It’s been over two months since our recent launch.

It has been a wild ride so far, with interest and customers from most all the YouTube networks, traditional studios, and anyone making a livelihood on YouTube. We have also brought on many brick and mortar brands that are investing heavily [...]]]>

It’s been over two months since our recent launch.

It has been a wild ride so far, with interest and customers from most all the YouTube networks, traditional studios, and anyone making a livelihood on YouTube. We have also brought on many brick and mortar brands that are investing heavily in YouTube.

This is my second launch of a company and everything feels like it’s on a whole new level of professionalism and scale.

At this point, most of my energy will be going to the vidIQ blog, Facebook and Twitter account.

We have an incredible team, awesome product, and a very exciting future ahead! Stay tuned!

First time doing any sort of media in a while and gotta admit.. love talking video tech. Hopefully more to come on that front!

By now it’s no secret that I have been working on vid.io with my good friend Todd. For the next few months we are working with some select customers rethinking the entire video management paradigm.  Would love to tell more publicly, but going to keep our heads down till the [...]]]>  

By now it’s no secret that I have been working on vid.io with my good friend Todd. For the next few months we are working with some select customers rethinking the entire video management paradigm.  Would love to tell more publicly, but going to keep our heads down till the right moment. If you wish to discuss privately, my new email is r at vid.io.

For the last 6 years I have been sacrificing to grow Viddler to point it is at today: profitable, 25+ employees and growing.

It’s been a journey that has included: sleepless nights, building brand awareness, promoting other brands, organizing server growth, pitching, [...]]]> Have been thinking long and hard how I share this.

For the last 6 years I have been sacrificing to grow Viddler to point it is at today: profitable, 25+ employees and growing.

It’s been a journey that has included: sleepless nights, building brand awareness, promoting other brands, organizing server growth, pitching, organizing capture of viral videos, attracting customers, thuggie promotion, mockups galore, product management.. you name it.. all with 3 months of capital invested at a time out of Bethlehem, PA .

Two weeks ago, the board notified that my services were no longer required. Will still be a highly invested board member (update: resigned week or two after for personal reasons) but my role operationally as CEO/President is no longer. It put’s me in an interesting position as this wasn’t exactly voluntary. And a slew of questions have been keeping me up…

How much should I share on my removal?
It’s clear to me, I should probably keep my mouth shut. Am still a very large shareholder and it doesn’t do anyone any good to share my perceptions publicly with how/why this happened. This is hard for me as I am generally a very transparent person. I want to share the lessons I have learned from this. After the fate of Viddler is decided, I will probably be more public on lessons learned/etc.

What do I focus on next?
It’s very clear my primary passion still is in online video. All paths are pulling me in this direction, and will maintain an open mind with new opportunities here.

Where?
As much as I can try to justify it being in Bethlehem, PA doesn’t continue to make much sense. Am being pulled strongly a in direction of Silicon Valley. Will also be exploring opportunities out of NYC, Seattle, Philly, Chicago, Boston, Austin, and Denver. UPDATE: And as Jim reminded me can’t forget Reno!

—

Viddler was a long journey. Am excited for something new.

As Billy Disney (ex-viddler videographer) recently shared with me, “Time to get back to what you do best”

It shows the good, bad, lessons and future of the Viddler platform from a technical aspect. Some [...]]]> Todd Troxell, Systems Architect and friend did a fantastic job working with High Scalability to share what’s going on underneath the covers at Viddler.

It shows the good, bad, lessons and future of the Viddler platform from a technical aspect. Some folks might frown on this as TMI… I tend to side on transparency + honesty always winning.

Would love to hear your thoughts on TMI vs. Transparency FTW.

Now on to skydiving

Today, Colin criticized me on my choice of Twitter photo hosting solution as it included very intrusive ads next to them (plixi).

He told me that he personally blogs vs. Twitpic, capturing the long-tail on the content with Google. It was really something to think about as he was getting thousands of [...]]]>

Today, Colin criticized me on my choice of Twitter photo hosting solution as it included very intrusive ads next to them (plixi).

He told me that he personally blogs vs. Twitpic, capturing the long-tail on the content with Google. It was really something to think about as he was getting thousands of views on an old piece he did.

I didn’t want to blog as that would dilute the high value of this feed (please know I am mocking myself).

Anycase, after a quick Google, found a nice plugin by @michaeltyson. Recently, been using it and results are not bad. The bad side is Twitter clients don’t work with just anyone for previews. They really need to adopt OpenGraph like facebook.

What do you think I should do? Own my own Twitter photos or host them on Twitpic, Plixi or yfrog?

Consumerization of business is by far my favorite new tagline. It’s also known as “Consumerization of Enterprise” but screw that, it’s bigger then that. It’s all business.

Recently been hearing it on the interwebs.. on Techcrunch.tv introducing Bullpen Capital and then Techcrunch Disrupt.

It’s a new buzz [...]]]>

Consumerization of business is by far my favorite new tagline. It’s also known as “Consumerization of Enterprise” but screw that, it’s bigger then that. It’s all business.

Recently been hearing it on the interwebs.. on Techcrunch.tv introducing Bullpen Capital and then Techcrunch Disrupt.

It’s a new buzz phrase thats caught on but Jason Fried from 37signals was talking about this  wayyyy back in 2007. I personally remember hearing Jason talk about this at 2007 SXSW “we do extremely well in small departments inside of large enterprise”.

What this buzzy tagline is formalizing:
- new products becoming indistinguishable from enterprise apps
- reduction of large gatekeepers in the enterprise
- going directly to end users in companies
- consumer’ish startup price points
- self service FTW
- end of the IT department
- very low signup friction (google app integrations, etc)
- one hell of a marketing/customer penetration strategy  for growth companies

As Viddler has started as a consumer company and worked its way upstream to business services, this tagline is golden and plan on overusing it like Web 2.0 in 2007.

This really got me to reflect on last 5-10 years…

Google, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter never advertised early in the growth of their success.

They won peoples heart by offering such [...]]]> Today, I was on Pandora listening to some music, to find yet another LivingSocial ad.

This really got me to reflect on last 5-10 years…

Google, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter never advertised early in the growth of their success.

They won peoples heart by offering such a unique offering that they didn’t need consumer advertising. I put my 2005 hat on, and I remember at the conferences when advertising for consumer services was frowned upon as you should be able to capture users based on the quality of your product alone. Also, “the right type of people” (early adopters) signup when you are not advertising and feel more committed to the product.

It’s not only LivingSocial, new growth consumer companies have demonstrated more aggressive paid marketing levels including scvngr, Zynga, and GroupOn.

You can’t watch the superbowl or navigate an iPhone app without seeing an ad for these companies.

Is the cool “don’t need to advertise” attitude gone?
If so, what was the tipping point?
Did GroupOn 6B valuation change peoples psyche on this?
Have we reached hypercompetitive level for time to mass market that this is now required?
Is this acceleration a long-term trend or a short-term fad?

Not sure I have the answer but one thing has changed… Advertising is more accepted for consumer growth internet companies then it was a year or two ago.

Just watched 60 minutes, and have a quick comment:

As an Entrepreneur running a 20+ person, profitable, tech company: the logic around increasing $250k+ households from 33% to 36% hurting entrepreneurship and small business makes no sense to me as an entrepreneur in the process of growing a business.

Am [...]]]>

Dear President Obama -

Just watched 60 minutes, and have a quick comment:

As an Entrepreneur running a 20+ person, profitable, tech company: the logic around increasing $250k+ households from 33% to 36% hurting entrepreneurship and small business makes no sense to me as an entrepreneur in the process of growing a business.

Am personally no where near a $250k salary but if you told me that the government would take over 80% of my yearly revenue at $250k+, I would still do what I do because entrepreneurship isn’t about money, it’s about having the liberty to pursue something you’re passionate about. The government has provided a framework for me to do that and am appreciative for this. If it only means I have to pay 3% more at a much later date, so be it.

What has affected my startup, Viddler, that comes from the government has been the state ran organization: Ben Franklin Technology Partners, as they were one of our first investors. Viddler wouldn’t have existed without them.

Also, after reading much on different posts about the tax cuts, I know the upper-middle class has a different and valid opinion in expensive areas (NYC, Bay Area). Maybe you could figure a way to have it be more fair for households in expensive to live locations.

Best,

Rob

For the last 10 years, the most frustrating part of halloween for me has been the manilla costumes that go with it. Vampire/Zombie/Elvis/Gladiator/anything from costume store only open for 3 weeks a year. I [...]]]> Thursday 9pm
So it’s Thursday night, my friend Pat tells me about his NYC halloween party at his new appartment.

For the last 10 years, the most frustrating part of halloween for me has been the manilla costumes that go with it. Vampire/Zombie/Elvis/Gladiator/anything from costume store only open for 3 weeks a year. I just can’t show up in an ordinary halloween outfit this year. After googling around for some ideas, I bump into Angry Birds halloween blog which immediately appeals to my geekier side. I emailed the editor and they even sent instructions to help share how they did it.

Friday 11am
After sifting many sites find the only way to make this costume is by having it custom done. I have no sewing skills nor do I intend to pick up a new trade. I can barely take my clothing to the dry-cleaners consistently and I got Viddler to focus on.

Friday 4PM
I put out a post on Craigslist in NYC saying:

Quick, I need help with a costume party for tomorrow. Looking for the angriest of angry birds costume. If you didn’t know Angry birds is a very popular iPhone/Android app.

I also put one up in Allentown that got no responses.

Friday 5PM
Within an hour I get three responses. My favorite is from Gabriela titled “Maker for your Angry Bird Costume”. She’s already laughing from the post and is a Prop/Artist Stylist and is around same age as me. We go back and forth on email on price and design and come to $150 for two costumes. It seems market rate is around $100/costume and I explained to her my situation and was very considerate. Pay her $75 at that point via Paypal with expectation for rest to come upon delivery.

Saturday 11am
In a little bit of a panic Gabriela informs me that I should bring a backup costume just in case. Due to us going back and forth late Friday night all the fabric shops closed down.

I get a little worried but g/f has a backup devil costume and I can only assume I can find a costume last minute in NYC if need be.

Saturday 4pm
Bus leaves Allentown to NYC. Gabriela starts sharing photos of the costume half-done, which only makes me worry more, cause I know I couldn’t put something like these together in a few hours and baseball game starts at 6pm and party starts at 9pm.

Saturday 6pm

This looks like it’s still days from completion. Plus the red one isn’t done!

Okay, so not going to be dressed for the World Series part of the event but I should be okay as the real party doesn’t start till 9.

Saturday 9pm
Party has started and Gabriella has informed me she is in route. Should be there in 20 minutes. Luckily most people are fashionabily late but not the biggest deal.

Saturday 9.20pm
Gabriella arrives. We still hadn’t talked on the phone at this point. She is at the door in taxi holding two bags with costumes. We both hug and rejoice in the effort. I give her many thanks and she seems relieved that this is craziness is complete. Don’t even look at the costumes and give her additional $80 that I owed and we both walk away almost saying in sync “what would we do without craigslist!“.

Saturday 9.30pm-2am
The night’s a blast. Angry birds is a huge hit at the party especially for iPhone owners.

A few shot’s of the night:

What Now?
Not sure what will happen of the costumes. They were very well made. Maybe hold out for an Angry Birds gathering? Maybe put them up on craigslist? Save it for next halloween?

What I know for sure is that Craigslist rocks and it’s folks like Gabriela that make it so amazing. I am never going to buy a costume again from a retailer. Maybe this could be extended to pumpkins, decorated christmas trees, easter egg bunny costume? I do like making things, but I love the adventure of craigslist.

Going from a sprint and then switching into marathon mode mid race has had it’s challenges and changes in mindset.. Here’s some of it..

2006. Fresh out of Lehigh, 22 years [...]]]> I write about this, as I reflect on the challenge of personal time vs. startup time as Viddler turns into a 5 year+ activity.

Going from a sprint and then switching into marathon mode mid race has had it’s challenges and changes in mindset.. Here’s some of it..

2006. Fresh out of Lehigh, 22 years old, pushing on Viddler as a startup in the first year, it was 100% Viddler and everything else is including family and friends went on hold. I even stopped drinking a sip of alcohol for a year straight during this period. We raise minimal funds. With less than a $100k budget we launch Viddler.

2007. Second year, still 100%, yet I might have returned phone calls to parents back home in California and went out every month or so. Investors like growth but only commit to 3 months of runway at a time. Very stressful, but push hard and more committed then ever. I remember going to sleep at 2am and waking up at 8am during this time.

2008. Third year, like shingles falling from a space shuttle, it starts to wear down. Still very committed to Viddler in Bethlehem, PA but it’s hard to maintain a nice balance with family in California and no significant salary to take many trips back home to see them.  The 6 hour sleep schedule begins to take it’s tole as I drink 3 coffee’s and 2 Monster drinks per day… I have heart flutters. I see a doctor who tells me to sleep more and take less caffeine. Also during this period, I am starting to realize I have aged faster then any other point in my life.

2009. Fourth year, the hardest. It seems like a second ago I was in college and had many friends in arms reach. That all seems distant. Viddler needs the more focus then ever to get cashflow positive, yet family life needs attention too. True tension at it’s highest. I think many times to when I tore my ACL/MCL/PCL and came back for fourth year against doctors recommendation to play football. I can do this. Still not profitable. Investors are pushing for profitability and it’s been 3 years, of building 3 months at a time. It’s starting to take it’s tole.

2010. Fifth year, break profitability. It’s a relief. No longer beholden to the next round of investors. Still no expendable income for personal activities and employees around me deserve salary bumps more then I do due to shared sacrifice over last 4 years. I tell myself “if this becomes a big exit I can spend much more time with family/friends then ever before later in life”. Sleep schedule is nice though. I start to wake up when I want to and leave work when I feel I need to. I start running 5 miles a day, and get in control of my health.

2011. TBD

I don’t write this to vent at all. I feel very fortunate in so many ways to be where I am at today…..

To be honest, have been inspired by Zappos audiobook lately and the amount of self awareness and transparency Tony Hsieh provides. I write this to provide insight into what life has been like last 5 years so others may get a glimpse into the shifts in mindset as a startup scrappishly matures.

The new Learn More:

The Social Network brought me back 4 years ago to when the facebook, launch the next facebook hype was at it’s peak…

The go big feeling every entrepreneur was obsessed with.
The hype around launching facebook apps.

Times have changed. With all the big ideas/home runs taken, base hits are becoming more [...]]]>

The Social Network brought me back 4 years ago to when the facebook, launch the next facebook hype was at it’s peak…

The go big feeling every entrepreneur was obsessed with.
The hype around launching facebook apps.

Times have changed. With all the big ideas/home runs taken, base hits are becoming more popular. 37signals attitude has taken over especially for companies that are outside the valley.

Regardless though, watching this movie was good.

It was energizing and inspirational.
It brought the coolness back to blogging (hence this blog post).
It also brought the sexiness of staying focused.
It also showed the challenge of scaling as a CEO.

All-in-all a must watch for a digital entrepreneur.

Brian Brushwood from Scamschool would be proud of this….

Was able to prank Backblaze on Failblog yesterday by submitting a screenshot generated by a modified URL on Backblaze.

Allow me to share how I did this:

I realized when I checked my [...]]]> Am a huge fan of Failblog and Backblaze.

Brian Brushwood from Scamschool would be proud of this….

Was able to prank Backblaze on Failblog yesterday by submitting a screenshot generated by a modified URL on Backblaze.

Allow me to share how I did this:

I realized when I checked my download status with backblaze they left the variables in the URL to come up with a length

https://secure.backblaze.com/online-backup-speed.htm?os=mac&mb=63264&throttle=50&kbitspersec=4264

For 63GB still have 24  days to complete the backup and it’s all visible in the URL:

So all I did was change the total space to something very high (630 TB) in the URL:

Submitted to failblog, and bam.

It would be cool if Backblaze said something more graceful, like. “WOAH,  you have a ton of stuff.. it’ll be a few years before this is complete.”

It’s also been a privileged to work with such a great team that’s focused at delivering the best video technology.

The latest hire, Billy Disney, is first full-time hire outside [...]]]> For the last few years, it has been a privilege to work with folks leveraging viddler technology such as Gary Vaynerchuk.

It’s also been a privileged to work with such a great team that’s focused at delivering the best video technology.

The latest hire, Billy Disney, is first full-time hire outside that development/support workflow, and with the Viddler Spotlight series, has begun highlighting the love affair and “privelegedness” we have with our customers:

And with this amazingness, Billy humbly bakes himself as folks to be privileged to work with.

Did a video for it.. the first I have done in a LONG time which is the reason why am so rusty

We do put much of this stuff on the blog and on Twitter but she was referring to the more traditional marketing techniques: Sponsoring events, parties, [...]]]> In a recent strategic conversation someone recently said “wow, you guys should be marketing this more” when referring to # of customers, big accounts and profitability.

We do put much of this stuff on the blog and on Twitter but she was referring to the more traditional marketing techniques: Sponsoring events, parties, keynote speaking, press releases, email newsletters, etc.

This brought me to defend staying low key. Allow me to share reasons….

Benefits of Staying Low Key:
- Competition doesn’t pay attention (we have features implemented better then our competitors and they still haven’t caught up)
- You wouldn’t believe the amount of people buying into video hosting that don’t attend big shindig conferences or give two cents about press releases.
- Save time and money. What matters and what sells is usually how good your product is and how fast you are innovating. Also if your not spending a wild amount on marketing you can offer your customers with a more affordable product.
- Other companies do operate like this and succeed. For instance, has anyone seen Getclicky? Two guys building one of the best analytics toolset in the business. They are low key, no mainstream marketing strategy, and after investigating have a outrageous # of customers.

This isn’t to say we aren’t looking to improve our marketing strategy. Just a slight argument for staying under the radar.

And I will keep the company name I work for out of this, cause I know I have google alerts setup on our competition. #stayinglowkey

The focus was around Control, Customization and Branding viddler offers as a video hosting service. What do you think, did those points come across?

The Good:
- Lower CPU requirements
- Open standard
- Works great in mobile environments, keeps power usage low

Having aged a few years, and having helped make many of the buying decisions for Viddler, I could never disagree more.

First off must say I have a ton of respect for the Veoh team, Dmitry, and the product itself. It was always incredible seeing the pure amount of technology come out from [...]]]> Yesterday, Dmitry Shapiro, founder of Veoh, put together an incredibly respectful post going over the in’s and outs of Veoh going bankrupt.

First off must say I have a ton of respect for the Veoh team, Dmitry, and the product itself. It was always incredible seeing the pure amount of technology come out from the Veoh team.

Also, being a co-founder of a video site myself, I can’t imagine how painful it must have been getting stuck in court instead of working on the product and going bankrupt because of that. Not sure I would have handled it as gracefully as Dmitry did.

Allow me to take a step into memory lane…

It is 3 years ago and the race of the video destination. Veoh, Revver, vMix, vSocial and the 800 pound gurilla… All of us competing with features, community and spending a ton of money to do so.

What I want to share is how Viddler has lucked out into building built a sustainable business where others have failed:

1. 1/50th Raised in Funding – in total Viddler has raised less then $2M in funds. Not on purpose either.. We really just couldn’t raise more funds then this. Whether it be bad location, crowded space, or me being first time entrepreneur, this is tiny round compared to the sites we were competing with. What it forced us to do is stay small, control our budget, and get profitable based on lower overhead. Today, Viddler is 16 people. Everyone on board are rockstars at what they do and we are hiring at a slow and steady pace keeping the quality high.
2. Market Maturity – video marketing adoption, personal branding, viewers watching video.. all of this has increased to where we are at a point where our product makes sense, and even worth paying for.
3. Bandwidth Costs Affordable - three years ago, the price per GB of bandwidth we were paying was 50x what we are paying for now. If we were paying what we did 3 years ago we wouldn’t have a sustainable business today.
4. Video Advertising with No Ad Sales Team - three years ago you needed to sell directly to advertisers to have a chance at selling preroll/overlay inventory. Now with the many different ad networks and standardization with VAST compliant networks it’s all about optimization. The $250k/year + commission VP of Ad Sales is no longer needed.
5. English Focus – We haven’t had an international “non-english” presence at all. If it’s questionable, we can’t interpret it,  and overseas it’s not allowed on Viddler. This keeps costs down. Veoh was hosting alot of Anime. That content is expensive to delivery.
6. Bethlehem, PA – An hour from Philadelphia and two hours from NYC, we might as well be based in the middle of nowhere. This has helped us focus on the product (instead of the local scene), stay under the radar with competition, and hire extremely talented people (no competition in Bethlehem) at significantly more affordable rates then California, Boston, or NYC.

Again, all the respect to Dmitry. Wish him the best in his next venture, and hope this conveys how we are still around, and going to be around for the long haul.

A few Viddlers have asked me why this can’t be free for everyone, as Youtube does.

This is a good question, giving away everything for free is [...]]]> As you may have read on the viddler blog, or watched via Andrews amazing demo video, Viddler analytics has been launched for Business Service customers.

A few Viddlers have asked me why this can’t be free for everyone, as Youtube does.

This is a good question, giving away everything for free is a very expensive business decision to pursue. We are focused on profitability and are certainly turning a little 37signal’ish.

To give you a little sniffy sniff.. check out what analytics looks like for me:

via MIT takes the wrappers off autonomous, robotic helicopter with intelligent navigation.