Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[carl79] 01/10/2009 22:13

perhps TA - I am sure those close to the company keep tabs from time to time...

As previous, I do not think that WL leaving ids terrible news - a surprise but not terrible. I am still confident and look forward to a trading update of some description

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 21:46

By the way,

We get visitors to this thread from Chicago - I wonder if it's Spence?

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 21:45

Sent a cheeky one line email to Spence (asking if SG has a future) - he seems to think that SocialGO are doing very well!

Which is good news

But, we probably need to take that with a pinch of salt at this early stage - the cynic would be thinking that with shares and options in place, he has no alternative but to say that socialgo are doing 'just fine'.

Spence said the reason for leaving was simply that they have seen a massive opportunity in the market that they want to go for on their own. They want to create something big for themselves and rather than be the indians in someone else's big web business, they would like to be the chiefs of their own.

With their talent, this makes sense

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 12:55

Any news on when the AGM is?

Last year it was held on the 23rd October, but they need to give one months notice,

[digger27] 01/10/2009 12:43

Don't recall seeing that 1.6 million rollover before?

Yep not good news about WL.. lord knows we could do with some.

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 12:24

No,not good news, Ian.

The things that WL really brought to the table, were their expertise in marketing, enthusiasm, energy and innovative ideas. The widgets were important, but it's the whole package they brought to the company that really pushed the SocialGO forward.

It does sound like they left on good terms, though. That is a good thing

Life without WL will be less fun for SocialGO network owners, many of whom signed up specifically because of them and their widgets. Can Dominic replace them and keep coming up with new, innovative (and working!) widgets to make SocialGO better.

Overall it's been a great start for the company - they have become a real contender, rather than an also-ran, but now it's crunch time. More then ever, the company is relying on Dominic to throw himself into the business 100%. Does he have the energy to do that? Wait and see...

[77monty] 01/10/2009 09:38

I suspect there has been a disagreement over exclusivity on widget developments. I've noticed that the SocialGo guys are developing a lot more in-house and maybe WL didn't like this. Also, the sales of widgets (at least a couple of months ago) were not stella and certainly not enough to pay the salaries of two people.

I'm just glad the SocialGO and WL agreed to part on good terms unlike how they left Ning.

[iantc] 01/10/2009 07:24

hmm not good news ta ,

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 01:00

Not good news, for sure, but they have done an amazing job for SocialGO over the past year

Perhaps WL think they have done enough to get SG to a position where they can become a profitable business? They mention that they have helped SocialGO beat ning hands down and that SG has reached 'the next level of maturity'. They also suggest that SG is now a 'market-leader'. All seems to be very positive stuff, so why leave if SG is doing so well? Did they get bored? Not enough share options? Or maybe they just needed a different challenge?

Well, they say the reason they are going is that they have fulfilled their aims at SG and are now moving onto the next big thing, a "super stealth" project...

But perhaps there are other, more negative reasons why they are leaving?

Watch this space, I guess...

[the analyst] 01/10/2009 00:58

The official news that WL has left:



"It is our great pleasure to inform you that SocialGO and WidgetLaboratory have today reached a milestone. It was exactly one year ago that we were brought on board to help SocialGO become a market leader for monetized, white-label social networks. We feel that this goal has been met.

Now that SocialGO has reached the next level of maturity, it is time for WidgetLaboratory to step aside and make room for all of the other developers who will be utilizing the open API to create exciting new widgets and solutions for the SocialGO widget store.

It is gratifying to know that, with our help, SocialGO has gone from a virtually unknown startup in London, to being compared head-to-head with the behemoth that is Ning. We believe this clearly demonstrates that it does not take a hundred million dollars or dozens of PR releases to succeed online. One merely needs to understand the problems faced by your customers, and then deliver a solution that fits. SocialGO has beaten Ning hands-down in the area of white-label solutions for Network Creators who do not want to become a group on the "Ningbook" network. We are proud to have contributed to this victory with our unique blend of marketing and software solutions.

Now we are set to launch our "Super Stealth" project. We are all about monetization... always have been. Our next move is to deliver our products and solutions OUTSIDE of a closed-platform such as Ning or SocialGO. To do so, we're setting sail for the open waters of the Internet with our greatest idea ever...one that can be used anywhere, anytime, by anyone who wishes to monetize their "stuff".

For those who are our loyal customers, or those who have moved from Ning per our suggestion, we want to assure you that you have found the right solution for your Social Networking needs with SocialGO. Even though we will not be building any new widgets on SocialGO, we will continue to support all of the widgets that were developed for the Widget Store, and you can continue to use [e-mail] as your point of contact with the LAB.

We will be bringing you more news about our new project in the days and weeks ahead. We believe that this is the next "Big Thing", and we look forward to proving the same!


Evil G. and Mad Scientist"

[the analyst] 30/9/2009 21:35

Talking of dead, the 'Evil Genius' at WL has disappeared off the face of the earth, never to be seen again. Needs investigating further...

[the analyst] 30/9/2009 21:35

There is life

But not as we know it...

[77monty] 29/9/2009 19:00

Doesn't the graph look like the share has been suspended....

[sirmark] 29/9/2009 16:13

ooooohhh what !!!!

What happened ???





O nothing

niight night



zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................

[iantc] 28/9/2009 19:18

stop snoring monty ,you will wake the dead up

[77monty] 25/9/2009 17:01

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............

[the analyst] 22/9/2009 18:49

It's all good progress, but we have yet to see how 'buggy' all of these new features will be. Hopefully they will run smoothly, but "you never can tell" as they say.

Still a huge amount of work to be done...

Imo, they need to have ironed out just about all of the functionality problems by the end of the year - they need to get the bugs out of the system, they need to speed the system up so it is much faster than ning's and then they will be able to start marketing the product in earnest

The chat room feature, the url problems, video chat and many other things also need addressing.

[the analyst] 22/9/2009 18:36

A few more developments worth noting, these three pages which were hidden away as 'drafts' earlier in the week have no been published on the socialgo site. They have also sent round and email to let averyone know about these new releases.

Go Cart for SocialGO:


Member Billing 2.0 for SocialGO


Twitter Connect is Here:

[the analyst] 22/9/2009 12:21

Looked on the Get Satisfaction pages and saw that EG is still around, which is reassuring

The fact he is not blogging might simply mean he's working hard developing the next big release

But, it might also be that he has been inundated by people wanting the "One Click Migration from ning to SocialGO" services - we can but hope :)

[the analyst] 18/9/2009 23:37

"PHP Developers in London (United Kingdom)

Proposed by the SocialGO company 1 day ago.

Teleworking: no

Place: London (United Kingdom)

We are looking for bright, enthusiastic developers to join the SocialGO development team as Junior Application Developers. The ideal candidate would have 2-3 years coding experience with object-orientated PHP, mySQL, java script, CSS & HTML. Joining a small team at this critical stage in our applications development will be great experience and you will be able to advance quickly as we scale the organisation. Your time will be divided between working on new projects and maintaining existing ones.
You will be joining our office in Rivington Street, Shoreditch and working with 5 other developers and the support and marketing teams to create and evolve SocialGO. You will get a salary based on experience + skills and share options in the company.
We are interviewing immediately so please pop an email to gabriel (at) socialgo.com with your CV.
Start : Immediate"

[the analyst] 18/9/2009 18:53

Still no WL updates - anyone heard any news from them?

I'm very surprised there has been nothing at all...