Words of wisdom indeed
@taincrow .
I don't want to add to TV2U's misery today and may regret what I will write here later but I have been having that impression for a while and it's not going away as the days go by.
Tv2U has one serious problem, and that problem is Nick. I don't know Nick, never met him or spoken to him, but I have been long enough in business to have crossed path and dealt with people like him. Nick is probably a visionary, he sees things from a distance, identifies opportunities, technologies, the buzz words flow and in a TED Talk what he says would probably sound great. Sadly it doesn't work in real life business. Indeed, you need visionaries, but that's not enough to make a business the success it should be. Nick floats around, create waves in his trail, excites his audience, promises the moon, and feel happy about all that late at night in his hotel room. He does not strike me as a manager in the proper sense of the term. That is to say, he does not know how to execute, project manage, or, if he does, it's not what interests him. It is simply not showing. He is not an implementation or support person. He probably doesn't even have a proper legal person around him to stop him from falling in a trap like the one with CCS TV and maybe the next one. Have also your own brilliant project manager on the ground, where the action is, making sure that things are happening and under control, not blowing your customers for 10 days while you figure out what you're going to do next.
At one point in my career I started a venture with less than 15 people on board. We designed, developed and delivered a product from just an idea and a rough plan written on a napkin in a restaurant. Within 4 years, we had that product installed and running in 20 countries. Today, every country on this planet is using it, including Brazil, Iran, China, and Indonesia. Different application but exactly the same challenges TV2U is facing. I'm not going to dwell on that, my point is that I have an understanding of what TV2U is doing and why I have a feeling they are going about it the wrong way.
Don't get me wrong, Nick is probably a very nice and likeable person but his responsibility as CEO is above all to his people, the ones working for him. Without them, there is no TV2U, no company. If they are not structured for success they will lose their motivation and things will stagnate. If they are not the right people, then get the right ones, or use qualified people when the need arise. Someone that can do a proper due diligence, business, financial, legal, etc. Don't sign a contract on Tuesday, cancel it on Thursday, and look for a substitute on Friday. Trying to get content from a company barely established 2 months ago that will in turn try to acquire content makes such poor business sense seen from where I am sitting. It erodes trust in his executive abilities. This whole episode this week has been poorly managed and communicated. Nick can be a great business development manager, but he doesn't strike me as a guy capable of managing, executing, and delivering. He desperately needs such a person.
To be fair to Nick and TV2U, I am basing this on my personal experience and observations since I became shareholder. I haven't seen how TV2U is operated internally and I am sure there are many good things happening there. I wish to be proven wrong, shown that my analysis is flawed. I am but a shareholder whose interest is for the company to succeed and like everyone else here who is invested, see a decent return on that investment, and build the trust in the company that goes with it.
Have a great weekend everyone, my apologies for being blunt, and I trust that the TV2U sun will shine again next week