What would you do as the new CEO of Mahalo?
Jason Calacanis has decided to step down for a year from Mahalo and drive his Tesla through Asia in search of the perfect tea. While he is gone, he has put you in charge of Mahalo.
Your the new CEO. Here's your chance.
What would you change? What would you keep?
Remember, you still have to answer to your investors and it's probably a good idea to keep your user's happy (so don't fly off to the Caribbean with all the loot!)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$16 Answers
1)
I would hire a clown to sit out front of the Yahoo compound to laugh, jump around, and wave a sign saying "Mahalo Answers Worked... I'm the last Yahoo Answers user"
Sure it's premature but the mandatory photos and video reactions of Yahoo employees would be a marketing stunt like no other :)
2)
I would give each of the developers a coupon saying,
"I OWE U 1 CAR"
and
"VALID ONLY WHEN MAHALO.COM REACHES THE TOP 100 SITES."
3)
Next, I would segment out 10% of the company. I would offer this as profit sharing shares to the top 20 users. These shares would be based on "seat" not on the actual person. So as long as you were in the top 20, you would receive that real income.
Currently members receive 33% of the revenue of ads on the pages they manage. Since Mahalo has changed almost completely to a community based product, the success of the product can be won or lost with those top 20.
4)
Beyond these 3 (somewhat of a joke) things... It's very difficult to say. I don't presume to know anything about Mahalo beyond my simplistic view of Answers and Page Management. Also, I am not nearly as qualified as the current CEO so I would be happy to rest in his current direction and continue along the line he's formed without significant deviation.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1)
I would make sure this site was completely rewritten or make sure that all the bugs were fixed in the site. For instance: I would make sure that when you add a tip to an answer that your answer is not deleted.
2)
I would integrate charity donations into the site so that people can donate their hard earned Mahalo Dollars to good causes.
3)
I would also integrate coupons and find partners for the site so that Mahalo could have better loyalty, to allow users to cash out their prizes with coupons from online vendors to traditional food chain coupons.
4)
I would also ensure that Mahalo partners with a social networking website I'm launching, but then the question would I still be able to be the CEO of my own startup :) (shameless plug)
5)
Add a premium membership of some sort to eliminate advertisements M$20 Mahalo a year gets rid of all the ads on the Mahalo Answers site, and allows for extra features. The freemium model would work great, and of course would make money for Mahalo.
6) Offer employees on the technical side 20% time, where they can create new features and projects inside the Mahalo site at their 20% time, kind of like they do at Google. Every Friday would be a day for them to work independently on new innovations, as well as their own pet projects for the site.
7)
I would offer M$5 FREE tip to Mahalo Dollars for those who switched from any other answers site to Mahalo Answers. Users would need to prove this by sending an email to Mahalo. This would be for the first 1000 people who prove this. They would need to get to a purple belt before they earned this.
8)
I would increase the Mahalo Dollar value for black and brown belts when cashing out. Each Mahalo Dollar is worth 80 cents for brown belts, and 90 cents for black belts.
9)
I would add categories for local questions, so that people can pinpoint a question to a certain geography, and target people in that geography.
10)
I would do more out in the field promotions of the site. Jason did a great presentation at the New York Tech Meetup, so he's doing a great job!
11)
Provide a platform where Mahalo Answers can be easily added to any website on the Internet. White label solution is good, but work in some way that tips can be sent back to Mahalo to increase revenues.
12)
Integrate a way that people can purchase a t-shirt and other products with a question on it. Yeah, I know @jeffhoard mentioned this earlier, but it would be cool to offer items like this. Allow people to buy these items with their Mahalo Dollars.
I think overall Jason is a great CEO! Unlike most CEOs, he's personable and has been friendly to community members on Mahalo who put in the effort. He might even be too friendly!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Thanks! I might add a free lunch option :)
Thanks! On top of this possibly add free lunch on Fridays, or free lunch daily :) If only Mahalo has as good as food as Google does!
I'm afraid Jason is way ahead of you on the free lunches...
Yeah, but there may be some other goodies like a free Mahalo T-shirt or bag with the membership :)
$20 a year to eliminate ads? What's wrong with Ad Block Plus? :)
2. Even more profit sharing with users. Users are what makes this site worth anything.
3. Survey the top 500 users to see what they specifically need to get more involved.
4. Native app for managing mahalo pages and mahalo answers.
5. Work on site response times. Mahalo has always been slow for me. It makes me not want to use the site.
6. Work with secret team on Mahalo Local. Something that would compete with Craigslist but with more focus on community, accountability, and profit sharing.
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M$
Mahalo benefits tremenedously from his profile and PR skills, and this isn't the time for him to go AWOL on that front!
Apart from that, as a temporary stand-in and non-stockholder, I would consider that I probably don't have the remit to change the strategic direction of Mahalo, so I would concentrate of what I can do to improve execution of the current strategy.
Probably some of the following would be on my agenda:
a) Tighten up processes that impact on customer experience. Things like the change request / bug fix process, the communication with users about those things, and the glitches in the payment process.
b) Make a priority of having the site run fast and reliably in all major browsers.
c) Mahalo already does a pretty good job of trying to understand its users, but I'd look to ramp it up a notch. Maybe I'd arrange a number of meet-the-users sessions in different places, or maybe I'd survey and do phone interviews with site visitors.
d) Look for alliances. Could we somehow hook up with the Mayo Clinic or some medical school to do health Q&A? Where they benefit from Mahalo's ready built tech, and Mahalo gets access to high quality answerers. Could we hook up with the New York Times to show their relevant articles on Mahalo pages, and also add a Q&A feature to the NYT site?
The thinking there is that Mahalo is about trustworthy info, and one thing that makes for trust is association with trusted brands.
That's probably enough ideas to be going on with.
In reality, when you got in the door, you'd probably discover all kinds of stuff that needs dealing with that you never imagined from the outside.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
2. I would introduce a "kids" section to encourage children to learn how to do research.
3. I would give one Mahalo cent with the award of each point.
4. I would give a fractional share of Mahalo stock for each Point a member has, so everyone can participate in the ownership of this company, depending on how much time they put into improving Mahalo.
5. I would include a section for questions that depend on location, so I don't have to waste time viewing those question, except in my own locale.
6. I would invite corporations, philanthropic organizations, governmental departments to post their RFP's (requests for proposals) on Mahalo, and the award amounts. First seek a two page proposal, lets say, and then invite the best to submit full length proposals.
7. I would increase the capacity of the server farm operating behind the scenes so that Mahalo runs faster. It seems certain times, there are delays.
8. I would have a software subroutine section, so programmers could develop competitive solutions to solve a software problem.
9. I would add translations services, so Mahalonians from any country in the world could contribute.
10. I would allow one Mahalonian to loan to another Mahalonian tip money.
11. I would allow a member to convert a question into a managed page.
12. I would add a "watching" feature, like in eBay to watch certain interesting questions, or "wish list" like on Amazon.
13. I would have a section that would allow anonymous posting. Point would only accrue, however, if anonymity were removed.
14. I would allow Mahalonians to design their own home page.
15. I would allow a lottery for Mahalo points.
16. I would build a social network into Mahalo, which would allow me to invite friends, like in FaceBook. These could then be grouped into collaborative circles for cooperative editing of a page, or collaborative community on a project.
17. Private section of Mahalo so only certain members could participate.
18. Spin off the software, so it could be done "in house" within a particular company. This would allow management/employees of that particular company to set rates for tips, points etc. This applies to 17 above too.
19. Time stamping of ideas, to establish patent priority.
20. Allow work projects to be posted, and bid upon.
21. Allow the buying, selling, auctioning and bartering of merchandise, like on eBay.
22. Allow custom made pages to be made for you. You specify the cost.
23. Display a map of locations of other Mahalonians, sortable by interests, or answered questions. Would be useful to aid in possible local collaborations.
24. Allow Mahalonians to award prizes for the first acceptable solution to a problem, like Feynman did when he offered a $1,000 to the first person to build a motor that would fit on a 1/64 inch cube.
25. Make Mahalo accessible to Mobile devices, such as the iPhone.
26. Integrate Mahalo with something like Amazon Mechanical Turk to allow HITS (Human Intelligence Tasks) to be created, publicized and acted upon for pay.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$And the best way to capitalize on an already successful platform would be to innovate. Thus,
Primary Objective
1. Figure out a smart way to integrate the Mahalo platform into other corporate web interfaces. (Already in the works.)
2. Hire a crack shot sales team. And convince them it is their life long goal to fulfill Mahalo's new aggressive B2B marking agenda. (Probably requires a hefty investment in alcoholic beverages.)
3. Drink some beer on the clock, because I am CEO!
4. Push the company towards an initial public offering, so I can buy some better rims for my new Tesla ;]
On a serious note, integrating the Mahalo platform in this way would revolutionize the internet (slightly). Imagine being an executive in successful cooperate company or a small business. You need to answer an important question that will drive future growth in your market, but you lack the experience.
Your options are limited. You can add a new hire or hire a consultant. Both of which are pricey. Instead, you decide to offer a $2000 dollar reward to the person who provides the best market research, develops an innovative idea for a new product, or creates a great branding campaign.
The Mahalo platform is perfect because it generates quick informative responses, and helps cut cost.
Just food for thought. I see great potential here at Mahalo now that I am CEO.
O Yeah!
Secondary Objective
1. Improve site search filtering
2. Increasing the user base satisfaction through higher tip amounts. O wait the primary objective already did this!
Mahalo FTW
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I would have think tanks in place at least once a week, but most importantly i would reward good ideas which are implemented into the business to the person or persons who came up with the idea.
I would not become ostentatious with trappings of higher office, it is important to keep one's feet on the ground when dealing with people.
One is not judged by what they possess materially, but what knowledge they have to impart to their fellow human beings.
Please remember, "creativity expands the mind, achievement nurtures and fulfils it." It is important to find a common ground where these two become one. Once this happens then the world is your blueprint for success.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
But i wan to see mahalo reach top 100 sites in the US.
Internet is mostly about information and advertising to earn more revenue. The CEO of mahalo should make extra effort to generate more income by soliciting more advertising revenue. user of mahalo are people in a higher intellectual level which is a good marketing grounds for companies to market and test their product.
surely in the near future there will be more positive improvement with pay and revenue in mahalo. which i am slowly noticing.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Fortunately, I could do one thing right away. Ban Twitter! At least until he and his car came limping home.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It could be argued that there are a few holes in my premise ; )
(Mainly wanted to incorporate the Tesla as I couldn't find a picture of Jason sipping tea in China..)
I kind of expected to see a "Twitter reduction" under your reign.
Any other changes in mind?
We'll assume his connections in Asia have been stockpiling spare Tesla batteries for Jason over the past few months.
This photo is Frigging Funny.
Some things I would consider first include:
1.Direct payment to Cayman Islands bank accounts
2. 65536 belt colors
3. Free beer in the company cafeteria
"2. 65536 belt colors"
That's going to lead to an awful lot of "Congratulations!" messages...
Instead, there would be an automatic comparison of the revenue for your page before and after you adopted it, and a comparison with similar pages. If you sent an explanation of what you had done for the page (posting on certain forums) and it corresponded with the increase that would help.
There would be a bias towards allowing someone to adopt similar pages. For instance, if the manager of Aeropostale coupons did well, they could try Hollister coupons or American Eagle Coupons. These are all teen clothing companies with online coupons, and the same forums often have discussion boards for all three.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
id buy twitter & incorporate every tweet from the start to the most recent creating the "real" people powered search engine...whilst expanding this huge Q&A base.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I would only be interested in keeping it running smoothly in Jason Calacanis absence.
Life
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
1. Need coffee Stat! 2. Show me last month and last quarter financial statements. 3. Coffee Stat (trend here) 4. Go over Cash Flow Models and make an effort to share that with Staff. 5. After all those results take it to the next level and start merger and acquistion talks. 6. IPO 7. Retire
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Here is Jason Calacanis' video on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9vBDdsxco
Other than that I wouldn't change a thing.
Thank you for everything you have accomplished.
I very much agree with you by keeping "Everything Open".
It's all about sharing and allowing for innovation.
Peace Out.
The Wanderer
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
And another AotD nomination in the pocket!
Thank-you very much!
You're welcome. I'm glad I can borrow your answer for the AotD competition. Now let's hope you win!
Here is the nomination.