Defiance of the "Venture Capital" Model [video] - Panel with Guy Kawasaki, Fark, Hi5, Suicide Girls, HotOrNot

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/02/panel_of_web_co.html

by danw • 19 years ago

35 11 19 years ago

blog.guykawasaki.com

jwecker2• 19 years ago

Marked up the article because it's hilarious, but honestly I don't know what I'm getting out of it. It's a panel of 6 people who won the lottery [meaning, in Paul's nomenclature, only 1 or 2 were actually trying to actually build wealth or solve a difficult problem]. Well, there is a lesson- be responsive to your audience, and when they start coming in droves do what they want, and then sell advertising.

danw• 19 years ago

Yeh I posted it mostly for the laughs. Its great to see that they've all become succesful by doing what they enjoy. Theres so many great quotes in this video, too many to post them all here.

"So it all got started when a friend emailed me a picture of a squirrel with giant nuts.."

"I knew it had taken off when my dad was addicted to hotornot"

"We were just two geeks who wanted to meet hot chicks"

jwecker2• 19 years ago

I love how the first 18 months of fark's existence consisted of that picture of the squirrel with giant nuts.

pg2• 19 years ago

I think these guys are more serious than they seem. I know James Hong is. You may hit something good by accident, but you don't keep it by accident.

danielha2• 19 years ago

It may seem that their ideas were initially as innocuous as they come, but that's probably not the whole of it.

YouTube's Chad and Steve say that they just wanted to create a cool site where you can share videos like Flickr users share their photos. I think it was in the Time article that the low-key third founder noted that it was pretty much in the plans all along to come up with a startup venture for mass proliferation. They achieved just that!

A great idea may bring light to a good business plan, but we shouldn't forget that there are cases where a good idea is born out of a great, focused business goal.

immad• 19 years ago

I personally found the video really interesting and it was hilarious too. Following things i liked particularly:

1.Although they seemed to stumble on success by accident it was there adaptability that made that possible, and its not like they just sat still and got lucky (well maybe fark was pure luck :) ). Also other people in there position may not have been able to capitalise on their success, so its interesting to hear how they did that and continue to do so. 2. The comment from Max Levchin in the 50th minute about the fabric of viral mediums was very interesting. Interesting to consider how the internet world is getting more viral and how you can tap into that.

pg2• 19 years ago

danielha2• 19 years ago

I'm a huge fan of anything that Kawasaki says -- not necessarily for its literal content (though he usually says some good stuff) -- but because he always conveys his message beautifully.

Great video and very funny. I planned on being at CommunityNext, which was just this past Saturday I think, but I couldn't make it. This turned out to be one of the better panels I've watched and, fortunately for me, I missed out being in the audience!

Did anyone here happen to attend? If so, what other great stuff did I miss?

michelle• 19 years ago

The best ideas come from people who build applications out of passion or they saw a need. A lot of these sites did not begin with the intention of making money or with a business goal in mind. I think people who build with the intention of making money in mind - lose because it's no longer building out of passion which is needed to get people through sleepless nights.

ottawastart• 19 years ago

Interesting that two of these companies had NO co-founder. Hmmm... There seems to be a lot of emphasis in the YC companies on finding a co-founder, a partner, etc.

timg• 19 years ago

Nice point.

Defiance of the &#34;Venture Capital&#34; Model [video] - Panel with Guy Kawasaki, Fark, Hi5, Suicide Girls, HotOrNot

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Defiance of the "Venture Capital" Model [video] - Panel with Guy Kawasaki, Fark, Hi5, Suicide Girls, HotOrNot