Don't Miss The 'Early Adopter' Rate For The Ypulse College Mashup
Posted by anastasia on 12-12-2007
December 21 is right around the corner — it's also the last day you can save $100 when you register for the Ypulse College Mashup happening February 1 in Santa Monica. Our lineup keeps getting better. We confirmed Kimberly Cadena from The ONE Campaign for our College Activism panel and will announce a few more speakers when I return from vacation.
Just to give you a sneak preview of some of what you'll be hearing February 1, I did a short email with one of our keynote speakers, Ricky Van Veen, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the wildly popular site Collegehumor.com.
YP: What would you say is "the secret" to College Humor's success?
Ricky Van Veen: I think the secret to most successful web businesses is simply starting organically to serve a purpose and then catching on naturally from there. Craigslist, eBay, and CollegeHumor are all examples of that. We didn’t set out to be a major entertainment brand among young people, it just happened because we kept doing what we thought was fun for ourselves and our readers.
YP: Now that you've been out of college for a while, how do you stay in touch with the college demographic?
RVV: I'll touch on this more in the presentation, but since a large amount of the content comes from the users themselves, it's not hard to be relevant to your audience.
YP: How do you come up with ideas for Facebook apps? How have your Facebook apps been doing? Which ones are most popular?
RVV: The Facebook apps are doing well, but nothing on the success level of Zombies or whatnot. Our most popular is our Insult Generator. We come up with them the same way we write a video — pitching ideas around the writer's room.
YP: You have so many brand extensions — the book, the live tour, original videos. How do you decide where to expand next?
RVV: We usually wait to expand into an area until we have a specific idea for it. For example, we've been holding off on taking any TV opportunities until we had what we thought was a great idea. Now that we have one, we're going to pitch it out a few places.
YP: What is the biggest lesson you've learned as a young entrepreneur?
RVV: The biggest lesson I've learned is that just because you started a company and you're (by default) managing people doesn't mean you’re good at managing people. You have to realize what skills you have and don't have, then find the right talent to fill in the gaps.
YP: Can you give Ypulse readers a hint at what they might hear from you at the College Mashup?
RVV: Sure. I think I'm going to talk about how we've managed to reach and sustain the illusive demo of young males and what our plans are moving forward and adapting to the changing online landscape. Looking forward!
December 12th, 2007 at 7:10 am
"the secret to most successful web businesses is simply starting organically to serve a purpose and then catching on naturally from there."
Wow - very strong quote. A good explanation of why just about everything 'corporate' sucks. I tend to have a philosophy that in marketing to tweens/teens you have to 'live it'. Sometimes it blows my mind by seeing major players with obscene resources because there employees just do what's required at their job.