Hey Odeo Users, Your Mother Doesn't Love You Any More!
Hey Odeo users, your mother doesn't love you any more! Kind of a rough message for a community to hear. And wouldn't a potential buyer be somewhat reluctant to lay down some serious cash for a toy that now bores one of THE web 2.0 poster boys?
I'm just saying there's a reason people sell cars because they're "moving overseas", "need to sell to pay mortgage" or "need a bigger car for the family". No one wants to feel like they're buying something the previous owner doesn't want. You gotta come up with a better back-story concerning your sale, that's just good bidness!
And who is going to sign up for an Odeo account now? Seriously, Odeo's mojo just left the building and checked in to a cheap hotel.
I think these are some of the issues that have stalled Carson System's sale of Dropsend. It's just not sexy, buying someone's trash.
An interesting question these sales beg is why are these small companies building sucessful products only to grow bored with them and attempt to flip? I think there are two key factors: 1. Both companies are run by engineering minds that love the thrill of the chase (solving new technology challenges such as podcast creation/sharing and a web-based file dropbox), but quickly tire of rounding out their solutions; and 2. These companies are too small to have the resources to delegate this i-dotting and t-crossing work.
A product's momentum is just too easily lost when its company is unable to make this step into the less glamorous world of continuous improvements. It's something sites like Flickr and Digg have really excelled at. It's also the reason Slashdot is almost irrelevant these days. They hit upon a succesful formula and then stopped improving it. It was only a matter of months ago they finally switched over the CSS/div-based layout! Digg ate their lunch and is still coming back for more, innovating and adapting at a frenetic pace.
Flickr has gone another route to Digg. They have expanded their team enough to have people to hand off this less interesting work to. For example, they just annouced an email notifications system. I guarantee this was on Butterfield's to-do list from day one. It's a feature that some users will love, that better rounds out the product, but is a complete chore to build.
This is why your start-up should be something you love. It's not enough to have a good idea and execute it well. For the next few years you'll need to live and breath it. It's about continuing to have the enthusiam and passion for it after the glowing blog reviews have subsided and you're left with a demanding, vocal user-base that's never satisfied.
