More on Investors
It was pointed out to me on Twitter that investors are theoretically sharing the expertise that earned them their pots of money. My response didn’t really fit terribly well in the available space there, so I decided to expand upon it here.
The problem with investors’ experience in making money is that they (usually) come from a very different background. They don’t make money by making and selling products, or by dealing with customers and reviews. They make money primarily through raising companies’ valuations, by selling the company’s image to the stock markets and other people with lots of money. That’s a very different thing from developing a product to make end-users excited: the former is based upon selling *potential* — after all, who’s going to buy stock in a company with nothing in the pipeline? — while the latter is about producing something that people will actually use and like enough that they’ll come back & buy more from you later.
An example: When Tapulous launched, they had Tap Tap Revolution, Twinkle, and FriendBook was to follow shortly thereafter. Since the investors ousted founder & principal developer Mike Lee, the company has finished his FriendBook application, added Fortune and Canvas, and made about a zillion Tap Tap Revenge followup apps, all of which were based upon exclusive deals with well-known bands. Now, is the focus there on building great useful applications which make people want to come back & buy more, or on showing the world how marketable the Tapulous brand itself is, and just how far it can stretch a single hit?
