Aug/08©Chris Farley
Teens in Tech – Good Team, Bad Product
Teens in Tech's Launch Marred by Technical Issues
Teens in Tech, the new startup purportedly creating a community for teens interested in creating new media, not-launch launched into private alpha yesterday. After a TechCrunch review yesterday, the group has been widely panned.
Critics point to the lack of innovation on the part of the company. It uses a standard Wordpress MU installation and has already shown a surprising lack of foresight. A review on TechCrunch generates huge site traffic and server load, but Teens in Tech (I’ll spell out the name to avoid the acronym – not the best marketing choice) was using DreamHost, a service clearly not designed for reliability. The people at Teens in Tech bit the bullet and switched to a more reliable host, but only after leaving the front page down for most of the all-important launch day.
But still, I don’t think the technicalities are critical. Being crashed by TechCrunch is almost a rite of passage for startups, but Teens in Tech should have at least attempted to plan. My concern lies with the theory behind the company. Even if the launch has been smooth and Teens in Tech used the best custom backend in the world, the service would still fail because it is pursuing a flawed (if existent) business plan. While the teen market is huge on the Internet, the number of teens who are willing to create new media is very small. From a business perspective, targeting such an infinitessimal market segment isn’t at all profitable. Opening up to everyone would defeat the purpose of beging a teen company and place the group the group in direct competition with more established foes, like Mevio.
In fact, one of only a few things Teens in Tech has going for them is the design. Sean Blake did an excellent job at creating a professional design to complement the content. But as professional as the site looks, I’m not sure how professional it actually is.
The company is not incorporated and much of the company’s future plans remain “in discussion.” Oddly, Teens in Tech is generating an inordinate amount of hype for a service launching into private alpha. I question the wisdom of launching so early, given the technical issues, lack of innovation, and lack of clear direction. While Teens in Tech has the profit potential of a lemonade stand on a deserted road, a few conversations with the Teens in Tech team lead me to believe that the company isn’t going after profit. They seem undecided at the moment, but some sort of charity-type, donation-based organization might be in the works.
For the most part, the criticism of Teens in Tech is well-deserved. They launched too early, with no real innovation, haunted by technical difficulties. It was just not thought through. It is, as of now, all hype and no product. But I won’t tolerate the people who say Teens in Tech is only popular in the media because of who Daniel, the founder, knows and because of his location (Daniel is based in Silicon Valley). Perhaps this has some merit in that Daniel has more access to those who matter, but the people who matter wouldn’t care about Daniel if he was just an ordinary person. Daniel obviously has something going for him that’s impressing the likes of Robert Scoble and others.
My primary concern is that Teens in Tech will harm the teen community as a whole on the Internet. As teens, we have a certain disadvantage because we are not viewed as equals. But we can’t expect to be treated specially because we’re young, either. If teens want to be as successful as adults, then they need to be as good as adults. Age is no excuse for a less-than-fantastic product.
I have nothing against Daniel or the Teens in Tech team, but I want them to use their efforts for something else. I want them to do something really great, but I’m not quite sure what. Daniel would do it well, I’m sure, but more importantly, if he and his team pulled it off, it would be a major advancement for teens. So my advice to Daniel is to close up shop on Teens in Tech and move on to something more worthy of his efforts. Teens in Tech is just not going to gain the audience it needs to be a successful business.
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2:30 pm on August 6th, 2008
I agree with your comments about that Teens in Tech is not going to gain the audience it needs, to be a successful business. The whole thing seems to be more of a sales gimmick, on Daniel's part, more than anything else.
3:41 pm on August 6th, 2008
maybe a fix for the acronym: "Teens 'n Tech" (TnT)?
8:17 pm on August 6th, 2008
Let me start by saying that this was a great post, well written and extremely true. I think a few things about Teens in Tech and just teens in general. First, we all know that teens generally get a bad wrap for most everything. Sometimes, this is OK because it is true, but sometimes it is clearly unfair. Being a teen, I can say this: some teens are just LAME. Some have short attention spans and can do something for ten minutes and get bored with it. I give a lot of credit to teens who CAN stick with something for a while, rather than just getting bored or discouraged with the current project. I think Daniel is fairly well equipped to run a company–his podcast (which I honestly don't love, but some really do) has been going on forever, for something like 150 episodes, something I give him LOADS of credit for. The problem I see is with the actual company concept of Teens in Tech (if there is one, that is). Unless it is totally amazing, it could never really work. Teens just don't want to commit. For example, Teen Media Productions. I think it's a great idea, it has a fairly solid market, mowing down any possible competition, but it is going… nowhere. Could it go somewhere, definitely. No doubt. Just like when TMP put their site in Maintenance mode, I got really excited. They can really go somewhere from nowhere. Now, however, I am slightly disappointed in them because the site has been down for at least a month, probably more. They still can redeem themselves, but they must act quickly. There is one way that Teens in Tech can work and that is to not open up to the full public (be relatively selective) and innovate. I think that if they had say five core shows that really worked, got viewership, and were professional, it would not just help Daniel and Teens in Tech, but the image of teenagers as a whole. I think that there are a few teens that are doing that now, you, Chris, but also Max Murphy of Mac News Weekly. He has a great show, is sticking to it, is professional, and enjoys it. There are obviously some things that I think could make MNW better, but for now and what it is, it's great. I also bring up Max because I feel that he is making teens look good. He is saying with his show that "yes, teens CAN produce good media consistently–it is possible, just give them some faith." Basically what I am saying is this: we need more 'Max Murphys' in teen podcasting and blogging and less kids who do one episode of an OK podcast and call it quits. I feel that Max has really innovated our market with Mac News Weekly and maybe even "stuck it too the man" a little. I also feel that adults SHOULD be more… open minded to kids, something that Daniel has pioneered in. Here is my final thought (I promise!). Both Teens in Tech or Teen Media Productions can be great, they just need service, consistency, and innovation. All my power to them!
9:08 pm on August 6th, 2008
Good idea. Their new slogan could be, “So New, We're Explosive!”
9:10 pm on August 6th, 2008
I don't agree that it's purely a gimmick. I think this just hasn't been thought through. Daniel is pursuing this with conviction and I just hope he directs his very effective efforts towards a better idea.
9:24 pm on August 6th, 2008
Wow, Riley, that comment was epic!
Teens in Tech can be successful, maybe, maybe, maybe. Teens do have problems committing, but if there could be a few popular flagship shows, Teens in Tech could make money off of advertising. But it's my understanding that Teens in Tech isn't trying to be a Mevio-type service. They're pursuing this from theback-end, producer side which will never work. There's just nothingoriginal.
I hope Daniel's team moves on to something worthy of their skills.
10:56 pm on August 6th, 2008
Chris, you know I love you man, but this is post (I think) you'll regret when you're older. If you don't like what Daniel is doing … ignore it! Teens in Tech probably won't be a Facebook, but Daniel will absolutely be successful. You will too. It's awesome that Daniel is trying new projects. It's awesome when you do to. Out of all the teens who try and connect with us, there are three that have massively impressed us: you, Max and Daniel. In my never humble opinion, you're brilliant and Danial is too, in a different way. There's plenty of room for everyone to succeed. This isn't a zero sum game.
4:55 pm on August 9th, 2008
I have no doubt that Daniel will be successful. Indeed, by any
objective standard, he is already wildly successful. But I question
the idea that he is pursuing. With so much potential and so many
worth pursuits, why choose this one which is so fatally flawed?
My goal in writing this post was to convince Daniel to go after
something else. Failing that, I truly do wish Daniel success. I
don't see us in competition in any way. We can achieve much more when
all parties are successful than when that isn't the case.
CF
7:13 pm on August 12th, 2008
There is so many sites like this out on the web I don't think this will get big at all it could have been so much better then what its going to be
5:55 pm on August 14th, 2008
Daniel will do an excellent job with the resources he has. He's extraordinarily talented and his execution, in any case, would be as good as possible. In this case, however, I think he's trying to brilliantly execute a flawed concept and it's just not working. It's like trying to run a super-advanced 3D game on a Commodore 64.
1:54 am on September 1st, 2008
And what have you innovated recently? Teens in Tech, while lacking in innovation, DOES provide a good place for teens who clearly have no idea what they're doing. No one used twitter for it's first year, and already TiT (yes that was clearly a bad choice) already has had lots of press. It shows promise!
7:55 am on September 1st, 2008
Press and promise are two entirely different things. Here's my basic opinion: Teens in Tech is not a good product and it has no conceivable way of turning a profit or becoming a successful business. But Daniel shows a lot of promise. I doubt this will be his last business. When he finds something really good on which to use his efforts, it will be very successful.
CF