1. Lessons from the Trenches:
How I sold Zite twice
Mark Johnson
Former CEO of Zite
@philosophygeek

2. 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
@philosophygeek

3. BE YOURSELF
@philosophygeek

4. “I AM UNEMPLOYED”
@philosophygeek

5. @philosophygeek

6. The Startups The Acquirers
Travel Search
Categorized Search
Natural Language Search
$180M
$300M
$100M

7. DON’T GIVE UP
@philosophygeek

8. Zite Timeline: Key events
@philosophygeek
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

9. “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
@philosophygeek

10. TECHNOLOGY IS EASIER TO PIVOT
THAN PRODUCT
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11. The Pivot: Zite.com
@philosophygeek

12. Hail Mary!
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13. Zite 1.0
@philosophygeek

14. Why was Zite successful?
• Solved a serious problem of information
overload
• Mobile first
• Powerful underlying technology; but with a
simple interface
@philosophygeek

15. Some awesome usage stats
• Even after 3 years, Zite maintained 25%
retention
• 20 minutes per user per day
• 9 articles per day
@philosophygeek

16. YOU ARE GOING TO PISS PEOPLE
OFF IF YOU ARE DISRUPTING*
*ESPECIALLY IN THE MEDIA
@philosophygeek

17. @philosophygeek

18. THE SALE TO CNN
@philosophygeek

19. @philosophygeek

20. 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

21. BUILD VALUE IN YOUR COMPANY
@philosophygeek

22. What is value?
• Product
• Technology
• People
@philosophygeek

23. MAKE BIG PRODUCT BETS
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24. Zite 2.0
@philosophygeek

25. 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
@philosophygeek

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

27. Hibou, the Owl logo
@philosophygeek

28. TECHNOLOGY CAN DRIVE PRODUCT
IMPROVEMENT
@philosophygeek

29. Not just the UX
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4 8.4
8.4 8.4
8.5
8.7 8.7
8.8
8.7 8.7
9.4
8
8.5
9
9.5
MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
DAILY ARTICLE VIEWS PER USER
@philosophygeek

30. BUILD A GREAT CULTURE
@philosophygeek

31. 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
@philosophygeek

32. BE PREPARED: SURPRISES ARE
AROUND EVERY CORNER
@philosophygeek

33. Sale to Flipboard
@philosophygeek

34. 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
@philosophygeek

35. JUST DO IT
@philosophygeek

36. @philosophygeek

37. HAVE FUN
@philosophygeek

38. @philosophygeek

39. QUESTIONS?
@philosophygeek on Twitter
@philosophygeek