Jun 22, 2023·edited Jun 22, 2023Liked by Jaryd Hermann
Cool article, but what about Genry Ford citation: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses
I think the main problem is that they tried to move too quickly and burning too much cash. It is like acquiring millions of users with nearly zero retention: you should start small and grow gradually. Low retention can burn billions of cash
I think, by and large, that's the exception to the rule. Ford was a legendary entrepreneur, most founders (realistically, and myself certainly included) are not. So, to increase shots on goal, building something you know people want is a better approach.
But that comes through validation, which to your exact point, they pushed away in pursuit of speed. Absolutely agree that if they just approached it more conservatively, build slower, tested things more in their GTM, they could well have ended up with a product that preserved the same thesis, but maybe looked a bit different product/model wise.
I'd never heard of Quibi... I guess because they never made it across the atlantic. But totally agree with your argument that streaming services are all about the content and not the technology. Especially when you are competing with free content - some of it very high quality - on Youtube and other platforms.
Excellent post, I enjoyed it 'til the very end. Perfect length, simple and efficient structure, funny tone. From an aspiring newsletter author, congrats! 👏
Thanks for sharing. Super appreciate your ways of unpacking the fail story paired with references! I kept thinking how Quibi could compete with TikTok as soon as I understood their concept, and it was funny to see that the founders targeted the wrong competitors from the first place lol
...what was the tech bubble 1.0 equivalent of what quibi was to streaming start-up failures?...Pets.com?...the funny thing for me with quibi is that at no point did it ever appear to be a viable content product from a consumer standpoint...none of their innovations were things that people were asking for...similar to other gripings i have griped about elsewhere this was a classic example of solving a problem that didn't need solving and wasn't even a problem to begin with...innovation can sneak in the cracks of non necessity, but I'm struggling to see where that happens in content products...even lazerdisc had more value/utility...quibi's best asset might have been it's name...out of the gate it sounds like a rejected joke from silicon valley...something hooli might have even produced...one thing passed over here was also having meg whitman at the helm of a content company...a leader who doesn't even like the genre she is building in lol... https://theweek.com/speedreads/923863/quibi-ceo-admits-not-really-entertainment-enthusiast ...who would guess someone so out of touch and uninspired with their product vertical would fail at building something useful in that space?...
Hello again! Sorry for the late reply..slow week around 4th of July over here.
Quibi really felt like two Hollywood heavy-hitters building something shiny in the content world to show off their other Hollywood friends. It was not customer-centric at all. It was an ego game, in my view. And when that's the game, thinking from the customer POV and using customer first principles just becomes afterthought, at best.
There's merit it wanting to invent a new content format...Vine did it...and people loved the creative room it opened up. I think they just tried to innovate on too many fronts, and simply didn't follow any proved practices to building something and bringing a product to market. This wrote their death sentence in a way before customers even got a chance to use it.
The stakes where just too high when they launched, giving them a short runway to find the required "major" success.
What is somewhat telling though to Quibi "building something nobody wants", is that nobody else (incumbent, or new startup) has even remotely emulated this format of content. i.e -- nobody cares.
...i feel like...and maybe i am wrong...but if you are creating an experimental content platform that you probably want the maximum amount of creators to find the value in your experiment?...youtube/reddit/vine/etc. all come to mind...if the platform is the product then be consumer/creator driven...by gating their content to high priced studio models this thing cut off its foot before it even tried to run...r
Cool article, but what about Genry Ford citation: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses
I think the main problem is that they tried to move too quickly and burning too much cash. It is like acquiring millions of users with nearly zero retention: you should start small and grow gradually. Low retention can burn billions of cash
I think, by and large, that's the exception to the rule. Ford was a legendary entrepreneur, most founders (realistically, and myself certainly included) are not. So, to increase shots on goal, building something you know people want is a better approach.
But that comes through validation, which to your exact point, they pushed away in pursuit of speed. Absolutely agree that if they just approached it more conservatively, build slower, tested things more in their GTM, they could well have ended up with a product that preserved the same thesis, but maybe looked a bit different product/model wise.
Thanks for reading as always! 🙏
I'd never heard of Quibi... I guess because they never made it across the atlantic. But totally agree with your argument that streaming services are all about the content and not the technology. Especially when you are competing with free content - some of it very high quality - on Youtube and other platforms.
Excellent post, I enjoyed it 'til the very end. Perfect length, simple and efficient structure, funny tone. From an aspiring newsletter author, congrats! 👏
Aah, thank you for the kinds words, Tom! Super glad you liked it, and if you haven't started yet...the best time is today :)
Thanks for sharing. Super appreciate your ways of unpacking the fail story paired with references! I kept thinking how Quibi could compete with TikTok as soon as I understood their concept, and it was funny to see that the founders targeted the wrong competitors from the first place lol
My absolute pleasure! I do really enjoy the startup failure series, it feels lighter and more playful. In case you missed it, I also wrote a deep dive on TikTok: https://www.howtheygrow.co/p/bytedance-tiktok-origins-how-they
...what was the tech bubble 1.0 equivalent of what quibi was to streaming start-up failures?...Pets.com?...the funny thing for me with quibi is that at no point did it ever appear to be a viable content product from a consumer standpoint...none of their innovations were things that people were asking for...similar to other gripings i have griped about elsewhere this was a classic example of solving a problem that didn't need solving and wasn't even a problem to begin with...innovation can sneak in the cracks of non necessity, but I'm struggling to see where that happens in content products...even lazerdisc had more value/utility...quibi's best asset might have been it's name...out of the gate it sounds like a rejected joke from silicon valley...something hooli might have even produced...one thing passed over here was also having meg whitman at the helm of a content company...a leader who doesn't even like the genre she is building in lol... https://theweek.com/speedreads/923863/quibi-ceo-admits-not-really-entertainment-enthusiast ...who would guess someone so out of touch and uninspired with their product vertical would fail at building something useful in that space?...
Hello again! Sorry for the late reply..slow week around 4th of July over here.
Quibi really felt like two Hollywood heavy-hitters building something shiny in the content world to show off their other Hollywood friends. It was not customer-centric at all. It was an ego game, in my view. And when that's the game, thinking from the customer POV and using customer first principles just becomes afterthought, at best.
There's merit it wanting to invent a new content format...Vine did it...and people loved the creative room it opened up. I think they just tried to innovate on too many fronts, and simply didn't follow any proved practices to building something and bringing a product to market. This wrote their death sentence in a way before customers even got a chance to use it.
The stakes where just too high when they launched, giving them a short runway to find the required "major" success.
What is somewhat telling though to Quibi "building something nobody wants", is that nobody else (incumbent, or new startup) has even remotely emulated this format of content. i.e -- nobody cares.
...i feel like...and maybe i am wrong...but if you are creating an experimental content platform that you probably want the maximum amount of creators to find the value in your experiment?...youtube/reddit/vine/etc. all come to mind...if the platform is the product then be consumer/creator driven...by gating their content to high priced studio models this thing cut off its foot before it even tried to run...r
Absolutely agree. Their whole GTM was a mess.