This is not your typical MBA internship.  Know someone who should apply?  Please tell them about the opportunity or apply yourself!

“Simple but useful — just how we like ‘em.”

Good thing, since that’s how we like to build them.

If you’re a speaker, you know that standing in front of a crowd isn’t half as hard as getting critical feedback on your talks. People who disliked it will generally remain silent or opt for a snarky tweet or two. Those close to you will tell you “You did great!” no matter how poorly you performed. Getting the feedback you need to improve can be the most difficult part of the whole process. 

Exactly.

While he liked the concept and UI, Rick found the LinkedIn validation step to feel a bit spammy, which is consistent with feedback we’ve been getting from other folks.  I commented on his post to try to clarify (updates to your LinkedIn profile can be temporary — we aren’t begging for links / mentions on LinkedIn!) but suffice it to say we’re working on changes to that part of the process to make it less scary.  

Keep the great feedback coming!

The most obvious use case for SpeakerRate is this:

1. Speaker creates an account and adds her upcoming talk (if it’s not in there already — many are).
2. On the last slide of her presentation deck, Speaker adds something like: “So, how’d I do? Let me know at speakerrate.com/[username].”
3. Attendees go to speakerrate.com/[username], rate Speaker’s talk, and leave some constructive comments.
4. Speaker reads the comments and learns how she can give a better talk next time.

Pretty simple.  The problem with the wall was that it blocked Step #3 above.  So, down came the wall.

Good ideas and feedback continues to come in, which is helping us make SpeakerRate better.  Keep it coming!

I was there for the early sketches of hydras, half-amputated fingers, and platypuses (platypi?).  The bear-on-a-bike sketch, though, immediately jumped out at all of us.  What could be more pointless than that? 

At Viget, we usually advise startups not to get hung up with an elaborate logo mark design process.  Part of the fun of Pointless, though, is that we can experiment with things without the normal constraints of client work.  I must say, when a logo design process goes well, it’s a lot of fun.

At SpeakerRate:

• Event speakers can get valuable constructive feedback directly from attendees and find out how they can improve their content and delivery for their next talk. They can also establish a SpeakerRating, which will help them earn future speaking opportunities.
• Event attendees can provide constructive feedback to speakers, track the talks they’ve attended, and research upcoming talks that they might attend.
• Event organizers can find speakers, learn about talks they’ve given in the past, and determine who would be a good match for the event they’re organizing.

We’ve used it for a few weeks at Viget while we worked out the kinks, loading in some 2008 event data and and a few ratings.  One of the things I like about the concept is that it’s a community site that was immediately useful, even with a very small number of users.  If it grows and more people are active, great — the value builds over time.  But, unlike a lot of web start-ups, it doesn’t have the same “cold start” problem that many community sites have.

As of today, we’ve opened it up to a small group for more feedback and tire-kicking.  If you’d like to check it out early, submit your email and we just might invite you in.  Either way, expect to launch publicly in the next few weeks.  Thanks for checking it out.

What will Pointless Corp. become?  We don’t really know yet.  We hope it will take us in lots of different directions, and, as the Pointless Man — or, the Pointed Man, depending on your point of view — once pointed out, “a point in every direction is the same as no point at all.”  We also hope that you, our loyal blog readers, twitter followers, and app users will share with us your thoughts and criticisms along the way.  

We’re looking forward to the journey.