I would like to point your attention to a news article posted on the Game Maker News blog, run and managed by Pythonpoole (Benjamin Poole) and his company, Scorptek. You see, pythonpoole wants to start his own phone and internet providing company, essentially an ISP. So, after I told him a story that he remembered from a few years back (one of a similar plan that failed miserably), I criticized his plans and said I would put money that it would fail. He took that bet.

Here is the story I told him:

Dear pythonpoole,

You may remember an old internet community from back in the day (almost three years ago) called Sub OS Dev 2. You know, a place were GM developers (as well as others with different skill sets) discussed and shared the Sub OS’s we were working on with others. We discussed things such as user interfaces, internal application programing languages, among other things.

You see, a few months before its timely death (which I must share credit for), a new member joined the forum called Cooleo (his MSN is mike.miner@hotmail.co.uk, he is currently giving away beta keys for Windows 7) joined the forums. But, you see, Cooleo wasn’t like the other developers. He wanted to try and create the greatest OS and internet service of all! He had plans not only to create a real Operating System (a feat not even expert developers in the community had even achieved), but also to create a network of phone and internet. With this service, he planned to also develop a SMS network, and an application to order pizza and have it sent to your door! But, you see, Cooleo failed. Know why? People like us, yes, you even called it a failure.

So, my question to you is this. How on earth do you plan on doing this? Do you honestly have any idea how ignorant, and I mean no offense, but it really is, this sounds? No, I won’t be signing up for your service. I currently have an amazing connection for 24.99 a month. But really, remember the story I told you, and you may recall what happened and why this seems so silly.

With Regards,

Dr. Watz0n

He responded with quite a lengthy response, pretty much retelling his whole business plan and the like:

@Dr. Watzon, this is a bit different. My dad is very successful businessman. He was the CEO of a multi-million dollar company for two years and now on the senior management team for an even larger more successful corporation in Canada,

He has a lot of business experience especially in the areas of marketing and logistics. We are working very closely with him to develop a viable business plan and bring the same success to Scorptek.

He is also helping to provide financial support along with other investors.

In total we have spent about 18 months researching, planning and developing our business plan. We have negotiated several contracts with business partners to provide our services across the continent at affordable prices and with some nice features/frills you wouldn’t normally expect. And we have also spent quite a bit of time researching tax laws and other applicable regulations that we have to follow to keep everything by the book.

So as you can see we have a real business plan here and the only reason we are asking the GM community about our services is because it is the only place where we already have a strong presence in the market and thus are likely to receive feedback without paying people to fill out surveys.

Also, GMNews is really meant for a target audience of people 16-24 (people who actually have some say in household matters). We try to write high quality articles that include a deep background on the subject and reference related information to adequately cover the story. In fact we have several pages worth of quality standards and “Copy Content Policies” which stipulate exactly how to write for GMNews, what spellings to use (American or British), how to reference sources, what topics can be covered, what diction to use, etc. (If you don’t believe us, just ask our ‘new’ writers that signed up a few months ago and disappeared after their first article because they simply couldn’t keep up with the high standard requirements and expectations.

We spend more time improving the quality of our articles as opposed to some competitors who often get straight to the point (sometimes only 1 sentence articles) and spend more time working on the visual aspect – thus appealing to a much younger market. So if most of the people here do fit in around the age group above, we are hoping some of them will be able to provide us with fair and valuable feedback.

Here is my response to his new comment:

But on several levels this is not very different, if at all, from the story I retold. The Scorptek website has been ‘coming soon’ for over a year now (I have been checking over that time), and now you jump out and say you’re going to be offering some massive service to people with no sort of company backing.

No offense, but I really do not care that your father was this or that. You see, you are doing EXACTLY the same thing Cooleo did back in the day: Starting off/jumping in with a massive plan that is bound to fail. 18 months of planning and researching means nothing, unless you have a truly viable plan. You say you do! But you have still failed to look at the demographic you are targeting.

You said it yourself: “Also, GMNews is really meant for a target audience of people 16-24 (people who actually have some say in household matters).” You also said: “…and the only reason we are asking the GM community about our services is because it is the only place where we already have a strong presence in the market…” If you consider people in the age range of 16-24 years, then you really have a failed business plan. The fact of the matter is this: While they may have some say in household matters, they aren’t the final decider. To top it off, if you take into account people in that age who are attending school (in a dorm), you have even less of a presence with independent people in that age range.

To be perfectly honest, I’d place money on this not working out. I hate to sound like a pessimist, but the backing exists for me to make that call.

And finally, here is his proposal for the bet:

Ok fair enough, that is your opinion.

Would you like to place bets?

I owe you $100 if we do not succeed in offering Internet and Phone services to (at the very least) the U.S. market for at least 6 months (starting within the next 12 months), and an additional $100 if we fail within the first 3 months.

You owe me $100 if we do succeed in offering such services for a minimum of 3 months, and an additional $100 if we succeed for a minimum of 6 months.

Time starts from the day the Scorptek website opens and is offering Internet and Phone services.

Are you in?

While the exact terms of the bet are still up in the air (number of customers using the service, the exact time of launch), I am confident that I will end up victorious in this bet. That being said, if I do lose, I will gladly hand over what is owed. I will keep all of you informed on the exact terms once it gets finalized!