welcome to hip mojo show 14 i’m your
host dash cam carbs rucha and I’m CT
more and this week we’re going to be
talking about explosive startups the
fate of advertising revenue models and a
whole bunch of other things in lightning
round so let’s get started so a couple
years ago ash you wrote a blog post
about the 13 most explosive startups
what is an explosive start up yeah I
pitched this I pitched a follow-up
updated post to erick schonfeld of
TechCrunch and he’s like what on earth
is an explosive startup that doesn’t
sound very enticing and I said well an
explosive start up basically is a
company that goes from zero to either
massive consumer adoption like a Twitter
or massive exit excess of like five
hundred million dollars more or less
with in like 18 to 24 months so really
just catches on goes viral for lack of
better words and becomes part of you
know everyday life and I picked 13 don’t
know why I picked 13 I think I just tend
there was a few that I would always get
left out and I had a few criteria one
was that it did not involve a download
so right off the bat something like
Skype or even Alexa famous toolbar was
out I just felt like that was comparing
apples to oranges right um I think that
was mainly the main thing that it was
just like an internet startup that went
gangbusters a web-based yep so this was
yeah this was 2007 and there was 13 when
four years on the web is like an
eternity it is a lot change I was
looking over the list last night and
some of them I was like wow really these
guys used to be explosive but let’s take
a look at a few that still deserve to be
there and a few that just seem like
completely insane four years later yeah
so we’ve learned our lesson when we do
when we look at a list of like 10 or
even 13 we’re not going to run down
every one because then we’re looking at
like a 15-minute segment so we’re gonna
do is we’re going to really just look at
a couple on that list that should not be
on the list anymore a couple that still
would be and then we’re going to sort of
consider hey if we want to update it how
do we change the criteria and then we’ll
publish the updated list soon so believe
it or not on those who should no longer
I guess be on the site I had listed
let’s start with one I actually had
listed dig which did really come out of
nowhere
and obviously I would say that probably
now dig has lost a bit of its you know
Thunder to Twitter it lost a lot of its
thunder specifically to read it well yes
the new site changes the community got
really pissed and they all mass exodus
yeah so direct competition would have
been read it but I mean if you take a
look at just broadly more in the more
mainstream dimension it would be I think
less reddit I think people just use
Twitter for the idea of digging a URL or
or even Facebook like him or even a
facebook like yeah now um okay so dig we
would agree would no longer be on the
list okay this week Kevin Rose ended up
publishing like an iPad app that they
had done for dig that they never
launched so I’m just thinking like you
must be sitting there with like a bottle
in his hand going like what could have
been okay so dig is not on the list
another company on the explosive
startups that really came out of nowhere
that should also not be on the list i
think is delicious yeah yeah who was
talking about closing them down they did
and then they sold it to the guys from
YouTube steve chen and chad hurley
bought it and then they relaunched it
and it was a bit of a disaster upon a
disaster the thing just a little
footnote with delicious is like i’ve
said this on a previous show when yahoo
bought flickr so image social network
and then they had delicious tagging they
could have just basically taken those
two things and merged merged them in an
added video and they would have had a
mini you two boners we’ve also talked
about this before how yahoo is good at
buying things but really bad at
following through on integrating them
well actually no it’s ironic i was on
Marcus shens twitter feed recently why
is he important because he’s the corp
dev guy at yahoo why was i on his page
because they recently bought a nap
network inter click that I always looked
at because it was going to go public and
I always like to invest in ad networks
because I think they’re interesting but
anyway so they bought in turk lake and i
was like trying to get a sense of why
what’s funny is not the inter click
story it’s they also bought the name
escapes my mind so I’ll included in the
lower third as and when when you
actually watch the show but they bought
the sort of like TV Guide ish company
student not studio now like informant
yeah and what’s interesting is Marcus
Shen said on his twitter feed look like
we actually did not into
great this into yahoo we left it alone
and it’s doing really well any linked to
an article on fast company that actually
for once a like mainstream / techie
publication you know commending yahoo
instead of bashing yahoo so i actually
think you’re going to see a change where
yahoo will buy things and they might
actually leave them alone a bit because
they have not had that much success when
they force-feed the the thing i think
it’s also the approach to take they
force-feed you a yahoo email address
like why do I need to go set up another
email address just to have a flickr
account its kind of its retarded and
it’s bullish and but they don’t really
like like we just said they don’t really
integrate a features and functionality
like for example delicious mix with
Flickr throwing some video they might
have had something interesting to
YouTube okay speaking of another company
quickly myspace now myspace was at one
point the fastest growing thing ever I
mean Rupert Murdoch was like I bought it
for six rennes with Tom Anderson on
myspace yeah same here I felt very
special and unique until I found out how
that work now myspace is not on the list
quickly and then we’ll move to a couple
that should be on the updated list does
myspace have any shot with specific
media Justin Timberlake of we won’t use
the III really doubt it one the models
kind of weak as far as I’m concerned
into there’s just so much I don’t know
bad mojo around the brand I don’t think
it could be revived that’s a it’s ironic
you bring up brand because when when Tim
Vanderhook CEO of specific media was on
Bloomberg West talking about why they
bought myspace he said because of the
brand and what’s ironic is that Tom
Anderson has come out and said not Tom
Anderson um mike jones i believe the
former brief CEO during the end of the
news corp era said when we relaunched
myspace we should have dropped the brand
so that’s going to be a very interesting
case study in marketing classes to see
if the brand is an asset or a weakness
let’s shift gears and if you don’t mind
to the right ones this should be okay so
of the story of the remaining ten a few
companies that I would definitely say
would remain our YouTube I don’t think
we need to i actually had youtube as
number one at the time because YouTube
again I always point to this they
registered the URL in May of 2005
October of 2006 the required for 1.65
billion to me that is like Hello the
gold matter the gold standard no
questions asked facebook facebook on the
list i think was like eight or nine or
ten but back then it was I still think
still closed off to all my students it’s
possible but what’s more interesting is
Facebook is not really an overnight
success you know it launched in 2004 and
opened up you know now it’s this
dominant thing i’m not sure if we update
this list it will be number one number
two number three because I mean as much
as a tix but it’s not this dominant
thing that I think it’s also stour Lee
to see just whether they’ll remain
explosive like sure they keep making a
lot more money every year but their
yearly earnings don’t even compare to
Google’s quarterly earnings okay so
let’s talk about yeah and that I think
is make never but let’s now talk about a
few companies that may be first of all
let’s talk about the criteria if we
update this list okay should we include
companies that require a download and
basically open up let’s say Mozilla
Napster skype Alexa well I I think we
have to because the web and mobile
they’re not release you can’t really
separate the two anymore and let’s face
it so many startups are focusing on
mobile and anything that’s mobile
requires that app download okay so I
think we have to define download angry
birds there you go and angry birds were
like Pandora although very different
platform on their deathbed company going
nowhere and then thanks tube in both
cases the iphone coming around the
company becomes Pandora’s worth like two
billion dollars now Pandora was broke
for ten years that’s like the most like
if you’re still can’t get them in Canada
well there you go ahead so you gotta
move okay now so that’s done and then
you would basically not draw draw a line
between mobile and Internet if we update
this list it’s i prefer all yeah i think
it should be yeah okay so i’m gonna name
you a few companies thumbs up and thumbs
down you tell me wood group me who
basically launched at the hackathon
TechCrunch and then within like a year
they sell 485 million to Microsoft would
group me make the list thumbs up or
thumbs down I’m gonna say thumbs down
just because they sold to Microsoft I
think that pretty much precludes a
prosperous history-making future for
their part of skype but that’s out okay
broadband comm I excluded them but I
mean that was more Cubans baby it went
from zero to five point seven billion
dollar exit
stock he then used the straddle a caller
sorry sorry and then he basically made
his money even though yahoo stock tank
would you include broadband comm and the
explosive start um no i don’t think i
would just because again it’s a branding
thing you know it’s not something that’s
going to be talked about in passing when
people talk about like the last 10 or 20
years of the web well doesn’t even exist
you type in broadband i think okay yelp
yelp interesting to say uh I’m not sure
I thought Facebook Places was going to
kill Yelp even though Yelp was already
working with Facebook and Facebook
backed off on the places thing but it’s
still a perfectly functional part of the
site but you know most top 10 explosive
startups of all time maybe not maybe top
25 but whoa ok up to see in a year to a
few more Huffington Post no way they’re
there they’re not you know there yes
their web base but they’re they’re just
a publishing company no respect he’s
publishing co I just find it very wrong
with that i love i love publishing i
love content you know uh I would love to
write for huffpo but like at the end of
the day you ain’t writing for huffing
plenty more after that foot down you
won’t be also has a Microsoft social
media guy either but that’s fine one
more off this list taught me okay two
more on this list all right three more
sorry quick yes or no make a mint mint
com they went TechCrunch they sell for
170 million too quick haha I can suck
thumbs up thumbs up okay provided to get
their marketing it like a Groupon
Groupon um thumbs down how groupon has
to be like a top three anyway yeah
that’s 365 days ok fair enough
last 14 square foursquare comes down ok
very interesting so I just want to
finish off this first segment on this an
overnight success is the biggest
oxymoron ever there are no such things
as overnight successes I think I was
thinking of like trying to think of a
cutesy thing about overnight successes I
think like to you another company’s an
overnight success because you go to bed
you wake up in the morning and you’re
like hey overnight I found out about the
success but the guys building the
company foursquare myspace you to write
you know I mean these things take a lot
of time so they sweat and breathe and
eat it for two years before anyone hears
about it if so that’s how we’re going to
take a short break so basically I have a
lot of work to do as I
date this list but it will be done
sooner than later led to hear your
comments yeah if you have any
suggestions on either the criteria or
some nominees yeah you could you could
actually tweet them at hip mojo so and
then we’ll consider any and all and I
might be a top 25 because there’s a lot
on this list yeah I think top 10 is a
little bit ambitious and I’m even I’m
even wary of trying to put them in
orders of like one to ten that’s what
people want the orders that’s what yeah
that’s okay i’d be feel comfortable
naming a number one two three but beyond
that it’s just kind of a free-for-all
all right all right we’re gonna take a
short break and come back and ask
whether add only advertising only models
are doomed
host dash cam carbs rucha and I’m CT
more and this week we’re going to be
talking about explosive startups the
fate of advertising revenue models and a
whole bunch of other things in lightning
round so let’s get started so a couple
years ago ash you wrote a blog post
about the 13 most explosive startups
what is an explosive start up yeah I
pitched this I pitched a follow-up
updated post to erick schonfeld of
TechCrunch and he’s like what on earth
is an explosive startup that doesn’t
sound very enticing and I said well an
explosive start up basically is a
company that goes from zero to either
massive consumer adoption like a Twitter
or massive exit excess of like five
hundred million dollars more or less
with in like 18 to 24 months so really
just catches on goes viral for lack of
better words and becomes part of you
know everyday life and I picked 13 don’t
know why I picked 13 I think I just tend
there was a few that I would always get
left out and I had a few criteria one
was that it did not involve a download
so right off the bat something like
Skype or even Alexa famous toolbar was
out I just felt like that was comparing
apples to oranges right um I think that
was mainly the main thing that it was
just like an internet startup that went
gangbusters a web-based yep so this was
yeah this was 2007 and there was 13 when
four years on the web is like an
eternity it is a lot change I was
looking over the list last night and
some of them I was like wow really these
guys used to be explosive but let’s take
a look at a few that still deserve to be
there and a few that just seem like
completely insane four years later yeah
so we’ve learned our lesson when we do
when we look at a list of like 10 or
even 13 we’re not going to run down
every one because then we’re looking at
like a 15-minute segment so we’re gonna
do is we’re going to really just look at
a couple on that list that should not be
on the list anymore a couple that still
would be and then we’re going to sort of
consider hey if we want to update it how
do we change the criteria and then we’ll
publish the updated list soon so believe
it or not on those who should no longer
I guess be on the site I had listed
let’s start with one I actually had
listed dig which did really come out of
nowhere
and obviously I would say that probably
now dig has lost a bit of its you know
Thunder to Twitter it lost a lot of its
thunder specifically to read it well yes
the new site changes the community got
really pissed and they all mass exodus
yeah so direct competition would have
been read it but I mean if you take a
look at just broadly more in the more
mainstream dimension it would be I think
less reddit I think people just use
Twitter for the idea of digging a URL or
or even Facebook like him or even a
facebook like yeah now um okay so dig we
would agree would no longer be on the
list okay this week Kevin Rose ended up
publishing like an iPad app that they
had done for dig that they never
launched so I’m just thinking like you
must be sitting there with like a bottle
in his hand going like what could have
been okay so dig is not on the list
another company on the explosive
startups that really came out of nowhere
that should also not be on the list i
think is delicious yeah yeah who was
talking about closing them down they did
and then they sold it to the guys from
YouTube steve chen and chad hurley
bought it and then they relaunched it
and it was a bit of a disaster upon a
disaster the thing just a little
footnote with delicious is like i’ve
said this on a previous show when yahoo
bought flickr so image social network
and then they had delicious tagging they
could have just basically taken those
two things and merged merged them in an
added video and they would have had a
mini you two boners we’ve also talked
about this before how yahoo is good at
buying things but really bad at
following through on integrating them
well actually no it’s ironic i was on
Marcus shens twitter feed recently why
is he important because he’s the corp
dev guy at yahoo why was i on his page
because they recently bought a nap
network inter click that I always looked
at because it was going to go public and
I always like to invest in ad networks
because I think they’re interesting but
anyway so they bought in turk lake and i
was like trying to get a sense of why
what’s funny is not the inter click
story it’s they also bought the name
escapes my mind so I’ll included in the
lower third as and when when you
actually watch the show but they bought
the sort of like TV Guide ish company
student not studio now like informant
yeah and what’s interesting is Marcus
Shen said on his twitter feed look like
we actually did not into
great this into yahoo we left it alone
and it’s doing really well any linked to
an article on fast company that actually
for once a like mainstream / techie
publication you know commending yahoo
instead of bashing yahoo so i actually
think you’re going to see a change where
yahoo will buy things and they might
actually leave them alone a bit because
they have not had that much success when
they force-feed the the thing i think
it’s also the approach to take they
force-feed you a yahoo email address
like why do I need to go set up another
email address just to have a flickr
account its kind of its retarded and
it’s bullish and but they don’t really
like like we just said they don’t really
integrate a features and functionality
like for example delicious mix with
Flickr throwing some video they might
have had something interesting to
YouTube okay speaking of another company
quickly myspace now myspace was at one
point the fastest growing thing ever I
mean Rupert Murdoch was like I bought it
for six rennes with Tom Anderson on
myspace yeah same here I felt very
special and unique until I found out how
that work now myspace is not on the list
quickly and then we’ll move to a couple
that should be on the updated list does
myspace have any shot with specific
media Justin Timberlake of we won’t use
the III really doubt it one the models
kind of weak as far as I’m concerned
into there’s just so much I don’t know
bad mojo around the brand I don’t think
it could be revived that’s a it’s ironic
you bring up brand because when when Tim
Vanderhook CEO of specific media was on
Bloomberg West talking about why they
bought myspace he said because of the
brand and what’s ironic is that Tom
Anderson has come out and said not Tom
Anderson um mike jones i believe the
former brief CEO during the end of the
news corp era said when we relaunched
myspace we should have dropped the brand
so that’s going to be a very interesting
case study in marketing classes to see
if the brand is an asset or a weakness
let’s shift gears and if you don’t mind
to the right ones this should be okay so
of the story of the remaining ten a few
companies that I would definitely say
would remain our YouTube I don’t think
we need to i actually had youtube as
number one at the time because YouTube
again I always point to this they
registered the URL in May of 2005
October of 2006 the required for 1.65
billion to me that is like Hello the
gold matter the gold standard no
questions asked facebook facebook on the
list i think was like eight or nine or
ten but back then it was I still think
still closed off to all my students it’s
possible but what’s more interesting is
Facebook is not really an overnight
success you know it launched in 2004 and
opened up you know now it’s this
dominant thing i’m not sure if we update
this list it will be number one number
two number three because I mean as much
as a tix but it’s not this dominant
thing that I think it’s also stour Lee
to see just whether they’ll remain
explosive like sure they keep making a
lot more money every year but their
yearly earnings don’t even compare to
Google’s quarterly earnings okay so
let’s talk about yeah and that I think
is make never but let’s now talk about a
few companies that may be first of all
let’s talk about the criteria if we
update this list okay should we include
companies that require a download and
basically open up let’s say Mozilla
Napster skype Alexa well I I think we
have to because the web and mobile
they’re not release you can’t really
separate the two anymore and let’s face
it so many startups are focusing on
mobile and anything that’s mobile
requires that app download okay so I
think we have to define download angry
birds there you go and angry birds were
like Pandora although very different
platform on their deathbed company going
nowhere and then thanks tube in both
cases the iphone coming around the
company becomes Pandora’s worth like two
billion dollars now Pandora was broke
for ten years that’s like the most like
if you’re still can’t get them in Canada
well there you go ahead so you gotta
move okay now so that’s done and then
you would basically not draw draw a line
between mobile and Internet if we update
this list it’s i prefer all yeah i think
it should be yeah okay so i’m gonna name
you a few companies thumbs up and thumbs
down you tell me wood group me who
basically launched at the hackathon
TechCrunch and then within like a year
they sell 485 million to Microsoft would
group me make the list thumbs up or
thumbs down I’m gonna say thumbs down
just because they sold to Microsoft I
think that pretty much precludes a
prosperous history-making future for
their part of skype but that’s out okay
broadband comm I excluded them but I
mean that was more Cubans baby it went
from zero to five point seven billion
dollar exit
stock he then used the straddle a caller
sorry sorry and then he basically made
his money even though yahoo stock tank
would you include broadband comm and the
explosive start um no i don’t think i
would just because again it’s a branding
thing you know it’s not something that’s
going to be talked about in passing when
people talk about like the last 10 or 20
years of the web well doesn’t even exist
you type in broadband i think okay yelp
yelp interesting to say uh I’m not sure
I thought Facebook Places was going to
kill Yelp even though Yelp was already
working with Facebook and Facebook
backed off on the places thing but it’s
still a perfectly functional part of the
site but you know most top 10 explosive
startups of all time maybe not maybe top
25 but whoa ok up to see in a year to a
few more Huffington Post no way they’re
there they’re not you know there yes
their web base but they’re they’re just
a publishing company no respect he’s
publishing co I just find it very wrong
with that i love i love publishing i
love content you know uh I would love to
write for huffpo but like at the end of
the day you ain’t writing for huffing
plenty more after that foot down you
won’t be also has a Microsoft social
media guy either but that’s fine one
more off this list taught me okay two
more on this list all right three more
sorry quick yes or no make a mint mint
com they went TechCrunch they sell for
170 million too quick haha I can suck
thumbs up thumbs up okay provided to get
their marketing it like a Groupon
Groupon um thumbs down how groupon has
to be like a top three anyway yeah
that’s 365 days ok fair enough
last 14 square foursquare comes down ok
very interesting so I just want to
finish off this first segment on this an
overnight success is the biggest
oxymoron ever there are no such things
as overnight successes I think I was
thinking of like trying to think of a
cutesy thing about overnight successes I
think like to you another company’s an
overnight success because you go to bed
you wake up in the morning and you’re
like hey overnight I found out about the
success but the guys building the
company foursquare myspace you to write
you know I mean these things take a lot
of time so they sweat and breathe and
eat it for two years before anyone hears
about it if so that’s how we’re going to
take a short break so basically I have a
lot of work to do as I
date this list but it will be done
sooner than later led to hear your
comments yeah if you have any
suggestions on either the criteria or
some nominees yeah you could you could
actually tweet them at hip mojo so and
then we’ll consider any and all and I
might be a top 25 because there’s a lot
on this list yeah I think top 10 is a
little bit ambitious and I’m even I’m
even wary of trying to put them in
orders of like one to ten that’s what
people want the orders that’s what yeah
that’s okay i’d be feel comfortable
naming a number one two three but beyond
that it’s just kind of a free-for-all
all right all right we’re gonna take a
short break and come back and ask
whether add only advertising only models
are doomed
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