Running a startup feels a little like hang-gliding…

Generally speaking boot-strapped start-ups are all between 60 days and 9 months from guaranteed bankruptcy, and at the same time about to shoot up the hockey stick and make hundreds of millions in revenue.  Of course, neither is actually true, but when you are constantly looking at your financial reports and projections, it’s hard not to feel that way.

And in that mode, it feels so much like it must feel to hang-glide (disclaimer, I only fantasize about it, but have never done it). But in a start up, you have to start buckling your straps as you are running, being chased by wild boars.  So, maybe not quite the same thing.

If you get yourself buckled up, hit the updraft and don’t get gorged, you will sail up and the world will fall away below you in glory.  If you don’t buckle, you fall to your death below. And if you get impaled on the tusks of a boar…  not pretty.

It’s just the nature of it.  And why start-ups are fun, and rewarding and terrifying and not for the feint of heart.  There is something strange about people who hang-glide, and something strange about entrepreneurs.

But, like all things that have a rush and transcendence to them, there is a lot of work that must happen before, during and after.  Thinking, preparing, training and working out the kinks.

And there are friends to be made.  It can be said that to know an entrepreneur is to know all entrepreneurs, and I think to a certain extent that is true.

I like how how it’s talked about in this video

Social Networking Marketing is not free or easy…

Since RVibe is an Internet based media company, we do a lot of work in the social media space.  And, when I a say a lot of work, what I mean is a lot of work. I have long believed there is a common (mis)-perception around social media (and I’ll lump “viral” programs into this as well) that it’s an easy, cheap, and quick way to get exposure.

I’m here to say – it’s not true.  Now, yes, there are cases of hits that strike the web. But at this point, it’s got to be fairly well known (although from the investment pitches I have seen lately, not among entrepreneurs) that you just can’t predictably create viral products .  And for that matter, attempting to leverage social media to make a product react virally does not work reliably either.

And moreover, to actively use a Social network based marketing program, it is very very labor intensive. For a startup alone, we’re talking at least 2 full time staff, even if they are really really good.

Finally, I think people are starting to realize that –  Jeremiah is a good one for a clear view of this so what’s a start up to do when “viral” marketing programs, based on Social network products actually require time and money?

Same thing as they  should always do:  plan accordingly and spend on marketing where their audience is.

I was wondering when Grooveshark would get sued….

Grooveshark

And it happened. Reports are coming (WSJ) in that EMI is suing Grooveshark for copyright infringement.

I have a fondness for Grooveshark – they had a model super similar to ours at RVibe for p2p legal desktop sharing.  Except that where we did file validation and restricted downloads to explicitly licensed tracks (but not non-interactive streams), they allowed them. And, I asked our lawyer over and over – does their model of “putting the paid money into an escrow account” work? His answer over and over again – it’s still infringement with out a licensing agreement.

So, while I admine their desire to move the industry forward, from a business intelligence and risk mitigation standpoint, they kind of blew it.  At up-to $125k an infringement, and will “millions of tracks”, they are in for a very rough ride.

And where other companies (eg: Imeem and their Warner (re)investment) were able to covert the legal morass into a licensing agreement, knowing how the major labels think, Grooveshark has too many technical/model hurdles (not to mention financial ones) to overcome to secure a deal.

Songkick – just another UGC site, but for music

I guess that title could point to lots of stuff.  But here is another version of a social network for music.  This time it seems like Digg Meets Delicious, Meets YouTube, Meets Last.fm, Meets Jambase, Meets BroadJam.

Wait, now that I say that, don’t Jambase and BroadJam and Last.fm do basically the same thing already, but a little better?

Content may be king, but I think that trusted content is the real king.

On a new tag line for our company

Well, we’ve been sitting on “RVibe: Just a little music between friends” for a long time.  I actually really like this tag line and it’s served us well in our social music jukebox phase.  And it’s got some romance to it too.  My wife and I came up with it after we dropped the original name (Muizzium – which sounded too much like an nasal drug of some kind).    But, like most good things, it must be retired.

Since we’ve whole hog moved into live streaming and on deamand (audio and video) distribution, we need a new tag line.  A good one.  One that captures the essence of what we do, but does not limit us so much that we can’t do anything more with it.

So we brainstorm, we come up with words, we throw out words.

“Immersed:”  I love this one because it captures everyting about a social music experience and a live (full screen) experience.  Unless you’re a SCUBA diver, and then it means getting in the water.  Oops.

“Fully Engaged”.  Not only is ‘engaged’ over used, but what the heck does this mean anyway and what does this company do?  No clue.

So we’re trying on a whole bunch of different things. And trying out the thesaurus; which you need to see this visual map of words.  Very cool.

We produce, broadcast and distribute high-qulity real-time and recorded video and audio for paying consumers and businesses.

Any thoughts?

Getting back to blogging….

After an extended absence, I am back to blogging – we’ll see if I have anything worthwhile to say in the days to come.

Sonific goes under – more on the way I am sure

well, Sonific is closing its doors.  And I have to say, I’m not suprised.  There are a large number of startups doing the user upload thing to try to avoid the copyright infringement issue, but the record labels are starting to take a more aggressive stance against them and against linking companies like Seeqpod.

The copyright law, for all it’s flaws and problems is nothing if not clear:  knowingly making a copy of a copyrighted work for commercial purposes is punishable by up to $150k in fines per infringement.  Now, some companies are trying to get out of that by taking the view that their users uploaded it, they just provide the platform.  But that doesn’t really work.

Meaning, without the platform in place, the infringement couldn’t happen. So, unless you place safeguards against infringement, you are providing the means to do it.  Some will disagree with me, but look at it from an investor risk assessment:

1. I can assume the risk and hope I don’t get sued
2. I can assume the risk and hope someone with deep pockets buys me
3. I can assume the risk and hope that the system changes

Since most of these are very unlikely to begin with – the second most likely – but not really, an investor is not likely to pursue investment with such a company.

Thus – when services like this start to run out of money – which they will – more will go belly up.

In our view, while the copyright law does not make much sense for our new music order out there on the internet, it’s far better to play ball with the copyright holders then it is to see them in court.