Comments on: Odeo RIP, Hello Obvious Corp http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/ Trusted Insights and Conversations on the Next Wave of Technology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:03:27 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Profitable Paltalk Gives VCs Their Money Back http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-960027 Profitable Paltalk Gives VCs Their Money Back Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:28:20 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-960027 <p>[...] often. The one example that springs to mind is podcasting startup Odeo, where CEO Evan Williams gave his investors their money back to have the freedom to change strategy and corporate structure into what would eventually become [...]</p> [...] often. The one example that springs to mind is podcasting startup Odeo, where CEO Evan Williams gave his investors their money back to have the freedom to change strategy and corporate structure into what would eventually become [...]

]]> By: A Brief History of Twitter http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-924129 A Brief History of Twitter Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:44:39 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-924129 <p>[...] Dom points out overtime, much of the original team from Odeo was let go including Glass. Odeo became Obvious Corp., and well rest is history. Now the company is rumored to be valued at $250 million and on its way [...]</p> [...] Dom points out overtime, much of the original team from Odeo was let go including Glass. Odeo became Obvious Corp., and well rest is history. Now the company is rumored to be valued at $250 million and on its way [...]

]]> By: Vaibhav Domkundwar - Better Labs http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71056 Vaibhav Domkundwar - Better Labs Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:09:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71056 <p>This is awesome for Evan, and I totally believe in the model and everything he outlined on his blog post about Obvious.</p> <p>Its funny how I thought, I was reading my own thoughts as I read through his justification, as we have build exactly the same model at Better Labs (http://www.betterlabs.net) since Dec 2005. Most importantly, we have build this completely out of our Pune, India office which bring a lot more scalability for the experiments - what we call as the 12-24 month web service, beyond which the successful ones will thrive as independent companies. dealplumber (http://www.dealplumber.com), indiagoes (http://www.indiagoes.com), iNods (http://www.inods.com) are already in their 1.0 versions.</p> <p>However, there is a BIG CHALLENGE of how do you follow through after your 1.0 version to drive traffic and customer acquisition, which will make or break this model for everyone who attempts it.</p> <p>Its re-assuring though, to think someone else who is a lot more accomplished thinks the same.</p> <p>All the very best to Evan, and his team.</p> This is awesome for Evan, and I totally believe in the model and everything he outlined on his blog post about Obvious.

Its funny how I thought, I was reading my own thoughts as I read through his justification, as we have build exactly the same model at Better Labs (http://www.betterlabs.net) since Dec 2005. Most importantly, we have build this completely out of our Pune, India office which bring a lot more scalability for the experiments – what we call as the 12-24 month web service, beyond which the successful ones will thrive as independent companies. dealplumber (http://www.dealplumber.com), indiagoes (http://www.indiagoes.com), iNods (http://www.inods.com) are already in their 1.0 versions.

However, there is a BIG CHALLENGE of how do you follow through after your 1.0 version to drive traffic and customer acquisition, which will make or break this model for everyone who attempts it.

Its re-assuring though, to think someone else who is a lot more accomplished thinks the same.

All the very best to Evan, and his team.

]]> By: Chris Yeh http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71055 Chris Yeh Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:49:23 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71055 <p>As someone who has accepted VC funding a number of times, I can tell you from personal experience that taking money makes it much harder to experiment and try different things.</p> <p>Once you've convinced people to hand over millions of dollars to fund one idea, don't expect them to react well when you tell them that, er, you were wrong about its potential, and that now you want to try something completely different.</p> <p>The one problem with the self-funded approach is the absence of an outside perspective--we entrepreneurs are overly optimistic by definition and that's not a good recipe for wise investments.</p> As someone who has accepted VC funding a number of times, I can tell you from personal experience that taking money makes it much harder to experiment and try different things.

Once you’ve convinced people to hand over millions of dollars to fund one idea, don’t expect them to react well when you tell them that, er, you were wrong about its potential, and that now you want to try something completely different.

The one problem with the self-funded approach is the absence of an outside perspective–we entrepreneurs are overly optimistic by definition and that’s not a good recipe for wise investments.

]]> By: dave http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71054 dave Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:34:17 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71054 <p>funny, i was telling my son about twittr and he didn't get it - why would you post an sms to an online log if the real utility is sms via phone without a pc requirement? personally, i kinda like it if they could do more in the way of dodgeball…</p> funny, i was telling my son about twittr and he didn’t get it – why would you post an sms to an online log if the real utility is sms via phone without a pc requirement? personally, i kinda like it if they could do more in the way of dodgeball…

]]> By: Bryan Mason http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71053 Bryan Mason Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:25:51 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71053 <p>Congrats to Ev, et al. Nice move.</p> Congrats to Ev, et al. Nice move.

]]> By: Dorrian http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71052 Dorrian Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:40:18 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71052 <p>That's funny - I was all set to say in my comment "Congrats on such a bold move in following the heart!", and then I too fell victim to Om's handheld line and started to wonder what was the bigger feat. In all seriousness, congrats to Evan and the team!</p> That’s funny – I was all set to say in my comment “Congrats on such a bold move in following the heart!”, and then I too fell victim to Om’s handheld line and started to wonder what was the bigger feat. In all seriousness, congrats to Evan and the team!

]]> By: Prashant http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71051 Prashant Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:36:12 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71051 <p>Odeo is a typical example of </p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect" rel="nofollow">Second System Effect </a></p> <p>First we saw it with Sabeer bhatia and Arzoo , than with Riya and Munjal and now its William and Odeo . I admire the candor and honesty of the guy . it is very rare in this PR Driven world . I am sure twitter will be a hit .</p> Odeo is a typical example of

Second System Effect

First we saw it with Sabeer bhatia and Arzoo , than with Riya and Munjal and now its William and Odeo . I admire the candor and honesty of the guy . it is very rare in this PR Driven world . I am sure twitter will be a hit .

]]> By: Mathew Ingram http://gigaom.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71050 Mathew Ingram Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:13:07 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/odeo-rip-hello-obvious-corp/#comment-71050 <p>Holy crap, Om -- you filed all that from a handheld? Man, your thumbs must be sore.</p> Holy crap, Om — you filed all that from a handheld? Man, your thumbs must be sore.

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