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Part 2 of a 3-part transcript (posted July 29, 2007):

(If you have not read Part 1 of this interview Click Here)

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Mike Klingler asks Brian Greenwald:

Are there any statistics that you can share?  A lot of people had asked, you know, how fast is Agloco growing or these kind of things. Any statistic you can throw out? I know that you had mentioned in your last blog that we were at 20% activation about a week or so ago and you wanted to reach 50 %. Can you expand on what you meant by that, some people had questions on what that meant?

 

Brian Greenwald:

Sure. Well, much like revealing information about partners there is this balance where we’d love to tell members everything that’s going on and share a ton of numbers but most companies just don’t do that and there’s a reason for it. Unfortunately, we are under the same constrains so we think carefully before giving numbers but we are doing well with sign ups, we have several thousands a day and it’s continuing strong and it’s growing.

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As far as that number of 20 % activation, I think I wrote that we had 20% activation with hope to reach 50% by the end of this summer. What that number means is 20% of the signed up verified Agloco members that have downloaded the Viewbar or more precisely those who have logged time on their Viewbar.

So we’ve have three numbers that we really take a look at. One is the number of raw sign ups we have. This number is actually interesting but somewhat meaningless, because what it comes down to—what matters more—is the next number which is verified sign ups. When you sign up for Agloco we send you an e-mail and you have to verify, and then you get your account. And that’s really the number we concentrate on and the 20% is the percentage of those verified sign ups that have been using the Viewbar.

I heard some comments that people seem to think that’s a bit low but actually well in with our expectations and there are a number of reasons for that. For instance, we know that some users are on Mac, Linux or other operating systems; [also] sometimes it takes people more time to download. I know that moving people to action is a lot easier said than done, especially when there is not a promise of an immediate pay out right now this month ,or anything like that.

And so we think about it as a long term prospect, and we know that when Agloco has better credibility having paid and better software (when the Viewbar actually has a lot more everyday uses) this should slowly raise and with time it’s expected to go well above 50 %.

Mike Klingler:

Absolutely, I kind of see right now we are laying the ground work for everything and as things come out, as revenue begins obviously a lot of those people who may not have gotten the View bar who signed up are going to jump in real quick because they are going to know what’s going on and they are going to hear about it very quickly at that point.

Brian Greenwald:

Exactly.

Mike Klingler:

One question that people have asked, if you can just kind of touch upon it, is the idea that they want to be able to communicate with their members and their team to help facilitate the growth to connect with people.  And I know that it’s been something you guys are considering. Can you address that real quick – the communication tools?

Brian Greenwald:

Sure, yah, this is something we’ve talked about for a long time and it’s something that members have brought up for a couple months; and it’s really a good idea and it’s a really important idea.  It’s something that plays a huge role on our plans for Agloco moving forward. Unfortunately, right now we just don’t have the resources to make it happen.  And the reason for that is that--as a start up company--and I guess people often forget that we are still a start up company--we’re trying to run somewhat lean so that we can really move forward towards profitability and members distributions.

Right now I’d say that there are a couple of things that are more important than member to member communication. Specifically, making sure that the website and Viewbar remain stable; continuing to improve the Viewbar, because I am sure there are still a few people out there who have experienced a few bugs and are not able to use the Viewbar. Catering to those members is really a number one priority and we’re also spending a lot of time updating our revenue systems so we can really feasibly get to member distribution as quickly as possible. So a lot of our programmer time is taken up doing that.

Keep in mind also that when we have the communication system it’s going to be member opt in.  And the reason for this is that we take privacy very seriously at Agloco and there’s a couple of reasons for that. The primary one is that if we ever broke the privacy trust, which I promise members we won’t, you’re never going to get it back. The Privacy is just so extremely important especially when we have your surfing habits and personal information we take that very, very seriously. Also, a second reason might be that we are thinking about things in the big picture and assuming that if we are not already big enough to come under a lot of scrutiny we can’t cut corners on issues like this.

Our primary concern is getting the revenue and then we will make a ton of improvements.

Also remember that we don’t have unlimited funds but every dollar that we spend is really the community’s money so we have to make sure that we get money coming into the community before we start sending a lot of money out.

I will give you another example of that.  I have gotten questions about Mac operating systems and whether or not we will release the Viewbar for Mac, for Linux, Windows 95, 98, etc. And the first thing to mention is that specifically regarding Windows 95 and 98 Millennium addition, Microsoft, almost a year ago--I believe by now it may even be a year ago, stopped supporting these platforms. So they are, in computer terms, well over 7-8 years old and sort of ancient in a way; and Microsoft itself stopped supporting it, which presents number one is an obsolescence challenge as well as some technical challenges for developing for those platforms.

But really we are focused on preparing for increased revenue right now and a lot of the decisions that come about--and this is where member feedback comes in real handy-- is that a lot of it is a cost benefit question. When we make an improvement, for instance a Linux Viewbar, we have to not only make sure that it covers the cost of developing and maintaining that Viewbar but that the new members that come in due to that improvements can also achieve those distributions so that they are bringing enough money so that the distributions are sustainable for these new members and that it makes sense so that the revenues increase in way that the distributions increase to all members.

So, if you really think about it we are making decisions with the community’s money to try in bring more money into the community and we have to take that very seriously.  And we have to think hard on how we make those decisions. If it is a good use of member money or if it is not a good use of member money and there is just no free lunch unfortunately.

Mike Klingler:

That makes a lot of sense and this is a little bit connected, I was going to ask you about what people have asked – the languages, Ad serving in other languages. Is that something that it’s going to be a little bit out there before we see?

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Brian Greenwald:

Ad serving in other languages really depends on the deals that we make.  I think I mentioned in my last post that the companies that we are working with now are hoping to have the capability of serving ads targeted at other non- US countries, some non US countries, by the end of the summer. So we are hoping that that pans out.

As far as other languages go it’s going to depend on the deals that we’re able to make and it could be as soon as a few months from now. But we hope that those happen fast. There is the other issue, of course, of full support in several languages, and I’ve had a couple of members offer to translate e-mails and translate the sign up page and this is all really appreciated and it’s a good idea.

The reason why we haven’t taken members up on that and why we operate in English and Chinese is because we have full support in English and Chinese and if we have  a sign up page in German for instance or  in Portuguese then it’s  reasonable for that member reading this page in Portuguese to expect “Hey I am signing up in Portuguese they  should be able to communicate with me in Portuguese,  they should be able to answer my questions and e-mails in Portuguese and they should be able to provide full member support in this language”.

Again there is some cost benefit questions, and there are some scaling questions in the fact that we are really focusing on revenue now and it would just be irresponsible to put people in that position. So right now if you sign up in English or Chinese you can expect that in those languages we will give you full support.

Mike Klingler:

That makes sense. A lot of people have asked about where you guys are registered-- where you guys are operating from? Some people speculated Hong Kong. Can you answer to that?

Brian Greenwald:

Yes. Agloco is incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong. I don’t know the specific reason for that; I believe were incorporated before I even joined but I think a lawyer based the decision, and my best guess--I’ve actually not asked much about that-- but my best guess is that the laws there are more favorable to enabling us to pay members. That is all a speculation but we are trying to keep from spending too much money on office expense, etc. So if you wanted to visit our office in Hong Kong really the only thing we could offer is a cup of coffee at our lawyers’ office there.

So, our team is spread out, our member support team is in the Philippines, our tech team is in Shanghai as I talk about on the blog and most of the business team is in California and Silicone Valley.

Mike Klingler:

It’s very modern start up company.

Brian Greenwald:

Oh, yeah. (Laughter) And right now I am on the East coast of the US, traveling all over so we are all over the place.

Mike Klingler:

Probably you’re heading somewhere differently tomorrow. 

Part 3 of this written transcript is now available.  Click Here.

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