Reading Andrew Chen’s Which Startup Collapse Will End the Web 2.0 Era, I could not help but think about how in the dot com boom, financiers and entrepreneurs rushed to take an idea from a powerpoint presentation to an IPO in a ridiculously quick time span, which explains why all of the high profile dot coms bombed.
This time around (web 2.0), it wasn’t all that different. The only difference, really, was that instead of drowning a napkin with capital and hoping that money could make up for time, we thought that free software and cheap hardware could make up for time, and money. continue reading...
Regular readers have surely come across the short version of how my old company crushed old media stalwarts Maxim, GQ, Esquire, Playboy et al. and deeper-pocketed competitors such as TheMan ($17M of funding folks!) to become the #1 online magazine in the men’s lifestyle space:
It’s a three step process, are you ready? continue reading...
Last week I was going to comment that according to Compete.com’s stats, both Heavy.com and Mania TV have single digit market shares in the video landscape. If I was running those companies, it would present an interesting dilemma:
- do you focus on a destination strategy and pour more resources into developing your market share, continue reading...
Mania TV adds $5M to their $17M in funding, bringing the total to $22M. Ripe TV remains “king of the hill” funding-wise with $32M… followed by Heavy.com’s $25M but I am not sure if they really fall in video creators anymore…
These amounts are just a “tad” more than the money we’ve invested in WatchMojo.com, of course. I reiterate that you are better off not being funded up the wazoo until you know what your business model will look like and it actually pans out. I’m not alone in thinking that, take it from a pro like Fred Wilson: the following is the most accurate thing I’ve ever read about why VC-backed firms fail (our commentary here and here). continue reading...
