Lessons from the Trenches:How I sold Zite twice

Mark JohnsonFormer CEO of Zite@philosophygeek

Goals

What you’ll get• Tell you the story of Zite with some

observations

What you won’t get• An easy formula to build a successful startup• How to sell a company twice

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BE YOURSELF

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“I AM UNEMPLOYED”

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The Startups The Acquirers

Travel Search

Categorized Search

Natural Language Search

$180M

$300M

$100M

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DON’T GIVE UP

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Zite Timeline: Key events

2005: Worio founded

March 2010:Zite launches on iPad

August 2010:CNN acquires Zite

December 2012:Zite 2.0 Launches

March 2014:Flipboard acquires Zite

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“A PIVOT IS A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE. . . YOU ARE DOWN AT THE HEDGE ROW LEVEL, AND THE

BRANCHES ARE GOING THROUGH THE FUSELAGE.”

Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital

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TECHNOLOGY IS EASIER TO PIVOT THAN PRODUCT

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The Pivot: Zite.com

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Hail Mary!

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Zite 1.0

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Why was Zite successful?

• Solved a serious problem of information overload

• Mobile first• Powerful underlying technology; but with a

simple interface

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Some awesome usage stats

• Even after 3 years, Zite maintained 25% retention

• 20 minutes per user per day• 9 articles per day

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YOU ARE GOING TO PISS PEOPLE OFF IF YOU ARE DISRUPTING*

*ESPECIALLY IN THE MEDIA

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THE SALE TO CNN

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Why being part of CNN didn’t suck

• Frank discussions during negotiation– Shared goals and objectives– Agreed-upon milestones (pros/cons)– My experience in a bad acquisition

• Retained (relative) independence• Guaranteed funding• Hyper-focus on the first hundred days– Hire new employees– Release iPhone

Fact: most acquisitions are failures

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BUILD VALUE IN YOUR COMPANY

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What is value?

• Product• Technology• People

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MAKE BIG PRODUCT BETS

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Zite 2.0

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Lessons from Zite 2.0

• Know when to revamp the product• Get it right on one platform before going to

others– Ignore the siren song of minor platforms

• Be prepared for a dot-release quick on the heels of your big release

• Coordinate marketing across all channels

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DON’T BE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES. CLEAN UP QUICKLY AFTER THEM. AND DON’T MAKE

THEM AGAIN.

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Hibou, the Owl logo

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TECHNOLOGY CAN DRIVE PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT

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Not just the UX

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BUILD A GREAT CULTURE

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The Culture Club

• Why?– Punch above your weight– Teams that play together stay together

• How?– Focus on intelligence and capability– Use your CEO as a culture check– Organize a social event to see how a potential

employee fits in

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BE PREPARED: SURPRISES ARE AROUND EVERY CORNER

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Sale to Flipboard

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From CNN to Flipboard

• Tripled the size of the team• Redesigned Zite from the ground up• Expanded from the iPad to iPhone and

Android• Improved the underlying discovery technology• Inked deals with dozens of publishers• Booked our first revenue• Built an integration to CNN

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JUST DO IT

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HAVE FUN

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QUESTIONS?

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