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Slide 1: HOTNESS SMACKDOWN Startup2Startup / Boulder June 30, 2009 David Cohen, TechStars Dave McClure, Founders Fund Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group Howard Lindzon, StockTwits/WallStrip ULTIMATE PLATFORM
Slide 2: Platforms: HOT or NOT? • • • • • • • • • • • Facebook iPhone Twitter Native Web (Search) Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Orkut, hi5, Friendster Email & IM: Yahoo, MSFT, Google, AOL, Skype Mobile: iPhone, Palm, Android, Blackberry, etc Gaming: Zynga, RockYou, Slide, Playfish, SGN E-Commerce: Amazon (1-Click), eBay (PayPal), Apple (iTunes) Dev: Amazon (AWS), Google AppEngine, Ruby/Rails, Python/Django, etc Other: SalesForce, Craigslist, Wikipedia, YouTube
Slide 3: Platform Viability Successful Platforms have 3 Things: 1) Features 2) Users 3) Money Features Growth Nirvana Profit Users Profitable .. Growth Money
Slide 4: Discussion Topics • Distribution – Viral? Paid? • • • • • • Monetization Gatekeepers & Trolls vs Support Stability / Predictability Reputation / Identity Demographic The Future ?
Slide 5: Facebook Platform & Facebook Connect: via Profiles, Apps, Feeds Big Pimping
Slide 6: Facebook Overview • • • • • • Users: 250M and counting (100M+ in US) Demographic: college -> everyone (moms, grandmas) Distribution: Most viral platform on the planet Monetization: up to you: ads, lead-gen, virtual goods Gatekeepers: not much, unless you get spammy Stability / Predictability: stable, but fickle? – Invitations/Notifications: lot s of rules, changes often – NewsFeed: amazing distribution, but algorithm continues to “evolve” • Reputation / Identity: amazing access to social graph – Facebook Connect: portabile identity across the web (+ payments?)
Slide 7: The Good Stuff • Social Networks Viral Distribution via Friends Lists – 1) Messaging, 2) Profile Surfing, 3) News Feeds • Social “Gestures” & Communication (pokes, wall posts, emails) drive User Engagement & Distribution • Social Content (notes, photos, videos) can be “tagged” with people data that also drives User Engagement & Distribution • Social Applications are “carriers” for Content & Communication • Facebook Connect enables “data portability” for logins, profile data, friend lists, and other social network content, data, & applications • Facebook Payments is coming… soon?
Slide 8: Facebook Connect, Facebook Payments Facebook Connect • • • • Standardized User Login for use OFF-Platform (outside Facebook) Access to ON-Platform data (user profiles, friend lists) “Data Portability” -> take my network with me, anywhere on the web Lightweight app framework for use OFF-network Possibility: 250M+ users across the web; “1-click” login / “always logged in Internet”, use of FB Connect use by branded sites & retailers Facebook Payments • Not launched yet; “coming soon” (now in alpha) • On-platform payment option (wallet? Micro-transactions?) • Off-platform payment option (via FB Connect) Possibility: Social Commerce, “Viral” Products / Digital Goods
Slide 9: iPhone: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Jeff Clavier (aka @jeff) Managing Partner, SoftTech VC Disclosure: Whoopsie, I actually own AAPL
Slide 10: iPhone Platform – The Good • 30M devices (iPhone/iPod Touch) as of 12/08(?) • Over 1B downloads from AppStore • Easy referencing (sort of), deployment, update • Baked in monetization: premium apps, subscriptions, in-app commerce • Zero-carrier friction
Slide 11: iPhone Platform – The Bad • Limited discoverability among 56K applications – Tough organic customer acquisition • No internal virality (no contacts/graph) • Challenging economics – Apple’s 30% – Only the head of the tail of applications makes money – Like video, advertising only works for premium content/applications • Proprietary development language
Slide 12: iPhone Platform – The Ugly • Application developers are not managed like an asset by Apple, more like a necessary evil • Lot of crappy apps out there
Slide 13: iPhone Platform – The Ugly • Application developers are not managed like an asset by Apple, more like a necessary evil • Lot of crappy apps out there • Proprietary development language
Slide 14: Twitter
Slide 15: What is StockTwits? • StockTwits is an open, community-powered investment idea and information service • 80,000 twitter subscribers • Our "Human Ticker” adds context • TweetDeck's functionality enables "Social Bloomberg" • Eavesdrop on traders and investors in the “Now Web” • Piggyback on Twitter’s reputation system • Transparency assures meritocracy
Slide 16: Free Model
Slide 17: Tweetdeck Integration
Slide 18: Native Web (Search)
Slide 19: Web / Search: One Platform to Rule Them All Hotness • Features (yes, all of them!) • Users (1.6B and counting) • Money (lots! GOOG is $22B, AMZN $20B, EBAY $8B) • The search gesture carries more economic value than social/sharing gestures (for now) • The über platform: all interesting apps built on web stack, whether FB, Twitter, iPhone, etc • Big serendipity/surprise factor inherent in the web/search platform • No gatekeeper, no approval process, widest flexibility in developer tools, ease of deployment • Web’s ecosystem of ad networks, payment systems, affiliate revenues, etc. enable monetization for nondevelopers: publishers, retailers
Slide 20: Web / Search: One Platform to Rule Them All Coldness • Growing more slowly than FB, Twitter, iPhone, etc • You can build anything. Constraints imposed by FB, Twitter, iPhone platforms can actually benefit developers WRT stability, distribution, monetization • De-facto gatekeeper: Search engine dynamics throttle distribution. Time/money required to build Google juice/SEO and to engage in SEM • Pages not people (links are king, ignores the social, makes distribution hard) • Then, not now (web is archive, not zeitgeist)
Slide 21: Discussion Topics • Distribution – Viral? Paid? • • • • • • Monetization Gatekeepers & Trolls vs Support Stability / Predictability Reputation / Identity Demographic The Future ?
Slide 22: Platform Viability Successful Platforms have 3 Things: 1) Features 2) Users 3) Money Features Growth Nirvana Profit Users Profitable .. Growth Money