Plinky in today's New York Times Magazine
Illustration by Peter Arkle
I had the pleasure of being quoted in the NYT Magazine today in an article about Plinky. The article speaks for itself and I thought Rob Walker did a nice job. One thing I've been meaning to write about more is what's coming next for Plinky. The article touches on this:
"Shellen says his company has more projects in the works that are “centered on conversation” but for the moment has been learning more about what sorts of prompts are effective."
More on this soon, I promise.
Labels: plinky
Biz Stone on the Colbert Report!
Last night my old friend Biz Stone appeared on the Stephen Colbert Show on Comedy Central. I'm stoked for Biz and the whole Twitter team. Their mainstream media mentions and appearances don't seem to be slowing down. Evan Williams was on Charlie Rose and they were profiled on Nightline. If you didn't catch Colbert live last night you can see the full clip embedded below.
I've been friends with Biz for a while now but we not met in real life back in 2001. However, that didn't stop us from becoming arch-nemeses, cordially of course. All the same time, I really wasn't too sure about a guy who referred to himself as "genius" and his smart aleck style of writing wasn't helping things. In 2003 when we finally met at a blogging conference I found out that he is actually one of the nicest guys around. We had to end our pretend feud. We were able to hire him onto the Blogger team at Google in October 2003 which Biz of course wrote up jokingly as an acquisition of Genius Labs. After spending years working with Biz I can't help but read anything he writes in classic Biz Stone-style. I'm glad the rest of America gets a glimpse into the kind of fun Biz brings to any project.
Clip courtesy of
Comedy Central.
While we are getting truthy, a minor correction to a Techcrunch post about a rumored sale of Twitter to Google. Michael Arrington writes:
...it’s a brilliant deal for Google - the value of Twitter is only going to go up over time. And it will be Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone’s second sale to Google - they sold Blogger to them just five years ago.
It's would be Ev's second sale (if it were true) however, as mentioned above, Biz was brought on in late 2003 and wasn't part of the Ev, Steve, Rudy, Jason, Jason and Jason team. It is interesting to note that one Jason, Rudy and Steve are at Twitter though. Go (old) team!
A little free product development advice
As a former Google product manager and current entrepreneur, people often email me to ask for advice in a number of areas. One of the recurring variants is a request that goes something like this:
"I have an idea for a site or service. It's going to be bigger than the disco ball! I don't really know how this technology stuff works but maybe I could tell you my idea?" What comes next is usually a variation of "...and then you could help me build it, sell it, promote it, show me how it's done or something else?"
Still other email are from small start-up founders who want to know what the secret trick is to building a great product or to take a look at their new creations.
First of all, it's flattering that people like the products I've helped build enough to seek me out. As a busy CEO of a venture-backed start-up I unfortunately don't always have a lot of spare time to dig in and help out, so here are a few of my fundamental thoughts on entrepreneurship, building products and how I can help.
I'm not a technical person
Surprise, neither am I. In fact, I've never taken a single Computer Science or Business Administration class. I received a BA in Fine Arts from a small liberal arts college. I thought I was going to go on to Cal Arts to study animation and work for Disney or Pixar, but the web came along and my plans changed. To this day, I'm at my best when I am behind the drivers seat in Photoshop or Illustrator sketching out new product ideas or at the whiteboard designing rough sketches of future web applications. As long as you can communicate with technical people, you'll be in fine shape.
Execution is underrated
I have a belief that ideas come down to execution. Great ideas are a dime a dozen but in the end the one's that emerge successful are the one's that have persevered and made something special.
The same idea in the hands of different people have many different outcomes. For example: for every Google there are 50 search companies that ended disastrously. Google executed well and refined and refined a core idea that wasn't necessarily unique. Some ideas when executed well take off and others fail to capture the imagination.
If you think it's interesting, make a demo
If someone came to me and said, "Here's my great idea, but I want to
be paid for it if it's good." I would probably shoo them away -
implement your idea, even as a simple demo you have 10x more
likelihood of being taken seriously. Venture capital or even angel money is rarely given to people who don't have a working demo. Product managers and engineers at top software companies usually need a demo to continue development and receive support from their superiors. If you can't code, make friends.
Version: Perfect
No one ships something perfect right out the gate. If you are doing it right, there is a good chance you will throw away most of the code every 6 - 18 months. Hell, sometimes you'll throw away the first product. Premature optimization is usually the main stumbling block of any small team. Go fast and learn from mistakes.
The competition
Aim high. Don't think of your competition as the other guys in a garage, aim at someone who doesn't know you are coming and potentially someone who wouldn't see it coming until it's too late. Don't worry about the other guys doing similar things unless they are doing 100% the same thing. Have a long term vision and imagine what wild success would look like if your service or product takes off.
You are what you read
If you aren't already reading Paul Graham or Joel on Software then I highly recommend subscribing. Paul works with many start-ups and Joel is an old hand at software development. You are not creating a product in a vacuum, many other people have been down this path, learn from the masters of the craft. Half (or more) of my pearls of wisdom here are borrowed, stolen or filtered from what I've read somewhere else. Entrepreneurship-by-osmosis has served me well. If you are looking for more folks to read, my Founders list from Google Reader has some eclectic folks who might get you motivated. Get reading!
Good to great
If you are a good engineer but think you need to acquire product management or business skills for your new idea to succeed, I might offer a few suggestions. I think you probably have a better chance of becoming great at something you already do than adequate at something you don't currently do. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a familiarity with many different aspects of building products, but experience has taught me that going from good to great is more rewarding.
Secrets
Keep your idea a secret if you want, but most good ideas usually have my friends and family members scratching their heads about why I would want to build such a thing in the first place. Your idea will take far more than a slip of the tongue to kill it than someone overhearing it. Be careful of overly valuing secrecy.
How can I help
I probably can't help you if you send over an email that says "Do you want to hear my idea?" I don't have a single friend who doesn't love to hear a good idea. Will I keep your idea a secret? Sure, but as I've said before the idea isn't necessarily the interesting part, it's what you do with it. If I haven't dissuaded you, my email address is jason at shellen.com.
All this free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it, but it's served me well over the past few years and might help you too. It's grounded in observations, my own successes, spectacular failures, and even things I'm still learning on a daily basis. Now go make something great (that real people want to use too)!
Labels: tech
The doctor ordered "Back to the Future II" and bedrest
I've been sick with a cold. Not any cold, but some super human cold to end all colds. I'm finally feeling better and I've ingested my share of ibuprofen, Sudafed, codeine cough syrup, Tylenol PM, pho, hot tea, home-made soup (thanks Allie), but mostly a bunch of movies. My eyes have been hurting so a lot of the time I just listened to the movies.
Since last Friday I've re-watched (or listened to): Mission Impossible 3, Wedding Crashers, Singles, Batman Begins and watched for the first time: Hitch, Step Brothers, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. The re-watches were all good to great, the first timers - almost every last one of them horrible. I've learned that when you are sick, go with what you know.
Sequels in general make for great movie watching when you are sick, because plot details don't matter as much and the fact that it's not as good as the original won't matter as much. Plus you have probably already seen it a few times so you can doze off for periods of time and the story still makes sense.
I recommend Back to the Future II or BTTF II as we true fans call it. It's not as good as the first but definitely better than the old West flying train piece of junk that came out after it. Lot's of Biff getting his just desserts and Marty's girlfriend gets upgraded from nameless actress to Elisabeth Shue between BTTF 1 and 2. Not bad! Other things to love about this one mainly appear in the future, Nike self-lacing shoes, Mattel Hover Boards, hover cars, 3-D advertising and a fax machine in every room of the home.
For my money what's better than a movie about the future when being sick essentially puts you in a wormhole to next week anyway.
Try to avoid tense movies like MI3 or The Dark Night, I learned my lesson the hard way. Other recommended sequels would include: Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi.
Roads? Where you're going you don't need roads... Motrin maybe but no roads.
Labels: movies, plinky, sick
America needs Jon Stewart
President Obama has had his chance at picking a Cabinet and he's done a fine job so far. It's hard to pick from a crop of only real human beings so any fictitious characters are noted with an asterisk, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be great.
Jon Stewart
Secretary of State
Now maybe this one is too easy, but he does have a great sense of what's askew in America and could deliver bad news with a humorous delivery. Also his Bush impression kills me.
Clair Huxtable*
Attorney General
You remember Clair? She was the Mom on The Cosby Show but she was also a whip smart lawyer. Do you think she would let any of this crazy "Is it torture? It's not torture" stuff slide? Would there be any doubt that she would get to the bottom of who leaked an American spies name to the press? When Theo and Walter decide to listen to a recording of "Macbeth" instead of reading the book, who would set them straight? Clair Huxtable that's who.
Gavin Newsom
Secretary of Looking Fabulous
Currently Mayor of SF but that head of hair is too good to waste on one city. If there were any younger Kennedy men around that wanted anything to do with politics then Gavin might have competition. This does require creating a Department of Looking Fabulous, but with the success of all these make-over shows - I think America could get behind it.
Tina Fey
Chief of Staff
Smart, known for keeping her co-workers productive and funny. Is there anything she can't do? I think she would also be motivated to make sure she never needs to resurrect the Palin impersonation.
Iron Man / Tony Stark *
Secretary of Defense.
Technically I don't think the Iron Man suit would fit into a Hermann Miller chair in the briefing room. Of course this is America and we could probably get a government contractor to whip something up to the tune of $500K that would work for Tony/IronMan to use while be-suited. On second thought, let's just make him stand at meetings.
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