9 ms·

My feelings about Jason Calacanis evolved similarly to the way they did about Gary Vaynerchuk, just slower. With Gary, you see him going HiEveryBodyThisIsGaryVa

My feelings about Jason Calacanis evolved similarly to the way they did about Gary Vaynerchuk, just slower. With Gary, you see him going HiEveryBodyThisIsGaryVay-NER-Chuk!-and-this and you're kind of turned off, but you warm up to him because he's a good guy doing a unique style, and he's got serious chops/substance beneath the style. Similar for me with Calacanis. It was Peldi from Balsamiq linking to an article of his talking about how to deal with journalists smartly that turned my opinion around, and since then I've come to respect the guy a whole lot. He's got a strong style that rubs people the wrong way at times, but he's a super savvy businessman and also seems like a genuinely helpful person.

tptacek 16y ago
The business he actually runs turns off many people more than his personal style.
- geekinthecorner 16y ago
  The first time I heard somebody say "Jason Nation" I threw up in my mouth a little. Later on when all of the hangers-on who looked good on camera were vying to be part of his reality tv show or whatever it was, and they started tweeting about "Lisa Nation" and Jessica Nation" .. I did actually vomit (I had a stomach flu, but Calcanis was a second-order catalyst of that projectile, I tell you).
- comster 16y ago
  I do respect him, but I just wish Mahalo was something that I could use. It seems to me that maybe after his first success, he doesn't quite have the same creativity to problem solving. Instead "serial" entrepreneurs sometimes seem to go "big" solving a problem that might not exist.
- arctangent 16y ago
  Agreed. In everything I have read about him it seems perfectly clear that he's happy to game search engine ranking algorithms to place highly in their results. Moreover, driving volume to his site(s) in this way is his main concern. But unfortunately for the people coming to his sites there really isn't all that much content to see. Perhaps this has changed recently - if so, I'd love to see an example (just one!) of a page on Mahalo which gives better information than Wikipedia (for example)...
  - zachcb 16y ago
    How does he "game search engine ranking algorithms"?
  - michaelbuckbee 16y ago
    Here is a quite lengthy Mahalo GTA4 walkthrough that includes a bunch of videos as well: http://www.mahalo.com/grand-theft-auto-4-walkthrough/ http://www.mahalo.com/grand-theft-auto-4-walkthrough/ Here is the GTA4 Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV
    - jasonmcalacanis 16y ago
      Our video game team is amazing. We are making 900 high-quality videos a week. 105 people at Mahalo now, and we will add 100 more this year. We should be able to hit 3k videos a week this year. The next wave of videos we create you guys will actually be using.... so I'm looking forward to hearing what people think of our lynda.com-like stuff. :-)
      - btipling 16y ago
        Do you ever think that maybe Mahalo isn't working out and perhaps it is time to give it another go with a different product? It's good to evolve but at some point, throw in the towel. I'd say the same for Seesmic. It's admirable, but at some point after many reinventions, you've just got to step back and examine honestly if you're wasting talent and time on a losing ticket. There's very little about Mahalo that makes it attractive other than the great design. When does anyone say to themselves "Hrm I bet Mahalo has this information" or "I should check Mahalo.com." However if you do plan to stick it out until you're bankrupt you might want to think about employing librarians. Helping resolving information needs is what they are best at.
        jasonmcalacanis 16y ago
        Well, did you watch my talk about pivoting from DLD? In that talk I outline how Mahalo's human-powered search vision got us to the top 400 sites, but that it wasn't growing and the users wanted more how to/instructional content. We iterated, and mahalo is a top 200 site that also gets 1M+ views a day on YouTube. yes, 365M views of our 23k videos every year. I do think your question "i should check Mahalo" is an EXCELLENT one. Human-powered search doesn't have that draw, but I think free instructional videos will. If you wanted to speak Russian or make perfect grilled cheese or solve a video game you would do well to come to Mahalo.com. Direct traffic is the real test of a sites worth... and we're very focused on growing that with high-quality instruction. We have tons of money and tons of revenue... we can't go bankrupt if we can easily make a profit can we? :-) Talk to me in one year and we'll be in the top 100 sites and have 100M+ views a month on YouTube. :-)
endlessvoid94 16y ago
Do you still have that link?

tptacek 16y ago

The business he actually runs turns off many people more than his personal style.

geekinthecorner 16y ago
The first time I heard somebody say "Jason Nation" I threw up in my mouth a little. Later on when all of the hangers-on who looked good on camera were vying to be part of his reality tv show or whatever it was, and they started tweeting about "Lisa Nation" and Jessica Nation" .. I did actually vomit (I had a stomach flu, but Calcanis was a second-order catalyst of that projectile, I tell you).
comster 16y ago
I do respect him, but I just wish Mahalo was something that I could use. It seems to me that maybe after his first success, he doesn't quite have the same creativity to problem solving. Instead "serial" entrepreneurs sometimes seem to go "big" solving a problem that might not exist.
arctangent 16y ago
Agreed. In everything I have read about him it seems perfectly clear that he's happy to game search engine ranking algorithms to place highly in their results. Moreover, driving volume to his site(s) in this way is his main concern. But unfortunately for the people coming to his sites there really isn't all that much content to see. Perhaps this has changed recently - if so, I'd love to see an example (just one!) of a page on Mahalo which gives better information than Wikipedia (for example)...
- zachcb 16y ago
  How does he "game search engine ranking algorithms"?
- michaelbuckbee 16y ago
  Here is a quite lengthy Mahalo GTA4 walkthrough that includes a bunch of videos as well: http://www.mahalo.com/grand-theft-auto-4-walkthrough/ http://www.mahalo.com/grand-theft-auto-4-walkthrough/ Here is the GTA4 Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV
  - jasonmcalacanis 16y ago
    Our video game team is amazing. We are making 900 high-quality videos a week. 105 people at Mahalo now, and we will add 100 more this year. We should be able to hit 3k videos a week this year. The next wave of videos we create you guys will actually be using.... so I'm looking forward to hearing what people think of our lynda.com-like stuff. :-)
    - btipling 16y ago
      Do you ever think that maybe Mahalo isn't working out and perhaps it is time to give it another go with a different product? It's good to evolve but at some point, throw in the towel. I'd say the same for Seesmic. It's admirable, but at some point after many reinventions, you've just got to step back and examine honestly if you're wasting talent and time on a losing ticket. There's very little about Mahalo that makes it attractive other than the great design. When does anyone say to themselves "Hrm I bet Mahalo has this information" or "I should check Mahalo.com." However if you do plan to stick it out until you're bankrupt you might want to think about employing librarians. Helping resolving information needs is what they are best at.
      - jasonmcalacanis 16y ago
        Well, did you watch my talk about pivoting from DLD? In that talk I outline how Mahalo's human-powered search vision got us to the top 400 sites, but that it wasn't growing and the users wanted more how to/instructional content. We iterated, and mahalo is a top 200 site that also gets 1M+ views a day on YouTube. yes, 365M views of our 23k videos every year. I do think your question "i should check Mahalo" is an EXCELLENT one. Human-powered search doesn't have that draw, but I think free instructional videos will. If you wanted to speak Russian or make perfect grilled cheese or solve a video game you would do well to come to Mahalo.com. Direct traffic is the real test of a sites worth... and we're very focused on growing that with high-quality instruction. We have tons of money and tons of revenue... we can't go bankrupt if we can easily make a profit can we? :-) Talk to me in one year and we'll be in the top 100 sites and have 100M+ views a month on YouTube. :-)

endlessvoid94 16y ago

Do you still have that link?