Adario Strange has this interview with Techmeme’s Gabe Rivera that might very well only further fuel my compulsion to check the tech-oriented blog aggregation site mulitiple times a day.
Strange’s Q and A with Rivera really doesn’t reveal much about the site that most fellow Techmeme addicts don’t already know. But Rivera confirms what I already suspected but didn’t know for sure: he’s built this site (along with three other sites, including an equally addictive one-stop shop for celebrity gossip, WeSmirch) with no funding and no staff. It’s just Gabe running this phenomenally successful site that A-list bloggers — and quite a few influential mainstream media reporters — increasingly depend on to tell them what’s hot and what’s not.
“I’m supporting everything myself. No staff. No investors. Self-funded,” Rivera says cryptically.
That’s the American dream in the Internet era. Anyone with an idea and the ability to back it up can get a good running start on success. I say “running start” because it’s not entirely clear to me if Techmeme’s sole source of revenue, advertising, is making Techmeme pay off in the short-term. But my guess is that if Gabe ever wanted to sell the site, which is fueled by some kind of secret sauce algorithms, Techmeme would pay off in a very big way.
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:16 AM|Comments(2)
Thanks Cynthia. Techmeme is my current American dream. :) The ads pay a nice salary. I'd like to see them pay a few nice salaries. Maybe later.
Posted by: Gabe at May 18, 2007 3:07 AM
Given the ad rates, and presuming the ads are being sold at at least near those rates, I'd say Gabe is making a much deserved small pile of cash.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick at May 17, 2007 10:25 AM
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