betting on friendster, and making it official
i just have to stick my nose in this one… i just saw jeremy zawodny (missing the point of social networks) throwing a $1000 gauntlet into the net, and within 3 hours or so, it’s accepted by richard stokes (i’ll take social software for $1,000 please, alex).
my name isn’t alex, but i just have to see how this plays out. i suggest our two friendly dissenters hie themselves to long bets and make it official. we have a slight gap between the two bets at this point,
If you really think that Friendster scored over $10 million in VC funding on the premise of being nothing more than a “browse your friends” site, get real.
Or maybe I’m the one smoking crack. But I’d bet you $1,000 I’m not.
Given the historical track record that 70% of all VC-backed ventures go nowhere (or worse), I’ll be happy to take an even-money bet for $1,000. How do you propose we decide if it is a commercial success or not?
so we’re not exactly on the same page with “commercial success” versus “nothing more than a browse your friends site,” but there’s got to be a way to make this work. surely, keeping me entertained in some small way is worth $1000 to these two gentlemen :)….
since we’ve got the vc angle, i suggest a short-term long bet, something on the order of 3 to 5 years, to match the vc horizon. this also needs a fundamental metric of some sort, such as “still operating.” from there, jeremy and richard need to work out what constitutes a significant change in the friendster model.
these are smart people. this should be good.
update (2004.01.06): updated link for startupskills