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eHub Interviews vSocial

Thanks to Mark Sigal, Brent Oesterblad, and Brad Webb of vSocial for this email interview posted December 13, 2005.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

vSocial: vSocial, at its core, is about two things. One is really nailing the “job” of making the video upload and sharing process brain dead simple so it just works. This extends to sub tasks like uploading, encoding, descriptions, tagging, ratings, user comments, syndication, integration with video iPods, and sharing and embedding in remote sites.  The other is enabling users to actually “do something” with video clips beyond the site just being a big hard drive. So, for example, in the vSocial scheme of things, if you embedded a clip on your blog, you will see a meta layer that enables you to see how this clip was tagged by vSocial members, see what comments were made about it by them, and email the clip to friends in a click—all without going to another site. Plus we provide a tool called a video roll that enables users to tell short stories (e.g., products we love) using an amalgam of clips.

eHub: Why did you start this project?

vSocial: The bottom line is that we saw a need. The vast majority of competitors in the space are about a single job—hosting video.  This is the equivalent of Blogger doing nothing but serving up text files. That may have been a useful service ten years ago, but we didn’t feel starting off with a square wheel was the way to go. Enabling users—both those with their own content, and those without—to use video as a conversation and storytelling medium is extremely powerful, and has a lot of value and goodness, we believe. It’s also an extremely cool and exciting field. Allowing users to express themselves in a natural way, aurally and visually, is extremely moving and really let’s people have their own voice.

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

vSocial: vSocial is our day, night, weekend and holiday job(s). We devote the time we’re not sleeping and eating to its growth. :)

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

vSocial: vSocial is a seven person team with the core entrepreneurs behind it being three people. Brent Oesterblad, founder, is a lifelong entrepreneur with multiple startups in the digital media space and disruptive businessman. Mark Sigal, who drives our marketing and product strategy, is a seven-time entrepreneur as a founder, CEO or seed investor in startups such as Rapid Logic (acquired by Wind River), Whistle (acquired by IBM) and me.com (current portfolio company).  He is also an accomplished blogger (www.thenetworkgarden.com). Brad Webb is our Chief Architect and Hacker-in-Charge, and has an extensive background in development, both in the corporate sector at companies like Global Crossing and in his own entrepreneurial ventures.

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

vSocial: In a nutshell, we believe that people “hire” products/services to perform a “job” that satisfies specific outcomes that they desire to achieve while reconciling the constraints that they face.  Needless to say, ease of use and existing usage patterns drives a lot of this for consumers.  For us, these things provide a foundation that drives usability, UI and workflow considerations.  We are big believers in encouraging “stumble upon” behaviors and we manifest this by incorporating context traversal mechanisms into our services.  Moreover, as portability between PC, blogosphere and mobile environments is a cornerstone of Web 2.0 aspirations, we put a lot of energies into removing the friction that people have traditionally faced as they move between these different realms.  It sounds trite, but at the end of the day, our user base tells us how well we are doing mostly by their actions, but also by their words so we watch, measure and listen.  You can’t improve what you don’t track, and you can’t hear if you don’t really have a need to know.

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

vSocial: Apache, PHP5, MySQL, Ajax, Flash, RSS+XSL. We also have a pretty extensive internal REST API set that we use for all of our applications, that we’re currently opening up for (commercial and non-commercial) developers, as well as auto-transcoding for native Video iPod formats, and one-click iTunes subscriptions.

eHub: What are the most requested features from your users/community?

vSocial: More user interactivity features, which we’re currently working on!

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

vSocial: It is pretty geographically distributed and demographically diverse.

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

vSocial: Well, within the next six months we aspire to make vSocial the unquestioned best and market leading video clip sharing community, and reward our users and partners for investing the time in us.  The next two years is actually kind of stealth at the moment, but certainly our mantra of enabling users to “do something” with online video is a core part of our future.

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

vSocial: Failure to execute and innovate. The space will be won with great, unique ideas and great execution of those ideas. The lack of doing both, never mind either, will be the death knell of anyone in the space. That, and never forgetting what our core job is for consumers of our service, as well as keeping things organic and fun are pretty key.

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

vSocial: More jealous users. Our users drive, and will continue to drive, our growth and design/development path, and the need for more champions/mavens is always going to be there, and what will hold us back from moving forward with the gusto we want to.

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

vSocial: Suffice it to say, we absolutely do, but that is not something we are prepared to broadcast.  This is a very competitive space.

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

vSocial: The fact that we’re not resting on our laurels. If anything, our recent spike in both growth and (great!) coverage has spurred us to act even more.  And obviously seeing the vSocial user community lapping up new features as quickly as we roll them into the service is gratifying. The people involved truly have a passion for the project, its ideals, and its goals. That’s both extremely exciting and very infectious, so it makes losing all the sleep and weekends worth it.

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

vSocial: Really, this is the time that the web as a two-way medium is coming into its own. People aren’t simply consuming anymore, they’re creating, and remixing, and conversing about all of it. People are getting involved, no matter how small the role. At the very least, they have the options, more so than ever before, to get as involved and contribute as much as they can/want.  We have blogged a ton on the key trends, what they mean and how to play them so I would point people to The Network Garden if they want to get beyond the sound bite.

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

vSocial: TechCrunch, eHub, Digg, Technorati, 37signals and A VC are a few that come to mind.  And of course, our own blogs.

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

vSocial: Mark and Brent average around six hours apiece.  Brad is more like 2-5 hours a night.

Thanks to Mark Sigal, Brent Oesterblad, and Brad Webb of vSocial for this email interview posted December 13, 2005.

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Originally added to eHub on Nov 18, 05

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eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

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