There are a number of factors that are considered essential to a building a successful startup. Taking a huge leap of faith by placing your business’ flagship product in the hands of the users probably wouldn’t be considered one of those factors. Yet it’s how Zimbio founder and CEO Tony Mamone has built this 15-person San Carlos-based outfit in to one of the ten largest magazines on the internet. To give you an idea of Zimbo’s scale, in a given month somewhere in the ballpark of 15 million unique visitors visit the site. There is an army of well over 35,000 volunteers who help generate and police the content that gets posted to Zimbio. While the business model is far from traditional, the way Zimbio makes money is – the site is free to use and powered solely through advertising placements. Mamone’s first foray into the Web 2.0 startup space wasn’t nearly as sexy as his current endeavor – as part of LookSmart he was intimately involved in the creation of findarticles.com, which was launched in early 2000 and eventually sold to CNET for $20.5 million.
There are a number of factors that are considered essential to a building a successful startup. Taking a huge leap of faith by placing your business’ flagship product in the hands of the users probably wouldn’t be considered one of those factors. Yet it’s how Zimbio founder and CEO Tony Mamone has built this 15-person San Carlos-based outfit in to one of the ten largest magazines on the internet. To give you an idea of Zimbo’s scale, in a given month somewhere in the ballpark of 15 million unique visitors visit the site. There is an army of well over 35,000 volunteers who help generate and police the content that gets posted to Zimbio. While the business model is far from traditional, the way Zimbio makes money is – the site is free to use and powered solely through advertising placements. Mamone’s first foray into the Web 2.0 startup space wasn’t nearly as sexy as his current endeavor – as part of LookSmart he was intimately involved in the creation of findarticles.com, which was launched in early 2000 and eventually sold to CNET for $20.5 million.