How Not To Sell Out

August 6, 2008 12:31 PM

Two months ago, Fearless Leader gave a neat talk at WebVisions 2008 about how to make money off your particular web passion without resorting to venture capital interference or selling out, and the slides and the audio (MP3) from his talk are now online. It's plenty cool enough to watch/listen to on its own merits, if you've ever dreamed of running your own web company or making a small-but-cool web tool -- but since MetaFilter (and what it's been like to start and run MetaFilter) are mentioned prominently, I thought it was worth noting here, rather than on the Blue.

I'm glad you didn't have to sell your bike, Matt!

posted by Asparagirl to MetaFilter-related at 12:31 PM (22 comments total)

Matt, any chance of linking to the PDF somewhere in *.metafilter.com, so those of us for whom SlideShare does not work could revel in its glories?
posted by felix at 12:39 PM on August 6, 2008

Also, check out slide #6 from a more recent talk of his at BizJam Seattle '08, and you can see a Google Analytics stats page for MeFi: ~7 million visits by ~5 million people and ~13.5 million page views for the month of June. Nice!

(That one looks like a great talk too, but doesn't have audio available.)
posted by Asparagirl at 12:43 PM on August 6, 2008

For us luddites who don't have Flash 9, just bugmenot and slideshare has download links for the pdf.
posted by milkrate at 12:46 PM on August 6, 2008

Interesting, but I always dreamed of selling out...
posted by Mister_A at 1:04 PM on August 6, 2008

I like the part where he says they (the moderators) spend 18 hours a day looking for people being jerks. What are ya, blind? I can find that within 5 minutes!
posted by Mister_A at 1:22 PM on August 6, 2008 [2 favorites]

It doesn't take any particular skill to build a successful online venture, it just takes lots of energy -- which I have tons of thanks to Red Bull™!!! How about we all discuss our favorite Red Bull™-themed memories or recipes?
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 1:30 PM on August 6, 2008

Whatever happened to fortuito.us anyway?
posted by bonaldi at 1:37 PM on August 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

I wuz there! I regret not heckling him as cortex suggested I did (ask him questions that were on AskMe at that moment).
posted by dw at 2:31 PM on August 6, 2008

I'm glad to see this. I worked on that talk for like two months and then maybe 20 people showed up to the talk? I felt like it was a lot of work for little payoff, so I'm glad to see it was recorded at least.
posted by mathowie at 3:17 PM on August 6, 2008

Heh. I can't give my web passions away, but I applaud anyone who figures it out.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:04 PM on August 6, 2008

Is it shemales?
posted by puke & cry at 5:24 PM on August 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

That was a great talk, Matt. Thanks.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:27 PM on August 6, 2008

I'm glad to see this. I worked on that talk for like two months and then maybe 20 people showed up to the talk? I felt like it was a lot of work for little payoff, so I'm glad to see it was recorded at least.
posted by mathowie at 11:17 PM on August 6

I'd like to make some comment that involves phrases like "Hey, did you hear about this new distribution channel called 'The Web'?" but its early in the morning and I dont feel particularly clever at the moment.
posted by vacapinta at 12:32 AM on August 7, 2008

bonaldi: "Whatever happened to fortuito.us anyway?"

Not sure if you're joking, but mathowie posted about this a little while back.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 1:04 AM on August 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is a beautiful presentation! Thanks Matt, and thanks for mentioning it here Asparagirl.
posted by davar at 6:03 AM on August 7, 2008

very cool talk but matt? you sound depressed.
posted by krautland at 8:28 AM on August 7, 2008

Matt, I think it's very cool of you to share your insights on the practical side of web business. You're absolutely right, everyone is obsessed with the 8-, 9-, and 10-figure deals. It's refreshing to hear about creating a web business on a more human scale. Thanks!
posted by Mister_A at 9:10 AM on August 7, 2008

For us luddites who don't have Flash 9, just bugmenot and slideshare has download links for the pdf.

I have Flash 9 and SlideShare still doesn't work for me in FF/Mac. Grabbing the PDF now...
posted by Thorzdad at 9:28 AM on August 7, 2008

Yay, my boss, he's no sell out!
posted by jessamyn at 12:24 PM on August 7, 2008

Metafilter: Not the finish, just the begining. [sic]

(This was interesting and was a side of things I hadn't really heard spoken about before. Possibly because I don't listen to this sort of thing much, but, um. Yeah. Interesting.)
posted by sparkletone at 6:02 PM on August 7, 2008

(By "side of things" I mean the money stuff, not the community-building stuff.)
posted by sparkletone at 6:08 PM on August 7, 2008

(Some comments on News.YC too)
posted by bkudria at 8:29 AM on August 8, 2008