Because of Truemors, I’ve learned a lot about launching a company in these “Web 2.0” times. Here’s quick overview “by the numbers.”
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0. I wrote 0 business plans for it. The plan is simple: Get a site launched in a few months, see if people like it, and sell ads and sponsorships (or not).
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0. I pitched 0 venture capitalists to fund it. Life is simple when you can launch a company with a credit-card level debt.
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7.5. 7.5 weeks went by from the time I registered the domain truemors.com to the site going live. Life is also good because of open source and Word Press.
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$4,500. The total software development cost was $4,500. The guys at Electric Pulp did the work. Honestly, I wasn’t a believer in remote teams trying to work together on version 1 of a product, but Electric Pulp changed my mind.
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$4,824.14. The total cost of the legal fees was $4,824.14. I could have used my uncle the divorce lawyer and saved a few bucks, but that would have been short sighted if Truemors ever becomes worth something. Here’s a breakdown of what I got for this amount of money.
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$399. I paid LogoWorks $399 to design the logo. Of course, this was before HP bought the company. Not sure what it would charge now. :-)
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$1,115.05. I spent $1,115.05 registering domains. I could have used GoDaddy and done it a lot cheaper, but I was too stupid and lazy.
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55. I registered 55 domains (for example, truemors.net, .de, .biz, truemours, etc, etc). I had no idea that one had to buy so many domains to truly “surround” the one you use. Yes, I could have registered fewer and spent less, but who cares about saving a few hundred bucks compared to the cost of legal action to get a domain away from a squatter if Truemors is successful?
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$12,107.09. In total, I spent $12,107.09 to launch Truemors. During the dotcom days, entrepreneurs had to raise $5 million to try stupid ideas. Now I’ve proven that you can do it for $12,107.09.
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1.5. There are 1.5 full-time equivalent employees at Truemors. For me, it’s a labor of love.
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3. TechCrunch wrote about Truemors 3 times: the leak, the leak with a screen shot, and the opening. I wish I could tell you I was so sly as to plan this. Michael Arrington thought he was sticking it to me. Don’t stop, Michael!
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261,214. Much to my amazement, there were 261,214 page views on the first day.
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14,052. Much to my amazement, there were 14,052 visitors on the first day.
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$0. I spent $0 on marketing to launch Truemors.
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24. However, I did spend 24 years of schmoozing and “paying it forward” to get to the point where I could spend $0 to launch a company. Many bloggers got bent out of shape: “The only reason Truemors is getting so much coverage is that it’s Guy’s site.” To which my response is, “You have a firm grasp of the obvious.”
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405. Because some people had nothing better to do, there were 405 posts on the first day.
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218. We deleted 218 of the 405 posts because they were junk, spam, inappropriate, or just plain stupid. Interestingly, half the bloggers complained the site was full of junk. The other half complained that I was deleting posts. :-)
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3. A mere 3 hours went by before the site was hacked, and we had to shut it down temporarily. I was impressed. The hacker who did this might be the next Woz. Please contact me if you are.
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36. A mere 36 hours went by before Yahoo! Small Business told us that we were inappropriate for this service because of our traffic.
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$29.96. Our monthly break-even point was $29.96 with Yahoo!
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$150. Because Yahoo! evicted us, our monthly break-even point quintupled to $150. If you’re interested in buying a monthly sponsorship for $151, you’d make Truemors profitable. :-)
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2. A mere 2 days went by before Truemors was called the “worst website ever” by the Inquirer.
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246,210. Thank you God for the Inquirer because it caused 246,210 page views. Yes indeed, there’s no such thing as bad PR.
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150. A week before we launched, if you typed “truemors” into Google, you would have gotten 150 hits.
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315,000. Eleven days after the launch, “truemors” had 315,000 hits in Google. I can’t figure out how this can be, but I’m not arguing.
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4. I learned four lessons launching Truemors:
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There’s really no such thing as bad PR.
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$12,000 goes a very long way these days.
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You can work with a team that is thousands of miles away.
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Life is good for entrepreneurs these days.
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I recently saw a presentation called Meet Henry and loved it, so I asked its creators, Ethos3 Communications, to help me create a presentation based on these experiences. Here are the slides that go with this speech.
As part of the growing world of Truemors, there are two Truemors add-ons to announce:
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Trickler is a standalone application that provides a ticker-tape interface to Truemors.
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AffinityBar is a Truemors toolbar for FireFox and Internet Explorer.
Here’s the bottom line: Whether Truemors succeeds or not, I learned a helluva lot. One thing is for sure: no entrepreneur can tell me that he needs $1 million, four programmers, and six months to launch this kind of company. With products like WordPress, MySQL, and Salesforce platform, things are a whole lot cheaper and easier these days.
For not a whole lot of money and time you can get something out there and see if it works. If it does, hallelujah: there’s no better time to raise money than after your prototype is scaling up. Indeed, you may not ever need to raise money. Fyi, there is no worst time to raise money than when you have nothing but an idea. Actually, there is a worst time: When you’ve burned through the first million, and you haven’t shipped or gotten any dogs to eat the food.
I end with a truism (as opposed to truemor): There’s only one way to find out if your idea will succeed, and that’s to try it, so go for it.
PS: We’d love to have a few more “truemorists.” These are folks with “accounts” at the Truemors site. Anyone can post via voicemail, text, email, and online submission, but truemorists can create, edit, save, and delete their truemors. Also, their names appear in green to distinguish their posts from those of non-truemorists.
True True True! One will not need millions of $ to launch a business online. I’m happy that you are a believer in this too.
Here is my formula on launching a new business (based on observation and a bit of practice):
Good people network (to start the wave) + An idea (good/bad) + Passion + Persistence
Its all about dropping a stone into a lake, create ripples, ride on the wave.
I still wonder why you spent so much money on Truemors (I agree that it does pay off) – logo+Website could have been done for a very very less cost!
Guy,
I don’t see any stats regarding text messaging costs (i.e. common short codes). Who did you partner with to receive SMSes? I see you need a keyword – so, someone else is footing the $1000/month short code bill.
But, you must be paying something to receive and/or send each SMS???? Do tell, inquiring minds want to know.
Guy, I’m disappointed.
I have a dozen of your best “Art of” articles bookmarked, have gone to hear you speak several times, but I can’t figure out for the life of me which of your own Top 10 lists you were integrating when you built Truemors.
By way of parable:
One time my 2-year old took off his loaded diaper and gleefully showed it to me.
“Daddy, look what I made!” he said. You’d never seen a smile so wide.
He was proud. Truly proud. After all, he had made it all by himself.
His sheer excitement about his involvement in the project, from concept to completion, was enough to mask for him all the signals that otherwise would have told his brain of the putridity and repugnance of the final product.
The difference, is that he didn’t know any better.
You say that you weren’t a fan of remote teams trying to work together on one product. How did you come to work with Electric Pulp or had you previously had a relationship with them?
Sorry to say it Guy, but I think you’re kinda out of touch with the whole “web 2.0” world if you think $12k is cheap to launch a site like this.
I think the whole thing could have easily been coded and designed for well less than $1000 using a site like elance.com or rentacoder.com
55 domains?!? Are you kidding, lol.
You definitely did not need to buy that many. At the absolute most you only need the .com, .net and .org
Any more is just a complete waste of money.
And $5k for legal fees?! What exactly was required here? Just a TOS?
For the majority of entrepreneurs out there (who don’t have tonnes of cash to literally burn) the process usually involves:
1) Idea (hopefully something decent that isn’t likely to be just a fad)
2) Domain (just the .com)
3) Code yourself a beta version or hitup rentacoder.com and pay very little for a decent beta version
4) Spread the word
5) If people like it and traffic increases, then start looking into have more features (and more stability) coded up
6) Then put some ads up once you’re getting some good traffic figures
7) Maybe buy the .net and .org
8) Maybe run some cheap marketing campaigns
9) More marketing on a shoe-string budget
10) Hopefully get to the point where you might start looking for funding and employees
Now try doing it without those 24 years of schmoozing, then you’ll prove something worth talking about :-)
Agreed, in today’s world, you can start a company and start doing something for very little cost, even less than what you spent, I believe.
That’s a good and bad thing, though. The good side is, yeah, the accessibility and the ease of creation. And how easy it is to be creative and spread your ideas, etc.
The downside is that there means there is a lot more clutter out there today. A lot more junk that people put up. When there’s no (or little) cost required to start something, it means that a lot of worthless things get started as well. And it also means more ‘competition’, in a way. With more variety, it’s hard to stand out.
The accessibility is good, I just hope it’s put to good use by people.
55 domains?
What for, exactly.
My site runs on one .net domain (.com was taken), and there’s no problem.
The 3 major would have been totally enough for a new venture.
I am glad you tried and went for it.
But the site is getting the traffic more because of your reputation than any marketing efforts.I wonder if Techcrunch would have even considered truemors,if it were not you.
Yes definitely it’s getting easy to fail cheaply these days.
Though I agree with Nathan Waters about startup costs, I must thank you for sharing this. There are still a lot of people who are clueless about the whole Web 2.0 business and this is a great way to demonstrate how it can be done. Then again, Guy Kawasakis-in-the-making would have to do it quite differently.
Latest Norg and Social Software/Media Must Reads
Guy Kawasaki: By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for…
Ok. Then here’s my story:
I’ve launched ApolloHunter.com on the May 1, 2007. It’s a site to share Adobe Apollo based applications.
I coded it completely myself in just 3 weeks and I’m online now since 4 weeks. So far the site had about 30.000 unique users.
I launched at zero costs, with zero reputation and zero experience (I’m 23 years old).
Some bloggers talked about me (eg Ryan Stewart) but not the big guys (techcrunch, mashable, gigaom,…) though it can still happen ;-)
– Alex
http://www.apollohunter.com
The site I started cost me a total of $2,200 to build. I also think you overspent on certain things but you did prove your point. That is why when I read about all this web company’s taking in tons of venture money, somtimes I am confused as to why they need all that money. Unless they think they will eventually be the next youtube, flikr, etc…
By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalis
Guy Kawasaki’s Blog – Great Stuff
How to Build a Web 2.0 Startup by the Numbers
Based on his experience building Truemors, Guy Kawasaki shows us how to build a Web 2.0 startup by the numbers.
In total, I spent $12,107.09 to launch Truemors. During the dotcom days, entrepreneurs had to raise $5 million to try stupid ideas. Now I…
Guy, what you are writing about? Business? Could you give us some information about income? I think that business is making money, not spending it.
You spent $20.27 per domain? Too stupid and lazy is an understatement. Anything more than $10 is stupid and lazy for a single domain, much less a bulk order like 55!
Linkpost | 6.4.2007
• Bubbles on the brain– Marc Andreessen disputes the “Bubble 2.0” talk. • Polar Clock– Amazing. Found on Digg. • Palm Is Said to Sell Stake to Equity Firm in Revamping– To Elevation, of which U2’s Bono is a founding…
whatever happened to the 10/20/30 rule for ppt decks?
Great post Guy. I love learning about this behind-the-scenes info. Although, I know a few bright college coders (myself included hehe) that could have done the development for cheaper and not relied on WordPress.
Guy,
Joe asks a great question, and one I really hope you answer. You’re laying out all the costs, but it seems like the most expensive ongoing cost is the short code (and associated text messaging costs). If you can provide some info about that, it would be great.
Thanks.
Items of Interest: 2007-06-04
Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine – Inside look at the Google Search Quality department in this behind-the-scenes article in the New York Times. You will learn something new about The Algorithm. Also see the followup from Matt Cutt…
Guy,
I stopped reading as soon as you equated PR to publicity — again. The two terms are not interchangeable. They are not synonyms. Their use in such a way is completely uninformed.
Morgan
Guy,
The slide show needs to be reviewed. The slides are out of order.
B
**********
Which ones? I looked quickly, and they seemed okay to me. Maybe they aren’t in the exact order of the text of the post, but that’s not crucial.
Thanks,
Guy
In spite of your frequent haranging regarding user experience my first attempt to post on Truemors stunk- no info on how to create a link to anchor text on the post form. Without a link what’s the point? Fortunately once I finally figured out how to contact someone there they were helpful but the site assumes html knowledge which is definitely not an assumption for a general info site (non-techie).
Yes you paid too much for everything but you’re well known and they probably saw you coming..;-)
I think its going to be a hit but keep refining. It can be a lot better.
Great post. I am impressed most by the “scrappiness” of Truemors. When I first saw that it is based on WordPress, it “changed my whole latitude” about what people are doing with WordPress.
I think the “no such thing as bad PR” myth survives as well as it does not because it’s true, but because people mistake good publicity for bad at first glance, and then are relieved and awed when they discover it was actually good.
Because getting linked to with critical words from The Inquirer is good publicity! Accusations of murder, rape or incest? Not so much.
No offense, but this is what I hate about web 2.0. You thought nothing about a useful application or how to build something. You literally scrapped something together just to generate hits from bad PR and get money from advertising. In all of your discussion above, never ONCE did you discuss anything of value to the user.
The traffic will die down. I am sure I was counted as a few hits – only to see how stupid the site was, and to see how slow it was (again, you didn’t put any thought into the usefullness of the site).
Point is, you got ripped – big time. This site will go nowhere days or weeks from now. It will slowly die off, and you will have wasted your money.
Not only will you lose money on this, but my guess is you will lose some respect too.
Trying to point something out as ‘easy’ – when it is a horrible example, doesn’t really say much. Anyone can launch a horrible site with little money and no time. The people who really understand web2.0 take the time to do it right. They take the time to think through the user experience and the value being added. They take the time to understand usability. They take the time to build the application for a solid launch, even if they have to refine later.
You went it with no care for the users, a seemingly very stupid idea, and threw together open source packages and call it a web2.0 site (only to have slow traffic, get booted from your hosting, and get hacked)? Looks like you still have a little bit to learn.
I sure hope no one really thinks this was a good idea, just because you were behind it.
Look deeper people.
You don’t have your personal opportunity cost listed. What is your time worth?
I am happy to become the sole sponsor of Truemors for $151/month and make the site profitable.
Seriously, send me an email. Would make for great press:
News flash: “Rumors Are True! Truemors Turns Profitable”
Send me an email if you’re interested.
Wow, so much negativity. I think it’s great that someone made a list of how easy it is to launch a web-service. Sure, you can overspend, but when you’re talking about these amounts, I don’t think it matters much.
And since words are so cheap on the internet these days, I always wanted to see a site where people could put their money where their mouth is. I guess your site sort of fulfills that function.
Regarding the difference between PR and publicity, I wonder how much publicity Digg made, vs. how much PR it had? Incidentally, I guess this post counts as publicity?
Good luck with it!
Why did you have to register 55 domain names? Are you that paranoid?
Oh! and you missed www.truemors.st , quick go grab it.
yeah i was a visitor as well on the first day, for 10 seconds. thing is, it sucks. It isn’t going to make any money, doesn’t have a business plan, and you need a lawyer on retainer to keep it going. So you spent $12000 on self-promotion, or on research for this blog article.
What a great article!
I think it’s a really good example of how inexpensive creating a site can be. A lot of people overthink this and assume they need a ton of money.
Thanks for sharing some details about your experience, but there’s one big difference between Truemors and something that the average Joe could do, which is that most of us don’t have your name recognition to generate the buzz (and traffic) that Truemors did.
If nothing else, this post has inspired the bean counters to reveal themselves.
This is an order-of-magnitude argument here, having seen many start-ups raise (and blow) $x million.
Interesting also how visceral the attacks and critiques are of the site itself. Gosh, it may need some usability enhancements, but it’s leagues ahead in terms of design and function. I suppose this is an expression of the anxiety and pressure in our fiercely competitive 2.0 market.
Really Good Article!
One need not start with thousands of $$s. In fact, some software/IT business can be kicked off with a meager amount. Once the scaling part comes into the pictures, VCs, Ads(in case of Guy) comes for your rescue.
Posupati Gadgotra
This is a great blog post. I wish more people were as open with their data.
Unfortunately, I’m willing to bet a lot (heck, probably all) of the popularity around Truemors is due to your own celebrity. You, Seth Godin, or any similar name in this area could release almost anything and have at least an initial success.
That out of the way, you’re still on the money with this post, but I kinda hope not too many people figure it out the way you have, otherwise we’ll be even more overrun with basic Ruby on Rails apps ;-)
Astonishing Economics 101 for Web 2.0 Naysayers
If you still don’t believe the world is being turned upside down and i…
“Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site”
What, no Blink?
Read that again in 12 months and tell me if you don’t cringe with embarrassment.
***********
You’re kidding, right? You don’t get that this title is completely sarcastic?
Guy
As many people already stated, I too believe that the infrastructure for Truemors could have been developed for less. Gosh, he could even have bought a few less domain names. However, all that totally misses the point. It is all about expectation and impact. Guy could have taken in a small fortune to get it all done. He could have easily delivered on the expectations of any VC and yet spent way too much money doing it. Yes, he’s Guy, and yes, he has an advantage. So have many other people. But rather than exploiting those advantages towards the classic steps of starting something, Guy shows us a way that’s inspiring and simple. Ask yourself this question: if Guy would have pitched his $12,000 investment to Kleiner (no pun intended), what would the meeting have been like (other than the 30-point slides?)
I think you spent way too much money. Truemors is an etxremely simple app … I could bang it out in maybe a day, stable and all. $4,500 is a lot to pay for a WordPress modification.
I think on the contrary, building something like Truemors is much simpler than you’ve made it out to be, and certainly much cheaper. But then again, you haven’t yet demonstrated why anyone would want to build something like this…in that I don’t see this being at all successful.
Wish you the best of luck though. :)
********
You’re saying that in one day you could make a system that accepts blog posts from email, voicemail, SMS, and online posts?
This I would like to see. Show me a site by tomorrow that can do this.
Guy
Guy,
I did say maybe a day. I didn’t count the SMS and email functionality (forgot about that)…so, 2 days.
I’d love to accept the challenge, but I do work (I am at work right now), which is by no means a cop-out…I think any half-competent developer will be able to attest to what I’m saying.
Hell, Yahoo! have HackDay, where people build even more complex apps than that, in literally a day – check it out.
Sorry to double-post, I just wanted to retract my statement about $4,500. That’s a perfectly reasonable price for including that functionality.
I do not retract that I can put it together in a couple of days though. :)
But why the $4k in lawyer fees? Wouldn’t it be just as good to use The Company Corporation or another service — I presume all you did was incorporate.
Please, someone explain to me why you really need to pay high-priced lawyers to incorporate. You’re just filing legal documents. Is there really that much to get wrong?
***************
Sabat,
It was much more than incorporation. There’s a lot of expenses that one can avoid spend later by not using the cheapest method to incorporate.
Guy
Os números do truemors.com por Guy Kawasaki
Os quatro coisas que Guy Kawasaki aprendeu com o lançamento do seu sítio web, truemors.com:
1. Theres really no such thing as bad PR.
2. $12,000 goes a very long way these days.
3. You can work with a team that is thousands of miles away.
4. Life i…
Guy, you spent $4,500 to develop all that? Are you serious? I’m going to contact electric pulp based on that recommendation, but I have a fear that you got a deal because they wanted you as a client.
I think all the criticisms are fair but don’t take away from Guy’s overall point. My question is what kind of adbuy would my $151 get me?
Paul, email me
“I paid LogoWorks $399 to design the logo…”
Dang Guy, I would have designed it for free as a thank you for making the original Mac happen.
What about your personal credibility? Didn’t that play any role, at all?
http://blog.amusecorp.com/index.html/108
What we can learn from Guy Kawasaki’s “Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail Social Media Site” venture
I have been watching the development of Guy Kawasaki’s new venture, Truemors, from the sidelines for the last couple of weeks, fascinated by both the business idea and the reaction in the blogosphere. He took a subtle approach to the
Even if this does completely fail Guy, you got your moneys worth education wise into launching an online business – you did spend years of your life writing books etc, so you had an easier time then some getting some PR – I am wondering if you ever thought of launching it without using your name just to get a better idea of what other entrepreneurs have to go through. It could make for a very interesting book/blog when you do a final reveal a few months later.
Jon
Guy, you may want to register the 56th domain (.cm) otherwise you’re putting money into Kevin Ham’s pockets…
Launch: Silicon Valley 2007 Tomorrow; Guy Kawasaki Preview
It is interesting to see that Breitling is the only display ad at this point. Long-time followers will note that Guy has been a big supporter of Breitling watches, so it was nice to see them “paying him back”, so to speak.
Guy thanks for sharing the numbers – very good stuff. However the schmoozing/tech celebrity factor in your case is so valuable that the other numbers are not the relevant value in this equation. An unknown starting a startup would have needed to spend x00,000 more than you to get the same buzz for their project.
Why don’t you *secretly* do another project, forsaking the Kawasaki buzz machine, and compare results. THAT would be a great marketing experiment.
I don’t think that I can TOP Ray’s comment… so I’ll just leave you with this…
http://www.walkenonweb20.com/2007/06/truemors_a_litt.html
Interesting post, Guy.
But quite honestly, the external functionality of Truemors reflects the minimal level of capitalization that you put into it ($12K.) What you have is basically a glorified/niche classifieds site. I could have built the thing out for you in a few days, for even a fraction of the pittance that you spent.
Most of the entrepreneurs that I see trying to raise $1M w/4 developers, et al have functional requirements that far transcend those of Truemors. I suppose there are exceptions.
My two cents … good post, though. The difference between 2007 and 1997 is night and day.
Cheers.
Scott
Loved the article
but am thrilled with the responses.
Having presented my share of post implementation reports, the responses are always the same…
-Those questioning whether the success is sustainable
-Those still thinking its a bad idea because they don’t personally buy/use the product
-Those claiming they could have done it better/cheaper/faster
and
-Those thinking the learnings can’t be transferred to other projects
Thank you for letting me know that I’m not alone.
Hello Guy,
Now you’ve killed an industry. How will web-design consultants justify their costs to their clients now ?
Seriously speaking : it’s a given your name helped getting TechCrunch speak about Truemors, however I’m convinced that anyone would be able to gain such visibility, should she or he find the interesting story.
Just a matter of time, indeed.
Which would be a no-brainer now that… Truemors does exist : post your new-business idea as a rumor, and boom, let the word rolling.
Last : I’ve been working for a TV Productions firm lately, creating an internetTV station for teenagers. Thanks to the ready-to-use platforms available out there since a couple of months, launching your own TV station on the Web costs almost nothing – save the domain name, legal stuff, etc. Make it a full UGC User-Generated-Content, grab some live channels here and there on the cyberspace, and you even don’t have to spend money to buy programs at the beginning.
Guy – fantastic recount of the startup. You’d make a lousy bureaucrat, where the heck is your process? Oh, that’s right, this was lean from the start!
I genuinely don’t understand where all the negativity is coming from. I’m shocked. Anyway, Guy, you’re an inspiration. Keep doing what you’re doing and keep writing about it too! Ignore the commentators; that’s all they’ll ever be.
I have to admit, I’m sorely disappointed that legal fees represent 39.84% of your initial costs (not to mention having to hunt down all remotely interesting domain names).
Lawyers and insurance salesmen are costing this country more than it’s worth it. Geeks should rule the Earth and roam free.
Nice job, otherwise!
My “Truemor” that references this post is gaining traction. Guy I think it might be helpful for you and your other luminary pals should “seed” truemors with more juicy pieces’ o’ real wisdom like this in an effort to boost interest in the project.
It’s truemor, Guy had no plan
I thought I was being a little heretical when advocating that Web 2.0 startups bootstrap without formal business plans but it turns out that Guy Kawasaki did exactly that with Truemors — I wrote 0 business plans for it. The
Guys:
Great show! You are a “Guru”!! But one question that intrigues me-
What’s the world’s problem you are trying to solve with “truemors” and how can you change the world with it?
Manoj Misra
biggest load of toss i ever read! 12k to launch that cpappy blog, Ha! why are people diggin this, are people going insane ?
Hi Guy,
Can you share what the legal expenses entailed? I am not talking cost breakdown, just what details did you feel required sound legal advice?
Thanks!
Hoe Guy Kawasaki Truemors bouwde en lanceerde voor EUR 9.000
Misschien heb je er de afgelopen tijd iets van gezien, een nieuwe site, Truemors.
Vandaag legt Guy Kawasaki uit op zijn blog hoe hij Truemors is gestart; By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-…
Guy –
How much would I have to pay you to project manage the creation of my site for me?
That means choosing the vendors, making decisions about UI/designs, etc., working out the details and deciding where to spend those precious dollars? My guess is that your hourly rate would bump my $12K price tag a bit!
The formula I use is:
Executive level expertise (here Guy Kawasaki + legal specialist)
+
Templatized wisdom (here WordPress)
+
Affordable muscle (here Logoworks, ElectricPulp)
My experience in helping to create these types of sites is that the $12K price tag for legal specialist and the 2nd two items is spot on.
However, 7 weeks of Guy Kawasaki’s time to be my General Contractor???
Thanks for the great post, Guy.
Guy,
Great post (especially point #15). We all are seed planters…you’re getting the harvest you planted.
Beautiful!
Guy Kawasaki and Truemors
Ever hear the name Guy Kawasaki before? If you’re at all involved in the tech or marketing industries,…
#27 because you can.
long way from “think different”.
Good luck, Guy I guess more things change (the world) the more they stay the shame, sorry same.
Guy,
Merci beaucoup!!!!
Your blog’s amazing! I dunno how I found it…but boy am I glad.
You always have something interesting to say.Is there someone else out there helping you come up with these great insights..or can you read my mind??Hmmm
Never took time to leave a comment before..so guess this is where I say..Hats off to you!!
Bravo!!
I second the request to elaborate a bit on the 4K for legal fees. That would be really helpful.
You know, for us geeks, getting such a site up and running (doing all the tech work ourselves) is pretty easy, but it’s the legal stuff we have little to no idea about. It would be especially cool since you mentioned in a comment that there are some mistakes you can make in the beginning that might cost you money later, so it would be great if you could tell us a bit more about that!
Many thanks in advance! While truemors definitely isn’t for me personally, I think it has potential, and I wish you all the best for your project!
awesome post, Guy.
Everyone is thinking about how easy it was for Guy to launch the site with his name.
True, it was certainly easier.
It cost him 12k to launch it, and it might no generate any revenue.
But think about how much publicity HE got out of this site. If you know what he charges hourly, you’d know that this investment was worth it 10x just if he can just increase his hourly rate by 10% because of that.
Guy, congratulations to your taking advantage of your name for your site (no irony intended, I really mean it), but even greater congratulations to your awesome SELFmarketing!
thanks for showing us how it goes…
Links for 03/06/2007
Been busy this week so blog posts have been light. Try and do better next week, in the meantime here’s some links to play with; Guy talks about launching Truemors on $12k. Whilst I’m sure it wouldn’t be quite as
When you’re ready to launch another one, look me up.
I bet you I can double truemors traffic too, within a month.
I honestly don’t understand what the site is useful for. Did you ever think about an ‘About’ page?
****************
There is an About page. You get to it by scrolling down. The link is in the right sidebar.
Guy
Any reason for such excessive legal fees in set-up? I’m quite new although probably should seek to understand more about legal ramifications in site development.
Thanks
It’s worth investing on a web 2.0 site.
Jenny
http://www.spaml.com
Awesome post Guy, you are so right, it is very easy and cheap to creat social websites these days.
I can’t load truemors.com right now for some reason, but…
I want to echo the sentiment that there is a big difference between “building a web 2.0 site for $12,107.09” and “launching a company in these Web 2.0 times”.
Take blored.com, my Rails learning project, which I assume is the same magnitude of complexity. Cost – my free time, and the web hosting was a gift, so it adds up to roughly $10 for a domain name. That’s the “building a web 2.0 site” part.
I could spend the $5,000 in legal fees, but that still wouldn’t mean that I’m “launching a company” – nobody knows who I am, so I either have to work 10x as hard promoting the site than I did coding it, or spend a helluva lot more than the $5,000 to get the initial buzz – neither of which is really worth it for Blored (maybe for my new project).
Web development is still fundamentally a kludge, but it is getting easier and easier… what’s not getting easier is having your voice heard over the multitude of other hopefuls competing with you for clicks and buzz. (the other part of the equation – having that brilliant and innovative idea – is probably remaining constant).
I totally agree with Guy on this one. I live in the Montreal area and with things like joomla can go far.
http://www.templatestaff.com
Truemors bombed. Is Guy losing his touch?
Decluttering the Feed Reader
Like sweepin dust bunnies out from under the bed:Victor Davis Hanson. Like any great his…
The Web and Barrier to Entry, more on that Flat world.
This is about a recent post from Guy Kawasaki about his experiences in starting a new site based on use provided content. The basic premise is the stats on his new site truemors.com. The biggest shock to most people was that the total cost of the si…
With $12,000 I would trip to the moon! :-)
You Guy tell us how to make a site with 12 grand, I tell you how to make a site with $26.85 bucks or less, that is what I’ve spent building the site of my experimental book where every page can be dedicated to anyone who means something to someone (www.iloveubook.com).
And that’s 12k because you overspent A LOT (55 domains??? 399 for a logo??)
By the way, the site is off by now… did it actually ever went live again?
I guess the most important asset was really the “hey, it’s Guy’s” effect. I’ve worked on a couple of web 2.0 projects already, and getting “the buzz” is always the hardest thing to do…
I’m an entrepreneur-to-be, trying to muddle my way through somehow:
1. I have 1 startup idea.
3. I spent almost 3 years planning for it. (I know it’s crazy to spend time in planning an Internet startup, in the era of “everything is so rapid, agile, and 2.0.”)
1.5. I think my idea is about Web 1.25 to Web 1.75. It’s too primitive to be Web 2.0 and too democratic to be Web 1.0.
Here is the list of what Guy didn’t do:
1. I wrote 1 business plan for it, which consists of just 1 page.
1. I started 1 blog (heraldy.org) to pitch my idea.
8. 8 visitors to the blog wished me luck.
0. Very simple. But I haven’t got any investments and supports yet. (Please don’t laugh. Can anyone help?)
“there is no worst time to raise money than when you have nothing but an idea.”
Ok, I can’t disagree.
Anyway, the development cost ($4,500) encouraged me a lot. It’s very cheap. But it’s too cheap, isn’t it? Did the total cost include UI design? I just can’t believe. I for one think it’s going to be at least $15,000.
I really wonder how much I’d have to pay Electric Pulp to make the same “Truemors” again.
Truemors, Numbers,WordPress
Post title of the month, perhaps the year, so far is Guy Kawasakis By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09. Here are some of the numbers he provides:
Number …
Yes, it’s true that you really don’t need millions to build such a website. I have launched a Digg-like website for blogs for under $20!!! Check it out.
Site is down now ?!
12k seems too much. I would design my own logo. (free). i would also only purchase one domain. you overspent on the domains.
Guy Kawasaki, Truemors, and Why it Matters
It’s hard to focus on the very important point Guy Kawasaki makes as he lists the costs of Truemors.com amidst the clamor of the so-called industry elite complaining about the Truemors site itself, or, even more bizarre, wondering why legal
True, you don’t have to spend that much, far from it. I launched planenews.com in 2001 for a few hundred dollard. Now, if you Google “Aviation news,” it appears on the first page (most of the time). I still need to learn to make it more profitable, but it pays half the rent!
Gil.
I wonder how many people who yell that it’s too much money actually ever have been involved with running a business. I have the feeling that most still live in the basement of their parents…
12K is peanuts for setting up a business, 4500 USD for a programmer is peanuts as well (unless he/she had only to glue some OSS together). It’s about a week of programming.
While it’s great you spent such a small amount, you’re also sending an odd message here: it’s not what it costs to build, so much the length of the payback period, risk/reward ratio and the follow-on costs that an entrepreneur should be concerned with…
http://www.leveragingideas.com
3 – the amount of times i tried http://truemors.com/ before giving up. “problem loading page”.
May want to add a cost bracket for digg proofing successful sites ;)
(not really as its been done 1,000 times before)
Ok, great concept.. Great way to get a name.. Howard Hughes once said “any publicity is Good publicity”
Wikipedia – Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of a subject
Why not wait until later for all those domains?
Guy, I guess this might offend you, but lately it seems you’ve been investing in some bad ideas. The idea for your new site is “okay”, however the layout is so terrible that the first time I saw the site, it was so annoying I skipped the article that brought me there and closed my browser tab.
I’m in the valley, I have an idea that will cost less than this, and can “nearly guarantee” that it will bring 20-30million in the first few years.
I don’t have the follow through for it, but I do have a 5 page omnigraffle file, and lots of mockups ;-)
Contact Me.
By the numbers
Read how Guy Kawasaki built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09.
…
good for you!
Similar to Guy’s views and experiences from launching a prediction markets start-up in Greece: http://gtziralis.com/post/2963098
You’ve proven you can start a web2.0 site for under 15k? WTF. Are you serious or are you just in your 30’s and senile?
Most “successful” web2.0 sites get off the ground with less than $1,000.00. Truemors will be a graveyard in a month… might as well throw in the towel now.
Impressive :D my congratulations ;)
Wie man eine Web 2.0 Seite für unter 13.000 USD launched
Ich habe heute einen interessanten Beitrag auf How to change the world gefunden auf dem Guy Kawasaki in 26 Punkten erklärt, wie er sein Startup truemors.com für nur 12107,09 USD gelaunched hat.
Auszug:
3. TechCrunch wrote about Truemo…
As Buffet says: “Price is what you pay, value is what you get” – Guy, good work for just doing it and not sitting on your bum dreaming about it……good for you!
Nice idea but $4,824 on legal fees is a waste of money. That would be enough to even launch the site.
I prefer http://www.picli.com – that cost $0 to build, by 2 english guys
Guy,
I look at your effort in two ways. One way is as an inspiration to other entrepreneurs, which I believe was your main intention. And for that I applaud you greatly. You are and have been an inspiration to many and I’m sure your post will inspire many people to overcome the initial hurdle of just getting started (which can be psychologically huge!). Now, the second look at your effort is on the results. I went to the website and at the top was a very offensive comment on a religious figure, and a bit below there was a link to some very shady site. I’m a tech entrepreneur and I spend years/hours on my work. My idea of a business is as old fashioned as they come and it involves giving meaningful, good value to my stakeholders. If at the end of the day technology does not advance society towards a better way of intelligently interacting with greater understanding for one another, then it won’t be worth much. I wouldn’t tolerate such offensive stuff even for a few dollars more. I know you can’t control the behaviour of your users but at least make the censoring tools more effective. Already the scores of these offensive entries have gone down yet they are still up on the first page.
How to Save Truemors
Poor Guy Kawasaki, he wanted to create a social rumor based web site called Truemors but instead created a tumor. He gives us all the details in a blog post yesterday in very typical Guy fashion. For anyone who has read Guys books youl…
Why did you have to spend so much on legal fees ?
http://hindustan.mobi
http://visible.mobi
thanks for the info
Can You Afford To Build A Business?
The real question should be…can you afford not to? Guy Kawasaki, author of our favorite start up “manual” Art Of The Start and the very quirky Rules For Revolutionaries, has published the total costs for launching his bigger than life…
Love the low cost VC free DIY Co. Hate the “everything goes website”. Looking forward to the modified version. (current one is truemor 0.2?). Hopefully, it is just a version for test the water… not the grand vision.
Best wish.
Interesting numbers – but totally irrelevant!
The whole point of business is to make money, not how carefully you spend what money you have!
It would seem to me that Web 2.0 is all about hype – getting cheap eyeballs and selling them!
Could you repost in a month or so and let us know when you’ve started making money?
Interesting project your got there. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
One feature I noticed is missing on that site is user registration. Not only I believe it would have made it more popular, but also you would have had less issues with spam and inappropriate content.
$4,824.14 for legal fees…
What did the lawyers do for you? Did they come up with your terms of use? Do you have a privacy statement? Do tell!
How I Started HireAHelper.com for$3700
Guy writes about starting a company for a little over $12k.
Thats a great article to read if you looking to spend 3 times as much as I did. I developed HireAHelper.com from an initial investment from a couple of my friends of $4000. Not $4000 a piece…
I used to think Guy Kawasaki was smart
I wonder how many people who yell that it’s too much money actually ever have been involved with running a business. I have the feeling that most still live in the basement of their parents…
[rolling eyes] Guess again, sir. For some of us, $12 grand still is a very serious chunk of change, and we have a spouse and kids…no basement dwelling here, and believe it or not, no malt liquor bottles, pizza crusts or lotto tickets littering the floor either. Sheesh pal…
12K is peanuts for setting up a business
For a REAL business with an ACTUAL PLAN FOR PROFITABILITY, yes, I’d agree with you. But of course that doesn’t describe Guy’s venture, now does it?
So Guy spent a little over $12,000 and had a lot of fun doing it. Guys do the same all the time, only they do it in, say, Las Vegas ;-)
OK, here’s a “truemor”: I just scanned the comments below and Ray’s Jun 4, 2007 12:33:34 AM posting was so LOL funny *I* damn near messed myself. :-)
Truemors : Guy Kawasaki :: Kumquat : More than a living
Part of being happy at work is finding ways to sustain your personal growth. One way to ensure youre sustaining your personal growth is finding mentor.
Ideally, that mentor has some sort of relationship with you. However, when push-comes-to-shov…
Truemors by the numbers
Guy Kawasaki created a list of numbers related to the launch of his new site truemors.com. It’s an impressive list.
How to launch a web 2.0 business with peanuts
I have slaved over Yabbyland.com, the purchasing platform, for over 3 years now. Today, I read an article by serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki. He started his business Truemors with only $12,107.09 USD.
Its quite an inspiration, to know that…
guy —
enjoyed the breakdown … thanks! but a quick question, as i’ve never dealt with this sort of thing, on points 19 – 21 … why were you dumped? how is your b/e point calculated? why did it jump 7x? just color me curious.
Poor Guy! I have a number for you: number of websites needed to destroy your reputation: 1.
hey all — check out yadayadamobile.com. they are about to offer free cell phone service (up to $100 per month) and you get to keep your phone, phone number, etc. i just signed up. anyone else heard about yada yada mobile?
Web 2.0 Startup Kosten
Guy Kawasaki erzhlt uns By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09:
$4,824.13 for Legal Fees. The total software development cost was $4,500 [] paid LogoWo…
Build a Web 2.0, Long-Tail, Social Media site for $12K?! Whats missing?
Guy Kawasaki tells us how he built his new site, Truemors, for just $12,107.09 in his recent blog post. I am urging all of my clients to read this posting. It is a great example of how you can quickly get a site up and running and begin testing a conce…
To me, Truemors would have been better if you:
1) Spent some money to have some juicy content prepared for launch to be submitted by random people.
2) Focused the product to a specific topic. Digg started out with technology only. Truemors could do celebrity gossip?
On another not, maybe truemors could be more photobased (picture of lindsay lohan in accident taken by cell phone and sent to truemors) and better reward the Smart Mobs.
Great article to start with. I can perfectly relate whatever you have said. Because I wasted one full year thinking about getting a perfect site.
Now, I just concisely broke my obsessions and went ahead to start some blogging site.
Thanks again and you are my GOD!!!!
Wait, a minute you’re an “expert” on startups, and you spent more than a $1000 on domain name registration? Hahaha! LMAO
It definitely helps if u r a ‘Guy’ when u launch a company/website. Responses is definitely different.
Hi Guy,
this is a great idea and it´s done very well. It shows that anybody can do good biz with little money and small budget.
Cool to read this story and realize that there´s definitely no limit in the web :)
Kind regards
Not to say this wasn’t cool, but add to all that the value that the name Guy Kawasaki brings. A lot of us might be able to do a project at a similar cost – and probably get bought out too! – if Guy Kawasaki was a partner!
Thanks for an informative and funny post. I riffed off it this morning:
http://minimediaguy.org/2007/06/07/the-real-guy-talks-tools-trash-numbers/
Guy Kawasaki – Hero to The People, Someone else you should be following
12,107 Reasons that Outsourcing is a Bad Long-Term Strategy
I’ve sometimes expressed frustration to friends and colleagues of mine that projects aren’t moving quickly enough because I’m waiting on some piece of development to be ready. Often, their response is, “why not just outsource it?” The famous entreprene…
Hello Guy:
Thanks for the blog and advice. I am both inspired and concerned. Inspired because Web2.0 is an exciting new platform, however, the idea of collaboration and collective intelligence does not necessarily equal profits and one’s ability to turn technology into the green stuff that pays bills.
So, again, what you have presented hits me twofold: part inspiration, and part real concern about the financial viability of web2.0 in helping businesses to pay their bills and stay afloat..there already is so much free stuff on the web…now with web2.0 it is goint to get even worse!!
Your comments/feedback are welcome.
Regards, Keith Johnson, Hollywood, FL
Deep, man
As you know, I tend to think in threads of “speaking of” but sometimes these things really do seem to make a theme independent of my meandering mind. In this entry I talk about zooming as navigation, the future of “prophetic clients,” and hyperlocal news.
Guy, could you describe, how the coder hacked your site?
Guy – I admire your verve and as for your basic post: I am not impressed.
I think the site is below par (I’m not a tech-industry guy – have no scores to settle or ego’s to boost). And it’s not apparent from your post that any real money will be made or, more accurately, that you have created a sustainable business model(I may be,heretical, may be proved wrong).
The reason for my comment is the broad and sacred space given lately to ‘bootstrapping’ in entrepreneurial lit. and especially in the developer world. Much of the buzz seems to be constructed around a false dichotomy, i.e., you either bootstrap your way to success (with the moral righteousness of being frugal) or you mindlessly blow a bunch of investor money. My view is that BOTH options are concurrently available: be intelligently scrimpy and wise about where every dollar is going AND at the same time invest heartily in a great idea that has been properly vetted and staffed with world-class talent (even if outsourced). What you did was cool, but I propose that you could have exponentially multiplied the posted numbers by investing more $$ in a few carefully selected areas (e.g. site design,”good” PR, etc.).
The story could have been better. Just because it was cheaply implemented doesn’t mean it’s high-value. I guess your emphasizing how much closer so many aspiring entrepreneurs are than they think to getting a product out there (specifically in the web 2.0 world).
My take is that it’s just as risky, if not moreso, to UNDER-INVEST in your idea than it is to overinvest….
Would love to hear other views….
I wonder if you got the services of ElectricPulp and Logoworks cheaper because of the PR that this project would generate for them? Those figures that you mentioned seems quite cheap.
LOL
That was a hilarious read.
Quite inspirational as well. Perhaps I should just clear my weekend and stop making excuses :)
Créer une start-up 2.0 avec 12.107.09$
Le gourou de l’entreprenariat Guy Kawasaki a lancé il y a quelques semaines un digg like sur le thème des rumeurs. Son nom : truemors.On se demandait un peu où il voulait en venir, s’il délirait ou s’il n’avait rien
I LOVED this post. It is timely for me as in Feb. I started working on a similar project….we utilize a european programer, have only paid him about $100, and have had about 25,000 hits since mid march.
It hasn’t made anyone rich yet, but it also hasn’t made any of us broke!
Thank you for this post Guy. Makes me wanna just go out there and try stuff out.
Thank you so much.
Revue de presse
Voici une nouvelle rubrique pour vous faire découvrir ce qui se passe ailleurs, dans dautres blogs. Il sagit darticles en français ou en anglais que jai trouvé au cours de ma veille quotidienne et que jaimerais par…
There’s no doubt that you could launch a web 2.0 company and maybe even make a lot of money, but you can’t believe you’d get any innovation from this ammount of effort.
Not far in the future we’ll be able to build this kind of websites with one click and $9.99, but the next google won’t be comming out of this.
how to start a startup
What do you do when you have minimal programming knowledge, no access to VC funds and want to start a startup/website? Weve all heard the stories about guys programming sites like reddit or digg and striking it rich. But lets face it, …
I think you just discovered what many of us independednt webmasters have known for years.
Quietly making a nice chunk of change out of the limelight. I think you still spent way too much though.
10 Reasons to Keep Your Day Job
My assumption in all of this (in general) is that you really do want to quit your job, but youre just not sure if its the right time yet. I assume this because I cant comprehend anyone actually wanting to be demoralized by working …
this was quite funny, believe you spent way to much, have a look at a real web 2.0 applicaton
http://www.sogrimey.com
if you need designs in the future we will be more then happy to take your money
Good infor there, I like the details of your site, pretty much explains your steps in creating your own site
hows your earnings so far?
Regards,
Daryl
Free Gifts
http://www.jobscreation.com/optin3/TAF-Step1_3.html
Love it!
Cheers-
Christie
Hi, Guy:
Is there any food left? Sorry I’m late to the party.
Great stuff! Launching a site is “all of the above.” Your concept is great!
All the best! Jerry
PS: I love leftovers….go any?
www.JerryWFranklin.com
www.BlueSkyBrothers.com
Launching a Blog, eh? Read this first.
Seriously, I can’t get comfortable. I’m lying on a loveseat (that explains it) while trying to crank out this article, inspired by Guy Kawasaki (I love that last name). Anyway, I’m thrilled to be able bring you some great news: we’re launchin…
Guy Kawasaki on Life, the Truemorverse, and Everything
I had the good fortune of being able to conduct an email interview with Guy Kawasaki shortly after the OC Unconference.
For a guy (me) who left a large software company (Autodesk) in January to pursue my passion (online community), and also to establ
Great post. Now I’d challenge you to us Micro-preneurs (did I just invent a buzzword?) how to generate buzz and traffic for free if we’re not Guy Kawasaki!
Should you be creating a community?
Discussion with Jenny Ambrozek and Mitch Weisburgh This PILOTed is discussion with Jenny Ambrozek on communities. Jenny is lead consultant, SageNet LLC and blogs at 21st Century Organization. She is co-author of the Online Communities Business 2004 Rep…
Guy, could you say some more details how the coder hacked your site?
Guy, as you mentioned in another post of yours, each company needs to associate itself with one value/service. That is not coming out clearly in this case. Assuming you want to run it for a few years, it will evolve with the type of people who like to use it most – a core Web 2.0 feature – something Digg learnt the hard way recently. How you will let it evolve is upto you.
truemors.com looks horrible in Firefox/Mac. I’m not impressed. May be a good idea effectively brought to the market, but does it make a difference? No, not at all. First time you disappointed me, Guy!
yah, i was thinking about CSC.
at least you have prepare $12k to burn for a year though (not including SMS traffic)
How to build a german web 2.0 clone for 144,31 €
Nachdem Guy Kawasaki Anfang Juni ganz stolz berichtet hat, wie er fr nur 12.107,09 Dollar ein neues Web 2.o Startup in den USA gegrndet hat, mchte ich euch (nur zwei drei Wochen spter) berichten, wie man dieses Startup am Besten…
A conversation with Guy Kawasaki of Garage Technology Ventures
There is no need to introduce Guy Kawasaki – Evangelist, VC, Blogger and long-time Silicon Valley icon. His latest venture is called Truemors (here’s the Software Abstractions review ) – a digg-like social network for headlines and short posts. Recently,
In saying “there’s no such thing as bad PR” you really are falling for venture capitalist style hype over stats and figures.
Just because you get a quarter of a million hits, you consider the inquirer article to be “good”. Talk about good/bad traffic – these armies of visitors are being directed to your sight precisely just to laugh at it. Waste of your bandwidth!
Of course, it generates hype for genuine users, and some readers of the article will be sympathetic, etc. But I think your assessment that it was “not bad PR” was a bit premature as soon as your hits went up.
Ten internet je vod zdi ke zdi
nezdá se vám, paní Nováková?
No tøeba nedávno jak všichni nadávali na ten Outlúk 2007, že prý to neumí HTML maily a že bez toho se nedá žít, a teï zas zaèali tvrdit, že mail je jen pro text a vždycky byl, a že to mají tak radši.
A jak nám posledních p
Hello Guy,
Great story. I am on a mission. I want to start my own startup on a 1000 bucks budget…
Here’s my story: http://quebecvalley.com/2007/06/20/the-1000-challenge/
Wish me good luck :)
Hi,
I’ve created a site (http://www.traderhut.com) , and have product to sell (some of it unique, that you can’t get ANYWHERE else, such as a Wordfare! game) – but the thing that I’ve not figured out is how to get 26,000 hits “the first day” It seems to me that mostly you got lucky / were well known and as such, sure, it cost *you* $12K to start the site, but for a ‘normal’ unknown person such as myself, I’d spend that $12K on advertising and still not be able to drive 26,000 people per *month* to the site.
Do you have any suggestions for generating traffic to a site?
-Thanks,
-Chert
—
http://www.traderhut.com
All sorts of cool things…
Guy took a lot of heat on this one, but you have to give him credit for taking it like a man. Many bloggers (Presentation Zen, for example, or Tim Ferris) in his situation would have deleted the posts that they considered ‘abusive’ or even mildly critical.
I commend Guy Kawasaki for showing us what it means to be a man!
My god, how ignorant are people on the internet, $12,000 bloody hell you have 0 business sense.
Truemors works
Truemors is Guy Kawasaki’s new site to help people a) have fun, and b) generate traffic. Nothing too fancy: You post a true rumor, and other people can vote on it, and it links back to your web site. If
Exclusive: Guy Kawasaki’s new speech (Scoop? Truemor?)
Guy and I were the co-keynotes for Silicon Valley AMA lunch. It was a great event full of smart and charming people. If you’ve seen Guy talk you know he’s great. You also may have seen version of the speech
Hi Guy,
Your site is now about a month old. Could you let us know a little about your traffic during this period?
sososo! How does one create this type of site or a religious site like i am creating for my MSc in the UK, i am really interested. please help because i am also a believer bot h in you and my faith.
Thank you
boo!
How to create a Web 2.0 venture by numbers
Guy Kawasaki has posted an interesting article on his blog detailing the creation of his Web 2.0 venture called Truemors, which cost the grand total of $12,107.09 in setup costs. Whats intriguing is how the legal fees were actually greater than …
It all goes to show you the power of technology as compared to the old norms.
Blogs have democratized the web to a great degree as have other more recent forms of technology.
A blog means that most people can now have a webpage. No hosting arrangements . No ftp etc etc. People in the third world with some internet access can now publish worldwide their point of view.
Rather amazing when you consider it was not long ago that the berlin wall was a dividing zone.
To put it into perspective one little ad in a small country newspaper costs more than a year of moderate premium hosting for most with 24/7 tech support and advanced features.
www.bayareaword.com
I really like your post, you show how to do some thinks great and how to improve another, this learning process done by you can help to other to make things better and easiest.
Thanks for taking your time to explain it to all of us.
Startups on the Cheap
Guy Kawasaki has posted a few recent entries over on his blog about starting a company without venture capital and without the typical lofty business plan. Instead, just test the idea in the real world. Thanks to open source software, cheap hardware an…
Does the $120M from Spinvox investors count in the $12K?
You should share all the facts.
Startup Weekend?? Not somuch
No one dreaded the imminent arrival of the weekday more than the 70 founders of StartupWeekend.com.
The goal?
Create a company in one weekend from idea all the way to launch on Sunday night. Perhaps they were inspired by Guy Kawasakis bootstra…
Hi Guy, question, why did you not patent the idea behind Truemors? I love the site by the way.
Cloning Web 2.0: A Look at Copycat Applications
I know I recently railed against copycat sites — I assure you that the irony of this post isn’t lost on me. But as they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” As I said in my post 3…
Don’t Ask A VC For Something Your Credit Card Can Do
Guy Kawaskai is not the VC you want to ask for a million bucks to build your Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site…not when he built one for $12,107.09….
Guy,
Great story. Too funny to read the bashing about how others could do it for so much less. I wonder if they are able to find 350,000 hits by spending less. I am building a social network for the Latino market bootstrapping all the way! Love to see you again. I buy your books and give them to new clients and prospects everyday.
www.latinspace.com
Our site launch is less than 81 days out. It should be a fantastic ride…
**************
My best wishes to you. Don’t let the bozos grind you down!
Guy
Please tell me how much should I charge for:
1-a Business plan (executive summary)
2-a general CPM (action plan) for starting up and one year running of a representative co in another country (containing nearly 200 tasks)
3-expences forecast for that (1 year)
4-sales & cashflow forecast (1 year)
Thanks
What a great business concept. Very nicely done. Cheers!
Its often amazing the amount of funds that can be spent on these projects
The efforts seem to run away with the organizations and committees which can be more than self serving
Its as if they would eat their young
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StartupWeekend Warriors
Recently, Marcus shared afterthoughts on his participation in the September 2007 Houston StartupWeekend, which launched TipDish, a product placement/blogger matchmaking service.
StartupWeekend brings together anywhere from a few dozen to as many as 70 …
Guy Kawasaki missed one important Truemors domain name
If you mistakenly type in treumors in Google (simply swapping the u and the e like I did), the results will look like this. Guess what? It doesnt look like the number one result is one of the 55 domains Guy Kawasaki registered.
I registered 55 …
I have over 15 Web-sites I have started over the past two years all under $50. Buy a couple of HTML and PHP books and learn how to build your web-site yourself. You can save so much money. Two years ago I didn’t know anything about building web-sites. I went to Borders purchased a couple books and signed up to a couple webcoding forums and here I am. I don’t pay for any web coding. The forums were a BIG help. Just ask your questions and people are willing to help you out.
anyway, why the comments using nofollow :(
Alltop-We’re In!
It is with a great deal of pride and pleasure that we wear the Alltop badge (see also right side of this page. As explained on Founder Guy Kawasaki’s blog: Alltop is an “online magazine rack” that displays the top…