Interview with Molly McDonald, Screeniac

Screeniac is one of those sites I check out every couple of days. Molly McDonald, the founder, creates video reviews, or screencasts, of Web 2.0 tools. Besides the fact that she has a very relaxing voice, her reviews are also stellar. I thought it would be great to find out more about Screeniac so I gave Molly a ring. Below is the transcript of our discussion.

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Allen: Can you provide a brief background about yourself?
Molly: I’m 28 and I live in Seattle. I started working for my brothers last
spring after they called me up and pitched the idea of screeniac to me. I
thought it sounded like a great idea so I immediately dove into learning
about the software I was going to be using and spent a lot of time getting
over the fear of my own voice. Talking is one thing, but recording myself
and putting it out there for other people to hear was hard for me at
first.

Allen: Where did the idea for Screeniac come from?

Molly: The idea itself came from my brothers who own and operate VPOP
Technologies. I think the reasoning behind it came from the fact that all
of these new services were coming out, but there was nothing new about how
these companies were making them more user friendly. Sure there are help
pages and screenshots, but why did it seem to end there? Screencasts
allow you to get your point across in a much more user friendly way.

Allen: Can you share some information about your users?
Molly: We don’t ask for information about our users, but most of the feedback
left in comments or sent to us via email, are from the owners of the sites
I am reviewing. I think the rest of the users are just thankful they
don’t have to give their personal information out to get a glimpse of what
these services are all about. I’ve already done that for them. They like
the fact that they can watch a two or three minute demo and grasp onto
what the key features of the service are and then make a decision if it
will be useful to them.

Allen: How do you monetize Screeniac?
Molly: The goal is to create help sections for a companies new service. These
will be screencasts that are easier to understand, therefore making these
services more user friendly and reduce support costs. I only do a quick
overview of what services do in my reviews on screeniac. Some companies
will, hopefully, pay to have custom screencasts made. We already have
done some custom work based on the services featured on screeniac. This
does not show up on screeniac.com which will keep the reviews and demos
separate from what a paying customer would receive.

Allen: Funded or self-funded?
Molly: Self funded. Screeniac is owned by VPOP Technologies and is intended to
produce some revenue in the future.

Allen: What tools do you use to create the screencasts?
Molly: I’d say the most important tool is the software I use, Camtasia Studio.
(www.techsmith.com) Other than that all I need is a microphone, a
computer, and an internet connection.

Allen: How do you determine which tools you will create screencasts for?
Molly: There is no predefined formula. Just like it says on the about page on
screeniac.com, “we provide screencasts of cool things we find on the web”.
I also have a page for suggestions, just in case one of my users has found
something really cool that I may have missed.

Allen: Who are your competitors?
Molly: A competitor to screeniac.com would be any other blog talking about up and
coming web technologies. But I haven’t really found many blogs using
screencasts to describe these technologies. Demodemo.com, however, could
be considered a competitor to our goal of producing custom support
screencasts for paying customers.

Allen: What’s next for Screeniac?
Molly: Hopefully, soon we will have more visitor interaction possibly including a
rating system, group discussions, etc… We will also be putting more
time into getting traffic to screeniac.com and creating custom
screencasts.

Allen: What has been the biggest mistake that you have made since starting
Screeniac?
Molly: Not putting the earlier screencasts up in flash format and not
communicating with my visitors more.

Allen: What are the top 1-2 things you have learned since starting Screeniac?
Molly: Getting traffic to your site is a lot harder than it seems and people
prefer screencasts over screenshots and written help pages. All of the
feedback pertaining to screencasts has been positive leading me to believe
it is a much needed service.

Allen: What are the most important things that a startup must have to be
successful?
Molly: I don’t consider screeniac “successful” yet, so I often ask myself that
same question. I think you need to communicate with your visitors so you
know what they are expecting to get out of your service. Another
important key is making sure your service works properly and if it
doesn’t, fix it quickly. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to
review a service that claims to have just “launched” and the sign up
process doesn’t even work. I always send a quick note letting them know
about the problem, and the services that respond and fix the problem,
always get a return visit from me. Funding, of course, is probably at the
top of the list for most startups as well.

Allen: Which web apps from the ones you have “screeniac’d” do you think hold
the most promise?
Molly: I only make screencasts of services that I like so it’s hard to make that
call myself. I will say that mybloglogs.com has hooked me up with some
blogs that I never before would have seen, as well as driven more traffic
to my site. For me that is huge.

Allen: Where do you see the Web moving in the next year?
Molly: I think more people will be using web based applications and abandoning
“offline” software. More and more people are latching onto things like
Google Calendar, Myspace, and Youtube, but they have no idea how to
operate software like Excel or Photoshop. Pretty soon, I don’t think
you’ll need to.