Along with a long interview I did with Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin, BoomTown also got a tour of the Web 2.0 start-up’s new San Francisco HQ from him.
Here’s the video of the visit…
Almost two years ago, just as Web 2.0 was heating up, BoomTown did a video interview with Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin.
Soon after, the popular maker of widgets and other social networking applications grabbed a big pile of cash from new investors, which put the value of the company at $550 million.
But that was before the recession hit, as well as a generally more sober outlook for a lot of high-flying Silicon Valley darlings like Slide, which have had to wise up a little and get down to business.
So, it was time for another chat with Levchin to find out what’s what.
Hey, politicians aren’t the only ones who get to do fancy polls!
Walt and I had a bunch of them about a variety of tech topics that we pulled out to ambush, ooops, pose to speakers at our seventh D: All Things Digital conference last week, which we commissioned from Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.
Check our our lovely graphs here.
For those who cannot get enough of either a report on Yahoo’s first-quarter earnings or a liveblog of its conference call on the subject, here are the slides the company released about the results.
Yes, BoomTown is dropping the F-Bomb–that would be for financial slides for Yahoo–so get your mind out of the gutter!
Enjoy the charts!
Since BoomTown constantly called the $15 billion valuation of Facebook “insane” when Microsoft forked over $240 million in 2007, and gave Slide’s Max Levchin a very hard time when his widget company got a $550 million valuation a year ago, it’s only fair that I say something equally appropriate about Twitter.
The hot microblogging service just got its very own $250 million valuation, but without a dime of revenue in sight. (I know, Bijan, it’s coming, it’s coming!)
After all, Facebook and Slide got their funding in boom times and here we are hurtling toward a possible Depression: The Sequel.
But I am torn.
Look, don’t just take BoomTown’s word for it–here are some of the slides Yahoo put out yesterday on its financial performance for the fourth quarter.
And who doesn’t love a good bar chart?
Using comparisons from a year ago, they shows show a lackluster picture of growth in general, but also that glimmer of the promise of what Yahoo could be again–just as new CEO Carol Bartz kept underscoring–actually, jack-hammering–at the analyst conference call about the results.
Widget maker RockYou announced today that it has nabbed a $17 million investment from two Asian firms, SoftBank Group and SK Telecom Ventures.
The investment will be added to $35 million from the Redwood City, Calif.-based start-up’s C round in June. Overall, RockYou has raised a total of $67 million and–before the current econalypse–had previously reported a $400 million valuation.
In a video with BoomTown, the company’s co-founders, CEO Lance Tokuda and CTO Jia Shen, said the new funding would be used to expand into the Asia-Pacific market, add offices and staff and make acquisitions.
Earlier today, BoomTown posted a video of star venture capitalist John Doerr’s 10 tips to start-ups for surviving the econalypse that he ticked off at a roundtable in Silicon Valley on Wednesday.
Beside the words of wisdom from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner, I also trolled for advice from the panel of well-known entrepreneurs I moderated at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn” event.
The message: They will survive! (Cue the disco ball.)
Here’s a video of star VC John Doerr reciting his 10 tips for start-ups to follow in the economic downturn, dispensed at a VentureBeat roundtable event on the downturn yesterday.
And the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC didn’t need a massive, noisy PowerPoint like Sequoia Capital to make his quick and clear points, which he delivered in four minutes flat.
Tomorrow, BoomTown is trying to find a silver lining from a group of entrepreneurs at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn” roundtable event.
Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic will join Max Levchin of Slide, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, O’Melveny & Myers’ Sam Zucker, and Nirav Tolia of Web 1.0’s Epinions.
Along with my group, for whom I am planning all sorts of verbal tortures (”Exactly how much do you make?”), there is also a star-studded investors panel.
You almost have to admire the shape-shifting–if not a wee bit slippery–stylings of Slide CEO Max Levchin.
The serial entrepreneur and widget king has signed distribution deals with media giants, such as Time Warner’s Warner Bros. unit, CBS and Comcast’s E! Entertainment channel, to allow users of its FunSpace video service to look at clips from shows.
To make money, Slide will get a cut of ads sold by its media partners.
Oh my, how incredibly traditional of Levchin.
But it should probably come as no surprise that Levchin is now singing a bit of a different tune these days, as the daunting task of actually building a sustainable business model and attracting long-term advertisers has dawned on him and probably many other Web 2.0 wunderkinds.
Tomorrow, when it rolls out its new platform, one of the more interesting pieces of news from Facebook will be its initiative to dub certain of its third-party app developers more special than others.
The social-networking site has selected just two, in fact–Causes and iLike–to receive “preferred” status. While BoomTown is unclear as to the details, several sources said that this initiative has to do with developing in a way more in line with the goals of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In a much-expected financing, LinkedIn has joined the big funding club (Slide, Spot Runner) of late, by raising $53 million at a startling $1 billion valuation.
Why go public when you can just pretend?
Actually, unlike a lot of Web 2.0 start-ups, the professional-networking site has been profitable since 2006.
The new slug of cash comes from new investor Bain Capital Ventures, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Ventures.
In its ongoing bid to prove there is a robust and sustainable ad business in the social networking space, widgetmaker Slide opened a New York office and hired a big deal online ad exec.
Of course, because it has to be hip, the office is in the always trendy West Village, instead of uptown on Madison Avenue.
While Wetpaint’s $25 million new round of funding was leaked to one and all under embargo until 12:01 am EST today–including BoomTown, so don’t assume any of us report our little hearts out on all these bits of news–what the press release did not disclose, sources said, was an intriguing new investor: Fidelity Investments.
What’s interesting about this wrinkle is that it is yet another validation in Web 2.0 world from a large traditional institutional investor.
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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