Check out the Daniweb interview @ Startup Long Island

[jayreis]

Hello All,

I recently interviewed Dani about her website, why she started it and how she grew to be as big as it is.
For those who are interested you should check out the interview http://startuplongisland.com/spotlight

enjoy all!
Jason

@jayreis

This a good interview with Dani. I'm curious who's books are those on the table?

Was this video edited before you post it on Youtube?

Loving the T-shirt where did you get it from? Is it in-house?

[Reverend Jim]

My connection at the cottage is spotty. Because of the frequent starts and stops I find I can only watch online video if I download it first and play locally. Because of hearing loss in the upper frequencies I also find it helps to download before playing so I can use the equalizer in VLC to boot the upper ranges. Is there any place I can download the interview as an avi, flv, mkv, etc.?

[Reverend Jim]

Never mind. I followed a link to youtube and found it there as an mp4.

[Dani]

Loving the T-shirt where did you get it from? Is it in-house?

Haha yeah. It's one of the DaniWeb tshirts.

[jayreis]

Glad to see all the replies on this thread :-)

The books on the table were
Duct tape Marketing - John Jantsch
Engagement Marketing - Gail Goodman

And a few others we had laying around the office that I can't find now lol.
The video was only edited in one spot since I an not that good at editing and the one spot I edited had a lot of laughing etc that wouldn't look that great on the video.

The video was only edited in one spot since I an not that good at editing and the one spot I edited had a lot of laughing etc that wouldn't look that great on the video.

You should have included that, it would be good to see how you and Dani were giggling. Overall the video was good because you had edited 1 time, it's hard to make an interview perfect but you manage to do that over the course of 30 minutes that is long.

[BigPaw]

An interesting interview.

At first I thought it was a bit rough in presentation, low quality audio. But, it was very natural, not pretentious. Dani is a very good interviewee. Often techies, when being interviewed, are too Cerebral and monotone. But she presented hers and the achievements of Daniweb in a way that was very animated, modest enough to maintain admiration, and practical enough to inspire. Either she is a complete natural to media, or has applied her training impeccably. Reminded me of a Bill Gates interview.

As you've mentioned your editing skills, you could try using at least two cameras, one dedicated to the interviewee and one picking up the two of you. If you find that you've asked a duff question, or in a duff way, you can dub the question in a better way in post-production, or use an after-shot of you asking the question again, and then use footage from the dedicated camera of Dani answering the question. With such long interviews you could intersperse it with the occasional photograph or video clip of something Dani is describing.

I'm not going to pretend to know Dani, but she shined, well done on capturing that. :-)

[Dani]

Funnily enough, I just watched this now from start to finish for the first time.

[Dani]

Dani is a very good interviewee.

Thanks! :)

Either she is a complete natural to media, or has applied her training impeccably.

Thanks and nope, no training. Nor have I even ever taken a business course before. Hofstra University offered two tracks: a B.S. in Computer Science (which I took) which required you to take a lot of the higher level natural sciences and engineering courses, or a B.A. in Computer Science which allowed you to replace some of the upper level science and engineering courses with liberal arts courses. I was actually midway through pursuing a minor in chemistry (which I never completed due to my dad passing away), coupled with my IT/IS minor which I did complete. Unfortunately I didn't make time in school for any business courses (or pretty much any electives, for that matter).

Additionally, about midway through my degree, I had decided that I was going to pursue my MBA at NYU after finishing my undergrad degree. I have always really liked the strategy involved in the corporate world, and I thought that an MBA would get me a high paying software engineering job at a large corporation in Manhattan. By the time I graduated from Hofstra, however, DaniWeb had already taken off and I really wanted to take the opportunity at the time to run with it. One of my biggest regrets today is that I never got my MBA.

[BigPaw]

You're very welcome! And, considering how hard you've worked, you're entitled. For a number of years I was working with Microsoft while Consulting for Fujitsu, and the place was full of people like you, but not in their "own place". Perhaps if you had achieved your MBA the Internet would not have experienced the Daniweb factor, and you would be stuck in the constraints of some other businesses realm of imagination and aspiration, and not what users at Daniweb are enjoying today. :-)

[mike_2000_17]

I really enjoyed the interview. It was quite endearing how Dani was giggling the whole time. One thing I got out of this interview is that Dani, you really got your shit together! (pardon the language) I mean, you clearly understand this business well, from the technical and marketing side, and that's impressive. I've grown to respect you a lot over my years on Daniweb. You're a force to be reckoned with.

One of my biggest regrets today is that I never got my MBA.

Pfff.. You could be a guest lecturer in an MBA course. The purpose of an MBA is to pad a resume, you don't need that, you've got more than a million Daniweb members padding yours.

[Dani]

Hi BigPaw, I'm super flattered, and thank you very much for my honorary MBA. And Mike, thank you soooooo much for those kind, kind words. Thank you so, so much.

[Dani]

I really enjoyed the interview. It was quite endearing how Dani was giggling the whole time.

I was giggling because the uncut version of the video showed that everytime I said "Lawn Guyland" in my Long Island accent, Jason would burst out laughing hysterically for like 10 minutes, and that would make me laugh too. So then in the final version, everytime I was about to say 'Long Island' I would start giggling in anticipation of Jason bursting out laughing. And Jason was feeding into it because I would say something like "I went to Hofstra U" and he would follow up with the question "And where is Hofstra U?".

[Reverend Jim]

Any Bill Cosby fan knows where Hofstra is.

[mike_2000_17]

Yeah, you do have a pretty thick Lawn Guyland accent.

[BigPaw]

....okay, I just spent the last ten minutes Googling to find out who Lawn Guyland is... I get it now :-D

[Stuugie]

Nice interview all around. Would love to see the un-edited version. Where can I get a daniweb shirt? #HackerSwag - Yeah, I hashtagged that!

[Dani]

Where can I get a daniweb shirt?

At any of the DaniWeb events :) Sorry, not mailing them out right now, but might do that in the future.

[Lucaci Andrew]

I love how Dani was giggling almost all the interview.
Immediately thought of this, I don't know why:

[Dani]

Umm ... I don't know why either :)