A few years back, while I was working in enterprise software, I thought, “wouldn’t it be great to grow a software company past $1B in revenue?” That would make us one of the biggest software companies in the world. Top 20 for sure, maybe even close to Top 10.
Shortly thereafter, I read that the Martha Stewart line of products at Kmart accounted for $1.5 billion of revenue per year. The revenue from towels, bedding and household goods by Martha would be a Top 10 software company!
Sure, margins are higher in software, blah blah blah. But my point is that numbers can really put things in perspective – really shake up one’s own world. My career has been focused on business intelligence, metrics and content analysis and management. Getting good information, whether for fun or business, has always been part of my goal.
So I am starting a “Metrics Series” where I plan to share some fun and hopefully useful metrics around Boxxet. Watch out for the first post shortly.
Filed under: Metrics Series
January 29th, 2007
You Mon Tsang
Today we are happy to announce the public availability of Boxxet.
Boxxet brings the best of the Web (news, blogs, photos and more) on your favorite subjects. Some examples include The Amazing Race, Apple iPod, Green Day, New York Yankees, The Office, Second Life, Supernatural and Ultimate Fighting.
We like to say that Boxxet is community-driven and machine-assisted, which brings together the best of both technology and participation to the problem of finding the best content on the Web.
First and foremost, go ahead and explore Boxxet. You can try specific Boxxets like San Jose Sharks, Second Life, or Sacha Baron Cohen. Or browse through collections of Boxxets like Celebrities, Baseball or TV Shows.
Behind Boxxet is a lot of technology that finds and filters content by understanding what the users want. Furthermore, we have some cool tricks that allow the software to learn what you like. This way, we can find, filter and present the best content on your favorite subjects.
We’ve worked hard on Boxxet and hope you like it. Feedback is always welcomed at this page.
Filed under: Boxxet, BoxxetAnnouncement
January 15th, 2007
You Mon Tsang
If you think about it, venture capital is an amazing thing. The investment of many, many dollars based on an idea, a few people and hope is something entrepreneurial souls are grateful for.
Therefore we are happy to announce that we are partnering with Ascend Venture Group on Boxxet. Based in New York City with more than $150 million under management, Ascend is investing $900,000 in Boxxet to help us prove our idea. We’ve enjoyed working with Kylie Sachs and Darryl Wash at Ascend and expect many fruitful years ahead of us.
Filed under: Boxxet, BoxxetAnnouncement
January 15th, 2007
You Mon Tsang
Over the last few months, we have been working hard, adding new Boxxets (see Heroes, Ultimate Fighting, Sacha Baron Cohen) and even better ways for you to track and discover the best of the Web on your favorite subjects.
We plan to completely throw open our days in a month or two, but all sign-ups now are immediately given access, so go ahead and tell your friends and family about us.
Filed under: Boxxet, BoxxetAnnouncement
December 8th, 2006
You Mon Tsang
Sorry for the quiet but we’ve been heads down on getting Boxxet ready for an open beta. Based on feedback and usage patterns, we’ve made a ton of changes. Right now, we are straddling between two systems and as we make the final transition, you may see some service disruptions and bugs. Feel free to comment on any weird things you see. But don’t worry too much as this little storm will inevitable lead to a bigger storm (when we deploy the updated version).
Filed under: Boxxet, BoxxetAnnouncement
May 17th, 2006
You Mon Tsang
Bob Corrigan writes an insightful blog post on Boxxet. That’s cool. Especially because it is clear that he spent time understanding and thinking about product (rather than a drive-by review).
He writes that the “UI is clearly a work-in-progress.” OK. I email him and say, thanks for the post and write us back with examples when he has the time. In a few days, I get back about ten or so thoughtful critiques and ideas for Boxxet. Some of them we are starting to work on. And I don’t know bob from boo.
I thought twice about posting this and sharing bob’s talents and efforts with others, but there you go.
Filed under: Boxxet, Press
April 5th, 2006
You Mon Tsang
Joe Anderson at his Webby’s World blog has a post that details his experience with Boxxet. I think he has good insight and a balanced view on our strengths and weaknesses.
He calls us “Very unique. I really hope it grows.” We hope so too. Thank you Joe for taking the time to check us out and sharing.
Filed under: Boxxet, Press
April 3rd, 2006
You Mon Tsang
I take a look at the steady and sure traffic coming from Mashable to Boxxet and I know Pete Cashmore is influential with his readers. Take a look at his Alexa traffic and you’ve got to be impressed.
Pete got into our beta site very early and on his own (which means he is fast on the trigger on news). His posts are insightful and fair (and encouraging as well — thanks).
If you are interesting in tech news and have not been to Mashable, I encourage you to take a look.
Post: Best of the Web
Post: Memediggers!
Post: Fox Acquires NewRoo: Memetracker Space Heating Up?
Filed under: Boxxet, Press
April 1st, 2006
You Mon Tsang
Launching off the comments on the Slashdot story on Boxxet, Michael from unmediated believes the Boxxet represents a threat of lazy, value-less re-purposing of content (my words). I agree with the threat, but Boxxet does not represent that threat.
The difference is that Boxxet DOES NOT allow anyone to come in and create a “web site” upon which that person can post ads. What Boxxet does is try to create a single best-of site for a particular subject (say the San Francisco Giants). The information that we aggregate will be vetted by the community and the traffic will sent away from us to the place where the content originated. At the end of the day, we hope that Boxxet and our users do real good by finding/filtering and vetting great content for our users.
But Michael has some good thoughts on the general subject.
Filed under: Boxxet, Press
March 31st, 2006
You Mon Tsang
I had the pleasure to meet Michael Fitzgerald at ETech 2006. We had a great conversation about Boxxet; he was interested in what we were doing in light of the conference’s focus on attention and social software.
Michael got Boxxet quickly, wrote a thorough overview for Technology Review and then gave us good feedback on the service itself. All beyond the call of duty.
Filed under: Boxxet, Press
March 30th, 2006
You Mon Tsang
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