HowAboutWe repairs a perceived bait-and-switch...

Update May 2011

About a week after posting the story below, the media manager for HAW contacted me with the following explanation:

Talked to Aaron (the founder) to clarify, and the basic issue here is that the user experience isn't strong when a person's profile either gets deleted or restricted in some way or another.  There are some confusing things that happen -you get an email saying you have a message from them and then can't find that message...but can still find their profile, etc. We're working on getting that all cleared up. 

As for the specific user in question, unfortunately we can't reveal anything about their profile status as that would be violating their privacy.  

Just to be clear, we definitely don't do anything to purposely send fake messages to get people to convert.  Not our style.  But I do understand why it appeared this way - more just a tricky instance of bad timing than any malice or sketchy play on our part.

And just to be clear, I have been a suporter for HAW ever since.  But the lesson I would share is note the unintended consequences of bad user flow / interaction design before it gets to someone that might have a megaphone to speak from.

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Original Post

So - maybe you have heard about HowAboutWe on the web - a NY-based site that seems to be the next "new thing" for meeting people without using the bar scene as their primary source of connections with the opposite sex.

When it came out, I signed up because 1) I am single and would love to find my beshert and 2) I am always up for supporting a NYC venture. So, I signed up, added my profile information and even submitted a proposed date.

Suddenly, the "I'm intrigued" emails started to come in. And I can say that the women who I was getting are nice, but none who inspired me to pay the fee for joining to send an email - which required an upgrade to pay for the service.

And then suddenly, I get this barrage of three emails from one user - tanyak123

Now Tanya is not normally my type, but I wonder - why is she sending me two "I'm intrigued" messages and one personal message. But I can not see the personal message unless I pay for the service. So, curiosity got the best of me and I decide - what the hey - have not had much success on jdate or Match, so lets give it a go.

I google for a discount code on a coupon site (MyDate) and get the six month deal for half-off. I think - wow, great deal.

Then I log in to finally read these emails from Tanya. And what do I discover?

Those "urgent" emails are no longer there. Suddenly - Tanya is not in my inbox. That "urgent" email - gone. Or at least, Tanya is not trying to get ahold of me.

And while I thought it suspicious that Tanya - who cares about her Christianity a great deal - would be so "interested" in me, I must admit - it was tantalizing to investigate.

So, I must applaud HowAboutWe on their excellent conversion tactic - tantalize us with someone we might want to meet - and then suddenly have them disappear off the list.

Enjoy the game at your leisure (or peril) depending how you look at it.

SuckerPunch - it IS a good comic book movie damnit...

Last weekend, the movie SuckerPunch came out - and got resoundingly panned by critics around the US. I had been in London the past week, so I could not see it when it launched.

So, I decided to go see it myself while it was still in the IMAX theater - even after RottenTomatoes had given it a 20% rating from the critics. From the critical reviews, it sounded like Zack Snyder had done some misogynistic fantasy film that was making violence sexy with people walking around in flimsy negligee - with no story or plot.

I have to seriously disagree. While I may be the demographic that Zack may have been designing this show for - it truly was a "tour de force" in terms of imagination and storytelling. Granted, the story may have seemed to serve the need for Zack to show off his amazing cinematography, I truly appreciated the story that was being told - especially when you consider the entirety of the story itself.

I thought the direction and style was excellent - and all of the effects were a step above anything I have seen. Zack did push the envelope - and I would say that this story is better than "The Watchmen". I would say that the audience for "The Watchmen" will enjoy this movie - and should disregard the nay-sayers.

I remember how amazing "The Matrix" was back when it first came out. It caused me to purchase a DVD player and the disc way back then. I think SuckerPunch and the style/effects/story is quite a beautiful story and a sad one. I wish I could tell you the plot, but then you would miss out on the true story behind it. All I would say is that the major plot twist reminded me of the 1985 season of Dallas.

And - to Zack: you did a great job. You and your team (actors, designers, developers all) can be proud of a wonderful piece of art. I sincerely hope that others tell you the same thing in kind.

UPDATE: to prove my own point, looks like the filmmakers released the first six minutes of the movie on trailer (plus some sizzle toward the end). Worth the six minutes of your time:

Liveblogging Eric Reis from The Learn Startup Methodology at NYU

All the academic research suggest that there are traits stubborn, charisma, reality distortion field, raw intelligence, salesmanship, ability to see things that are not there.

What Eric likes to call "Success theater"

Traits that make you likely to be successful as an entrepreneur -are almost diametrically opposed to the earlier effort. Perseverance myth: never hear the stories of the entrepreneurs that persevered into the ground.

Media Coverage - Always focus on the biggest, but they are outliers. Learn more from failure than success.

Learning is the most important part of entrepreneurship - to learn is to fail something. When you realize that you do not know something is not fun. Living in the RDF is a lot more fun than selling to the world.

Lean Startup - idea that you should get funding for the napkin idea is poor. The value is in the execution. The successful entrepreneur was the one that had silly ideas. They have a structured way in changing in the face of information, the pivot. VCs have seen the same movies.

Lean Startup like Lean Manufacturing
Originally programmers were taught waterfall process - now lean startup methodology is a systematic process to conduct scientific approach to the process of building new innovative companies. Integrate product, marketing, business, etc into one machine.

An incredibly passionate video of Tara on Entrepreneurship

One of my friends, Tara Hunt, is on her own entrepreneurial quest - and got a chance to speak at the TEDxConcordia event quite recently. The video below is 24 minutes of incredibly passionate, authentic, true-to-form advice from Tara for all.

And yes, this could be a way for Tara to get visibility for her startup - but with insights like these, I think it is just fine to pass on the video to you.

Tara Hunt: The Unclear Path

It's about taking the Unclear Path of entrepreneurship - the rollercoaster, the love of it, the heartbreak and the lifestyle. It's about being just delusional enough and just audacious enough to pursue that dream.