This guest post was written by Leonard Speiser, a founder at Twables, an application platform for Twitter that launched earlier this year. Prior to founding Twables Leonard worked at Trinity Ventures as an EIR. Before that Leonard co-founded Bix, a website that enables anyone to create, enter or join a contest. Yahoo acquired the company in February of 2007 and Leonard took on the additional responsibility of running the Yahoo Groups business. Leonard has also previously worked at eBay and Intuit, and has founded two other companies.
It’s 11 p.m. on a Sunday night when I notice that Twitter founder @ev has just tweeted about FB140, our company Twables’ days-old service that helps you find your Facebook friends on Twitter. Since our launch, I’ve felt like a surfer, waiting for a wave of users to start using our service. A few smaller waves have trickled through in our first days since launch, but Ev’s post represents something totally different. I mean, here’s someone who has more than a million followers and receives personal messages from Lance Armstrong.
I was beyond excitement until I realized a tweet from @ev has the force of nuclear explosion. And a nuclear explosion makes a very, very big wave. I quickly IM’d my only developer to warn him. Then I ran a Twitter search on Ev’s tweet and saw that it was getting retweeted. A lot. Between midnight and 6 a.m. alone, 170 people had retweeted him. “Frak,” I thought, “we might not scale.” For the next six hours, my developer began spinning up machines on Amazon, reworking our code and rolling it out overnight as we tried to ride the wave without having it crash down upon us. By then, we were doing more traffic in an hour than we had all week. Fortunately, he’s a killer Java programmer, and we’ve stayed afloat so far. By 6 a.m., exhausted, I reflected on three things I’ve learned since stumbling into development on the Twitter platform just two months ago.
1. Business hours are dead. 24/7 is the new 9 to 5. Real-time messaging means that anyone can start talking about your product at any time and that talk can snowball before you know it. I happened to see Ev’s post nine minutes after he sent it, but what if I hadn’t checked Twitter at all? Our site would have been down and a golden opportunity missed. As much as I love all the new technology (Amazon Web Services, Twitter APIs, Google Apps) that makes it possible for a two-person company to operate, it’s tough, if not impossible, for two people to be on call at all times. Perhaps this means that business guys like me are going to have to start wearing ops pagers (what? business people actually earning their paycheck?). How can you sleep for fear that someone will say something to tens of thousands of people that you really need to respond to. Is our only solution to never go to sleep?
2. The Borg has finally arrived. On Friday afternoon, I popped my head into Dave McClure’s office to shoot the breeze and mentioned a thought that Twitter was a bigger threat to MySpace than to Facebook. Before the words were out of my mouth, he had tweeted it, Dave-style. Instantly, people started to respond with their thoughts, and I realized that Dave was crowdsourcing our discussion before he’d even formed his own opinion. Will we all use the real-time world to have conversations? While Dave has the unfair advantage of a lot of followers, most of you are just at the beginning of your Twitter experience. I predict that you’ll join the Borg soon enough. The reality is that many of you are accustomed to asking those around you for advice. The difference is that now you’ll be able to accomplish your information-gathering process in minutes instead of weeks. Our company gets advice from users within hours of our initial launch and we are able to release changes for those users on the same day. If the dialogue with customers is now real-time, then the process of incorporating feedback needs to be real-time, too. Sorry big companies, life is about to suck for you!
3. The Patriot Act can’t hold a candle to Citizen Paparazzi. An hour before Ev’s post, I was talking to two friends about Twitter. They mentioned that a friend of theirs had tweeted about their two-year-old son a few times, which they characterized as an “unusual” experience. Celebrities will finally have their revenge as two out of every three of your neighbors starts tweeting about everything you’re doing. The Supreme Court will have to revisit the definition of “reasonable expectation of privacy” when a father’s kid tweets that daddy is reading Playboy in the bathroom. (That happened to a buddy of mine. Not to me. A buddy of mine.) This may not seem like a new phenomenon, what with YouTube videos and the like already starting this trend. However, the pace at which things spread is now so close to real-time that it almost erases the line between past and present. Real-time communication invites the world to experience your life with you, as it happens.
I don’t know if the world after Twitter will be better or worse. (For me, I think it will be better.) But when your tidal wave approaches, will you be ready to ride it?
Well done on avoiding the whale.
Call me Ishmael.
Just out of curiosity, how many hits/uniques did you get in the first 24 hours from the deal?
Good question. Will take a look and try to update my post. But as you probably know, the main challenge with capacity planning is handling spikes, which thankfully web services makes much easier!
good points
9 to 5 died the day the web was born. People with lives will always use passive services such as Facebook. When they’re out living their life, they’re living it. Not tweeting and blogging about it..
Being twitter is so “real time” *i just gagged a little bit in my mouth* people with active lives will have missed all the ‘action’ when they do decide to logon and review what their friends have been up to. Twitter is for celebrites and those who wish they were to get actively involved in the web’s biggest circle jerk.
Everyone I know, except the self absorbed have created a twitter account ‘tweeted’ for a few days then realized it was lame and go back on with their lives.
Hey Timmy, I guess time will tell if you are right. That said, I know a lot of people who would say posting a message on an article is self absorbed. But I’d disagree, your post does an excellent job of showing us the raw emotions that new technologies can evoke in us all.
some people, like the guest author need to log off twitter for a few hours. someone retweeted a tweet? GASP STOP THE PRESSES OMG TWITTER OMG OMG
You make a great point, sometimes we get too caught up in what society tells us is important. Then again getting exciting about something, particularly when coordinated with others, gives us much needed momentum too!
Right. Bix sucked. Twable blows. Useless crap. Whatever.
@anon – I see your point totally. OMG stop the presses – OMG OMG OMG @ev tweeted OMG OMG OMG. Like little girls talking about Britney. Pretty stooopid.
If more & more people in Silicon valley spend (waste) their lives making useless crap like this – we don’t need to worry about China or India, these “geniuses” will kill our economy. They’re sucking up talented programmers to do meaningless junk – while China and India are eating our lunch by making more and more of the stuff that is actually useful & necessary. Saaad.
Hmm, so, what are your contributions?
Dear Why So Serious?
I understand. I once met a guy in rags who lived on a beach in a self-made hut and ate off the land. But he had everything a human being really needs (food, water, shelter). He was happy and wasn’t bothered by the OMGs of the world. I’d recommend you join him.
Whoa whoa whoa – easy there tiger.
Why so caustic? Perhaps we touched a nerve, huh?
Truth hurts, I know. Why u worried about my comment anyways? Maybe worried your developer will read it, realize how useless your weak idea is, and will dump you?
Sooner or later he’ll realize it and leave to do something worthwhile. Devs are smart too.
BTW – with ideas like Bix and Twacrap, you shd be the one worried about living in a hut.
To quote my pal Sarah Palin – Thanks, but no thanks. You’re a blind moose; you may find a dead fish on a good day. But you’re still a blind moose.
Wait a minute. OMG OMG OMG @ev tweeted about me OMG OMG OMG. Gotta run. OMG OMG OMG. As they say, a loser is a loser. No matter what.
Thanks for returning Serious. When someone comes back so many times to talk about a subject, it is a sure sign the topic was an important one.
Dude, a much bigger question is – why u have so much time to read each of my comments and keep responding real snarkily?
Don’t you have a “real” company to run? Oh, wait – it is much more fun to flame TC commenters like me.
the only story here is that this startup actually handled lots of traffic. so many fail miserably at it, It’s nice to see someone finally manage it.
the rest is obvious.
Thanks Samuel. And thanks for your comment, for now there is a second story here for me and perhaps others to consume. There are people like yourself who have already experienced and grokked these changes.
The borg isn’t anything new. It’s just getting upgraded.
Fair point.
Curious to see what the actual traffic was, i bet it didn’t amount to as much as he makes it out to be, makes for a good story though.
Hi Jeff. That makes two of you I owe our traffic numbers to. But your comment makes me now wonder, how much traffic would be considered large? Thanks.
OK. Has the web come to be a web of celebrities where a tweet by a famous person can create or ruin businesses? that’s scary if were true but it’s not. the tweetcrowd seems to be even more easily swayed than the average geek.
True, twitter runs at high speeds, but that also means that your site may be forgotten by tomorrow, when a new quiz site will spring up.
I ‘ve read some more exciting scaling stories from facebook developers who had to scale their apps. and facebook’s size is reeealy big (compared to twitter)
in the end, can aplusk and oprah really affect the shape of the Web just because they have many followers? give me a break, this is pathetic, twitter is beginning to look like telemarketing
I always love to read about other people’s stories, would you mind posting them here for us to read?
Regarding star power, I think you still need to have a product people want. That said, stars have always had influence on people (fashion, book clubs, and on and on). But I think Twitter reduces the barriers for them to share their thoughts and increases the pace at which their impact spreads.
oops. busted on that OH Twitter-MySpace-Facebook tweet quote. Leonard was the original inspiration, altho i took credit.
(btw love that headline title… lenny u even have a passing resemblance to Peter Sellers
Gee Dave, thanks? At your next meeting, try to remember this: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.”
curious to see what the actual revenue is. Oh, wait….
Well, since all of our expenses are paid out of my own pocket, I am painfully aware of the need for revenue, I assure you. Currently, we are evaluating two of the most common business models in Silicon Valley:
1. You give us $1, and we give you four quarters, or ten dimes (whatever your change needs), and we make it up in volume.
2. Collect underpants.
actually i believe that’s
1) collect underpants
2) tweet about it
3) profit!
@Jmartens – What is this thing you call “revenue”? What means that word?
Let me guess. Exit plan = Sell to Yahoo. Oh wait, an adult runs that company now – she ain’t buying crap companies like this. She actually cares about “outdated” stuff like revenue/profits, etc. GASP.
Sorry, are you referring to Jerry? Terry actually bought our company and he is five years older than Carol.
I’ve never met any of them in person, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment on something I don’t have any facts to back me up with.
I like the humble tone of this post. Well done. Twables look really promising, the integration of oauth, and facebook connect is super nice – interesting how identity (Open ID of course as well) is becoming a professional niche of its own.
Thanks Andrew. It does appear that authentication combined with additional benefits to the developer has finally crossed the chasm. Luckily people didn’t stop trying after Passport.
Very nice post Insightful! Thank you
Thanks Kevin!
Twables seems like the RockYou equivelant for Twitter. Pointless widgets and boring addons for Twitter. #fail
I like a challenge, we’ll keep building products until we find one that you find both pointy and exciting. #tryharder
Is that supposed to be Penthouse Forum for Tech? Not that I read Penthouse Forum, but buddy of mine does. Not to me. A buddy of mine.
My buddy said he is really interested in learning more about this site your buddy goes to.
Nice job scaling up the service rather than falling over like many others do….like the comment about “big companies” – good luck on growing the service!
Thanks Shravan!
leonard: i dare you to comment on this comment.
I refuse to be drawn into a battle of wits with the unarmed.
BTW everyone, Dave is actually on vacation back home. I’ve sent an email about his postings to his wife and mom, so I don’t think we’ll be hearing from him anytime soon.
i resemble that remark.
and you’re only half the wit i am, even with one vacation tied around my back.
Like so many others I’ll never “get” twitter…144 characters of narcissistic celeb garbage seems like such a waste of time.
That being said…..its refreshing to see a classy poster/replier like Leonard. Even with people telling him his site suxor… he hangs in there and either intelligently agrees to disagree or moves along to better or more interesting subjects.. I don’t know if its just me and where I am browsing but, I don’t see that kind of class displayed to much these days.
My hats off to ya leonard. Best of luck to your site…but twitter still suxors!
Thanks Suede, if you take the time to share your thoughts with me, I want to do my best to return the effort. That said, I only had to write one post in a week, and most of the Techcrunch staff is generating five or six a day, I can’t imagine how they do it.
BTW, if you ever decide to start tweeting, let me know. I’d follow you.
I take offense to the earlier comment. Bix was da bomb. Before “da bomb” was cool to say. Apparently UCBS missed the black_stool entries.
Good to see you Black Stool, it has been a long time. Your entries truly were memorable.
Speiser! Long time no see.
I almost had an heart attack when I saw your photo on my google reader this morning.
Great post, Dr. TweetLove! Glad to see you kind of survived the the @Ev Bomb. I’m going to have my own tidal wave as well next Sunday when my startup will be featured in a popular economic TV show.
Cheers from France,
An old colleague.
Great to hear Herbert!
Thanks for sharing your experience Leonard!
We here at TwitterForBusyPeople also experienced the @ev bomb – was an exciting time to see the usage numbers skyrocket! We weren’t worried about the server, as our service is very light on the back-end.
That was on June 30 – and since then our numbers have fallen back down. We did pick up a few new ones, but many many people (the Twitter generation?) just do a “drive by”. (understandable, I do it too!)
So, while the big tweets are exciting (and very welcomed.. Dave?) it’s the core (return) users that you can gauge your success on…
Best of luck to you Leonard and Twables!