Comments on: Service for startups busts boardrooms, embraces blogs

By: Aymeric

Aymeric — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:11:59 +0000

For people who can’t wait for this tool to be publicly available, they can use http://ongoingfeedback.com for free.

Form circle of trusts, track your goals and experiments and ask for feedback.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 03:46:38 +0000

WIthout having seen the software, this sounds like a great idea for keeping boards informed and any others who are not part of the everyday operations of a business. However, even with interim updates, face to face boards are for far more than hiring and administrative details. I’m sure that it is difficult for young business to find/build effective and experienced boards or even to know what skills they need on a board. It is critically important for board members to have a good relationship with each other as well as the CEO/founders/executive team. Board members must be able to hold each other to account in their role of taking fiduciary responsibility for the company. That doesn’t happen through operational updates and regular virtual feedback alone.

That said, this is a critically important step towards facilitating communication and regular updates that allow the valuable face to face time around the mahogany board table (must admit that for all the board meetings i’ve attended I’ve yet to sit at a mahogany table!) to be as productive as possible. Good luck to the team and I can’t wait to see what they produce.

By: Sjoerd

Sjoerd — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:41:00 +0000

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the reply. Well, that already makes more sense, a centralized tool that would combine the best of Basecamp, Google Docs, Tumblr, Dropbox and Evernotes or something, actually sounds pretty awesome. :) Good luck anyway. I signed up for Beta.

By: Ben Mappen

Ben Mappen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:16:13 +0000

Hi Andrew – after Steve Blank’s talk (http://www.justin.tv/startuplessonslearned/b/286526299), a lot of startups started doing just that, Google Docs + private WordPress/Tumblr blog. And of the folks I’ve talked to, some find it quite effective, and free! However, I believe the tool we’re building will more strongly emphasize tracking what you’ve learned and making it super easy to get feedback from your investors and advisors.

By: Andrew Silva

Andrew Silva — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:46:02 +0000

But what’s to stop people from simply utilizing services already in place? I’m in the process of building a small start up, and my co founders and I just use Google Docs and a blog where most of the posts are kept private. That and Skype keeps us pretty connected. Centralization, admittedly, sounds cool though.

By: Mark Eissler

Mark Eissler — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:40:09 +0000

For a sec. there it did look like just a blog with better acl support. But if you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. The blog would just be one part of this platform, which could then be augmented by all of these other parts…like document collaboration, media sharing… The best ideas tend to be simple and this one’s no different. Why didn’t *I* think of it? Grrr.

By: Ben Mappen

Ben Mappen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:23:01 +0000

Hi Sjoerd. For the most part, you’re right, buuut, you’ll also be able to add/edit items directly on an interactive business model canvas diagram, keep track of which items are still hypothesis and which are validated learnings, AND link these items to individual blog posts. Based on Steve’s work and my conversations with entrepreneurs and investors, this is what they want for version 1.

By: Sjoerd

Sjoerd — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:35:08 +0000

I really don’t want to be a dick, cause I am a big fan of Blank’s work. Also, I completely subscribe the idea for start-ups to document progress by blogging e.g. Buuuut this “startup-building software” just sounds like a blog, with some privacy/security layer.