Entry Filed under: Tangled Web We Weave, Happenings
PopOut Fizzles Out?
Back in the office. Had to come back to finish up some production issues. Earlier in the night, I was at TDM’s PopOut event.
Something didn’t feel right about the event. Maybe it started with the glitch that plagued Estee’s microphone. Maybe it had to do with the poor internet connection. ZopIM’s presentation would have been really awesome if not for the connectivity issues. Maybe it had to do with the space being too big for the crowd.
Ross from Bezurk shared quite a lot of good stuff. One thing that wasn’t explicitly said but implied was that they probably had a really good business development team from the onset (at least that was what I took away from the presentation) - they didn’t just build it and hope that they (advertisers, partners, users) would come. Another interesting thing is how they started in Java and then shifted to Ruby which is the same progression that BookJetty took. Read what you want into that. The last thing I found interesting is the list of competencies the company seemed to have. The thing is while some of the stuff seems obvious (i.e. any company wanting to be big should have those competencies), it would seem that they developed the competencies by doing. This might seem obvious, but the thing is, how many times do we stop ourselves from doing something just because we think we are not ready. Sometimes, you might never really be ready in the sense you know everything to do everything you might need to do. The key is to have the technical base to build on and the ability to constantly learn. At least that is what I took away from the presentation. Lots more good stuff. Hopefully the video will be out soon. Pity Ross overran but good for him that he didn’t get pressured to come off the stage although some people were getting restless.
The next presentation was by Eric from Quaffs. I was immediately put off at the start of the presentation. Two reasons. Estee said he was a real personality. Well…they call you mr personality because you are so ****. I am being mean. Eric isn’t ugly. In face, the site looks good technically and design wise. The thing is whenever i hear ‘mr personality’, ‘a personality’, any permutations of the word ‘personality’, those lyrics come to my head. Eric nor Estee is to be blamed. Just my poor music taste.
The second reason is the whole raise my hand, shout ‘yes’ and what not is so NS. Dude, I ORD already. Don’t make me do something my officers used to make me do during those boring auditorium sessions in BMT.
The thing is I’m probably suffering from social network fatigue. Do we really need another social network. But this isn’t just another social network. It is a MLM social network. When your friends join, you get some money. When your friends’ friends join, you also get some money. But not real money, it is virtual money. Virtual money that can only be used if you purchase at least one item through the site. MLM. I hate it.
ZopIM has an awesome tool and I really think it can be useful. But if a site has heavy traffic and lots of people are visiting the site and lots of these people have questions, I really wonder how it is going to be scalable at the back end when you need people to be responding to these questions. But then again, that is a happy problem although will the promise of being able to get my questions answered just going to lead to more frustration? But a tool with real promise.
Missed most of recruit.net’s presentation so ….
The last presentation by Herryanto of BookJetty was the highlight of the night. I think he got the most support from the floor. Why? I’m guessing but I believe because, in his own words, ‘he is a one man team’ (actually not really, cos his wife seems really supportive but you get the idea) with no funding which has produced something comparable to what the other companies that either have more money or bigger teams have done.
An interesting thing we learned tonight is how he manages to provide the free SMS service. Twitter, we salute you. What I learned from this is that necessity (i.e. no money) is the mother of knowing which API to use in a way that might not be used by others.
The thing I love about BookJetty is best said by Gen Kanai of Mozilla when he said that BookJetty was born out of an itch that Herryanto had to scratch. BookJetty was born out of a personal need which hopefully will become a sustainable if not successful business for Herryanto.
Some people build businesses because they see a market need.
Some people build stuff just because they can.
I think the most powerful is to build because of a personal need which is also shared by the market.
Now, like Bjorn and, I think, one other member of the floor hinted, BookJetty needs a business development person. Too bad Bjorn is taken. Which brings me to the last juicy news of the night.
Bjorn scored, in my opinion, a good job and it all started with a post on his blog. Talk about converting water to wine. Talk about a person who preaches about social media benefiting from what he preaches about. Awesome.
October 5th, 2007
16 Comments Add your own
1. Miccheng | October 5th, 2007 at 2:41 am
Nice blog post. Missed most of the first part of the session cos i came late. As with you, i didn’t particularly like Quaff - some start-ups don’t get it - its not about the number of features - stop being so obsessed with features! All you need is a killer app (function) - and run with it!
Don’t like recruit.net though… its a freaking job sites crawler - no real content of its own - and its sloooow.
I love BookJetty and use it to keep track of all the books i’m reading. Its a lovely solution and quite frankly a brilliant use of Twitter’s API.
Cheers,
Michael
2. Aen | October 5th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Eric’s Chia presentation was horribly intolerable. His excuse for the faulty profile editing was that there was something wrong with Suntec’s connection, while Herry’s ajax calls were blazing fast. I sign up for Quaffs and tried to edit my profile with their so called “edit in place” and same thing, it just displays “Saving…” And you know what’s the most web2.0 thing about it? YOU CAN’T TAB THE FIELDS!
Talk about reinventing the wheel. After his terrible army-style opening and intro on his OOD (Objects Of Desire) crap, I SMSed U-Zyn that the only OOD I want is his corpse. Thanks TDM, you killed my evening by putting that twerp on stage. Thanks to Herry though, without him I wouldn’t have been able to swallow my supper.
3. Mr. Dew | October 5th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I didn’t enjoy Eric’s presentation too. Cool web design for Quaff though. Nice presentation slides but didn’t like his presentation style. And he’s tricky, who know what that means.
4. Royston | October 5th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Good stuff, hilarious how u related things back to NS ;p yup, regretfully we couldn’t showcase the full functionalities of ZopIM because of , but do drop by our website, we’re manning our site almost 24/7.. (almost..) Bjorn will indeed be sorely missed, altho he claims his virtual self is still constantly reachable..
5. Larry Lim | October 5th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I took a 5 hour bus ride from Malacca to attend the event and it was worth it. Didn’t know that Eric pulled an NS thing - I thought that the crowd was passive. For me, Eric was a bit Ah Beng at most.
Still, I can’t quite figure out the need for referrals - people will use the service anyway if it’s good. The local social network sites in Latvia and Holland are wildly successful so I don’t see why it can’t be a possibility here. Having a referral program may only encourage people to join for the sake of it and then never come back after getting their OODs.
6. Miccheng | October 5th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Guess when it comes to major events like this, there are bound to be a few bad ones along with the good ones. TDM hasn’t got the clout to reject people outright yet - to be judicious in selecting presenters & companies.
I didn’t think much of recruit.net - but they sponsored TDM for the event. So “lan lan” have to bear with them.
Furthermore, Singapore is just too puny to have a large start-up community - a hypothesis i wish desperately to be proven wrong.
7. iantimothy | October 5th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Hello guys.
@Larry.
Didn’t know we had a Malaysian who took a bus all the way down for this. I’m sure the TDM people will have a warm fuzzy feeling if they knew about this. It is great that you found the trip worth while.
@Michael
Hmmm.. you know, during my NS, an officer told me, desperate and want to chase girl also must have some standard, cannot anyhow just accept unless you are damn heartless and flinging + breaking up is your first nature + all activities is going to be done with the lights out. Plus STDs are for life. Sometimes you might be able to end the ‘relationship’ in the future, but the stink sticks.
The thing is, I think groups like TDM and E27 can afford to be selective because they already got some brand value (? is that the right term) but maybe their aim is to be inclusive. Sometimes what seems like mud might actually be a diamond caked in mud.
Also, I think maybe the point of having what might seem like not too awesome startups is so that the community can feed back and they improve. It’s all about helping each other. Not just them present to us but from us to them too .Unless they don’t want to listen.
Funny thing. Eric talked about love or something towards his baby. Can’t remember the exacts words. Anyway, when I heard that pitch, I thought of those people in my generation (i.e. before 1985 - arbitrary cutoff) who got caned, made to kneel down, stand in corner and pull ear, and realized well, Eric probably won’t get the TLC he craves but tough love. Anyway, out of point. Just another random thought.
The thing is, they actually went out and got something done. That is like way more than most of us. Well not us cos Michael you don’t count. Maybe just me? So I hope they don’t get too upset with the flack they might be getting (especially from me). They got something worth being proud about.
Anyway, it isn’t the size that matters. It is how you use it. I hold on to this idea dearly because I’m Chinese and you know how FHM, Maxim,GQ like to go on and on and on about the whites and blacks. Random. Sorry.
Singapore can do it!
8. Pong | October 5th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Good effort. Don’t let the enthusiasm fizzle out….
9. Miccheng | October 5th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I personally relish criticism. When people are bothered to criticise me - it means they care (in some weird sort of way). Its the muted silence and blank stares i can stand - u can’t read them.
Let’s just hope they scan Ping.sg for all our comments & blogs.
10. Aen | October 6th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Mr Dew you are Kah Wee right? I just feel Quaffs.com is a disco. Alright a disco’s a good place to social network.
11. Nic | October 6th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Hi guys, thanks for Popping by and all your support! I was one of the guys who helped Howie to anchor the event just to let you know the folks here @ TDM are all reading your comments and grateful for the support and feedback. The team that put this event together including myself are quite new to TDM and honestly we did not expect such a good response and the audience this time was like more than 80% different from our previous events! We did boot out a few showcases but yes, we have much to learn still :p
12. Ming Yeow | October 7th, 2007 at 11:35 am
heya! good posting there! aiyah bros, give Eric a break lah. he is just trying to do his thing, and help liven up the event. I think what works best is always to offer constructive criticism. no?
13. Miccheng | October 7th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Hi Nic,
Kudos to TDM for putting this event together. Good job!
Sorry if i was a little harsh to Recruit.net & Quaff. I think i speak for everyone when i say that we mean no disrespect in our criticism. It took extraordinary courage to start-up, and even more so to present before a discerning audience. Thank you for sharing your work with our local community. We need more people like you.
I suspect Google had their own share of criticism when it first launched - “Why do it when we already have Yahoo!?” Guess they prove everyone wrong. At the end of the day, critics keep bitching while they laugh all the way to the bank.
Take our criticism positively and make improvements. There is surely an untapped market where riches awaits you. You’ll be laughing to the bank while we shout from our armchairs (or laptops).
14. Herry | October 7th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Thanks for keeping my wife and I company.
15. iantimothy | October 8th, 2007 at 11:17 am
It was a pleasure.
16. Howie | October 8th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Hey guys,
Thanks for all these feedbacks. Definitely will help the next time round. Indeed, we are thrilled to know someone took a 5 hour bus ride from Malacca just to join us! So thanks Larry, wish to catch up with you when you travel down yet again!
Howie
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