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Yammer Wins TechCrunch50

15 points by spencerfry 18y ago

I'm kind of surprised by this. It's just Twitter on a private network. Thoughts?

jlogic77 18y ago
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think the business / enterprise world works that way with updates about what people are doing and all. Maybe some companies will "claim" their names on the site, just to reserve their name.
mannylee1 18y ago
I don't get it. No matter how you spin it Yammer is just a Twitter for businesses. Companies like GoodGuide and Swype were much more deserving of the grand prize.
- tonystubblebine 18y ago
  What's wrong with being "just" something? When Twitter launched people said it was "just" a place for people to post what they're eating and that it wasn't nearly as worthy as feature rich services that had come first (Upoc and Dodgeball).
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  It seems so obvious, yet Twitter has been around for a several years now and no one has done it yet. I do think there were other "cooler" companies, but this could be huge. Right now Twitter mostly consists of a relatively small group of web/tech people. Just like what happened with Facebook and colleges, if Yammer gets critical mass in a few big companies, it could explode.
  - spencerfry 18y ago
    I agree with you that Yammer has the potential to be very huge. I'm not denying that. I'm just surprised with so many innovative minds making up the panel of judges that they didn't choose someone with more of an original idea. There's a great quote from the TechCrunch comments that says "Doesn't the Valley pride itself in innovation?"
  - jmacd 18y ago
    Yammer is far from the first enterprise twitter app. Oracle, IBM and now SAP all even have versions in some form or another, and Prologue, the wordpress based one, has been around for almost a year.
- webwright 18y ago
  Startup success isn't about product innovation. Google was yet another search engine. iPod was yet another MP3 player. Doing something better (or for the right audience) is often what it takes. That being said.... I dunno if Yammer captures the motivation for USERS to "yam" (tweet?). I can see why people use twitter. I can see why businesses would want Yammer. But I can't see why business employees would want to use Yammer.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    I can't see why business employees would want to use Yammer. Because not Yammer-ing enough will look bad at your performance review. Ah, I love the corporate world.
spencerfry 18y ago
Here's the list of finalists: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/10/yammer-takes-techcrunch50s-top-prize/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/10/yammer-takes-techcrunch...
wheels 18y ago
I don't think the idea's all that bad. A friend of mine in the Berlin scene recently suggested something similar and I do in fact notice myself using Twitter these days to keep our 2.0-ish-customers and co-founder appraised of what I'm working on.
floozyspeak 18y ago
ya,lame- yammer not that new, just evidence that hey twitter for corporate could be cool
planck 18y ago
Stop! Yammer time: http://www.chrisfinke.com/addons/yammer-time/ http://www.chrisfinke.com/addons/yammer-time/
snewe 18y ago
Looks like a more sophisticated version of: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/introducing-prologue/ http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/introducing-prologue... Oh, and Backpack's status updates: http://backpackit.com http://backpackit.com I guess it's the packaging?
nuggien 18y ago
Every company I've worked at has used some form of IM to communicate. Not sure how yammer is better than IM.
- PStamatiou 18y ago
  it's not about that form of communication though. IM is sustained communication. yammer is about "working on the login form problem, ticket #241" so all coworkers know what everyone is doing. it's not 1:1
floozyspeak 18y ago
http://statushq.com/ http://statushq.com/
venjax 18y ago
This sounds kind of like http://www.chatterous.com/ http://www.chatterous.com/ to me.
- bigbang 18y ago
  actually it sounds like ididwork to me
  - gabrielleydon 18y ago
    yeah it does sound like ididwork but I can see why TC went crazy for Yammer. Yammer sold its self as a communication tool while ididwork sold itself as a sort of Rescue Time/punch card/productivity tool. In the end Yammer looks fun while ididwork looks scary.
hooande 18y ago
TechCrunch50 isn't really a competition, it's a series of product demos. This is kind of like presenting the philosophies of different religions and then voting on which one is the "best". The whole thing is subjective and there is absolutely no need to declare a winner, especially when the market will ultimately decide. This is exactly why YCombinator doesn't have investors vote on which company "won" Demo Day. I pity our american idol society that always wants a panel of judges to tell them what to like. As for Yammer itself, I'm thoroughly unimpressed. At the least they could have made it look different than twitter. They even copied the UI. There were so many companies doing truly innovative things... TechCrunch50 seems like a total farce.
- jrockway 18y ago
  TechCrunch50 seems like a total farce. s/50//.
fallentimes 18y ago
I'm very surprised. Fitbit was seriously the only one that I said to myself: "I really want that". And more importantly, I signed up to be emailed when it was out so I could _buy_ it.
sh1mmer 18y ago
So I IM'd my buddy to say hi, and tell him that the company he works at got props by Daniel from Digg at the D.Construct conference. "Oh I don't do Geni any more, I'm working on another startup called Yammer" Isn't life funny. I guess some people thing he's doing well. :)
furiouslol 18y ago
I like it. It's practical. It's useful. It solves an existing demand. Has an ingenious biz model. What more do you want? I'm using it now and I'm loving it.
vaksel 18y ago
I doubt many companies will want all their insider knowledge on a hosted solution. As far as black mailing them into using it? I doubt it...a corporation is much more likely to simply ban the site so that their insider knowledge instead of going through the process of signing up and entering their CC details
soho 18y ago
"Yammer was founded by former executives and early employees of PayPal, eGroups, eBay, and Tribe. It is backed by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures." Maybe it "won" because it has the PayPal mafia backing it...

15 points by spencerfry 18y ago

I'm kind of surprised by this. It's just Twitter on a private network. Thoughts?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think the business / enterprise world works that way with updates about what people are doing and all. Maybe some companies will "claim" their names on the site, just to reserve their name.

mannylee1 18y ago

I don't get it. No matter how you spin it Yammer is just a Twitter for businesses. Companies like GoodGuide and Swype were much more deserving of the grand prize.

tonystubblebine 18y ago
What's wrong with being "just" something? When Twitter launched people said it was "just" a place for people to post what they're eating and that it wasn't nearly as worthy as feature rich services that had come first (Upoc and Dodgeball).
tlrobinson 18y ago
It seems so obvious, yet Twitter has been around for a several years now and no one has done it yet. I do think there were other "cooler" companies, but this could be huge. Right now Twitter mostly consists of a relatively small group of web/tech people. Just like what happened with Facebook and colleges, if Yammer gets critical mass in a few big companies, it could explode.
- spencerfry 18y ago
  I agree with you that Yammer has the potential to be very huge. I'm not denying that. I'm just surprised with so many innovative minds making up the panel of judges that they didn't choose someone with more of an original idea. There's a great quote from the TechCrunch comments that says "Doesn't the Valley pride itself in innovation?"
- jmacd 18y ago
  Yammer is far from the first enterprise twitter app. Oracle, IBM and now SAP all even have versions in some form or another, and Prologue, the wordpress based one, has been around for almost a year.
webwright 18y ago
Startup success isn't about product innovation. Google was yet another search engine. iPod was yet another MP3 player. Doing something better (or for the right audience) is often what it takes. That being said.... I dunno if Yammer captures the motivation for USERS to "yam" (tweet?). I can see why people use twitter. I can see why businesses would want Yammer. But I can't see why business employees would want to use Yammer.
- jrockway 18y ago
  I can't see why business employees would want to use Yammer. Because not Yammer-ing enough will look bad at your performance review. Ah, I love the corporate world.

spencerfry 18y ago

Here's the list of finalists: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/10/yammer-takes-techcrunch50s-top-prize/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/10/yammer-takes-techcrunch...

wheels 18y ago

I don't think the idea's all that bad. A friend of mine in the Berlin scene recently suggested something similar and I do in fact notice myself using Twitter these days to keep our 2.0-ish-customers and co-founder appraised of what I'm working on.

floozyspeak 18y ago

ya,lame- yammer not that new, just evidence that hey twitter for corporate could be cool

planck 18y ago

Stop! Yammer time: http://www.chrisfinke.com/addons/yammer-time/ http://www.chrisfinke.com/addons/yammer-time/

snewe 18y ago

Looks like a more sophisticated version of: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/introducing-prologue/ http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/introducing-prologue... Oh, and Backpack's status updates: http://backpackit.com http://backpackit.com I guess it's the packaging?

nuggien 18y ago

Every company I've worked at has used some form of IM to communicate. Not sure how yammer is better than IM.

PStamatiou 18y ago
it's not about that form of communication though. IM is sustained communication. yammer is about "working on the login form problem, ticket #241" so all coworkers know what everyone is doing. it's not 1:1

floozyspeak 18y ago

http://statushq.com/ http://statushq.com/

venjax 18y ago

This sounds kind of like http://www.chatterous.com/ http://www.chatterous.com/ to me.

bigbang 18y ago
actually it sounds like ididwork to me
- gabrielleydon 18y ago
  yeah it does sound like ididwork but I can see why TC went crazy for Yammer. Yammer sold its self as a communication tool while ididwork sold itself as a sort of Rescue Time/punch card/productivity tool. In the end Yammer looks fun while ididwork looks scary.

hooande 18y ago

TechCrunch50 isn't really a competition, it's a series of product demos. This is kind of like presenting the philosophies of different religions and then voting on which one is the "best". The whole thing is subjective and there is absolutely no need to declare a winner, especially when the market will ultimately decide. This is exactly why YCombinator doesn't have investors vote on which company "won" Demo Day. I pity our american idol society that always wants a panel of judges to tell them what to like. As for Yammer itself, I'm thoroughly unimpressed. At the least they could have made it look different than twitter. They even copied the UI. There were so many companies doing truly innovative things... TechCrunch50 seems like a total farce.

jrockway 18y ago
TechCrunch50 seems like a total farce. s/50//.

fallentimes 18y ago

I'm very surprised. Fitbit was seriously the only one that I said to myself: "I really want that". And more importantly, I signed up to be emailed when it was out so I could _buy_ it.

sh1mmer 18y ago

So I IM'd my buddy to say hi, and tell him that the company he works at got props by Daniel from Digg at the D.Construct conference. "Oh I don't do Geni any more, I'm working on another startup called Yammer" Isn't life funny. I guess some people thing he's doing well. :)

furiouslol 18y ago

I like it. It's practical. It's useful. It solves an existing demand. Has an ingenious biz model. What more do you want? I'm using it now and I'm loving it.

vaksel 18y ago

I doubt many companies will want all their insider knowledge on a hosted solution. As far as black mailing them into using it? I doubt it...a corporation is much more likely to simply ban the site so that their insider knowledge instead of going through the process of signing up and entering their CC details

soho 18y ago

"Yammer was founded by former executives and early employees of PayPal, eGroups, eBay, and Tribe. It is backed by venture capital firms Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures." Maybe it "won" because it has the PayPal mafia backing it...