Madrona's Greg Gottesman rides to Cheezburger's defense |
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Madrona's Greg Gottesman rides to Cheezburger's defense
One of the more intriguing discussions at today's CityClub luncheon -- apart from UW president Mark Emmert's comments about what's needed to power the innovation economy -- was a back-and-forth between Madrona Venture Group's Greg Gottesman and moderator Barry Mitzman. The topic was none other than Cheezburger Network, the fast growing network of more than 50 comedy Web sites which just happened to be featured in The New York Times this week.
Gottesman
Mitzman -- who noted that he visits I Can Has Cheezburger at least three times a day -- wondered what's really innovative about a business that showcases cat photos and captions on the Web. It's a common question, and one that's been debated on TechFlash in the past.
But Gottesman came to Cheezburger's defense, noting that there's "massive transformation going on in terms of where people are getting their information."
"Ten years ago, the idea that you would have a site like Cheezburger, or in their case Fail Blog or these cat pictures that would have almost as much traffic as the major other publications, would be unheard of," said Gottesman. "People are going to new places to get the kinds of information they need, and Cheezburger and a lot of other local companies are kind of (going) into that."
With the rise of smartphones and other mobile devices, Gottesman doesn't think that will be changing anytime soon. And he worries about those companies that are stuck in the old way of doing things.
"Hopefully some of the larger companies will embrace this change and some of these new business models, because we are not going back," he said. "A lot of times I talk to some more traditional companies and you can just see over the course of meeting them daydreaming about the days of yore when the old advertising and old subscription models made sense. But we are not going back to those times."
For those companies that do evolve and emerging players that change the business dynamics, Gottesman said there is an "incredible opportunity."
He then pointed to the example of Madrona-backed Redfin, noting that it is not a "deep, deep IP change" but it is a "fundamental" shift in how people could buy real estate.
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