Big Winner

Before Facebook, before MySpace, and before Friendster, there was TheGlobe. TheGlobe.com was a community-focused site that experienced the rise and fall of the dotcom boom. The book “A Very Public Offering” describes the process Stephen Paternot went through to get the site running.

I read through the book a few years ago and found it to be an exciting first-person account of starting a business during a time of structural change. Now, via Private Equity Hub comes an interview with Paternot. Whether they’ve had huge successes or not succeeded and simply moved on to other opportunities, I love advice from entrepreneurs who’ve seen it all.

Here’s a couple of great quotes:
* The Internet goes through evolutions. People couldn’t see beyond Yahoo for a long time, and suddenly there was Google. I couldn’t see what was beyond the tools that were available to me [at TheGlobe] at the time. But as markets get bigger, they fragment, then gel around more specific ideas. It will re-fragment again. I’m an active Facebook user and have loved it since using it a few years ago. But Facebook has something like 80 million users. Not everyone wants this one homogeneous experience.

* My advice would be that if you’re company is worth anything, $5 million or $15 million, and you have the chance to take some money off the table, do it!

Also, check out Paternot’s advice about succeeding big by replicating a successful business in a different country.

The whole interview is great:
http://www.pehub.com/wordpress/?p=2653

Filed under: Uncategorized