Product Wiki’s Erik Kalviainen- A Startup Story
Published by bruinbear on Tagged Entrepreneur Story, Internet Tidbitsdel.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit Ask Google Netscape Simpy Socializer StumbleUpon Technorati Windows Live Wists Yahoo!
During my tenure as the director of business development for Shopzilla, I served as the single external conduit for the company to the Internet community at large for partnership opportunities. Nearly 75% of the phone calls, emails and other forms of inquiries I received were from Internet entrepreneurs seeking out partnerships with Shopzilla to monetize their shopping relevant content. Of all the entrepreneurs who reached out to me, there were really only a few that I felt warranted thorough due diligence and ultimately, my internal support, based on the companies business model, consumer value proposition, and overall company prospects. Product Wiki, with Erik Kalviainen at the helm, struck me as one of those companies.
You see, Shopzilla was not seeking out partnerships with companies that had “potential.” Rather, my marching orders were to solicit prospective partnerships that delivered value to the company, day 1. I always felt that this was a dangerous, short sided attitude since Shopzilla had never really “cracked the nut” of consumer shopping habits online. Sure, we might have been kicking out a whole lot of cash, but did we really know what online shoppers wanted? My guess was that someday, somewhere a new form of shopping platform would be created and when that day came about, I wanted to be sure that Shopzilla was the company helping to fuel its growth. Our management team disagreed.
That’s where Product Wiki came into play: A company building a shopping application, for the consumer, by the consumers. Applying the Wiki concept to the product shopping category was a virtual “no brainer” in my book. It played into all of the Internet drivers at the time, SEO and SEM and was positioned well to benefit from the new Web 2.0 drivers, including user generated content and social networking. In my mind, Product Wiki had at least a better chance than many others, to become the next big thing in shopping. I served as Product Wiki’s internal Shopzilla advocate, hoping that I could convince Shopzilla’s management team to work with Erik and his team. They balked. Erik partnered with Shopping.com, we parted ways, that is, until I sent out my mass email regarding my entrepreneurial mission.
After receiving Erik’s overwhelmingly positive response about my plans to embark on a full time search for my next entrepreneurial opportunity, I thought it would be a good idea to have Erik tell his story of entrepreneurship to my small readership, to hopefully serve as a point of both inspiration and a good old fashioned reality check. Erik has delivered and below is Erik’s story of his own entrepreneurial adventure with Product Wiki.
Sphere: Related Content“Hi Steven,
Sorry for the late, reply. We’ve been busier this last week than I expected.
Other than the iPhone release, it’s kind of a slow Friday here, so I thought I’d share my story with you in the spirit of your entrepreneurial quest.
I would say my path of entrepreneurship is more of a story of inevitability than of an internal burning desire “to be my own boss”. The decision to start ProductWiki (along with my wife, and brother-in-law) was as much motivated by the passionate belief in the need for the service, as much as it was because of any particular personality traits we possess. Mind you, I’m a very self-directed person, and don’t particularly like being “managed”. Both of these factors were instrumental in making the decision to give up a Silicon Valley engineer’s salary, moving back to Canada and starving for a while tackling the ProductWiki project head-on.
We started ProductWiki officially in June of 2005 and launched by November of the same year. Soon after we began our work, we began to hear the buzz around the concept of “Web 2.0” (this was before TechCrunch was popular after all). Little did we realize that our journey of creating the wiki version of Consumer Reports would coincide with a huge movement that would ultimately lead to hundreds (if not thousands) of fledgling Internet startups peppering the Internet landscape? While we were inspired by the spirit of the then-small(er) Wikipedia and del.icio.us, we didn’t realize that we were at the beginning of what would become Bubble 2.0.
In the early days, other more experienced entrepreneurs would give us advice to expect that our technology, operations, and philosophy would drastically change over the lifetime of the business, and I remember stubbornly thinking that we wouldn’t. I believed that we were the exception. I was wrong.
When I think back to earlier periods in our story, I can’t help but feel like I want to go back and tell my past-self everything I’ve learned along the way to avoid making the inevitable mistakes and skip to the “good stuff”. I then realize that it was those very mistakes that provided me with the insight to recognize the good stuff in the first place.
ProductWiki has changed a lot since those early days, but our essential vision has remained the same. While the unexpected competition and absurdity that came with Web 2.0 has changed the game, our resolve remains as strong as ever. Many of the superficial, copycat, and just plain silly businesses will fail, but out of their ashes will remain those few companies that possess the right combination of innovation, vision, patience, and hard work. With the barriers-to-entry all but removed for Web-based businesses, those are the qualities that will determine success.
And good coffee.
-Erik”
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
testing
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:56 pm
You are very sharp…you knew a good think when you sat it!! I’m glad that Erik also recognized your value and that the decision wasn’t yours. Thank you for sharing his story with us.
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Wow…I meant you knew a good thing when you saw it!! It must be getting late here on the East Coast…
July 24th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Great success story. Hard work and due diligence really pays off in BIG ways Online. From what I have seen so far from Product Wiki, they will be around for quite awhile and they will help make a huge impact on the shoposphere and wiki buying guides.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
indeeed, they are one of those companies that just seem to get it. and so long as the incumbant comparison shoppin engines continue to “optimize” only and not think about compelling functionality for their users, other companies will also be successful in the space.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:08 am
Long live product wiki!! A great opportunistic success story.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Another good choice for an ebay alternative is elfingo.com http://www.elfingo.com
May 29th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Very interesting and well-written story. I’ve certainly learned a lot from it. Thanks!
July 27th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Wow…I meant you knew a good thing when you saw it!! It must be getting late here on the East Coast…
August 20th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Great success story. Hard work and due diligence really pays off in BIG ways Online.
September 27th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Very interesting and well-written story. I’ve certainly learned a lot from it. Thanks!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Great success story and hard work !
December 13th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Very interesting post. Will definately bookmark this blog to check back later. Thanks!
December 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
There you go..I’ve bookmarked your site for future reference.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Good work. Keep this up!
December 21st, 2008 at 2:30 am
Nice post. Have added you on RSS to keep myself updated.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
What an inspriing story! Now the trick for us young web 2.0 ers is to figure out just what the heck web 3.0 is going to be!
Thanks.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
Yah, this shopping habits online really empty our pockets. Now, I have avoided looking into the online marketing sites and because of that I am at a safer side.
Migraine Headache
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Very interesting and well-written story. I’ve certainly learned a lot from it. Thanks!
April 4th, 2009 at 4:53 am
Great story indeed. I presume everyone has their story to how it all started, mine is not as interesting as this one but in a way it is similar.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Some interesting post. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you!
June 17th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I’ve got a Vista computer too,and sometimes I get the same error message. QUOTE:On the Maple website it says to put compatability with windows xp on the properties but can find maple.exe file Do you mean that you can’t find maplestory.exe?
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:18 am
Great success story and hard work !
July 7th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Nice post !
August 15th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Very interesting and well written story! MAny Thanks!
September 4th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Hey! Great success story and hard work
September 19th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Very nice story indeed. Reminds me of my own startup time…
October 4th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Very interesting story. Greatings from Germany
October 6th, 2009 at 12:59 am
From what I have seen so far from Product Wiki, they will be around for quite awhile and they will help make a huge impact on the shoposphere and wiki buying guides.
December 6th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
What a great and inspiring story. It is always good to read about someone’s success with a startup.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Interesting post and I really like your take on the issue. I know have a clear idea on what this matter is all about. Thank you so much.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Very nice story indeed. Reminds me of my own startup time…
January 12th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I like this story.
January 20th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I would say: good luck
February 11th, 2010 at 5:25 am
Must be difficult to have a vision for how the company should go then get no backing from the company you work for, then I guess its time to move.
March 18th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Thank you so much for the share, it’s one of the good articles that i read today.
April 2nd, 2010 at 7:56 am
Sehr Interessant.
April 15th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Thats still very Interesting.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Thanks. This info. was very helpful.
BJ
April 27th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I am very motivated by stories like these!
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Very interesting and well written story! MAny Thanks!
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:18 am
When there is no support from the company you work for then you really need to ask yourself is your vision wrong or are you just not getting the backup you deserve from your company.
June 8th, 2010 at 3:38 am
I’ve become interested in this subject since recently and begun to look an available information on web. But it’s difficult to find something really useful. Thank you for your article.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:21 am
I loved the piano video, very very touching. The earth video was also really great
June 17th, 2010 at 1:41 am
this was a really quality post.I wasn’t aware of the many ripples and depth to this story until I surfed here through Google! Great job.
June 21st, 2010 at 1:04 am
Thanks for a great time visiting your site. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Funny how no one seems to catch the fact that some local Chambers wish to keep from being blown up by the likes of SIEU thugs that have proven they will beat up opposition minding their own business &/or bite fingers off of them, as they did last year, thus choose not voice their views at times.Like the fraud that called a press conference in DC late 2009 — and were busted by the US Chamber. Hilarious!
Our companies have been members of the local Chamber for many years.
Why is MJ dead set against them? Because their views differ than yours?
Interesting!
June 23rd, 2010 at 2:38 am
Thanks for the nice blog. It was very useful for me. I’m happy I found this blog.
June 24th, 2010 at 1:21 am
this was a really quality post.I wasn’t aware of the many ripples and depth to this story until I surfed here through Google! Great job.
June 28th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
thank you for your informations , i like the website very much
Nice Site You Got Here!Very Informative. Highly Recommended!
Thanks!
July 5th, 2010 at 12:13 am
I admire what you have done here. I like the part where you say you are doing this to give back but I would assume by all the comments that this is working for you as well.
July 5th, 2010 at 3:38 am
It’s the best article on that subject I ever met in the web. I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work! I’m glad to find somebody else who is interested in this.
July 12th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I am really happy to deal with all the particularities described on your site as I am having lots of other problems to be discussable. Additionally, Erik’s story of his own entrepreneurial adventure with Product Wiki gave me some creative ideas. thanks
July 12th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Well I read the article I and found it really funny and informative. There are very few articles of this type one must read it once as they helped me receive some useful info about building a shopping application.
July 21st, 2010 at 3:54 am
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July 21st, 2010 at 3:54 am
Heya..thanks for the post and great tips..even I also think that hard work is the most important aspect of getting success.
July 21st, 2010 at 3:55 am
Thanks for the nice post. I am expecting some different idea from your side. You always represent some new thought in your post.
July 21st, 2010 at 3:59 am
Amazing..you really made my day & after reading this Surely..i ll twit this to my all friends to know more about this blog
July 28th, 2010 at 5:18 am
There are very few articles of this type one must read it once as they helped me receive some useful info about building a shopping application.