July 27, 2007

Dear Podtech: I’m Not Your VP Marketing

Michael Arrington

72 comments »

So Podtech is apparently unhappy with the post I wrote last evening - What’s Really Going On With Podtech? First Podtech subsequeCEO John Furrier emailed me repeatedly this morning asking for changes, then later Robert Scoble wrote on Twitter that much of my post was incorrect. It may well be incorrect, but it is certainly what I believe to be true after the extensive research I did on the company.

This is a post that Podtech pleaded with me to write, to counter the massive negative publicity they’ve been getting around the blogosphere. I agreed to write after two phone conversations with Furrier and some independent digging suggested that the whole story was not being told.

Much of Furrier and I talked about in our two conversation was off record at his request. But if Scoble, and executive with the company, is going to publicly state that the post is inaccurate I’m not sure its appropriate for me to keep that information non-public. Also, I’ve kept most of my personal opinions about Podtech to myself so far. I haven’t for example, said that I personally find 90% of Podtech content just slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry.

I stand by my opinion that Podtech is on the right track by focusing on aggregating third party content under its Flash player and advertising network and moving away from the highly-competitive content creation game. I assume that’s what they are focusing on, since John told me that repeatedly.

I write stuff how I see it, which is not always what the companies involved want to see. Never confuse TechCrunch with your PR or marketing team. And if your messaging isn’t clear, don’t shoot the messenger. Clean up your own mess first.

Sphere It

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Toni DasGupta

July 27th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

I don’t know of that many VC funded pure content plays that have been very successful. The content sites that make it big are generally made up of one or two people who feel very passionately about a topic, and just want to write about it. They are mostly self funded. When you start paying people to write, early in the game, there is a very slippery slope. The ROI on paid content is not very high.

If indeed they have a dire need for cash as you say, $2M is not going to carry them very far content wise, unless they disruptively change things and map a new direction.
David Ulevitch

July 27th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

Nicely said, grammar issues aside.
Darren Stuart

July 27th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

just get them drunk tonight and get them on the record :p
N.Cauldwell

July 27th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

The name/domain are an issue - you’re half expecting some kind of iPod in-car audio hacking enthusiast community that couldn’t afford their preferred dot.com. And can someone explain why the logo has a broken slinky instead of an O (and why it doesn’t include the .net)? And where’s the PDG+creative built Facebook app?!
Eric Rice

July 27th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

/me facepalms
Daniel Shaw

July 27th, 2007 at 4:46 pm

@N.Cauldweell I thought that was a bouncing basketball.
I never really got into any of their content. I follow Scoble and occasionally tune in, but that’s about it.
Tom

July 27th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

As far as Podtech goes…eh…never really enjoyed their content (scoble was better when he edited his content down to a few minutes imho) and the technology just doesn’t seem to be there as far as mobilization of said content. As for the new direction I’m not sure how much value an internet production company could add. As a software developer I’ve seen how protective people can be of their ideas and how reluctant they are to sell a piece of those ideas off to a company. So in the internet video space and in a world with services like Amazon’s S3 I don’t see a lot of people beating down Podtech’s door.

More importantly though, and I just want to say this even though I know I’m going to feel stupid and obnoxious for saying it. But in response to…

“Much of Furrier and I talked about in our two conversation was off record at his request. But if Scoble, and executive with the company, is going to publicly state that the post is inaccurate I’m not sure its appropriate for me to keep that information non-public.”

Yeah, don’t do that. I mean, and here comes the stupid and obnoxious part but…oh god…two wrongs don’t make a right (could that have been more cheezy). More importantly, you shouldn’t sacrifice you own integerity because of someone else’s lack of integrity. Revealing any off the record stuff makes it harder for other people who are legitimate and straight forward to talk to you.
Paul Roundy

July 27th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

I have always enjoyed Scoble’s writing but never dug podtech. I watched his interviewed with Bill Gates and that has been it. Those videos are like watching paint dry. I never understood how the company planned to make any money.
Craig Hughes

July 27th, 2007 at 5:02 pm

“I write stuff how I see it, which is not always what the companies involved want to see. Never confuse TechCrunch with your PR or marketing team. And if your messaging isn’t clear, don’t shoot the messenger. Clean up your own mess first.”

The exact reason why we all come here… I am with Arrington on this one…
Gerard Wirz

July 27th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

Last week in Seattle, at an event called the Naked Truth, Michael laid out clearly the risk/reward that companies run when pitching stories to him. Ultimately, that’s the beauty of something like TechCrunch vs. traditional or mainstream media… Michael can write whatever the hell he likes.
sean percival

July 27th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

OH SNAPZ
Aaronontheweb (AjaxNinja)

July 27th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

Good Job Mr. Arrington; I’m a new tech crunch reader and I’m glad that you’re being objective and sticking to good journalism in this instance.

Online start ups, while they may get good PR at tech crunch and mashable when they open their doors, shouldn’t expect bloggers to act as propaganda machines to talk down bad news.
James

July 27th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

Thanks for speaking your mind Michael and standing up to these guys.

PodTech is an extremely boring site, the content there is awful. Has it ever occured to anyone over there that there are Podcasts or video outside of the blogosphere? How about something entertaining for a chance. I could care less about how bad Calicanis is at basketball, or the dumb Sinatra videos. Seriously, who sites down at night and decides to watch this crap instead of TV?? Nothing is helpful, it’s just lame videos or podcasts full of self promotion.
biz.inc

July 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

“Dear Podtech: I’m Not Your VP Marketing” - the title, lol

PT, you can always buy a $10K sponsorship box on TC if you want marketing
franky

July 27th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

Ohhhh! Gotta love the Praeteritio in this entry. Best figure of speech if used correctly!

SWEET!
vic berggren

July 27th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

Ouch!

Oh, and I still never heard of podtech until scoble went there.

I wonder why they didn’t use some of the cashola to secure the .com domain?
Matthew Campbell

July 27th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

This post is simply wonderful keep up the good work. LOL !
Blink

July 27th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

Strange site. Seems like it needs some focus…
Jay (living in First Life)

July 27th, 2007 at 6:09 pm

NEWS BLURB: Podtech dying. Almost no one cares.
Chris

July 27th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

Classic. Best post yet…
Hridayesh

July 27th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

Michael, not to worry, Furrier says everything and anything, taking it back the next day, or when the drink wears off. Paul and Steve sure bet on a dodo.
El Guapo

July 27th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

Oh, this is getting good!

*Runs and grabs popcorn*
El Guapo

July 27th, 2007 at 6:31 pm

OK, I just went and looked at podtech.net. Wow, its horrible. Actually, I’m not even sure what it is or what they are trying to accomplish. Who wants to watch videos about IBM SOA conferences? I say queue up the dead pool…
John

July 27th, 2007 at 6:52 pm

pwn3d.
Sprezzatura

July 27th, 2007 at 6:52 pm

I would suggest that burning an “off the record” source, no matter how annoyed you are at them, is probably not a good idea. The phrase “cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind.
Ted

July 27th, 2007 at 7:21 pm

Just imagine if the NY Times changed its motto from “All the News that’s fit to print” to “All the News that may well be incorrect, but it is certainly what we believe to be true after … extensive research …”
Rick

July 27th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

Give me a break Podtech. I read your article” What’s Really Going On With Podtech?” then went over and took a look. Frankly, I’d rather watch paint dry. And the corporate shows- what could possibly be worse than a show from-uh- symantec, lets see maybe, intel, or hp, or seagate or cisco or the king of the bottom feeders Verizon. I for one would have avoided just about all those guys at any cost. Oh, maybe Seagate is ok- I don’t know. Like I said, I’d rather watch paint dry, at least I wouldn’t have to deal with the “suits”!
PXLated

July 27th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

I’ve always been suspisious of Podtech ever since a friend got a ride with John in Vegas in his chauffeured limo back when they did the Bloghaus. Appeared they were all riding high and blowin cash like mad men. And, for all the bullshit Scoble has burp’d out about transparency on Apple & Google, he’s pretty silent now. They are having their own Dell Hell and yet they aren’t working the blogsphere. They’re defying everything Scoble and the transparency minions have preached for the last few years. Doesn’t Robert realize his reputation is going down the drain fast. Where is he, hanging out with Michael Dell getting advice on how to totally blow it.
Even before this crises, I hadn’t seen a single ounce of improvement in the production quality of anything Scoble/PodTech has done. And Calicanis is even worse. Concentrate on the camera, the audience Jason. Don’t any of you watch TV to see how engagement is done? Cringley set the bar early for quality talking heads interviews even though it took a notoriously expensive crew to do them. Scoble lowered the bar under the veil of amateur produced junk. Now we are moving to semi-professional talking heads (Talking Heads - 2.0) with GigaOm but still not up to the quality of Cringely.
Not surprised at all that PodTech may take a dirt nap. It’s time to weed out the weak, the amateur, and the less talented. Here’s to Talking Heads - 3.0!
Who Gives a Damn

July 27th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

3rd grade vocabulary and crappy journalism at its worst. Only if Mike was consistently objective would this type of thing matter. Knowing he writes good about companies who invite him for drinks or food and not so good about those who keep him in the dark, who really gives a damn ?
David Mackey

July 27th, 2007 at 8:59 pm

I just watched a clip - well half of it. You were in it - Bad Sinatra II. It wasn’t that bad.
PXLated

July 27th, 2007 at 9:08 pm

David…Only the truely committed or geeky fans of the Gillmor Gang would say Bad Sinatra wasn’t half bad!
I mean, HuH? I loved the Gillmor Gang, probably one of the best Podcasts done to date but Sinatra is a…a…a…uhhhh…hmmm, can’t even find a word for it.
Robert Scoble

July 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

PXLated: PodTech did NOT pay for those limos. Those were Seagate’s limos at CES.

You do note that Cringley hasn’t done many more of his shows while in the past year I’ve put up 367 videos, right? Why did he only do a handful and I’ve done more than 300? Because his cost way too much to produce and were never going to be profitable.

If my video quality is so uninteresting why has traffic on my show been increasing lately?

To Mike Arrington: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have argued with you on Twitter. But we’re not getting out of the content business.
Ronald Lewis

July 27th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

This is getting sillier by the minute. And, yet, this is the kind of stuff — and people — that make headlines. I’ll never understand it.
Clyde Smith

July 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

Word.
Adam

July 27th, 2007 at 9:55 pm

Fill in the blank:

1) “Arguing on Twitter is like…”
2) “Poor defenseless podtech! Won’t someone think of the podtechs?!”
Oh wait, I already finished #2. Sorry.
Jens

July 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm

“You do note that Cringley hasn’t done many more of his shows while in the past year I’ve put up 367 videos, right?”

But one of cringelys not published videos is still more interesting than any of your 367 videos. I could not make it through more than 2 minutes of one yours… I think I have watched two videos of yours for more than one minutes since you joined Podtech. Your content has just gotten more and more boring since you left MS. Where’s your fire, Man?

Maybe you should take your son and go in the mountains and really breath some fresh air and ponder some new ideas. God knows you both could use the work out.
Lokprakash

July 27th, 2007 at 11:17 pm

Anyone notice how testy Scoble has been lately? Where’s the jolly old fellow that we all knew from Microsoft?
Nick Douglas

July 27th, 2007 at 11:20 pm

Everyone at Valleywag says thanks, Mike. It’s about time someone chimed in with us.
H. Jenkins

July 27th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

I know both Furrier and Arrington. I’ve read Arrington and TC for a while and listened to Furrier when he did his podcasts. I’ve watch both of these guys talk and work. I would love to see a heavyweight web 2.0 blog/podcast or ustream bout for the Web 2.0 title - a cage match between Arrington and Furrier. Winner takes the offical title of Web 2.0 winner.

No offense Arrington but Furrier trumps you in Web 2.0. My bet is on Furrier.
Robert Scoble

July 27th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

Lokprakash: I don’t know, I’m hanging out in Chris Pirillo’s UStream tonight and having lots of fun. Come join us. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris-pirillo-live

I can’t win, though. People complain when I do my stupid laugh too much on my videos.
Tyler Willis

July 28th, 2007 at 1:09 am

I agree with Mike on this one, however a person is allowed to react. I think podtech is not in an enviable position, but if Scoble disagrees and says so over a twitter that’s his prerogative. Your article rings true with me, and your response here is the way I would respond with the exception of two parts. Both revolve around your “off the record” paragraph.

You’re clearly allowing the reactions of PT execs to anger you (and I imagine Furrier’s emails about edits were more inappropriate than Scoble simply twittering his disagreement). We all know not to email angry, same applies to blogging. It’s clear you’re losing focus and “delving into the muck.”

Bringing up that you don’t think keeping off the record information is appropriate anymore should not have been in this post, it sounds reactionary and petty. I for one see that if you were being personally attacked on your research that it would make sense to divulge the events, but this is one of those things that blows over in 24 hours (and according to Scoble, already has). For this small issue it makes sense to craft a well thought out, logical post that displays obvious fallacies and issues with assuming what will show up in TC (I love that he begged you to write it and then was unhappy with the result).

Also we all need to go back to grammar class, myself included - I’m sure I’ve made some mistakes here.
Ivan Pope

July 28th, 2007 at 2:16 am

Well, the PodTech content may or may not be awful - but the site is way better than it was last time I took a look. At least they got half a clue.
Podesta

July 28th, 2007 at 3:48 am

I’m not surprised to hear about the the attack of The Semiliterate CEO at all. Such a smell is coming off Furrier that I would not be surprised to see him doing a perp walk at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, Robert Scoble is pretty much held hostage by Podtech. With a wife also employed there, a child to support and another imminent, he has to play along until he can get the hell out of there. If will be interesting to hear what he has to say once Furrier is history.
Jeremy Pepper

July 28th, 2007 at 5:45 am

Well, Michael, don’t you think that this is the problem of most Web 2.0 companies? They don’t get PR, they undervalue PR, and they then get pissy when they have no real messaging.
S. Style

July 28th, 2007 at 6:11 am

“Well, Michael, don’t you think that this is the problem of most Web 2.0 companies? They don’t get PR, they undervalue PR, and they then get pissy when they have no real messaging.”

Podtech is combining the worst of Web 2.0 with the worst of Web 1.0– that is to say, they’re not entirely sure how they’re going to make money, but before they solve that problem they’re going to blow through a bunch of cash making stuff that very few people notice and fewer care about.

Hint to Podtech: On a popular video site, advertising will pay your HOSTING bills. That’s why the successful video sites host other people’s content. NOTHING will pay the content creation bills, unless if you have discovered a subscription model that thousands of people will happily use.

Hint to Scoble: Maybe you should discuss things at your “meetings” other than how to shit all over the largest industry blog.
Dennis McDonald

July 28th, 2007 at 6:14 am

Podtech Shmodtech. From Podtech I only pay attention to my old friend Jeremiah Owyang. I know him, I trust him, I’ve podcasted with him. I couldn’t care less about Bad Sinatra.
Rex Dixon

July 28th, 2007 at 7:10 am

Mike writes what he wants, when he wants, about what company he wants. The cool thing is that some very small companies have received the TC blessing and have sky rocketed to fortune and fame.

The bad, is of course Mike is in the spot to be opinionated as he see fit, he is after all human like the rest of us reading his blog.

Podtech: I know nothing about them beyond the Scoble is the VP, that he loves doing videos with people (and again, giving smaller companies/people exposure), and that pretty much is it.

Can you build something on that? Sure, you can market anything. Will it sell to the mainstream? Maybe.

I believe there is a lot of truth to the original story that was posted. Podtech is in need of guidance, or they are stuck in Web -1.0 thinking in a Web 2.9 world.

That sucks, as there is a lot of promise there, but I think the driver of the Podtech bus missed his last turn and is driving straight off a cliff right now. How to fix that?

Focused direction, more entertaining shows (if that is what you are becoming; a straight up video company), but mainly - Focused leadership can save a promising venture.

Rex
Flemming

July 28th, 2007 at 7:12 am

The original post on PodTech reminds us how good TechCrunch used to be and why there is a “Crunch” in the brand.

Unfortunately, party invitation and giveaways now seem to have become the content of choice over the traditional insightful and honest reporting.

How about separate sites for all the non-reporting stuff? May I suggest PartyCrunch, GiveawayCrunch and FacebookHypeCrunch.

More of the real thing, please!
Martin Ringlein

July 28th, 2007 at 7:16 am

This is why I love TechCrunch!
Chris Nagele

July 28th, 2007 at 8:21 am

I think people forget that most of your posts are just personal opinions, which only hold up if others agree with you.

For me, Podtech content has been the ONLY moderate length web video content I have ever watch from beginning to end. Both Scoble and Calcanis have really put together some great episodes. Why? Because I am actually in the tech industry instead of just reporting on it. The episodes I have seen proved valuable enough to sit and watch for 30+ minutes, which is not an easy task sitting at a desk.

That’s just my opinion.
Chris

July 28th, 2007 at 8:41 am

Someone take the mic away from Scoble before he blows this up even more. Man, you podtech guys needs some PR…bad!
Dhananjay

July 28th, 2007 at 9:35 am

They don’t need PR, they have “social media”, whatever that is. I think Robert will be ok post-Podtech, but that Furrier guy is fast becoming (correction: already is) a Sand Hill laughingstock, I see no hope for him.
yajnan

July 28th, 2007 at 10:10 am

I know the guys over at PodTech including Scoble and Furrier. They are making money and have clients. Furrier has built a company and team from scratch to establish the market and create revenue growth and as they say cash flow positive. I’d hardly call that a laughingstock when others entrepreneurs can’t sell or make money. People who make money on sand hill road and build companies are viewed as good entrepreneurs. Sand Hill road only cares if you make money.
Dhananjay

July 28th, 2007 at 10:23 am

I wasn’t exactly referring to the financial aspect, in reference to “laughingstock”, but I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
mostafa

July 28th, 2007 at 10:57 am

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please visit it it’s miracle
B S meter

July 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Dear Podtech,

Don’t mess with Michael Arrington! EOM
appalled

July 28th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

Furrier: High school QB who istole Arrington’s girlfriend.
Arrington: Spurned loser ex-boyfriend
Scoble: Fat geek who abandoned his books to hang out with high school QB in the hopes of getting some scraps

Memo to Arrington: Your holier than thou speeches would have a tinge more credibility if you were *truly* objective. So, please save your champion of the truth bs for your imaginary friends.

Memo to Scoble and Furrier: Please stop being pathetic blog whores who respond to every comment on every blog and start focusing on building a business. You are not in a high school beauty contest anymore and you are not just wasting some VC fund’s money. You are actually playing with some poor guy’s pension that Calpers had the poor judgment to invest in the idiot VC firm who assumed having fun at a strip club with Furrier equates automatically to Furrier being a great CEO.

Memo to the PodTech board: Are you for real? Do you even exist? Do you pay these guys to plead with Arrington for two hours on the phone? Is this the caliber of executives you want representing your investments? Get your heads out of your asses, fire these guys and act like you have an obligation to your LPs that go beyond collecting management fees.
Tom O'Leary

July 28th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

meow…
Simon Edhouse

July 28th, 2007 at 3:39 pm

Gee… somehow this situation is just overflowing with human drama isn’t it? …and isn’t the blogosphere Soooooooo Bitchy! phew… Be warned all, Michael Arrington wields more power that Zeus, and apparently, just when you may think you’ve got his ear and can leverage that nexus to get some attention, he may just humiliate you in the eyes of everyone who’s attention you crave. ~ ‘Live by the sword, Die by the sword’… I guess. Really intrigued by the justification about when “Off the Record” can suddenly become “On the Record”. - Ouch! This is the down-side of working in silly-valley presumably, you’re all a little too familiar to each other and the micro can quickly get macro… However, have to say that apart from the feeling that this is somehow more personal that is really evident, I think TechCrunch is broadly correct here. They have the right and responsibility to report it as they see it and this little drama only strengthens their brand.
J. M.

July 28th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

Alright, already. Enough with the free for all. Being such a small community here in Web 2.0-land, we really shouldn’t launch comment missiles at each other with such reckless abandon. (see Valleywag, videoblogging list, recent TC Posts etc.)

That being said: Although you can share your business highs and lows with him, Mike Arrington will blog whatever the hell he feels like. TC is his domain. If you change your story, Mike will be compelled to change his blog post.

It’s that simple.

Podtech knows this, but seems to be experiencing some serious lapses in PR judgement. But is that really a PR crime? Or just growing pains?

IMHO, John Furrier and Robert Scoble are just two energetic guys with recording equipment trying to carve out their respective paths in the wilds of podcasting and vlogging.

Oh, and they got funding last year to do it.

Have they done it well? Um, it could be better, but it’s ONLY year one. Podcasting — video and audio — is a still a new medium looking for an audience and advertisers to boot.

Remember, $5million dollars in TVLand pays for 1 or 2 “30 min sitcoms” — and PodTech’s been able to create a full company, with hundreds of web shows featuring a wide array of online talent that has really helped pave the way for the real money to come into this space.

Early to market doesn’t alway mean you make the best market decisions and success is determined by how fast you can learn from your mistakes.

Podtech deserves to be allowed to learn from any mistakes they’re making — perceived, real or otherwise.

We all do.
J. M.

July 28th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

The better title for this blog post:

“Mike Arrington Ain’t Your PR Baby Daddy!”
Jason Rowe

July 28th, 2007 at 7:44 pm

Its funny that a company that is supposed to be running messages for other companies, and getting them into the whole ’social media’ thing, that Podtech themselves have no idea how to manage their own message
Jay

July 28th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

[soap opera music]
Tune in next week on “As the Paint Dries” when Marcos learns that Sheila is pregnant… but not with his child!
[/soap opera music]

I figure getting the message /wrong/ with TC gives PT more traffic in terms of the curiosity factor digging for the background story.

So, perhaps this is better than more positive coverage that might only demand a single click through…
Enric

July 29th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

If it’s “Bad Sinatra”,

http://www.badsinatra.com/wp/?p=6

I’d much prefer to watch paint dry.

If it’s “Homeland Defense Week”,

http://www.homelanddefenseweek.com/

it is quite for interesting then the paint. Though I wonder on some of it’s accuracy.

Either way, I don’t think PodTech has yet shown the ability to understand and promote non-tech content.