Eric Leebow
Appearances
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Absolutely. There's no perfect answer to this question because things are hard to scale, obviously. There's a lot of different companies out there that are doing things in tech and social. And we would find people out there as representatives on college or university campus who can help us grow.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
But I think that's not the only way we can grow over time because there's more ways that people will join the platform through word of mouth or through friends who are joining the platform and knowing that they're on the platform. scaling isn't always easy, but we didn't start at one school. So we started at multiple schools and that made it challenging for us to scale right away.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So I think that maybe over time, if we were to start at maybe one school instead of just launching at a lot of different schools, it would be easier to scale. But the reality is we didn't start at one school. So I think that scaling isn't always easy, but when you think about it in this way, we have members from multiple schools on the platform and
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And it's really interesting to think how students from over a thousand colleges and universities have joined worldwide.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
I would say that the database that we build, as well as the community of members who have joined the platform, make a difference in our lives because these members aren't just people who are just going to school and they're going to a college or university. They're hiring, they're education, they're people who are... wanting to make a difference in our world as well.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So I think these people who are on our platform are making a difference in their communities. So bringing on people from college and university communities helps people connect better because people want to be part of their community and connect with those people who have a common interest and We're all on the planet Earth, so we all have something in common being on our planet.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I think it's a great idea that we can bring people together who share some sort of camaraderie, school spirit, connection. And we have that concept where they can come back to this community that they've shared a great experience at. It's not just about changing the world, but making a difference.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And there are certain things that I want to do from an angle that are differentiated from some other platforms out there. We have a cool concept of this breaking the ice and this ice cube. And I always think about the gift of life that we have and that the water and the ice and how we can make a difference through connecting people through this cool concept of breaking the ice.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Mistakes are normal for any sort of founder, so it's not going to be something that you're not going to have ever, obviously. There are certain times when the mobile app wasn't working perfectly or there are certain times when we could have done better on that mobile version that people have wanted or getting the activation links were some things that we could have done better, obviously.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I think there are certain mistakes that we've done in that capacity that really could make the site better over time. And there's other mistakes that we made, obviously, but every mistake is a learning experience. And that learning experience hopefully will move you in the right direction to make something better for your community.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
The future is a mystery, obviously, and you can't really always say what the perfect future will look like for any sort of product or service that's out there. When you look at products or services that are out there that are really amazing, sometimes they told people that this is going to be this type of product or service and they misled them.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
I don't want to mislead anyone to saying that we're going to do this or that. with the product or service. However, I feel in the direction of technologies that have AI or technologies that have aspects to them that can connect people in a way are much better and connect people in a way, not just in a real life situation, but more virtual too, and fuse the two together in some way.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
People want to connect both ways, not just in the photo, but I feel the photos are the perfect example of a connection because community comes together in photos and real life experiences and events and stuff like that are some things that I really think about are valuable to connecting people.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
There's no perfect person out there. However, when you look at technology, you like to think about people like Bill Gates or people like who started Google, looking at things that were very simple that eventually caught on. When you say some one person makes a huge difference on you, it's challenging to say that. always that one person who makes a difference.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
But I think the main person who matters is yourself. However, you do have your influences and those influences hopefully are positive people who you can come back to and say, those people were people that I saw years ago. They're big tech people that I really appreciated and I understood their product or service in some way and I use their product or service.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
These technologies that they've created and built for communities have made a difference in the world. I feel that these technologies that we have today are not just about technologies, but how they can help people better connect or how people improve the state of the world in some way. And I think that's interesting to think about.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
All the people in big tech are interesting to me when it comes to technologies. It could be not just the people in big tech, but you have someone that nobody knows that kind of was an influence on you, such as a camp counselor. And or a teacher. And I think that's always interesting to think about as well. They may have had an influence on you in some way, shape or form.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
We actually launched something in 2009 and the reality is they had to shut it down because it wasn't working perfectly. And it was very challenging for me because we had a lot of room for improvement and there were certain things that I wanted to do that would ameliorate the platform in some ways that would make it like no other. The first MVP, I should say, was working back then.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So when you were a kid and you were in camp and your camp counselor said to you, we're going to have this photo and we're going to we're going to freeze here. Everyone take this camp counselor group photos. That's always interesting to think about how we're going to connect with people in some way that we've had some sort of connection. Last question, Eric.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
You got to move carefully, do your research, understand the market and appreciate what's out there already. But you have to still move forward with your dreams, right? You look at video game systems that were out there. It didn't stop one system from starting after one other system was out there. Go ahead and move forward with it and follow through with your dreams.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And maybe someone else out there will appreciate it and maybe they won't. But the reality is there's no reason why you shouldn't go forward with it because you have to think optimistically, positively about your ideas because no one's going to see it the exact same way as you. Your creative way is not exactly the same as someone else's.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So move ahead with it and go forward with it and follow through with your dreams. And you have something that's out there that's unique. And everyone in this crowd that you have connected with is unique, like a snowflake, as we say on Freeze Crowd, because everyone has something that is different about them. And your idea could be the next big thing.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
You have to be understanding that this idea that you have should be something that you really are interested in and have some sort of passion towards. Move forward with it. Maybe there's something in your early life that you had in your school or your teacher or your classmates that connected with you in some way that had some sort of commonalities.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Not everyone is going to think about things the same way. So I think that when you're in any sort of technology, there's no reason why you shouldn't go ahead with your dreams and follow through with them because everyone is unique like a snowflake. As the snowflake concept goes, There's a unique concept or a unique idea out there. And you have to think about moving ahead with that.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
But the reality was, is we had to move in another direction and recode some things. And there were certain features that we had. And one of the thoughts that I had was that we can do some things that make it more educational and put some study guides and whatnot in here. But I actually threw out a lot of those ideas because it wasn't really focused on my main platform. My name is Eric Lebo.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Back in my camp days, as a child, I would look at the pictures and the photographs that we would have in our yearbooks. And we'd have group photos. And every year we'd take this group photo. And interestingly enough, that yearbook would be sent back to us. And I would look at the photos and try to find people in the photos.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And the camp counselors would tell us stories about campers and counselors that were previously on camp. When I went off to college, we had address books from pre-college programs and we had freshman picture book. When I went to a college, I went to a medium-sized college in Pennsylvania, Lehigh University.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And it was really interesting that I would look through the picture book and I would see the people in the picture book. It would be video games and basketball next to my name as an interest. And I would figure out a way, like over time, there's got to be a way to connect these people with these keywords and interests.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Throughout my college years, I would always think about this idea and ponder, there's got to be a better way to connect people on a college or university campus. It would be more private, community-oriented. It would be through the photos, because I would look at the photos and the pictures on the wall in the gymnasium.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
I would look at those pictures on the wall, and I'd say, wouldn't it be interesting if someday we can have some sort of bubble chat where people can communicate in these photos? This was before a lot of the social networking sites even existed. And I had a different concept and different ideologies and thoughts and theories that people are connected through these photos.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I was thinking about more ways to connect people and not just photos, but crowds. We're in crowds through classroom crowds or we're in crowds through our groups and whatnot. Some of these ideas may seem like they were sci-fi at the time. I remember my mother coming home to hand me something from Radio Shack, which was a QCAT. And that was somewhat similar to my original kind of concept.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
I want to make some sort of game controller that would interact with the actual picture book that would warp someone like in a video game from the picture book to the actual profile page of the person where they can interact with that person and somehow connect with that person on the other end. I didn't feel comfortable telling it to a lot of friends because I didn't know how to build the QCAT.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
However, this is like pre-mobile phones popularity and they weren't ubiquitous. So I thought there's got to be a better way to do it. And over time, I threw out the game controller idea and worked towards actually launching the site.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
We had some struggles getting it up and running, but sat back and said, this is something that really needs to be done because there's a really strong need for a college connection with people that you have on your campus. That's where Freeze Crowd essentially serves its purpose, where you have this platform where you can break the ice and connect with people on the other end.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And people feel appreciated when they actually have someone they can connect with. So we hope people graduate, obviously, and they can come back to Freeze Crowd as a place where they can connect with their college and university community.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
We actually launched something in 2009 and the reality is they had to shut it down because it wasn't working perfectly. And it was very challenging for me because we had a lot of room for improvement and there were certain things that I wanted to do that would ameliorate the platform in some ways that would make it like no other. The first MVP, I should say, was working back then.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
But the reality was, is we had to move in another direction and recode some things. And there were certain features that we had. And one of the thoughts that I had was that we can do some things that make it more educational and put some study guides and whatnot in here. But I actually threw out a lot of those ideas because it wasn't really focused on my main platform sort of thing.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So I had to go towards in another direction with the platform. And focus on actually working towards a group photo aspect where I thought was valuable because that's more of a social aspect that I originally intended the platform for.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Took probably four to six years to eventually launch the platform and we were up and running in 2011 and I was very appreciative that we were able to get something up and running and we've been building it and improving it over time. It's always improving. And that's one of the things that we want to make our users know that they're not just stopping at what we have right now.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
We really want to make it an amazing platform, not just something that's going to be something they just go to once, but we can come back to. And this is something that they appreciate their time with their college and university community.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Obviously, it wasn't easy. Those were decisions that you have to make, and they're not always the easiest decisions to make. However, I went ahead and followed through and found a new developer team that we would work with that can help us. get in the right direction to make this product a success.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
So that was one of the things we didn't necessarily have the perfect product on the first run around, obviously. And sometimes it takes more than one run around to actually get something up and running to make a success. And over time, you have to think about it this way, that Rome wasn't built in a day, right? And the greatest ideas in the world weren't necessarily built overnight.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
They say that sometimes it's 10, 20 years to have a overnight success. And great ideas are fascinating to think about because not everybody thinks about them the same way as you sort of thinking. So I think that's interesting to think about. I was more of the creative mind behind the platform and the creative thinker and the ideas person that really drove the platform to where it is right now.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I think that it's interesting to move ahead in a direction where college students and alumni can come together in their communities and connect in a way like no other.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Henry Ford said, if you ask your customers what you need, sometimes they want a faster horse. And I know that quote is exactly right. But I think about quotes and things that we want to put in there that are some way would emulate a school yearbook in a way that would connect people. And there are certain things that I would love this feature or functionality on the platform.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
But the reality is it's no way too much, obviously. We have to sit back and say, is this something we want to focus on? Or is this something that's a nice to have? Or this is something that is a want?
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
These features and functionalities, sometimes you have too many features and you have to prioritize on the features that actually mean something to the members that's going to make a difference in their life. So we did work on a mobile application and the mobile application was leased. However, we were going back to the drawing board on that to make it better.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I think you always have to think about making things better over time, because if you improve things for people, there's more likelihood they're going to use it and appreciate it. It's important to realize that technology itself doesn't necessarily make a difference in people's lives unless they actually use it.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
And I think that technology itself needs to have some sort of differentiation in it. It's not just about the AI, but the concepts that lend itself to helping people, improving our world and making a difference.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
When people say, oh, they're going to change the world sort of thing, I think that's a little bit overwhelming because when you think about it, how are you going to change the world is going to make a difference in one person's life will make a difference in someone else's life eventually too.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
Because once you get one person onto the platform, another person will come onto the platform to connect with them.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
When you're looking for a great team, you have to find people who have complementary skill sets to yourself. If you're a creative person, you have to find someone who's more technical or someone who's more logistical or someone who's more understanding of technology sort of thing.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
If you're more of a marketing person, you have to find someone who is not just the marketing person, but the person who's the technical person who's going to help out the marketing person. So if you're the promoter, you have to find someone who's going to go out there and make the great technology that you can promote. Finding the person actually is not always easy.
Code Story
S10 Bonus: Eric Leebow, FreezeCrowd
You have to find someone who has skill sets that basically are the opposite of yours. Maybe not the direct opposite, but they have skill sets that they understand something in a different way than you understand.