3 months ago i was at a facebook developers group meeting and talked for a moment about monetization and how i thought facebook would build their own ad network and no one will make money on facebook. I am here to say that i think the climate has changed and now you can make a fortune on facebook. 
Todays post is about a site I’ve been playing around with for months, Iminlikewithyou.com. Fresh out of ycombinator some really smart people built this site that has the potential to redefine dating. For those of you that don’t know, the ImInLIkeWithYou is a site where people post pictures and a profile and create a “game” where you ask a question or make a statement. Then site users bet points that they get for stuff on the site in their bid for your attention. Then the poser can choose a winner from the top 3 bidders. And then you keep the points from your game and you can spend it on someone elses. The original version was brilliant, i actually made some good friends out of it and 2 very hot girls even offered me “love” (always flattering) even though I have a GF and I don’t cheat. Regardless it was great fun. Then you can message people. There was a ton of awesome features ranging from how photos are displayed (makes everything flattering) to how the messaging system works (blind SMS/phone). The bidding system is cool because you have a finite amount of points and you need to be selective.
Now here’s the issues;
1) They’ve been in beta way too long. Launch a good product, seed market, promote, make money. This web2.0 beta forever stuff is bullshit, people get bored.
2) They are relying on pure invitation only and don’t do seed marketing. The key to good audience build out is marketing even if its under the radar or negative PR. One of the first lessons I learned is ABM, always be marketing, whether it’s yourself or your business. As a result there are very few live games on the site, at any given time there’s under 20 games when if this concept is to work there needs to be hundreds at least if not thousands of games.
3) They totally lost site of the purpose of the internet. The original version was simple to use. The new one is confusing. Many users don’t understand it. There is no way the average person will ever use the site. While you can claim you don’t want average user. the current site is only good for ajax addicts and techies. No normal person will use the site as is. It’s too confusing. They invented their own messaging system that makes no sense and the layout is horrible.
The worst thing of all is instead of spending money and time on getting the product out of beta, live and simple - they hired writers and started their own insite magazine. When I see a site that starts their own in site magazine, it’s time to run for the hills - they have no clue what their audience actually wants. If I’m on a dating site, I don’t give a crap about Britney Spears unless I can get a date with her!
So all in all it was a great idea, initially very good execution and then a total lost of focus and lack of understanding of the average internet user.
A VC friend of mine taught me a valuable lesson long ago. “I don’t care about how great your product is, it’s about the lowest common denominator”. Unless you’re making a fine Cognac or Scotch or Wine, go for the LCD (I believe what it means was covered in 2nd grade). Design Always Loses to Function in the Real World.
So my advice to investors: sell your stakes to another investor who thinks its cool because the site will never do well the way its designed currently.
People love watching TV. People love talking about TV. If I hear that youtube is the future of TV again, I think I’m going to youpuke. There’s plenty of new video sites out there and video formats. There’s even free cable on your pc. So what’s next? I propose a very simple device, maybe it even exists already. I want a bluetooth device that connects by my pc to my tv so I can wirelessly beam content back and forthe. Turn my pc into a TiVo and my TV into a computer monitor - and without any cables. How much is that to ask?
