The “gold standard” of recent startups

Robert,

I did wonder if they are still startups, but in your list is 37 Signals, Last.fm, and Threadless. I don’t think of them so much as startups anymore so I included them.

*shrug* this is really a different conversation though…

Zee: they were duplicates of ones that other people already put forward.

Thanks for the reply Robert. Yeah, i see u mentioned evernote up there. I see you mentioned GetSatisfaction – i’m pretty interested in these guys. It’s interesting how they haven’t started charging yet. I suppose they have got a million plus in funding…you think they’re just trying to get companies on board, hooked & then charge them later?

What startup bootstrapped and took not a DIME of VC money, branded itself with PR and tradeshows alone, took on Bill & Co. (Outlook), stubbornly refused to leave its LA roots after HUGE success, and then 2 years later, won EOY in the U.S. *nationwide* — all while doubling annual revenue throughout its history?

GoldMine – the only gold standard for startups.

I’m curious: was the Gold Standard always Gold?
Or did many of these now Gold companies launch to early adopters, make refinements, and then begin to ‘wow’ the broader audience.

For example, Facebook’s NewsFeed wasn’t an original product feature. And TripIt’s technology continues to get much better.

Most early adopters use at least a half dozen, maybe more.

Things that have changed my life: Twitter, Get Satisfaction, Freshbooks, Mint.com, UStream.tv, Moo.
I use these EVERY DAY. Oh, also Disqus and WordPress, because they are so ubiquitous. Notice that most of the apps I think have changed my life are business tools.

Stuff like Brightkite is nice but not necessary, like Friendfeed, or Linden Labs.

Already mentioned, but Seesmic is one of the most brilliant startups I’ve ever heard of, and definitely in the top three of startups I’ve ever been strongly affiliated with.

And @Christian and Giannii, Phreadz is way too pretentious and exclusive to even be considered for this “list”.

Lijit certainly has been setting the ‘Gold Standard’ for fighting the Bloggers Union on what exactly they profit for being on our blogs, and more recently, fighting the movement for blog publishers to have a union that represents them.

Our Blogs, like our kids, need to be protected as they grow. P.U.B. [Publishers Union of Bloggers] made a standard inquiry to Lijit concerning how they generate their income and what percentage of this income goes to the Blog Publisher making the critical decision to allow their Widget on their site for their readers. In addition P.U.B. requested transparency on the critical issue of how the private statistics from Publishers Blogs are being used, with the goal of making sure it’s with the Publisher’s permission
Since then, bloggers have advised P.U.B. concerning Lijit’s terms of use, and the very real possibility Lijit retains ownership/special use of our content if we as publishers agree to install the Lijit Widget.

P.U.B.’s job is to protect individual blogger’s data and the critical sanctity of all Publishers private statistics. We at P.U.B. consider the safety of the information any app or widget(s) may be gathering, unbeknownst to the unwitting Publisher who installs them.

P.U.B. [Publishers Union of Bloggers] made direct inquires to both Lijit Senior executives and the venture capitalists investing in Lijit concerning: Ownership of content / how Lijit generates income and what percentage of this income goes to the Blog Publisher making the critical decision to allow the Lijit Widget on their site for their readers. In addition we requested transparency on the critical issue of how the private statistic from Publishers Blogs are being used.

P.U.B. expected to hear back from Lijit on these financial and private statistics issues from P.U.B.’s first inquiry we sent to Lijit in mid April 2008. It should have been a no brainer, quick answer. Instead, so far all P.U.B. and our fellow Blog Publishes have read is: a public blog response(s) from Lijit advising 1) Lijit has no money, then 2) emails from Lijit’s CEO, Todd Vernon, attacking the Blogger’s union. In fact, Lijit’s current choice for CEO falsely accused the Blog Union’s representatives for writing fictitious emails.

Beyond Lijit’s attacks on the Blog Publishers Union, any actual answer to PUB’s questions about the use of Publisher’s stats, or revenue as it applies to Lijit? Nada. Nothing.

Instead of coming clean on how Lijit makes money from individual Publishers and what percentage the Publisher gets, Lijit instead has opted to fight the very right of Blog Publishers to have a Union representing them.

P.U.B.’s job is to fight for Publishers asking hard questions and demanding answers. If all Widget companies respond as Lijit’s done up to this point, P.U.B. has a big workload for our Publishers, and your membership and support helps us all as Publishers, thanks.

If P.U.B. or our Blog Publisher membership ever get a straight answer on topic from Lijit, not smoke and mirrors, we will let great Blog Publishers like you know their exact revenue/statistics use/sharing deal. Currently we are working with Blog Publishers tracking performance hit evaluations of Lijit installations, and of course the critical issue of actual ownership of content pulled by Lijit from our blogs.

Will publish these results to keep the community of Blog Publishers informed on this critical component of Widgets on our Blogs.

Nothing would please the Blog Publisher’s Union more than to close the book on Lijit and move on to other pressing issues for our Publishers. The ball, as always, remains in Lijit’s court to become transparent to publishers.

Sincerely,
Barney Moran
Founder, P.U.B.

Robert

Understood well all your points – you are a realist and your points are valid from that perspective.

All this being said – in what general field is there a pain that needs solving? or better put, If with your knowledge and experience, you were to found a startup – what would be the idea/topic/direction.

Neyma

twitter, facebook, kiva, linkedin take normal human needs e.g. communication, wish to give, and make a difference by the addition of interactivity and immediacy. Skype for families spread across the globe is overlooked like the telephone, because it is ‘just’ a utility – without which we could not function as we do. What do I actually use besides these? Getdropbox.com – synchs fast across platforms – I share work files, and also with family – photo scans. Mozy for online backup. Meebo so messaging problems are confined to browser. Tiddlywiki – by far the most practical way of keep ing notes on my own environment and activities, plus it can link to my files (won’t save in Safari, so worried about Chrome). Open source GTD organiser from http://www.thinkingrock.com.au. Joomla for building new sites (drupal too but I prefer Joomla). I’ve signed up to a ton of services – but what I really use has to be practical – it provides a service I really can use, it has to be reliable because it should become something I rely on, it has to appeal to others – because economic viability is related to longevity and I’m not going to set up something temporary, it needs to be open interfaced – I will not double key information, and I want to be free to leave and it needs to look like someone considered design issues (even if I DO use youtube).
I use Stumbleupon instead of Yahoo web2 because it’s fast and somehow better designed. I would use Pandora still if it worked in my Country. Zoho CRM still has info for me, but I stopped using it because it doesn’t synchronise with iCal/Google. I used to use Yahoo Contacts because it was there first, but it was late synchronising with iCal, and I still have concerns about 2 way synch. This synchronisation business is really underestimated for small businesses. Capture info once only and then share is a core principle I look for behind every system I adopt. I make exceptions, but there has to be an even more compelling reason to get me in.

And Thanks for these reviews. I’m sorry you seem to be getting flack over this. In my book, making a call, making an assessment is what your accumulated expertise is for. Any hack can draw up a list. The value add comes in the interpretation. Your specific value add lies in the enormous range of presentations and information that you are directly and personally exposed to. This develops the ability to make a quick assessment without pages of analysis – it’s called experience. It’s what we follow you for.

I also thing Phreadz should be on the list. http://www.phreadz.com/

I vote for http://www.tripntale.com

Thank goodness for someone finally standing up and raising a challenge to these startups! It seems I hear of another startup every day that thinks it deserves a place in the world.

Also, thanks for the listing, but it’s @thetylerhayes

I think you should start a start up league table…

One more vote from me for http://phreadz.com – as for Rayanne’s comments, it currently runs on one server so it’s not a case of just opening it up, but hopefully that will change soon once a wise angel discovers it.

All you have to do at the moment is email for an invite and you’ll no doubt be given one, there just has to be some control at the moment. And no, I don’t work for phreadz!!!

@Rayanne – Thanks for the comment about Phreadz.

It’s in a closed Beta stage with no funding.

Also, I can see you have an account, but have yet to log in.

Come on in. The water’s fine!

I’ve tried 15 of those on your list. I like sliderocket. I think blist might be useful once I need to share the admin on tracking orders; WordPress is a godsend; Writeboard and TaDaList from 37Signals are my organizers (and they top the list for always working without a hitch); GetSatisfaction was useful for contacting Blogger/Google staff behind the scenes after someone hijacked one of my old and supposedly extinct Blogger sites; Twitter is usesful for learning how to say it all in 140 characters, and I get to hear of things there.

But where is Pownce? I like Pownce.

Plurk? I don’t like the bone sticking out of the dog, but the site is fast.

But if they were all in danger of falling into the sea, I would grab WordPress.

I absolutely love Zappos – startups can learn a lot by watching them. Since they’re closing in on $1 Billion in revenue, I’d say they’ve “crossed the chasm” from startup to the mainstream.

Another startup I like is SlideShare.

Good for you Scoble – I think you should be harsh on startups. I often think there are way too many startups and it’s created yet another big bubble. We need to be more grounded in silicon valley in what we are putting our energy towards.

In the end – I think Micah Baldwin (5th comment??) had it right – hub dub is useless once it’s faded. Startups don’t need to be anointed by you, Arrington or anybody to succeed (although I’m sure that won’t hurt). What they need is to provide a new service or provide an old service in a MUCH better form.

Threadless is the one that most impresses me, one of those “Why didn’t I come up with that” type business models that doesn’t come along that often. But better than Tesla for the electric car category is Zap, videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/freestylewalka

Robert,

I absolutely agree with your recent stance on startups. I think we’re all stuck in the echo-chamber, and many startups and young entrepreneurs are getting caught up in the hype. The question is: is it a matter of crossing the chasm, or escaping the echo chamber? In Moore’s crossing the chasm, he suggests that technology companies need to figure out how to cross the chasm between early adopters and mass markets. We have to remember that early adopters are a teeny tiny portion of the population. We have to remember also that out of the teeny tiny population, there may be precious few who are at all representative of your mass market. We also have to remember that most of these companies aren’t technology companies at all, they are simply building products using technology. In fact, in most cases, the more you position yourself as a tech company, the more you alienate yourself from most mass markets. It’s like saying Toyota is a steel company. No, their cars are made of steel, but they are a car company. So, I’d like to posit that rather than starting with early adopters (ie: those within the echo chamber) – these companies need to do everything, from the napkin phase, to product development, to their marketing strategies for their market. This means escaping the echo chamber and getting to the bottom of what’s really important for the people who will ultimately make their companies successful.

I touched on this recently in this post: http://blog.heavybagmedia.com/2008/08/26/caught-in-the-echo-chamber-insights-into-the-marketability-of-technology-companies/

And I plan on continuing to post on the matter, collect research and hopefully provide some useful information to help young companies succeed.

I have two where both are in closed beta – but with funding, I am confident that both will change the way we interact with people.

Definitely http://phreadz.com should be on the list. Once funded and open, it will raise the bar on multimedia conversations. And, it’s got a business model built in from the beginning that does not rely on advertising for revenue.

The second is in stealth mode, but I’ve seen the preview and find that it is one of the most innovative start ups I’ve come across. http://www.akoha.org turns having fun into a way to make the world a kinder, gentler place. Look for more from Akoha in the next 30 days.

Sorry that I am a little late to say this, but thank you for including Viddler in your list.

The gold standard for me is pure commitment to generative positive interactions for all involved (users, employees, and investors). Missing any one of these three doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad company but it does mean that it’s not at the apex that all startups should be striving for.

With regards to the desire to encourage startups: I focus on finding a happy medium between the two, which I believe looks something like this:

- be (sincerely) happy for entrepreneurs chasing their dream, that’s a big step in a good direction whether the idea is amazing or horrible. You can always congratulate someone (publicly or privately) for taking this step. If the company itself is mediocre (no glaring defects or positives), then take no other action.

- be publicly vocal about people doing amazing things. For example, I recommend and use Gary Vaynerchuk’s various projects (WLTV, Book, PD.me) because I know all of them are going to focus wit incredible passion on delivering value to the community.

- be privately critical with entrepreneurs doing the wrong things. Whether it’s a bad idea, missing feature, ugly site, or other issue — you should let the person know, and give them a chance to fix it. There is almost nothing gained by making these interactions public.

I had been originally using pandora, recently tried imeem and was thoroughly impressed. Great content, great flexibility, somewhat intriguing social networking opportunities even though that not necessarily my thing.

Glad you’re going to be harsh on start ups. I think we forget that even twitter is not that mainstream even in the silicon valley. The average non tech geek does not twitter, and the average engineer at say oracle, does not twitter either…