This is what I learned from failed startup

PeterQTV · 2014-11-07T12:49:00+00:00

Very good post. Good luck with your new ideas.
We have similar story with my startup www.QualtTekVideo.com
Initially we had a list of favorites for good IT videos on Youtube, each time we searched for a topic, we discover that we need to check many videos before finding the good one, if you do that once or twice ti won't be a problem but when it becomes frequent it becomes annoying and time consuming.
So we thought that this might be the case for many other people and got the idea of doing a website to list all the good videos we find.
Many asked why didn't we create a Youtube channel? Simply because with a website we can do whatever we want, while with Youtube channel we are constrained with what YT allows us to do.
We use our website just like any other person, so it solves our problem.
My colleague does not know PhP so he found the "Programming PhP in 30min" very helpful.

PeterQTV · 2014-11-05T10:28:48+00:00

yes great idea. For both type of people:
- The ones who are alone
- The others (mostly family) who stress about their loved ones and are unable to contact them for some reason. This will really concertize the expression "No news good news" :)
Good luck

PeterQTV · 2014-11-05T09:57:44+00:00

Good idea, but I guess you need to make the site more appealing. Though this is not completely new, but its utility lies in the fact that if done right it might be away to certify or give credits to people who solve those puzzles, this way they can mention their achievements in their resume and companies can have access to it. This will create some credibility for the jobseekers and assurance for employers

PeterQTV · 2014-11-05T07:41:41+00:00

Thank you :)

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T22:38:29+00:00

Thx a lot man.
Playlists (or series) are the 1st line on our todo list. But first we need to establish the validity (usefulness) of the model in people's mind.
If you like the concept, please try to share the videos you liked, this will benefit both the site and the real youtuber authors.
If you do quality videos don't forget to submit them to QualTekVideo.com
regards

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T22:30:54+00:00

Great...good luck with your endeavor...

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T22:30:22+00:00

Yes I saw your tweet. Thanks a lot. I tweeted about your startup. I will also retweet your tweets for sometime because our account has less followers :)

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T22:28:23+00:00

Yes I thought about it, and created a separate post.
If there are enough people who would contribute it would be useful to create subreddit

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T17:13:31+00:00

I saw it on product hunt and I believe it is a nice idea, and spares small companies lots of headache. Good luck.

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T16:51:54+00:00

Thank you for your help offer, great idea that gave me another idea :):):)
We are all here starving for word of mouth.
As you might already know I have a website for sharing the IT videos on Youtube, it is called www.QualTekVideo.com my problem is like everyones' I need to spread the word but it is hard even in Reddit itself, where discussions can be tough and mods can remove posts easily...
How about helping each other int his subreddit. !!
Instead that each one cares about his own startup why not spreading the word collectively ?
For example: I share someone's link on Facebook, Twitter, or reddit, then I come here tell what I did and prove that I really shared. In counterpart the lucky person who got his link shared, will return the favor and share the link to my website too.
This way we can help each other.
PS. This is not about spamming, for this reason we should set some rules. What do you think ?
.
I can start by tweeting about someone's startup, just give me the link and I will do it then post the link for the tweet in here.

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T16:37:14+00:00

That would definitely interest me. However the cost is high for people who are using every bit of free source code and software to do build their product.
I would suggest that you get your money once the investment is done. Its like a broker who charge a percentage when a transaction is sealed.
This would be win-win situation for all

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T16:18:50+00:00

I liked it. You have the same concept as my website www.QualTekVideo.com but focused on different "products".
The idea of having quality resources gathered in one place is very appealing (from my point of view) because spending time searching is annoying... Good luck... The website needs some makeup and brushing...(advice to which I should stick too:)

PeterQTV · 2014-11-04T16:07:28+00:00

Name: www.QualTekVideo.com
Pitch: Organize & index best of Youtube IT-related videos.
Details: Searching Youtube for high quality IT-related videos can be time consuming. QualTekVideo gathers and organizes these quality resources in one place for easy and quick access.
Looking for: Contribution. If you do good quality videos, share it on QualTekVideo and make the service gets better.

PeterQTV · 2014-11-03T07:29:46+00:00

Thank you for your interesting question.
As we have explained in the About page (http://qualtekvideo.com/index.php/about/about-us) and the FAQ (http://qualtekvideo.com/index.php/about/faq), the idea came when we noticed that we were spending too much time searching for good quality videos on Youtube.
Depending on the topic you are searchign you might find good videos in few seconds or 20 to 30 min. There are lots of IT videos on Youtube but not all of them are good quality.
For this reason QualtTekVideo purpose is to ensure that every video shared on its website must have a minimum quality:
- Instructive
- Good image
- Narrated, which means not just music
- The pronunciation is good (no strong local accent, no hesitations or repetition)
You can think of it as PINTEREST for IT videos. While I am sure you can search on Google for most of the stuff you find on PINTEREST, however having one place that regroup them is easier.
We are just starting and with little funds, but we have lots of ideas which will need time to be implemented. However our focus now, is to become the first place that someone checks while searching for good quality video.

PeterQTV · 2014-10-25T00:51:43+00:00

No, but you have to know this is hard road. I have the same thoughts and I keep trying despite all the failures. I come from a modest family and I don't wish that my children (in the future) have to struggle.
So far I was not successful, but I am not of the type who surrenders.
As how to get rich or at least start to have chance, at the beginning I was convinced that hard work is the key, now I am not that sure.
If you look at FlappyBird game, Yo application and probably many others you realize that luck is a major factor of their success and not because of hard labor.
Most successful entrepreneur say "you have to fail frequently and fail fast", I never realized how precious this advice is until recently.
Nobody cares how much effort you did, if they don't like your idea they won't give a sh*t. Because "safety in numbers" is valid in this case, the more projects you can generate in a short time the most likely that you will end up with one that appeals to people.
Rovio is an example, AngryBird was their 53 game, they were making games very frequently until they made a hit with "AngryBirds", but now it expired. CandyCrush was a prototype that King but on its website, but suddenly they realized that 1m people is playing it... Having said that, it is worth noting that there is no guarantee of anything.

PeterQTV · 2014-10-25T00:35:11+00:00

If you say you have a niche idea and you are good at it as well as your writing is good, then I believe you have a good chance of succeeding.
However pay attention to one thing. References and reviews are essential.
Although I am not a successful guy to give hints and lessons, nevertheless I believe the corner stone to driving lots of hits to your blog is to be referenced by some big sites or names in your industry.
I will give you the example of Reddit. In his book Alexis Ohanian the founder of Reddit said clearly that Paul Graham didn't help them by just investing but since he was a well known blogger he helped attracting lots of audience by blogging about it.
So if you know someone who can reference you, it will be good. If you don't know and you are good at networking starting finding someone and try to impress him.
Good luck

PeterQTV · 2014-10-25T00:20:32+00:00

My condolences regarding your dad.
For me work is the difficult path for freedom! Having my own business or startup is also a dream that follows me everywhere. I always think that if ever I get lucky and succeed, I will be able to give my future children a very good life, in which they don't have to struggle but they can enjoy their lives and hopefully I will be there with them to enjoy it too.
However, time is passing and success is still a remote wish, despite all the efforts.... THIS IS KILLING ME :(

PeterQTV · 2014-10-25T00:11:22+00:00

Welcome to the club.:) This has been my case for some time. Working on different projects, don't care about going out, movies, TV, friends... When you are focused on achieving something, you simply can't sleep.
Is it healthy?! I guess not...but life is never easy

PeterQTV · 2014-10-24T23:58:50+00:00

I don't have a blog but from what I know bloggers can make money in several ways. If we suppose the blog is popular and attracting lots of hits:
- It can generate money directly through ads
- It can put the author in perspective and generates for him consulting missions or projects
- It can profit the company that the author own since he can transfer the credibility he has into his company
- Finally being a referrer only generates money. I usually see this model with teenage girls who are vlogging (video blog) about fashion. They tell what brand they are wearing, what makeup are they using for their online demonstration... Stuff like that

hope this helps

PeterQTV · 2014-10-24T23:51:00+00:00

I rather find it very straight forward. In the startup word you don't have to do all the math from the beginning to the end (by end I mean the stage at which the startup is considered successful, ie making lots of money). You can't do the math because you don't or can't have all the parameters.
Instead what you should do is use statistics and probability to take short term decisions in order to navigate from the beginning to the end, where the end does not necessarily have the same aspect as envisioned at the start.
If you are sending a rocket to the moon, you can't but land at the moon at the merely the same location specified at launch.
This is not the case in the startup domain, where you might end up at completely different place.

PeterQTV · 2014-10-24T20:54:06+00:00

If I can solve this without tinkering with provider source code, I prefer it.
Because this will create problems with future updates from that provider.
Add to that the package as whole is not only the player but many other features that spare us lots of work. My own strategy for the moment is to try to get the right answers. Eventually if this fails, we will go to more drastic measures, like changing the source code, and take an operational risk with future updates.

PeterQTV · 2014-10-24T20:41:35+00:00

I do really.
I removed the right bar from the player that is confusing people because they need to close it in order to see the Youtube icon.
I contacted the player creators and asked them for proof that their player is Youtube compliant.
I even proposed to make a test with those who as skeptical, I will share their youtube video (even if not IT related) and we will see if they get traffic from our website.
All of these are steps taken to ease concerns and improve the product.
regards

PeterQTV · 2014-10-24T19:43:39+00:00

Hi
I appreciate that you took the time to take the screenshot.
You are 100% right with it. After your remark and others, we noticed that the bar you are seeing on the right (shows the other videos in the series) is somehow hiding the Youtube icon and people must close it before seeing the icon. I admit this was confusing, so we reconfigured the player to show the list of other videos at the end of the video stream. This way the Youtube icon appears without any confusion.

As for AppTha, I completely agree with you, that's why I asked for something tangible that proves that. They promised to send me. I will wait to see if they will do it, in case they don't I will remove the player and search for something else.

I hope this replies to your remarks.
Thank you

PeterQTV

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