Who Run Bartertown?
If you’ve been paying attention, late last night we officially launched Frog. As they cheered in Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, “Embargo Lifted!”
The big decision was made last night at just before 11 PM. The site had been down for many hours, engineering had completed the development [along with a new launch of our email platform and client-facing reporting module] and we came to a critical fork in the road. We had to choose:
- We go live, even without feeling it was absolutely perfect. Given the length of time the overall site had been down, it seemed we HAD to flip the switch. But…
- We could wait to go live, until we feel we have everything just right. As CEO, I have to stand by every bit of work we produce, and the decision about whether this was a BzzAgent-worthy product rested on my shoulders. Much of the team had been working for days and weeks on end. Nerve endings were frayed. So if we didn’t go live, what work could actually be done, and done well, without some attempt at catching up on sleep?
The reality is, even with the kinks we see, it was the right time. You’re never going to be 100% ready. And after much discussion, it was clear the team, as a whole, felt this was up to our standards. This is a group I’ve learned to trust inherently, and it shouldn’t be overlooked that I continue to be amazingly proud of our staff, their energy, enthusiasm and focus. Few groups could pull off what this team did in a short period of time.
As with any launch, you’re going to see many, many changes over the next few hours, days and weeks. So, what’s working for you and what isn’t?
You know the rules, there are no rules…
Dave
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 am
Somethings you just have to do regardless eh. Congrats on the launch and I am sure many will be reaping the rewards from taking the leap..
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
The site is pretty cool and I enjoyed playing around on it before calling it a night. I was sooo tired but wanted to read the tutorial and check out a few sites, but was too groggy to feel like I could write anything worthwhile.
I did see some typos and missing links (IE in the FAQ’s) and had to giggle, but didn’t want to report anything because I knew you were in the process of getting it all going. It is a huge undertaking and all the important things seem to be going fine. Very very cool.
I am excited about being able to add a badge to my blog! Kudos to BzzAgent for another great advancement!
July 24th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Ribbit Ribbit (Congratulations on the site) I checked it out a little last night and enjoyed looking thru some of the sites and plan on checking it out again tonight to read up on it.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
The Road Warrior was better.
July 25th, 2007 at 1:25 am
This is a great addition… but it seems that when some of the sites (at least 2 of the ones I visited) are linked through the FrogPond (as of yesterdy) they don’t work properly. When accessed by typing the url directly, they worked fine.
July 25th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Which ones are those, flywithme, I visited all the sites quickly and didn’t see a problem.
July 25th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Website launches can be tough. Even with the best requirements, a thorough QA and a firm launch date, things happen. The beauty of the web is that a site can always be updated. So sometimes it is best to just launch AND THEN update as needed while the site is in production.
Congrats on the launch of the Frogpond!