TWiST, Seth Sternberg of Meebo
Date: May 8, 2009
Guest: Seth Sternberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Meebo
Meebo is a new communications and media company that’s re-writing the way people have conversations and communicate on the Web. We provide instant messaging and group chat to over 40 million people at meebo.com and via partner sites across the Web.
At meebo.com, millions of people every month keep in touch with friends on any IM network (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk and Gmail, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more!) and chat with people in Meebo Rooms. Meebo also enables live communication integrated into any website with Meebo Rooms, Meebo Community IM, and Meebo Me. Meebo is the Web’s live communication platform – instant messaging from absolutely anywhere, no downloads or installs required, and free!
Ask Jason: (4:00 min.)
- Bodi Grim, Social networking lite in an Iphone app. promoting citizen journalism, what are the must have social networking features? Try take the huge vision and bring it down for one local town might be compelling or by demographic or function. Start small and build from there. What stage in development is it best to approach a venture capital firm? Depends on your track record. If you have performance and you have potential they will respect you, it helps if the market is large.
Discussion: (15:00 min.)
- How long have they been working on Meebo, 2003
- Origin of Meebo, working on other projects and had difficulty communicating on IM want something in the cloud
- Communicating with users was critical
- Proxy issues helped Meebo expand
- Seth and other founder’s background
- Servers started getting expensive which led to seeking funding
- Convertible debt the loan will be converted into equity in Series A at the valuation of series A with possible modifications, preferable method for entrepreneurs.
- Met with 30ish Venture Capital Firms just to tell what they were doing, chose 8 to discuss obtaining funding for Series A. Important points; Do we like these people? Did we agree on the vision long term? Did we agree on how to build the business?
- We run the board meeting very open and show what you are doing well and what you are not.
- Meebo is an open culture
- When thinking about a VC firm you need to think about who you will be working with as a board member, must be available
- Seth has one-on-one meeting with every board member each month. Never wants to hide anything from them.
- When you start on revenue you don’t know if they will have sales. They built a small team to test the market.
- Unique banner space
- What startup do you think is the most promising? Videoegg
Questions: (1:03)
To Seth:
- How did you approach the recession? We were lucky we had raised 25 million in April, communicated to the team that no more capital is available and need to reach our goals with what we have, focus. No Lay-offs
- Users want content in an ad
- Alexandere”How do you feel about storing the passwords for all user’s services from the security perspective?” We only do that if the user creates an account an account at Meebo, it is encrypted and Meebo cannot access a password.
- JustinVincent “Seth, what kind of environment do you try foster in the office? I.e. Do you do things like the 20% play time etc?” Because we are small we all get along, power is distributed, Jovial, allow them to work on things that interest them. Each week every employee meets with their manager to ask how they are doing? Very close knit.
- EarlWallace “Seth, what is your main focus when hiring a new employee?” Culture and technical fit, open, not arrogant, team oriented, ownership, driven, proactive, they will sit and code a project, sales person will pitch us, watch them do their job.
The News: (1:11) Rich Demuro
- Amazon launches new version of Kindle, Jason will buy one, appreciates Jeff Bezos, price a little high and structure wrong.
- OLX cash infusion, 5 million in funding, will fail, Craigslist will prevail.
- Twitter, per founder “not for sale”, Why would Apple want them? Apple has nothing on the web side. Jason believes everything is for sale but the price offered is wrong.
- Hulu signs international deal, Hulu will succeed and possibly become a juggernaught.
- Chris Hughes (Facebook founder) teams up with General Catalyst Partners, advice to entrepreneurs: develop confidence, work on something realistic, build solutions for basic human problems.
- Jist, 6.75 million in funding, one inbox idea, problem is what demographic.
- Spezify, inspired search, school project, not practical, not efficient.
- Vudu, buy one box and voodoo will be on there, IPTV, becoming a big issue for the cable companies
Dead Pool:
- Wikiasearch
- Project Playlist
Notable Quotes:
(28:30 min.) Jason “Geography matters” with regards to getting an angel investor
(33:35 min.) Jason “Don’t frakking say that to the entrepreneur” meaning don’t belittle the entrepreneur until their performance stinks before trying to replace them.
(35:35 min.) Seth “A little healthy dose of some self skepticism right just looking at yourself and how are you doing and how I have done and making sure you are living up to that. I do think is important”
(1:26) Jason “TV guys have got it on like a donkey kong”
(1:33) Jason quoting Scarface “Never get high on your own supply”
(1:34:40) Jason “Entrepreneurs measure press by the inch weight it by the pound, throw it away, it is meaningless”
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