We all know Alex Tew, in fact, many of us are green with envy whenever his name is mentioned. Alex Tew is the guy who created milliondollarhomepage and made a million dollars in the process. Alex has also had a number of other viral successes including donothingfor2minutes.com
What some of you may or may not know is that Alex Tew has moved to American to become Product Manager of Monkey Inferno which, according to it’s website is a ‘place where we dream up cool internet projects, develop them, nurture them into successful businesses’. How cool?!
But there is more, Monkey Inferno, is self-funded by Michael and Xochi Birch who sold Bebo in 2008 for a cool $850million! Basically, what this means is that Monkey Inferno can a) never go bust and will b) never need investment.
Alex Tew is a genuinely nice guy who dreams up big ideas and ensures that they happen in practice. I cannot think of a more perfect fit for Alex to be working with Monkey Inferno. A massive congratulations to you Alex!
I am pretty sure that Alex Tew + Monkey Inferno will = a shit load of cool stuff!
All of the above, must be true, it is on Alex’s Twitter bio: @tewy
I read an article in the L.A Times this morning that, in all honesty, excited the heck out of me! Here is THAT article: MySpace owner preparing for a re-model
Yes, the article was about MySpace, the company that was sold for bagillions to Murdoch and was sold to Tim & Chris Vanderhook for a fraction of the price. Myspace, the social networking site that millions of people, like sheep, left and flocked to MySpace leaving it in the great big social networking bin in the sky. You know, Myspace, who now have Justin Timberlake as an investor.
Say what?! Exactly.
I recently wrote about Google and how they have had many a failed social networking sites before they got it right with Google+. You can read that life-changing (jokes) blog here: Blog about Google and how crap they were at social networking until they launched Google+ which now has over 10million users.
People love shiny brand new stuff, especially when it is talked about all over the web. New stuff + being talked about all over the web = lots of people getting on board with that new stuff.
MySpace is old, yeah. But, music fans still have their MySpace profile. Justin Timberlake brings an edge of coolness and these guys are well versed in the power of social media. All that is needed is one freakin’ good idea, some crazy, awesome, kick-ass content that will bring music fans back to MySpace and will re-invigorate a new passion for this social networking site. I just know it.
Of course, I have an idea that I would love to talk to Tim & Chris Vanderhook about. I would love to talk to them about the music based concept that I put together called Rock Control, which fell on it’s feet because of lack of investment. I don’t bagillions of their cash I just want to see if they believe in the potential of Rock Control, in the same way that I do, in the same way that Kevin Roberts Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi did right here.
So, if you can hook me up with Tim & Chris Vanderhook then I will love you forever, not only that, a world of goodness will also come your way!
I am currently in Australia, just outside Melbourne, a friend invited me to stay at his place so that I can get my head down and focus, day and night, on a new startup. Ironically, it was when I was in Australia seven months ago, for Christmas and New Year that I was watching TV and came up with the idea for my brand new startup and now I am very nearly ready for launch, but, pre-startup jitters are setting in.
I have spent a significant amount of time working in social media, working with brands in order to come up with ideas in order to raise their profile online. Indeed, I have worked with a number of brands this year whilst, at the same time, I have been working on my startup – getting the website right, getting the concept right and developing the right relationships and contacts in order to get ready for launch. It has been an extremely exciting time.
Very soon I am about to launch a startup that will be the biggest thing I have ever done in my life. As many people who have followed my work are aware, I have had projects that have been successful and projects that have failed. The successful projects have brought about an awesome groundswell of positive encouragement and the ideas that have not worked out have bought about some criticism, both of which I equally value.
Irrespective of what response I have got I have worked hard, really hard, because I know without a shadow of a doubt that my life is about something, I have a goal that I want to achieve. If I launch an idea that fails I get off my ass and I learn, I learn hard and fast and I put that learning into place for next time. I have six years worth of experience which has lead me to launch my next idea.
I am jittery. It’s the pre-startup nerves. The website is looking good. I have learnt from past mistakes and I have implemented a strategy. One of the major mistakes that I have previously made is that I have come up with what many have called ‘good ideas’ but these ideas did not have any strong income or revenue stream. This time I have an idea that is based around a good idea and a strong revenue stream. So, with all this in place, you may be wondering why so jittery?
Well, there comes a point in a startup where you do everything that you can do. You build the website, you create the brand, you do all the behind the scenes work – setting up the business and so on. But, at some point, you get to launch and everything that you work on, that you believe in, is placed in the hands of the public and, in some ways, success or failure is their call. It comes down to the fundamentals…. Is there a need for this product. However, it is not simply about need, it is about exposure, it is about getting the marketing out about your product in order to find those individuals who are passionate about it and who do want to get involved. Obviously, I have a plan in place for that too!
All I can say is that I am jittery, but excited. I have worked hard on this business and I know that, at this point in my life I am exactly where I should be. Everything just feels ‘right’ and that is the most positive confirmation that I can get that I should keep going for this business with everything that I have.
I am jittery, but I am excited and I can’t wait to tell you about this business, very soon!
I have recently come across www.vyou.com which is a brilliant company with a genius idea. VYou enables the public to ask you questions which you can respond to via video!
Now, you may be shocked out how excited I am about this. To you, this may not seem like any big, brand new idea, in fact, you may be thinking ‘youtube‘. But, what is really exciting about vyou is the interface. As you can see below there is the video section of the individual who owns their ‘channel’ and then on the right hand side there are the questions that people have asked. A user simply clicks on the questions in order to see the channel owners response to the question. Of course there are safety features within this concept, including the fact that you can delete a users questions if you are not happy with what they have asked, before the public see the question.
What really excites me is that this idea is perfect for businesses who want to get close to their user base, owners who want to answer questions but cannot be on live video 24/7. This is a real neat way of providing an up-to-date FAQ’s section or an ask section. As someone who manages social media profiles for a number of companies this vyou is a perfect way to help manage a bran
Indeed, very shortly I am launching a new start up and I have already integrated vyou into the website!
Media used to be a top down thing, you could listen to the radio, watch TV or newspapers and the only time that you could share your voice on such platforms was when the gate keepers allowed you to do so – whether this be a letter to the editor or a radio phone in. Well, with the advent of the internet this has all changed and has significant and far-reaching consequences, consequences which I believe are greater than we currently understand.
Let’s take two contemporary cases:
The Murdoch Empire - Rupert Murdoch, as well all know, is a media mogul who is worth a cool $5billion. In no way, shape or form did anyone ever think that the foundations of this empire would shake and his media business would start to crumble, but it has and to me, this points to one thing… People are fed up of the way things are, with the way things have been and they want to see change. The internet provides a platform to voice these feelings, for good or for bad.
I am not making any startling revelation. We have seen the powerful results of WikiLeaks and we have seen the voice that the internet has become which has aided country-wide political revolutions. In Murdoch’s case the internet does not play any part in the revelation of the information. Nevertheless, people, in their droves hit the internet, tweeting, increasing their Facebook status and discussion on forums their dislike of the whole News of the World situation which resulted in advertisers pulling their marketing budgets, the public boycotting the newspaper and, ultimately, the closing down of the whole operation. A growing disillusion with the way that things are + the power of the internet to spread a message has resulted in the foundations of a worldwide media empire start to crumble = powerful consequences.
Google: The second media company that I want to discuss is Google. Google has traditionally been good at what it does, enabling people to effectively “search” the internet to find information that the need, fast. Google has launched a number of businesses that quite simply didn’t take off. Jaiku, a Twitter equivalent, launched by Google and subsequently failed, is one example. Google have always wanted to get into the social networking space and launched Google Wave, in an attempt to take a chunk out of the power and influence of Facebook.I remember speaking to Google’s PR team when Google Wave was launched and he was championing the impending success of Google Wave and how it was going to be adopted by future generations. Great idea, awesome ambition but the public did not take to it and ultimately it was closed down in August 2010.
Recently, Google went for it again and launched Google+, this time the public adopted the social networking site and within weeks it was announced that there was 10million users on the site. Some of the Google+ features have caused Facebook to panic leading to an announcement of an integration with Skype. The public are really going for Google+ and it has left Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin trying to raise their game.
The point that I am trying to make is that people have power and as people talk, share and engage online it brings about a confidence in others to share what they seek, what they think and what they feel. The News of the World ‘phone hacking case could only be held off for so long, people talk.
I believe that this is only the start. People are getting restless and fed up with the unacceptable behavior and now, more than ever they have a powerful method to share their views. Murdoch’s empire is only one foundation that is shaking, many more businesses will shake. However, at the same time, when the public get behind something, like Google+ they will do.
People are talking, about good and bad and the consequences of both are set to be significant.
I would love to hear your thoughts.