inspiration

Digg Case Study: Why techies are an important audience

written by Nisan Gabbay, posted on October 15th, 2006

Why profiled on Startup Review

Digg has become one of the poster children for Web 2.0 success since
its launch in December 2004. Digg is a news and content website that
employs non-hierarchical editorial control. With Digg, users submit
stories for review, but rather than allowing an editor to decide which
stories go on the homepage, the users do. While Digg does not fit the
Startup Review criteria for success perfectly (i.e. they have neither
successfully exited nor generated large revenue) they have amassed some
impressive site traffic in less than two years: 600,000 registered
users, 10M daily page views, 1.5M daily unique visitors (UVs), and 10M
monthly UVs. Digg has also had a profound effect on the online news
business, with many established industry players taking note of their
success.

Interviews Conducted: Jay Adelson, CEO and co-Founder, Digg.com.
Mike Maser, VP of Marketing, Digg.com. Two interviews with people at
large news media sites that chose not to be disclosed.

Key success factors

Attracted story submitters by providing transparency

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Kansas City should be on this map! Let's do something about it. We have to foster a risk taking attitude amongst entrepreneurs and investors alike.

StartPath will be hosting events, discussions, and other activities to boost tech development, so jump on board and make waves.

p.s. Garmin is on the list, but check this out, they are headquartered in the Cayman Islands, thank SarbOx and the U.S. having the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world.

Employees: 4,751
Headquarters: Cayman Islands!
Sector(s): Electronics
Why it's hot:Garmin unveiled new products to do everything from comparing gas station prices to tracking lost puppies. It cornered 60 percent of the U.S. GPS market in 2006. 

Facebook Case Study: Offline behavior drives online usage

 

Why profiled on Startup Review

Facebook was
launched in February 2004 by Harvard undergrad students as an
alternative to the traditional student directory. Its popularity
quickly spread to other colleges in the US by word of mouth, and the
site now registers close to 15M monthly UVs and over 6B page views per
month. Facebook has completed two rounds of venture financing at very
high valuations, the first at a valuation of ~$100M and the second at
~$550M (valuations are unconfirmed). These valuations were driven by
the multiple acquisition offers that Facebook has reportedly turned
down (the latest was a rumored $750M offer). Facebook is already
generating significant revenue, so despite all the valuation and web
traffic metric hype, it has also established a very real business.

Interviews conducted: Noah Kagan, early product manager for
Facebook. Noah will soon release an e-book on Facebook, with good
insight on the social networking space. You will be able to download
the book at Noah’s blog, okdork.com.
I have had plenty of informal conversations with people close to
Facebook over the last two years, while not formal interviews, I would
regard these as quality sources – employees, investors, and competitors.

I would also like to thank Nick Macey, a student at the University
of Utah for helping in the research and writing of this case study, and
providing the ever valuable user perspective as a current college
student. Nick will be helping with some of the writing on Startup
Review in the future.

Key success factors

Provide pre-existing offline community with a complementary online service

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Some snippits....

 
1. Setup: Rapid is a State of Mind

Embrace the Possibility of Failure - it Encourages Creative Risk Taking

Enforce Short Development Cycles (More Time != More Quality)

Constrain Creativity to Make You Want it Even More

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Use this tool to identify strengths and weaknesses in your Business Plani and to
test your growth concept for feasibility.

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Your elevator pitch is the only thing that may people will hear about your business. Make it count, and more importantly, make it understandable. Your elevator pitch is how many people and potential customers will first grasp your business. Skip the jargon, keep it simple, and most importantly, how does it matter to the person in front of you. It sounds simple, but many companies have pitches that are incomprehensible. Check out this example and then jump to the article.

From Inc July '07 issue.

DAVE I'd like to begin by pumping you guys up a little bit. What we're going to do first is show you the worst elevator speech ever. It
was caught on national TV.

[Everyone in the room chuckles. ANDY points his remote control at the computer.]

[CUT TO: Screen in front of the room, where 60 Minutes correspondent
BOB SIMON stands, head cocked skeptically, next to a young guy with a dark suit and spiky hair. It is JEFF DACHIS, who then owned an
e-business consultancy called Razorfish.]

I stumbled upon Advisor Garage a couple of months back. I immediately thought, "Wow, now everyone has access to a Dave Richter of their own!"

For those of you that have completed the Kauffman Foundation's
TechVenture Program, you already know exactly what I'm talking about.
Dave is the CEO of the Intellectual Property Management Group (IPMG),
based right here in Kansas City.

While you're going through the course, you have full access to Dave and
his stellar advice. Formally, he's the TechVenture professor,
personally he becomes a mentor.

I can't tell you how important it is to have an experienced mentor to
guide you through all of your crazy ideas when starting a startup.

If Advisor Garage does what is advertises, it could be a great resource. Check them out.

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