My Minimum Viable Video Sucks [Language Warning]

I'm currently reading a few books at the same time. One of them The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, I'm not to far into it yet. Great book so far. So Eric Ries came up with the Minimum Viable Product. For startups this means, you make the most simple version of your idea and put it on the market quick, with bugs and all.

Surprisingly people tend to respond to these product releases without too much complaining. Eric says this way you can find out many things the customer wants, likes, or dislikes. It also saves you a ton of time and cash, if you find out your entire idea sucks sooner than later. You can trash it, and find something else to build. This is what my company Passdown is doing. The thing is we didn't even put anything out, and people were going nuts for just the idea spoken from our mouths. Super odd place to be in. 

As we want to reach a broader market than friends, family, and a few hundred strangers I set out to make a video explaining what Passdown does, of course I made the one with a warning language first, but I did not think that one would be good to put on the official website. Some people might not like the word fucking. So I made the clean one, and well, it kind of sucks. But I put it on there anyway, cause it does explain what Passdown is building. So I call it my minimum viable video. You can view it here: Clean Version

 It's complete with mistakes. Yeah, the foul language one is better. Hmmm It has pot, sexting, and the word fucking in it. I don't know why that makes it any better, it just came out better. It flows, it has no rough patches. Maybe I'm better at the real life stuff and not the clean stuff, I don't know. Yet, I think the clean version explains Passdown better, and it's a shorter version. Here is the dirty version It's not that dirty!

Originally I had 'You Never Know When' on Passdown's home page. I moved it to another tab. That video is important as it's the reason why I came up with the idea of Passdown. The video shows my brother Mark's apartment exactly how it was when they found his decomposed body in it. You can view it here: Leave Your Mark I removed it from the home page as I thought it might be a bit dark, even though it ends with a delightful little girl, my daughter smiling.

Ahh, I'm feeling frustrated. I want to make some killer video, some high quality video, that looks smoking professional, yet, I haven't found the right path to do this with my skills, and we have no cash to pay a professional. So it's lean building, and if that means I make a video that sucks but does explain the product, well, than that's a Startup! 

Cheers ~ Enjoy your Friday night. 

Searching For The Homeless Person

Yesterday I missed my walk with Jenny the dog. Then in the evening it began to rain pretty steady and hard for hours. I thought about this person and I was sure they were in a place that provides more protection than the tree. 

This morning Jenny and I took off with our care package for this person. Yet again there belongings are there all bundled

 up in some sort of tarp or sleeping bag. But the homeless person was not. 

Homeless people have to move around often. As I learned from my brother who was homeless in his car. He had shelter, yet you can only park your car in a certain spot for so long before you get kicked out of that spot by the police or security. My brother had parking lots all around the city, and he even parked in my alley for a time, as he knew of a house on my block that no one lived in, so he had the perfect spot in the alley. I never called the police on him, but it broke my heart to see him homeless in my alley, all the while I had a nice warm home with plenty of room.

Here is the pond that is next to the tree where the homeless person sleeps some nights. It's filled with ducks and wild grasses. I used to swim in this pond when I was a kid. It used to have more water and only grass around the edges. Now it's mostly grasses. 

As the days go on and I do not find the homeless person to give my care package to, the care package grows. I find more things to toss into the bag, like beef jerky, and power bars. The weather is supposed to clear up and get a bit sunny with an even better day tomorrow. 

Jenny