Web Entrepreneur William Kasel

Hey Guys,

William here - it’s been a while since our last update, maybe a month or so. Here is where we are.

Its been a rough couple of months here in Silicon Valley. Good friends have been laid off - and the general down feeling is a cloud over the valley.

One of the largest layoffs happened just the other day at Yahoo!, luckily no one i know who works at Y! was laid off. But I feel for those that are. Furthermore, we have been so lucky as to not be as affected by these layoffs as some other companies have. We are self-funded, and very agile.

As I mentioned above, we have a new office - its located in Sunnyvale, CA. We can see Yahoo! from an entire side of our office very clearly. Its exciting - because its a constant reminder of what is tangible.

Come February we are going to be launching a private version of what we have been working on for months. And, I’m very excited to announce all the amazing features. BuzzBuy is truly going to rock the internet world by storm.

One last thing - we are looking for strategic launch partners - so please feel free to email partners(at)buzzbuy.com if you would like to work with us.

Well, that’s it for now. And - I look forward to giving you more updates as we move further.

P.S. Also feel free to check us out on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BuzzBuy-Simplifying-E-Commerce/41119685147

Sincerely,

William Kasel
BuzzBuy
SUNNYVALE, CA <- New location
william(at)buzzbuy.com

Just a note — i got quoted in wired magazine’s blog section.

“People are using the iPhone in ways you’d never expect a cell phone to be used,” said William Casel, who posted an ad on Craigslist seeking an iPhone developer for his company BuzzBuy. “That’s why I’m drawn to it.”

Casel is one of many employers catching onto a rumbling mania surrounding the iPhone’s popular App Store.

Here is the link Wired Magazine

Hey, its been far far too long since I have written. Its like a classwork assingment — if you leave it for too long, you totally forget about it. So here I am.

Personal updates — im officially in California now. My startup, BuzzBuy is really gaining traction, we have 3 full timers, and one part timer. Right now im looking for Flex Developers — Rockstar Flex developers. If you are intersted you can check out here.

What i need–

Adobe Flex Developer

Looking for a rockstar Flex developer.

Qualifications

• Guru Qualities
• Loves Startups
• Lives for crunch hours, sleeps from 4am till 10am, then works again
• Ohh yea, is a rockstar flex developer
• We care more about experience than degrees (our CEO is never got his either)

Please send resumes to william {at} buzzbuy {dot} com

We are also looking for office space in the SOMA district of San Francisco, this whole thing is exciting. I cant help but think of the movies like, startup dot com, and e-dreams. But, unlike them, ill actually make money, and succeed.

Lastly please feel free to check out BuzzBuy — my startup.

This article in Fast Company examines the changes occurring at MySpace, and this is my response.

It can be duly noted I obviously favor Facebook over MySpace, but those that we favor do not necessarily have the best chance at winning, kinda like when Gore ran against Bush. Not saying Facebook is going to run off and win the Nobel Peace Prize, because helping horny college students hookup is far from the guidelines to win a Nobel Peace

Facebook has obviously stolen the spotlight recently making it incredibly more difficult for MySpace to compete, even if it had some great features — which it doesn’t. But — what it does have is a revenue model, one the likes of which, Zuckerberg would kill to have. Thats right, MySpace is profitable, whereas Facebook seems pathetic to even compare the figures, $150,000,000 <Facebook> to $1,000,000,000+ <MySpace>.

With that kind of revenue one would think MySpace would simply dominate, and yes while they have over 250,000,000 users Facebook is the largest, and most active social network in the world. We all know why this is obviously, the perfect concution of everything. The Developers Platform is a marvel, simply amazing really. And, while it has been watered down with utter garbage it is still a very strong asset. Now, the Open Social platform on the other hand is simply a wreck. I work with it, but man does it need some work. I cant help but feel it was hacked together by a small team of people in some dark window-less office somewhere in Mountain View.

There are a few very possible reasons users seemed to adopt Facebook over MySpace, but the major one is a two syllable word — STREAMLINE. It is 100x easier to navigate, search, and in general use. It seems to me that MySpace is busy making money, Facebook is busy developing the user experience. SMART MOVE. It seems to be their real strength in wooing the myspace userbase to abandon the archaic platform of MySpace.

Ive heard rumours of a new MySpace redesign, but if it anything like their recent attempts, it will fall, and fall very hard.

Another thing Myspace has going for it is the loyal music base. Nothing has really come along that can challenge that. Imeem is doing its damndest, but may need a little more time, and funding. Facebook currently has didily squat for musicians besides ilike, which is a cool utility, but it really isn’t a competitor in the market for the needs of musicians. When Facebook can figure out how to taylor to musicians it will be much better off. That is just my 2 cents.

So take this all into account, a streamlined user experience, a great tool for musicians. and a better platform (more integratable, less hacked), and the better revenue model, that will decide our victor.

BuzzBuy logo

I am here to announce my application to FB Fund — BuzzBuy, a complete ecommerce solution for merchandise on Facebook. It allows users to sell customized items directly from his/her Facebook group/event/fan page/ and profile. 

You can see the full pitch at elevator pitches, but what we are doing has never been done, as a matter of fact its been talked about a lot, but never properly implemented. We are empowering every user to be able to make their own shop, and sell their own merchandise directly from that shop or by a widget placed directly on the Facebook page.

I will find out September 22nd how things turned out, but all I can do now is hope, and wait. 

If you want to be the first to see it in action, and get a private beta invite, please feel free to go to http://buzzbuy.jumpfox.com, and enter your email address.

Pandora User Interface Update

It almost went unnoticed, but about 2 hours ago Pandora rolled out an updated UI with a new special tab below the station giving you access to a few more options for your station that were previously much harder to find. And the second is the manner in which you thumbs-up, or thumbs-down the song. All-in-all it looks like a much cleaner solution.

One of the best things about Pandora has been one of the hardest things for users to cope with — the robust features Pandora offers. There have even been sites that tell you the ’secrets behind pandora’, and ‘how to get the most out of pandora’. 

Check out this interview with Tim Westergreen, the Founder of Pandora and maybe you can get a few tips yourself on how to use it.

Pandora has made headlines recently due to talks of Pandora shutting down as a result of the increase in music royalty prices, leaving us wondering, is this move a way of Pandora saying, we’re here to stay?