Wallstrip Goes Through The Exit Door

CBS announced today that they are purchasing Wallstrip.

Here's the story as I see it. Howard Lindzon is a scrappy investor and sometimes entrepreneur from Phoenix, Arizona. He got hip to blogging several years ago and started networking around via blogs. He's as good at that as anyone I know. He connected to me via blogs and we've become fast friends. Howard started watching videoblogs and figured there ought to be one about stocks.

But instead of just thinking about it, he did something. He got on a plane, came to NYC, hired a couple of awesome video producers named Adam and Jeff (aka Bright Red Pictures), they hired a wonderful host named Lindsay, and Howard also roped me and a bunch of other bloggers into helping him fund the show. He set out to make a funny short video about Wall Street five days a week for less than $1000 per show.  Adam and Jeff figured out how to do that and they've been online every work day since October 16th of last year.

Along the way Howard, Adam, Jeff, Lindsay, and a few other brave souls they hired figured out a bunch of stuff that is key to a successful web video show. Like how to get the show on every video service quickly and easily. How to tag and promote the show on each and every service so it actually gets seen. How to measure and track all the views. How to reconcile all the different measurements you get. How to get subscribers in iTunes, FeedBurner, and YouTube. How to make a web site that communicates what the show is quickly and easily. How to do advertising in a way that doesn't get in the way of the viewer. How to get the show indexed by ticker in the major finance portals. And most of all, how to keep it short, fun, and funny.

So many of the comments on the rumor last week were about the show itself. It was good, it was bad, it was funny, it was silly, or whatever else.

But here's the thing. It's not entirely about the content on the web. Sure it has to be good enough to attract an audience. But right now, its about way more than the content. Just figuring out how to make a show on a cost basis that can make a profit is hard. How to do it every day is even harder. And figuring out all the other stuff that I listed above is critical. Not many people have figured all that out. But if you don't know how to do all that stuff, you can't build a business in web video.

Howard, Jeff, Adam, Lindsay, and their small team figured most of that stuff out. And they've been rewarded with a nice payday for nine months of work. But more importantly, they are going to be doing way more than Wallstrip for CBS. They are part of CBS's new internet strategy that recognizes you can't just make content and expect the audience to find it. You've got to get it where the audience is.

That's what Howard did best with Wallstip. And that's why CBS wants Wallstrip on it's team.

I really enjoyed this short run. It was profitable too. And that's always a good thing in venture deals. But more than anything, I got some amazing lessons from this one. And I expect they'll pay even bigger dividends in the coming years. Thanks Howard, Adam, Jeff, Lindsay and the rest of the Wallstrip gang. It sure was fun.

Comments

[howard lindzon]

Thanks Fred. Fun ride for sure.

[Andy Monfried]

Fred -- great post, and to echo Howard, "it was a fun ride..."

I too (like you) learned alot by watching this amazing team - DO THEIR THING...

I've been educated by Howard and team, and best yet -- the "pioneering spirit" of Lindzon is infectious....he is a good mentor, as well as a guide for entreprenuers.

Rock on.

Andy

[ashkan karbasfrooshan]

I am not sure if it's the VC in you talking or the user, but you are right: indeed, the process of producing web video and not losing your shirt and getting it seen by folks is worth quite a bit more than the video itself in the short run.

In the long run, the video library becomes very valuable but I'm not surprised that CBS sees a lot of potential with WS and what Howard's team done. Hopefully the big media company environment won't stifle their creativity...

Wrote more here:
http://www.watchmojo.com/web/blog/?p=1583

And, congrats Fred for giving content a try!

[Mo]

I have been following Wallstrip through Fred's posts and the sidebar widget.

Congrats to Howard and the crew at WS. Keep entertaining us like you always have.

[bijan]

congrats to the entire WS team.

fan-freaking-tastic.

[Amit Agarwal]

Congrats all.

[Andy Swan]

Personally, I see this "entrance" into big media as more exciting than the "exit"....of course I'd be more excited about the exit if I were getting a check today lol

The team is still in place and now they have the resources/backing to go mainstream very quickly. VERY interested to see what CBS does with the brand. Hopefully Howard "sold too soon" :)

[Jason Alba]

This is a great story and a great "recap" from you. Sounds like a fun ride, their product has been excellent and huge congrats to all involved. Also, this makes CBS look pretty smart!

Jason Alba
CEO - http://www.JibberJobber.com

[Gerald Buckley]

Always nice when having fun, getting smart and exiting well collide!

BTW, all those new lessons learned... How long before you have to 'unlearn' them :) ... the more I think about that the more I feel more than half-way serious!

[simon]

congrats all round.

[curmudgeonly troll]

Lindsay rocked on the Sopranos!

I remember those bumper stickers a few years ago, begging 'Please God, just one more bubble.'

Jim Morrison notwithstanding, you can indeed petition the Lord with prayer.

Let's try to enjoy it while it lasts.

[JAMES BARCLAY]

Excellent analysis of CBS's motives behind the buyout.

Your friend should be signing two contracts not one!!

[carl rahn griffith]

wow, that's a quick roi, even in web2.0 terms ... congrats to all involved; it's brought me much well informed entertainment in recent months - the salesforce.com one being my favourite. i have shared that one with so many people.

shame to lose the edgy independence - but, hey, an exit is an exit - and i hope cbs doesn't render its style too anodyne.

once again, well done to all and good luck!

[bankelele]

cashing out is a great ending & reward for years of hardwork & blogging. Something I think we all aspire for, even if the grind is os much fun

[Megan Cunningham]

I find it fascinating that with all these rich media and web 2.0 tech companies out there it's a content company that devised a scalable process for other big media content companies to follow. Makes perfect sense to me that these ideas came out of a smart, savvy hands-on end user from the production world instead of a silicon valley tech-focused operation. Congrats to all -

[Taylor Moore]

Wallstrip Gang,
Congrats on a great entrance and exit. I have enjoyed your show from the beginning. You guys are a big inspiration for us smaller prod co's digging in the trenches.

Cheers to all

Taylor
www.bikinizero.com

[Daniel]

I've had the pleasure of working with the Wallstrip team over the past couple months as they joined Voxant's viral syndication network at www.thenewsroom.com.

They are everything Fred says, and they've got a really firm grasp on their business model.

By joining Voxant, they're embracing an opportunity to expose their content to new users all the way down the long tail of the web. TheNewsRoom catalogs their content and puts it in a flash player that can be copied and embedded on any website, free of hassle and free of charge.

As long as Wallstrip continues to inform and amuse its viewers, their job is done. The content will proliferate on its own.

[GoingLikeSixty]

Daniel and his Voxant comment raises this issue. If Newsroom.com will pay sites to carry it's content with their commercials, will CBS let this continue?
Doesn't seem likely.