I agree, but this is a necessary drawback in my opinion. Kickstarter has a good reputation in terms of the quality of the projects and this is mainly due to the review process. As you say, the downside is that some projects don't make it in spite of their potential.
The same is true for Apple's App Store. Their review process has received a lot of criticism, but the advantage of Apple's filtering process has proven itself when compared to the Android Marketplace.
The real value that a community like this could provide is the creation of what Justin calls mastermind groups. It reminds me of Sprouter.com but on a much more personal level. The latter is very important in my opinion. Starting a business is something you experience on a very personal level and these groups could provide the help/advice (and possibly support) that a (new) entrepreneur needs to succeed. I do wonder what the "mentors" gain from this time investment.
I like most of the idea and am looking forward to how it grows and develops.
Agreed. The Skype based mastermind group I joined made all the difference for me. I can almost pin-point the date I had my first discussion with them as the turnaround of my business.
There's members of my skype group who make a lot more money than me, but they still ask for my advice on other issues such as tech related stuff, asking me to proof read blog posts, strategy idea bouncing, and other things.
I think that Justin would agree the key to our current mastermind group is rooted in the fact that we all get on the phone and spend 60-90min together.
Much more valuable than a message board or email thread.
Although, your app seems really interesting as well. I believe they would both be effective and perhaps complimentary..
I agree with Marco Arment and Jeff Rock in that it is perfectly understandable that Twitter wants to monetize their business if they wish to do so, but based on their recent decisions it seems that they are taking a path that will damage their business along the way. Also, I have never understood the value of trending topics. It is just one of the many metrics inherent to how Twitter works, but it is far from the most useful metric since Twitter is so full of spam and people that have nothing useful to say (which is their good right of course).
Anyway, all this does make me curious to see how Twitter is going to change in the next few months and I hope for the best - for them and for the users.
Absolutely agree. Earning that first dollar is much harder than the next thousand. The reason is that it is a major mindset shift. It's a hurdle that quite a lot of people underestimate.
Exactly. It's totally a mental barrier as well. It took me a long while before I put up a simple donate via paypal link. That alone has generated $15k in revenue in basically the last year. Just putting that up took alot of guts, but it's been easy collecting donations to help bootstrap us along since then :)
The same is true for Apple's App Store. Their review process has received a lot of criticism, but the advantage of Apple's filtering process has proven itself when compared to the Android Marketplace.