I'm going to be on Mixergy today at 11am PDT
ycombinator.posterous.com
ycombinator.posterous.com
I understand the temptation; I'm not saying I wouldn't necessarily want to do the same thing, but when George Stephanopoulos interviews Obama or Putin, he doesn't ask if they watch his show.
I also understand that it's reasonable to use your own site/startup/etc as an example of the larger world, but it seems somewhat unslightly. This may be a place where avoiding the appearance of conflict is best, even if it would otherwise make sense.
If he would stop that, I would not watch
Here's my 2c:
I clicked on the link, and am in "Live interview chat #3", with 2 other people. I hate it when chatrooms overflow and create other rooms. Makes me feel unwanted :(
I'd also really like to see more interaction with viewers. Pick up questions from chat. Maybe if the person being interviewed says something controversial, ask the viewers if they agree or not (Have a spot poll).
Keep up the good work though, always useful bits of info in each interview. And I much prefer video to a transcript.
It seems poor to compare him to George Stephanopoulos when one has had a long professional career of interviewing people and the other does not.
As Andrew mentioned in his comment (above) about 99 designs, asking for customer feedback is important.
I offer my comments here in that spirit-
Personally, I find the self-indulgent questions somewhat distastful, but it's ultimately a decision of what style he's aiming for.
You mention that I shouldn't compare him to George Stephanopoulos; While Andrew isn't at that level yet, Comparisons are among the best ways to get better. Maybe Stephanopoulos isn't the direction that Andrew wants to go, but he should look to people he emulates and try to find what he can do better to be more like them.
A large part of that is choosing your personal style. The Mixergy style works fairly well so far, but there's always room to adjust as you mature, and as the program ages-
For instance, Andrew could pursue a Folksy, relaxed, conversational style, interacting a lot with the audience. This is a lot of fun, and helps us feel connected with him, almost indie rock bandishly.
Another direction would to bring things to a more "professional" level, more akin to Bloomberg news with a focus on young and ambitious starts, rather than the megacorps we see so dominating the media.
A third option, and the one I'd reccomend, is to go for more of a Biographical view. Aim for Timelessness.
When I visit Folklore.org and read about the creation of the original Mac, I'm transported back 30 years. The stories about Atkinson and Jobs are classic and it doesn't matter WHEN I watch or listen to these stories, they'll always be wonderful.
We say good examples of this during the SmugMug interview. These stories work well now, or 5 years from now.
Discussions of current events, such as the iPad and the re-launch of StackExchange are interesting, but don't have nearly the same level of timelessness.
Particularly since Mixergy makes it money by selling back-archives, try to make sure they're valueable into the future.
Think A&E's Biography, not CNN Headline news.
In any events, Thanks for doing the interviews, they are an interesting contribution to the world of Startup Culture.
I couldn't figure out how they made their site so intuitive.
Then, after I paid for my design, I got an email from them asking me to fill out a Wufoo survey.
That's when I realized how they know their customers well because they keep asking for feedback.
That's why I keep asking for feedback. I could do it off camera, after the interview is over, but I'd much rather be open about my process than hide it.
One thing to be careful of, however, is making sure you're not disrupting your primary user experience to gather the information.
In your 99designs example, it sounds like they did everything right. They presented a clear, kick-ass UI that guided you through things without being in the way, without cluttering things up with surveys while you tried to do it.
Sometimes I worry that you're in-interview questions are more akin to having 99designs offering a dropdown menu next to each UI element, asking for feedback ;)
Best of luck, and thanks for doing these.
There's nothing wrong with asking the question, IMO, but I don't think it needs to be part of the public broadcast / streaming replay. That sort of thing should be done "offline" and regular viewers should simply notice an improvement in style as time goes on.
That said, I have a lot of respect for what Andrew does. As someone who has had actual panic attacks in college when faced with small group presentations, watching someone conduct an interview with the caliber of guests he attracts is a very impressive feat.
I'm quite sure he'll find a style that works for him soon (if he hasn't already - as I said, I believe I've only seen two of his interviews), but for now there is definite room for improvement.
You really have to strike a balance in the questions you ask and the small talk you make to get a good flow going and make the person being interviewed willing to talk.
I have a feeling that some people on here would rather him simply read a list of 10 questions, but the problem with that is you often end up with really mechanical answers. Some people will argue he is too nice with the people he interviews, but if you press too hard you will sever relationships and reduce future prospects for interviewing the same individual or people from their network. Good interviewing is really an art.
So before you criticize, try doing interviews yourself.
And I don't quite understand all the hate Mixergy attracts. I mean all he is doing is providing extra information for the benefit of everyone else via his interviews. You might not find it useful, but I am sure other people do.
For the record, I don't watch most of Andrew's videos. I mostly skim the transcripts. Some people complain about transcript quality but I know that good transcription services cost money and what Andrew's interviews are free... You get what you pay for.
Andrew, take all the criticism in stride. these are people who care enough to even bother complaining. any criticism is better than nothing at all.
With that frame of mind, you'll get further in creating value for your peers.
Keep it up.
Now only if there was a highlight reel of the interview...
Since you don't reveal your identity in your HN bio, we could use a disposable skype name to maintain your anonymity.
It seems to me that the charges of fluffiness come not necessarily from "softball" questions, but from the impression that the questions are strictly softball.
Seeing you interview, it's very obvious that you're a genuinely nice guy. You couldn't hide that without changing yourself for the worse. But you don't have to, because it's an asset.
Part of this interview focused on the question of how do you make interviewees comfortable? Comfortable enough to do the interview in the first place, and comfortable enough to answer the questions openly, without fearing that the interviewer is about to spring some trap on them.
I've also noticed you tend to apologize when asking someone a question you think is tough, but it's interesting to see the reaction, almost a "No, no, I'll answer it."
For questions that are particularly salient but awkward to ask, you should continue to use that same technique to push just a bit further, both to stretch your comfort zone, and to get a feel for the real boundaries of what people are willing or even glad to answer.
With that said, I am also looking for content that addresses more tactical operational issues, but I don't know if Mixergy is the podcast for this. There are valuable insights provided in Mixergy's format of walking through the entrepreneur's story. Going too deep (low level) on specific tactical issues might muddy the waters and dilute the value that Mixergy already provides. I do think that Andrew's Fenwick episode did venture into this area though, so maybe there is room for it.
If anybody has recommendations of podcasts that do go into detailed operational issues, please share.
The Chris MacAskill interview is a good example:
I don't like watching long videos, so I usually read Andrew's transcription instead. I've found some really great advice in there, its worth another look.
I would pay for access to professionally edited versions that cut each interview down to, say, half an hour with the fluff cut out.
Some episodes I don't like but I've found that's because of the guest, so I think that speaks well of andrew. If you hear 'This Week in Startups' you know it's all about Jason Calacanis, but in Mixergy it's really about the guest ad their stories.
Speaking of the stories, I like that a lot. I was really tired of hearing Jason Fried and DHH tell the exact same pitch on every podcast (yes, I'm suscribed to too many) but I quite enjoyed Jason F on Mixergy. That's because of the story.
I don't like video, though, and the audio feed only work sometimes. I know I could pay for a reliable audio feed :)
If it doesn't work, let me know (via email). We've been having some trouble with the iTunes link, but I think it's fixed now.