At the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit, I was lucky to catch up with the three founders of iBeatYou (aka IBY), a site where anyone can compete with celebrities like Jessica Alba or NBA star Baron Davis. Baron happens to be a founder, along with Abdul Khan (also CEO) and producer Cash Warren, Jessica's husband. As I said in the past, I give this site a big thumbs up, as it's very addictive. I watched a nine-minute video of the winner of "The Stare: No Blinking" contest. Amazingly enough, I was drawn to the suspense and drama of watching how long someone could keep their eyes open. Of course, on the downside, once you watch one staring video, they all, well, kinda look the same.
In this extensive video interview with the three founders, which I've broken out into three parts, they share their thoughts on metrics, how they're bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Hollywood and technology investing. Abdul says that the site has had over 35 million views on the site since launching in March 2008 and users have created over 400,000 entries. Cash talks about bridging the gap between Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
Baron talks about why he likes investing in technology; why he blogs on Yardbarker, and what he's looking to invest in.
(Note: Here are two competitions that are worth checking out. "Most embarrasing item in your closet." "Most interesting moment in history of June 11th.")
Some day I’d like to see Bambi step outside the role of neutral interviewer and launch into a coaching session. That day is now.
Being a cheerleader has its limits, both in terms of entertainment value and personal integrity.
On numerous occasions, it would have been priceless to have someone cut me off mid-pitch and say: “You are most probably going to fail and this is why…” Then the conversation could be resumed in two weeks.
Do you learn more from looking at mistakes or successes? Mistakes have a lot to teach us, especially when they are pointed out in a clear and non-threatening manner.