SM: What is your personal background? JS: I have an undergraduate degree in computer science with a specialization in artificial intelligence and natural language processing. I also have a graduate degree in business (an MBA). Both degrees are from Columbia University. Prior to joining Inform, I was the CEO and President of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin,
Top Players and Rankings With more and more women going online for quality content on health, beauty, parenting, shopping, entertainment, dating, etc. there is a rising demand for women’s portals. Some of the top sites for women are iVillage, BellaOnline, Handbag and Janemag. Style, fashion, beauty, shopping sites are very popular among young college going
SM: If I were to publish books through Blurb based on my blog writings, I would need to be able to have a paperback that sells for $5-6. I would also need to have a customized storefront on my site that seamlessly ties into yours, so that you can fulfill the order. Can I do
SM: How did you penetrate the market and get early traction? EG: Word of mouth driven by a great and viral product and turbo charged with amazing PR. SM: What stage are you at now? Revenue? Profitability? Traffic? Titles? Any other metrics you track? EG: Blurb expects turnover between $5-10MM in 2007, its first full
SM: What are your top target segments? EG: We segment the market very broadly into Consumer/Prosumer and Professional. Top segments within consumer/Prosumer are: * photography books of all kinds including travel, fine art, compilations from photo enthusiast communities * wedding (participant books) * yearbooks, student/class books * family histories * cookbooks Top segments within Professional
SM: What was the market landscape like when you founded the company? EG: Well for one thing, Blurb was a very contrarian play at the time. VCs were funding blogging platforms and social networks and online plays – and here we were taking bits back into atoms. But fortunately I had good relationships in the
I have written a few pieces on how the book publishing business needs to / is going to change because of the web. [Book Publishing Moves West? . Will the Digital Era Change Writing? . eBooks Future]. In this interview, I speak with Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb, who is attempting to democratize self-publishing by
Here we begin to explore the current status of Zoho a bit further. Impressive numbers considering there has been no advertising campaigns conducted. The business model is simple – let users try the service for free, when they are comfortable they will migrate over. Afterwards, they compete based on pricing (less than 20% of the