when you try it, make sure you have some whiskey nearby. It's a pretty damn painful experience seeing what users actually do when they use the site without supervision compared to a beta tester you might sit next to.
"From the moment I got to Manchester United, I thought of only one thing: building a football club. I wanted to build right from the bottom."
The first point is possibly the best. I like how it points at the difference between short and long term development.
That said, some managers have become experts in developing themselves over the long term, moving from club to club and eventually learning to win within a single season.
Also, some clubs have so much money that they can afford to buy the best players who are able to adapt and perform at any club.
For those not familiar with cricket, Glen McGrath was one of the greatest bowlers of all time and also known as one of the toughest.
One of the other good quotes "To be a good player you have to have the skills. To be a great player it is attitude and mental strength that will get you there.'
agreed... i initially figured lots of text below the fold is acceptable because the call to action is clear and average screen sizes suggested people will only see the top half and if they want more information then scroll down. However, it needs to be shorter snappier points not an essay!
Cool and potentially brilliant as my cousin mentioned APA and he understands that system well. I just recall that there are 500,000 odd members in the usa paying monthly fees.
I'll pass this along to him. They are currently in New York prepping for the USA Open. If you are in New York or wherever the USA open is, then get in maybe you can meet them!
I initially suggested 2 things to him
1. A very very simple / addictive app
2. Go for the big picture - an app where there are ladders/leagues connected all the way to the major players i.e. you keep score in local pool halls and the best play the best till they then meet these top players.. That would involve a well organised and funded company (probably)
Thank you, there is definitely a huge market for this type of an app and I like where you are headed as well. My initial thoughts were to build in a simple mode that would allow anyone to play an APA style match with their friend; and based on the statistics gathered from the match the app would be able to determine an accurate rating for them. It would then let them know if they joined the APA today, this is what they might be ranked based on their performance in the match for fun. This would follow up with a link or short form to submit their name, email and phone number to be contacted by their local APA league rep. This simple mode would allow anyone outside of the APA to benefit from the app and see what it might be like to play using the league rules and format.
Simple apps are definitely effective as well, and would take considerably less time to build compared something like what we are making. A good friend suggested making a basics "drills" app for players who are looking for tools to improve their game. It would have a simple daily practice routine built in, and allow them to easily keep track of their progress and show them an ongoing statistical analysis for each day they use it. Then over an extended period of time it would be able to pinpoint exactly what aspect(s) of their game need work and offer suggestions on other possible drills to practice (specifically to fix that issue). Your thoughts?
I just looked through that google doc properly. You guys have really done your work and I think you've hit this stage because you are users yourself fixing a problem you understand. Great work.
I was looking through the current top pool apps on iphone and while I only looked through the top 10 or 20, this is just another level. I guess the simple fact that someone stands in a pool hall with a mobile computing device this entirely possible now, when it was not previously (pre smart phone mass market)
You can make your name in the USA but in vision, this is a lot bigger. The USA is a good start though :) Get funding, go full time!
Thank you for the kind words, this idea was definitely born out of frustration with playing in the league for several years and having to keep score each week. Sometimes frustration can lead into something very positive for everyone :)
We hope to release both a pro version and a lite version so people can at least download it for free and test it out before they decide to join the league. Once they join the league they would just pay a small subscription fee to be able to use the scoring features, manage their team rosters, see ongoing match stats & history etc. We would really like to implement live scoring as well. When playoffs come around each team could keep tabs on the other teams they are in contention even if they are in different locations. This could add a very interesting dynamic into league play and possibly affect the strategies used in posting matches based on an opposing teams current score.
Just some ideas, and I would love to get some funding to be able to work on this more often. The Japan APA reps were very into it, but I haven't heard back from them or the APA national office since I demo'd it in Vegas several months ago. My colleague and I will attempt to launch it on our own early next year and perhaps they will take notice when the league operators start receiving lots of automated score sheets :)
I can imagine it's hard getting the message through to APA reps although it should be a no-brainer for them. Well, it's definitely worth talking to Raj. I've forwarded on your information to them and they'll get back to me after the Virginia open.
Meanwhile, it's launch day for us, so i'm going to be distracted :) Actually, you might be interested in our site too, as I was also talking to raj about how, one thing it can do, is show you who is playing pool right now and where. It's not built for pool players but all groups e.g. singles, expats but it can work for pool players as it gives each group it's own location based social network. You have friend finders on Foursquare and on our site, it's group finder. http://www.likeourselves.com
You can create your own network e.g. APA league pool players and whenver they check-in somewhere, you can see who is there. Anyway, if you are interested please take a look
I wish I could go to the US Open, unfortunately I won't be able to get any time off this month. I would have loved to meet with him and discuss ideas, but perhaps email or Skype would suffice. Send me your contact info and perhaps we can arrange a conference - isaac@levid.com
I have some specific in mind but I kept the question vague as it brings out the most interesting answers and you've given a very good one. The gmail system you mentioned might just be perfect.
Thanks!
pk
when we started our location based site launching soon :), we researched current and future competitors:
key points we came out with:
1. Facebook absolutely will launch a friend finder (although they'll have privacy problems and they'll have to be careful) so most friend finders will get crushed.
2. most current sites are confusing- don't actually understand what they do within 10 to 30 seconds of looking at the site. Often they do too much that people care minimally about
3. Most location based sites have missed out on some very basic needs that people have. Many seem to be built by hard geeks for other hard geeks. Go out and talk to mainstream users, they just are like wtf?
So dave has said what most people may have thought but were not willing to say because of what i think of as the 'twitter' effect'. Its the 'well, it could be another twitter, just that i don't get it yet' thought.
However, the one advantage foursquare etc have got over some poor muppet like me with my $6,000 dollar savings invested in our idea is lots of money and an existing infrastructure. That said, these days, its amazing what you can do with $6,000.
if you have vested share scheme with a 1 year cliff then also have 'acceleration on change control' i.e. if you get bought out early then you don't want to be waiting years for the remainder of your money, get the payment accelerated
kinda chicken and egg... why do they have an 'acceleration of change control' if it gets renegotiated anyway? I figure its worth mentioning either way.
Anyway - single-trigger acceleration can lower the valuation of an acquisition, because the founder can then walk away. This is something VCs won't really like. Double-trigger is more usual.
There are ways within 99designs to filter the initial mass down to better quality competitors and to stop wasting other designers time, e.g. by eliminating bad designs early. Either way, its not good for a $40/hour designer to be competing against a guy that might only need to win 1 project a month to pay the bills.
James Goldsmith was right back in 1994- look at social indices, not economic! Dude saw the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PQrz8F0dBI
