Early stage access to new sex chat project.

[IndieBill]

Hey @jbmichalak,

I wish you luck in your endeavour, many people tried to build new cam sites and only a few succeeded - so it's brave to go and build one anyway. The chicken-and-egg problem of marketplaces makes it hard, and usually require deep pockets to face.

By the way, it isn't true that cam sites are all ugly. Some of them did put a lot of efforts into their interface, such as LiveJasmin.

However, if I understand correctly reading through the lines, you mean to build a cam site offering a better User Experience notably through a beautiful interface (responsive / no ads / better filters). I'm sure there is a lot to be done in this area as cam sites are (imho) all years behind the quality of craft of most mainstream e-commerces.

I'm not sure that is enough to actually build a successful cam site though, but if you pull in AirBNB grade of UX.. who knows!

@justjoinedtopost I don't know if you actually tried, but pitching ain't easy - especially when you're getting started and it's not your native language. It comes with stress and it only takes to miss a word (which you are prone to when not a native speaker) that you wanted to say for your brain to go into panic mode and well... be fucked for the remaining of the pitch.

Best of luck!

Gérald from IndieBill

ps: if you want to build great tech, you're going to need a payment service provider which itself did not get stuck in the nineties - like Epoch. If you want I can refer to you a great one, and they have offices in Poland. Let me know!

 

[MiaFoxUK]

If you think cam sites are ugly you should check out uk swinger sites. Some of those make my first MySpace look like a Monet

 

[LilPixy]

if you want to build great tech, you're going to need a payment service provider which itself did not get stuck in the nineties - like Epoch. If you want I can refer to you a great one, and they have offices in Poland. Let me know!

First of all, he should decide who is his target and if it's enough to run succesful site.

I know there are guys who want 'just talk' and are willing to pay for it. From my experience % of them is too low to start brand new site without all the regular ugliness

 

[justjoinedtopost]

@justjoinedtopost I don't know if you actually tried, but pitching ain't easy - especially when you're getting started and it's not your native language. It comes with stress and it only takes to miss a word (which you are prone to when not a native speaker) that you wanted to say for your brain to go into panic mode and well... be fucked for the remaining of the pitch.

Well, I can preach a pretty good sermon when I gits filled with the Holy Spirit. Not sure if that counts as pitching or not.

I did feel a little for Mr. Michalak on stage, seeing him close his eyes and strain to bring up the right word, but I do not extend my sympathies to the lack of substance in his message. Doesn't sound like he has much, other than a vision of a better looking website(?) with no ads. Carrying on about "putting humans at the center" and "creating real environments" and "educating people" is all superfluous bullshit.

 

[Serenity_Tam]

Sooo. I agree that most cam sites are ugly. They are not aesthetically pleasing at all. Sure no one is there to stare at the site but it sure is nice when something with a pretty design comes along. (I don't know if the site actually is pretty... I haven't looked, but the idea is OK)Like I would never cam on chaturbate just because I don't like the way the site looks, and I know im not alkne. And when a new cam start up comes here and shows us what their site looks at so many of us jump on how ugly their colour choice and or design is. I don't think OP is crazy for realising aesthetics is important.

To give OP the benefit of the doubt in that video we know English isn't his first language and I dunno about y'all but when speaking a second language I become even more ineloquent than I already am. So it could explain why he seems to go in circles. If OP is launching this site with the intention of marketing towards English users he's going to need to hire a few English speakers to help with grammar and spelling on the site and marketing.

While aesthetics are important ... There has to be more than that for a draw. If a site is just pretty it has nothing. To the OP there must be a draw. Other than the sites prettiness what would make a member want to go there or make. Model uproot her ugly site to go to yours? There has to be some larger benefit.

 

[IndieBill]

@LilPixy I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I believe people launching websites nowadays first try to "figure out" (not decide) a target, then launch the website, and adapt to actually make it work. We're not too sure it will work right away, but we're confident we can adapt, and that being in contact with real customers to do so is much more worthwhile than actually planning for a longer time from your "ivory tower".

That's my personal belief, it may be wrong, but it's how we launched IndieBill : we had an idea which we thought may attract adult performers in general, and we got wrong on a number of points (an important number of points). However we believed that since we're not adult performers ourselves, we could only "get it right" by actually launching what we had and see what the first adult performers using IndieBill would say.

So far it proved to be a good strategy: we learned much more and could change our plans much quicker than we would have done by going through additional months of "market research" and other techniques. That's called "lean methodology", and although it looks like a bit counter-intuitive imho it's the good way to go when launching a business - as no one can predict the future.

@justjoinedtopost I honestly wish best of luck to @jbmichalak for his company, but do agree that the pitch sucks badly.

However, I'm not sure we've seen the same one: it's a 1 minute "elevator pitch" and the guy is at "what is camsite" after 18 seconds in, and starts his "what is the problem we want to solve". At 32 seconds in, after a long 14 seconds of ... imprecise ? ... talking he is at "how to solve the problem". Then he's giving an about 20 seconds not too eloquent pitch about how they're going to solve something nobody really understood in the first place.

He wants to say what makes them so special, the so-called "underlying magic"... and the pitch is over.

The guy hasn't actually delivered in message, he's just gone through 1 minute of poor time management bouncing forward and backward as he was trying to pitch his startup. He was about to (most likely) say what he had to say, and DONG - this is the end.

Then, all he got is basically a jury member who feels he's the only one who is "manly enough" / funny enough to actually ask questions about an adult startup, while mostly making fun of him whereas he was obviously not overconfident about his pitch in the first place. That's not helping, that's just a shitty jury member trying to capitalize on an insecure startupper in order to entertain the audience - whereas he should actually help him present what he is standing for.

It's not cool for an elevator pitch indeed, normally you wouldn't even say your own name (as nobody gives a fuck about it at this stage) and be at "what is the problem I want to solve" after 5 to 10 seconds - so that you actually got almost a minute to talk about it, and try to show how awesome you are (could be). And you would look the audience in the eyes all along, to exhibit confidence - not bounce randomly on stage.

That's most definitely a terrible pitch, but it does not say much about the guy and his vision. Except that he failed to present it at least once!

ps: I'm not defending @jbmichalak because I know him or anything, but I happened to pitch adult startups in a few meetings (For example "Crowdfucking" in a start-up week-end, hopefully you don't find that video online ) and I know it is not easy.

People there, however "open minded" they claim to be actually have a strong bias toward adult entrepreneurs, and it adds up to stress coming out of saying something important to you in front of an audience! (and the jurys usually ain't too good at questioning you, they are from Microsoft and shit.. they don't want to appear as if they knew anything on this subject!). The best people at building a neat website aren't always the best at presenting it

 

[justjoinedtopost]

@justjoinedtopost I honestly wish best of luck to @jbmichalak for his company, but do agree that the pitch sucks badly.

However, I'm not sure we've seen the same one: it's a 1 minute "elevator pitch" and the guy is at "what is camsite" after 18 seconds in, and starts his "what is the problem we want to solve"...
...
That's most definitely a terrible pitch, but it does not say much about the guy and his vision. Except that he failed to present it at least once!

I wasn't really going just by the short vid, but by a review of the blog etc...

 

[IndieBill]

Oh. I only looked the vid and the homepage, my bad!

 

[LilPixy]

@IndieBill I see some differences between your company, that many indie girls were waiting for, and starting another adult website that will be better than all the mainstream ones because of pretty design.

2 years of work and we don't know what is the point of creating another site, really?
If OP wants to attract paying customers with his site by saying they are spending money on 'ugly' sites, good luck. Content selling sites without annoying ads already exist and it's not 'magic'. If he wants to attract vanilla customers (that I was thinking about in my previous post) from those 'ugly' sites, he might be disappointed with results.

 

[AudriTwo]

"No ads or affiliate programs"

How is this an advantage? Affiliate programs are beneficial. I have three! One adult and two vanilla. I made steady income from my marketing and help generate traffic to sites with ad space and social media marketing. How do you plan on generating traffic? How do you plan marketing your site? Where do you plan on marketing your site? @jbmichalak

 

[IndieBill]

Thank you @LilPixy !

I think you're right. I wanted to stand up for the guy a bit as I believe it's always great that new people come around and try to build something better (and not easy). But anyway, he's since then disappeared - looks like he's not too "happy about answering questions" anymore! And there's nothing to stand up for.

 

[LilPixy]

I guess I developed strong allergy to start ups because of posts we can read here and on WCG

We were a little harsh but if you have a good idea/product/whatever, you try to convince people and explain things, not run away from criticism.

 

[AudriTwo]

I guess I developed strong allergy to start ups because of posts we can read here and on WCG

We were a little harsh but if you have a good idea/product/whatever, you try to convince people and explain things, not run away from criticism.

Same here, I always wait a year to sign up for a new site. I need to see how they hold up and other models experience with them. I am skeptical of all new things. Some of these startups tell me "give me a chance, if you can only see..." But why should I? I have heard horror stories from models who don't get paid because a startup can't afford to pay them to their identity being sold on the dark net. Being the main bread winner in my family, I can't risk it.

I personally am excited about new ways to earn money in our industry. I am willing to grow and adapt, but I need that security. The reason I am critical and ask questions, because I believe these are two aspects you need to grow as a business. And when I see a startup not answer back or dump their idea and run, why should we jump on their their idea? I want the sites to give a shit about us, and not see us as money makers.

The best is when the representative come at us all hostile and offended when they are given criticism. I get it, it's your baby, your original idea, and it seems like we are shitting ALL over it. We are challenging you. That is a POSITIVE! I hope @jbmichalak comes back to answer all our questions and is able to use what we said to make their company successful. Because we know this industry a lot more. We are business women, not just pussy slingers.

 

[Sevrin]

What bothers me most with many of these new sites is that they don't seek out partnerships with people who have actual experience and a stake in the industry before they go public. They really need to do more research, create a basic mock-up and get private, critical feedback before they start recruiting, and the fact that they don't leaves me thinking they're not likely to survive long enough to be worth considering.

 

[TheChubbyElf]

"Camydia"

... I would use the Camydia site.
Just because hilarity.

 

[Lelo1]

Then, all he got is basically a jury member who feels he's the only one who is "manly enough" / funny enough to actually ask questions about an adult startup, while mostly making fun of him whereas he was obviously not overconfident about his pitch in the first place. That's not helping, that's just a shitty jury member trying to capitalize on an insecure startupper in order to entertain the audience - whereas he should actually help him present what he is standing for.

Interesting, I though he was engaged in the process. He was trying to put the idea in context , by comparing it to chaturabte.

I think what they were looking for, is to have Jacob explain his idea clearly and simply.

I don't think the slogan "bring sexy back" makes sense. Because cams are already sexy. And frankly the slogan is kind of confusing.

Every one has already said it. The name sucks. It's a horrible name. It needs to be an attractive name like 'bliss'. Not some thing that sounds like a STD.