NECST, A tale about Control.

[LeungJan]

A few weeks back my friend just launched his brand new venture.

He had teamed up with a rockstar developer, himself a designer/developer to build
a product that was to fill the gap of google removing alerts for RSS.

The alarm bells went off in my mind - he was building a service based on top of Google's
platform, they had no control!

Not only that but what he was doing violated their TOS.

So 2 months of intense work after his 9-5 with his co-founder and they built a lovely product.

The design was flawless, 500 people had signed up for the launch.

The launch date approached and an email blast had been sent out to notify hopeful users of the product 1 day before hand.

On the launch day I got an email saying the product had been shut down, shutdown because google had just re-implemented alerts for rss on their launch day.

It's a shame he didn't read MJ's book, which I had suggested months earlier - he read the 37signals app launch book instead.

I feel so lucky to have stumbled upon TMF , all this wisdom and 100x more compiled into one lucid volume.

Thanks MJ.

 

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[Daniel A]

I was about to post something else but I Googled what you were talking about before I did haha.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/google-reader-mourners-rejoice-rss-is-back-sort-of/

Google Reader is still gone but Google Alerts now has RSS.

That sucks for him though. Really that sucks big time. He'll be back with another idea I bet. Is he on the forum?

PS: Use Google Alerts for your name, company, interests etc. I have it for just my name for now.

 

[RHL]

I feel like the tough part of the C in CENTS is that, especially in the online marketplace, someone is always going to have some measure of control (Amazon, Android Market, etc.). The benchmark I like to set is to try and push the control one level beyond what you think is possible. Host your content multiple places, etc.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

It's a shame he didn't read MJ's book, which I had suggested months earlier - he read the 37signals app launch book instead.

LOL.

On the launch day I got an email saying the product had been shut down, shutdown because google had just re-implemented alerts for rss on their launch day.

Wow, talk about bad timing.

The benchmark I like to set is to try and push the control one level beyond what you think is possible.

IMO, one should seek to eliminate all middlemen as humanely possible. For example, as a publisher it's just me (the manufacturer) and Amazon (the POS.) When I add/sell to middlemen, wholesalers, 3rd parties, etc., getting my money takes forever, and there's less of it.

 

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[LeungJan]

There's no doubt he will build another great product, I'm sure he learnt from this lesson!

He is not on the forum yet, I hope he reads the book and will be!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bumped a dumptee.