.jpg "Why Facebook borrowed $100 million for servers")
Valleywag
Here's what you really need to know about Ning, according to Fast Company writer Adam Penenberg. Its chairman, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, has an egg-shaped head. Its CEO, Gina Bianchini, who posed for Fast Company's cover in a tank top, is a "hottie." And Ning, a provider of websites for niche social networks, is poised to hit "critical mass" and "no one can stop it." Two out of those three statements were factchecked.
Ning does have people in the Valley, as Fast Company claims, "buzzing," but not because of the "viral expansion loops" which Andreessen talks up in the piece. Penenberg's thesis: Andreessen has fused viral marketing with social networks, and therefore Ning's current fast expansion rate will continue ad infinitum, or at least ad acquisition.
This is a fashionable delusion fostered by people with something to sell. Supporting Andreessen's argument are Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson and Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha, both of whom make the argument for compound growth. Wilson is an investor in Twitter; Botha backed YouTube. Both profit from the notion that a site's current growth rate will continue unchecked.
The reality? Growth always slows. Facebook used to crow about how its user numbers grew 3 percent a week. By the time Microsoft sank $240 million into the company, that figure had already dropped; it may now be around 1 or 2 percent. Still impressive, and still fast-growing — but any projections based on 3 percent weekly growth are now dead wrong.
With absurdities about compound growth and viral expansion stripped out, Penenberg has little to offer in Ning's defense. According to figures in the piece, Ning is making roughly $1.7 million a year in the $20-a-month subscriptions some social-network creators pay. The rest of the money they make comes from Google's AdSense ads, the familiar fallback of hopeless startups. Bianchini admits as much in a blog post. And yet she and Andreessen commanded a $214 million valuation for their creation.
What Penenberg doesn't explore: The laughable reputation of Ning's software within the Valley. The piece quotes exactly one Ning user. Had Penenberg asked around, he'd have heard from scores of disgusted social-network creators who walked away from the service after trying it out. Pointing that out would get in the way of discussing the appearance of Ning's creators. Really, Adam, I thought that was our job.
(Photo by Fast Company/Art Streiber)
Comments
quotes from the scores owen?
Many in Silicon Valley do not use Ning, but 'normal people' (no offense to fellow valley dwellers) do use the service. I'm not a user of Ning, but I know tons of people who see success from their mini-networks on the site.
She is really hot, but why would you want to focus credibility on your tits and not your ability to do your job? Seems to me it's hard enough for women to get taken as seriously as men in Silicon Valley.
I wonder if any of these growth rates ever include lost users/ attrition and/or dead users (literally or just users who never actually use the sites)?
Gina? Three words: Athena Von Oech.
Who would you rather see in a tank top?
Nice to see Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is doing well post-Muppets
As for Gina - I'd rather see Athena Von Oech filling out that tank top. Maybe holding a squirting fire hose a la Ohio Players album cover. Can we get that arranged?
I'd like to teabag Ning and Gina, but for completely different reasons.
Just brutal man, why is the software so laughable in the valley?
Maybe, just maybe they are not building this thing for you guys. I know its hard to imagine but the valley (readers of this blog) make up about 1% of internet users. This product is perfect for the other 99%.
did she get a boob job? she looks 100 times better (and maybe 3 times bigger) than in this nytimes article:
[www.nytimes.com]
perhaps the ny times needs new photographer/photoshopper.
And if so, can Ning deduct it as a capital expenditure? What's the amortization period for boobs anyway?
"Egg-shaped"? How about Donald Pleasance in that 007 movie or "THX-1138."
Shit, pmarca is now Dr. Evil!
she's a smart, head-strong woman - that's what makes her sexy,
and she can steal your soul if she wants to, by merely locking eyes with you
@TeenageCaveman: Uhhh, Gina?
Harry "what do I win" Wang
@lawrence: "...but she's always a woman to me."
Harry "do-do-do, do, do, doo" Wang
Is Gina married? I noticed that she was wearing a ring in most of the photos, but it was absent in the photo of her with all the mirrors (p. 77).
Gina looks amazing. How old is she?
PS: Who's got a high rez scan of that cover?
Gina - why did you agree to be shot in a skimpy wifebeater?! You look like Marc's hobag. Surely you know that flashing skin and getting reams of make-up with a padded bra does not lead to respect for women leaders in tech!
@seanpercival: Exactly, most of the things that are hot in the valley never get hot anywhere else. I'd say it not being hot in the valley is probably a good sign.
and yeah, how touched up is that photo, because the chick in those pics is model-hot
The love child of Lex Luthor and Billy Corgan, natch.
I don't know who that Photoshop cyborg-woman on the cover of Fast Company is but it sure as hell is not Gina Bianchini.
You all think she is still hot?
@babygotback: Of course. not.
A little makeup, some proper lighting, and a couple shots of Patron and she is model-hot.
Black and white from a bad angle? I wouldn't hit that with a bag of nickels.
[www.beashowhost.com]
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