When I was sitting in attendance at Tech Crunch 40, Marc Andreessen mentioned how you have to be crazy to be CEO of a company. He is right.
LIFE AS A CEO
Waking up to bad news, going to bed to bad news… knowing that any semblance of good news in between will at any given moment pause and give way for bad news is no way to live life. Mind you, I am the eternal optimist and find good news in everything and actually get pumped up for the challenges and obstacles that we face every day.
I actually believe that I can talk my way out of things, mainly because I am honest and as naive as this sounds: the truth will always cover your ass.
That’s right: if you lie, then you need to ration your words. If you speak the truth, eventually you win others over. Of course, that outlook makes some small-minded folk dislike you, but who cares.
52 HOURS OF DOWNTIME
This Saturday at 4am, our sites went offline. Recently, I hired a part-time system administration person to monitor our sites’ activities. Since that decision, we were up 100% of the time… until Saturday. We came back up sometime this morning at around 11am. That’s right, from Saturday 4am to Monday 11am, that is a 56 hours of downtime… simply unacceptable.
Over a month (720 hours), that 56 hour run translated to a downtime of 7%. You oftentimes see companies brag about 99.9% uptime. What does that translate to? Well, over a month, to be up 99.9% of the time, that means you can only be down 7 hours per month. That’s not a lot of time. Apparently, a lot of sites - big and small - are down. Numerous reports outline downtime of social networks: Bebo is tops, or worst… depending on how you see it.
YET SOMEHOW, OUR 3RD BEST DAY EVER
What’s interesting about our down time was that Saturday - when we were down for 20 hours out of 24 - was our third best day ever. Did we have massive traffic on those first four hours from midnight to 4am on Saturday?
Nope. We do 99% of our video streams (HipMojo.com is one blog out of 15 or so, and our sister site is the WatchMojo.com video content producer and syndicator) on our syndication network. I always brag that our success is independent and agnostic of any one site, and apparently, that includes our own, go figure.
Maybe that is why I wasn’t cursing and throwing a fit.
Maybe it’s because I will be a father in three months and I have a different perspective.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have outside investors to worry about so I’m not on the hot seat to make up excuses and can look at the matter objectively to avoid it from repeating.
Maybe it’s because I simply understand and accept that it’s out of my hands.
Maybe it’s because before and after that happened, I was busy resolving an administrative headache…
At 11am: both were fixed. This too shall pass, a wise man once said.
Or, maybe it’s because when so many things are going right and all signals are going in the right direction, you can’t be greedy and have to take the bad with the good.
DUDE, I INVENTED… NOTHING
I’m no techie. I get tech. But I don’t pretend that I was “taking apart computers at 5″ or building “cell phones out of legos at 11″. I never was too much into tech to be quite frank. When I was 7, I hated computer class. Anyway, connecting all of these seemingly random thoughts, I realize the time is nigh to bring on a full-time techie. I am really fortunate to have 3 really talented tech guys working with me, but they’re part time guys… I wish I could afford them full-time and maybe the day I raise some serious money I will be able to do that… but right now, I cannot afford those guys full time.
DISTRIBUTION OVER DESTINATION? AMEN
Mind you, if this weekend proved anything, it’s that our site is somewhat secondary to the gameplan relative to our syndication network. As the company CEO, that essentially validates the rationale behind launching the network… but it also makes me think about realizing one’s weaknesses as a CEO.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD CEO?
Being the CEO of a company is essentially being willing to take a barrage of body blows, interrupted once in a while by a shot to the head. That’s why I was nodding my head in agreement when Netscape founder Andreessen was describing the masochist nature of CEOs. I don’t know what is more daunting: CEO or founder?
Both have their wonderful surprises, as both the founder and CEO, I’m too numb after this weekend to even really tell which one is worst, or better…
RECOGNIZE YOUR STRENGTHS
When I think of what made me uniquely qualified to launch WatchMojo.com, I sum it up into three main pillers:
1- good storyteller: can package content well;
2- good salesmen: can pitch why we do what we do to all interested parties, be it hosts, advertisers or would-be investors;
3- web-savvy: experience in search, online publishing… good mix for the nuances of web video.
There are probably a million people that are better at me at every single one of those things, but I would not be able to find anyone that is as good as those three things as I am all at once (if that sentence isn’t a bastion of modesty I don’t know what it - yes, that’s sarcasm).
After a couple of years of managing this company and having been involved in successful startups working alongside successful entrepreneurs (and studying the DNA of many other management types), here are a few random observations:
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOUNDER, CEO AND EXECUTIVES
a) If you are only good at one thing, you can start a company but you can’t be a CEO. Why? Your vision will be critical to starting something and take it from concept to reality, but you are kidding yourself if you think you can weave through the intricacies of doing it all.
b) If you are good at a few things, but not necessarily outstanding at any one thing, then you can both start a company and run it as its CEO.
c) If you are good at a few things, but lack the patience to master any single one of them or don’t want to hone your skills in one of those thing to specialize in, then you will eventually need to step aside and make room for another CEO or at least bring on a COO or additional VPs and employees to address weaknesses or under-developed areas.
Anyway, now that the company’s been around for 2 years, I realize I spend a lot of time doing things that do not touch on 1, 2 or 3 above.
Sure, I still devise content strategy, recruit talent, advertisers and publishers and always try to be one step ahead of where the online video space is going… but I am also spending way too much time on areas that I could care less about or am not best suited at:
- Do I really want to spend hours at the bank? Nope.
- Do I really want to wrap my head around the nuances of a server? Nope.
- What about understanding how corporate taxes work? Nope.
I guess what this weekend made me realize, is that I started a business for a very few simple reasons… but two years into it, I need to make some decisions in order to minimize the time I spend doing some things I don’t - or shouldn’t - be spending time doing.
What are those decisions. Stick around. You’ll find out soon enough.
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WatchMojo NewsletterAlmost exactly a year ago, Mojo Supreme and WatchMojo.com were looking at relaunching on a new platform.
After a lot of soul searching and due diligence, we opted to build the content management system using Typo3, a powerful open-source system. We then considered many options for the video player. We looked at Brightcove, Maven and other such closed options… but ultimately we were torn between Video Egg and Blip.tv’s players.
I won’t get into all of the reasons and criteria I went through, but for a few reasons - one of which was nothing other than my gut feeling - I decided to opt for Blip.tv.
It was one of those feelings that to this day I cannot fully explain. Maybe it was based on my interactions with the folks over at Blip.tv… who knows. Of course, within hours of choosing to work with Blip.tv, I knew it was a very wise decision. We’ve worked with them since August 19th, 2007, when we relaunched. Incidentally, at the time, our property (WatchMojo.com) was generating as many streams as our syndication network. Today, our network does 95%+ of our total streams, so yes, in some ways, the property is less important in that sense… but make no mistake about it: our property remains a showroom or storefront… so when people pass by and check us out, we need to put our best face forward.
I could easily say that going with Blip.tv remains one of our better judgment calls. Blip.tv serves videos for many great content producers, but I think that the way we’ve integrated them in both the back end and front end is very unique.
Since I made that call, Video Egg has tried many things and after $32M in funding have decided to drop the video hosting unit to focus on the ad network strategy. Good for them. This post isn’t a knock at Video Egg - I’ve interviewed their CEO, know a couple of their investors - and am sure that we’ll work with them in one capacity or another… what this post is about is a reminder of two things:
- When you build your company, you will face many crossroads, sometimes your gut is the best source to find the answer. Why? Because your gut will consider all of the variables anyway, but it will also allow you to see that some companies don’t really have their heart in a product, service, or segment… and if and when they realize that and get out of the market, you will have to find a replacement, fast.
Which takes us to point two for this blog post:
- If you are using Video Egg and got the following letter look at the glass as half-full. Check out blip.tv and tell then Ash from WatchMojo.com referred you to them (hmm… no, this isn’t an affiliate marketing schtick). This little episode just might prove to be a blessing in disguise.
Here’s the full letter, which I came across on SAI:
Hope this email finds you well.
Our business is changing, and I wanted to send you a personal note to let you know.
On May 31, 2008, we will be shutting down the VideoEgg Publisher and Player service. As such, we will be sending a termination notice to you early next week.
As you know, over the past twelve months, VideoEgg has become a leading video advertising network. We have decided to focus on video and rich media monetization technologies, and therefore are no longer investing in the video platform side of the business. We are trying to consolidate our relationships with profitable large partners and continue our focus on creating higher value ad solutions for brand advertisers.
Please be assured that, until May 31, 2008, all videos uploaded to our servers using the VideoEgg Publisher will be available for playback on your site.
Pursuant to our contract with you, we will provide you with access to your uploaded videos for the next 90 days. If you wish to work with us to allow you to access your videos, please email us at partners@videoegg.com, and we will assign an engineer to work with your team to provide you with access.
Check out WatchMojo.com to see more… or enjoy the following video for some nice eye candy:
And now check out Blip.tv.
We’re about to launch an exciting and unique content initiative at WatchMojo.com… it will have an online voting component… what is the best free robust polling platform to use?
This poll might get anywhere from 100,000 to 10,000,000 votes (but, of course, I am the eternal optimist).
email me at ash@mojosupreme.com or leave suggestions in comments.
At 4am Saturday, we went offline. Our team was working on getting everything back up, but when you have a network of:
- 4000 videos
- 15+ blogs
- etc.
it takes time to get things up and running. Oddly enough, Saturday was our 3rd best day ever, thanks to our syndication network. I always say that our success is independent of any one site, who knew any one site includes our own.
Go figure.
PLAY
