I just left a job with a nonprofit. It was volunteer, we got a lot done, and it was a pain. But it was interesting, and it helped me bootstrap back into the wild and furry world of high tech. And what a fun incarnation it is! Wow. Software for real people, **talking with one another!!!** SO much better than buying your pet food online, even thought that was a nice sock puppet.
At any rate, in my recent job, our group (which had 2,000 members - it's the parents club of the silicon valley) was repeatedly pitched by entrepreneurs. I was the VP in charge of all web and communications stuff, and I talked with at least five new companies that are going after the "mom" market. To which I responded with a resounding eye-roll.
Like I told the last group I talked with - idealistic Stanford Biz School students who wanted to create an online service to help parents raise their children:
1. Moms have no money.
2. If they do, they buy stuff for their kids.
3. Moms are not going to pay for a referral service.
4. Why should they? There are tons out there for free.
But I kept hearing from people that the "mom information referral service" is white-hot. OK. Fine. Go and make some money at it. I'll subscribe. Um, after I just phone in that order for a 50 lb box of kitty litter.
In this blog, I'll be taking a look inside the kimono of some of the newest (and most ludicrous) startups around. What's going to stick around? What's good? What's not?
I am a power user of information. I'm a mom. I have both feet on the ground. And I'm still mad that Yahoo's avatar service doesn't provide looks like a 300 lb black meter reader with tattoos and blonde hair, or a frowsy housewife with fuzzy slippers! (Too many years in San Francisco, and now too many years in the burbs. I'm just underrepresented in "bunny marketing land" I guess.)
In my opinion, the best information and referral service on the internet today (speaking as a mom) is the
UCB Parents Group online service, which was started by Ginger Ogle ten years ago. Why is it so good? Because, in my humble opinion, the people in Berkeley have a good idea about what makes a community (on the internet and in life.) You don't charge. You put the info out there. All of it. You encourage input. And you put that out also.
Ahem. My husband calls me an information socialist.
One of the new startups to come up is a team which, um, (how do you say this politely?) closely observed
Craig's List and the
UCB Parents Group and started out with a product that was very similar to UCB, but has now morphed, as good information structures (and some marketing feedback) tend to do. The startup I'm talking about is called
Judys Book.
The question with these types of systems is how do you make money? And the Judy's book people really have to make money, since they're venture funded. Well... there's custom advertising, right? And there are custom services. I'll be looking at successful sites to see how they're working this out.
Most of my info won't go onto a public blog, but I'll put pointers to other blogs and other pithy comments in here just because ... I am a pithy comment machine.
bye.
