Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[the analyst] 22/8/2009 16:51

Yeah, imo, the role of Dom and the rest of the Board of Directors right now is hiring the right team, motivating them and fundraising / financial PR

I think they've done well on the first two of those (team building and motivating them), but the jury is out on the other two (fundraising and financial PR)

We have results due by the end of September, so not long to wait to find out where we are positioned

[carl79] 21/8/2009 15:54

I quite like my life thanks rok...I have not resorted to posting snide remarks on bb's I have no position in quite yet - do you ever catch a glimps of yourself in the mirror and wonder "where did it all go wrong?"

If you have any substance to back up negative comments feel free to post but posting snide comments is simply pathetic and if i am indeed young enough to be your son, you should know better pops!

[bobbyn23] 21/8/2009 15:44

if Dom Spends 5% of the time and they are hiring...Positive!

[roks] 21/8/2009 15:14

More you than me son...

[carl79] 21/8/2009 15:04

ha ha...me thinks it is you in need of a life

[roks] 21/8/2009 14:58

Is this cr@p still alive?

[carl79] 21/8/2009 13:05

Stupid spread! 1.45 to buy - 1.25 to sell...15%

[carl79] 21/8/2009 09:11

I think given the fact that despite the bitter recession and company cost cutting programs we have seen BGT recruit a number of additional bodies, it is safe to assume that:

1/ BGT are not doing too badly
2/ the company see a future - it is demand that has driven these hirings, not lack of in house skill

So rather than focussing too much on Dom, focus on what is going to make BGT money...and that is socialGO. Dom may have the connections and lots of industry nouce but socialgo is not his brainchild - the product (and to some degree market knowledge) and technicality sits (imo) with the socialgo (GOWIT) team and WL...

If Dom spends time doing other things, so be it...If Dom spends time devising additional revenue streams for BGT, even better...

Dom may steer the ship but he is not at the coal face chucking loads of energy into the furnace (and that is not where you want him either!) and he may not understand how everything bolts together but that is not what a CEO is for! They ensure they have a capable team to do all this and they focus on navigating the market and ensuring they generate as much a return as possible for the company, the shareholders and ultimately themselves - especially in Doms case since lets not forget, he has a majority holding and a BGT flop will most definitely dent his wealth...Doesn't matter how wealthy you are, no one likes to lose money - be it £100, £1,000 or £100,000!

I think Ian's comment, whilst perhaps something he firmly believes is a red herring and even if he is correct and Dom spends only 5% of his time on BGT then assuming sign ups continue at 2k per week and up, premium sign ups outstrip the industry av etc, do you REALLY care??

For the record, I think Ian to be incorrect

[bobbyn23] 21/8/2009 08:47

Ian, from my email consversations with Dom which hes extremely responsive on indicates that the US market is much bigger and better for ScoialGo thus simple reason for being over there....not that difficult to deduce non?

[iantc] 20/8/2009 14:40

will come back to you later about my comments .a little excited today after holding a decent chunk of amc for a while it looks like she has blown today ,looking for the same on mwa in the not to distant future

[carl79] 20/8/2009 09:46

SocialGO is not the failure that I am sure some perhaps hoped / expected it would be...

[ljsquash] 20/8/2009 08:22

Ian I for one will be very interested to hear any reasoning for your thoughts, with your information having got you out of BGT last time.
But I have to agree in regular contacts with Dominic he has always seemed very upbeat even on video links.

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 21:08

Hi Ian,

If you could provide clarification and in-depth substance to back-up your accusations, that would be really helpful to me. I'd appreciate it.

I suspect it would also be helpful to all the other investors that read this bulletin board too

Cheers!

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 10:50

Yes, that's what I thought - as far as I'm concerned, Dominic is really excited about SocialGO and works hard at it.

Personally, I don't care where in the world he is doing the work - if he's doing it in Timbuktu, but making it a success, that's fine with me...

Of course, if they do require more funding (as we suspect they will do), then the US would be the place to get the investors to pay the maximum price per share. That is, if the US-based valuation of ning is anything to go by...

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 10:30

Carl, you speak with Dom sometimes - would you go along with Ian's comments in saying Dom is not really that interested in SocialGO and spends most of his time in the US working on other things

He seemed pretty committed when I spoke to him...

[carl79] 19/8/2009 08:46

I think Ian refers to their influence and was effectively saying that WL "are" socialgo - without them the whole thing would come crashing down...I disagree...
As to their size, whilst i have no idea how much cash they have I do not think they would want to buy BGT nor do I think them capable of running the operation - be them 2 people (as they currently are unless something has changed) or 20... Their skill is in widgets and internet marketing - not building, maintaining and servicing 10s / 100s of 1,000s of social networks!

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 08:28

WL is two people, lol!

[carl79] 19/8/2009 08:24

Ian - I think WL taking over SocialGO is a bit far fetched...

I agree that they are adding serious value but doubt very much they would take over the operation...

I do however see them as a potential target within the market...especially if they demonstrate that they can take on Ning, a £450M [TA - :-)] company and beat them at their own game!

[carl79] 19/8/2009 08:14

Hi TA - im sure that Dom will draw on his gaming background etc but I do not think "gaming" will feature much on BGT's agenda moving forward - sorry if I was confusing my stance - it was a simple response to Purav's post where it was suggest the gaming connection could be impt.

So - to clarify - imo, it would be someone else that comes up with a new way to use the technology (if there is one), not BGT... They are and should be focussing on making the socialGO / Zocku platforms the best DIY social networks on the web...I would be disappointed if they spent valuable man hours developing new ways to incorporate SG into games before they are:

A/ Well funded and not needing more share dilution
B/ Demonstrating steady growth of the current product (yes they are doing well but not yet at the exponential levels Ning demonstrated - we need to start seeing 2k per week, then 3k, 4k, 5k etc...a steady 2k will of course see us plateau relatively soon in terms of % growth
C/ probably most importantly delivering value to both shareholders and customers. The current product is still not "premium" imo. It can be slow, sometimes clunky to use and I agree with TA that it is not very aesthetic - especially in IE. However, they are constantly making improvements and I am very confident...

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 08:02

Cheers, what about the last two (the important ones!)

Thanks

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 07:54

Ian, which question did you reply "yes" to?



"the analyst - 19 Aug'09 - 08:19 - 4490 of 4494 edit

Hi Ian,

Are you suggesting that Dom does not currently spend much time on SocialGO?

If so, do you have any information to back that up? - i.e. how often Dom is in the US and how much of his time when he is there is spent working on projects other than SocialGO?

Or, are those comments going back to observations made last year, before SocialGO really started to take-off?

iantc - 19 Aug'09 - 08:22 - 4491 of 4494

yes"

[the analyst] 19/8/2009 07:53

Nobody seems to get it - forget gaming, gaming offshoots etc., this is a social network company - it's the technology know-how that drives gaming that could be the useful bit.

That is, how to solve complex problems and how to integrating communications technology into a platform. In this case, it's all about integrating that technology into a social platform (not gaming!)

I can see that people here are a little fixated with gaming and have had a bad experience investing in it, but the technological advances from it that could become valuable add-ons in the social networking world are there

Of course, gaming widgets and games you can integrate into your network will be a valuable addition