OK- crazy long title in for this blog post. In preparing a pitch for Bern Medical to help recruit partners, customers and advisors, I started thinking, What if journalism or the "News" didn't exist. How would a prospective journalist would answer a Q&A with a Venture Capitalist.
VC: Where did you get your idea?
J: Me and my friends like to talk about other things that we see happen in the world. I once had a friend that worked in the Pentagon. He said one day a plane flew into the side of the Pentagon. I thought that other people would really like to know about these things happening too.
VC: Why would people want to know what is happening if they didn't see it firsthand?
J: I think that people want to know what is happening in their city, or state, or country, or anywhere in the world
VC: What are your channels of distribution?
J: We can deliver them news via online, email, twitter, print newspapers, or TV/video.
VC:How many people do you think are interested in this service?
J: Well, I think ultimately everyone in the world would find the service interesting. If everyone used our service, then we could all talk about more than what we have just seen by ourselves.
VC: How are you going to monetize this?
J: Well, we would have companies share an ad along side the news. We think that we could really get a lot of users and we could monetize with advertising.
VC: Do you have any proprietary technology?
J: No.
VC: What are your barriers to entry?
J: Well, I think that our ability to provide good news that people find interesting and provide them the information as it is happening woud be our barriers. We will employ good looking people to read the news on TV and witty writers to write online and in newspapers.
VC: What would you do if Google did it?
J: Well, Google's main product is search. As our service grows we think that we can partner with Google to help people search an find interesting things that they might care about. This could be anything from weather, CEO's that resign, or someone's favorite reality show star going back to rehab.
VC: This seems more like a feature than a company. You only really do one thing. Tell what is happening.
J: Well, Mark Suster, we think that it is a company because there will always be a lot of things happening. There are a lot of different areas that might interest people.
VC: How do you know that something will happen? Your entire business model rests on something happening in the world.
J; Yes, but we think in the world on any given day there will be something interesting to share with people.
VC: What if there stops being news?
J: I don't think that will happen, there will always be something to report.
VC: How can you be sure?
J: Well, when things get slow, we can always find something to share and whatever we share will become important to people.
VC: Where did you get your idea?
J: Me and my friends like to talk about other things that we see happen in the world. I once had a friend that worked in the Pentagon. He said one day a plane flew into the side of the Pentagon. I thought that other people would really like to know about these things happening too.
VC: Why would people want to know what is happening if they didn't see it firsthand?
J: I think that people want to know what is happening in their city, or state, or country, or anywhere in the world
VC: What are your channels of distribution?
J: We can deliver them news via online, email, twitter, print newspapers, or TV/video.
VC:How many people do you think are interested in this service?
J: Well, I think ultimately everyone in the world would find the service interesting. If everyone used our service, then we could all talk about more than what we have just seen by ourselves.
VC: How are you going to monetize this?
J: Well, we would have companies share an ad along side the news. We think that we could really get a lot of users and we could monetize with advertising.
VC: Do you have any proprietary technology?
J: No.
VC: What are your barriers to entry?
J: Well, I think that our ability to provide good news that people find interesting and provide them the information as it is happening woud be our barriers. We will employ good looking people to read the news on TV and witty writers to write online and in newspapers.
VC: What would you do if Google did it?
J: Well, Google's main product is search. As our service grows we think that we can partner with Google to help people search an find interesting things that they might care about. This could be anything from weather, CEO's that resign, or someone's favorite reality show star going back to rehab.
VC: This seems more like a feature than a company. You only really do one thing. Tell what is happening.
J: Well, Mark Suster, we think that it is a company because there will always be a lot of things happening. There are a lot of different areas that might interest people.
VC: How do you know that something will happen? Your entire business model rests on something happening in the world.
J; Yes, but we think in the world on any given day there will be something interesting to share with people.
VC: What if there stops being news?
J: I don't think that will happen, there will always be something to report.
VC: How can you be sure?
J: Well, when things get slow, we can always find something to share and whatever we share will become important to people.