The Idea

This post is about that fascinating period in a start up called "the inception of the idea". It's a long post so as a public service to this blog's readers I shall make a quick summary of the topics addressed:
1. the origins of the idea
2. the mental masturbations about the idea
3. disappointment #1: someone else already thought about it
4. reinventing the concept
5. disappointment #2: I don't have what it takes to make it happen
6. cry for help (and a shoulder to shed tears on...)

Here it goes then.

Once upon a time (not quite a long long time ago nor in a galaxy far away but almost feels like it) I had an idea: what if we developed a service that allowed each person to broadcast live their life on the web 24/7? What if we give miniature cameras with mics that would be hidden in spectacles or necklaces and they could broadcast and record every second of their lives to forever remember?

It sounds a bit crazy and in fact it is. This idea, which by the way is not really exclusively mine, was developed together with a small group of MBA colleagues during a quite extraordinary workshop led by the consulting firm Fjord. During this workshop we were asked to explore different (futuristic?) realities and design a product/service that fit that world. We had one restriction: it had to be something possible to create with current technology. 

"Our world" was not a nice one: it was a world where economic collapse had been followed by the complete disaggregation of community values giving rise to an "Orwellian" style autocracy. Suddenly "TV ME", as we called it, starts to make a little more sense, doesn't it?

After the workshop we kept on discussing this idea for a while and thought that, with some adaptations, it might actually be a good idea for our world of the present. People have been sharing on social networks much more than we thought they would ever want to. So why not live videos of moments of their lives? 

For a couple of weeks we enthusiastically fantasized about zillions of features and applications as well as the issues that would likely occur (wife to husband: "honey, your camera was offline all day today. what do you have to hide from me?"; husband:"rsssffssffsssrr...."). The more we talked and thought about it the more interesting it sounded. And in the secrecy and privacy of my head I dared dreaming about forever changing the world with the TV ME service...

Then I made some research and found some geek had published an online article on April 2007 comparing the relative merits and demerits of 6 providers of video live streaming over the web. Ouch! Not only the idea was not innovative, it had already been implemented 4 years ago by at least six guys. 

A quick chat with our section tech geek Guerson (aka Jersson) yielded yet another punch in the stomach: "yes, it's interesting it already exists. I think we can do this with my Justin TV account, let's try". 45 seconds later our conversation was being broadcast - live - on the web from his i-phone. 

And as we looked at ourselves in the big screen of our classroom (live via the web!...) I thought "that does it, I'm ditching TV ME!".

However, as anyone who as had a "brilliant idea" before and that has fallen in love with it knows, it is not so easy to let it go. A few weeks later I had convinced myself that it was not important how many ideas you have but rather how you make them happen. After all, facebook was not the first social network and, as I learned from my consulting days, implementation is key. So I went back to thinking it was a good idea.

I partnered with a colleague and talked to an entrepreneurship teacher about it. Everyone we talked to seemed to have an interesting perspective and encouraged to go ahead to at least refine the concept and make a plan around it.

The partnership did not last long for irrelevant reasons but my enthusiasm started to fade anyway as I realized that I did not have around me the skills necessary take it forward. Specifically, I needed to find a tech guy that  could drive the technical aspects of the service and at IE this person did not exist.

And so the whole thing faded away again....

It's now 10 months gone since the first time the idea popped up and, as anyone who as had a "brilliant idea" before and that has fallen in love with it knows, it is not so easy to let go.

And just a few days ago Julio Alonso from weblogs, SL came over to one of our classes and shared his experience about starting his own internet start up. Weblogs, SL is, very simply put, a creator/manager/agglomerator/monetizor of blogs. They started off small in 2005 and now they are the main blog publisher in spanish languages with reference blogs on gadgets, on cars, on fashion,... 

One question I have for Julio is: back in 2005 when you first started, how many "weblogs" existed in Spain and in the world? And how many blogs existed about gadgets? I suppose currently the number is much larger but is the number of competitors something that takes your sleep at night? Is the number of competitors at all relevant?

I know that was already 4 questions and not only 1 but I will push it a little further and ask you another: in your speech you mentioned that at some point you were not a merely a "content provider" and that technology was actually an important part of your business. Where and how did you gather the technical capabilities for Weblogs?

I cannot resist finishing off with a video about ideas and making them happen. It is an old advertising campaign from a mainstream consulting company but it is a very good one!