welcome to it module shal 23 i’m your
host ash can cover solution CT you look
quite different yes i’m rebecca rainin
i’m filling in for the missing in action
ZZ more I’m sure he’s doing fine or
elsewise he’s in a cave somewhere
alright so let’s get started first of
all I think most of our audience
probably knows you better than they know
me so you need no introduction just
gonna ask you this week what was the
most interesting segment you shot well
we were at the montreal international
auto show and i know this was a gimmick
by ford but they had a like a c-3po
robot kind of introducing their their
new unveilings for canada and i have to
be honest I was caught in by the the
hype nice so you mentioned was the
Montreal Auto Show we’ve been at the
detroit auto show and we have footage on
the site from the frankfurt auto show
and all that but we do fill them a lot
out of Montreal and you do a great job
of you know producing hosting and all
that how challenging is it because we
are a global media company how
challenging is it for you to produce
things out of Montreal but then we
package them for a global audience uh in
terms of the the repackaging it’s not
all that difficult it’s more the
language issue which is an obvious
obstacle that we encounter every day
it’s it’s sometimes more difficult to
you know find the the local
representative who speaks fluent and you
know perfect English however at these
auto shows it’s a lot more it’s a lot
easier I mean they fly people in and
Toronto for long Detroiter probably
they’re Canadian representatives so I
mean it’s it’s definitely a lot easier
to do it at the Auto Show okay good
stuff alright let’s get started with the
first question question number one two
weeks ago streaming media com published
an interview that you did with them when
you’re in LA to moderate a panel and the
title was watchmojo wins with slow and
steady online video growth and with the
subtitle while it might not be the
biggest video site watchmojo.com doesn’t
answer to VCS and that’s a good thing
yeah but there’s more then you turn
around and publish an article on
TechCrunch called why bootstrapping is
overrated so the question is which one
is it is it better to be self-funded or
to raise bc
I’m caught red-handed I’m a hypocrite
know the idea is the right answer is it
depends different strategies for
different kinds of companies here’s what
happens so I’m on the New York meetup
tech new tech mailing list and there was
a question about bootstrapping and there
was a lot of good feedback and instead
of writing a long as you know email
thread I thought of writing a series of
articles for TechCrunch really it was a
three-parter it’s now a fourth for
partner when the next one goes up and
the three articles were lies
entrepreneurs tell why salespeople make
for bad fundraisers and why
bootstrapping is overrated what had
happened was when I did that interview
with streaming media you know I was in
LA to meet partners we have potential
investors and I had just on a panel with
some VCS and we were talking about why
VCS were basically messing up online
video right I mean so you know how many
other like video companies out there
that produce content asides from
watchmojo no you know I don’t know how
many like do you think there’s a lot or
not many I feel like there’s not that
many exactly and the reason for that is
that most of them actually have gone out
of business so the reason why fresh on
my mind was this notion that VCS are not
necessarily nailing video content so
when I spoke we talked about ten things
one of the things was the fact that we
happen to be self-funded and they
carried that so I was like oh my god do
I want to be known as the ante bc guy
which is not really my position I just
think it makes sense sometimes the raise
bc or not so part of it was just a sort
of balance I think if you’re going to
build a business you’re going to build a
business despite your source of capital
it’s not because of it but I’ve touched
on this broader issue of when you’re a
writer and a CEO to be perfectly honest
I was meeting with a investor this week
and he said you know you write these
articles it’s like what’s the deal you
know he’s like are you pissed at us the
investment community and I said no I go
it’s not like you’re dealing with a
software or tech entrepreneur I’m a
media entrepreneur we publish content
it’s like Michael Arrington he’s a he
was a Content entrepreneur a hugh hefner
content entrepreneur content
entrepreneurs are a bit crazy even just
to finish off on this first point when I
was writing the young pro at asked man
as much as I tried to not talk about my
experiences at the company I’d be lying
if I said there wasn’t anything going
so the right answer for generally
entrepreneurs is sometimes it make sense
to raise VC sometimes it makes it makes
sense to bootstrap but those it’s not
like it’s either or it just it depends
basically yeah so I’m trying not to be a
hypocrite I do see both sides of the
argument no you can have it both ways so
question number two is what does
manufacturing an audience mean okay so
this is something I’ve been giving a lot
of thoughts to if you consider that
right now there’s this big wave of
technology in media right so it started
not just with the internet it started
with publishing and all that the main
thing that is crazy right now is real
media companies that have a real
audience whether it’s a magazine whether
it’s a TV company whether it’s an
Internet company that publishes content
they’re basically being traded at a
discount whereas the technology
companies that through ad serving or
data or behavioral targeting who are
able to reach audiences in a blind
manner and manufacture the audience
which basically means it’s a fake
audience there’s no common bond apart
from demographics which is you know we
could debate whether or not it’s legit
or not most of those companies are being
traded at a at a premium so I wrote an
article on media polls just touching on
this sort of very bizarro world
backwards reality that if you happen to
be a company that has 10 million users
visit your site and they engage with
your brand and they engage with your
content you’re being actually right now
punished by the markets and the
companies that are being rewarded are a
lot of these technology companies that
target audience is randomly across the
web but okay maybe you could plead that
well these were all people who have done
this over the last 30 days on that but
they’re actually very heterogeneous
they’re not really it’s not really a
community so the idea was like you can
manufacture your audience but at some
point it’s going to come back and haunt
you you’re better off as a media and a
publisher building a real audience
around your content and your brand and
this is something we’ve done in the last
year we’ve hired people to just manage
marketing and social media now I don’t
know frankly though if there’s going to
be at some point a regression to the
mean where companies that have a real
audience are going to be rewarded it
could be that know like the robots take
over the world and that’s just the way
the future is going to be so what you’re
saying is you want
community of people who are engaged with
with each other and with the videos yeah
I mean in our case it’s videos but I
think like if you know I was talking to
the CEO of a big new york-based company
and he said it he was the reason why we
do very well and we could sell he goes
one of my VC says are you guys kicking
ass and doing so much revenue because
you have like behavioral targeting and
he’s like no he’s like we are doing
really well and able to get nike and
coca-cola to pay premiums for
advertising because it’s a real
community its people that come and
engage with the articles and read the
you know articles and view the slide
shows he’s like because there’s a real
audience there there’s a real reaction
whereas to put it bluntly but then we
can move on to the next thing what’s
happening when you manufacture an
audience it’s like bundling a bunch of
crappy mortgages putting them together
and saying this is a triple-a rated high
quality asset where we saw its anything
but but that’s just the way things are
and I don’t know if that’s going to
change or not okay question number three
you wrote an article for a montreal tech
blog and it was called you can’t cut
your way to a billion dollar business so
if you could tell us what you meant and
then maybe talk a bit about the montrell
startup in tech scene sure so I’m
actually quite proud of this article
because I managed in this rent to just
you know cut across the church the
French establishment the business
community lawyers accountants startups
investors you know it was quite a nice
accomplishment again the reality is you
can’t be vegetable lasagna when you’re
writing and I think one of the critiques
that some people have given to me about
watchmojo as they go sometimes your
content lacks that mmm and it’s true why
because we have clients that include
yahoo and you know a magazine and a
portal so we have to somewhat stay
neutral for them all to like it I admit
guilty as charged your honor so when I
write a blog article everybody is a
writer everybody pontificates you know
it’s like like a holes everybody’s got
one you have to stand out of the clutter
if I go out there drinking the kool-aid
singing Kumbaya and saying oh my god
mantras on all these great things
nobody’s gonna read that nobody’s gonna
share that nobody’s gonna say oh my god
here’s an opinion agree or disagree so
it came out and I basically said forget
ash forget watchmojo historically the
most successful montreal but you could
replace montreal for canada
entrepreneurs have basically had to
leave this city state province and
country to become successful only when
they leave and they become successful
are they then come back and then it’s
like you go from good luck with that
business buddy to pal too I’ve always
believed in you buddy you know so it’s
just like and I’m just saying it’s a
shame now what I said was times have
changed thankfully there is a new
movement a new crop of investors who are
trying to back entrepreneurs I’m saying
that’s very exciting but I’m basically
challenging those investors saying
forget watchmojo forget ash the world
doesn’t owe me anything doesn’t know
anybody anything the world was here
before you entered the world and it’ll
be here when you die and leave but you
have a choice to make which is either
you become part of the crusty old
establishment that turns their back on a
lot of entrepreneurs who like me maybe
are not going to be so verbose and talk
about it but they’re just going to be
like forgotten and shut down their
businesses or you could say you know
what screw it we are going to maybe back
those entrepreneurs that are a bit rough
around the edges but who have good
intentions and who are building the job
and I even you know it was sort of a you
know again when you write something
you’d be lying if you said there’s no
double on tons part of it was a time
stamps that if we watch module get up
turn our backs to the city and go
relocate to New York nobody should come
back and say oh my god these guys were
sellouts at the end of the day vice was
also starred in Montreal it’s now based
in Brooklyn it’s printing money they
only did that because they left Montreal
all of the most successful companies
Lewis Cirque du Soleil they had to get
up and leave and now they’re like the
greatest export after Celine Dion the
point is it is a challenge I’d be lying
if it wasn’t but this notion that you
know I’m some bitter angry person it’s
the opposite i’m generally happy but if
you know it’s it’s it’s not a it’s not a
stick and it is a stick when you write
you need to have a voice and that’s what
it is and its people should have fun
with it and that’s it and the truth
hurts at the end of the day so if some
people were offended maybe there’s some
truth in what I said all right should I
be looking to buy a house elsewhere no
no no everything’s fine we’ll probably
gonna stay here we love the weather here
basically all that snow is good for your
bones all right so this was show 23 next
week we’ll see if CT Moors back or not I
guess we have to send out the GPS to get
him out of the cave
you
host ash can cover solution CT you look
quite different yes i’m rebecca rainin
i’m filling in for the missing in action
ZZ more I’m sure he’s doing fine or
elsewise he’s in a cave somewhere
alright so let’s get started first of
all I think most of our audience
probably knows you better than they know
me so you need no introduction just
gonna ask you this week what was the
most interesting segment you shot well
we were at the montreal international
auto show and i know this was a gimmick
by ford but they had a like a c-3po
robot kind of introducing their their
new unveilings for canada and i have to
be honest I was caught in by the the
hype nice so you mentioned was the
Montreal Auto Show we’ve been at the
detroit auto show and we have footage on
the site from the frankfurt auto show
and all that but we do fill them a lot
out of Montreal and you do a great job
of you know producing hosting and all
that how challenging is it because we
are a global media company how
challenging is it for you to produce
things out of Montreal but then we
package them for a global audience uh in
terms of the the repackaging it’s not
all that difficult it’s more the
language issue which is an obvious
obstacle that we encounter every day
it’s it’s sometimes more difficult to
you know find the the local
representative who speaks fluent and you
know perfect English however at these
auto shows it’s a lot more it’s a lot
easier I mean they fly people in and
Toronto for long Detroiter probably
they’re Canadian representatives so I
mean it’s it’s definitely a lot easier
to do it at the Auto Show okay good
stuff alright let’s get started with the
first question question number one two
weeks ago streaming media com published
an interview that you did with them when
you’re in LA to moderate a panel and the
title was watchmojo wins with slow and
steady online video growth and with the
subtitle while it might not be the
biggest video site watchmojo.com doesn’t
answer to VCS and that’s a good thing
yeah but there’s more then you turn
around and publish an article on
TechCrunch called why bootstrapping is
overrated so the question is which one
is it is it better to be self-funded or
to raise bc
I’m caught red-handed I’m a hypocrite
know the idea is the right answer is it
depends different strategies for
different kinds of companies here’s what
happens so I’m on the New York meetup
tech new tech mailing list and there was
a question about bootstrapping and there
was a lot of good feedback and instead
of writing a long as you know email
thread I thought of writing a series of
articles for TechCrunch really it was a
three-parter it’s now a fourth for
partner when the next one goes up and
the three articles were lies
entrepreneurs tell why salespeople make
for bad fundraisers and why
bootstrapping is overrated what had
happened was when I did that interview
with streaming media you know I was in
LA to meet partners we have potential
investors and I had just on a panel with
some VCS and we were talking about why
VCS were basically messing up online
video right I mean so you know how many
other like video companies out there
that produce content asides from
watchmojo no you know I don’t know how
many like do you think there’s a lot or
not many I feel like there’s not that
many exactly and the reason for that is
that most of them actually have gone out
of business so the reason why fresh on
my mind was this notion that VCS are not
necessarily nailing video content so
when I spoke we talked about ten things
one of the things was the fact that we
happen to be self-funded and they
carried that so I was like oh my god do
I want to be known as the ante bc guy
which is not really my position I just
think it makes sense sometimes the raise
bc or not so part of it was just a sort
of balance I think if you’re going to
build a business you’re going to build a
business despite your source of capital
it’s not because of it but I’ve touched
on this broader issue of when you’re a
writer and a CEO to be perfectly honest
I was meeting with a investor this week
and he said you know you write these
articles it’s like what’s the deal you
know he’s like are you pissed at us the
investment community and I said no I go
it’s not like you’re dealing with a
software or tech entrepreneur I’m a
media entrepreneur we publish content
it’s like Michael Arrington he’s a he
was a Content entrepreneur a hugh hefner
content entrepreneur content
entrepreneurs are a bit crazy even just
to finish off on this first point when I
was writing the young pro at asked man
as much as I tried to not talk about my
experiences at the company I’d be lying
if I said there wasn’t anything going
so the right answer for generally
entrepreneurs is sometimes it make sense
to raise VC sometimes it makes it makes
sense to bootstrap but those it’s not
like it’s either or it just it depends
basically yeah so I’m trying not to be a
hypocrite I do see both sides of the
argument no you can have it both ways so
question number two is what does
manufacturing an audience mean okay so
this is something I’ve been giving a lot
of thoughts to if you consider that
right now there’s this big wave of
technology in media right so it started
not just with the internet it started
with publishing and all that the main
thing that is crazy right now is real
media companies that have a real
audience whether it’s a magazine whether
it’s a TV company whether it’s an
Internet company that publishes content
they’re basically being traded at a
discount whereas the technology
companies that through ad serving or
data or behavioral targeting who are
able to reach audiences in a blind
manner and manufacture the audience
which basically means it’s a fake
audience there’s no common bond apart
from demographics which is you know we
could debate whether or not it’s legit
or not most of those companies are being
traded at a at a premium so I wrote an
article on media polls just touching on
this sort of very bizarro world
backwards reality that if you happen to
be a company that has 10 million users
visit your site and they engage with
your brand and they engage with your
content you’re being actually right now
punished by the markets and the
companies that are being rewarded are a
lot of these technology companies that
target audience is randomly across the
web but okay maybe you could plead that
well these were all people who have done
this over the last 30 days on that but
they’re actually very heterogeneous
they’re not really it’s not really a
community so the idea was like you can
manufacture your audience but at some
point it’s going to come back and haunt
you you’re better off as a media and a
publisher building a real audience
around your content and your brand and
this is something we’ve done in the last
year we’ve hired people to just manage
marketing and social media now I don’t
know frankly though if there’s going to
be at some point a regression to the
mean where companies that have a real
audience are going to be rewarded it
could be that know like the robots take
over the world and that’s just the way
the future is going to be so what you’re
saying is you want
community of people who are engaged with
with each other and with the videos yeah
I mean in our case it’s videos but I
think like if you know I was talking to
the CEO of a big new york-based company
and he said it he was the reason why we
do very well and we could sell he goes
one of my VC says are you guys kicking
ass and doing so much revenue because
you have like behavioral targeting and
he’s like no he’s like we are doing
really well and able to get nike and
coca-cola to pay premiums for
advertising because it’s a real
community its people that come and
engage with the articles and read the
you know articles and view the slide
shows he’s like because there’s a real
audience there there’s a real reaction
whereas to put it bluntly but then we
can move on to the next thing what’s
happening when you manufacture an
audience it’s like bundling a bunch of
crappy mortgages putting them together
and saying this is a triple-a rated high
quality asset where we saw its anything
but but that’s just the way things are
and I don’t know if that’s going to
change or not okay question number three
you wrote an article for a montreal tech
blog and it was called you can’t cut
your way to a billion dollar business so
if you could tell us what you meant and
then maybe talk a bit about the montrell
startup in tech scene sure so I’m
actually quite proud of this article
because I managed in this rent to just
you know cut across the church the
French establishment the business
community lawyers accountants startups
investors you know it was quite a nice
accomplishment again the reality is you
can’t be vegetable lasagna when you’re
writing and I think one of the critiques
that some people have given to me about
watchmojo as they go sometimes your
content lacks that mmm and it’s true why
because we have clients that include
yahoo and you know a magazine and a
portal so we have to somewhat stay
neutral for them all to like it I admit
guilty as charged your honor so when I
write a blog article everybody is a
writer everybody pontificates you know
it’s like like a holes everybody’s got
one you have to stand out of the clutter
if I go out there drinking the kool-aid
singing Kumbaya and saying oh my god
mantras on all these great things
nobody’s gonna read that nobody’s gonna
share that nobody’s gonna say oh my god
here’s an opinion agree or disagree so
it came out and I basically said forget
ash forget watchmojo historically the
most successful montreal but you could
replace montreal for canada
entrepreneurs have basically had to
leave this city state province and
country to become successful only when
they leave and they become successful
are they then come back and then it’s
like you go from good luck with that
business buddy to pal too I’ve always
believed in you buddy you know so it’s
just like and I’m just saying it’s a
shame now what I said was times have
changed thankfully there is a new
movement a new crop of investors who are
trying to back entrepreneurs I’m saying
that’s very exciting but I’m basically
challenging those investors saying
forget watchmojo forget ash the world
doesn’t owe me anything doesn’t know
anybody anything the world was here
before you entered the world and it’ll
be here when you die and leave but you
have a choice to make which is either
you become part of the crusty old
establishment that turns their back on a
lot of entrepreneurs who like me maybe
are not going to be so verbose and talk
about it but they’re just going to be
like forgotten and shut down their
businesses or you could say you know
what screw it we are going to maybe back
those entrepreneurs that are a bit rough
around the edges but who have good
intentions and who are building the job
and I even you know it was sort of a you
know again when you write something
you’d be lying if you said there’s no
double on tons part of it was a time
stamps that if we watch module get up
turn our backs to the city and go
relocate to New York nobody should come
back and say oh my god these guys were
sellouts at the end of the day vice was
also starred in Montreal it’s now based
in Brooklyn it’s printing money they
only did that because they left Montreal
all of the most successful companies
Lewis Cirque du Soleil they had to get
up and leave and now they’re like the
greatest export after Celine Dion the
point is it is a challenge I’d be lying
if it wasn’t but this notion that you
know I’m some bitter angry person it’s
the opposite i’m generally happy but if
you know it’s it’s it’s not a it’s not a
stick and it is a stick when you write
you need to have a voice and that’s what
it is and its people should have fun
with it and that’s it and the truth
hurts at the end of the day so if some
people were offended maybe there’s some
truth in what I said all right should I
be looking to buy a house elsewhere no
no no everything’s fine we’ll probably
gonna stay here we love the weather here
basically all that snow is good for your
bones all right so this was show 23 next
week we’ll see if CT Moors back or not I
guess we have to send out the GPS to get
him out of the cave
you
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