24Feb/1228
Business Plan
by Jeff
Image text : The investor elevator pitch is "Wheeeeeeee! Elevators are fun!"
I'm traveling today, so this one is short (and late) and luckily this one is not too in depth. This one has the art and feel of a very early xkcd comic as well. Beret-guy's "business plan" is to attract gulls with pieces of bread and then trick people into putting their money in his container to purchase them.
The image text is a reference to the American (I think it is American at least) phrase "Elevator pitch", which is also similar to "investor pitch". In this case, this person in the image text is excited to be riding the elevator, which turns out to be their pitch.
February 24th, 2012
Also, the point of an ‘elevator pitch’ is to have a synopsis of your idea that you are capable of delivering on a moments notice in the time it takes to ride the elevator. This way, when you get that once in a career opportunity to pitch your plan to the one person who can make it happen because you just happened to catch the same elevator, you are ready.
February 24th, 2012
Good addition.
So it would seem he does not need investors for his “gulls for sale” jar, so if he happened to be riding in an elevator with a potential investor he would use to the time *not* begging for an investment.. hence the Wheeee! image text.
February 25th, 2012
I don’t know, seems like the ideal business to sell franchises.
February 24th, 2012
I wonder if this isn’t actually about Facebook and Google, both recently in the news about their business plans. Facebook, who’s attracted tons of users based on “feeds” now suddenly going IPO and looking to monetize us all. Google, who’s done it for awhile now suddenly also getting even more insidious by capturing and consolidating more data with their privacy plans.
February 24th, 2012
It’s also the business model of pre-cable television. Throw out the bread crumbs of cheap sitcoms and sell the audience to advertisers.
February 24th, 2012
Very good observations, dc and Paul!
Hmmm, I am subjected to advertisements on many cable television channels as well. Even though I am already paying for the channel.
February 25th, 2012
Hm, I never looked at it that way. what’s up with that?
February 25th, 2012
You are all gulls….
February 26th, 2012
I remember a quote I saw applied to Facebook, etc. If you’re not paying you’re not the customer. So you must be the product.
Most people have heard of our UK public service broadcaster, the BBC. It isn’t universally popular but for many it’s a source of national pride ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3q2iZuU5WM ). The mandatory license fee is about 12 pounds a month with no adverts ever (economies of scale for you). Sky TV costs 20 pounds a month (minimum) and seems to be roughly 50% adverts. It always shocks me that so many people are willing to pay the money they worked hard to earn for the privilege of being the product.
Actually I think Spongebob put it a lot more succinctly.
February 27th, 2012
to add to it: you still have to catch the gull, just like you still have to make people pay attention to your advertisements.
February 25th, 2012
Yep, i think its about the Facebook’s IPO… the facebook itself is the bread and the facebook users (we) are the gulls (synonym for fools) and the users (or user’s data) is on sale for any price marketing companies are ready to pay (even for free)
To attract investors, the entrepreneurs send elevators pitch which has the business plan.. however the words “wheee… elevators are fun”, i think indicate that the investors are not interested in business plan. They are ready to invest blindly.
February 24th, 2012
I don’t think that Beret-guy sees the universe the same way most people do. Recall his bakery seeking tendencies. Sure it would be nice to make money, but if that were his goal i would assume he would stay put. I think setting this up counts in his mind as working, and therefore he can now go do something more useful with his time (like ride on an elevator). Additionally, he’s making peoples lives more surreal (albeit less maliciously than our friend Black hat)
Also, regarding this comic. You’d need to be really Gullible to pay for a Gull at this location so there is some play on words aspect.
Finally. “Wheeeee” when said loudly, generally is one note and i would think has a constant pitch, making it a further play on elevator pitch. But i could be confusing pitch and tone.
February 24th, 2012
There’s no price on the jar… Is it a ‘pay what you can’ sort of deal? What do gulls (live gulls) sell for these days?
February 25th, 2012
That’ll be a dime a dozen
February 24th, 2012
The gulls are for sale, but *you* have to catch them. He’s selling you the opportunity to catch a gull, which isn’t exactly a value-added service because you already HAVE that opportunity any time you’re on a beach. It’s not like Beret-Guy OWNS the gulls. The only thing which can be remotely construed as value-added labor is the time and materials it took to lure them to a single spot…i.e. a piece of bread and two minutes of tearing it up and throwing it.
Besides, once you catch a seagull…congratulations. NOW what are you going to do with it? You have a rather large and very pissed-off wild bird on (in) your hands.
February 24th, 2012
… with a very sharp beak, I might add.
Hitchcock, anyone?
February 24th, 2012
I’ll be the one to say it. What’s with the font on the explanation today?
February 24th, 2012
He’s traveling so he is typing in Courier. It’s obviously the font to use while traveling.
February 24th, 2012
Cute, but the font that I see is “Consolas,” which is first in the font list in the page’s code. Bizarre.
February 25th, 2012
He uses that to “console us” because he’s going away and can’t give a detailed explanation.
February 27th, 2012
First the drawing style is different, and now the font is different.
I’m scared
February 24th, 2012
Don’t you think the whole thing is just to make us all feel a bit gullible?
February 27th, 2012
This is a great thought. Perhaps R was simply representing the etemology of “Gullible.”
Anyway, Kathy, I like your comment. I tried to give you a thumbs up, but clicked the down thumb by mistake-and now I can’t change it.
February 24th, 2012
I really like the artistic style of this one. I wish there were more like this, like the old school XKCD.
February 27th, 2012
I don’t know; seems to me this actually is one of his older works: the tentative retracing of even the stick figures, the belabored strokes of the waves, and so on. Or he does sketches like these before producing his final, published pieces.
Not to be disagreeable, but I actually like his “refined” stick figure drawings; they’re more sophisticated, less anybody-art. That trademark eloquent economy in those drawings: no need to clutter up the concept with a bunch of redundant or unneeded strokes. Even cueball’s head is not really a true circle, nor even ellipsoid, but ovoid, and subtle adjustments in that shape emote, suggest looking up or down, or even just cocking the head in confusion… all with a simple loop.
Or, he’s just really good at having us see what we want to in nothing more than a few well-placed strokes.
February 27th, 2012
I find it ironic that you just called simple stick figures more sophisticated and “less anybody-art” than elaborate hand drawn sketches … It’s not the stick figures that give it that effect, it’s the ideas portrayed by the mastermind behind XKCD.
February 28th, 2012
Being no stranger to irony, that wasn’t my intent … though it may seem counterintuitive unless you subscribe to Saint-Exupéry’s quote about “perfection being achieved not when there’s nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away.” … something that RM is seemingly well versed in.
February 28th, 2012
There is a subtle (or not so subtle) irony in having stick figures standing on an otherwise realistically rendered beach, particularly one with fairly realistic and detailed gulls. It’s somewhat similar to what would happen if, say, Dilbert paid a visit to one of Edward Goery’s interiors.