Why And How We Founded Business Insider
Why And How We Founded Business Insider

                                  
                          
                          
                          
                            
                        
                          
                          
                          
                        
                          
                          
                                
                          
                          
                          Business Insider
                          
                          
                              
                          American Express has been kind enough to ask me to explain how we founded Business Insider.So here goes...We started Business Insider in the spring of 2007, as a site called Silicon Alley Insider.We founded the company because we believed there was an opportunity to build a news-and-analysis site for executives that took full advantage of the capabilities of the digital medium.At the time, after the first decade of the Internet's "commercialization" (1995-2005), most online news and information businesses still looked similar to traditional print and broadcast businesses, just ported online.  But every new medium has eventually produced a native form of journalism that  takes full advantage of the medium's unique capabilities, and we assumed the same thing would happen with the Internet.We launched our site in the summer of 2007, with three of us writing from the elevator loading dock of another startup. By then, other sites with native digital models had started to gain real traction--such as Gawker Media, a blog network, Huffington Post, a news and aggregation site, and TechCrunch, a tech news blog. We emulated some of what these companies were doing, as well as some other sites we admired. We focused on a narrow news niche--the technology business--and the site grew quickly from there.Unlike most of our traditional-media competitors, we had almost no money, so there was no way we could win by trying to beat the giants at their game. We couldn't write magazine articles that were better than the New Yorker's, for example, or newspaper articles that were better than the New York Times'. We couldn't produce TV shows that were better than CNBC's, or radio shows that were better than Bloomberg's. The only thing we could do--the only chance we had to survive in a hyper-competitive world--was to focus on what we could that our established competitors could not: Take full advantage of the digital medium.In that arena, fortunately, we did have one advantage: Online journalism was (and is) the only thing we do. For us, the web is not a side business--something we're doing because we feel like we have to or because we're worried that our traditional business may die. Unlike print and broadcast companies, we don't have a "core business" cash cow to protect, so we are free to let the capabilities of the medium take our product development wherever we think it should go. And, from the beginning, that has allowed us to take advantage of short-form real-time commentary, community participation, aggregation, real-time programming, millions of information sources, social media, and direct contributions from thousands of expert contributors--most of which are irrelevant or impossible in other media.Another advantage we have had is that our cost structure is designed for the medium. Much has been made about "analog dollars becoming digital dimes" when traditional companies try to take their businesses online, and no digital journalism business we're aware of can afford the massive salaries, staffs, and perks that many traditional media companies enjoy.This doesn't mean can't pay ourselves reasonably well--fortunately, we now can (our salaries are now generally at or above market). But it does mean that we can produce native digital content at far lower cost than a traditional newspaper or broadcast company can. And that allows us to operate profitably on a revenue base that is much smaller than most of these companies can. We don't think our revenue will stay small forever--we think, in fact, that we have a huge opportunity in front of us--but we can operate profitably on the revenue we have whereas many of our traditional competitors cannot.In 2011, it is now clear that digital journalism is here to stay. As digital startups get larger and more profitable, they will be able to invest in some of the more expensive primary news reporting that traditional media organizations have always enjoyed, as well as in higher-quality audio, video, graphics, and photography. The digital industry leaders, meanwhile, will be able to continue to drive innovation, and improve their products to take ever more advantage of what the digital medium can do. Happily, many of the initial assumptions we made when we started Business Insider four years ago have proved to be true. We've moved out of the loading dock into a series of bigger offices, one of which we just moved into two weeks ago.  We now have the privilege of having almost 10 million unique readers a month, as well as dozens of major brands as sponsors.  Our team has grown to about 50 people.  Last year, our third, we generated nearly $5 million of revenue and, happily, a small profit.And we feel like we're just getting started.See Also: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Performance Secrets Of Business Insider
                      
                        
                        
                          
                              
                        
                            
                            
                        
                            
                        
                            
                              Thanks for signing up!
                              
                              
                              Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go.
                                    
                            
                        
                            
                            
                              
                              
                              
                                  By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email.
                              
                            
                          
                        
                            
                                
                              
                              
                              
                                  
                        
                          
                        