Sorry to all of the non-readers out there…took a little braincation from qrisper.  But now I’m back, still obscure as ever!

I got the chance to sit down with a few investors to discuss the viability of this little site called qrisper.com.  While I’m still new to all this, I was confident in my pitch and my value proposition.  Not once did I think I would make the newbie mistake of boldly claiming that I have no direct competition.  Man, the incredulous looks I got when I did say that…classic!

I weaved myself out of that little situation by explaining that yes, there are tons of Q&A sites out there but none of them aggregates answers…at least not yet.  They couldn’t argue with that.  But then they hit me with the apparently common investor hullabaloo of, “How will you protect yourself from competitors that have millions in funding that will most definitely copy your idea, which by the way is super duper fantastic?!” (Ed. – quote has been paraphrased and embellished for effect).

I guess that is something to be wary of but nothing that keeps me awake at nights.  Because that decision – to copy another company’s idea to make your own – is not an easy one to make.  Some things to consider before making such a decision:

• Where are you in terms of your own product development?
• How flexible are you with your product roadmap?
• How easily can you modify your existing infrastructure and user behavior?
• Are you willing to completely scrap your existing methodology, if necessary?
• Are you willing to take the risk of rebuilding your entire infrastructure, if necessary?
• Do you require board approval to completely change course?

My take is that it’s actually hardest for those well-funded startups to scrap their idea to chase another (endowment effect).  A small, nimble startup could come out of nowhere and try to run with your idea.  But that’s just called competition.  Those guys face the same hurdles that you do in building a brand/userbase.  And the big guys, they’re too busy actually making money (or trying not to lose money) to worry about things like innovation.

Bottom line – yes there is always a risk of copycats.  So what?  Just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t fester and act accordingly.  Also note that this response won’t help you get funding.

With the growth of social everything, you hear this more and more: recommendations are better from your friends; your followers can provide better answers; tap into that social graph’s fat ass.  Ok the last one I made up but you get the idea.  There are a number of issues with limiting yourself and your questions to your social graph.  Let’s use Aardvark, another question and answer company that Techcrunch posted about as an example.

My understanding of how Aardvard differentiates themselves from their competitors is that when you ask a question, Vark will dive into the profiles of your friends and their friends to find people that will most likely be able to answer your question within 5 minutes.  John Battelle’s spidey sense went off the charts for this company.  Mine is going off too…albeit for different reasons.

The first assumption that Vard is making is that the answers you get from your social graph are better than anything else available to you.  Two questions: why is it better and what if your social graph isn’t that big or it’s actually very big?  Example: Ashton Kutcher (with 2 million followers) and Joe Bloggs (with 126 followers) asks for recommendations for some really good mutter paneer in NYC.  Will either of them get a better answer than searching Google for “best mutter paneer nyc”?  (I’d recommend Haveli)

Basically your answers are limited to the extent of your social graph.  So the more popular you are, the better answers you’ll get.  Well, I’m screwed.

The second assumption is that their answers are so good that you’re willing to wait, on average, 5 minutes to get an answer.  5 minutes in internet time is like 5 billion years.  If I’m on the street with a bunch of friends, looking for a good Indian restaurant, here’s the conversation that I’m likely to have.

Me: Hey guys, I’m really jonesing for some peas and cheese in a savory curry.  Do you know a place?
Friend 1: Nope.
Friend 2: Nope but I’m on aardvark.com!  Let’s ask there.
Friend 3: Isn’t it Vark.com?
Me: I think it’s aardvark…isn’t it?
Friend 1: It’s aardvard like Haarvard.
Friend 2: Dude, you’re useless.  I just sent the question…just have to wait 5 minutes for an answer.
Friend 3: What?! 5 minutes?! Dude, 5 minutes is like 5 billion years in internet time!
Me: Yeah and don’t you only have like 50 followers on Twitter?
Friend 1: That’s you dumbass.
Friend 2: Better than asking qrisper.com.  What do you have like 50 users now?
Friend 3: Oooh burnnn!
Me: I haven’t launched yet!
Friend 1: I’ll try Hunch while we’re waiting.  I hear they’re good at helping us make decisions.
Friend 2: Yeah, only after answering questions like, “Are you menstruating right now?”
Me: Screw this. (types mutter paneer nyc into Google/Yelp/Urbanspoon/etc., gets an answer in 0.09 seconds).  Let’s go here.
(5 minutes later)
Friend 2: Hey, vardvark’s saying we should go to where we are now.
Me: (muttering) I haven’t launched yet is all…

While I can see people using Vark to complement a web search for answers, it won’t replace it.  The criticisms for sites like Yahoo Answers are valid, but intentionally limiting your answer pool to your personal social network isn’t the answer either.  Targeted social networks, such as Stack Overflow and Chowhound are doing a better job of providing answers.  But they aren’t the be all, end all.  That would be qrisper.

Techcrunch reminds us that Ask is still around and they too are riding the question and answer bandwagon.  On a quick sidenote, why did they ever off Jeeves? I liked Jeeves…he was a solid brand.  People still refer to Ask as Ask Jeeves…but what do I know.

Anyway, back to the qnas.  What?  You didn’t know that there was a rush to become the first Yahoo Answers (because, really, Yahoo just can’t be the first of anything these days).  Well, in addition to Mahalo Answers, Aardvark and Answers.com, there’s Blurtit, Answerbag, Hunch, Sodahead and probably dozens more.  Like holy crap it’s a crowded arena!

With so many sites competing to solve the same problem, you’d think they could do a better job of answering questions.  Two overarching issues with most of these sites are

• Lack of question management (leading to the same questions being asked repeatedly)
• Focusing on the question-asking aspect as the social engine

This is why I like Hunch’s approach of utilizing machine learning to answer questions.  Too bad their user experience sucks.

As for the latter issue, qna sites would fare better by following Yelp’s model and creating a community of answerers.  Because no one cares about your question.  But I’ll gladly tell you what I think about your question.

A better experience can be had with question and answer sites.  Answers are the key.

Hunch.com is a decision-tree generator that tries to help you make better decisions.  The concept is actually very similar to what qrisper is attempting to do.  However, their approach is too analytical…too cranial.

The problem is that not everyone thinks so methodically when making decisions.  Hunch would make sense for when making life-changing decisions like relocating to a foreign country or buying a house in an unfamiliar location.  Here Hunch has the potential of asking questions that you might not necessarily come up with in your own research.

However, the fundamental issue is that Hunch ignores the emotional aspect of decision making.  Hunch makes the assumption that people think things through rationally before making decsions.  We humans are not rational beings.  Sometimes it’s just a gut feeling.  Sometimes it’s just the time of day.

After taking Hunch for spin, “Wow, I know answering all of these questions will eventually lead me to a much more rewarding answer!” was not what I was thinking.  It was more like, “Why am I wasting my time populating Hunch’s databases by answering these useless questions?  Is this really helping me make a decision?”

Yes.  Hunch.  Fail.