Rich Price - Turn Off My Heart Video

My brother Rich's song Turn Off My Heart premired on MTV's Real World show last week. Since then, he is up to the #4 unsigned artist on MySpace for the Folk Rock segment.

Embedded in this post is the video to the song.

Facebook Turning Off Spammy Apps

Guest Post by Tracy Pizzo, my colleague at Widgetbox:

The Facebook f8 platform is just over one year-old, and yet to some app makers it must feel like it is hitting the "terrible two's" a little early...

Last week, Facebook suspended Slide's Top Friends app - one of the most popular on Facebook - for privacy violations. It then suspended SocialMe, also for privacy violations, and this morning TechCrunch wrote about the shutting off of all viral elements of RockYou's Super Wall (newsfeeds, notifications, invites, etc.). Today, TechCrunch reports that SpeedDate is now no longer working.

From the app maker's side, this has had immediate and detrimental effects, as user numbers have taken a nose dive from where they have been for many many months. This could have long reaching and deleterious effects for companies such as Slide and RockYou that have focused an enormous amount of their development energies on a select few platforms. Take a look at this graph on Super Wall to see exactly how fast apps have been spread by spammy invites and notifications, and how fast the drop off happens without them:



But, there's another way to look at this. I applaud what Facebook is doing here - they are putting their users first, which is exactly what should matter most to them. Even if these apps have driven a lot of growth for Facebook over the last year, I think I can speak for most Facebook users in saying that a lot of the methods these apps use to spread themselves around can be really frustrating. Time.com had a great article in April that outlines some of the struggles Facebook users have when using apps.

Time.com notes that "the increase in "junk" notifications is enough to leave [Facebook users] feeling peeved," to which Facebook responded months ago by allowing their users to shut off app notifications one by one. But what I believe has been more frustrating for users is that they simply don't always know what they are getting themselves into. This same article outlines this experience perfectly,

An even bigger nuisance with using Facebook apps is that it's not always clear how they work. Tina House of Combine, Tex., says she accidentally posted a Valentine's Day greeting that said "I love you," not just to her husband, but to all of her friends, while using the application Super Wall, because she did not realize that the program defaulted to sending the posting to everyone. "I still shudder over that one," she says. And because advertisements are slickly intertwined with the apps — they often use the exact same font and graphics — it's easy to inadvertently click one by mistake.

I know that I was duped by the "Click to forward to see what happens" on Super Wall, and I spend enough time with widgets and apps that I should have known what was happening.

This latest suspension by Facebook illuminates a continual ratcheting down on spammy aspects of apps over the last few months, and I don't expect it to stop until they feel their user experience is protected. A lot of companies like Slide and RockYou took huge risks in focusing on such a small number of domains (I'm counting Facebook as one domain). They really pushed the envelope - albeit in a number of innovative and effective ways - on optimizing viral spread of their apps, and because of their sharp thinking they (and by proxy, Facebook) saw enormous success from very early on. That same growth is now starting to have diminishing returns for Facebook, as there has been a leveling off of site usage in both the US and the UK, slowdowns which first started rearing their heads a few months ago. Once those diminishing returns kicked in, Facebook had to take action in order to stay ahead.

What is clear to me is that the early success many folks saw on comes with a big price tag, and they may now have to pay the very real and painful costs as Facebook, and I'm sure other app platforms soon, come collecting. Assuming that growth between apps and Facebook will always go hand in hand and be mutually beneficial is a dangerous game to play.

This news also highlights what I think of as the bigger picture here, which is users' desire for choice. At Widgetbox, we often use an analogy to the early days of television. When TV first went mainstream, everyone was thrilled with the three channels that were available. Those channels saw such success that the networks themselves believed they could accurately predict what EVERYONE wanted to watch. Today, we can look at the rise of cable and the hundreds and hundreds of channels out there and see how untrue that was. Really what consumers wanted was choice. They wanted more channels with more programming focused on smaller and smaller niches so they could easily find what they were looking for. They didn't want to have to sit through programs and commercials the networks chose, but rather wanted their television delivered on demand. Maybe no individual channel had as much blockbuster success as the first three, but in the aggregate they changed the face of television dramatically. I believe this analogy is true for widgets/apps as well. We're huge believers in choice and access, and clearly users - and the platforms themselves - are starting to throw up their hands with the more one-size fits all approach that has dominated the landscape thus far.

Essentially, what this news screams to me is the need for independence. Domain independence, app independence, and network independence. Pretty fascinating stuff, and it continues to be a wild and dizzying ride, with no stopping anywhere in sight.

Widgetbox is Hiring

Widgetbox is actively hiring senior JAVA and DMBS engineers. The spec follows. If anyone is interested in joining us/me at Widgetbox, please reach out and let me know - will.price at widgetbox.com

Thank you.

Widgetbox is a Sequoia-funded, 23 person Internet startup based in San Francisco that is improving the Internet through choice and access. By connecting widget consumers, creators and advertisers, we provide choice to those who want it and reach to those who need it. We pioneered the rise of widgets to become home to the world’s first and largest widget community, with more than 70,000 widgets and 45 million monthly viewers on over 920,000 domains.

We are interested in talking with candidates who meet the following requirements.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS
Expert in Java, Servlets, and XML
Proficient with Hibernate and Spring
Development and design experience with Service Oriented Architectures
Experience with MySQL a plus
Team leadership experience
Solid track record of meeting deliverable targets, and taking part in successful releases
Strong understanding of web technologies used in social networking and Web2 sites
Experience with performance and scalability work and designing scalable systems

Custom Galleries from Widgetbox

Today, Mashable covered the launch of Widgetbox's Custom Gallery Product. 

Widgetbox is the largest consumer facing widget platform. One of our core assets is the Widgetbox Gallery; home to over 66,000 widgets. Why so many? Because user's love choice and use us to find content that foots to their individual passions and interests, be it finance, sports, children, or Buddhism....

As Mashable notes, with today's product launch third party blog, social network, and website building platforms are able to offer the Widgetbox's widget content to their end users.

We are fortunate to launch the product with some amazing partners, including Typepad, Xanga, Amnesty Hypercube, Doodlekit, Freewebs, Friendcodes, Netvibes, Nimble.ie, Piczo, Synthasite, Webjam, and others.

Why is this important? Users love to express, learn, and interact with widget content and widgets add significant utility and stickiness to consumer web platforms. With simple IFrame or XML/JSON integration, Widgetbox's partners can offer all or a subset of relevant Widgetbox widgets to their endusers.  Some of the partners noted above went live two days after contacting us, and our goal is to make the Custom Gallery a seamless, self-service experience.

Thanks to all our partners on a great launch. If you want to add a Custom Gallery to your blog, social network, or website building platform....drop me a line at will.price at widgetbox.com

Team Chemistry, Stress, and Success

I recently read an interesting article on what makes a great start-up. The author, a Google alum, noted three important characteristics:

• team chemistry 
• rapid iterations 
• clear end-user focus

I doubt many would argue with the prescription, however, there is a major paradox implicit the in the list.  Team chemistry requires healthy interactions and good behavior. Iterations imply change and change creates stress.  Under stress, all of us react in two major ways.

1. deflate - withdraw, become resentfully compliant, are negative
2. inflate- yell, raise our voice, lash out, seek to dominate

In fact, start-ups are nothing if not stressful. Things are changing constantly - in fact they have to in order to succeed. There is a finite amount of cash on hand, lots of competitors, and major incumbents working to crush you.

Over the years, we learn to develop coping mechanisms to process stress. Sadly, most of our coping mechanisms lead to bad behavior that may protect us in the near-term but eat into the social health of the organization and into our individual effectiveness.

In managing start-ups and in building a culture open to change and to iteration, it really helps to arm the team to recognize that under stress we tend to react badly, and in the negative reaction we hamper the ability to maintain cohesion and our credibility.

It is  important to ask people to be self-aware of their coping mechanisms and yours, to be aware of what triggers a negative reaction, and to develop good tools for effectively processing stress and defusing tension.

Some well known tools involve, listening, asking questions and for clarification, remembering not to take things personally, patience, acknowledgement of others, being dependable and trustworthy.

Success is the progressive realization of worthwhile goals. All success and development, moreover, means the abandonment of a familiar position. All growth requires the ability to leave behind the comfort of the "known."  

Success will require change - change will lead to stress - and success is contingent on how well we handle stress. Ignoring the reality of how we cope with stress is to risk the health of the team, one of the three pillars of what makes for great start-ups.

 

Shantaram

Periodically, we stumble across a book or a film we have never heard of and open its pages to discover magic.  Shantaram is such a book.

The book, by Gregory David Roberts, is an amazing tale of adventure, betrayal, suffering, and personal growth. The quick summary follows: Roberts escapes from an Australian maximum security prison where he is serving a time for armed robbery. Via New Zealand, he flees to Bombay, where the magic begins.

He quickly settles in Bombay, learns Hindi and Marathi, and opens himself up to the love and friendship of the city's residents. His journey includes a long stint as a slum doctor, time in the Bombay mafia, and a journey into Afghanistan via Pakistan to join the mujaheddin in fighting the Russians.  In between the adventures, he wrestles with the meaning of life, suffers through hellish bouts in Indian jails, and grows from a hardened ex-con into a man that is the full reflection of the complexities of life, both good and bad.

I loved every page - all 800+ of them - and if you are looking for a book to get lost in on vacation, flying across the country, etc., Shantaram is one for the ages.

ThinkTomorrow

I am in Half Moon Bay for the Think Tomorrow Private Capital and Venture Capital Summit. 

Think Equity, a boutique investment bank, organized the conference to introduce new comapnies and categories to the investment community.

Speakers included John Doerr, Chad Hurley, Mark Andreessen, Bill Campbell and others. 

 

I spoke on a panel titled, "Monetizing Social Media, Can It Be Done?," along with guys from Rockyou, Flixster, Gigya, and Lotame.  Surprisingly, the panel believes that it CAN be done:)

The day started with Bill Campbell, the chairman of INTU and an AAPL board member, interviewing Google's SVP of Product Marketing and Management, Jonathan Rosenberg.  The topic, innovation, is at the heart of all we do and the insights were valuable.

Jonathan started off by comparing and contrasting his training in product management with the current model employed by Google. 

Jonathan grew up in the MRD -> PRD -> tech spec -> waterfall gant chart method of product management that for many years defined software project management.  The documents passed serially from one department (marketing, product management, engineering, qa) to the next, the time frames were measured in months, and engineers were told what to build and when to have it ready.  The net result was often dissatisfaction across all constituents - product management failed to get what they thought they asked for, engineers felt like second class citizens/code monkeys, and the business suffered as a result.

At Google, Jonathan found several conditions held true, most of which all Internet companies can relate to.  First, the market moved extremely quickly and the product cycles needed to match the market's velocity. Second, the pace of change made requirements analysis challenging and a traditional product development process ripe for failure, and finally the needs of the market were tacit, not overt, and engineers were often best suited to understand the technology/user need base case and find the implementation and feature set that best met that tacit need. The business stack ranked problems and priorities and let engineers solve the problem - a respect and appreciation for the ability of engineers to find elegant answers to the business need permeates the company.

Given change is a constant, Google also focused on hiring generalists. Hiring for a discrete need often failed as the need would change to another priority the day after the specialist started. Finally, he found he needed to free himself from the baggage of his training and open his mind to new approaches - where management becomes a vehicle for encouraging collaboration of very bright people rather than prescribing discrete tasks.

Finally, he argued as the market changes winners and losers emerge (i.e. features) - Google feeds the winners and culls the losers quickly and works to let the users guide them as to what deserves funding and resource.

At Widgetbox, we recognize that the collaboration trumps serial and siloed product development processes. We recognize that engineers are often best suited to think through how best to implement a feature. Accordingly, we are working to be agile, collaborative rather than declarative, and have settled on Scrum as the convention for optimizing the challenge of fast moving markets and a need to organize effectively and efficiently to best respond to users and the market.

Can you be nimble without avoiding chaos? Can you have engineers play a key role in feature implementation without missing the market? 

The challenge is to find a convention, a framework, that provides common semantics, rhythms, deliverables, and a method by which the company can rank priorities.  We are experimenting with Scrum as our convention, as daily stand-ups, weekly releases, and bi-weekly sprints as our rhythm and deliverables, and are working to create institutional capacity for flexibility and collaboration across functions.

Each sprint team is composed of UE, product, eng, and qa resources and, as in traditional Scrum, sprint teams pull off the highest priority tasks from the product backlog. We are working hard to ensure we gang tackle business problems and let cross-functional teams develop the optimal implementation/solution.

Priorities. Rhythm. Data; three goals we are working to master. Rosenberg's talk proved quite inspirational and a lesson that new markets require agile methods of software development and that management is often tasked more with creating conditions for great people to develop great answers rather than in prescribing the answers to employees expected to merely implement them. 

List of Service Providers for Start-ups

Quick post passing on a good list from Rob Webb regarding the best tools/services for start-ups - ie conference call services, CRM, PBX, etc.

Helpful reference.

Lost My Voice

Since taking over at CEO at Widgetbox, I have completely lost the blogging muse. The longer the silence, the more pressure I feel/felt to write something interesting.

Why is it harder to write?

Busier? Not really.

If not that, then what?

It finally hit me today. As a VC, I actively worked with nine to ten investments, met with scores of potential investments, and enjoyed a wonderful perch with which to observe start-up life, the venture process, and best/worst practices.

I could write, "I attended a board meeting today and observed x, y, and z." Or, "today I met a VP Sales who really understand the sales life cycle..." The anonymity of the comments provided cover that allowed for rich detail and candid observations on the week's learnings. The inability to tie a comment to a particular person, venture investor, company...etc makes for rich commentary and illustrative examples.

As a CEO, this is harder - it is not "a" board meeting but "my" board meeting - ie the parables and lessons leave little room to the imagination with respect to the source and people involved.

Furthermore, I am wary to turn my blog into a Widgetbox promotional vehicle and simply post about all the wonderful things we are up to at 1000 Sansome St.

I am working on a voice that can replace the lens into the VC world without Wbox chest-beating and/or Wbox confessionals.

In upcoming posts, I plan to comment on the VC vs operating role choice and my observations on what it is like to move from one side of the table to the other. I know it is the quintessential young VC question - and I hope to share my experiences with those thinking through the two choices.

Apologies for the radio silence - I am working to adapt my blogging voice to my new role.

How Widgets and Widgetbox Drive Incremental Traffic

Guest post from Ryan Spoon at Widgetbox.


The article below is excellent validation of the power of widgets to drive incremental adoption and of Widgetbox, in particular, to outperform Facebook and Bebo for long-tail widgets. After 7 days, Widgetbox drove 1.7x Facebook's subscriptions and 3.9x Bebo's.

Davids SEO Adventure posted a great article about trying to drive web traffic via widgets and gadgets. David has launched a new website (SodukoWorld.be) and is documenting its growth - and we were pleased to find that Widgetbox has quite helpful thus far:

And after a couple of hours of messing around with Facebook application development, I went of to visit my good ol’ friend Google to see if there was an easier way to do this. And guess what? obviously there was. It came in the name of WidgetBox, the all purpose widget making type system. So I signed myself up, threw some html at it and watched in enwonderment at the resulting usefulness: a SudokuWorld Widget that could be put in Facebook, Bebo, Wordpress and all other sorts of things.

And while creating a widget and Facebook / Bebo application was easy, David also reports that it was effective:

After 2 days

Facebook: 27 users
bebo: 35 users
WidgetBox: 92 users

Outcome: bright and breezy - not too shabby for a beginner

After 7 days

Facebook: 91 users
bebo: 40 users
WidgetBox: 156 users

Output: wahoo!

We are obviously very excited about those results and helping David's business (and others!) grow.