Cerdafied...startups, people & the variety Hour

"The key is not to do a John Mayer."

One of our investors, Larry Kubal gave me a book a few weeks ago called Brand Hijack, written by Alex Wipperfurth. There is a quote in this book by Entertainment Insider Bob Lefsetz that reads "The key is not to do a John Mayer." (Now, I'm actually a fan of Mayer, but I get the point). The context of this was that companies starting out need to be patient as they launch, not going mainstream too early, or they'll ruin their good work. He says that as many people love Mayer, hate him.

There is lots of fodder for being patient and keeping your market focus on your early adopters in the early days-something we've been doing lots of since Susan showed up with her steak purse. As entrepreneurs we starve for that consumer phenomenon, but the winners know how to prod the likely early adopters, and then grow on that basis.

Why am I saying any of this?

Well, I've received some e-mails from folks interested in more details on what we're doing. I thought by now we would have unleashed a bit more, but as a team we agreed to keep it stealthy yet. That said, we have chosen the first group of beta testers for our initial offering. If that's you, we'll contact you next week. If that's not you, but you signed up, we'll get you in once we broaden the beta. If that's not you and you're snooping from a would-be competitor than you won't likely hear from us:)

We'll see some of you at CES. Happy New Year. (And Mayer's trio stuff rocks).

-MC

More on Privacy

Back to privacy... It's problematic for us when someone wants our phone number, but we don't want them to have it. I think of all those Plaxo messages I get from people... (If you don't have my home number or know my birthday, maybe I don't want you to!). Then there's the LinkedIn request... It's a very cool service (and I'm definitely a participant), but occasionally you get a request from someone you never even heard of. Some are friends, some are people you worked with once upon a time, some are people you might even want to be in better touch with. Nothing changes the fact that people always want our very precious phone numbers.

Then there's the very popular world of personals and online dating. Lots of services let us text chat, and learn more about someone ( Match, Y! Personals). But I really don't know that much about someone until I can talk to them live, and hear them talk. Am I dealing with a low-talker ? A loud mouth? Is the person as old or young as advertised?

Another venue which presents a privacy challenge is your favorite classifieds site. Sure places like Craigslist provide for the ability to anonymize an e-mail address, but they don't provide for the ability to anonymize a phone number. Let's say I see a car for sale and I'm interested... I read the ad, see a picture of the car, but for such a big purchase consideration, I want to know more. I want to talk to the owner and hear them articulate why it is they are selling, what the vehicle history is, etc. So he gives me his phone number and says all the right things. Heck I even buy the car. But then a week later the radiator leaks and the electrical panel goes out. For the sake of the example, let's assume I'm off my rocker for a moment. Knowing his number and spending a little time online I can find out where the seller lives. I can show up at his house. I can wait in the driveway with his car until he gets home. You get the idea.

Not to marginalize any of the utility from these services, but none of them provide live talking without forfeiting privacy. They leave it to the users to cough up their phone numbers...(something that forfeits privacy). Do I really want someone that I don't know, but that might have an interest in me, to have my personal phone number, to call me anytime? What can I do if I don't want the person to call me anymore? I can say "don't call me anymore", but that doesn't always work. I can block that caller's number, but the caller can just call from another phone, and another. Sure I can change my number, but then the other 500 people that I want to be able to reach me won't be able to. This issue stands alone when I consider for example my home phone, but greatly intensifies when I consider my mobile phone that's in my pocket all day long...

It's a problem that's begging for an answer...and it isn't obvious that answer is coming from your phone company, your social networking site, dating service or your favorite classifieds destination. That's why this is the opening to our story:

Now, we're certain these issues aren't issues to all people, but if they are to you we'd love to hear from you.