would get a whole lot less buzz.

Rocky (using Frank Wright)

You're a kick ass editor, and even a better professional for listening to what your customers are saying and making adjustments. You're like editor 2.0 or something, heh!

For those of you who don't know Rocky, he was applauded by the Scoble fans for shortening down Robert's videos to quick bite summary videos, he's got skills.

Joe and Lionel-

I appreciate the constructive criticism of my green screening- I also agree it was a bit over the top- but I really did have fun with it-

I'll zero in on the right formula before too long!
:-)

Rocky-
stupid wordpress has me blocked so I had to use another name

Joe,

I'm sorry to report that the experimental aspects of Truemors is secondary, if not lower. I truly do believe that this it is a viable, money-making idea. I may be wrong, but I'm not so rich as to try $12,000 experiments for the heckuva it.

Guy

Jeremiah:

Good interview... Guy talks about some fundamental issues that all companies will face when they take a chance on new tools. No amount of research will guarantee that any web app will succeed or fail. It's a scary reality, but it's one that companies will have to face--some tools will take off, some won't.

When we launched IdeaStorm, we knew there were risks, but thought it was a good idea, especially at a time when Dell as a company was looking to open things up. We've been fortunate with the positive reception it received from bloggers, but we realize that some things will fail. Also, it's clear that the long-term success of IdeaStorm ultimately depends on how effectively Dell implements customer ideas to improve the company. Without that commitment, the best Web 2.0 tools will always fail.

In the end, I think companies who figure out how to combine Web 2.0 applications in innovative ways will have a distinct advantages over companies that don't take risks. Opening up unfiltered communication with customers makes a difference, and will probably become even more important in the future.

I have to say I wasn't a fan of the green screen effects either. Agree wth Joe that all the movement was distracting as well. Less animation and more subtle logos would improve things overall.

That said, I applaud PodTech for taking some risks. :)

Thanks,
Lionel
http://www.direct2dell.com

Joe thanks

I'll make sure the right folks see this. We're listening.

Jeremiah,

Thanks for posting the video.

The interview was pretty interesting, and I think I understand a bit more why Guy launched this business.

My theory is that he wanted to illustrate the simplicity of launching an online business in the Web 2.0 era, and wasn't that concerned with the actual idea or business model. To me, that is the only thing that makes sense, because clearly Guy is a smart guy and clearly Truemors is not much of a business.

As for the effects in the video, I think they were a bit too much. I found all of the movement during the video to be distracting from the interview.

I do think with some tweaking of the effects you guys will be churning out some really high quality productions -- keep up the great work!

Joe