At, On and In Seesmic

Even though it is still in closed alpha, Seesmic has started generating a lot of buzz in Silicon Valley, in France and in the Social Media ecosystem. I remember clearly when its founder, my dear friend Loic Le Meur, told me months ago about the idea of a video community that would be able to interact and exchange using short form videos - sort of a “Twitter for Video”. I don't recall if my initial reaction was “Doh”, “Yukh” or “Pfffh”. Then, mid October, I had access to the very cut of the product. It was still pretty raw, or at least medium rare, but definitely showed a lot of potential for creating conversations through short form videos on Seesmic itself, but also the on other services that videos can be posted or linked on. I also saw the initial frenzy - that we are used to - around the release of the first set of keys to access the application, and the increasing number of videos created by the first few hundreds of test users. For a group that size, they create a *lot* of video content, and we can see conversations happening around these videos on twitter, youtube or individual blogs.

So yesterday I was at Seesmic, visiting the office - great space I must say, just a puppy promenade away from Dogster's headquarter - where the previously announced recording studio is being built. This gave me the opportunity to be on Seesmic, in show #40 which also featured the inaugural Seesmic logo, aka “The Racoon”. And finally, on that video, I briefly announced that SoftTech VC was investing in Seesmic, joining a list of prestigious investors.

So thank you Loic for giving me the opportunity of being at, on and in Seesmic! And yes, from now on, you will be referred to as “Number 8”, since Seesmic is the 8th investment of the fund. Those paying attention will point out that I had announced 4 investments to date - correctly so. It is just that investments #5, #6 and #7 have not been disclosed yet. They will at the right time in the near future.

I have embedded show #40 in this post, but if you want to suffer watch the full segment we taped, you will find it here.

Finally, I announced on the show that I had a few Seesmic invites, feel free to leave comments, link to this post or message me on twitter (@jeffclavier), and I will send you an invite code.

Tags: seesmic

Comments

[Ludovic]

Hey Jeff,

Would it be possible to get a Seesmic invite ? Cheers

[Guillaume]

The most interesting part is how you change your accent to something that looks like a native accent!

Whatever, I'm interesting by a seesmic invite code. May you send one?

[Ken Villines]

I would be interested in grabbing an invite and checking out the service....thx

[Chris]

I think I sent you a direct message on twitter (masto), but it doesn't show up, so I don't know if it worked. Anyway, I'd really love a Seesmic invite if you have any left!

[Joyce Bettencourt]

Hello Jeff - it was an entertaining show as the Seesmic daily shows often are. I am sure you had fun, you guys looked like you were. Congrats on informally announcing your investment in their company, it definitely has created a lot of buzz and, for those of us within the alpha, it is living up to being a compelling video conversation space. :)

Over on twitter I left you 2 names via an @jeffclavier message that I think would make great additions to the Seesmic conversation. I already have an account so I figured I would use this opportunity to spread it to others to join in.

Take care,
Joyce

[Carlos Granier-Phelps]

If you can spare an invite, I'd love to give Seesmic a try. Thanks in advance.

[Adrienne]

Hey Jeff, would love a seesmic account invite if you happen to have any left.

Thanks and cheers

[Jason L. Baptiste]

Jeff,

Enough with making smart investments already, you're making everyone else look bad :-). Invites like this are going like hotcakes. Very curious to see the long term vision of Seesmic. Lots of potential there. Should we characterize seesmic as more of a complement to twitter, as opposed to a competitor? Oh yeah, an invite would be great. Thanks!

-jlb

[Matthias Zeller]

Hello Jeff - Yes I would be interested to test drive Seesmic. My Twitter ID is matzeller.

Thanks!
Matthias

[Kristie Wells]

Jeff,

I would love a Seesmic invite if you have one still available.

[Jeff]

Hi Jeff,
Please let me get a foot on that extraordinary concept.Would be pleased to get an invite.
Thanx

[Brian Breslin]

hey Jeff, I would also love a seesmic invite, my twitter user is brbreslin.
thanks!
Brian

[Rob Hof]

Hi Jeff, congrats. Would love to get an invite if they're still available. Thanks.

[Jackie Danicki]

Would love an invite if they're not all gone, mon ami!

[Mike]

Actually one of the more interesting Seesmic shows, to get to see the (or one of the?) investors. I've subscribed to your blog and will see if I can find you on twitter, as it would be interesting to see what other investments you have planned.

PS: I already have an invite, but thanks anyway ;)

[Sean Scott]

Jeff,

Would love to get one of the last remaining 4 invites to seesmic

[Thomas Johnson]

Would love to get an invite code!
Thanks

[Maxence TAIEB]

Bonjour,
Comme tous les commentateurs de cet article, j'aimerai bien tester seesmic. Est-ce qu'il te reste des invits ?
Tu peux me trouver sur twitter ici http://twitter.com/chekchouka

[Thomas Carrier]

Hi Jeff,

I am also interested in a Seesmic invite.

I'm following you on Twitter so I can be reached there, as well.

http://twitter.com/TomCarrier

Merci beaucoup,
Tom

[Jim Kerr]

I'm trying to see what Seesmic does that Kyte does not, and I'm finding very little. Kyte seems to have even more functionality than Seesmic, and is way further down the development path. What am I missing?

Full disclosure: Kyte is one of our clients.

[Jeff Clavier]

Jim> I am not sure what your point is here (besides plugging your client :-) ? Seesmic is service that enables conversations through short form videos. I suppose that you could do this with Kyte if you wanted to but I see Kyte being much more sophisticated.

Ask Daniel ? He knows Loic well.

[Jim Kerr]

On one level, I guess my question is whether there is room for a Seesmic, considering it is an application that focuses on a subset of an existing application's functionality. This is not an easy question to answer, but I believe in most cases this is a difficult row to hoe. My lack of familiarity with Seesmic is hurting me here, but my basic question is: If you have Kyte, why do you need Seesmic?

Of course, I could also say, "If you have Kyte, why do you need Twitter," so this isn't a question that I posed expecting as a slam dunk of "Kyte rules." It as more of a question as to where Seesmic fits and whether there would be consumer demand for a service between the simpler Twitter and the more functional Kyte.

Your answer seems to be that Seesmic delivers a balance between simplicity and functionality. That's a compelling argument, but one that requires some real tightrope walking. When are you crossing into a point of diminishing returns of functionality, where the functionality becomes a negative due to the complexity? Many companies solve this problem by publishing APIs and allowing the public to be the ones to add the functionality. I could see Seesmic doing this, but I believe this becomes a less compelling strategy when there is already that functionality out there.

I'm kind of rambling here, sorry. :) I certainly see room for a video-enabled lifestream, but I've always seen it as a subset of a larger solution.

And I'm certainly not trying to plug Kyte. I simply wanted to make it clear that, despite my best efforts at neutrality, a reader is still owed the knowledge that I have a stake in the success of Kyte.

Thanks,

Jim

[Jeff Clavier]

Jim> Seesmic has a mile-long list of features that it is going to implement over the next few weeks/months, but this is not where I see the main difference. Seesmic is extremely viral and with just 1,000 users in the closed alpha has already generated more traffic than many video platforms that are launched.

IMHO the value is not in the richness of functionality in these applications, it is in their stickiness and virality.

[Cocquerel]

Hello Jeff!

I think you make a good investment on Seesmic. I bet on that, even if I can't be sure of that cause I need an invite code!!!!

I beg you Jeff, do you still have one of those? ;-)

See you

Julien Cocquerel
(a french conpatriote)

[Ericson]

Jeff, would like to get a seesmic invite if any left. Thanks!