Later this week we’ll be conducting a Fireside Chat with Seth Godin (blog) and Mark Hurst (blog). Got a question you’d like to see us ask? Post it as a comment here and we’ll consider throwing it in the mix.
About Matt Linderman
Now: The creator of Vooza, "the Spinal Tap of startups." Previously: Employee #1 at 37signals and co-author of the books Rework and Getting Real.Read all of Matt Linderman’s posts, and follow Matt Linderman on Twitter.
Matt Linderman wrote this on Jan 22 2007 There are 23 comments.
Tim 22 Jan 07
For Seth
Question #1 – If you had the opportunity to invest in 37signals, would you and why or why not?
Question #2 – Do you see any flaws in SOA (service-oriented architecture)?
John Koetsier 22 Jan 07
For Seth:
I have a million startup ideas (ok, my potential biz list is about 20 ideas long) but limited time.
What’s the best strategy: go deep on one idea, or try 3-4 simultaneously? Time is limited, obviously, money is as well.
Rife or shotgun: what would you do?
Greg 22 Jan 07
Question for 37signals.
Why not have a Fireside Chat with Jeff Bezos sometime.
Paul O'Shannessy 22 Jan 07
Just a heads up, your link to Seth’s about page has a trailing slash, breaking it.
I’ll try to think of some questions too…
Mark 22 Jan 07
I’m not as hard on Seth as Matt W. up there, but it does drive me nuts that his blog posts are so sparse, yet very frequent (up to 4 or 5 a day sometimes). It seems like an obvious attempt at gaining SEO share (lot’s of updates/links for spiders and bots) instead of offering well thought out and meaningful posts. He has one now and again, but it’s quite rare.
John S. Rhodes 22 Jan 07
Seth #1: If you were literally just getting started in marketing, what would be the first thing you would do given everything that you know right now? What would be your first action?
Seth #2: Who is your favorite marketing person of all time? Why that person?
Mark #1: Do you think that “customer experience” is more powerful than “usability” these days? That is, do more people know about customer experience or usability?
Mark #2: What ever happened to bit literacy? Seems like that died off.
Samuel Jules 22 Jan 07
Yesterday, I shopped at a high-end department store. No name dropping, of course.
I was treated with hostility and complete indifference by the employees – and they work on commission! Why are employees in the high-end service market consistently less capable in their jobs and obviously less caring than their counterparts making no commission, half their salary, and dealing with far more customers?
BS&S 22 Jan 07
To Seth: Is it the right person in the right place or just the first person in the right place?
jan korbel 22 Jan 07
For both gentleman: Providing you could choose, what would you want to be in your next life?
Ian 22 Jan 07
If you could do tomorrow over again, would you? (via Seth’s Blog
James 22 Jan 07
For Seth: I just finished reading All marketers are Liars. Loved the thesis of the book and enjoyed reading it very much. It pointed out people who seemed to happen on to telling a good story that people “bought”. However, how can a marketer use the concept as a strategy in practical ways? (For instance if someone was starting up an ecommerce site to sell a product.)
Warren 23 Jan 07
For Seth: you’ve mentioned at least once that marketers should work in an area they can be passionate about, or at least products they believe are quality.
Many everyday products are not exciting (commodities—toothpaste, dish soap, garbage bags, and all the other little things in a house) but still need to be marketed. What do you have to say about those boring but necessary things?
Jessica 23 Jan 07
Q for Mark: How do you actually make a steady living out of promoting the customer experience ideas. Seems like great and needed work, but where does the rent money come from?
Lucy 23 Jan 07
For Seth: This is out a bit there about a non-tech service but how would he market himself if he were a let’s say, a doctor, today. How to be remarkable and different as a healthcare practitioner today?
Ken Beegle 23 Jan 07
An underlying premise of being remarkable and telling a story is that it is about a service or product that the customer truly values. What approaches do you take for finding out what customers actually value (versus what they may tell you in surveys)?
lisa 23 Jan 07
For Mark,
What do you think of Adobe’s Flex for site developement?
Kerno 23 Jan 07
For Seth: Has a company ever gone out of business for treating it’s customers too well? Is possible to be too good to your customers?
Trevor Turk 23 Jan 07
I’ve got two for Mark:
(1) What’s your favorite part about hosting the GEL conference?
(2) What inspired you to put Goovite together, and has it been rewarding for you to host a free service like this?
Pete 23 Jan 07
@Seth. I have heard differing approaches on the best way to approach projects you’re passionate about – (a) keep your day job, use the income to focus on a side entrepreneurial project. This makes sense because you can save your sanity and save your money. Or (b) Give it your all. Give up your 9-5 and devote all your time to whatever it is you really want to do (assuming your 9-5 is not what you want to do.
What do you think?
Juan Maiz 23 Jan 07
2 questions for Seth Godin:
1. How do you think your ideas apply in a developing country like Brasil? What adaptations you think are necessary in this scenario?
2. What is the maket niche you think the persons involved have more otaku of all? Vegans? Car lovers? Drug addicts? ...
Jacob Wyke 23 Jan 07
Ask Seth what he thinks 37 signals purple cow was or is?
Brian Howell 23 Jan 07
@Mark: What makes Gootodo “the worlds best todo list”, as compared to … I don’t know … Ta-Da? :o) Couldn’t resist asking.
Peter Urban 24 Jan 07
It would be interesting to hear from Seth what he thinks about what I would call the ‘anti-product”. These are products of companies that used to have a killer product that brought them to fame and success and failed to manage their success well and stick to their path. As a result they deliver anti-products that suck badly but are still bought because of the brand’s early image still sticks in peoples head. In fact some are so desperate to continue buying that they right out ignore the fact that they have been buying anti-products for a long time. A very good example is the latest Star Wars trilogy. The early success enabled George Lucas to do what ever he wants (including writing and directing everything himself) – everyone (and that’s the key) saw the results…
Still people (including myself) buy the product (Episode 1) and another one (Episode 2) and another one…
I am sure there are many other examples i.e. in the consumer electronics, software an other industries. Would be interesting to get your take on that too.
Anyways, I am eager to her from Seth what he thinks about anti-products, peoples reaction to them and the false picture (or delayed warning) companies get as a result.
This discussion is closed.