Disqus - Latest Comments for adamwexler

Re: Understanding the Klout Score Part I

adamwexler — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:54:51 -0000

on the opposite end of the vacation dip is the birthday bump...

Re: Pandora, Passion and Persistence

adamwexler — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:48:22 -0000

glad to hear you liked what you saw. to your question, it's always been a long-term monetization strategy. we could include advertisements & like with our recent 200% growth, but it's not worth compromising the integrity of the site at this stage in the game.

in general, nobody is aggregating the fan sentiment like we are. we know there's value there, and we'll figure it out as the dataset continues to get larger.

on a separate wavelength, we've always thought of gorankem as highly complimentary to a number of existing services ou there.

hope that helps!

Re: Pandora, Passion and Persistence

adamwexler — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:17:04 -0000

love the hustle. i understand everything tim is saying all too well...

we've been bootstrapping http://gorankem.com (actually very complimentary to pandora) for the last couple years on a non-existent budget.

no one has taken any pay because we believe in the mission & we're motivated by the vision.

randomly, our traffic started to take off on may 1st due in large part to search engine queries. it's exciting to see this significant growth, and we just have to continue to wait it out as the word continues to spread.

it can be frustrating, but it can also be an exhilarating ride. big congrats to the pandora team!

Re: Game Hack Day NYC

adamwexler — Sun, 15 May 2011 10:27:40 -0000

Just spent time at SF Music Hackday a week ago -- it's amazing the impact a room full of hackers can have on each other.

Fred, you'd probably LOVE my personal favorite hack from the event: http://huesound.org ... i'd describe it as the 21st century record store experience -- instead of browsing by alphabetical, huesound organizes the records through a color wheel. all the creative types will totally dig it.

I absolutely agree this could spread to other verticals and gaming seems like the logical next choice...

Re: But I Want to be CEO!

adamwexler — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:19:43 -0000

micah- where would you place the stud programmer who is a big introvert?

Re: http://blog.uservoice.com/entries/how-we-almost-didnt-raise-800k-in-the-worst-investment-market-in-years

adamwexler — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:22:13 -0000

sorry for the confusion. i look at the free feedback button that we see across so many sites as the uservoice "b2c" play, whereas the more sophisticated solutions for enterprise, government, etc are where you guys make the brunt of your money -- is that an accurate assumption?

being able to have the uservoice brand across the web draws greater attention to the rest of your product suite...and that's a great thing!

Re: http://blog.uservoice.com/entries/how-we-almost-didnt-raise-800k-in-the-worst-investment-market-in-years

adamwexler — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:46:21 -0000

Awesome stuff, Richard. Glad I caught Dave McClure's link that directed me over here.

Always been curious about the UserVoice business model...do you guys treat the B2C play as the B2B lead gen? Did any investors push back and say you should focus on one over the other?

Re: - This is going to be BIG! - You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger

adamwexler — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:25:08 -0000

love the post, charlie. startups are becoming the cool new thing. with that, you find people that don't belong in the space jumping in. like you said, you should be solving a significant problem -- not worried about a quick exit/return.

your thoughts reminded me of a great 5min video i saw from tim o'reilly: http://ht.ly/4nIf2 "i have an allergic reaction to companies that are trying to find a market where they don't have any conviction...not moving the ball forward in any significant way"

Re: Innovation in Education

adamwexler — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:17:30 -0000

love the initiative. at 26, i don't have any kids, but i know i wouldn't want mine going to traditional schooling like i did in this new era.

the kids have the world at their fingertips at such a young age so why are we forcing them to become so "well-rounded" when they are eager to start exploring & specializing at an earlier age?

as an example, i brought on a 15-yo intern two summers back. he out-worked and out-hustled the other three interns we had that summer. by the time fall rolled around, he was eager to keep contributing despite being locked in a cave (AKA high school) for the most productive 7 hours each day.

nonetheless, we offered him an official spot to join our team that december ... but our growth has suffered because he is forced to endure these classes that will do nothing for him...and he'll probably be the most successful of his classmates!

something's wrong with the picture...thanks for what you guys are doing, albert!

Re: How To Get Your Emails Read

adamwexler — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:44:26 -0000

sounds like you might be getting some drunk email from the valley...

Re: How To Get Your Emails Read

adamwexler — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:01:12 -0000

awesome idea, jan. visuals could often do the trick.

Re: The Next Big Idea in Tech: Do-It-Yourself Focus Groups?

adamwexler — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:50:32 -0000

I think GutCheck has absolutely identified an enormous opportunity for the traditional market research industry to leverage technology to gather quick, yet rather deep insight...at a fraction of the cost!

Congrats to them on the big win at DEMO. We have a similar DIY market research product in the works that focuses on group chat rather than their 1-on-1 solution. Each has it's own time & place.

Ours is an extension of the technology we originally developed at http://gorankem.com , and now we've repurposed for the MR industry. Love to hear from anybody who is interested in this space: adam[at]gorankem.com

Re: making new biz cards…

adamwexler — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:32:58 -0000

def a fan of the T's...how bout one better? walking billboards: http://www.flickr.com/photo... do it!

Re: Anatomy Of A Pirate

adamwexler — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:04:12 -0000

The IFPI came out with a staggering statistic in 2009 that 95% of all downloads were done "illegally." Yet, (if I'm not mistaken) that 95% amounted to something like $4,700,000,000. Just imagine if that 5% illegally consumed was doubled -- we're talking $10bil!!

As we say in our promo cards at http://gorankem.com , we want to help you find the songs you were always meant to hear. Not only is so much music not paid for at the moment, but so much great music is completely lost in the shuffle. If our crowdsourced resource can help others more easily find the hidden gems, that consumption pie will expand even further...and maybe, just maybe, the labels will start to realize what direction to take the variable pricing model (i.e. not $1.29...)

Re: Free Software, Paid Support

adamwexler — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:22:24 -0000

if you're building a super-simple product, this might be the direction to take it all along. make them pay for your expertise...not your software. if you want to deter competition once the popularity ensues, you'll have to put it out there for free or else the me-too market will try to undercut you.

Re: Start Fund: No big deal. Business as usual.

adamwexler — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:16:40 -0000

the start fund seems to indicate YC is pressing it's model to see how far they can take it. will the other accelerators follow similar suit or stay their current course?

so much for the #leanstartup focus...

Re: Stop Saying ‘Let me know when works for you’

adamwexler — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:36:25 -0000

great topic. when reaching out to others, i usually specify two times, but it probably wouldn't hurt to expand those options just a bit.

for those that approach me, i often pick up the phone if i want to avoid the never-ending email exchange.

Re: How I Use Visualization to Drive Creativity

adamwexler — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 01:29:56 -0000

"I understand that some people do. They work well with a facilitator and they learn from hearing other people’s ideas. "
I think you're referencing what i like to call 'the epidemic of groupthink.' it's incredibly important to separate yourself when you're trying to form your own opinion. as i referenced in the tweet, we're building a visualization tool that were describing as 'decision-support for teams.'

you can have all the data in the world, but it won't do you any good if you don't know what to do with it. it's all a matter of putting everything into proper perspective, and that's where these visualization techniques can really come in handy.

Info from the Betty Edwards book is powerful stuff. Going straight to Goodreads to add that to my to-read list!

btw, you'd love these idea slates that cameron moll discussed in this post: http://cameronmoll.tumblr.c...

Re: Why I like USV’s Opportunity Fund

adamwexler — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:23:37 -0000

makes perfect sense. you can't be an expert at everything. i'd rather see guys like you & fred, who are on the cutting edge of the new investment format, perfect the new model, and let the traditional VC's concentrate on what they know best.

i think the entire investment model should mimic the minor-league-to-big-league baseball system...but Single-A is the most important stage to see if the team can get off the ground.

Re: The Second Coming Of The Internet IPO

adamwexler — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:49:49 -0000

i've been telling others 2010 will go down as the 'Year of the B2C IPO' ... got a feeling we might see ~5 of those plays go public before facebook (linkedin, groupon, skype, zynga, pandora) as they're trying to beat facebook to the punch before facebook steals everybody's thunder. it also doesn't hurt that facebook is trying to hold out, but that'll only hold things up for so long.

Re: When They Are Throwing Money At You

adamwexler — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:37:58 -0000

that was my favorite line as well. money often clouds the focus. if you're trying to change the world, don't let money be the driving force. it's there to help...not harm.

Re: SoundCloud

adamwexler — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:40:48 -0000

sound comments -- love that too. disqus - you guys catch that?

so many instances when i don't have time to put my thoughts in writing, but i'd love to be able to speak my mind.

Re: Content Shifting

adamwexler — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:14:27 -0000

i'm right there with ya. twitter should differentiate favorites from "save for later" though.

if someone views my favorites, it's a wide collection of article that range from ones that i want to remain bookmarked to ones that I just never got around to checking out.

Re: TechStars

adamwexler — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:42:01 -0000

to build on david's point (which he described as 'blowing up your network in a good way' at techstars-for-a-day), i've always held this thought that when you sit down with someone else, you've just opened yourself to their entire network. you never know who they know that might be perfect for what you have in mind. that's powerful stuff.

haven't asked anybody yet, but is it public knowledge which 11 were selected?

Re: - This is going to be BIG! - Tips on Pitching in Person

adamwexler — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:06:11 -0000

great stuff charlie. i agree with almost everything you said, and most of the presentations i give, whether they're at high schools or in front of potential customers, have minimal text...and by minimal, i mean maybe including the key takeaways. pictures usually take over the majority of my slides.

the more you're able to connect with an audience (get on their level), the better chance you have for resonating with their emotions.