Steve Outing offers “An Important Lesson About Grassroots Media” — a chronicle of the demise of his company, the Enthusiast Group, which created sports sites. He gave it his best effort, but in the end, as he explains, he and his colleagues couldn’t sustain a business.
Steve’s venture (I was an early investor) was one of many in the field. Some are working. Many are not; most startups don’t succeed, an entirely normal state of affairs.
Bottom line: Steve et al deserve enormous credit for trying. They learned — we are all learning — lessons as this new kind of media takes shape. Some are the tough lessons indeed, but they are valuable.
on Nov 28th, 2007 at 8:04 am
My emphasis:
“While a few of those people stuck around, many more participated a little bit, then faded away. Our growth in traffic was slow and steady, but unremarkable, and not enough to sustain a business.”
And here is the core of the problem, which is why I get myself into trouble for saying the hype is SO CRUEL, in terms of being a scam to fleece many suckers for the enrichment of a few very cynical marketers. And the baleful influence on smart people who should know better, but are seduced or corrupted.
Bah. I’ve said it before, and the only thing that’s likely to happen is I’ll get flamed from on-high by an A-lister, where I can’t effectively reply.
on Nov 28th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Some important lesson for all. Thanks for the link.
on Nov 30th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
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