Come for the Ride…

I just saw this website on KillerStartups.com and it seems to promote itself as the network for entrepreneurs and investors. One thing I like about it is that it’s easy to use and it’s free for the needy.

I never understood why other entrepreneur/investor networks charge entrepreneurs, who are the poor ones in the scenario. Granted, when you let the flood gates open, there are bound to be tons of crap mixed in with the good ideas, but at least it’ll help you build up critical mass on one side vs. none at all.

If you are looking for outside funding and aren’t afraid to publicize your idea, I’d give this site a visit.  If you have already posted your idea on there, I’d be curious to hear what kind of feedback you’ve been getting as well.

A conversation from earlier today…

Co-founder A:

i like your site
me: glad to hear it, still needs work of course
Sis: yeah but it is really easy to use (or so it seems) and simple. its like the facebook of autosales

Co-founder B: heh, cool

Co-founder A: my sis talking about the site
thats a good response Id say

Co-founder B: http://www.vcwear.com/your-mom-is-not-a-valid-test-market/


Co-founder A: lol
come on now, she is a potential user

Co-founder B: lol

Co-founder A: and shes my sis not my mom 

Co-founder B: ah, right

You really can’t make this stuff up…

Wired.com has a great article on the free economy - which is the very same thing we’re looking to do with EasyAutoSales.com.  For those of you that are struggling to understand why free makes money, I would highly recommend you to check out the article.

I must say… every time I read an article like this, it makes me try to think what else I can offer for free on top of an already free service.  BTW, Wired is offering 10,000 copies of their March edition for free for the first 10,000 people that want to receive it.  (Not sure if it’s already too late though.)

Awhile ago, I posted about an Intuit Social Network/Business Competition that wants entrepreneurs to fork over their idea in exchange for a chance to win some cash. Well today, I got an email from their team stating that the judges will soon be checking out the entries and that we should start promoting our entry so it will make an impression with them.

I was originally going to write a simple post saying: “Hey! Check out our entry…” but after checking out the site myself, I’m really not sure how effective this site is for promoting and awarding good ideas.

First of all, the site is flash based and the overall usability stinks. You land on the site and it’s not exactly clear what your next step is and what is/isn’t clickable. Secondly, whatever server(s) this site is on, is not keeping up with demand. Images are broken, things take awhile to load… and so on and so on. Basically, they’ve broken 2 of the very basic rules of web business 101 and whether it’s Intuit that’s backing this up or someone’s basement server, the experience is not friendly for their intended audience.

With regards to the link they sent me for referrals, not only do you not go directly to our entry when you click on the link above… you actually have to either do something or wait a tad bit before our entry shows up. I can only imagine who the big shot corporate guy behind this is that thought that’d be a good idea to force people to sign up to vote. As a side note, even if you sign up, I’m not sure if it’s all that obvious how you’d vote.

So yeah… we have an entry, potentially our idea may be seen but at this point, I think we’re better off alone. However, if you’d LIKE to submit your own idea, you should check it out and do so within the next few days.

So according to TechCrunch, Edgeio will be shutting down by the end of 2007. Considering the growing number of classified aggregators on the web (e.g. Oodle.com, Vast.com, etc.) I am honestly surprised this one would fall before the others.

I don’t remember if I’ve done business with Edgeio but I do remember working with Oodle.com in my day job. If I had to base this on nothing else besides execution, I would say that Oodle did a better job squeezing money out of advertisers than Edgeio did. Why? Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rep from Edgeio nor do I understand their business model; assuming they had one.

I guess the bottom line is - when all else is equal, everything comes down to execution. I’ve seen great ideas executed poorly as well as the difference it could make if a more experienced team were in charge. I’m not sure who all handled Edgeio’s day to day but with $5 million in funding as well as a full staff, I would love to learn where it went down hill.

Is there a blog of venue that interviews dead pool CEOs? If not, there really should be one. It seems like everyone only focus on the winners.