Last.fm

Nine Business Lessons From TreeHugger.com’s Founder

~ Sebastien Provencher ~ 6 Comments

During the first edition of StartupCamp Montreal on Wednesday night, keynote speaker Graham Hill of TreeHugger.com fame offered 9 lessons web entrepreneurs should take heed of.

StartupCamp Montreal Graham Hill Treehugger

  1. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Humans don’t really change. If something feels wrong, it probably is.
  2. Incentives drive the world. For employees, for business development, etc.
  3. Truth is told at cash registers and not in focus groups. Look to the data and test a product by selling it.
  4. Listen to Fred Wilson.
  5. The network is the computer. It has to be open and all about online applications. Think Gmail, Last.fm, Mint.com.
  6. Think product first, marketing later. This new connected world takes care of a good portion of marketing if you have a great product.
  7. Barely enough money is a good thing. It keeps you hungry and makes you focussed. Helps you find what’s the core of your business.
  8. Companies are bought not sold. It might be a cliché but it’s true. Play hard to get.
  9. Good guys win in a connected world. Media has been democratized and spin control does not exist anymore.
Advertisement

CBS Buys Last.fm for $280M

~ Sebastien Provencher ~ 4 Comments

(via BBC News)

CBS just picked up one of the darlings of the Web 2.0 world, Last.fm for $280M. The site “allows users to connect with other listeners with similar music tastes, to custom-build their own radio stations and to watch music video-clips. The online network was founded in the UK five years ago and it now has more than 15 million active users. As part of the deal, Last.fm’s managing team will remain in place and the site will maintain its own separate identity. ”

What it means: great acquisition by CBS as Last.fm is a very interesting site and application. Interesting also: CBS will maintain Last.fm’s separate identity. It seems like this is happening more and more when large media corporations acquire smaller Web 2.0 start-ups. The Flickr example comes to mind. I think media companies are realizing that innovation happens in smaller, tightly-knit teams.