6 ms·

Think about it this way. If you have no product, having the best marketers in the world will not make you a single penny (unless you do preorders, which you st

by codexon 17y ago

Think about it this way. If you have no product, having the best marketers in the world will not make you a single penny (unless you do preorders, which you still need a product eventually). If you have a product and no marketers, will you still be able to sell some units? Most certainly. Because of this, the actual engineering of the product is more valuable than the marketing if you were forced to choose between all engineers, or all marketers.

zaidf 17y ago
Just because you are a marketer doesn't mean you can't build some crap and sell it. Just because you're a prod dev guy doesn't mean you can build it and sell it.
- codexon 17y ago
  Actually it does mean you can't build some crap and sell it when your product is high tech. In this case Arrington only had pie-in-the-sky hand waving ideas about a $200 touchscreen computer that could do everything. He clearly wasn't interested in putting actual effort and resources into the project until someone else started working on it. The project would have died if Fusion Garage didn't start working on it. And in this situation, a "prod dev guy" actually did build it. And I am willing to bet you that he can sell at least one.
  - zaidf 17y ago
    And I am willing to bet you that he can sell at least one Okay, even if he can sell one, so what? That "one" is pretty arbitrary. I can bet you if Arrington put up a preorder page of a product called SUPER-CRAP, he could sell more than one. Again, so what? The end goal is not to sell one. It's to build a successful business. And that requires significant(even if unequal) contribution from both prod dev and marketing.
    - codexon 17y ago
      I can bet you if Arrington put up a preorder page of a product called SUPER-CRAP, he could sell more than one. Again, so what? People like to exaggerate that a good marketer can poop in a box and sell it, but at some point it becomes scamming. And I guarantee you that the likelihood of getting sued and losing even more money goes up astronomically.
padmanabhan01 17y ago
If you have no product, you wont make a single penny, Sure. But, if you have no marketers, you will not be able to sell enough units to make up for the fixed costs involved, and you would end up with a loss, which is even worse.
- pyre 17y ago
  So there would be no costs involved marketing a non-existent product?
- codexon 17y ago
  I am absolutely speechless that I am being downvoted while you are being upvoted... What exactly are these imaginary fixed costs that marketers don't have? You mean hiring advertisers is free? You mean buying commercials is free? You mean flying out to conventions is free? I can tell you of quite a few startups led by MBA marketers who burnt all their cash trying to outsource their technical work. All the money went into hype which they don't even have a product for. Would you rather have imaginary hype or would you rather have a physical product?
  - ABrandt 17y ago
    I believe he is referring to an economies of scale type scenario. With a high-tech product (or most any for that matter) the manufacturer/developer has to pay huge sums of money before a single commercial unit is shipped. Fixed costs such as plant and manufacturing equipment are cash drains whether one or one million units are sold--hence the name fixed cost. Yea, Fusion Garage has created a tangible product. To get it to the masses, however; they must convince the public they want it. Of course theres people who are already excited about it, but that certainly won't bring in enough revenues to keep the lights on at the end of the day. I'm personally just getting tired of the same tired Business vs Tech banter. If we are to advance our industry and continue to create great innovative products, we must recognize eachother's strengths and weaknesses. Thats when the magic happens IMO.
    - codexon 17y ago

by codexon 17y ago

zaidf 17y ago

Just because you are a marketer doesn't mean you can't build some crap and sell it. Just because you're a prod dev guy doesn't mean you can build it and sell it.

codexon 17y ago
Actually it does mean you can't build some crap and sell it when your product is high tech. In this case Arrington only had pie-in-the-sky hand waving ideas about a $200 touchscreen computer that could do everything. He clearly wasn't interested in putting actual effort and resources into the project until someone else started working on it. The project would have died if Fusion Garage didn't start working on it. And in this situation, a "prod dev guy" actually did build it. And I am willing to bet you that he can sell at least one.
- zaidf 17y ago
  And I am willing to bet you that he can sell at least one Okay, even if he can sell one, so what? That "one" is pretty arbitrary. I can bet you if Arrington put up a preorder page of a product called SUPER-CRAP, he could sell more than one. Again, so what? The end goal is not to sell one. It's to build a successful business. And that requires significant(even if unequal) contribution from both prod dev and marketing.
  - codexon 17y ago
    I can bet you if Arrington put up a preorder page of a product called SUPER-CRAP, he could sell more than one. Again, so what? People like to exaggerate that a good marketer can poop in a box and sell it, but at some point it becomes scamming. And I guarantee you that the likelihood of getting sued and losing even more money goes up astronomically.

padmanabhan01 17y ago

If you have no product, you wont make a single penny, Sure. But, if you have no marketers, you will not be able to sell enough units to make up for the fixed costs involved, and you would end up with a loss, which is even worse.

pyre 17y ago
So there would be no costs involved marketing a non-existent product?
codexon 17y ago
I am absolutely speechless that I am being downvoted while you are being upvoted... What exactly are these imaginary fixed costs that marketers don't have? You mean hiring advertisers is free? You mean buying commercials is free? You mean flying out to conventions is free? I can tell you of quite a few startups led by MBA marketers who burnt all their cash trying to outsource their technical work. All the money went into hype which they don't even have a product for. Would you rather have imaginary hype or would you rather have a physical product?
- ABrandt 17y ago
  I believe he is referring to an economies of scale type scenario. With a high-tech product (or most any for that matter) the manufacturer/developer has to pay huge sums of money before a single commercial unit is shipped. Fixed costs such as plant and manufacturing equipment are cash drains whether one or one million units are sold--hence the name fixed cost. Yea, Fusion Garage has created a tangible product. To get it to the masses, however; they must convince the public they want it. Of course theres people who are already excited about it, but that certainly won't bring in enough revenues to keep the lights on at the end of the day. I'm personally just getting tired of the same tired Business vs Tech banter. If we are to advance our industry and continue to create great innovative products, we must recognize eachother's strengths and weaknesses. Thats when the magic happens IMO.
  - codexon 17y ago