So it’s Number Two in what appears to be my impromptu new series, “I don’t really do product stuff, but this guy emailed me…”. Alex Weidmann was kind enough to get in touch about his new Web 2.0 service, mynoteIT, and then to answer my rude questions about the business behind it.
Again, this has been produced by college students. Intended for students, the site allows you to lay down your course’s structure and create notes, and also the beginnings of a social network, within that. There are a number of other PIM tools, such as bookmarking, a calendar and an address book.
The work they have produced is promising, if not at all finished. I wasn’t able to edit homework assignments, for example, and a couple of actions produced PHP errors. It also requires internet connections in lecture theatres, to be able to do the central task of making notes during lectures. Is this now the norm? When I went to university, the presence of girls was quite enough distraction as it was.
I’d have to say that this a crowded marketplace, in most respects. All the major educational suppliers in the UK, RM, Blackboard, Viglen, Microsoft, Capitas, Granada Learning and a number of others already have Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) solutions. mynoteIT might work, though, for informal groups of students, who can share notes.
While moodle and some other wiki solutions remain free, they are not nearly so easy for newcomers as mynoteIT.
(a) Describe your product offering briefly.
mynoteIT is a simple and easy way for any student to take, store and search through school notes and papers quickly and easily. You can also store all your professor contact information, keep track of all your current grades, be reminded of upcoming assignments and much more. A couple newer features are mynoteIT groups, which allows you to join class groups with other people in your classes. We also have workspace utilities, which allows you to find the definition of a word, or translate a phrase between languages instantly without leaving your workspace.
(b) What is your business model?
Our business model consists of ads from Google AdSense. We offer mynoteIT for free but we still have to pay server charges.
(c) How long did it take to set up mynoteIT and how much money did it cost? Any funding?
mynoteIT was first thought up and created in December, 2004. We only have two developers working on it right now (twin brothers, myself and my brother Justin). The only thing it costs is monthly server charges and a lot of time. So far we have not had any outside funding, but hopefully that will change.
(d) To what extent is this a Web 2.0 product?
Although “web 2.0″ is hard to define, the usability and functionality of mynoteIT make it more advanced than your normal website. For example, workspace utilities are use AJAX in your workspace so you can look up words and translate words without leaving your workspace.
(e) How many users will you need to make a profit?
We aren’t worried about making a profit from mynoteIT. Although both the developers are college students, we both have jobs and can pay server fees with what we have right now. We’re a lot more concerned with making school life easier than making a profit.
Is this a toy? Marc Fawzi, whose opinion I respect a lot, said that the radio app I talked about last week was a toy. On this… no, it is not a marketable product that you could charge for as a service. But I feel it’s a rough draft of something that could potentially get funding towards a bigger thing. Or be picked up by a major developer. Or at least, Alex and his brother could.
Not a toy but a ‘toy project’
What I mean is that, it doesn’t have the posture of a great startup in the making but it’s a great toy project.
It’s missing one or two ingredients that would make it ta great startup in the making, one of them being the timing they chose. They could have waited a bit more to develop the idea further. That’s why I feel it has the signs of an amateur attempt (in the startup context .. the tech side since the tech side looks well crafted)
I’m actually in LA now and my stupid WiFi connection is not working… So much for universal hotspot coverage. Can’t wait for WiMax.
That’s interesting Marc. There are a few reasons why you might say that it has the signs of an amateur attempt in the startup context: a) light on features; b) light on design; c) their honesty about lack of commercial intent; d) …
For me, it’s (c) that gives it away. Many startups that have become huge successes on the web have launched light on features (and in fact many say that is the right way to do it – waiting for user feedback to drive enhancements) and light on design (eBay and delicious seemingly never bothered with this side that much).
If they’d not said “We aren’t worried about making a profit from mynoteIT” I would have thought they could give it a push if they wanted to and grow a very nice and loyal user-base /community following.
What’s interesting is that the technology is really the easy bit. It’s the disciplines of marketing and selling and growing that differentiate this student ‘toy project’ from a viable business opportunity. Perhaps they just don’t believe in it enough or don’t want to work hard at disciplines they are not familiar with.
David, It’s not that we don’t want to make it big. It’s that we’re more concerned with helping students succeed (and if we succeed at that, then obviously our website will succeed as well).
My point was that we’re not in this just to make money, it’s not why we started and it’s not why we keep going.
The Silicon Valley VC Paul Graham said to me that if you find service that you can do that makes people come to you, then you’ll always find a way to make money out of it sooner or later. Is that rubbish? Seems to have worked for Netvibes, eh.
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Unfortunately, vision and business savvy have to go in parallel.
It’s very unfortunate that I out of all people have to say this.
:)
Marc
[...] Personally, I can’t abide text chat. Not enough time for me to think (email) and no real-life presence (phone). However, my new series, This-Guy-Emailed-Me-About-His-New-Product (as in this and this), continues apace. [...]