Smilebox makes me smile
Look at the visuals inside Smilebox. Look at the fact that it’s one of a very few companies who’ve introduced me to its development team (pair programming, even!)
I love a company that puts its developers right in the middle of its office. That tells me it’s a different kind of company right off the bat.
But, there’s a lot more to this company that lets you build cool online greeting-card-like stories with video, photos, and lots of other goodies.
Looking at the walls you can tell that this company cares deeply about experiences.
In Kathy Sierra speak: Smilebox makes me smile. I felt happy while doing this interview and could tell just by looking around that this company was working on experience and on having fun.
Three videos:
1) A edited, short video combining the best of the demo and interview (I’ve embedded that video in my blog below). It’s five minutes long.
2) The full demo with Andrew Wright, CEO.
3) The full interview and tour (meet the developers!)
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March 23rd, 2007 at 12:27 pm
No Mac version.
No smile.
March 23rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Finally tried Smilebox the other day. I do like it, and I like the simplicity. However, the choices in Scrapblog are just phenomenal. I’ll probably end up going back and forth between the two services. Using Smilebox when I want to create something quickly, and using Scrapblog when I want a more personalized presentation.
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Robert, not fair: please don’t tell how excited you are about a thing and then in the short version of the video you don’t show that thing …. I’m late for a appointment, just looked at my live bookmarks before I would rush out the door, thought “Smilebox?, I need a smile today, let’s quickly see what Robert is talking about”.
After reading, I think “I want to see those developers, but I don’t have the time …. oh, the short version is only 5 minutes, I can watch that while packing my things and putting on my coat” but alas, packed and ready to go, some 10 minutes late and no developers :(
So I took another 5 minutes to tell you about my dismay.
But 15 minutes late, I do have to tell you that I’m really starting to like your show!
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Thank you SO much for Editor’s picks. I have watched more of your videos this week than before. It definitely whets the appetite to come back for the longer versions when I can.
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Another thanks for the shorter videos.
I’m still not watching them, but it makes me smile that they’re there.
:)
Here’s a link to smilebox: http://smilebox.com/ (love the mascot)
More about pair programming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_Programming
If everyone pair programmed then programming.reddit.com would not exist.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
you’re right about the developer thing, when i came to pluggd, i made sure that i sat in the office with the developers because it really is all about experience.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
i guess i’m going to have to go read more about smilebox and pair programming now
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
looks cools but it’s does not work with Vista ???
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I can believe VCs and Angel Investors continue to spend millions of dollars in these kind of junk websites/services - so called “Web 2.0″.
How many people want to buy (by actually paying money) a scrap booking tool. And at 5 dollars a month for the Club Smilebox stuff I don’t think these guys can afford to keep servers running and employees paid. You have to be really really lucky to become the next myspace or the next youtube. Or else someone who’s filthy rich and/or really really stupid like Google to acquire you. But its pushing the luck too much.
I am pretty sure these guys are going to end up in http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool sooner or later. Who wants to bet on that ??
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I can’t even type properly….
I meant….
I CAN’T believe VCs and Angel Investors continue
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I talked with Smilebox at Demo 06 and was very impressed. Their target market is soccer moms.
They have done their homework. It is a huge and growing market. For example, the Michaels Arts and Crafts store estimated they would generate 3.6 billion in revenue for 2006.
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Nice Video!
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm
[...] Robert Scoble videos Andrew Wright of SmileBox who says: The first thing it comes from is realizing that your brand to the consumer is just a reflection of your internal brand…. Written by Bill Olen Share This [...]
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Working on experiences and on having fun. Wheeee. If you are happy and know it, clap your hands.
But wait till the Angels turn Devils, when the pie-in-the-sky internet lottery fails to materialize. But give it time, after awhile the Scoble Show will become a ‘Blade Runnerish’ curse.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:31 am
They havee done etheir homework. It ies a huge and growieng markeet. Fore example, the Michaels Arts and Crafts store estimaeted they would genereate 3.6 bilelion in revenue for 2006.
March 24th, 2007 at 11:51 am
[...] Robert links to a Scoble show video (see below) with the Smilebox guys. It’s a good video and in the first few minutes of the video, Scoble gets to chat with the developers (which is cool). About 7 minutes in though, Scoble asks how often they update the code and (because they are agile) the developer says around every two to three weeks; Scoble replies, saying that fact alone tells him they are not a Microsoft shop. [...]
March 25th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
“Try it, its free…”
But it doesn’t work.
A shame - a screen saying “updating” scrolling endlessly when I have just downloaded the programme - no smile there.
March 26th, 2007 at 4:45 am
[...] since branched out quite a bit. Andy Plesser has a writeup of Smilebox and highlights an interview Robert Scoble did with Andrew Wright, the CEO of [...]
September 16th, 2007 at 3:42 am
[...] scrapbooks. They are located in downtown Redmond, WA. You may have seen a bit about them in a video tour/interview that Schoble did about them back in the Spring of [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 1:15 am
It didn’t work for me either, so maybe the site is busy or the link needs to be fixed.