Guy Kawasaki on how he built Truemors for $12,107.09

http://www.slideshare.net/GKawasaki/how-i-built-a-web-20-usergenerated-content-citizen-journalism-longtail-social-media-site-for-1210709

by wird • 18 years ago

14 24 18 years ago

slideshare.net

Jasber• 18 years ago

I've always like reading Guy's material. He often has very thoughtful pieces with plenty of actionable advice.

That being said I'm not impressed with either of his 2 most recent startups, truemors.com and alltop.com.

I'm not sure if its the idea or the implementation--but neither jump out at me as significant. I guess I expect more from Guy considering he's a world-known VC/author/blogger.

feverishaaron• 18 years ago

As much as I like Guy, I don't think Truemors or Alltop would have received as much attention as they have if they were built/marketed by anyone that didn't already have Guy's stature.

In other words, I wouldn't rely too heavily on these sites when considering "best practices" scenarios.

petercooper2• 18 years ago

As much as you might not be keen on the guy, he proves that good implementation is more important than revolutionary ideas. Neither Truemors or Alltop are really ground breaking in what they're trying to do, but their implementations are pretty good.

redorb• 18 years ago

The 2nd slide that dropped the line

"How I built a web 2.0, user generated content, citizen journalism, long-tail, social media site for $12k"

made me want to vomit, all I see is How I Buzzword, buzzword, buzzword..

steveplace• 18 years ago

Pretty sure he was lampooning that point.

vaksel• 18 years ago

needs more buzzwords or it won't sell

SingAlong• 18 years ago

If you connect the bad facts, you'll find that they had to go thru a bad patch too.

Site hacked in 3 hours of launch

Yahoo recommends not to use its hosting after 36 hours

Labeled 'the worst website ever' after 2 days

petercooper2• 18 years ago

It happens. Remember Cuil?

sabat2• 18 years ago

Step 1: Be Guy Kawasaki

Step 2: Spend about $10,000 more than you need to because you're already independently wealthy through non-startup means (read: AAPL)

Step 3: Get much more attention for your startup than most people would because you're Guy Kawasaki

Step 4: Sell as soon as it's feasible

Step 5: Profit

frisco2• 18 years ago

What? That's not a legitimate PROFIT strategy. You missed a vital step.

sabat2• 18 years ago

You're right, I left out this:

Step 6: ???

Step 7: Profit! (Again)

patio11• 18 years ago

I considered writing a counter-point to this on my blog, which is about actually starting a business on a shoestring. ($60 budget, ho!) However, I realized that I have users, revenues, and profits and thus my business bears about as much resemblance to Truemors as it does to fried jellyfish on a stick.

graemep• 18 years ago

Has there been any indication of how much he sold it for.

Looking at the Alexa, Compete and Quantcast all seem to show that the Truemors never got much traffic and generates a tiny proportion of what Now Public traffic now. Why is it worth anything?

Even better, if he did get a decent price, can someone tell me how to get a buyer to value my site using the same metrics? I thought not.

jsdalton• 18 years ago

Not to be rude or anything, but what exactly is Truemors now? I guess it got acquired, because when you visit the URL you get redirected here.

http://truemors.nowpublic.com/

A cursory review of the content shows a moderate number of submissions, extremely light "interest" (e.g. the number one "greatest" truemor has 5 "interested" points -- maybe I don't understand what that means?) and almost zero participation in the way of comments.

So some company overpaid him for what appears to be an extremely lackluster product? Is there more to it than this? Because if not, this falls in the same category of Ethan Hawke giving a presentation called "How I Got My Novel Published and You Can Too" -- i.e. useless.

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

It never had many customers. You could pretty much upload a picture of your next bowel movement, create a login system, if you had the PR machine that is Guy Kawasaki behind it, get at least 80% as many users as Truemors.

bhiggins• 18 years ago

Guy got robbed

helveticaman• 18 years ago

Yaw, $399 for a logo is insane. I'd have made it another of those things that you skimp on to brag about.

jhancock• 18 years ago

software dev - $4500, legal fees - $4824.

Even on a shoestring budget, the lawyers get half.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

I could have built it for "only" nothing.

AndrewWarner2• 18 years ago

Why so many haters? We're entrepreneurs. Let's study what Guy did well and learn from it. If he's willing to be open with his numbers, I want to learn as much as I can from it, don't you? And if the big lesson is that building a personal brand helps launch a site, let's do it.

1gor• 18 years ago

Why? He increased noise.

Another meritless product wrapped in buzzwords competing for attention in the space that others have created.

He has acted as an entrepreneurial spammer.

AndrewWarner2• 18 years ago

IMHO every entrepreneur who takes a shot should be praised.

TheBosch• 18 years ago

Does anyone know what he meant by "55 domains to 'surround' truemors.com" ?

Guy Kawasaki on how he built Truemors for $12,107.09

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