Web 2.0 Business Idea--Seeking Feedback/Possible Partner

[inverse Paranoid]

The idea is to create an internet video companion site that helps people get more value from the myriad of YouTube, Hulu, and other videos that are all over the internet. The focus is on getting to know you better so that we can provide you with a easier access to the things you're looking for. And making the process as fun as possible.

I've listed three examples of the kind of value I'd like to provide below.

1) Ask the Oracle Function: People ask questions ranging from the meaning of life to what color shirt they should wear for their McDonald's interview, and members answer with embedded video files and short twitter-like text. Then members can thumbs up/thumbs down answers (videos) and the best rise to the top. So you can ask or search for any question and get an answer. It would be comedy oriented and full of gimmicks. Plus there would be legitimate helpful answers. It's like Yahoo Answers but with video responses and an often comedic spin. People could even shoot specific videos to answer questions.

2) Feel Better Function: User determined lists like: best videos that make you feel happy, or get you to cry, or funniest, and things like that. So you could come to the site and just get video that makes you feel how you want to feel. Possibly partnering with different personality test companies to create custom tests to help people better connect with videos that will have the best effect on them.

3) Personalization Function: A ratings system where you rate the videos you watch and then be able to see a weighted rating on videos based on what people who like the same thing you like have rated them. So that takes a lot of the guess work out of sorting through tons and tons of 4 or 5 star rated YouTube videos that are hit or miss because you can get a better idea if it's the kind of thing you'd love. With this function we could even weigh the results so that things from the above two functions would be customized for you.

Other Details: I'm thinking of calling it something like Video-Oracle.com (and redirect VideoOracle.com to the site, too) or YouTubeAnswers (instead of yahoo answers--it'd be nice not to limit things to just the YouTube crowd, though) or a crazy word that isn't real but is short and easy to remember like sporcle or hulu.

Anyway, all of the files would be stored on video sharing sites, so all I'd have to do is build the traffic and the framework.


Partnering: (Feel free to skip the rest of this and just offer your feedback if you have no interest in personally participating.)

Me: I'm great at improvising/experimenting, adapting, imagining, and finding the best way to explain the concept to the masses. I'm really great at keeping things fresh and fun, and finding a way to make seemingly boring things entertaining. I can come up with an endless stream of ideas and explore all the possible opportunities until our baby finds a niche that works for it. And then continually expanding upon that success until we expand into all the unexplored nooks and crannies that would work for us. I can definitely guide the vision to success if I find the right person to implement things.

You: I'm looking for someone with great follow through, who's good at getting things done and keeping things on track. Someone who can handle the technical side of things: Coding, learning what has to be learned, handling the nitty gritty specifics, streamlining everything so it's as automated as possible. Basically someone who can build, stabilize, and systematize the things that I imagine, improvise, and adapt us to.

Overlap: I'm looking for someone strong in those areas because they're not what I do best. I'm very tech savvy though, in many ways, so I will be able to offer a lot of input and handle research along those lines. I'm also good at helping to envision how something could be systematized, but I don't particularly enjoy following systems, so my results are usually all over the place but in a way that will invigorate us and keep us fresh so long as I'm working with someone who holds the focus and makes sure we're not skipping over too many details.

Similarly, your ideas on my end of things will be treated with the same respect as mine. The only difference is that you won't be expected to be coming up with new ideas all the time. Whereas I'll be constantly brainstorming, experimenting, and adapting to the feedback we get from implementing these things.

Determining if we're a match: We'll start by seeing how we might work together. Talking about our strengths, how we work at our best, and what we bring to, and need from the other to thrive in a partnership. We want to make sure that, between the two of us, we can handle all of the vital things we'll need to do. It's best that if it feels like work to one of us, it feels like play to the other, so we can both operate from a place of loving what we do. Then, if things sound good and our intuitions are giving us feedback on working together we can discuss things from there.

After that it'd probably be best to keep things in the imagination and research phase. We can just play with possibilities and research opportunities until we have a concept that we're both super excited about and ready to get moving on. If we never reach the point where we're really itching to go, then we know it's not a compelling enough idea for us.

Still interested? If you'd like to explore the possibility of partnering, shoot me a pm. We can talk back and forth there or connect via Skype or internet chat for a more flowing conversation. I'm all about just having a conversation around this and not forcing things if they don't seem to fit.



If you have general questions, feel free to ask them below. All feedback is greatly appreciated!

Josh

[Brutha]

Other Details: I'm thinking of calling it something like Video-Oracle.com (and redirect VideoOracle.com to the site, too) or YouTubeAnswers (instead of yahoo answers--it'd be nice not to limit things to just the YouTube crowd, though) or a crazy word that isn't real but is short and easy to remember like sporcle or hulu.

Calling a website like that YouTubeAnswers is probably a bad idea due to the brand rights of YouTube.

[inverse Paranoid]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Calling a website like that YouTubeAnswers is probably a bad idea due to the brand rights of YouTube.

Yeah, that was more of an illustrative example. Good call on the brand rights factor, though.

[Vanessa]

As someone who turns ideas into businesses I work with a lot of people who are big on ideas and short on implementation. Its great to see you are looking for a partner to help round out your vision. While I don't have the capacity to take on a project like this right now, there is a list of things that I run through whenever I meet an idea person who needs to make things happen. Hopefully this will help you meet that right partner or partners.


Do you have a niche already targeted to need these features?

Are you tuned in and aware of every offer and service in this niche?

Are you an expert in this niche already what is your level of experience in the market?

Do you have a detailed ideal user/customer profiled that you what to provide value to?

What is your revenue model for this project?

Do you have funding for building this project or bringing in partners?

What are you willing offer a partner/s to launching this project?

Have you ever done a project like this before, in what capacity?

[Addict]

You: I'm looking for someone with great follow through, who's good at getting things done and keeping things on track. Someone who can handle the technical side of things: Coding, learning what has to be learned, handling the nitty gritty specifics, streamlining everything so it's as automated as possible. Basically someone who can build, stabilize, and systematize the things that I imagine, improvise, and adapt us to.

Ah, my favorite. Here's an idea, now code it!

[spirit4711]

@InverseParanoid, I love the idea! Reminds me a bit of LastFM.com for music. It has got lots of potential I think.

Go for it!

Wouldn't surprise me that if you can get this going, Google or MS might buy you out.

It will take some money though to set it up, and then: get people to fill the ranking. Once that is working, it'll be a snowball going downhill, getting bigger and bigger.

[inverse Paranoid]

I've quoted each question individually and posted my answer below.

Originally Posted by Vanessa

Do you have a niche already targeted to need these features?

I'm more of a big ideas person. I start with a concept that has many broad applications and then target niches that I can bring into the fold. If a big idea is logically and intuitively sound, then there's no reason to limit yourself to a specific group of people.

For example, people who are into learning more about themselves by taking personality tests might be very interested in channeling all those test results into something that could connect them with videos that felt like they were made just for them. But these people might not have any interest in asking a question and having people snarkily reply to them with sarcastic videos. However, people into that sort of humor would enjoy that.

I envision creating a very diverse community that hosts niches within itself to satisfy its many interests. The same way residents of New York City can cloister themselves off in a particular part of town dominated by a singular ethnicity; or live in the mainstream and mingle with people from all walks of life.

By default, you'll be able to search for things and find results from anyone who answers. If you want to sign up and begin customizing things, then you'll be able to filter your results to see more from the people who have similar tastes. Or seeing popular results from people with similar tastes and unpopular results from people that have what you would identify as opposite tastes. Everything can be weighted by formulas that are easily explained and highly customizable.

You'll also be able to tweak the results hundreds of different ways. Similar to the way you can sort search results by date released, relevancy, most views, highest rating, etc. on other sites, just with way more options.

To keep things from being too complicated, there will be different levels of depth. By default, things will be very simple, and only the most popular and helpful search customizations will be shown. But if you want to go deeper into it, you can open up more options to customize.

Plus, by playing with all the different search options you can begin to get a feel for what works best for you. Eventually, I'd like in depth users to feel like the search engine is almost reading their mind. And every time it's off a little, they correct it by their action of giving a video or a response a lower than expected rating.

Video cannot be indexed and searched the same way text can, so in order to find the most relevant material you need some human metric to compare things to. This is an attempt at creating one through community. Using everyone else's experience to help lead you in the direction of the videos that are most likely to be an enjoyable experience for you.

Are you tuned in and aware of every offer and service in this niche?

I'm tuned into what motivates people to find something better. Rather than trying to carve out my own niche in all the different corners of the web, I'll aim to find ways to improve existing niches and then partner with a site that already has a good share of that niche's market.

It's not that hard to see the value behind what makes a popular service popular, and from there, an outside perspective like mine can bring a lot of fresh ideas to their table.

Are you an expert in this niche already what is your level of experience in the market?

Nope, I'm not an expert. But I'm great at innovating solutions and letting other people do the ground work to test them out.

In this capacity I could serve as an idea infuser to existing experts in compatible niches. Experts are really good at turning down ideas and explaining why they won't work. Which is fine by me because I'm like an idea hydra. They strike down one idea and two more sprout up in its place. Even the most "set in their ways" experts will pause for a long moment when they hear an idea that's just crazy enough to work.

Win-win is built on innovation, not compromise. I offer the former in spades.

As a startup site, the ability to get existing sites excited about working with you before you've developed any real traffic of your own can lend you legitimacy in a sea of pretenders.

I won't ask you to start coding until I start pre-selling people on our concept. Until then, we'll stay in the concept stage, thinking out the best way to do what we're looking to do without wasting time writing code we may never use.

Do you have a detailed ideal user/customer profiled that you what to provide value to?

I'm not going to go too heavily into detail because I haven't dived into that stage of the brainstorming yet. But, there's basically two groups of people. People who want the quick and easy. And people who want the deep and dynamic.

The ideal quick and easy user is someone who simply appreciates something that works. They're not reading any detailed descriptions or email activation to start using the service. They arrive at the site, see a quick and easy explanation as to why this service is valuable and they give it a quick try.

If you want to start seeing custom results you can create an account simply by typing in a username, password, first name, and email address right on the sidebar. You'll automatically be logged in right away and the server will start storing your ratings. You'll only need to activate your email if you'd like to comment/post things.

Deep and dynamic will evolve out of the quick and easy pool. This psychographic will likely be much different than we anticipate, but it will be easy enough to adapt to everything since the entire appeal of the deep and dynamic function is getting to better know the people using it so we can provide better value.

The ideal user of D&D will be someone who values themselves as an individual and wants to invest time into getting more out of the internet. Anyone who's ever been legitimately turned off by something that's very popular knows what it's like to furrow their brow at the tastes of the general public. These are the people who'd most appreciate a service that weeds out popular duds in favor of hidden gems.

What is your revenue model for this project?

Create value > build traffic > monetize. Third party ads and affiliate programs will probably be the bread and butter when and where they're relevant. But the other potential income opportunity would be to use the knowledge we develop from working on this project to help other companies find ways to better understand and provide more value to their customers.

This isn't a business venture that pays only in dollars and cents. What we gain in experience through all this innovating and implementing could pay dividends down the road.

Do you have funding for building this project or bringing in partners?

This depends. Ideally we're aiming to keep overhead as low as possible and to arouse interest in potential partners before we've sunk any real money into things. In the beginning we'll be working on spec and investing our sweat equity.

The whole idea is to get so clear on the essence behind the concept, and so confident in its potential to work, that we know how to monetize and succeed (accepting that we'll have to adapt often upon implementation) before we've started drawing the traffic that will cost a lot of money to handle in hosting fees.

At this point this isn't a business, it's simply a business idea. And we'll keep it that way until we've pre-paved success so thoroughly that we know we're going to succeed no matter what uncertainties may confront us.

What are you willing offer a partner/s to launching this project?

I can get the ball moving in any direction and out of any rut. If you're at your best when driving things home and hate it when unexpected surprises get in your way, then I'm the ultimate partner. I can put out any fire and get you moving in a direction that works before all the momentum you've built up comes to a halt. If you feel yourself slowing down or hitting resistance, for any reason, personal or professional, I can help you connect with an empowering perspective from which to see the obstacles ahead. I breakup breakdowns before they happen so you can keep on moving.

According to the Kolbe A index: I'm terrific at juggling rapidly changing priorities, which makes me flexible with a practical bent. That's because I temper my trial and error approach by calculating probabilities.

This has manifested over more and more over the last 4+ years that I've made all of my income as a professional gambler. This experience has tempered me to be very adept at handling risk/uncertainty with a calm and calculating point of view.

Lastly, I'm great at keeping things fun. There's rarely a dull moment when you're working with me. I find a way to turn work into play and romanticize everything that I do so that passion can power my results. No matter what direction we're headed in, you can rest assured that I'll throw my heart into it.

Have you ever done a project like this before, in what capacity?

Nope, this is a new experience for me (I'm only 24). But that's OK, because right now we're just playing with ideas. Like I said earlier, if you're not convinced that we have a great shot at succeeding simply from the concept that evolves out of our work together, then you're free to leave before putting in any real work.

If you appreciate ideas then we should have a great time interacting with each other. At worst you'll invest a few hours of your time and leave with some fresh perspectives. At best, we'll learn, grow, and succeed together in ways we can only imagine. And best of all, have a great time doing it.

[inverse Paranoid]

Originally Posted by Addict

Ah, my favorite. Here's an idea, now code it!

More like: Here's a taste of the wellspring of ideas and enthusiasm I'm willing to offer! Want to come along for the ride?

Good, because you're driving.

Originally Posted by spirit4711

@InverseParanoid, I love the idea! ... It has got lots of potential I think.

Go for it!

I'm here sharing the vision and aligning myself with finding a great partner. It'll all work out if the timing's right.