This is a good story: “How TweetPhoto Used Twitter to Get the Company Off the Ground, ” by Riva Richmond at the Wall Street Journal‘s WSJ.com
It tells the story of Sean Callahan and his TweetPhoto, a Twitter-related photo sharing that launched over Twitter. Callahan was worried about waiting while the established leader, TwitPic, got bigger. So he launched while still finishing his degree in London.
Over the next few months, Mr. Callahan’s Twitter stream and blog documented, blow by blow, the startup of a new business, with all of its victories and defeats. His experience suggests that wise use of social media could help speed the birth of many new ventures–not just those involved in social networking–if a business owner knows how to connect with the right people, learn from their conversations and weather the ups and downs that come with this new form of communication.
It’s an interesting story. And there’s also the advantage of publicity; in this case it was on WSJ.com, and here I am posting about it. I’m sure that TweetPhoto isn’t the only business launched this way on Twitter, but this is the one we’re looking at.
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
