Micah Baldwin on Startups That Suck
This post is part of our ReadWriteStart channel, which is a resource and guide for first-time entrepreneurs and startups. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark. To sign up for BizSpark, click here.
Micah Baldwin has heard his share of pitches, and at Gnomedex in Seattle, he spouted off to us about startup failure, including bad ideas, saturated verticals, the "rule of three," YASE (yet another search engine) syndrome, and changing jets mid-runway.
All in all, Micah is overwhelmingly positive. For someone who preaches the virtues of failure, he has a lot of faith in ideas others would consider doomed. Watch the video below, and hear his words of wisdom.
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Comments
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Did the interviewer just come back from clubbing around town?
Seriously, who is this women. "um, oh k". Seriously this guy needs to ask her how she got this job? Wow. RRW, what are you thinking? This guy is smart and she is not.
Hey guys. To address your concerns, I did not just get back from clubbing, and I got my job by going to journalism school, graduating with high honors, and working pretty hard for about 10 years. The content here is the important thing, and I'm sorry that you were distracted from the conversation.
Jolie - I look forward to your interviews. You always find good people who have great things to say. Don't let the negative comments get to you!
While I might be biased*, I did enjoy the content of this interview. It so much more fun to be interviewed about things I have passion around (startups, Lijit, etc.) than to discuss the over discussed topics like social media.
Jolie, thank you for taking this interview in a new and interesting direction. Hope to see more like it!
* disclaimer: the fat dude? thats me. And, the shirt? Shotgun by threadless.
@micah
Interesting interview but the sound quality is bad. Either select a place without background noise or use adapted microphons for future sessions.
Thanks,
Ryan: You're an idiot. Evidence: "Who is this women?" Um. Perhaps you meant *woman* and I have the feeling that you haven't had much experience with them, thus your hater-ness. An attractive woman does a smart interview, all you can do is slag. Evidence #2: "RRW what were you thinking?" Perhaps you meant RWW as in Read Write Web. Write is spelled with a 'w" not an 'r'.
nmancer61: You're an idiot. Nothing about this interview suggests she came back from clubbing. That question she asked about why there seems to be only one social network, not three? Actually quite astute: she's right -- Facebook is running the world, MySpace has some traction still in distant second and nobody is in third. You're a hater and you need to vanish in a puff of jealousy.
Wow - the trolls are out on this one. Jolie is one of my favorite authors (among many) of ReadWriteWeb and a pretty dang smart woman. Micah is one of the coolest guys I've ever met in person and someone definitely worth listening to in regards to how to build a startup. He knows his stuff, as does Jolie. Great interview - keep cranking 'em out!
Wow, thanks so much for the support, folks! I'm glad you are liking the convo. Micah's incredibly smart and experienced and has a wealth of knowledge to share with our community.
@Pascal: The hardware situation is one we're still sussing out. I agree with you 100 percent. I do have a mic; unfortunately, my current camera doesn't have an audio in to accomodate a microphone. I can record audio tracks separately straight to my editing software, but we didn't have a lot of time to set up for this interview... To shed a little light on the behind-the-scenes process, I literally snagged Micah from a crowd of people and dashed off to find the quietest place in the convention center. I had to ward off a group of folks who wanted to play Werewolf in that room. ;) One does the best with what one has, and then one improves constantly. Thanks for your comment, and I look forward to producing higher quality videos all the time!
Interesting interview ^_^ and the interviewer is kinda hot hehe
Jollie is great, but please get someone else do the camera work. Theres no reason a video interviewing someone should be SO over processed. You really shouldn't have to do much more than pulling the file off the camera and putting it on youtube.
I'm sure Ryan meant "who ARE this women?" heh...
Jolie, great interview, and thanks for shining some light on the whole question of failure. Fascinating stuff.
Jolie, I love you because you are real. All these other dorks get all weird when a pretty woman interviews someone in this field. You have it all...Brains and Beauty.
Keep up the awesome work!
P.S. Micah...you friggin' rock!
To be fair, the dress doesn't exactly scream "the content here is the most important thing". In much the same way that if I unbuttoned my shirt halfway down before putting the interview online.
Great discussion. The first two points are valid despite the excessive negativity and poor grammar. If you excuse my pun the "rack focus" combines with the poor sound quality to create an unprofessional feeling. Who cares? I still extracted what I needed to from this informative interview.
But in the future if you want to appease both parties I suggest a tighter shot, a lower angle, and the use of a broadcast mic. (Audio Technica AT825 Special Purpose Condenser Microphone is around $300--works in hurricanes.)
Guerrilla filmmaking is pretty easy to do well these days, and I suppose Read Write Web should be leading the charge for high production value to go along with their quality content.
What is this interview about?
Besides poor sound quality and biker boy and girl doing a persiflage on an interview about online business enterpreneurs, the interview reveals nothing.
Micah has nothing to reveal and Jolie has no questions. Is this a joke?
Interesting conversation from a couple of people I admire a lot. Great job by both of you.
i like the objective critisizms mr. daniel brings up. He clearly states I'm a Douchebag within the first sentence to establish a theme of bitchyness he decides to wallow in.
I also agree with the 'Rack' discussion. Hello!!! Read Write Web leave boobs to the magazines, porn sites, tv, movies, videogames, music videos, fox news, popmedia, the highschool female's current wardrobe, and everything else but Read Write Web- someone get this poor girl a burka.
Nmancer61- yes she just finished clubbing trolls to death on other forums, but clearly missed one...
Given that nearly all the comments on this article are focused on the quality of the production (including its sound quality, interview style, appropriateness of appearance, choice of location, etc.), rather than the merit of the actual content (start ups), the interviewer would do well to set aside her defensiveness and open herself to the idea that this piece falls well short of the quality of work most of us expect from tech journalists with her alleged credentials.
After all, I'm sure the true purpose journalism aligns closer with reporting the news, rather than BEING the news.
And while I don't condone the comments made here of a personal nature, I can unfortunately see where they are coming from.
This interview was appallingly unprofessional, and for the most part it was uninformative as well. And the real shame is you that can tell that the two people on camera have enough going on for themselves that it didn't have to be.
We shouldn't have to read in the comments section that the author graduated with honors with a degree in journalism, we should see it reflected in the work product itself, you know?
@Tom7 - This is actually valid criticism, and I thank you for it.
I still have a lot of work to do in transitioning from written to video journalism, both in terms of presentation AND content, and comments such as yours are very helpful in directing my attention to what actually matters.
Micah is a difficult subject to interview. This video represents my third or fourth attempt (and the third or fourth location!) to interview him. Generally speaking, he always tells me he has nothing to talk about and isn't particularly interested in being on-camera in the first place. This challenge brought to light my flaws as an interviewer, of course, and Micah and I had a long conversation afterward about things I can do to improve.
To submit my final word on this rambling comment stream: Thank you to EVERYONE who left remarks. Your feedback helps me as a journalist and RWW as a team improve our content and give you a more informative experience.
I think we all need to simmer with the Pundit on Pundit crime here. @Jolieodell wasn't clubbing, she's just going for an editorial makeup style and @Micah is just big boned.
Any piece on the value of startups and concepts is bound to have some degree of conjecture and opinionated commentary. This isn't 4chan folks. Keep it classy.
actually I didn't think this one was bad to be honest.
Maybe you should name the series fireside chats as thats what they come across as.
The first, second comment on this article was interesting, and the third just ensued hilarity. Ahahah, I bet you they weren't expecting it. Good interview btw.
prekast cephe kaplama elemanları.
prekast cephe,
Sorry Jolie, if you can't get a decent microphone, stop with the fidgeting, and figure out the video quality/lighting problems you've been having, I'm done with these video interviews. They're so badly put together I can't stand to watch a minute of it. Please post a transcript so we can just read it. Did you even look at the light exposure before you started the interview? Tip: don't shoot into the bright sunlight.
I've been watching Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss "Random" videos lately which are much better shot and highly entertaining. You're interviewing interesting people, I think your videos should be at least this good.
If you want to be taken seriously, I'd suggest less cleavage and keep your bare legs out of the picture. I would think after all the hubbub lately that would be obvious to you, which makes me think you like the attention.
This is such a great conversation.