Notes from Electric Pulp

Bob Sutton knows how to spot a jerk. You might even say he wrote the book on the topic (because he did.) And he can help you spot one too, especially if that jerk is you.

You see, Bob also developed a 24 question self-exam to help the world ask themselves the right questions (i.e.: Am I a big jerk?) But the exam needed two things to give it legs. 1) promotion. 2) geekery.

As it turns out, Bob knew a guy. Actually, Bob knew the Guy. And who better to help promote the exam than master evangelist, Guy Kawasaki?

From there, the only thing left was the geekery. Enter Electric Pulp. And soon thereafter, enter the ARSE, an ajax survey built to help the world answer the right questions (i.e.: Am I big jerk?)

And, with 101,209 completions and counting, we’re ready to drop the viral label and announce that this thing has legs.

So, thanks Bob. More than 100k potential jerks are half way through their respective battles.

In order to make time for sophisticated follow through on incoming leads, we’re having to be selective on where we’re focusing our time. The following list represents a few that didn’t make the cut (with minor details changed to protect the innocent.) Think of it as our own little Gong Show.

1. I wanted to give you the opportunity to become a reseller of my…
2. Now that it’s already built, what’s the discount rate for my own truemors?
3. We need help getting our .NET app to…(work?)
4. I’d like to launch my site in 3 weeks and have a design/development budget of $600. Can you provide me with a .PSD mockup of your ideas to help me make my decision?
5. You probably already know who I am based on my previous innovations…
6. I have a revolutionary new idea to discuss with you once you’ve signed my NDA. In preparation, please familiarize yourself with http://digg.com. I want a site just like that and have a budget of $2,000.
7. We manufacture approximately 85,000 industrial truck parts and need an ecommerce outlet available in four weeks. I need your help convincing the company to spend more than $1,000. How quickly can you come out?
8. … In lieu of payment, I could add you to my advertiser list once the site launches.
9. I’m starting my own development business and would like to learn more about how you price your projects. Can you tell me how you’d respond to the following RFP?
10. My paintball team is looking for a…
11. We contracted the design and programming of our site through Elance but can’t seem to get it to work. Our budget has run out, but we need help getting it launched later this week. Can you…
12. How much to build a YouTube?

No offense if you made the list. We’re still flattered that you’d consider us to build your idea, for free or otherwise.

We used to talk at length about the number of inquires we felt we could field in a day. You couldn’t get near the water cooler without getting pulled into the debates. I think one of the Michael’s even wrote an equation to figure it out once.

And then Guy Kawasaki good-gamed us on his blog and set an emergency experiment into motion.

Long story short, we found our number. Actually, I think we lapped it a few times.

So, if it took / is taking us longer than a few minutes to get back to you, it isn’t you, it’s us. We’re working hard to get our [response] groove back. In the meantime, just know that we sincerely appreciate the time people are taking to tell us about their ideas. It looks like we’ll be working on awesome projects for the foreseeable future.