Joseph Weisenthal

Spot Runner is really the perfect web2.0 success story, isn’t it?

1) Come up with a product that sounds buzzy and disruptive, even though it isn’t.

2) Get A LOT of blog hype about how disruptive they are

3) Raise VC, who want to show how forward thinking they are

4) Raise money/and or sell to an established, dying media brand that is horribly insecure and worried about missing out on the future and will pay up for anything that gives it cred, regardless of how empty the actual service is.

5) Cash out.

lunchfood:

jonathanmarcus:

The March 2009 Admissions: The Company has raised $100 MM from investors, and has spent $80 MM without completing development of its principal product (an innovative media buying platform called Project Malibu). Spot Runner improperly sold $54 MM of common shares, when the Company was a start-up and in need of venture capital, with founders Nick Grouf and Waxman having received $30 MM in proceeds, and Battery and Index Ventures having received $24 MM.