WEbooks – a democratic publishing company
The CEO of WEbooks stood confidently in front of her company logo and gave a convincing elevator pitch about her company. She clearly outlined that there was no place for people inspiring to become writers and her solution is to create a program much like you tube where the merit of the writing (instead of videos) is determined by the public rather than a few publishers in big publishing companies. In this new democratic system WEbooks hopes to upend a 50 billion dollar publishing market. While the CEO mentions ‘we’ she fails to mention others on her staff that might lend credibility to her pitch. In spite of that her venture sounds interesting especially since they already have 1500 book project underway. The company’s aim is a little high with overtaking their competition of ‘mainstream’ publishing companies but it seems as if they are the only company doing bottom up publishing. It is an interesting venture but, of course, I would like to know more.
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khenry 7:31 pm on September 24, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Tamara,
I agree that information such as partnerships and affiliations are vital to a pitch. If expectations seem high and unattainable then this would definitely detract investors.
Kerry-Ann
Doug Smith 8:53 pm on September 24, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Tamara,
What is your take on the $50B industry reference? I’m not entirely sure that I know what WeBook’s intention is. Are they hoping to take a large chunk of the market? Or are they wanting to take a large chunk of market share at a reduced selling price (ie offering a cheaper product)? When I think of WeBook I think of Wikipedia. Wikipedia upended the encyclopedia market and took market share, but they don’t really make money, at least not that I know of. Linux is similar, since it is released under an open license. However, Linux allows for corporations to take linux and package it into a retail product. Like
Wikipedia, I’m not sure the Linux developers get a cut from corporate revenues and sales.
I would have liked to hear even a quick little sound bite on what WeBook wanted out of the market, rather than just to upend it.
cheers
Doug