A VC - Latest Comments in Just Try It Out

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:48:31 -0000

Start small, get funding, build it out later

Re: Just Try It Out

Lancelot_dL — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:42:09 -0000

Twitter, it seems to me, was a prototype only in the sense of the back-end. The front-end meanwhile has remained relatively unaltered (feature-wise).

Think of a website which requires scale before some of its key features can be enabled. When simply looking at the website people wouldn't be able to guess the features which might be added, (or they would have done it themselves). Just as in the airplane prototype example, they might think it's only for short people, not understanding the next steps.
A possible example might be Amazon.

Given such a situation, how then should one write that email to you, and make sure the website doesn't confuse more than help in seeing the vision?

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:06:35 -0000

Wow. That is great news

Re: Just Try It Out

David Semeria — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:32:16 -0000

What a timely comment Fred. I had originally eschewed the notion of public funding for my explicitly commercial project - on the basis that it was, well, just a bit cheeky. After all, Google wasn't funded this way.

But only today I had a great conversation with a lovely lady in that hot-bed of tech innovation that is the Milan Chamber of Commerce. To my immense surprise, she understood immediately why a project could be 'too big for seed and too early for VC'.

Clearly, it's still early days, but all I can say that if things do eventually work out, the Milan Chamber of Commerce will get a lot more than their money back from me.

It's definitely true: you do learn something new every day.

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:07:35 -0000

This is an area where the sbic model (a little equity plus govt leverage) is a good solution

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:05:16 -0000

I would argue that twitter was a prototype that they decided to launch publicly and fix/scale along the way

That approach almost killed them but worked in the end

Rails and other 'agile' languages are great for building working prototypes

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:05:13 -0000

I don't know the answer but the engagement model is different than flickr or tumblr. It is more of a real time thing

Re: Just Try It Out

Dasher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:13:02 -0000

It probably needs an easier name?

Re: Just Try It Out

Dasher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:03:57 -0000

If your product need a partner website to be implemented, then you probably have a partner you implemented it with. You can show that to inverstors. If not, how do you know if you solve the users' problem?

Re: Just Try It Out

David Semeria — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:40:16 -0000

Sure, I emphasized this was not a failing on the part of VCs. I just see a gap in the funding market for explicitly commercial (ie. not pure research) projects which require more capital (and therefore risk) than most early stage investors are willing to assume.

Re: Just Try It Out

Mark Essel — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:02:55 -0000

Great question Lancelot. I think in the case you bring up, instead of a model airplane the "prototype" may need to be a simulation or demo of the final vision.

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:52:12 -0000

I agree David. The kind of investment you yearn for is hard, too hard for me to do well

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:51:12 -0000

Agreed

Re: Just Try It Out

fredwilson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:50:23 -0000

I think your way is a great way to design software

Re: Just Try It Out

ShanaC — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:21:51 -0000

While generally I would agree with you, and in general I agree with this, there are certain ideas, including ideas that you propose, that in order to make huge evolutionary leaps, it would be very hard to get beyond wireframing or some sort of similar business plan without cash backing.

At some point, we're going to have to face the music that there is only so much we can do via Social Networking. Certain points of it will work, certain points won't. And facing that sort of music to get to the next stage of the internet, where it's really much more about levering and understanding the network, will require much more investment in the wireframing before one goes into production. At a certain point, software will become the new hardware, and there will only be so much that both enterprise and consumers will stand for. And that means money for a well thought out plan, especially because those two areas are intersecting very quickly. Own the top of the ground if one goes to war, even though it is preferred to avoid it...

(I'm sneaking around parts of the booklist. if you overthink the booklist, you will get worried. Especially Snowcrash, among other sections.)

Re: Just Try It Out

Lancelot_dL — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:24:23 -0000

A question Fred: What happens when one builds a prototype-website to see how users interact with it?

It is still a prototype, but then when people look at it they think of it as the finished product (expecting some small refinements). Say you have a brilliant new idea for an airplane. You build a model airplane and show it can fly, while to build the full plane you need money. People then look at the model airplane and think: that's cute but it's only for very short people.
People can rarely see the vision from a prototype, they only imagine how it will look with some paint on it (and on the web, with millions of users). One needs to explain the vision of the airplane: what its unique way of flying would allow when it's full size. Simply showing the model airplane without enough explanation can be more of an impediment than an aid. Given an example, there are so many ways to generalize it, and people only see the obvious ones.

So if pitching to you or others, how does one show you the model airplane while avoiding the pitfall of people/you seeing the website as the full plane rather than the model airplane?

Re: Just Try It Out

sensidea — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:06:28 -0000

Perfectly said! We've resisted talking to any investor that says 'send me a business plan'. Rather bootstrap and deliver something that can be experienced...and at that point we'll be knocking on your door with a one line email and a link :)

Thanks,
Jaafer

Re: Just Try It Out

LIAD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:45:59 -0000

You said you got a good feel for the service, but didnt say if you liked it or not...

Do you subscribe to the "only backing one horse in a race" theory which I've heard other VC's talk a lot about or would/have you invested in companies which are similar/competing with existing ones in your portfolio?

Re: Just Try It Out

darwinw — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:45:18 -0000

I just braced up some courage and send you an email to "try out" my web service at http://www.tripntale.com

Re: Just Try It Out

CollegeHippo — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:15:28 -0000

I am glad Fred you like actual service instead of revenue projections and 20 page business plan. One of my friends advised me to hire someone else to write business plan for my product which I think is not a sensible idea.
I am completing the launch of my site and want tit to be ready in a state where it can speak for itself instead of a business plan. The home page should tell the story. It the user cannot understand your product or service from home page , then one cannot explain that to investors in one page.

Re: Just Try It Out

Julien — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:08:29 -0000

I agree with the fact that a demo is always better than any pitch. However, it's not always very easy. I°'d be curious to know how an API only service (say, like GNIP) would demo it to you? Showing up demo of people using this API? How did 10Gen pitch you for example?

Re: Just Try It Out

reece — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:01:54 -0000

Don't try to put together more than 2-3 pages! Remember...
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exuper

Re: Just Try It Out

jayfallon — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:55:14 -0000

I like DailyBooth. In about twenty minutes I was able to create, upload my avatar (Gravatar anyone?) and I recreated a blog post that took me over an hour to do with Posterous. If I could post directly to Twitter/Fb/Others and import my f/f from Twitter, I'd be even happier. The mechanics are a little confusing but the end result was better that I expected.

End result: yeah, I didn't have to listen to some hype about what makes them different from Twitter and they gained a user's user within minutes. A Fred Wilson endorsement helps, but I've done the same for other suggested apps and I wouldn't bother using/recommending them after a quick use case.

Re: Just Try It Out

Chuck Teller — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:53:54 -0000

Amen .... a great demo beats a static slide deck everyday. Whether it is sent via an email or as part of a meeting. Show me the product. What I do is prepare the slide deck for the prospect and send it after the meeting or just as a backup. The deck is the back up material ... not the show. I have been doing it this way since the mid '90's when I had a analytic application company. Show me how your product solves my business (or personal) needs and we are 90% to a sale.

Re: Just Try It Out

lawrence coburn — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:39:54 -0000

They are early and likely getting bombed with traffic so they may have turned some stuff off, but some obvious things that aren't there yet or not working: 1) sharing on other services / Twitter / FB integration is either broken or not built yet; 2) finding friends is not there yet; 3) no obvious way to toggle between everyone / my friends view; 4) outbound invitations is either poorly integrated or not there yet. Despite these product gaps, my guess is that they are seeing some astonishing engagement numbers to attract such blue chip investors so early.