Thrown out of Ebay Live for wearing Google shirt(mystorespace.blogspot.com)
mystorespace.blogspot.com
Thrown out of Ebay Live for wearing Google shirt
http://mystorespace.blogspot.com/2007/06/mystorespace-launches-at-ebay-live-but.html
26 comments
If this is true it's a bad sign for eBay. Such heavy-handedness is always correlated with major suckage in the product.
I think it's pretty smart marketing in some ways. People remember that kind of stuff, and it's getting them a lot of attention. I remember at Linuxcare when the head of marketing (who was actually one of the brightest guys at the company, except for Andrew Tridgell of course) pulled some kind of stunt, of which I dont' remember the details, with the implication that Linuxcare was the place to go for Redhat support. Of course we had to pull it, but it got on all the news sites and got the name out.
I just googled "Google Checkout." It looks interesting.
If it wasn't for Gary Briggs, Chief Marketing Officer for eBay North America, I'd still be blissfully ignorant.
If it wasn't for Gary Briggs, Chief Marketing Officer for eBay North America, I'd still be blissfully ignorant.
eBay needs to get their act together. This is not their best marketing move...
If you interested in knowing what happened in a couple of the major panel discussions during the event, you can read our notes here:
https://auctomatic.com/user/ebaylive
The Q&A with the ebay execs was v interesting
The Q&A with the ebay execs was v interesting
Ebay made the right call, I'd throw them out also if they pulled that nonsense...
What nonsense?
their product
I would appreciate some more constructive criticism about our product. Keep in mind it's just entering beta. What about it seems like nonsense to you?
Update: "sfo" appears to be a troll - his account was created 10 minutes ago.
Update: "sfo" appears to be a troll - his account was created 10 minutes ago.
This has nothing to do with the product. They showed up with a plan to stir the pot... if it was for press then it looks like it might be working for them. Nicely done in that respect but don't pretend this was a huge coincidence.
It's true it was suspicious that they wore Google shirts. Every little startup I know of would wear their own shirts to a trade show.
It's very common for people to display brands that they want to be associated with. E.g., in fashion, you can't copyright a clothing design, which has led designers to sell plain T-Shirts that say "Ralph Lauren", "A&F", "Hugo Boss", etc. Wearing a Google shirt is saying, "Hey, please associate our tiny little start-up with Google!" It worked! And check out the press they're getting for rocking the boat via the existing eBay-Google flap.
Yep, they definitely wanted to be associated with Google. In fact, if there was a Google Checkout t-shirt they would have worn it. It's clear that they went there to tout the merits of Google Checkout. That being said, it unfortunate the way the Ebay exec handled it. He fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Just to clarify - only one of us wore a Google shirt. My co-founder was wearing business attire, so only I was singled out by the security personnel at first.
We don't yet have our own shirts and our appearance at the convention was spontaneous (planned the night before). I wore my Google shirt because our product uses Google Checkout and I wanted to show support for it as I felt it was dealt an unfair blow by eBay.
We don't yet have our own shirts and our appearance at the convention was spontaneous (planned the night before). I wore my Google shirt because our product uses Google Checkout and I wanted to show support for it as I felt it was dealt an unfair blow by eBay.
I agree. Once they're there though, it's a little too late to kick them out and not expect fallout.
That is the one thing that bothered me a little by the article. It looks like planned linkbait a mile away.
How else should one try to write a startup's first blog post? You're right in noticing that a major goal of the article was to market our product, but that doesn't mean that any of it was made up. It's a true retelling of the events.
Im not saying you are not truthful with how the story happened. Im just saying with the blowup of Google and Ebay right before this event that wearing a Google shirt, you knew what you were doing.
You're right, I wore my Google shirt because our product uses Google Checkout and I wanted to show support for it as I felt it was dealt an unfair blow by eBay. However, I didn't expect to get thrown out of the convention for it.
I'll come out and say it because everyone else is being polite... you were thrown out for being a smartass and you are riding the conflict between the two companies for publicity. It's cheap... effective but cheap. No offense to you dude but that's accurate.
Publicity is publicity. If it's effective, what constitutes 'cheap' publicity?
Migpwr, you sound jealous and negative for no apparent reason. I don't see how my article could have offended you personally to warrant your string of hateful replies.
Let me repeat - I didn't go to eBay Live to start a controversy. I went to get some users to try my software, which I worked hard to build for the past 5 months. Things took an interesting turn, so why wouldn't I try to use this opportunity to get some attention for my software?
I posted the story at YC news because most startup founders would hopefully find our low-budget marketing story interesting and maybe even inspirational. If I just wanted free publicity I would have digg'd it or something instead. I don't even have a digg account.
Let me repeat - I didn't go to eBay Live to start a controversy. I went to get some users to try my software, which I worked hard to build for the past 5 months. Things took an interesting turn, so why wouldn't I try to use this opportunity to get some attention for my software?
I posted the story at YC news because most startup founders would hopefully find our low-budget marketing story interesting and maybe even inspirational. If I just wanted free publicity I would have digg'd it or something instead. I don't even have a digg account.
So, you wore a Google shirt to eBay live, right after Google and eBay had a massive fallout. If that's the best way you have of getting attention for your software, you're in trouble.
Then again, if I had just spent 5 months on my store and only had a beginners-book 30-minute Scriptaculous + scaffolding job to show for it, I might resort to wearing a Google shirt too.
Then again, if I had just spent 5 months on my store and only had a beginners-book 30-minute Scriptaculous + scaffolding job to show for it, I might resort to wearing a Google shirt too.
A product that builds ebay stores is nonsense? We are not that target but it might not be nonsense to those in that arena.