Subscription billing and recurring payments seem simple enough at face value, but once upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, free trial periods and more are introduced, the process can get pretty hairy. Though highly common, most startups don’t anticipate this predicament until their clients start calling the support line. That’s why Recurly is such a lifesaver for online businesses. Tasks that typically eat up 2-6 months are settled in a single day with no elbow grease from you and no nuisance to your customers. After all, launching an online business is a full-time occupation, and entrepreneurs don’t have the time to press pause for a credit card validation or an invoice. Recurly keeps billing quick and efficient and makes it easy to focus on your growing business so you can leave the number-crunching to the pros. Time is money, and Recurly can save you a great deal on both.

Return Wednesday, May 12th to learn about Isaac’s days before Recurly and the important lessons he learned that every entrepreneur should know.

After a colorful collection of “mini startups,” Jude is finally prepared for his biggest yet: HeyZap, a new site that simplifies the connection between flash games and websites. After several blurry months of hard work and nonstop coding, Jude’s newest project has got him more excited than ever. HeyZap is on his mind during every waking moment, not because he is burdened by the thought or worried about whether or not it will succeed, but because he is genuinely thrilled to have built it and excited to see where he can make it go. Jude says that more than anything, the key to success is truly believing in a product and putting everything into it, because if you can’t live and breathe it, then it’s not worth your time. Click here to read more about HeyZap: Finally Plug-in-Playable: HeyZap Makes Flash Gaming Even Easier

A Short Clip of My Conversation with Jude Gomila
Trouble Viewing? Visit: IntimateMath on YouTube

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PROFILE

STATS

Jude Gomila of HeyZap

Companies Founded:
1. HEYZAP – First Proper Valley, VC-Funded Startup – Sept 2008
Fundraised: $650,000
Investors:
Union Square Ventures
Highest Numbers Number of Employees: 8

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Harrow, London
Currently Resides: San Francisco, CA
Age: 25
Education: Cambridge University, Engineering
Quality Most Remembered For: Great hair
In 10 Years, I See Myself…: Having one, or two, or even, three startups under my belt
I’m Happiest when…: I’m meeting people, networking, and seeing products launch
I’m Motivated by…: Innovation
Biggest Fear: My Girlfriend (Laughing)
Role Models: Mathematicians, famous physicists, famous engineers, business guys, and any extreme performer in their field.

Jude’s: Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | Blog

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THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Jude Gomila

Kim Ngo: How crazy are you?

Jude Gomila: How crazy am I? More than you can ever imagine.

Kim Ngo: Explain. Do you think I’m crazy?

Jude Gomila: Slightly. I think a bit of craziness is good, especially in startups because if you make a boring company, you’re probably going to do something that no one cares about. Whereas if you take a slightly unusual route and don’t do what everyone else is doing, people are attracted to that. Things that are different excite people.

Kim Ngo: What is Heyzap? Tell me in the coolest way possible.

Jude Gomila: Heyzap provides tools for connecting the best flash games from the web to the best web sites and allows players to be more social. So, we take a game from Facebook and we put it in the right place on the web.

Kim Ngo: Would you say this market is fairly new?

Jude Gomila: It’s very new. Asia is leading the market, it’s ahead of the US in ways; but the US is also skyrocketing. The market has been getting insane.

Kim Ngo: So how many companies have you founded?

Jude Gomila: Heyzap is my third startup, but it’s my first proper venture capital-funded startup and also my first Silicon Valley-located startup.

I’ve gone through many smaller projects. When you try to create a website, make a product, or experiment with your friends and make things, those are all mini startups in a way. I’ve been making things in my bedroom, experimenting, and messing with websites since I was around nine years old. Each of these experiences helped prepare me for a big startup.

Kim Ngo: At nine years old?

At the HeyZap Office

Jude Gomila: I started messing around with the web when I was about fourteen when the Internet became available to me. My friends and I were messing around, playing with games, and trying to figure different things out. Essentially, we wanted to be creative and find new uses for the web, which weren’t really available at the time.

Kim Ngo: Can you tell us the story? How did it get started?

Jude Gomila: I’ve been making things in my bedroom, working on random hardware and electronic projects. I was really interested in constructing things, engineering and messing around with stuff. I used to take apart electronics just to look at what was inside.

For example, there’s a company in the UK that’s a bit like Costco, I used to go through the catalog and look at all the different products and their pricing, not necessarily because I wanted to buy anything, but because I was interested in how they worked.

I was also into making cash on the playground from buying and selling things. I remember buying some chewing gum in bulk that was super cheap, and then selling each stick for roughly 75 cents. I made about 50 times of the price I bought the gum for. It was small money, but I was like, “Okay, now I can buy things like hardware and whatever I want!”

Another thing I did in primary school was I used a magic 8-ball reader to go around the playground and ask people, “Do you want your future read? It’s 10 cents a go.” It was great because it was a virtual present, like the ones you see in the virtual world today. I could keep doing it over and over again.

Jude Gomila AGAIN.

Kim Ngo: Which university did you go to?

Jude Gomila: I went to Cambridge University and majored in engineering.

I was among pretty good people. I got interested in business during college. Though, I was always interested in making money before university, but the “traditional business process” wasn’t part of my mindset.

In my second year, I participated in a business competition, and we redesigned a process for kidney dialysis. My team was a finalist, and we took fourth place, which was pretty good since most of the people there had PhDs. I think we were the youngest finalists ever. It was encouraging. It was a big competition where the winner took home $75,000.

But I started to see this disconnect between participating in college competitions and just being creative. The competitions weren’t like the real world of business. Even though it was impressive and I started to make contacts, I started to think about funding and the practical aspects of entrepreneurship.

Learning about business is very different in the UK than the in US.

Kim Ngo: How so?

Jude Gomila: Well, there weren’t role models to look at around our community. There was really just one guy, Michael Smith, who created Moshi Monsters. He did firebox.com, which is a big UK gift site, and he was quite a bit older than us. He was one of the few guys that made it seem possible that you could be very successful as an entrepreneur in the UK.

Kim Ngo: Why do you think it’s different in the UK?

Jude with Max Ventilla of Aardvark

Jude Gomila: There are several reasons. Obviously, there are more funding opportunities because there are so many venture capital firms here. Other companies like Facebook, Yahoo and Google are here, so you can make deals quickly. And the skills to make it all happen are here: you’ve got people with the right mindset and training. The right people, funding, companies, and deals are all here.

Even the pure logistics of having a meeting are so much simpler in Silicon Valley. There are many different startups close to our office. We can just jump across the street for a meeting. In London, it’s a 30 to 45 minute commute for a meeting.

Kim Ngo: Who’s your favorite VC?

Jude Gomila:Union Square Ventures has been really good to us. They’ve been giving us a lot of great advice. Albert Wenger is an amazing guy. He’s one of the few investors with a computer science degree. Albert brings a lot of context – not just on business side, but also on the technical side as well.

Kim Ngo: I hear the relationship with a VC is really important.

Jude Gomila: Yes! They can make you or break you. You have to report back to your VC every day or every week, and they have the ability to get involved with what you’re buying, who you’re recruiting, and the direction of the company. If a VC tries to restrict you in too many ways, you end up being non-entrepreneurial.

It’s much better for VCs to provide contacts to you when you need them and steer you towards the right market. Often, they will solve specific problems if you need help, but the most important thing is that they are there when you need them and that they keep track of you and make sure that you’re going in the right direction.

Kim Ngo: It sounds like entrepreneurs don’t look for micro managers; they look for investors who support them when they need it. Let’s get back to your story. What happened after college?

Jude Doing His Thing!

Jude Gomila: After I graduated, I set up a business with two other guys from Cambridge.

We tried a few different things, like a strategic consulting company because we had a lot of specialists in that. That paid the bills, but it wasn’t scalable.

Another thing we tried, which is quite funny, is an egg packaging company. And everyone takes the piss out of me for this one, but it was still an experiment in entrepreneurship. The profit margin was very slim, and I learned that you have to go into a business that has a decent margin. There were some hard lessons learned that you couldn’t learn from a textbook. Selling to farmers was the hardest thing in the world. But I learned not to get into a stagnant market. To make a profit, it is essential to get into a market which will innovate quickly, because that speed will allow your business to move fast as well.

Kim Ngo: What did you after that?

Jude Gomila: I tried to develop an electronics brand for electronic photo frames marketed to premium stores. We led the spec and captured the best part of the market. We came in at the highest priced point and were making good margins. But, I realized that it’s difficult to compete with the large manufacturers, like Philips and Kodak, without a lot of funding. We literally started out with one of two frames, sold it on eBay, then doubled and re-doubled our money, which went back into making more frames.

The cool thing was that we had real products which got into the Hi-Fi Expo. Our product was in Harrods and Selfridges – the most prestigious stores in Europe and the rest of the world – and our brand was getting out there. That was back in 2007, right after graduating from the university. I did about a million dollars turnover over the projects.

Kim Ngo: How old were you?

Jude Gomila: I think I was 22. Then I spotted an opportunity to sell Nintendo Wiis from Europe to the UK. During Christmas time, the UK completely ran out of stock. I had seen this coming and bought stock from Europe and retrofitted the machines.

Kim Ngo: So you were one of those guys selling the Wii game for 3 times the price. Why did you decide to come to the US?

Jude Gomila: Well, I was searching for my next project, and I was interested in virtual goods because it was a hot market— it still is. I learned all the fundamentals about products from my previous experiences with hardware. I decided to come over to the US and work for ClickPass to help them strategize. Soon after, the company sold. At that point, Immad Akhund, one of the cofounders exited; he was a long-term friend of 10 years.

In the summer 2008, Immad Akhund and I started thinking about ideas. We settled upon the idea of Heyzap around September. Then we coded like crazy to get the whole thing ready to launch in January 2009.

Kim Ngo: So just you and him coded?

Jude with Chris Bader and Paul Graham

Jude Gomila: He did back end and I did front end. We got in the Y-Combinator program from January to March. It was good being in a group of mutual hackers, coders, and business people. The network and lessons we learned, like how to launch a startup, were really interesting.

We coded so much that we actually missed meals.

Kim Ngo: Sounds too familiar. Did you lose weight?

Jude Gomila: I don’t remember. It’s a bit of a blur. I lost track of time and can’t really remember. We launched in January and were in the batch as the first guys to launch, I think.

Kim Ngo: What do you mean “in the batch.” Were there competitors?

Jude Gomila: There weren’t competitors. There were 15 companies that are in the program’s batch, twice a year. Everyone creates their own startup and pitches it in on demo day in March. On demo day, all the investors come in to look at all the company proposals and ideas. It’s a great way to find the right investors and get funding.

We knew that demo day was coming up and wanted to be prepared for the funding round. We got some traction from launching, and lots of people installed our widget. Then we started doing our funding round. We got oversubscribed for the round and talked to Union Square Ventures. There were other great angel investors as well. After that, we recruited CTO James Smith and started building our own team. HeyZap has 10 employees now as of March 2010.

Jude Gomila (Right)

Kim Ngo: Were you really passionate about packaging?

Jude Gomila: Yeah, is that sad?

Kim Ngo: No, I’m just wondering, “How?”

Jude Gomila: Once you see the unique selling points of the product, you can get passionate about the product and the market. You have to be passionate about what you are doing! When you employ people, as well, if you aren’t passionate, you don’t show any form of leadership or help your company culture. If you start to let things go, your company will start drifting.

Kim Ngo: Do you think building a company has hurt you from going out and living your life? Do you have a girlfriend? How does she feel about your busy work schedule?

Jude Gomila: Yes, building a company has been a lot of work. Yes I have a girlfriend. What I learned is that you need to be efficient with your time. You are trying to spend 100 hours a week on your company, but you also need to spend time with your girlfriend. You got to be super efficient and drop everything that is a waste of time. It’s smart to have a personal assistant.

You got to cut down all the time that is wasted on the little things. In the beginning of my startup career, I used to reply to and get involved in everything. Now I can’t do that. There’s a point you reach when you have to let the little things go.

Kim Ngo: Good answer. Are you afraid of anything?

Jude Gomila: I think you can’t be afraid of failure. If you try your best and it doesn’t work out, you have to try again. You need to know when to pull out, and you need to know when to keep going. If you discover that you went into a bad market, you got to switch markets. If you have the wrong team, then you got to switch teams.

It’s like the Vegas slot machines. There are 40 fruit symbols, and you are trying to hit the right ones for big payouts. You test all these different dials and variables. From your mistakes and experience, you know that these dials should be on certain settings, but you haven’t tested out all the other settings. If you line all them up correctly, you will be successful, but you won’t know until you make those mistakes and are experienced enough to know what variables lead to success.

Kim Ngo: What would you say was your toughest experience in all of this?

Jude (RT) = Best Energy Ever! No Doubt!!!! - Kim Ngo

Jude Gomila: Getting a visa was a lot of work. It was very distracting as well, because I was trying to build a company while messing around with legal work.

Getting funding is hard too. We were on the road, speaking to different investors. All the time spent pitching is time divested from building the company. Pitching doesn’t automatically lead to getting money, users, and traffic growth. As for funding, we’ve raised during the hardest time during the recession. It was hard, because no one was investing and some investors didn’t even have money.

Kim Ngo: What do you think are the three top qualities that an entrepreneur needs to be successful?

Jude Gomila: The most important quality would be persistence. It is the most important variable. Intelligence is actually at the bottom of the list. You need to take calculated risks by knowing the difference between the risks that come from important things where there is or isn’t any gain. Being frugal and not wasting money is also very important. Intelligence helps, but it can slow you down as well. Sometimes you just need to take action and know when you have to strategically move out and try the next thing.

Kim Ngo: What do you think is more likely going to happen to Heyzap? Do you think you will have an exit plan or do you think you’ll be able to build a profitable business?

Jude Gomila: You should always have an exit plan. You need to have an exit plan, and you need to know which companies can buy you. You need to know how far you want to go; we want to go as far as possible with Heyzap.

Kim Ngo: If you could give one piece of advice for future entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Jude Gomila: For consumer products: GO LIVE. Launch it. Be aggressive from day one, even if you don’t have a name. This is a common problem that often leads to failure, so many people come to me with an app that they built but haven’t launched.

Get out there quickly. You just have to get out there and test things like what the market wants. Listen to your customers, but you have to get it out there first.

Kim Ngo: Just do it. Thanks Jude. I enjoyed our conversation. Good luck with all your future endeavors!

Without a fashion degree or any prior experience in the fashion industry, Kim dove head first into the scene, figuring out the details on her own and soaking up all the knowledge she could while her fashion line was developing.

Yumi Kim is more than just another trendy label. Kim Phan shares her closet with the mission to make women everywhere feel beautiful and confident — effortlessly in her hip, fun, and flirty designs. Click here to read more about Yumi Kim: Founder of Yumi Kim Launches Her Fashion Line and Life Online

IntimateMath sits down with Kim Phan to learn about the sacrifices she’s made, the opportunities she’s seized, the dream she never lost sight of, and how she persevered to build her own brand from the ground up.

A Short Clip of My Conversation with Kim Phan from YumiKim
Trouble Viewing? Visit: IntimateMath on YouTube

PROFILE

Kim Phan of Yumi Kim with Yumi (Yes, that's Yumi to the RT)

Companies Founded:
1. Yumi Kim, Founded in 2005
Funding: $50,000
Investors: Self-funded

Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Currently Resides: New York City, New York
Education: San Diego State University, Economics, 2001
Hobbies/Interests: Traveling and eating.
Quality Most Remembered for: Being real and honest. I’m a straight shooter.
In 10 Years…: I see myself doing what I do now. I’m very passionate about what I do. And I would love to see Yumi Kim grow bigger as a lifestyle brand.
Proudest Moment: When I received my first big order from Nordstrom.
I’m Motivated by…: My parents’ sacrifice. They came here from Vietnam with virtually nothing, all so that I had a chance at a better life. I want to make them proud and let them know that their sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.
Favorite Quote: “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” — Confucius
Role Models: My Mom, Hunynh.

Kim Phan’s: Yumi Kim | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

THE MORE PERSONAL INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim P. & Kim N. Wearing Yumi Kim

Kim Ngo: Hi Kim. Thanks for meeting with IntimateMath. Tell us about Yumi Kim. What’s the mission, and how did you get started?

Kim Phan: I started Yumi Kim in 2005 while playing with the idea of starting a line. While conceptualizing Yumi Kim, I found part of myself and realized I had a fascination with colors and prints. I started working with silk fabrics. And in the last five years, Yumi Kim went from a line with cute t-shirts with little embellishments to a full-fledged collection of dresses, jumpers, shirts, jackets, and skirts, constructed with beautiful silk fabrics and prints.

I hope that Yumi Kim makes women aware that they can be fashionable and beautiful, all while being comfortable in any situation they may encounter. My line encompasses pieces perfect for dates, work, special events and everyday wear.

I use a lot of bright prints and bold colors in my designs. When you’re wearing Yumi Kim, you’re wearing a statement piece. I want women to feel sophisticated and pretty, like all eyes are on them when they enter a room.

Kim Ngo: Did you get outside funding to start Yumi Kim? How much money did you have when you started and how did you get it?

Kim Phan in New York with Her Stylish Top & Boots

Kim Phan: I had no outside funding. I started with fifty thousand dollars. I was very lucky in getting this money. In 2005, I bought an apartment in the Upper West Side. At that time, New York real estate was hot, and I was able to get a line of credit against my mortgage. I was also approved for a small business loan.

Kim Ngo: So one day you just woke up and said, I’m going to start a fashion line with no degree or training in fashion? How does someone create a line without going to a fashion design school?

Kim Phan: I’ve been making my own clothes since I was very young, and once I realized that fashion was my true calling, I decided that I would design a very small line with only a few prints and bodies to get a feel for the industry. The response was extraordinary, and I gradually built up my line to where I am at today. It’s an ongoing learning process for me.

In 2002, I moved to New York with a dream to go into fashion, but I didn’t know what I was going to exactly do. I just knew I wanted to work in fashion. I thought I was going to work in marketing or be a publicist for a fashion company.

Kim Phan of Yumi Kim, Calvin Tran of Calvin Tran & Michelle Nguyen of Yumi Kim

I interviewed with many companies and received a number of job offers, but I realized that I couldn’t be fashionable with a salary of $20,000 a year. So my objective changed from wanting to work in fashion to needing to pay the bills.

One day, I was eating dinner by myself, and I sat next to this guy who happened to work for the president of a big music company. We instantly clicked, and he told me, “You know what? You seem like a really cool girl. My boss is looking for another assistant. Come in for an interview.” I came into the company’s office, and the president gave me the job.

I didn’t want to go into the music industry, but the opportunity was just too great to pass up. I went home that night saying to myself, “If you don’t take this opportunity, you’re always going to live the rest of your life wondering what could have been.” So, I accepted the position.

Kim Phan, Yumi Kim & Nam Vo, Makeup NV

I still wanted to work in fashion, but I believe that everything happens for a reason. If an opportunity presents itself, you should run with it because you might develop a passion for whatever you stumble upon. But if you don’t find your passion, the experience, itself, is always great, and hopefully, you will learn something valuable.

In my case, I learned something valuable working two years at that music company. Although I made a lot of money at the young age of 22, I didn’t love my job. I woke up every day not looking forward to going to work. I learned that no matter how much money I make, if I wake up not loving what I do then nothing really matters.

Kim Phan Being Kim Phan

I’m glad I learned the lesson that money was not more important than my passion at a young age. I put in two years of my time in the music industry, and now, I am back into fashion. Fashion is why I originally moved to New York City with confidence regardless of my financial situation.

Kim Ngo: Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?

Kim Phan: I like to travel a lot and visit the local vendors at flea markets to see the fabric textures and different colors they use.

One of my favorite places to go is Asia. When you go to flea market in Asia, you’ll find a variety of things such as artwork, fabric, and even, cute little souvenirs. I get inspired by what I see at these markets. When I visited Thailand, the rich colors combinations amazed me. I also went to Malaysia recently and fell in love with Indonesian embroidering.

I use what I see in my travels to help inspire me in putting together a collection.

Calvin Tran of Calvin Tran working w/Kim Phan of Yumi Kim

Kim Ngo: What would you say was your toughest experience in building Yumi Kim?

Kim Phan: Figuring things out on my own was the toughest. There is no manual that can teach you everything about managing your own line.

For example, to become a real brand, you have to move into mass chain retailers like department stores: Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, and etc.

When you play with the big guys, there are thick contracts and lots of rules. I’m not a big company, and I didn’t have someone to guide me along the way. If one tiny rule is broken, the retail company will send a chargeback. If you, as a vendor, don’t tag a shirt right, don’t box your items correctly, and don’t ship the package in the right way, the retail company will charge you for every single item. You can lose thousands of dollars for the tiniest mistakes. The lesson I learned is do your homework well. Read everything.

Kim Ngo: Can you break it down step-by-step of what a new designer needs to work successfully with a big department store?

Yumi Kim Exclusively for W Hotels

Kim Phan:
1. Get a showroom and a sales team that represents your line to buyers. You’re a designer who needs to be out there designing and being creative. You have to have a sales rep that has relationships with key people in the fashion industry. Networking is very important.

2. Know a production company that is able to produce on a mass level.

3. Get funding. You might have a factory and access to manufacturers, but how are you going to finance 2,000 pieces of apparel?

4. Get the team to make sure that when the goods are ready, they are tagged and all the buyers’ guidelines and rules are followed.

5. Know your customers. Department store customers are different from specialty shop customers. Understand what those types of customers are and cater to each one.

THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim Ngo: Where do you think the contemporary fashion industry is going right now?

Yumi Kim

Kim Phan: With the recession, the industry has changed a lot. The recession has made everybody in contemporary and luxury fashion and anyone that’s selling apparel over $20 sit back and think: “How am I going to get someone to buy this dress?” Right now, anyone who is producing a product better make a darn good product — something that convinces consumers that it is worth spending their money.

Kim Ngo: Fashion designers usually hit a trend peak then slowly decline in popularity. Do you feel that applies to Yumi Kim?

Kim Phan: Well, right now I’m more of a downtown New York brand. I am still small and figuring out where I want to take Yumi Kim. Do I want to keep it small? I never know what’s going to happen. Tomorrow, I may get a ton of press. Then I may get approached by some big garment company, like Jones of New York or Liz Claiborne, that says, “Hey, we want to make you bigger.”

That’s part of business; you just have to go with the flow and figure out what’s right along the way. You never know. Life is crazy. I might fall in love tomorrow and say I don’t want to be in the fashion industry anymore. You just take life one day at a time. As long as I’m happy doing what I do, then I want to continue Yumi Kim.

Kim Ngo: I understand that you also leverage the internet really well to get your brand out there. Can you tell us about that?

Kim Phan: My brother works in the web industry. For years, he’s been telling me that I need to get an online shop, start a blog, push Twitter, and do more to establish an online presence.

Most designers are very private about their lives, but I realized that people not only want to know you as a designer but also as a person. When they’re buying a shirt or dress, these customers are curious about who the designer is. What is she all about? Where does she find her inspiration? I started my blog to answer these questions. I wanted to open my world to my customers. I wanted them to get a glimpse of the life of Kim Phan, the designer of Yumi Kim. My blog is real; I’m a regular person. I want to share my passion and the details of living in one of the most amazing cities in the world.

www.IHeartYumiKim.com

Kim Ngo: Do you get a lot of traffic on your blog?

Kim Phan: There’s a decent amount of traffic, but most visitors are part of my loyal fanbase. I don’t want a million users who don’t care about me; I’d rather have a hundred visitors who say, “I love this girl. I love her designs. I love her life.”

Kim Ngo: How does your blog, which features your exciting New York life and traveling experiences, communicate Yumi Kim as a lifestyle brand?

Nam Vo, Kim Phan & Kim Ngo

Kim Phan: I love keeping my loyal customers up to date on what I’m up to! A lot of my blog entries show the process I go through to design my collection, such as my visits to our warehouse and factory in Asia, our shows, and my inspiration. Also, I think the blog helps my readers relate to me and motivates them to follow their dreams and take a chance like I did.

Kim Ngo: Tell us about the online shop, Yumi Kim.

Kim Phan: This past year I launched YumiKim.com; it took about a year. I was a little hesitant at first because you can’t click a button and instantly create an online shop.

Yumi Kim

An online shop requires you to build a backend process. You also have to have a team that manages and monitors the online shop. That’s like having another store. At first, I didn’t know if I was ready to build it because I didn’t know if I was ready to manage a fast growing business in addition to the offline business.

Also, I had to invest more time and money into opening an online shop. I wasn’t sure how good the ROI was going to be. However, I launched the site along with a big promotion with DailyCandy, and I was amazed by the power of the Internet. I remember that on the first day we received 5,200 orders.

Kim Ngo: Tell us about how you use Twitter.

Kim Phan: I signed up with Twitter and started building followers. I imagine my followers to be a loyal group of Yumi Kim fans who want to know when Yumi Kim has a sale, what’s going on, news about sample sales, and when there are new arrivals in the stores.

I noticed that when I announced a sample sale or an online sale, I could automatically see the results.

Yumi Kim Flagship Store

Kim Ngo: Between www.YumiKimShop.com and the Yumi Kim flagship store in New York City, which one do you think will be the most successful?

Kim Phan: I think the biggest will be my online shop which has been in operation for six months. Every time someone shops, we know exactly where he/she is from. I was like, “How did this girl from Alaska hear about Yumi Kim?” The cool thing is that I started to recognize names of returning loyal customers.

Kim Ngo: If you had to give one piece of advice to aspiring founders, what would be?

Kim Phan: My one advice is to not give up. And fight the fight.

Kim Ngo: Thanks Kim of Yumi Kim.

With Sean’s new position at MySpace and a baby on the way, the growing Percival family is still managing to stay on top of the LA tech scene and enjoy the success of their first major project. While many couples might think it is impossible to share every waking moment together, especially those grueling workdays, Sean and Laurie agree that the joy of creating something with one another is a unique connection that few couples ever get to share. The key to making it work? Open communication and a strong sense of mutual respect for each other. The “Tweethearts,” as some have come to call the power couple, look back fondly on the process of creating lalawag and watching it grow, and still get excited to think about its potential to continue on this upward journey. For Sean and Laurie, it’s all about putting passion into your creation, and it doesn’t hurt to have the one who loves you by your side to cheer you on along the way.

THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Brangelina, who? This is Laurie and Sean Percival

Kim Ngo: So, tell us, how did you guys meet?

Sean Percival: We met through a friend. One night I was literally dragged out to Hollywood and thrown into a whole new word. I was lucky to meet Laurie that night, and as cheesy as it sounds, it was actually one of those love at first sight moments.

Kim Ngo: Sean, how did you go from being a janitor to a web designer?

Sean Percival: Over 10 years ago, I worked as a janitor. One of the offices I happened to clean belonged to Vegas.com and that is where I got my first introduction to a startup. It was a night shift, but these guys were still cranking away and having a blast in the process. I knew it was for me, so I did whatever I could to get there. I eventually found a better job doing tech support for companies like Adobe and Logitech. I stayed at work late at night (sometimes all night) to use their computers and broadband connections. It was in those late nights where I learned what it took to create a website. I made some of the most awful sites, real crimes against humanity, but I learned a few things and eventually found full-time work building websites for companies.

Kim Ngo: Is lalawag something you guys mutually created? How did you guys come up with the idea? What obstacles did you guys face?

The lalawag Home Office

Sean Percival: Lalawag is something I initially created. Laurie,as always, was there to support my crazy idea. At the time, Valleywag was closing down and the Los Angeles tech community had started to develop. It seemed like the perfect timing to start something like lalawag.

So one night while drinking, I loudly called former Valleywag writer Alaska Miller and pitched the idea. He didn’t think it was horrible and that was all the confirmation I needed. The next weekend I built the site and launched it soon after. After running the site for a few months, I turned it over to Laurie.

Kim Ngo: What were your expectations when you started the site? Did you guys ever expect the site to be as popular as it is?

Sean Percival: I didn’t have many expectations when I started lalawag. I wanted to capture some of the spirit of tech in Los Angeles, and I’m just happy I’ve done that to some degree. I’m still shocked when people come up to me and tell me how much they love the site.

LOVE AT FIRST SITE

Kim Ngo: Does working together ever cause a strain on your relationship? If so, how do you guys deal with those problems? If not, let us in on your secret!

Sean Percival: Of course it does. We are both stubborn Virgos and often bump heads over the direction of lalawag. I wouldn’t say it puts a strain on our relationship, though. Actually, I look back at some of our debates over lalawag with fond memories. Laurie is basically brilliant so I love the back and forth and eventual compromise we typically make.

On Laurie's Desk at lalalwag

Laurie Percival: Fortunately lalawag was not the first time we worked together; we actually had an ecommerce site that Sean built and then turned over to me. We have always had amazing communication with each other and through that first website, we learned how each of us handles business situations and how we could compromise or make decisions that would be best for where we wanted to take it. Working with family or friends is always hard, but if you respect the other person’s opinions and realize that you are working towards a common goal, it can be really fun too.

Kim Ngo: According to the site, as well as Sean’s blog, you guys are always at events and in meetings. How do you find time for each other?

Sean Percival: Recently we’ve scaled back the amount of events we personally attend. We try to make it to the big events, but it’s just not possible to make everything. With my new job at MySpace and a baby on the way, some open bars will just have to be missed. Although thanks to the LA tech community’s over-sharing, we can still read all about the events via Twitter.

Kim Ngo: With your new role as the Director of Content Socialization with MySpace, and a baby on the way, how is the future of lalawag looking?

Sean Percival: Busy! Laurie manages to take care of lalawag and we’ve started to expand our writer roster so she can focus on the baby more. Lalawag is and always has been a great pleasure for us. I imagine and hope it’ll live on and continue to grow as Los Angeles tech also continues to.

Kim Ngo: Laurie, what’s it like being married to a “web micro-celebrity,” as you call Sean in your blog?

Laurie Working

Laurie Percival: Oh wow, you found that. When I wrote that it was kind of my own personal joke. I was new to the tech scene and it very much seemed like Sean was a celebrity. Anytime we would go to events, people would continuously come up to say “Hi,” and anytime I met someone new and they saw my last name was Percival, they would say “Oh, you must be Sean’s wife.” Once Sean turned lalawag over to me, I was finally able to gain some of my own identity in the scene. Being married to Sean is awesome, I am very lucky to be with such a smart, talented and loving man.

Kim Ngo: How is it being a well-known, married couple on the tech scene? Do you guys ever feel the pressure to live up to your title as The Tweethearts?

Sean Percival: Yes and no. It’s not too difficult because we still genuinely like each other. I do get concerned some may feel we have the perfect relationship and everything is all rainbows and unicorns. Of course, we go through the same challenges as any couple. Of course, we’re less likely to broadcast those moments online.

Laurie Percival: It’s a lot of fun. I get to spend more time with Sean, and we can have conversations about things that are going on in the community or with tech in general. Most couples have one spouse that is not involved in tech, so it must be hard for them to relate something happening that they feel is important. Try explaining Twitter to someone who has never used it!

I never feel pressure to live up to anyone’s opinion of us, we have our ups and downs like any couple, we just don’t broadcast them in public. We also do a good job of communicating with each other. If something is bothering me or Sean we talk about it and come to a resolution.

Kim Ngo: Would you say that working together on lalawag has strengthened your relationship?

Sean Percival: I’d be interested to hear Laurie’s answer first, but I’ll go ahead and say yes. For one, it has made me a million times prouder of Laurie. She took over the site with no experience managing a blog. The fact that she has done such an amazing job is totally hot, no? Some guys get turned on by skimpy outfits, but I don’t mind a woman who can handle WordPress. Okay seriously though, I love that we’ve created something together. Few things we do together can ever really compare to that.

Laurie Percival: I’ve never looked at it that way. Lalawag is just another chapter in our relationship, something that we have put our hearts into and have grown together. Our relationship is solid and will continue to evolve and strengthen, regardless of what obstacle we are currently tackling. Overall, I am sure that some of the challenges we faced did help us to get through situations we may not have otherwise. It did make me proud of Sean—he always has great ideas—and to see this one become a reality with such support from the community behind it was great.

Kim Ngo: Last question, so many of us look to find that one special partner, can both of you give us some advice and tips on finding that special someone?

Sean Percival: It’s cliché, but I always say, “… to find the one for you, don’t look.” I say that because it worked for me, and I’m pretty sure if you’re looking too hard, you’ll probably miss it. I also always recommend to find that person organically somewhere way outside of your comfort zone. Break out from your circle of friends, or business circles, and see what else is out there! I also have this personal theory that the grocery store is the ULTIMATE place to meet someone new. Look there!

Laurie Percival: My advice would be to forget about whether or not you like the same movies or music—things in common are honestly not that important. The perfect partner is one that “gets” you. After that, nothing else matters. Though make sure you agree on religion and politics—those two subjects can cause issues no therapist can fix. Go out and mingle, try to meet someone new every time you are out. I don’t think you’re going to meet the love of your life sitting on your couch.

Kim Ngo: Thank you for sharing your story with us – Sean and Laurie! It was very interesting and entertaining. And of course, heartfelt.

Silencing his doubts about leaving behind secure employment, Mark has weathered the highs and lows that shape the risky startup process and has come out on top with a sense of fulfillment that can only be earned by taking a leap and doing it. Mark admits that it was a long road, and the ride wasn’t always smooth, but the rush of those highs has made the experience incredibly rewarding. “It’s all about trudging through it,” according to Mark, and his story proves that staying positive and confident in your own abilities will pull you through to your ideal destination.

A Short Clip of My Conversation with Mark Hendrickson
Trouble Viewing? Visit: IntimateMath on YouTube

Mark Hendrickson of Plancast

PROFILE

STATS
Companies Founded:
1. Worldly Developments (makers of Plancast) – 2009
Title: Co-Founder
Total Funding: Bootstrapped
Highest Number of Employees: 2

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA
Resides: San Francisco, CA
Education: Bowdoin College
Age: 24
Hobbies/Interests: Tennis, philosophy, running, working, hiking, and the outdoors
Biggest Fear: Fear is a strong word. I think if I were going to be afraid of anything, it would be if the startup fails.
Role Models: Several teachers and mentors throughout college and high school.

Mark Hendrickson’s: Plancast | HomePage | Twitter | Linkedin

THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim Ngo: Thank you for meeting with IntimateMath today, Mark. Tell us about Plancast. And why would I love it?

Mark Hendrickson: Plancast is a service you can use to share your upcoming plans with friends and to find out what others in the community are doing. As of right now, there is really no other site or service that connects you with people for activities you want to do in real life. Plancast makes it extremely easy for you to keep track of what your friends are doing, whether they’re going to a concert or just going out for drinks.

All these small, often improvised activities, which are very important to us, are not easily sharable right now. In general, online services haven’t reached their potential in bridging the gap between the virtual world and the real world. You can chat with people on Twitter or post pictures on Facebook, but those aren’t terribly meaningful activities in reality. We are trying to connect people for real experiences by helping them figure out what their friends are up to.

Mark Hendrickson at the Apple Conference

Kim Ngo: How did you come up with the idea?

Mark Hendrickson: When I started, I wanted to work on something to help connect people locally. There was a lot of brainstorming before the concept of Plancast came about, and it seemed that the most powerful way to connect people is to help them share information about what they plan to do. But the general goal was, “How do I help users meet new people in their area? How do I help people learn about new places and new activities?” I want to help them get more out of their lives, wherever they are.

Kim Ngo: Has Plancast been a success so far? Has Plancast impacted the number of attendees at recent events?

Mark Hendrickson: Yeah, we’ve already seen a lot of activity on the site. People have been referring to it as the reason they found out about events.

We just recently launched, but you can see the kinds of events people are posting and how they are interacting on the site. People are having discussions about the things they are doing. They are also joining each other for things like carpooling.

Kim Ngo: What is your business plan?

Mark with His Mom, Lisa Hendrickson - CEO of Plancast

Mark Hendrickson: We want to have all different types of users on Plancast. Right now, Plancast’s main users are friends sharing with friends. We would like to have business and organizations posting upcoming events and opportunities. So if you’re a band, we want you to post your upcoming show. Plancast could also be used to post sports teams’ games or local organizations’ meeting times. Plancast is not just for individuals to use for recreational events; it’s a tool that any kind of organization or business can use as a vehicle to promote events.

Kim Ngo: Can users create private events?

Mark Hendrickson: They can’t yet, but they will be able to in the future. Right now all events are public, but we have plenty of users that want to have more privacy.

Kim Ngo: Does Plancast have plans to offer pay services?

Mark Hendrickson: We have to figure that out. We want to provide premium services at a fee to businesses to market events. Also, we would like to charge event promoters for targeted advertising on the site. There are a lot of different opportunities to make money from Plancast.

Kim Ngo: How confident are you about the future of Plancast?

Mark Hendrickson (front left) with the TechCrunch Team

Mark Hendrickson: Very confident. Everything is an experiment. Am I confident that I have a viable idea that I’m excited about? Yes!

Am I confident that two years from now it’s going to sell for a billion dollars? I don’t know. It’s impossible to know for sure whether Plancast will be successful or not. But I do feel good about where I’m going with it.

Kim Ngo: How did you get started? Tell us about the first 6 months.

Mark Hendrickson: I worked at TechCrunch for a year and a half, and towards the end, I wanted to start my own company, but I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do. When I left, I spent the first few months trying to get used to the idea of doing something totally new. The next few months were spent honing out ideas. It was a very exploratory type of process with lots of false starts and ideas that didn’t pan out. But in the end, it was about honing my plans into a successful product.

Kim Ngo: How did you find the courage to leave a great job and start Plancast?

Mark Hendrickson: I wouldn’t call it courage. I had an overwhelming desire to do something like this, something that was sort of harebrained; I didn’t want to go into a normal job. And I can’t say I didn’t have any doubts. There were plenty of times when I woke up and asked myself, “What am I doing? I’m trying to build something from nothing, and there’s such a long road ahead. Why did I think I could do this?” It took me a lot of strength to push through those moments.

Kim Ngo: Is it tough to stay positive?

Mark Hendrickson Representing

Mark Hendrickson: Over time you build courage, and you keep going. It’s all about trudging through it. Starting a company is all about silencing the self-doubt you have and persevering. But you do take hits from time to time. People say doing a startup is like a roller coaster, and it is. You have days where you feel on top of the world because you’re creating something that’s going to be of huge value to people. It’s the best feeling in the world. But an hour later, you can feel like the cards are stacked against you, and that your product isn’t valuable. You have to be able to ride the highs and the lows and not let either of them steer you off course.

Another thing is that after a while, people are actually more enthusiastic about what you’re working on than you are. And you think, “Wow, that’s cool, but let’s stay real about this.” Ultimately you have to learn to trust your instincts. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s a very individualistic sort of process where you can’t let anyone else be the authority to what you’ve chosen to do.

Kim Ngo: Why does someone start a company from scratch?

Mark Hendrickson: There are lots of reasons for starting a company. Maybe you want to prove to yourself that you can succeed at it or you think you can make a difference. When it comes down to it, I think all entrepreneurs have the desire to create something from nothing.

Starting a business isn’t done with the expectation that you are going to make a lot of money. For me, I felt compelled to do it on a very basic level. I didn’t want to let my life go by without going out on a limb and trying something like this. I also wanted to do it at a very early age so I would have a higher chance of success, a minimal cost associated with it, and a chance to do it again if I didn’t succeed the first time.

Kim Ngo: Is the startup world similar to Hollywood?

Mark Hendrickson with Friend

Mark Hendrickson: In a way, it is. But ours is also a very different dream than you find in Hollywood. Hollywood actors are trying to become the next big thing. People in the tech industry are often trying to create the next big thing. As individuals, they may want to be the next Steve Jobs. But overall, I don’t think people are as focused on fame as in Hollywood. Though, there is certainly a good dose of that desire. In Silicon Valley, people look to their peers and they want to impress them. They want to show that they can be something. To that extent, I think it’s very similar.

Kim Ngo: Does a good business model make for a successful startup?

Mark Hendrickson: Starting a company, in my experience, is not about any one aspect of the company. It’s about the whole thing. You don’t start off thinking: I want to find a business model for something, that’s just part of what you have to do. My job is to get people enthusiastic about whatever I am doing, to get the attention of people who might want to work with your company, invest in it, or help promote it. As the owner, my main process is assembling of all those pieces. The rest is just details; all business is business when it comes down to it. You face the same sort of problems and tasks.

Kim Ngo: Do you think in the last 6 months you’ve grown the most than you have ever in the 24 years of your life?

Mark Hendrickson

Mark Hendrickson: Yeah. In the last 6 to 8 months, I’ve probably developed at a much faster rate than in the past 6 month span. I was sort of forced into a situation where I had to be on my toes all the time, absorbing new ways of looking at situations. I picked up skills at a much faster rate than I would have otherwise.

Kim Ngo: Can you tell us your most painful moment in the last six months?

Mark Hendrickson: Probably early on when I had a lot of self-doubt. There were moments where I thought my ideas weren’t good or I talked to people who weren’t excited about what I was doing. There were also times where I researched markets which I thought I wanted to go into but found twenty other people who tried what I was thinking about doing. Seeing others with the same ideas that I had fail was tough.

Kim Ngo: It’s timing too, though.

Mark Hendrickson: It’s mainly execution. Timing is important, but chances are, whatever you’re going to do, people have already done it or tried to do it. But on the other hand, they haven’t done exactly what you’re thinking, because whatever idea you have, you’re going to at least try to do it a little differently. You’re going to do it quite differently, if not better, because you’ve learned what mistakes they have made.

One thing I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t worry about competition or the other players in the market as much as you think you should. You should just worry about your own ability to execute. You need to take your vision and actually make it happen.

If you’re working very hard and you’re being smart about your work, you’re going to build something that’s competitive. It’s going to be harder than you think, but it’s also going to be hard for other people as well. Don’t discount your own abilities to do it better than someone else.

Kim Ngo: What are you passionate about?

Mark Hendrickson: I’m passionate about product design and the “interwebz.” I can’t answer that question with a straight face! I’m passionate about the good life: being healthy, having people you care about, and doing something you love. The good life is pretty simple, but it’s hard to get.

The Young Mark Hendrickson

Kim Ngo: And you’re motivated by?

Mark Hendrickson: I used to have a desire to do the best that I could; now, I think I’m mostly motivated by trying to prove myself things. I’m also motivated by money to some extent. I could run a startup and if it was success and I benefited from it monetarily, it would still be worth doing as long I wasn’t starving.

Kim Ngo: If you can tell future founders one thing, one piece of advice, what would it be?

Mark Hendrickson: Always be willing to adapt. Learn from your situation. Trust your instincts on one hand and question them with the other. Surround yourself with good people, and always seek help.

Treat it as an experiment. You’re going to fail at certain things, and you’re going to learn from others. Your mindset needs to be, “I’m going to try something. I have no idea if I’m going to be successful, but I’m going to give it my best shot and I’m going to learn along the way. And if it fails, then it fails.”

At the end of the day, we’re all idiots. So stay humble, don’t take what other people say too seriously, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

While many would consider this outcome very painful, Michael sees it as a source of pride, a valuable experience, and ultimately, inspiration to build greater things like his most recent project, PeekYou—a people search engine whereby users can find people through their first name, surname, online aliases, e-mail address, or physical location. Click here to read more about PeekYou: Call Off the Search; Michael Hussey Can Find Who You’re Looking For

Michael sits in with IntimateMath to let us in on his trying experiences with the companies he’s founded and how he keeps moving forward to build websites which “make enough people’s lives a little bit better or simply more fun.”

A Short Clip of My Conversation with Michael Hussey
Trouble Viewing? Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ERcJKJHD6E

PROFILE

STATS
Companies Founded:
1. RateMy™ Network / infiniteMedium, 2000-2002
Holding company for: RateMyFace, RateMyProfessors, RateMyTeachers, and other rating sites
Total Funding: $100,000
Highest Numbers of Employees: 5

2. StudyBreakers, 2005
Studybreakers (earlier known as Classface) was a free service for high school students to communicate with each other through an interactive network of online photo albums, weblogs, user profiles, web forums, and groups. It was acquired by Bolt.com, which eventually went out of

Michael Hussey with McGruff The Crime Dog

business and took the site down with it.

Total Funding: Bootstrapped
Highest Numbers of Employees: 5

3. PeekYou, 2006 – Current
Title: Founder & CEO
Total Funding: $1.4M
Highest Numbers of Employees: 12

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Alfred, Maine
Current Residence: New York City, New York
Education: University of Maine, BA, Financial Economics, May 2000
Age: 31
Hobbies/Interests: Reading, skiing, tennis, basketball, digital photography, GigaPan robots, watching the Celtics, watching football, watching movies with my wife, and traveling
Most Notable Quality: Foresight
First Taste of Success: SoccerSpot.com (as a 19-year-old kid with a press pass to Foxboro Stadium, sitting next to reporters from ESPN and other big networks)
Proudest Moment: My wedding day
Worst Habit: A penchant for fast food
I’m Happiest …: Breathing life into what was a mere concept just yesterday
Biggest fear: Not trying hard enough, not doing enough to get what I want, and not having enough time in a day to do everything I’d like to do.
Favorite Quote: “All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.”—Edward Gibbon
Role Model: Peter Thiel

Michael Hussey’s: PeekYou | HomePage | Twitter | Linkedin | Facebook | 2006 CNN Interview

THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim Ngo: Hi Michael. Thanks for chatting with IntimateMath. Tell us what drives you.

The Young Michael Hussey

Michael Hussey: I love building concepts and organizing data. These are things I’ve been doing nearly my whole life. I remember sitting in front of a computer since I was three years old.

Kim Ngo: Is that what inspired you to code?

Michael Hussey: No, it inspired me to seek out other people I could work with to develop (and code) concepts I envision.

Kim Ngo: You don’t code?

Michael Hussey: I considered majoring in computer science and I even did well in my programming classes, but I realized that my time was better spent working with more passionate and talented developers. I consider myself more like an architect of ideas who is able to speak well and clearly to the various parties involved in developing a web business like techies, developers, or would-be end users.

Kim Ngo: Did you have any idea that RateMyFace would become so popular?

Michael Hussey: I knew it was going to be big. I just didn’t know how much work it would be. In the first week, we had 100,000 visitors. Ron, my business partner who I met at the University of Maine, and I spread the word about the site through AOL chat rooms – it didn’t take much to stoke the fire. RateMyFace was growing so quickly, but the program we wrote required five minutes of manual labor per photo uploaded just to create an account. At the time, I had a day job and an internship. I felt that I couldn’t manage all the work for RateMyFace on top of my other commitments to school and work, so I decided to temporarily shut down RateMyFace to focus on finishing school.

The next summer I re-launched the site, but by then, HotOrNot was also online. They had a very simple site, and it worked well. HotOrNot was basically a copycat of RateMyFace where users were able to rate other people’s pictures.

Kim Ngo: Then what happened?

Michael Hussey: Soon after RateMyFace was relaunched, the New York Times picked up on this face rating fad and interviewed both me and someone from HotOrNot. At the last minute, however, the editors struck out our site’s URL from the article because we were an age 13+ site while HotOrNot was 18+. The Times was nervous about our lax age restrictions since face rating was such a new and controversial thing. So I did get quoted in their article, name and all that, but RateMyFace’s URL wasn’t mentioned. From that point on HotOrNot went on to get all the credit.

Today, everyone has heard of HotOrNot. That’s what happened. I was sort of upset at first, but I wasn’t entirely disappointed because I had already started working on the RateMy™ Network of sites: RateMyTeachers, RateMyPets, RateMyWheels, etc.—we owned 700 domains back then. I knew I could use the success of RateMyFace to promote those more important sites. This was always the intention anyway.

PeekYou

Kim Ngo: Tell us about your new venture, PeekYou.com.

Michael Hussey: I wanted to build something enduring and eternal that will be useful forever. PeekYou is an attempt to reorganize the web around individuals. The building blocks of the web are web links. Google is able to index links, the sites that are linked to each other, and the text on those pages. I wanted to add the human component to these web links.

Kim Ngo: Is PeekYou a virtual web-book, like a phone book but with links?

Michael Hussey: It’s an index or database. It’s like, “Here’s Kim’s bucket with all her public links to pictures, homepages, social networks, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.” Everyone who is online is going to keep creating links and pages for the rest of their lives. It is my goal to keep filling your “URL bucket” throughout your lifetime and create a single comprehensive repository that belongs to you.

Michael Hussey and PeekYou Team

Kim Ngo: Sounds like you’re creating a web identity for users.

Michael Hussey: Your identity can be derived from the data on your links. You can understand people’s motives by understanding where they participate on the web, what they say on the web, and what they share about themselves. At PeekYou, we ask ourselves, “Can we make sense of the content on that link? Can we make sense of the data on that page?” If so, PeekYou will organize it.

Kim Ngo: And what do you do with this data?

Michael Hussey: There are so many applications for this kind of data. For example, we can use it to bring about more relevant search results from traditional search engines by knowing something about the person performing the search, their background and interests, and, hence, the search results they are likely interested in. People search is a massive market; 25 to 30 percent of Google’s searches are related to specific people in some way, but a lot of people searching on Google is aimed at common people. I believe that people search is still Google’s weakest technology because, for example, there are 100 or more people with my name, and Google doesn’t really know who’s who. Try Googling Michael Hussey. He’s a famous cricket player from Australia, but I’m not that Michael Hussey.

PeekYou Version1.0, 2006

This chaotic experience for searching my name on Google was one of the instigators of the PeekYou concept. This example makes clear how important our database of personal identities tied to web links can be.
With time, the output of ordinary people on the web will only grow, and keeping track of that output, organizing it, and assigning every element of it to its respective author is a necessary endeavor. When I started PeekYou, nobody was doing work in people search; nobody was talking about it. The space has substantially heated up over the past year, and we no longer necessarily enjoy the first-mover advantage. We’re looking to really blow things out this year, in 2010.

Kim Ngo: Let’s go back. How did you get started?

Michael Hussey: When I was 19 years old, I helped start a little web magazine called Soccerspot.com with other fans of U.S. Soccer around the country. There I was, just a kid, but I was sitting next to reporters from publications like ESPN and The Boston Globe. The experience came and went, but it definitely sparked my interest and confidence and taught me that I was capable of much more.

I started playing with the idea of creating an online popularity contest or a rating contest on the web. I’ve always been obsessed with rating things on a scale of 1 to 10. Every time I walk out of a movie, I rate it and I ask the people I watched it with to rate it too.

I started thinking about rating other things besides movies. So I thought to myself, we could have a site for rating coffees, cameras, teachers, and just about everything else. But I knew that I needed to start with something big—something kind of controversial that would generate traffic and interest. Along with this idea, I realized that we could build other sites’ traffic from that of the first popular site through cross promotion.

Michael with His Very Supportive Wife

The first site my business partner, Ron, and I built was RateMyFace.com. Though, we shut it down soon after its first launch because its popularity and traffic were going through the roof, as was the work needed to keep it going. I also wanted to finish school. After graduation, we rebuilt the site. At about the same time, a technology law firm was interested in what we were doing and joined us as an investor and managing partner. This was a good thing because it was clear that I couldn’t operate more than 100 of these rating sites on my own. Ron and I knew that we needed individuals who were passionate about the specific sites and interested in performing the day-to-day operations.

I figured that anyone interested in ratings and in creating a community around a product would pay me for the rights to, say, RateMyCoffee and RateMyCellphone. I developed a plan to run the “RateMy” sites as a franchise business whereby third parties would pay us for the right to operate their own site in the network. We were set to work on software that would get any new rating site up and running within minutes. The software was to include a single login across the network and linked community features. In the meantime, we launched “test” franchises such as RateMyWheels, RateMyRecipe, and of course, RateMyTeachers/Professors. All these sites were launched between the spring and summer of 2001, and about $100,000 dollars went into them, provided by our new investors from the technology law firm. The law firm brought on a managing partner or CEO-type to help us build the business.

As things were progressing, I realized that the CEO was spending a lot of our money, but I wasn’t aware of the actual state of the finances until September 13th, 2001. It was a strange week. Obviously, no one came in on Wednesday, September 12th, but on Thursday, the D.C. police left us phone messages asking to speak with the CEO. It turns out he had been bouncing checks all across town and embezzling our company funds.

Besides the matter with the CEO, the contracts for the rating sites were set up to protect the test franchisees so that if anything happened to the holding company, they would have first rights on the rating sites they were operating. I owned a third of the company by then, but when the holding company fell apart as a result of the CEO’s actions, I lost my rights to all of my RateMy sites.

Michael Hussey in 2006, Working Out the Early Details of PeekYou

Kim Ngo: Did you lose rights to every single one of the rate sites?

Michael Hussey: Yes—everything.

When the “mothership” of the network fell apart due to our CEO’s fraudulent actions and final settlements were reached, the site operators took 100% ownership of the existing sites. So, for example, the operator of RateMyProfessors took full control of the site and did a good job running its day-to-day operations. As for RateMyTeachers, its operators were kind of clueless. About a year later, they had the good sense to invite me back on as a partner. I made it my mission to turn the site into a success over the following years. Over the next few years, we rebuilt RateMyTeachers from the ground up with a different design and enhanced functionality, and the site started making real money. By that time, I wanted to move on, and RateMyTeachers was able to continue growing essentially with one full-time employee and a team of very smart administrators from across the world. The site was essentially running itself.

Kim Ngo: Can you tell me about the sale of RateMyProfessors to MTV?

Michael Hussey: When RateMyProfessors was acquired, John, a guy with whom we started the site, had taken up 100% ownership and had become its sole operator. John sold it for a good amount of money, though I’m not sure exactly how much. He sold it to a really sharp guy named Pat who owned an online textbook company in Baltimore. Pat held on to RateMyProfessors for a year and then swung it to MTV for many millions of dollars—a most impressive feat.

Kim Ngo: Was that painful for you?

Michael Hussey: Not really. I felt pretty good about it even though I wasn’t participating in the upside. I was happy for John and Pat.

Kim Ngo: Did you learn anything from that experience?

Michael Hussey: Yeah, it gave me a lot of confidence. If I could create something that eventually sold for that much, I could do much greater things into the future. In fact, I knew I was already on that road with the PeekYou database.

The Birth of Your Online Identity

Kim Ngo: If you can leave one piece of advice to future founders, what would that be?

Michael Hussey: Get a mentor. Succeeding at a startup venture demands young entrepreneurs to be competent in many aspects of the business, not only in being creative and technically savvy but also being good at organizing and negotiating. The good advice of a mentor —or even better, their good example — can be invaluable at guiding a young entrepreneur in making sound decisions in the early days of his or her startup.

More generally, it is important to surround yourself with experienced people who want you to succeed, and to learn from them.

A good habit is to write down everything. If you come up with any worthwhile new ideas, get it down on paper. Writing it down is the first step to taking action on the concept. Getting it on paper helps me a lot in clarifying my own thoughts as they occur to me and it helps me make sure I don’t forget anything valuable in the heat of the moment.

And perhaps most important, have fun with whatever your endeavor is and make sure everyone you work with is having fun too.

While working for companies like Veoh and Powerset in product management and software engineering, Siqi discovered an opportunity to capitalize on an emerging market in social media. When Facebook Platform was initially launched in May 2007, developers were able to make headway in the market by means of creating apps and games that were engaging and amusing to users. Siqi Chen and Friends for Sale co-founder, Alex Le, then took the real life dilemma of finding a date and solved it through social gaming.

Friends for Sale is a profitable social game on Facebook where facebookers buy and sell friends to make profit with virtual currency. With this virtual money, users can buy other game players who are more expensive, poke them, give them gifts, and even nickname them. Click here to read more about the Friends for Sale game: Siqi Chen is Selling Your Friends to the Highest Bidder.

A Short Clip of My Conversation with Siqi Chen
Trouble Viewing? Visit: Watch Siqi Chen, Friends for Sale

PROFILE

Siqi Chen

STATS
Companies Founded:
1. FluidPlay – 2006
Title: Founder

2. Serious Business (makers of Friends for Sale)
Title: CEO & Founder
Fundraised: $4M
Investor: LightSpeed Venture Partners
Highest Numbers of Employees: 32
Sold To: Zynga, February 2010

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Dalian, Liaoning, China
Currently Resides: San Francisco, CA
Age: 26
Bachelors of Science:
Mathematics, University of California, San Diego
Favorite Book: How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
Role Models: Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Dennis Felix

Favorite Quote: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt in “The Man in the Arena”

Siqi’s: Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook

THE INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim Ngo: Hi, Siqi. Thanks for meeting with me today. Your company
Serious Business is the maker of Friends for Sale.  To be honest, I was really engaged with your Facebook app for a while, but then I fell off.

Friends for Sale

Siqi Chen: Why did you fall off?

Kim Ngo: It was fun and cool in the beginning, but there was no real life value for me. Friends for Sale virtually allowed me to buy and sell my friends. Yes, I made profit with virtual currency, but I just didn’t see the real world value in it.

Siqi Chen: Interesting. Did you play with people you didn’t know?

Kim Ngo: No, only with friends.

Siqi Chen: Friends for Sale is a social game that allows you to buy people (within and outside of your network) and make them your pets with virtual currency. The more virtual currency you earn, the more you can do. You can buy more pets and potentially get a return on your investment if they get purchased. You can make money as a shrewd pet investor or as a hot commodity! Friends for Sale allows you to engage with friends and meet people outside of your friends list.

For a social game, Friends for Sale retains users extraordinarily well, relatively speaking. And the reason for this is because a lot of people play to meet new people.

Facebook is all about connecting and interacting with your friends, which by design, makes it very hard to meet new people. When Facebook Platform originally came out, we realized it could also be used to connect people across different social graphs. On Friends for Sale, not only do you buy your friends, but you can also buy and get bought by people you don’t know. As this happens, people start forming new relationships.

The Serious Business Team

Kim Ngo: So Friends for Sale is a dating app in disguise?

Siqi Chen: Definitely. When we designed it, we thought of it as a stealth-dating site. We explicitly wanted to make a dating site without calling it one. Friends for Sale is a social app, and people are more likely to tell their friends about a social app or game than a dating site. Nobody wants to tell their friend that they’re on a dating site. When we called Friends for Sale a game instead of a dating site, it became a lot more palatable.

It’s a game you play with your friends, but it also happens to be an easy way to meet new people; Facebook users really latch onto that. Not only do you meet new people, but you can also see who the hottest person (generally the most expensive person) is. Our features allow people to form new relationships. Users stick around for the people, not the actual game.

Kim Ngo: What’s your pitch for Friends for Sale?

Siqi Chen: We have a bunch of ways to describe it, but I think the one I use the most is “Hot or Not with a market economy.” We liked Hot or Not, but it only told you who was hot or who was not. What you want is a fluid supply and demand environment, so we added a market economy to the idea which keeps everything up to date.

Kim Ngo: So how did you come up with the market economy?

Siqi Chen: Funny story—it was an idea my co-founder and I came up with in Las Vegas. I was there for the two-year anniversary of Club Tao. While waiting to get into the club, I was looking at the line which was mostly comprised of middle-aged dudes who had just bought a table. Every guy looked like he was thinking, “This is going to suck; where are all of the girls?” My friend pointed to the other side of the room where there were fifty really hot girls just hanging out.

It was a microcosm of life. Everyone knows it’s awesome to be a hot girl or rich guy. I thought about how we could fuse that into an app, which is how we came up with Friends for Sale. In our app, it’s awesome to be a hot girl because you make money by being bought, and it’s awesome to be a rich guy because you can buy people.

Serious Business Lobby (Prior to Zynga Sale)

Kim Ngo: Where does Friends for Sale stand in Facebook App rankings?

Siqi Chen: It stands in the top twenty. We were in the top five at one point, but that was two years ago. The competition has definitely increased since then.

Kim Ngo: Can you tell us what the top two apps are, and why you think they are ranked so high?

Siqi Chen: Farmville and Cafeworld are the top two apps by the numbers, because Zynga, the developer of these games, has been more aggressive than anyone in investing in Facebook Apps.

Kim Ngo: Do you think Friends for Sale will ever get back to being a top five app?

Siqi Chen: It depends on how fast we grow. It’s hard to say. But what I can say is that we are bigger than we have ever been. We didn’t go from number five to number twenty because we’re smaller. We’re actually three times larger than when we were in the top five. It’s just that the platform ecosystem has expanded so much, and it takes a lot more traffic to be in the top ten than it did two years ago.

Kim Ngo: Where do you see Friends for Sale going from here? What do you have planned for the future?

Siqi Chen: We’re planning to create more ways to earn money, more ways to spend it, and more ways to meet and interact with friends, new and old.

Kim Ngo: Where do you see the industry of social gaming in five years?

Siqi Chen: Games will be more social, beautiful, and immersive but just as simple and casual as they are today.

THE MORE PERSONAL INTERVIEW – (Full Interview Transcription)

Kim Ngo: It sounds like you’re really passionate about what you do?

Siqi Chen: I would say so. I feel like I was always meant to do what I do now. I’ve always known I wanted to build things that lots of people would use.

Kim Ngo: What are your hobbies and interests?

Siqi Chen: I tend to play a lot of video games, but my hobbies involve what I do in my job. If I weren’t working, I’d still be doing the same things I do now: building and making cool things that people love.

It’s funny though. I was in a board meeting, and the board told me that I needed to play more video games. So I did. I was spending a lot of my time building the company and not actually playing games. The board felt that the company would benefit if I were to play video games. They recommended everything from Xbox to casual games. I bought a Nintendo DS and started playing more games. It was really educational. As usual, the board was right.

Siqi Chen

Kim Ngo: What’s your biggest fear?

Siqi Chen: My biggest fear is not living up to the potential that this company and team holds. Considering the many things we’ve done wrong over the past couple of years, one of the things we’ve done right is putting together a great team. Bringing failure to the team is my greatest fear.

Kim Ngo: Tell us about your first taste of success and proudest moment.

Siqi Chen: Shortly after we launched Friends for Sale, the initial reaction was explosive. After a month and a half, we were the largest Ruby on Rails app in the world, despite being just two guys with day jobs.

It was an idea we came up with on our own, and we had all of these theories about why it would work. Ultimately, most of them have proven to be true, which rarely happens when you’re building a web app. It was a combination of a small amount of good judgment and a very large amount of luck. It was very rewarding to see all of these assumptions that were put into the idea come to fruition.

Kim Ngo: What did you guys do to make sure those assumptions were right?

Siqi Chen: We got lucky. We did the best we could in thinking about how people are currently meeting new people and fused this into an app about buying and selling. What would people want to do with this app? We thought about how it’s a funny idea to buy your friends, but we also asked ourselves why people want to own anything in the first place. We needed to allow people to do things to someone they owned that they couldn’t have done otherwise in the real world.

Kim Ngo: So one day you were like, “Alexander (the co-founder of Serious Business), let’s leave our jobs and create this app?”

The Mascot

Siqi Chen: In May 2007, I built a game called Mafia. Though it wasn’t an extraordinary success, it attracted 100,000 users, which is pretty good on the web. It was barely existent on Facebook, but through advertising, I was making a good chunk of cash on the side—about the same amount as my salary.

One day, I decided I should make something viral. I was talking to Alexander Le about it, and we came up with Friends for Sale. We spent ten nights building and designing it before it was launched. About a month later, we had one million users.

Kim Ngo: What do you think you do better than your competitors?

Siqi Chen: There are things I know we do very well, but I wouldn’t say I definitely know there are things we do better. There are things we understand very well, like data driven and iterative development and metrics. We are an extremely data focused company. We have a very good team, and we understand product design and sociability. We make games that allow you to interact with other people, which is something I think we do better than other companies.

Kim Ngo: What do you enjoy most and least about being a CEO?

Siqi Chen: That’s a tough one. My favorite and least favorite parts of being a CEO are in the management of the people—the hiring and firing of employees. It’s never pleasant to fire somebody, and it’s always rewarding to hire somebody extremely talented.

Kim Ngo: What was your toughest experience in building Friends for Sale?

Serious Business Bored Room

Siqi Chen: A month after we launched, I had already quit my job, and I was the only full time employee at Friends for Sale. At the time, it was the largest Ruby on Rails site in the world. We were getting 10 million views a day. It was nuts! The site was barely up because with only one person, it’s very hard to scale a site that size, especially if you’ve never done it before. I was only getting about two to three hours of sleep a night. It was just awful!

Eventually, we migrated to a different hosting center, got better hardware, and fixed some of the architecture. Things definitely improved around January, but the whole month of December was rough.

Kim Ngo: Was there a point where you felt like you couldn’t do it anymore? Did you ever want to give up?

Siqi Chen: No, I felt like I didn’t have a choice. This thing had a life of its own with hundreds of thousands of users. I had to make it work. I knew of other sites that were a thousand times bigger that worked, so I knew that running Friends for Sale was doable. But it was something that I had never done before, and we had to build everything from scratch.

Kim Ngo: What does it take to succeed in your field?

Siqi Chen: I think it’s a combination of ego, drive, and innate design that makes an entrepreneur successful. Another thing that works for me is that I am technical so I’m able to understand what’s possible and what’s not possible. I can also talk to our engineers. In fact, I’m on the line with our engineers probably an hour each day and I actually do write code—that’s definitely a plus. I’m also really product oriented.

Serious Business

Kim Ngo: What motivates you?

Siqi: Chen: I wasn’t especially hardworking in high school or college, but I’ve always known what I wanted to do. I had this feeling of knowing what I wanted to do and that I would make it happen.

Kim Ngo: Why were you so sure you could make it happen?

Siqi Chen: Because I was able to see and hear about other people who have done it – I felt if other people could do it, then there’s no reason I couldn’t.

Kim Ngo: What inspires you? And what makes you happiest? Is it money or a sense of accomplishment?

Siqi Chen: It is building things that have a lasting impact in this world — things that are beautiful and useful. Things that fuse form and function into something that affects people’s lives on an everyday level.

Kim Ngo: So this is why you moved to Silicon Valley?

Siqi Chen: Yes. Moving to Silicon Valley allowed me to meet people that I needed to in order to do what I wanted to do. And that proved to be absolutely true. Moving here was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Kim Ngo: What advice would you give to the young aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start something?

Siqi Chen: Stop reading, stop watching videos, and just do something.

Siqi Chen

Launched in November 2007 by Serious Business founders Alex Le and Siqi Chen, Friends for Sale now holds the ranks among the top games on the social networking site. Once users join the app, they become eligible for purchase by friends and strangers alike, with the ultimate goal of becoming more expensive, or highly valued. Every time a player is bought, his or her value increases. The trading can get pretty competitive. People and their pets continue to pick up new strategies to build up more cash and buy up more pets, but the central purpose of the game is just to have a good time with friends and perhaps connect with a few new faces in the process. After all, Facebook is all about bringing people together and keeping them in touch, and Siqi offers a fun and entertaining way to keep these interactions exciting with Friends for Sale.

Serious Business

In recent news, the company behind Friends for Sale, Serious Business, was acquired by social gaming powerhouse Zynga. Who knows what is in store for Siqi and his co-workers’ big move to the Zynga San Francisco office and the bright future of Friends for Sale?

Meet Siqi Chen in an exclusive one-on-one interview that will take you behind the scenes with Siqi and his thought process for creating the popular Facebook app: Siqi Chen and IntimateMath

THE OFFERING by Project X Films
Trouble Viewing? Visit: THE OFFERING

In this interview, I talk to Mike about:
- His dreams of becoming a director of an animated feature film
- What he’s given, and given up, on his journey thus far
- How far he is willing to go to make his dream a reality

STATS
Companies Founded:
1. Gravity 3D
2. Huber Films
3. Project X

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Sierra Vista, AZ
Currently Resides: San Jose, CA
Education: San Francisco State University Film School and CADRE San Jose State University

Hobbies/Interests: Motorcycles, making margaritas
Quality Most Remembered For: Very goofy
In 10 Years, I see myself…: Directing A list films
I’m Happiest when…: I am directing
I’m Motivated by…: Beauty, the thought of doing something unique
Biggest Fear: Economic failure and heights
Favorite Quote: “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Role Models: My Dad, Richard Huber

LINKS
Linkedin
Facebook
Project X

Click Here for The Interview with Michael Huber

Below are some short video clips of our meeting.

In this interview, Igor Shoifot, COO & Co-Founder of FOTKI opens up about some of his struggles on the path to success. His whimsical attitude and serious entrepreneurial background paved the way for superb development in the quest to create FOTKI. Shoifot has an impressive record as a CEO of Epsylon Games (Microsoft’s largest WebTV entertainment portal), as well as a co-founder of several startups in digital video, VoIP, document management, and software development, but his hectic lifestyle hasn’t managed to take away from his colorful sense of humor. Read on to discover Igor’s take on usefulness and the importance of choosing to surround yourself with good people.

What’s Igor’s favorite quote?

What two categories?

Being innovative?

STATS

Companies Founded:
1. FOTKI
2. Sundera
3. Epsylon Video
4. Epsylon VideoMost
5. Vinternship

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Hometown: Born in Novokuznetsk (Siberia), grew up in Moscow (Russia), was adopted by Boston and married to New York, until San Francisco seduced me
Currently Resides: San Francisco, CA
Education:
Moscow State Pedagogical University, Bachelor of Science – 1991
Central European University, Masters of Arts – 1993
Russian Academy of Sciences, PhD – 1996
Boston University, Masters of Business Administration – 1999

Hobbies/Interests: Books, writing, acting, theater, philosophy, boxing, martial arts, arts in general
First Taste of Success: Tasted like a cheap strawberry lipstick with a faint note of vanilla ice cream
Proudest Moment: The night we elected Barack Obama our President
Worst Habit: Reading too much (not like I will ever change it)
Quality Most Remembered For: Ability to make people laugh, scream, love, feel warm and happy (or so I hope!)
Where You See Yourself in 10 Years: In a theater near you
I’m Happiest when…: I am at a book store
I’m Motivated by…: this guy and his kitties
Biggest fear: To waste my life
Favorite Quote: The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody . . . would be to not be used for anything by anybody (Kurt Vonnegut) – it used to hang above my desk, I gave it to a good person as a goodbye gift
Role Models: None that I know of, because nobody is perfect, but I admire Einstein, Nietzsche, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Freud, Wilde, Twain, Paglia and many more amazing people

THE INTERVIEW

IGOR BEING IGOR

Kim Ngo: Hi Igor. Thanks for meeting with me. Before you start telling me about FOTKI, tell me why you want to be used? I understand the want of wanting to be valuable… but being used?

Igor Shoifot: Being used is being valued. My favorite quote is, “The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody . . . would be to not be used for anything by anybody,” by Kurt Vonnegut. I think it’s a brilliant quote. It would be the worst thing – if you lived your whole life and nobody ever used you for anything. You’d be considered useless. I think people are focused on the wrong things when they hear the word “being used.”

FOTKI started in 1998, long before most other photo sites.

FOTKI is a community of people that are in love with photography and come together to share their life and world through pictures. It’s a social photo-sharing site where picture are shared globally. A person’s life is shared through photos that express a million words.

IGOR @WORK

Kim Ngo: How did FOTKI gain such a huge following internationally?

Igor Shoifot: FOTKI started in New York, which is such a diverse area – with people from all over the world. Our team was also diverse. Because of that diverse network of friends outside of the US, FOTKI has big communities in, Canada, Europe, Brazil, Russia, Japan, and South Korea.

Kim Ngo: What do you think you do better than your competitors?

Igor Shoifot: Competitors? What competitors? =) (Laughing) Well, most photo sites are very unique – we are uniquely combining numerous, and very sophisticated photo options with social networking features – that’s what sets us apart. But each user probably loves Fotki for some very personal reason – you’ve got to ask them – we have over 1,400,000 of them.

Kim Ngo: Why do you think your customers continue to stay with FOTKI both paying and non-paying?

FUNKY IGOR

Igor Shoifot: “Once a Fotkin, always a Fotkin.” It’s the power of community. And it’s not only a virtual community here at FOTKI… a lot of our users are building great relationships outside of the web all because of photo-sharing. We’ve made it really easy for photo-obsessed people to connect. There are so many real-life friendships that have been made on FOTKI, and even marriages, even though, for a while, we used to frown upon any “dating activities” on the site feeling that some people don’t feel too comfy about it – we were wrong.

Kim Ngo: How did you get started with FOTKI?

Igor Shoifot: FOTKI started as a hobby by my good friend and business partner, Dimitri, the CEO of FOTKI. He initially built it so his friends, including me, could store and share photos with each other. Then, after when he turned it into a business, he asked me to drop all the many fun things I was doing, and join FOTKI to expand the business. So, we call me a co-founder in the sense that we co-founded the business together and thought up the whole FOTKI strategy between us, and it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been “co-founding” FOTKI.

Keep in mind that FOTKI started as a photo-sharing site, and then naturally grew into a social network where people were actually connecting because of photos and through photos. Frankly, we weren’t geniuses who came up with a great idea to build a social network. It just happened because we needed a place to share our photos.

Kim Ngo: Why do you think Dimitri wanted to make you a founder?

IGOR

Igor Shoifot: We make great business partners. The great thing about our relationship is we come from very different backgrounds. I am the business development and marketing person; and I love explaining the way things work and closing deals. Dmitri, however, is also a businessperson but a much more technical businessperson.

And as much as we like each other and have a true friendship, we disagree more often than not – which is awesome, because if you have two people in a business who always agree, one of them has to go – he just brings no intellectual value then.

Kim Ngo: What was one of the most painful things you had to go through here at FOTKI?

Igor Shoifot: Being dismissed as a company. The worst feeling is when you tell people about your company and product – with over a million users, with paying customers, with employees, and with profits, and people respond, “Well, who needs you if there’s F____ or P___, or S_______ or S_____?.”

There are probably two categories of companies:

1) People who are creating something new, which includes people who are struggling (not necessarily *financially* – but conceptually.) These people are pouring their hearts into something (and Flickr was in this category; they had an amazing – amazing team who built a truly great technology). So this category builds a company, like ours, to develop something new and amazing while at the same time has the pressure and stress of paying salaries and competing with no outside help or investment.

2) The second category is still cool and innovative, but they have lots of money to burn. They don’t need to care about the business model. They actually give away their money: You want unlimited storage? No problem. You want big photos? No problem. You want unlimited traffic? No Problem. And there’s nothing wrong with those companies, and it’s great that they exist. I think in many ways they are helping the progress, but they are also killing it in many ways.

For example, Google killed the whole online calendar space. There were so many great calendar startups until Google came up with The Calendar, which I am using, but the way (its great!), but it killed that industry. Google Calendar is integrated with about everything, and it’s free, ads-free, not even a hint at the “freemium” model – just an (expensive to develop and maintain) totally FREE for all product that burns Google millions of dollars per year, so, how do you compete with that? That’s kind of a killing innovation. And there’s very little that anyone can do anything about it. It’s just a fact of life.

That’s sad! Anything that stops progress is sad.

Kim Ngo: Yeah I know, but you guys are profitable.

Igor Shoifot: We are! But we are just in low seven-figures in terms of revenues, and we are not exactly doing what we WANT to be doing – we have wonderful ideas for FOTKI, and we have a long list of features and services that over a million people have been waiting for – but we need to constantly keep our eyes on the money, NOT on the innovation – and that kind of sucks. Being innovative is not good enough anymore. Being a good orange juice is not good enough anymore. You’ve got to be like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon – fighting lots of guys coming at you from all sorts of angles – and you’re bare-handed, and it’s all in good fun, of course, but you have just your bleeding fists on your side, and maybe a good warrior scream.

Kim Ngo: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Igor Shoifot: No. When I was a kid, I honestly thought I would be an actor and a writer.

Kim Ngo: Are you disappointed that it didn’t happen?

IGOR THE STAR

Igor Shoifot: No. I’m sort of an actor; I played in a movie. I’m also a writer; I’ve written a lot of stuff…I haven’t published yet, besides a small history book in Russian. I also think being an entrepreneur is similar to being an actor and a writer – like a writer, you invent reality, and try to tell a compelling story to your audience, and like an actor, you take part in a “dramatic affair” – and what can be more dramatic than a start-up life? It’s William Shakespeare meets Dave Chappelle, most any day.

Kim Ngo: …but in real life. There are no rewrites, cuts, re-dos, or go backs. Your decisions will determine the fate of your company. There is very little room for error if there’s any room for it at all.

Igor Shoifot: That’s why the Bay Area is so awesome. We are surrounded by these kinds of people everyday who are really fighting and standing up for what they believe in and worked so hard for.

Kim Ngo: What are you afraid of?

Igor Shoifot: My mom! (Laughing)
(Gets serious) I’m afraid of wasting my life and not accomplishing something meaningful. I am not BS-ing! I seriously mean it.

Kim Ngo: What do you get nervous about, besides your mom and not having enough time? Are you easily intimidated by your work?

Igor Shoifot: Not really. I spent my whole childhood trying to answer this question. I did lots of stand-up comedy back in school, which is also why I had to go into boxing and martial arts, because not everybody shared the skinny boy’s sense of humor. Lots of things make me nervous, to be serious: business decisions, the wrong way the whole world is going, not being able to accomplish what I want to accomplish, not finding the True Love, and – I was joking about Mom, of course.

Kim Ngo: What keeps you up at night?

Igor Shoifot: Business. When you’re an entrepreneur, there is this constant tension. You can’t ever relax; you envy the people who are relaxed. You go out, and you see those who are happy and carefree. You see people who are less tense, and my best guess is they are not entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, I am constantly checking my email, voice messages… making sure projects are completed, if someone replied, etc. This is the nasty side of entrepreneurship; the side I could live without. There’s a very exciting side also.

After FOTKI, my business partner and I would like to open a nonprofit and do something meaningful and not have to worry about profits, deals, or contracts. We actually have a really awesome idea for it!

Kim Ngo: What are you passionate about?

Igor Shoifot: Women (laughing).

Love … making a difference… creating something that is meaningful – to me.

Kim Ngo: You don’t fit the exact stereotype of a COO…

Igor Shoifot: I guess I shouldn’t be a COO then (laughing). I was always a great sales and marketing person, maybe I should stay one? But as to not fitting the stereotype, I think… as the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Nebraska says:

The cowards never started
The weak died on the way
Only the strong arrived
And they were the pioneers

Kim Ngo: If you can tell future founders one thing, what would it be?

Igor Shoifot: Work with people you love, respect, and have fun with. Never work with people whom you can barely tolerate.

One of our VC friends said, “The first day you meet with a founder, you better be completely in love with them because its downhill from there.”

Kim Ngo: Besides FOTKI, what’s your favorite website?

Igor Shoifot: Facebook. You can find me there easily; I’m the only Shoifot in the world.

Kim Ngo: What’s your 2^nd favorite site?

Igor Shoifot: IntimateMath. (Laughing)

Kim Ngo: (Laughing)