categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 7)
Sramana Mitra: What was the monetization model on that one? Were they monetizing well? Blaine Vess: I don’t think they were monetizing as best as they could, but both of them were making money out of Google AdSense. Flash Card Exchange had a lifetime membership for $20 a month. If you paid, you would not
Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda (Part 4)
Sramana: What story did you tell the VC? What was the vision? Adam Singolda: We told them a similar story to what I expressed earlier but focused on video. It was the same premise that information should look for people as opposed to the other way around. I did not speak about content and discovery
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 6)
Sramana Mitra: But it did not pan out that way? Blaine Vess: It did not pan out, but we learned a lot in the process – mainly about a lot of the things that we were doing wrong like not having employees. We had very high margins. We were making a lot of money and
Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda (Part 3)
Sramana: What was your frame of mind as you approached the angel investors? You had just left the Army and it sounds like you may have been looking for a bit of a break at that point. Adam Singolda: At that time, I was considering two things. One was to do an MBA because I
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 5)
Sramana Mitra: In 2008, you have got one acquisition under your belt. What happens next? Blaine Vess: We ended up buying another site, which was called All Free Essays. It was another site that has been around since about 2000. It was not monetized at all. I had been reaching out to the owner for
Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda (Part 2)
Sramana: There are a lot of entrepreneurs who have a military background. I think there are some unique skill sets or opportunities that you can gain from military service. Adam Singolda: I also had a unique opportunity to work with large data sets and applied mathematics. I joined as an engineer and I was an
Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Taboola had to sustain four years of zero-revenue, until it hit a million dollar revenue year in 2012. In 2013, their revenue run-rate is $100 million. It’s an amazing story! Read on… Sramana: Adam, let’s start with a bit of your personal background. What kind of
Student Entrepreneur to $10M+ Business: Blaine Vess, CEO of StudyMode (Part 3)
Sramana Mitra: Was Chris working full time or did he take up another job? Blaine Vess: Chris was working full time on this business. He was also doing the contract programming with me. Sramana Mitra: You guys were doing contract programming. You had a job and Chris was doing the business?
