How we blew our shot at beating How we blew our shot at beating Spotify, spending two metric Spotify, spending two metric truckloads of cash doing ittruckloads of cash doing itby Espen Dalløkkenby Espen Dalløkken

JavaZone 2010, 8. september, Oslo, NorwayJavaZone 2010, 8. september, Oslo, Norway

Who was I?Who was I?

● Espen Dalløkken, Folldal● Chief Technical Officer of Ezmo● Part of the Ezmo leader group● Became the owner of the Ezmo Wii

These are all my own subjective opinions and might differ from others...

WTF??

The The Time lineTime line

● 2006 - FAST had developed mDisk and worked on mMusic

● January 2007 - mMusic became a separate company: Ezmo

● May 2007 – official launch of Ezmo● Autumn 2007 – lawsuit in Denmark(!)● March 14t 2008 – Ezmo shut down

Your friends, your music: AnywhereYour friends, your music: Anywhere

Ezmo

PC / Mac / Linux

Mobile

Wii, ++

Your friends, your musicYour friends, your music

Ezmo

You 10 friends

The StackThe Stack

Ezmo Web Application

Trans coders

DatabasesSAN

Player

FAST Service Delivery Platform(SDP)

Uploader

How we'd make moneyHow we'd make money

● Recommendations from friends is the #1 reason for music purchase● Recommendations from friends in the player● Automatic recommendations● One-click buy option in the player

● Advertising● Contextual advertising of music

● Storage costs limited when detecting duplicates with finger print matching technology

The original Plan for user growthThe original Plan for user growth

Time

Users

Actual user growthActual user growth

Time

Users

User originsUser origins

Total users: 32555

Active usersActive users

Total active users: 2265

Friend pr userFriend pr user

Total users: 32555

Numbers do not lie (well, not these ones..)Numbers do not lie (well, not these ones..)

● We did not convert traffic into users● There was no viral effect, people did not

invite their friends● Those who created accounts, were not

active

So what the f**k happened?So what the f**k happened?

● None of us played enough golf● We weren't a real star-up● Failed to understand what it takes to

innovate ● Lack of a clear market leader and

competitors● Our timing, in hindsight, was not the best● We lost focus

The only sane thing about golf is...The only sane thing about golf is...

● Penalty strokes are added to your score when they happen● Our over all Plan was not adjusted the first

time we knew it was flawed● We kind of ignored The Plan, while our

investors kind of did not● Recruited people according to The Plan● We should have faced the music upon our

first failure

Internal Internal start-upsstart-ups

● You might end up living in a make believe world

● You're not feeling the pain you should ● Your legacy will hold you back, they don't

care as much as you do● You should break all ties (but don't burn all

bridges)

InnovationInnovation

Monthy Pythons Flying Circus: Monthy Pythons Flying Circus: The Four YorkshiremenThe Four Yorkshiremen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw&feature=fvw

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2007/the-book-the-myths-of-innovation/

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1996/6/1996_6_90.shtml

The original quoteThe original quote

"If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, you will find a broad, hard beaten road to his house"Ralph Waldo Emmerson 19th century intellectual

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/

The American dreamThe American dream

"If you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door"The movie “Field of Dreams”

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2007/the-book-the-myths-of-innovation/

The entrepreneur's mottoThe entrepreneur's motto

"Build it, they will come"

No path to Easy Street when innovatingNo path to Easy Street when innovating

● All the stories you hear about usually mention the good things

● Innovation happens through hard work, dedication and sacrifice

● Just having an amazing ideas has never been enough

http://www.coburnventures.com/About_CHANGE/The_Change_Function.html

The Change Function = f( The Perceived Pain of Adaption, User Crisis )

Our competitionOur competition

No real market leaderNo real market leader

● We where battling iTunes+iPod● Became a problem as investors did not

see how our company placed it self in the marketplace

● Most of our competitors are now either: ● in permanent hibernation● or got swallowed by some weird company● everyone except Spotify, who rule!

Techno

logy

Techno

logy

Chose technology best suited for the problem Chose technology best suited for the problem you're trying to solve and disregard your own you're trying to solve and disregard your own competencycompetency

The technology was not quite there...The technology was not quite there...

● State of mobile technology was pretty bad when it came to multimedia

● Social media platforms weren't open for extension

● Cloud technology was still wearing diapers

● Adobe AIR was still in beta

Show me your 'assets' there young manShow me your 'assets' there young man

● Owning your core technology is very important

● “They” don't care as much as you do● Investors look for this when evaluating

your company

We didn't own our core technologyWe didn't own our core technology

● Third party platform helped speed up development early on

● Ended up hurting/killing us in the long run

● We “only” had the brand, the people, the users, the knowledge and the player

MethodologyMethodology

●Methodology is just a way...Methodology is just a way...

● ..of motivating people who aren't● ..of making people who don't care, care● ..of spending time on something which

doesn't matter when you're a start-up

Democracy is overrated Democracy is overrated

● “Design should not be a democratic process”Paul Boag http://twitter.com/boagworld

● You need a champion / super star / (or some

crazy guy with a turtleneck sweater who loves apples)● Without clarity in decision making you

end up wasting time

Do you really need a methodology?Do you really need a methodology?

● “Getting Real” by 37 Signals is all you needhttp://gettingreal.37signals.com/

● Provides more insight for start up companies than regular agile books

● F**k Scrum: our method was Cake and your iterations had themes based on the team reward

Ezmo Ezmo Bug trackerBug tracker™™

Backlog or a long list of things to doBacklog or a long list of things to do

● Can be a distraction from your actual goal ● Can prevent you from changing decisions● Instead: focus upon the vision, not the

details of some list

In summaryIn summary

● Internal start up? Leave the nest!● Own your core technology● When you mess things up, tidy up at

once● Innovation= blood, sweat and no tears● Methodology? Totally overrated, daaah

I can't wait do something like this again..I can't wait do something like this again..

● I realized that you can actually have a great job AND live in Norway

● There is no better feeling than working with what you think is the coolest thing ever

● Having failed once I know a few things that I won't do again, which puts me one step ahead of you other guys & gals

That's it! Thank you very much for coming That's it! Thank you very much for coming and I hope you all succeed where we failed!and I hope you all succeed where we failed!

Abuse, praise, money or whatever you like: espen@dallokken.comhttp://dallokken.com/espenhttp://twitter.com/leftieFriele

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