Now on Streaming Media TV: @C-Level Grill With Twistage's David Wadler

C-Level Grill is a new feature offering candid, no-holds-barred interviews with online video industry executives.

Twistage CEO David Wadler stopped by the Bandwidth Bastard studio last week for a deep dive into the world of video platforms, funding versus financing in the current market and the life of a hands-on CEO. Lots of laughs and heartfelt exposition take us on an emotional journey, with A.M. Arno cheering from the sidelines.

This is an experiment in radical transparency—an off-the-cuff conversational video is posted with no edits. If you want to jump into the conversation at a given point, we have included the highlights of the conversation below the player, with the cue points you may jump to by fast forwarding on the video time line.

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20 seconds: David discusses the pros and cons of venture capital on a personal level, as the developer, financier, and the CEO.

1minute, 17 seconds: Mark Cuban's rejection letter to David Wadler, ca. 2005:

In an email with subject line: The Long Tail, a brief tale (I promise!) David wrote:Since you're likely inundated with mail, I'll be as brief as possible. When I was reading through your blog, I was excited to find out that you share our same enthusiasm for Long Tail revenues. We are launching a video blogging (vlogging) portal in autumn of this year that takes full advantage of that market segment. The site, Vlogville, will allow content creators to publish with point-and-click ease; consumers to find the videos that most interest them, no matter how obscure; and advertisers the ability to target their message to an incredibly specific audience.

We've spent the past year working for sweat and have developed an enterprise-class content distribution network and are currently focusing on building out the front-end. And now we are at the point where it's become important to raise some money. In addition to seeking people who can be involved financially, we're also looking to further build our team of advisors. Your experience with broadcast.com, and more generally with mixing media and technology, would prove an invaluable resource.

There's much more to say -- about both the business model and the technology. However, there is something to be said for brevity. Of course, I'd be happy to send you a business plan or a PowerPoint presentation if this email has piqued your interest. My contact info is below.

I hope to hear from you,
David Wadler

David shared Mark Cuban's response, but since we don't have Cuban's permission to reprint a personal communication, we'll just summarize his rejection note as saying "there's no money to be made in online video."

1 minute, 55 seconds: No funding without a billion dollar exit – don't you need a billion dollar company for that?

4 minutes: Use of proper channels for support and customer requests will not apply when you are a hands-on CEO—managing client expectations as a CEO? Not in this economy.

6 minutes: A CEO that knows what his product does? Updating code to stay relevant or "why David wrote it in C++" (HINT: he didn't want to learn C#)

7 minutes, 10 seconds: David claims "No one uses Windows Media anymore."

8 minutes: Nico sneaks in the back end when evaluating products for research, architecture deployments and client "buy" recommendations.

8 minutes, 20 seconds: Competitors using the same core code across product sets. It's true!

8 minutes, 45 seconds: David claims "we [Twistage] are the only idiots that built our own stuff"

9 minutes, 30 seconds: Most products are built on marketing not on product.

10 minutes, 20 seconds: "Your customers will love you, your tech team will love us!" Says David Wadler, we are a platform for developers.

Searching for a term to replace "Platform"—We decide that Platform is too limited as a vertical "layer" chart, that the emerging model is something quite different and non-linear.

11 minutes, 10 seconds: Back end vs. Front End: Is the front end just a pretty homepage? Is the back end a "wazookah"? Applications versus back end. A look at the layers of a scalable streaming media eco-system.

The day after tomorrow—How to become a thought-leader when no one is following you in the video desert, yet.

15 minutes, 30 seconds: Consider this: Why do all Content Management Systems look the same, have the same issues and vulnerabilities? David reminds us "good programmers write good code, great programmers steal good code". Reusing existing pieces is not a bad idea, but building your platform on 3-year-old technology you will be constrained by that, weigh your options with a long-term vision.

16 minutes, 10 seconds: Hub & spoke model with plug-in potential is the future of technology aggregation. Be ready to scale more than features.

17 minutes, 30 seconds: Some may notice, looking deeply into a product, that many are still in proof of concept. Lesson to learn: "Don't release your product until you can scale it."

18 minutes, 30 seconds: Resolving conflicts when deciding whether to build out a product and a company based on a "demo build" versus a full scale, scalable product.

19 minutes, 30 seconds: David claims 'Well funded companies are not really innovating"—they take a look at what other people are doing and try to "do their own" version....

20 minutes: News Corporation's new paid business model, people do pay to be informed and entertained but you still need a living "platform" that is still supported in order to survive. Nico digs a hole for Dave to crawl into, speculating on why Rupert Murdoch is aggressively searching for a new business model, again.

Will Rupert give Dave a call and throw some shrimp on the barbie!?

24 minutes: Defining the kind of company you are when you sell your platform. You are a partner.

25 minutes: Wrap-up—Take a deep dive with Nico in the next "meeting" with David Wadler: Will Twistage let her into their back end and allow her to ask questions at the same time?

Final thoughts:
1. Will "Chips & Bits" be a hit new show on the Food Network?
2. When will 3D glasses get hip, as we look ahead?