Comments on: What are we doing?

By: Hillel

Hillel — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:42:05 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts Manav. You seem to imply that creativity is only required when you’re creating media that entertains. We believe that you can be incredibly creative across any medium independent of whether your satisfying a user’s emotional or their practical needs (or both).

Make sense?

By: Manav

Manav — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:07:38 +0000

Not sure what you really are doing. Seriously, you sound nothing more than a outsourcing company who will work with their partners and create software that people will like/love. Pixar is outsourcing company and they are best among all. Their strength lies in their creative ability. Not sure how it all fits in software? Software is not entertainment (unlike movies where Pixar succeeded) although you need software for entertaining yourself. As a consumer do I love my software or do I want my problem to be solved?

–Manav

By: Dazed

Dazed — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:52:06 +0000

So what do you do…

By: Nicholas Judge

Nicholas Judge — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 18:37:24 +0000

I believe I have unique viewpoint of the software industry as a privacy professional, seeing software as the promise of ongoing value tempered by its continual cost. The trick in this horse trade is to ensure the value wins.

People are initially drawn by the interesting, the unique, the cool, but that fades fast. Loyalty is built on trust. Trust on transparency, choice, and control. Vista, for instance, makes that big initial splash, but if a new customer cannot understand what it does, why it does it, and what choice they have in the matter, trust never materializes, and loyalty never grows.

Advertisers, to be effective, need to know their customers. Customers, on the other hand, need to trust before they willingly share anything.

You need to bridge that divide. You can do it in the short term with cool. You can keep it over the long term by creating software experiences that build trust.

What are your thoughts on this?

By: Jackson Fish Market » Why Bootstrap?

Jackson Fish Market » Why Bootstrap? — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:15:51 +0000

[...] As described in the last post, the most frequent question I get is “what are you doing”. It’s true that I often answer “we’re making software for consumers.” I’ve also often tried this alternative: “we’re making an independent consumer software company.” Not as short, but more accurate. Those in the industry often ask what I mean by “independent”. I explain that we’re not looking to take anyone else’s money and our goal is to bootstrap the business by engaging in revenue-generating activities from day one. And that in the long term we prize independence so we can stay focused on building the kind of software (as well as the kind of company) that suits us. It’s at this point in the conversation when I invariably get a look of polite disbelief. The look says something along the lines of “oh aren’t you precious”. It’s as if I were 9 years old and stated, with absolute certainty, my intention of being a professional baseball player. [...]