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Working on a bootstrapped project and just imagining what I could do with $2billion... Imagine what half the people on HN could do with it. It's obscene. I thin

by holler 6y ago

Working on a bootstrapped project and just imagining what I could do with $2billion... Imagine what half the people on HN could do with it. It's obscene. I think they were trying to essentially buy their way into mainstream adoption, but it doesn't really work like that.

president 6y ago
> I think they were trying to essentially buy their way into mainstream adoption, but it doesn't really work like that. It could work if your product met or was at least close to the minimum quality standard of your competitors. From what I've seen and read, Quibi was horribly substandard.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
gumby 6y ago
> trying to essentially buy their way into mainstream adoption, but it doesn't really work like that. Katzenberg comes from an industry (film studios) for which that is largely the model. They are willing to have some expensive failures ($100MM-scale) if the successes will launch a "franchise" which is subsequently mined. A failure more than an order of magnitude off what's tolerable in his old industry may be hard to survive, who knows. But industrial filmmaking is a lot like industrial food production: a blend of fear (customers won't adopt the new) and dictating the product to the customer.
- holler 6y ago
  > They are willing to have some expensive failures ($100MM-scale) if the successes will launch a "franchise" that makes sense, and definitely feels like they were building a rocket-sized dart to throw. it'd be interesting to see the breakdown on how much of that capital went towards engineering the app vs content/other.
  - gumby 6y ago
    Well it was $2Bn not $100MM so don’t know how ppl will feel. Probably call it “Silicon Valley style” and disregard it. The Hollywood model spends most of that money on ppl and marketing, little on tech. K has no tech experience and W only a smidgeon despite her exec jobs (eBay & HP). So I would be shocked if they spent more than $25MM on their stack which is mostly conventional. I’m sure the rest was blown on marketing, high salaries, consultants, offices, and deals with actors.
    - holler 6y ago
      thanks for the insight, that's really fascinating! > I’m sure the rest was blown on marketing, high salaries, consultants, offices, and deals with actors It sounds like the antithesis of "lean startup". Of course it could have worked out the other way if they had nailed market-fit. It does make me wonder if they could try to salvage the tech and try a slight pivot.
    - pfranz 6y ago
      > K has no tech experience I mean, I'm not sure exactly how much credit to give him, but DreamWorks Animation had a lot of tech and he oversaw it for 20+ years. He stood up a brand new animation studio while the industry was digitizing, which means everyone used in-house tools because off-the-shelf stuff wasn't available. They purchased PDI, had been doing CG since 1980. They maintained a proprietary CG pipeline for decades and integrated multiple locations. This was during a time when the industry went from NURBS to sub-d, from basic direct lighting to global illumination to path-tracing--mostly using software written in-house. Not to mention the larger issues of asset management, data center scaling (power, water, and city requirements) and the staff and budgets to support all of that. At scales only a handful of other facilities were doing CG at, while competing for innovation, scale, and quality. I'm pretty sure Katzenberg and Whitman courted when she was at HP and they were DreamWorks' "technology partner." They worked together on things like a price-friendly color-accurate LCD monitor and the Halo video conferencing stuff. I know in the years before DreamWorks was sold to Universal there were Skunk Works projects working on phone apps. I imagine all of that was practice for this. I'm sure most of the money was on content and advertising. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by not having tech experience, but he definitely oversaw a lot and worked with people who had.
- aspaceman 6y ago
  Worth keeping in mind he left that industry because he became relatively incompetent. Business shifted to franchised superhero movies and he didn’t adapt.
Barrin92 6y ago
>just imagining what I could do with $2billion... Imagine what half the people on HN could do with it or alternatively twenty thousand 100k research grants in the sciences. Would be pretty great if we could produce some knowledge instead of more mediocre TV shows.

by holler 6y ago

president 6y ago

> I think they were trying to essentially buy their way into mainstream adoption, but it doesn't really work like that. It could work if your product met or was at least close to the minimum quality standard of your competitors. From what I've seen and read, Quibi was horribly substandard.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

gumby 6y ago

> trying to essentially buy their way into mainstream adoption, but it doesn't really work like that. Katzenberg comes from an industry (film studios) for which that is largely the model. They are willing to have some expensive failures ($100MM-scale) if the successes will launch a "franchise" which is subsequently mined. A failure more than an order of magnitude off what's tolerable in his old industry may be hard to survive, who knows. But industrial filmmaking is a lot like industrial food production: a blend of fear (customers won't adopt the new) and dictating the product to the customer.

holler 6y ago
> They are willing to have some expensive failures ($100MM-scale) if the successes will launch a "franchise" that makes sense, and definitely feels like they were building a rocket-sized dart to throw. it'd be interesting to see the breakdown on how much of that capital went towards engineering the app vs content/other.
- gumby 6y ago
  Well it was $2Bn not $100MM so don’t know how ppl will feel. Probably call it “Silicon Valley style” and disregard it. The Hollywood model spends most of that money on ppl and marketing, little on tech. K has no tech experience and W only a smidgeon despite her exec jobs (eBay & HP). So I would be shocked if they spent more than $25MM on their stack which is mostly conventional. I’m sure the rest was blown on marketing, high salaries, consultants, offices, and deals with actors.
  - holler 6y ago
    thanks for the insight, that's really fascinating! > I’m sure the rest was blown on marketing, high salaries, consultants, offices, and deals with actors It sounds like the antithesis of "lean startup". Of course it could have worked out the other way if they had nailed market-fit. It does make me wonder if they could try to salvage the tech and try a slight pivot.
  - pfranz 6y ago
    > K has no tech experience I mean, I'm not sure exactly how much credit to give him, but DreamWorks Animation had a lot of tech and he oversaw it for 20+ years. He stood up a brand new animation studio while the industry was digitizing, which means everyone used in-house tools because off-the-shelf stuff wasn't available. They purchased PDI, had been doing CG since 1980. They maintained a proprietary CG pipeline for decades and integrated multiple locations. This was during a time when the industry went from NURBS to sub-d, from basic direct lighting to global illumination to path-tracing--mostly using software written in-house. Not to mention the larger issues of asset management, data center scaling (power, water, and city requirements) and the staff and budgets to support all of that. At scales only a handful of other facilities were doing CG at, while competing for innovation, scale, and quality. I'm pretty sure Katzenberg and Whitman courted when she was at HP and they were DreamWorks' "technology partner." They worked together on things like a price-friendly color-accurate LCD monitor and the Halo video conferencing stuff. I know in the years before DreamWorks was sold to Universal there were Skunk Works projects working on phone apps. I imagine all of that was practice for this. I'm sure most of the money was on content and advertising. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by not having tech experience, but he definitely oversaw a lot and worked with people who had.
aspaceman 6y ago
Worth keeping in mind he left that industry because he became relatively incompetent. Business shifted to franchised superhero movies and he didn’t adapt.

Barrin92 6y ago

>just imagining what I could do with $2billion... Imagine what half the people on HN could do with it or alternatively twenty thousand 100k research grants in the sciences. Would be pretty great if we could produce some knowledge instead of more mediocre TV shows.