Business Nuggets

Notes from the article

• online porn has historically been 2-3 years ahead of the rest of the internet in terms of trend
• the business model have completely changed over the past few years, when people started to offer a little bit free content…
• … which evolved into a LOT of free content, provider competing against each other
• the concept is called “moving the free line”, which means that you’re giving away more and more stuff as a way to get people into your paid stuff
• now people expect the content to be free
• publishers now differentiate with live streaming, or quality, but it’s still hard to get people to pay for porn anymore
• people don’t pay for content…
• …they pay for access

Notes from the comment section

• just like competing in the real world, you have to offer something superior that the user can’t get anywhere
• content and information are not the same
• access to content might be free, but it also takes time to find value from the content
• the porn industry just faced the same issue that the music industry
• live streaming and personal interaction are experiences, and that can’t be stolen

Personal notes

Do people pay for access rather than content? I’d go with “people pay for value”, value being in the form of:

• pleasurable experience
• entertainment
• validation
• means to validation
• increased replication of their self
• improvement of their chances of survival

In the case of “access”, David Risley probably referred to the feeling you get from aligning with someone you perceive as an authority.

• live streaming is directed to your self, which adds something to the experience
• knowledge is useful to derive predictions and elaborate strategies, which bears no value without the execution of those strategies

• Get introduced to investors by people they trust.
• "Traction speaks louder than words."
  
• "While an introduction captures an investor's attention, a great elevator pitch gets the meeting."
  

Eric Risley's answer:

"No, press and hype are not necessary ingredients to an acquisition. However, awareness of your company by prospective acquirers is required."

"Often, acquisitions occur between companies that have already built a business partnership. Many times this relationship is in the context of a distribution relationship but it can also be via product integration or sometimes even technology license."

• Consider your speech like "Hot or Not" rather than eHarmony: you want to make a memorable impression right away.
• Spend the bulk of your time demoing or talking about what makes your product incredible.
• Find out how your competitors are describing themselves and pick the adjectives that make it easy for people to identify your advantages.
• If you're not excited to use your product every day and think other people should too, investors will smell this. No matter how many times you practice.

• “Elevators”: unlike Accelerators, Elevators will have no batches and no fixed investment term.
• “Carry Options” for Entrepreneurs: VCs may offer their investees (or entrepreneurs) “Carry Options” to encourage synergies of startups within the fund. Also, entrepreneurs might accept lower valuations for a stake in the fund’s returns.
• “Capture Capital”: Shorter Funds with Non-liquid Returns: new shorter funds can return “Higher Valued Equity” that will be validated by attracting next rounds of investments from top tier VCs
• Cafe Startups: “Elevators” might better encourage startups to work from Cafes in the first 6-18 months

• Drive your business on a daily and weekly basis using three metrics.
• Does the organization have objective Top 5 priorities for the year and the quarter and a clear Top 1 priority along with an appropriate theme?
• Does the organization have sufficient data on a daily and weekly basis to provide insight into how the organization is running and what the market is demanding?
• Does the organization have an effective rhythm of daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual meetings to maintain alignment and drive accountability?

The 3 questions that matters during a job interview:

• "Can you do the job?"
• "Will you love the job?"
• "Can we tolerate working with you?"