alex de carvalho

There’s a packed house to watch Mark Cuban interview Michael Eisner: two billionaires in the room:

"This is a joint panel session for both SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive registrants, and will be a one-on-one interview with the founder of The Tornante Company and new media studio Vuguru, will feature the former head of Disney turned media mogul discussing his past, present and future endeavors, as he builds new companies and models for entertainment consumption. Interviewing Eisner will be former SXSW Interactive Festival keynote speaker Mark Cuban."

Michael wanted to see if the time had come for story-driven professional content to be monetized on the Internet. Can contnt owners make money from content? It’s almost the time, but pretty soon this distribution channel will explode and it will be like what’s happened before: one plus one will equal three. He has seen this numerous time in his career. For example, the addtion of movies and television was bigger than either one alone.

Michael would like to say he has a research group figuring out what to do; he doesn’t. They’re trying things out. For example, he talked to Chrysler, who put him in a Nitro and said "go to SXSW and look young"!

The people working in online video will be the Spielbergs of the future. Michael says he has a talent for finding such talent.

Why do we see so many changes in business models by content producers on the net? Partly it’s because they know it will be huge and they want to get as big a slice of the pie as they can. This happened to Prom Queen, where distribution deals were renegotiated after it went big. There is no unique business model. That’s why all you can do is to find the people who are doing interesting things and raised $5 from family and friends to make their video.

What type of approach should content producers take? For one thing, Michael says, "Stay away from media moguls like me". Those who get in a band with two other people, stay in a Day’s Inn and work on a shoestring see media moguls as a last resort. Then there’s the 12 year olds in the user generated arena, and you can sometimes see something pretty good. Michael is not interested. But the group that’s very interesting are those youth studying film production in schools: they are educated, smart and professional.

Of what you see online, 99% is awful and 1% is good. The intention is not to do crap, but it’s hard to know this before the fact. Lots of bad movies are made, but no one intended them to be bad.

Michael thinks that within 5 years, content on the Internet will be as important as content on television or cable. Already, content is a huge deal.

Will this be primary content or secondary content? It will be both. Nothing will be different, just the distribution channel. This will be media over broadband. Mark Cuban disagrees, though. People are rushing out to buy HDTV more than they are PCs. There are no standards. (Michael agrees that 90% of America that has TV on their PC are sitting in this room). Eisner says he doesn’t dwell on the technology. If there’s a story that makes you laugh or makes you cry, somebody else will want to see it and there will be a way to distribute it online. If you have the patience and you are interested in dealing with new people and new ideas, this is the place to be.

Question and answer

How will Eisner acquire a large volume of cool content? How will Michael upgrade the quality of content in volume? The point is to make a good show and you can have millions to perhaps a billion people watching it. If you know how to monetize this, then you have a business. Michael’s skill is in identifying good content. But talent agencies are looking for talent as well. This is becoming a business. As long as the cost is low enough, the talent acquisition and management business will grow.

Every new technology predicts the demise of the movie theater. Artistic decisions need to be made if you’re shooting something for HD … there’s way too much detail. Should content creators be making these decisions at the beginning of the process if they’re filming for the net? Yes and no. What’s hard to do is the emotion. If you have good emotional content with heart, it will work on any screen, including the big screen. So it’s a matter of cost and budget, during the production process. One of the best things of producing on the cheap is that you can redo it, if it works.

What’s Eisner’s take on Creative Commons and the remix culture? Michael says he’s conflicted, because he has a long history of defending copyrights. What sets this nation apart is paying people for intellectual work, which is just like paying people for physical work.

What about the growth of product placement as an advertising mechanism? It’s very important. In the creative process, it’s very important to have it done right, because bad product placement can ruin good content. Eisner objects to 30s pre-rolls. There’s a lot of experimentation going on, but the combination of sensitive insertions and voice overs can work. We’re used to advertising in entertainment, because most would prefers ads to paying a subscription. If you have common sense, you will understand what’s annoying.

Opinions about the added capabilities that digital brings to content (interactivity) and do these need to be integrated into the content creation process? This is the one thing that makes the internet totally unique. Eisner likes to have control over the content, but he likes the interactivity. It’s clever, compelling and works. He is adding interactivity to content, and admits he is not clever enough to think of all the ways to take advantage of interactivity. Mark mentions there are problems with interactivity. On the advertising side, there are no standards, so if you have different distribution channels, you need to encode each one specifically and think about how the players are different, so you can adapt the ads. Cables and satellite are gearing towards interactivity now. Mark is putting emphasis away from interactivity on the net and is moving to digital cable and satellites.

What about the published written word in the digital landscape? How do big media companies adapt? Michael says he has no idea. He says his Kindle died after about three days. He says the written word is the essence of everything he has ever done. It’s hard to go out and shoot and get lucky. He doesn’t believe the days of the written word is over. Mark thinks we’re approaching screen fatigue, and there will be a resurgence of book reading … rather than reading stuff on the screen. And there’s an excitement to getting out of the house and into the movies. So these media are not going away.

This turned out to be one of the more interesting sessions of the conference. Here’s a loose transcription of the bootstrapping your startup panel at SXSW. The points covered in this session are the nuts and bolts of the business, as important as the balance sheet.

Kevin Koym   Founder/CEO,   Enterprise Teaming LLC

Bruce Krysiak   Principal,   Leonid Consulting

Allen Beuershausen

Edward Cruz   Founder,   Melior Technologies

Nancy Schill   Founder,   Executive Intelligent Coaching

"Are you building a business, a non-profit, or artistic endeavor? Through building their businesses together, entrepreneurs can get to success faster. We will share examples of how entrepreneurs can use less financial capital and more social capital to make their businesses successful, drawing upon our experiences with BootstrapAustin.org, and other "enterprise tribes". Our panel’s diverse backgrounds will show how this way of building businesses is having an impact on artist, non-profits, and startup businesses."

Panel discussion

The basic phases are pre-ideation, ideation, Valley of Death and growth. The "inner path" are the changes you need to make at the relevant times as you grow.

In the pre-ideation phase, start to put into language what you like, what you don’t like, etc., in the spirit of "know thyself". Where will you spend your mental time to create something you will love.

In the ideation phase, you start to commit to the business. What you develop in the ideation phase is your commitment to your idea and its place in the world. The other aspects here are imagination and creativity.

When you’re in the "Valley of Death", your primary objective is to stay alive. Do whatever it takes, get consulting contracts, so you can sustain your project. During this time, you will learn alot about yourself, and this will give a good sense of your and your project’s identity. Ask yourself three questions:

- Are you trying to build a sustainable organization?
- Is your team willing to push the limits during this period?
- Are you ready to use everything in your disposal in order to make it?

Unless you’re Superman, you will face and live with fear. You must put the fear aside, because it paralizes you and keeps you from doing the things you need to do. It reduces your openness and flexibility. You must be open to everything that comes your way that will help you build a sustainable company.

"Growth is a biological unfolding of events involving changing an organism from simple to more complex." Growth is that place where you become more dangerous, because you are stretching in new directions. The most important thing right now is not to build your bank account, but to reinvest your profits. Teach and reinforce your purpose, your vision, your values and your strategies. So just feeding your business more capital doesn’t work. You have to do it based on your purpose, vision, values and strategies. No doing so can throw you back in the Valley of Death.

Dring growth, be careful of hubris and don’t get too full of yourself. Hubris reduces your openness and flexibility, because you think you know everything (ie., I did this all myself). Cultivate humility and gratitude.

Question and answer

How do you manage the transition from your day job to your project? To cross the threshold, you need to jump. There’s a point you’ll feel inside where you know you need to take a leap of faith. You will feel that push. It’s like going into labor. And when you make that leap, you will find resources, because you are looking for opportunities and because you’re hungry.

When do you stop bootstrapping and look for funding? You can take funding and still continue bootstrapping. It’s not mutually exclusive and it is part of the process. After growth, you re-boostrap. Even Apple does it. When you stop innovating, you stop being viable.

When do you get business and medical insurance? Do it when you can afford it. Here too there is a threshold that you’ll have to cross. You have to weigh the risks when you can afford it.

How do you know which opportunities to pursue while you work on your project? For as long as you possibly can, keep focussing on your core and growing that core. Keep feeding this core until it sprouts something you can’t avoid. During the ideation stage, don’t define the project too strictly. Keep considering new options. But when you’re in the Valley of Death or growth stages, then you have to focus and make your project work.

How many months should you have in the bank while you’re growing? A goal of four and a half months is good, but hard to achieve. The closer you get to four and a half months, the more your business will suffer. So a rule of thumb is to take your employee expense and double it.

When is it appropriate to start looking for talent? What are the best ways … should you use a recruiter? The recruiting process works best when you align values. Get someone that is curious, hard working and shares your values. These are more important than qualifications. Make it an objective to consistently interview people. For example, interview six people per week. You have to keep feeding that pipeline so you get choice selections for your organization.

How to manage work life balance? Should I get a partner or an employee? Look into getting an intern from local schools, they can be invaluable. Look for people with complementary energy, so they bring new talents to your organization. Regarding time management, scrap your todo lists and put what’s necessary into your calendar. This way you have a central place and a strict daily reminder of what needs to happen by the end of the day.

Time has flown by and so much has changed since I first joined Scrapblog as Director of Community. At the time, we still hadn’t launched our service. Since then, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds, in the US, in Brazil and other countries. There’s still much to accomplish, but Scrapblog is now on a solid growth path and I have reached my objective of building an engaged and active community across various countries.

I am now moving on from Scrapblog, and will retain them as a consultant.

It has been great fun working at Scrapblog and I will miss my colleagues, partners and suppliers. We will remain in close contact, I will advise Scrapblog as a consultant and of course will remain an active community member.

What’s next

I have been focused over the last year on building communities online and offline. I am an avid user of social media, and am passionate about using social networks, blogs and other platforms to bring people together.

I have been involved in consulting, in teaching and in building the local web community. I am an Adjunct Professor of Social Media at the University of Miami, I’ve organized the first two BarCampMiami events, I co-organize RefreshMiami meetups, and, more significantly careerwise, I consult to companies on social media strategies, tools and platforms. These activities have increased in importance over time, and I will now focus on these areas.

While I define my new role, I am committed to continue working in an area that combines my technical and social media knowledge, my business background, and my passion for community; I want to use my abilities fully in these areas.

If you have any suggestions, I’m always open for your ideas. My email is alex at decarvalho dot net

Update: Carlos Garcia’s, Scrapblog CEO, blog post about me.

I’m pleased to announce that after years of work, the team at Scrapblog, which I recently joined, has officially launched their awesome service!

From Carlos:

An exciting journey starts today, and you are in the driver’s seat! Scrapblog is live for the entire world. After over two years of hard work, we finally have a version online that is faithful to our vision. That said, what we are launching today is only as far as we could take Scrapblog on our own. Now, it is up to Scrapblog’s growing community to define where we go from here.

Shel pitches in:

Scrapblog works bets when shared with family and friends, and now is the time to start sharing. Anyone is now free to use it and anyone can create whatever they want with it.

And from David, our PR guy:

Whatever the designers and coders came up with, it’s nothing compared with what you, the community, will show us with what you can do with our tools. Go at it and enjoy.

However much work into getting this version out, it’s just the beginning. Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll be stabilizing the new version and ensuring our content delivery network is robust; we’ll be adding new features to the Builder; we’ll be creating and getting new themes; and we’ll be improving the functionality on the site, to make it more social. We hope you’ll check back with us regularly and most importantly, tell us what we’re doing right and what could be done better. Our feedback email is feedback[at]scrapblog[dot]com

Thanks!

Technorati Tags: scrapblog, carlos garcia, launch, startup, photosharing, shel israel, david parmet

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Between travel to Austin, my hard drive crash and the launch of Scrapblog, I haven’t had the occasion to talk about RefreshMiami. The easiest is to post this e-mail, from Brian. By the way, I think this will be a great Refresh meeting:

Hey folks,

Your friendly organizer here, just wanted to give you all a heads up on the exciting stuff we have planned for [tonight], one of our biggest yet.

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