I was on a panel today with Marc Andreessen, one of my entrepreneurial heroes, whom I'd never had the pleasure to meet in person (even though he's an investor in Twitter and we'd talked on the phone and the electronic mail). One of the things to like about Marc, besides his impressive height and general friendly demeanor, is that he's so damn articulate.
I'd like to be more articulate. One way to do that is to write more. Also, I'd like to blog more, which seems a good way to write more. But since I'm not sure what to blog about, I'm going to take a page from one of my other entrepreneurial heroes and put the work on you.
Ask me a question. Any question—what do you think of my web site?; how do you like my hair?; what time is it? Post it as a comment to this post. I'll answer the ones I feel like answering (as new posts).
This will be embarrassing if no one wants to ask me anything. But let's see how it goes.
Update (11/2/07): I'm shutting comments/questions off for now because I have enough for a while, and I haven't even read them all yet. Will post again when I need more/new ones. Thanks!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Ask me a question
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45 comments:
Ev,
Long time listener, first time caller. Love your stuff.
You say that you have a hallucinatory optimism. How do you temper that when disappointed? What sort of practices do you have to make sure that you aren't defeated when disappointed.
I'll take my answer off the air.
Of your entrepreneurial endeavors, which has been the most difficult, entertaining, fruitful, surprising, inspiring?
What was it like a few years back when Blogger was down to just you? Not so much the first few days, but when those days stretched on into weeks?
Hi Ev,
Same as @jeremy, first time caller. I know a bit about your background.
But can you write about how Blogger started, got bought out, leaving Google and now Twitter?
Thanks
- Twitter addict
Ev, Love reading your blog. You don't post that often but I enjoy reading when you do. My question is, could I get a 0% interest loan? (Only half-kidding...hey, you asked!) If not, any other recommendations for getting a $40k student loan to disappear? Finally, what's the "internet" going to look like in 10 years? Thanks.
Ev,
I'm constantly intrigued by the power of creating things for the sake of creating things...and seeing what can happen when monetization doesn't *need* to be priority number one from the get-go. I think you might have some interesting insight on priority in startup ventures, and how to balance business and creativity. Balance is something that a lot of us seem to forget, getting wrapped up in the fast paced...everything, and somehow you always seem so down to earth, despite the gravity of your surroundings. Please...tell us more about this balance, maybe a tip or trick you use to keep things on the level?
As someone who makes the internets, you have a body of work that's intangible and ephemeral. Do you worry about this or do you relish it?
Why should web app authors take funding if they've already built something and have a bunch of users? What are the advantages to that? Drawbacks?
At 03:47 PM on May 24, 2007, you twittered "facebook is making just the right move at the right time. how many different types of apps will thrive? will be interesting to see."
Five months out, with lots of action in the marketplace around the notion of "social apps", what's your perspective on the topic? Will Google's openness prevail? Will Facebook's first-to-market advantage stick?
Do you still plan to launch more products through Obvious or focus on the success you're having with Twitter? If the former, what can you tell us about the new project(s)?
I've always wanted to know .
Maybe you'll never tell?
If you could leave what you are doing now and switch to Nonprofit work, what would you have done?
I've always been curious about the conversation between you and the shareholders/investors of Odeo, Inc when you first wanted to sell everything to Obvious Corp. I'm particularly interested because I've never heard of an owner buying back all the shares from a VC; presumably you didn't give them the 10x return they typically look for.
Did you frame your approach as a failure (as detailed in your talk at The Future of Web Apps) with a buyback being the best way out for your investors, or did you frame it in some other way?
Did the VCs quickly agree, or was there a lot of negotiating? If the latter, what were some of the additional points you brought up to convince them? Did the terms / ownership stake prevent the VCs from firing you? If so, do you think they might have chosen to fire you instead of sell their shares, if that had been an option?
Any insights into the ease or difficulty of buying back your shares for what I assume is much less of a return than they originally wanted would be interesting.
Ev,
lurker on your blog for many months. I read your founders at work story and commented here-> http://www.grid7.com/archives/102_faw-8-evan-williams-of-bloggercom.html
biggest question i have is about this direct quote from your interview:
"At this time I was very much excited about the idea of democratizing media and that’s what mattered. It mattered more than the company, really."
While it's supremely noble to continue to pursue the grand vision when it's down to just you and they're turning the power off, I can't help but think that "history is written by the victors." How many folks go down with the sinking ship and never live to tell a Founders story? I'm not advocating giving up in that situation and it's killer that it ended up working out for you but just wondering if your advice is always "stick it out until the bitter end no matter what if you believe in the cause" or if you ever advocate giving up, and if so under what circumstances. Recently read Seth Godin's book "The Dip" and that gave a new perspective on quitting- wondering what your take on it is having made it through desperate times w/ Blogger and survived.
sean
Hi Ev,
I was wondering what your most important skill are, and how you continue to development them with or without a direct business opportunity in mind?!
Thanks for this great initiative of asking of questions also.
Barry
I second this question, with a slight amendment...
Why should web app authors take funding if they've already built something and have a bunch of paying users? What are the advantages to that? Drawbacks?
Dude, let me be more old-fashioned: what is your favorite book? You're like one of the modern heroes, so I would like to know that.
Otherwise, keep on the great work ;)
Ev - What sparked you to move from mid-america to the Bay Area?
How do you take your coffee or tea?
articulate : adj. 1. Endowed with the power of speech.
We wouldn't like to write so much. Also, we wouldn't like to read much more. Our eyes feel tired, you know. But we'd like to SPEAK more. So, what about an "odeo-twitter"?
In 10 sec. we can tell much more than in 140 characters. It's the same feeling with SMS, sometimes I hate to write SMS and I'd like to use my phone as a walky-talky.
I mean the possibilty to post audio twits, "mini-podcasting". What do you think?
What is your favorite restaurant in SF? For lunch? Dinner? Breakfast? and why?
Ev,
I'd like to expand on Geo's question. We're currently building a SaaS company in Omaha. Andreessen says if you want to do technology in the US, you need to be in the Valley. I've challenged this in a post here http://heartofmatters.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/a-startup-saas-company-in-omaha-and-pmarca/, and I'd love to know what you think. Would you ever come back to NE and start a new company here?
You want to write more? Write about how you've met your wife. That's more interesting than all this start-up mambo-jumbo.
What motivates you to work/keep building products? (i.e. since you don't need to work no more with the blogger sale).
Hey Ev,
Dang it! Half the questions I want to ask have been asked already, so I guess that leaves me to this question:
Now that Google has bought out Jaiku, how to you plan on beefing up Twitter to handle the competition from not only the 800 pound Gorilla, but from copy cat clones as well?
PS
My next question is, would you consider keeping the comment box open on your blog?
Hey Ev
We met once, at foo camp I think. I've read your blog for a bit now. I like it shortness. I might like it with some long-ness, but we'll see.
Here's a question for you:
We've been quietly working on a website project for a few months. An beta group of a few hundred users has really gotten into it and now we want to share it with a lot more people. What should we do?
Also, how many times have you been to the bathroom in your entire life?
Whats the number one threat to the success of Twitter?
Looking forward is more interesting than looking back, because it puts you in the same boat as the people trying to apply your experience to their own situation. So generally, I'd like to hear some more predictions.
In those dark blogger days, how did you cope, how did you manage to push through mentally?
Almost the same as question 2
What brought you into the entrepreneurship game? And what advice would have for those seeking to start their own ventures?
Hi Ev,
I've been following you since pre-Google Blogger. I'd like to know your thoughts on how blogging has changed over the years, especially given your experience with Blogger when it started and now with Twitter.
Make it a great day!
- Daniel Johnson, Jr.
What are you good at? (At what are you good?)
You've mentioned Millenium as a Twitter staff favorite. Just curious if you're vegan (they're rare, you know).
I hate to add to the questions about start-ups and all that, but oh well, here it is:
I have an idea for a web service that I know would be successful, and I would love to make it happen. I'm not, however, a developer by any means. How would you recommend that someone in that position, who cannot create the site themselves, attempt to create such a site?
What is your favorite food? Oh, and did you end up with a new hobby?
What are your thoughts regarding the social graph, aggregation of this content, and current/future ability to search these massive and growing networks of content to find what is relevant to an individual?
If you were guaranteed honest responses to any three questions, who would you question and what would you ask?
Ev, one more from me: from all the stuff you learned the hard way via Blogger and Twitter, if you had a Delorian to transport back 10 years and could tell yourself one thing, what would it be?
sean
Back in January 2002 I wrote an article about Blogger and blogs, back when blogging was new-ish. Now I tweet.
What's next?
btw, there's an anonymous "guest" over at CurbedSF, saying mean things about Twitter, its lack of success and its staff.(comment #8)
Sounds like someone with a dull ax. What would you like say to him?
What parts of the mundane, everyday routine of life inspire you to create web apps that are anything but mundane and routine?
I invented a design for automatic money, to make new business models feasible, including selling digital content at low prices. The key innovation is letting online financial accounts reproduce (creating children accounts, grandchildren, and family trees), and inherit services and other options that successive owners can change -- allowing accounts to evolve through grassroots, practical use. Accounts can be born as packages of financial and other services, including automatic transactions that happen with no human attention.
For example, smart URLs (accounts) will allow anyone to sponsor online content, by purchasing prepaid downloads in bulk. Sponsors can add their own recognition, advertising, political, or other messages, and target these messages through social networks instead of through search. End users will just click to download free -- instantly paying the artists. The URLs will sell sponsorships in each user's choice among many different languages. And they can propagate indefinitely in social networks, accumulating paid sponsorships as long as they can find public interest.
I published details of this design rights-free for open-source or commercial development, at www.smart-accounts.org -- and would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on the project.
有什么 有什么网址 有什么新闻 有什么博客 有什么论文 有什么图片 有什么音乐 有什么搜商 有什么帖客 天气预报
Thanks Ev -- Both for answering my question and for creating a world where this kind of dialog is possible. Mark.
How does twitter make money? After all, sending me all those txts must cost something?
How did you and Sara meet?
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