Just because it snags my overliteral nerd brain: this wasn't the most important moment of Louis CK's career. Louis CK is a giant of modern standup comedy.
Perhaps more accurate to say "if the site had fallen over, he would have looked like a total asshole, lost a ton of money, and no mainstream entertainer would even dream of trying something similar for a decade."
Why is it not the most important moment of his career? Are you saying there was one break he had that really was the difference between his being a mega-successful A-list standup comedian and being a struggling pauper? Because his little stunt seems to be one of the biggest success stories of indie distribution to date. He would be rich either way, but maybe what is important to him is changing the world in which case I could easily see how this was the most important thing.
We're talking about someone with multiple seasons of an eponymous show on FX, a full season of an eponymous show on HBO, and numerous HBO standup specials, along with a studio film director credit, all this following a long career as a TV writer, and we think this Internet special was somehow his break?
I don't know, maybe you'll be right in the long run, but I'd bet against you being right.
I'll put it differently: Louis CK will end up being more important to the Internet than the Internet will be important to Louis CK.
Who said anything about "his break"? What he did on the Internet was certainly more novel than his previous stuff which has been by countless other people. Again, the "importance" of that is up to Louis to decide, but it's not as obviously ridiculous an assertion as you seem to think.
I'm saddened by the downvotes without any type of on-point rebuttal. Guys there have been thousands and thousands of CK-level entertainers over a hundred years, but how many have done anything resembling this recent special?
>Why is it not the most important moment of his career?
is not a serious question, esp. in light of tptacek's laundry list which you are replying to - it's really up to you to make a positive case rather than up to the universe to make a negative one; and:
>how many [of the thousands and thousands of CK-level entertainers over a hundred years] have done anything resembling this recent special?
is not a serious argument, though it seems to be a declaration that selling his own movie has made him the greatest entertainer (at his level) in history, which is funny.
1. "We developed this system for comedians to do exactly what Louis CK did. You pay based on usage (no large upfront capital risk), it's ready now, and here's a demo so you can see how nice it is."
VS
2. "We could totally develop this site for you. It'll probably cost around $30k and take a 6-8 weeks. Trust us."
In both cases it's going to require salesmanship but I'd feel a lot more confident about selling #1. And of course once you've had a few successful clients #1 get's even easier -- you just point to them.
And honestly, given the results, they undercharged.