Entrepreneurship

This blog has been a great release for me over the past few years and I’m happy I got back into blogging.  It’s hard to believe that it was December 2009 when I dusted off the keyboard with a fresh enthusiasm for blogging.  Fast forward to today, and I think it’s time to take another break / press the pause button.  Our company continues to grow and I feel the focus more time and attention on our customers, product, and content partnerships and kill of anything that’s in the way (personal blogging included).  We’ve got a 6 month old baby girl at home that’s brought so much love and joy into our lives.  From time to time this blog has felt like a great release.  At other times, it’s felt like a distraction from things that are much more important.

I don’t know if it’s something about the new year or what, but lately there has certainly been noticeable a seachange in my digital life.  The stream (i.e Facebook, Twitter, etc.) feels like a burden. While I do continue to post on social media outlets from time to time, it’s much more sparingly than in the past and what’s become almost totally un-existent is my own attention to the stream.   Meaning, if we’re connected to one another on one of these platforms, whether it be as a friend or follower, I’m really not paying much attention to what’s being posted and maybe you’re not either? I know that there’s meaningful content in the stream, but lately it just feels like such a task (as opposed to a pleasure) to check and keep up with. The latest Twitter for iPhone app is a total piece of garbage, and certainly doesn’t help the cause.  I just find it much more pleasurable to digest the latest news and opinions via RSS through Google Reader, which I feel is still the easiest way for me to consume  long form news content (sorry Flipboard fans).

So long story short here, I’m taking a break from blogging and “the stream” to focus more on company and family.  The hiatus could last a week, or it it could be a year…I really don’t know.  In the meantime, I’ve left some links to the most popular posts here (in terms of Facebook likes and Retweets) from the past few years:

Three Killer Businesses That I Want(ed) to Start

Every Day I Try and Get Rejected

LA Startup Incubators/Accelerators/Mentorship Programs as Compared to NCAA Football Conferences

7 DO’s and 5 DONT’s for Entrepreneurs (LA VC Revisited)

What’s Surprising is that Everyone is Acting Surprised

3 Things to Avoid When Fundraising in LA

Back of the Envelope: How to Estimate the Annual Revenues of Any Private Company

I recently sat down for a series of short videos as part of the docstoc videos’ expert speaker series. For those of you not familiar with docstoc, it’s the premier resource for small business with thousands of legal docs, videos, and other resources useful for any entrepreneur that starting / running a business.   Be sure to check them out.  Among other things, we use Docstoc to embed all legal docs (license agreement, terms of service, etc.) across each of our sites.  I’m a big fan of the service.

The expert series videos we created are around 1 to 2 minutes each, and cover a variety of topics from accounting basics to networking, to SEO. Above I’ve linked to one about networking, a topic that’s a personal favorite to me.  If you’re interested in watching them all, go here, or follow the links below to any one of the individual videos.  Enjoy!

Account Basics for New Businesses
Managing Accounts Receivable
Monthly Accounting Practices
Top 3 Accounting Mistakes Made by First Timers
3 First Time Tips for Starting a Company
4 Steps for SEO Keyword Research
How to Make the Most of a Networking Event
How to Control Search Results Around Your Name

So lately, I’ve been suffering from a case of writer’s block .  The blockage has caused what I would consider 2 recent post that were really not up to standard, one of which was a Netflix rant (thanks for listening Reed!).

To help put a stop to the writer’s block, I’m reaching out for assistance (I figure that by putting myself on the spot, it’ll create the momentum needed to get over this).

So please…if you have a moment, help me choose a topic for my next post.  Choose from the among the following topics and let me know in the comments section which one you’d like me to write about next:

1.  Entrepreneurial oversupply and the abundance of startup incubators (LA included)

2.  The primary differentiator between a good VC ‘s / angels and bad VC’s / angels in terms of portfolio returns

3.  How Google Analytics should ignore Digg, Stumbleupon, and Reddit traffic

4.   A simplified explanation of how VC’s determine valuation in a seed / A-round

5.  Taking stock options in lieu of compensation – when it can be a bad idea for both you and the company

If any of these topics sound interesting, please let me know which one(s) you’d like me to write about first and help me get over writer’s block.

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• Today’s Tip – Overcoming Writer’s Block!; (bbroseproductions.wordpress.com)

After reading the recent email (pasted below) from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings regarding the Qwikster / Netflix / Price Increase / Reneg fiasco, I have a number of questions / comments…

1.  How much am I paying per month?  The same?  Is it the old pricing before the price hike or the new pricing after?  Just tell me a friggin number!

2.  Why did you choose such a stupid name like qwikster?  Spend $100k on DVDsbymail.com or something.  Qwikster sounds like a cheap $9 domain a broke entrepreneur would call his startup.

3.  Which site has my credit card info?  Netflix? Qwikster?  Both?  How do I just keep things the same?  How do I cancel one and not the other?

4.  Is my login info the same for each site?

5.  When exactly will Qwikster launch?

6.  How in the heck can you not integrate the two websites?

7.  Is qwikster it’s own entity?

8.  Where is the unsubscribe link?  I know you think this is an important communication but after what you wrote (assuming you actually drafted this yourself), I’m not sure I ever want to hear from you again.

9.  Why such a long, rambling email?  Did your PR department approve this?  Did you really write this yourself?  Could you have not used bullet points and prepared a detailed FAQ page?

The list of questions goes on and on.  Not to mention some of sentences in your email below I have read 3 times and they still make no sense to me.

I honestly don’t think this could have possibly been handled worse.  From now on when entrepreneurs have poor customer relations incidents, it should be called “pulling a Hastings” or “getting Reeded”.

What do you think?  How could he have handled this better?   Please leave your opinions in the comments below.

UPDATE: On Oct 7th, Netflix announced they were killing off the entire Flixter idea (Netflix would continue to service both DVD and steaming clients with one website, one login, etc.) and keeping the July price hikes in place.   What a rollercoaster!

From: “Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix” <info@netflix.com>
Date: September 19, 2011 1:47:48 AM PDT
Subject: An Explanation and Some Reflections

Dear Ryan, I messed up. I owe you an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing. For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do. So here is what we are doing and why. Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies. I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service. So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming. Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready. For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you. I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly. Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions. Respectfully yours, -Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.

This message was mailed to you by Netflix. SRC: 1578.0.US.en-US Use of the Netflix service and website constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. (c) 2011 Netflix, Inc. 100 Winchester Circle, Los Gatos, CA 95032, U.S.A.

Posted via email from Ryan Born