Archive for February, 2008

Home Sweet Home

Monday, February 18th, 2008

I’m in the bay for the weekend taking a much needed break from Los Angeles. My dad and I are going to check out Pete Sampras’ supposed “comeback” at the HP Pavillion tomorrow. He plays former world #2 Tommy Haas - he was originally supposed to play Marat Safin, but Marat Safin is probably drunk on a beach somewhere. Talk about a waste of talent - Marat Safin is a lazy drunk who should have at least 5 grand slams by now, but for his lack of discipline.

Ok, enough about tennis, let’s talk about Scripped. We grew by ANOTHER 25 users today and Ryan, Zak and I are thrilled. Thankfully, all three of us are incredibly self-deprecating so I doubt we’ll ever “rest on our laurels.” We are already thinking of the next services we want to release (some of which are almost fully developed) to our community. Free screenwriting software, if you have not already figured out, is not our end game. The three of us are idealists, but we think we can further the art of screenwriting by doing more than just providing free software.

Ryan is working the MIT circuit, while Zak continues to be the man behind the grand vision. I have to hand it to Zak - out of everyone I’ve met in life, he has the absolute BEST work-life balance. He just has a good head on his shoulders (but he has terrible taste in television).

Oh, right, what am I doing? Well right now I’m watching LA Confidential for like the fiftieth time and I just ate too much at a restaurant called Palo Alto Sol. HIGHLY recommend it if you haven’t tried it. Did you know there is a Counter in Palo Alto these days? Crazy.

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Posted in sunil | 2 Comments »

Screenwriting Class

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

pica2.jpg
This quarter, I decided to enroll in Dee Caruso’s screenwriting class at the school of Theather and Film at UCLA. One of the great things about going to business school at UCLA is that you’re allowed to take electives outside of Anderson. I took an intro to directing class a couple of quarters ago, and I’m planning on taking some foreign affairs classes before I graduate.

The screenplay I’m writing (using Scripped of course) is about two 40-something defense contractors who compete off the court in meaningless league tennis matches. I’ll tell you more about the plot later (hey, I don’t want to give away my great idea), but I am excited to be writing my first Scripped screenplay.

I’ve included a picture of the WGA event (previously unpulished) for your viewing pleasure…..

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Posted in sunil | 3 Comments »

New European script market

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

I just caught a post in Variety about the emergence of a new script market. This is something we’ve long thought could work in the United States, particularly for short-form webisode-oriented video. It seems the obvious logical next step in the storied breakdown of Hollywood.

I suspect several new markets will soon emerge in the United States as well, with different combinations of TriggerStreet and ScriptShark functionalities. We’ll probably throw our hat in the ring too, and learn our lessons from Europe.

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Posted in article, business model, variety | No Comments »

Oh, the blogosphere

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Well, the storm is coming and our time draws nigh. The blogs have found us.

It has been one of those days that entrepreneurs live for. The constant stream of emails, each discussing the finer points of our numerous critiques and how we should react. It’s a reason to engage our peripheral advisers with a “Hey, check this out! These guys think we’re going to be millionaires!” And follow up with another flurry of replies.

But more than anything else, it’s market data we simply don’t have access to just yet. For those who found us interesting enough to write about, thank you, because we need to know what writers actually think, and outside of the feedback form on our site, we have precious little interaction with our market. Silent observation of these blogs provides key data that we can use for business decisions.

So thank you, oh blogosphere, for the nice words and candid advice. We will serve thee as best we can.

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thoughts on business

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

It’s interesting how throughout my life “just business” has implied impersonal or mechanical interaction. Like the person to whom the phrase, “Calm down; this is just business.” is directed to is not really a person at all. He or she is instead an object to be acted upon.

In my experience, and especially with Scripped, the contrary is true. Business is people and business is personal. In my last business-y post I described a little bit about the emotional and financial investment we, the founding team, had to make to put Scripped together. That makes it personal. And the recent surge in writer interest in Scripped makes the other people side relevant.

And here I find that some interactions with people can be impersonal, and that’s okay. I think that’s why we have this blog. There are people coming to the site, poking around, and probably thinking, hmm, why is this free? There must be a catch. And who are these guys, anyway? Then they go to the About Us page which says amazingly little about who Zak, Sunil, and I are.  And so they go to the blog.

And then it becomes a little more personal, but not for us. I don’t know who reads this and what they think about it. No one leaves us comments. Maybe it’s a little charming to see that we’re pretty regular people, certainly not professionals, and aren’t really bad. And, obviously, we like to write. We just don’t get that much time to do it. And maybe, just maybe, it is compelling enough to take the plunge and try out a script. Maybe having a blog and taking a web-based glimpse into our souls makes some people feel more comfortable. Whatever it is , sign ups recently have been fast and furious! This is good because it keeps Zak excited about perfecting our new import function.

To summarize, whoever first made the implication that business is purely transactional probably didn’t stay in business very long. Or if he did, he died a wealthy man with no friends. Instead, be nice but play safe. And if you do what you love the money will come.

You don’t need business school to learn that.

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We Win!

Monday, February 4th, 2008

All,

We won our first contest. Ryan delivered yesterday by bringing home the Harvard College Innovation Challenge Elevation Pitch Competition! We’ll add the $100 to our bank account… Nice work Ryan!

Here is a link to the competition page: http://www.harvardstudentagencies.com/i3/default.asp.

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