Podcasts about myyearbook

Catherine Connelly is an entrepreneur, engaging speaker, and author of Designing Success: Lessons from 20 Years as a Female Tech Entrepreneur. Catherine co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social dating and livestreaming company connecting millions of active users globally. The Meet Group was acquired in a $500 million sale in 2020. Catherine's nearly two decades of entrepreneurial experience include co-founding myYearbook at fifteen, creating what would eventually become The Meet Group, and leading brand strategy and marketing for The Meet Group through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and rebrands. Catherine graduated from Georgetown University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Philadelphia Region. Catherine has been featured on CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, MTV, ABC News, Fox News, CosmoGIRL, BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and CBS. Catherine writes the newsletter Growing Up Startup, sharing lessons inspired by her entrepreneurial journey. Key Moments [06:10] Early Exposure to Entrepreneurship [09:31] "Yearbook: My High School Lifeline" [12:44] "Viral Quizzes Boost Early Social Media" [14:22] "Setting Boundaries for Personal Identity" [17:02] Encouraging Young Entrepreneurship [21:58] Balancing Public and Private Business [25:07] "Building Products with Personal Impact" [28:23] Consistent Efforts Lead to Success [30:09] "Building Positive Connections" Find Catherine Online Exclusive for Entrepreneur's Enigma listeners: Receive a free virtual copy of Catherine's book, access to her office hours, and more: https://landing.cconnelly.me/enigma Designing Success: Lessons from 20 Years as a Female Tech Entrepreneur: https://a.co/d/fUnDNLm Connect with Catherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinecookconnelly If you're enjoying Entrepreneur's Enigma, please give me a review on the podcast directory of your choice. The show is on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show. iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser TrueFans: https://gmwd.us/truefans Also, if you're getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee or support me on TrueFans.fm → https://gmwd.us/truefans. Follow Seth Online: Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein Seth On Mastodon: https://indieweb.social/@phillycodehound Seth's Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discussed a few things including:1. Their career journeys  2. The Meet Group3. Noom4. New book Designing Success and female entrepreneurship5. Trends, challenges and opportunities re health, wellness and techGeoff is the CEO of Noom. He is also a serial entrepreneur and long-time public company CEO.He co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social dating and live-streaming company connecting millions of active users globally. Geoff served as The Meet Group's CEO from 2013 to 2023, leading it through its sale for $500 million in 2020.Geoff grew a live-streaming video & creator economy revenue stream from $0 to in excess of $200 million annualized. Post-acquisition, Geoff also served as co-CEO of the parent company ParshipMeet Group, which includes a portfolio of dating apps including eharmony, MeetMe, Tagged, Lovoo, Skout, Growlr, among others.Under Geoff's leadership, The Meet Group was early to social networking, mobile apps, live-streaming video, and creator economy. A driving force of industry consolidation, Geoff acquired 4 companies and was acquired twice.With smart viral marketing, Geoff grew MeetMe from nothing to millions of active users. With product and strategic vision, he acquired and turned Tagged into a live-streaming video leader. With Livebox, he created a successful enterprise Creator Economy service powering some of the top-grossing social apps in the US.Leveraging product and technology to transform the user experience, Geoff successfully transitioned The Meet Group from an advertising model to a fast-growing live-streaming video & creator-economy solution, ultimately attracting tens of thousands of Creators and powering some of the largest social apps in the world.Under Geoff's leadership, the video Platform-as-a-Service enterprise product that he conceived of — Livebox — launched and grew to power 6 of the top 50 social apps in the US by revenue.Geoff is an expert in building culture across disparate teams. As CEO of The Meet Group, he acquired and integrated 4 companies: Tagged, LOVOO, Skout, and Growlr, into one cohesive culture.While building culture, Geoff also drove efficiency, realizing major cost synergies while growing top-line revenue at every acquisition target, through a combination of off-shoring and building a single shared services platform to power multiple apps.Geoff is the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Philadelphia Region.Geoff graduated from Harvard University in 2000 with a BA in Economics.------Catherine Connelly is an entrepreneur, engaging speaker, and author of Designing Success: Lessons from 20 Years as a Female Tech Entrepreneur. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM9C9CC4Catherine co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social dating and livestreaming company connecting millions of active users globally. The Meet Group was acquired in a $500 million sale in 2020.Catherine's nearly two decades of entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding myYearbook at fifteen, creating what would eventually become The Meet Group, and leading brand strategy and marketing for The Meet Group through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and rebrands.Catherine graduated from Georgetown University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Philadelphia Region in 2011.  Catherine has been featured on CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, MTV, ABC News, Fox News, CosmoGIRL, BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and CBS. Catherine writes the newsletter Growing Up Startup, sharing lessons inspired by her entrepreneurial journey.  Subscribe and learn more about Catherine's free office hours at: cconnelly.me.#podcast #AFewThingsPodcast

This was definitely not my shining moment. I wasn't self aware or even aware of how I was coming across to him. Which is why he couldn't understand I didn't want to date him. I was sending mixed messages or in some way without thinking it through misleading him since actions do speak louder than words. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mommaneedsamonster/support

So if I've glossed over this story before I'm so sorry but this is one where again I dealt with a creep because I was bored and had to learn a lesson the hard way. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mommaneedsamonster/support

In this episode of the "@OhShipShow," we're joined by Geoff Cook, the co-founder of The Meet Group, who takes us on an enthralling journey through the evolution of social networking, live streaming, and digital dating. From the humble beginnings of myYearbook.com to the global success of apps like MeetMe, Skout, and Tagged, Geoff shares his personal odyssey in the tech industry. Listen in to discover the inspiration behind The Meet Group's inception, the intricacies of managing a global team, and a glimpse into the future of live streaming and social apps. Geoff also delves into the complexities of company acquisitions, the importance of product impact, and the core values that have been his compass throughout this entrepreneurial voyage. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a digital enthusiast, this episode is a treasure trove of insights from one of the industry's luminaries. Join us as we embark on an enlightening voyage with the "@OhShipShow."

So these two stories could have ended so badly, but for some reason I got very very lucky. I was stupid in the first one for asking for alcohol because boy was it supplied, but I was smart enough to know to bring back up. The second one I was even more stupid. I went alone, was outnumbered, and asked for alcohol but lucked out when we were unable to get any. Also in the second story I should have just left.... but again I didn't. Seems to be a pattern with the girl I used to be. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mommaneedsamonster/support

Starting her first company at age 15, Catherine Connelly is all about meeting new people. As the SVP of Marketing for The Meet Group, the top provider of live streaming video and creator economy solutions for a number of the world's top social apps, Catherine relies heavily on that connection to her users for audience engagement and growth. In this episode, Alan and Catherine discuss her extraordinary career path, iOS changes, The Meet Group's differentiating model for monetization, and the importance of storytelling. In this episode, you'll learn: How to update your tactics for performance marketing The future of social media monetization The importance of PR and storytelling Key Highlights [0:42] First business at age 15 with her two brothers [04:25] Catherine's career path [12:24] Having a place to connect with others [15:48] Knowing where your users are; how to update your tactics [17:04] How iOS changes affect acquisition efforts [19:39] Monetization of The Meet Group [23:57] Catherine's role at The Meet Group [27:45] Best tactics for performance marketing [31:38] App Store optimization [37:31] PR, storytelling, and making viral or sharable moments [42:49] A moment that defines who Catherine is today [44:59] Catherine's advice for her younger self [47:22] What marketers need to learn more about: macro trends and think scrappy [49:54] The companies and causes Catherine follows: Oasis Consortium [52:40] The biggest opportunity for marketers today: Apple really makes things up Resources Mentioned: https://www.themeetgroup.com/ Evolution of the company and timeline – MyYearBook, QuePasa (Public), MeetMe Apps acquired – Skout, Tagged, Lovoo, Growlr Sold for $500MM to create ParshipMeet in September 2020 Now a B2B Video Platform Business running on a dozen apps Qualcomm CMO on Marketing Today discussing macro trends App Store Optimization Data providers of app stores – Data.ai Oasis Consortium – building better tech with ethical standards and technologies Follow the podcast: Listen in iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV) Listen in Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa) Listen in Spotify (Link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC) Connect with the Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinecookconnelly/ https://twitter.com/cncook https://twitter.com/TheMeetGroup https://twitter.com/MeetMe https://twitter.com/Tagged https://twitter.com/Growlr Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart: http://twitter.com/abhart https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart http://twitter.com/themktgtoday https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/ Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingtoday See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Geoff Cook is currently the CEO and co-founder of The Meet Group, a social dating and livestreaming company. He has been on the board of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) since 2011 until its sale in 2020. Geoff sold the company for $500 million in September 2020 -- one of the last large public deals prior to the declaration of a global pandemic by the WHO. He started his first company from a Harvard dorm and sold it for millions of dollars at age 24 in the year 2002. He sold his second company for $100 million in 2011. You will discover: - How he started his first company and exited it for millions - If selling the company changed the way he approached business - The surprising tactic that led to myYearbook surpassing a million users in nine months - The clever way he figured out to build a live streaming feature into his dating apps - What's trending in China Geoff Cook is the Founder and CEO of The Meet Group. Show Mentions - Geoof's Wired Article - Foundr Interview - vPaaS - Fav app: Clubhouse SPONSORS Want to scale your growth faster? GamesBoost42 gives you early access to your App Store revenues allowing you to multiply your growth without losing equity. See how they can help by visiting GamesBoost42.com. B7DEV.com is the app development firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs go from app idea to success because they understand startups and don't charge you huge fees just to get your app off the ground. Learn more at B7Dev.com *************** Follow us: YouTube: AppMasters.com/YouTube Instagram: @stevepyoung Twitter: @stevepyoung Facebook: App Masters *************** --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/app-marketing-podcast/message

A Digital Meet Cute  How Geoff Cook linked up dating apps and live-streamed video to form a happy and profitable relationship. Geoff Cook has built a small empire of successful meeting and dating apps—beginning long before anyone ever swiped right on Tinder—by following a philosophy of fearlessly trying new things.  “Ten years from now, what will I have regretted—losing half a million dollars or not having done the thing that I wanted?” Of course, the fact that he has a half a million dollars to lose in the first place should be some indication that a lot of those risks have paid off. Thanks to a series of auspicious business decisions, starting with a profitable essay and resume editing business he launched as a sophomore at Harvard, Cook is living proof that experimentation lies at the heart of a successful startup career. While his fellow Harvard-attendee Mark Zuckerberg was busy refining Facebook, Cook launched his own spin on a social media platform. Rather than focusing on adding friends that users already knew in real life, his platform would be geared toward meeting entirely new people. So myYearbook was born. Today, myYearbook has evolved, changed hands, and expanded to encompass a whole collection of meeting and dating apps, all housed under The Meet Group, where Cook serves as CEO. “I tend to be a tinkerer,” he says. “I’ll push forward an idea even if it seems strange, just because it’s an itch and just keep moving the ball forward. Sometimes, opportunities fall out of that, and sometimes you just lose a lot of money. But it’s an itch I had to scratch.” In this instance, Cook’s itch proved to be so much more. Extracurricular Activities  Cook started his first business in 1997 when, while still writing college essays of his own, he decided to put his economics classes to work and start a small side hustle editing his classmates’ papers and resumes. But in astoundingly short order, EssayEdge and ResumeEdge had scaled to millions in revenue, and the Thomson Corporation was knocking at his door with an acquisition offer. So Cook sold his first business in 2002, and just like that, he had the seed money to begin his first post-grad venture. But it wasn’t until he was in his mid-20s, when the social media era had just begun, that the light bulb flicked on. “The thought was that there needs to be a place to connect to people you don’t know,” he says. “It seemed both MySpace and Facebook were heavy into connecting to your real life friends.” Teaming up with his brother and sister, who were both still in high school, he created a social network designed to introduce rather than deepen existing friendships. Using games and his search algorithm, making new connections was simple. All they needed now were users. Luckily, the Cooks had the perfect in. At Montgomery High School in Skillman, NJ, where both of the younger co-founders were still in school, myYearbook rolled out in 2005. In the first two weeks, there were hundreds of users. Within nine months, there were over a million. But the road to a million required some clever maneuvering. “I think we built a pretty good mousetrap in the beginning, but we had nobody in it,” he says, laughing. “What really helped it take off was…we were able to create this great quiz app that ended up getting millions of users every month.” Reminiscent of today’s Buzzfeed quizzes, users would take a quiz to determine what Seinfeld character they were most similar to. They would then share their results on their MySpace profile, and when a friend—intrigued to learn whether they were an Elaine or a Kramer—clicked on the link, it whisked them away to myYearbook where they were invited to register. “Quizzes are a very high-uniques business,” Cook says. “You get a lot of uniques, but you get very few page views per unique, because you only basically need to see the quiz and the quiz result. So we turned that business from two page views per user to closer to two or three hundred, because we brought them into a very social experience.” Once the former MySpace users began chatting with the new people they met through myYearbook, the platform blossomed. “That was when we were basically off to the races,” Cook says. But unfortunately, “the races” had an expensive entry fee. ‘The Servers Were Melting’  “We had to raise some money,” Cook says. “The servers were melting. The traffic was growing. The expenses were going up.” So, in 2006, to keep their rapidly growing platform afloat, Cook and crew decided to begin their first round of funding. The success of this venture round left them with enough money to put a team and an office together. The social media website continued to flourish, and in 2008, they began a Series B round of funding that enabled them to raise $12.8 million just before the financial crisis laid waste to the economic landscape.  Grateful for their luck, but tired of raising capital, they vowed that this second round of funding would be their last, which meant only one thing: it was time to monetize. Luckily, Cook had a rapt audience at his disposal. “I’m of the belief that if you can amass a big enough audience…you can monetize it,” he says, “especially if it’s an engaged audience that’s spending 10 or 20 or 30 minutes a day with you.” In 2011, revenue was up to around $25 million to $30 million, and Cook was thinking long term. What was next for his company? When he was introduced to Quepasa—a company similar to myYearbook but for South America, and the first publicly traded social network—he knew he’d found a fit. The two companies merged, transforming myYearbook into a publicly traded company, and Cook thought the time had come to rename the company, as well. “We were always a social network for meeting new people, but the name [myYearbook] to people who didn’t know that made people think of Classmates.com,” he says. “It was not really what we were about, so we changed the name to Meet Me.” As part of the merger, Cook stepped into the role of COO with the intention that he would soon move back into the CEO role. In 2013, he made his return as CEO of the company, a position he has held since. When asked how the job of CEO at a private, venture capital-funded company differed from that of a publicly traded company, he says that the two roles are far more similar than they are different. In a privately owned, venture-backed company, he says, the CEO answers to several large investors who are knowledgeable about the industry and who demand growth. It’s the same for a CEO whose company goes public, he says. There are just a whole lot more investors to keep happy. Cook says it can be difficult to know when the time has come to take a company public, but he did offer some insight for founders. “I think the best time to be public would be when you have a lot of insight into your future revenues and profits,” he says. “One of the key differences of a public versus private company is that…you offer some guidance for the year—or even long-term guidance—on how the business is going to go, and then you’re measured to a quarterly yardstick on that.” Without a degree of foresight, he says that going public would be an extremely difficult task. “If you don’t have enough insight into your business to know your revenues except within a very wide range, or to know your profits except within a very wide range, that’s probably not the best candidate to be public,” he says. “You’re just setting yourself up to have some very bad quarters. In other words, the key is predictability. But he reminds business owners that even the most predictable companies can present a challenge. “You’re never gonna know everything, and there’ll always be some surprises, because things happen,” he says. But despite the added pressures and challenges, Cook insists that there are many advantages to being publicly traded. “There’s definitely pros and cons of being public,” he says, “but I would say we’ve had more pro than con.” And the primary advantage of going public for Cook was a clear path toward acquiring other companies.  Forming the Group  Not long after myYearbook became Meet Me, the business was renamed The Meet Group, the moniker it’s known by today. Because the business encompassed more than a single app, the name change was apt, and it only became more appropriate as the years passed. In late 2016, The Meet Group acquired Skout, a meet-up app that was approaching its 10th birthday. Then in 2017, they acquired Tagged, the San Francisco-based meeting app with high engagement in the African-American community, and Lovoo, a European dating app. And this year, The Meet Group also acquired GROWLr, a dating app geared toward the gay community. But Cook says all of these acquisitions stemmed from a strategy inspired by one popular Chinese dating app. The company decided to start building a live-streaming video product after seeing its success at a Chinese dating platform called Momo.  Cook felt the app was somewhat similar to Meet Me, and when Momo added live streaming, he says that about 90 percent of Momo’s revenue was a result of that service. The Meet Group wanted to give it a try. “We were also kind of clear-eyed enough to know that building a live-streaming business is a big commitment,” Cook says. “It’s essentially kind of an all-in sort of company bet.” It was the kind of bet Cook was comfortable making. So they dove in headfirst and got to work building up the infrastructure, talent, and moderation capabilities they would need to execute their plan. And it paid off in tens of millions. Cook says that their annualized live video revenue grew from $0 to $82 million in just 16 months. This became the inspiration behind their acquisition of meeting and dating apps—to integrate video and watch as revenues skyrocketed. “If we believed in our story enough to make that bet, well, then we could make that bet again and again,” he says. “There’s no reason not to double down, triple down, quadruple down on it.” As they acquired social apps and fitted live-streamed video into them, they noticed that the engagement on those apps markedly increased. “In meeting- and dating- and chat-oriented communities, there’s often periods of time where you just don’t have any inbound chats,” he says. “So, it’s kind of boring.” But rather than exiting the app, the users of the video-fitted apps can simply hop into the tab labeled “Live” during those gaps. “Our users are coming to us for human connection,” he says. “Meeting new people is kind of all about that. Interactive live video is actually human connection, right?” Cook says that around 20 percent of their users visit the live streaming sections of the apps each day and that those users, on average, spend 20 minutes more a day on the app. Users can watch popular streamers, send them comments and witness their reactions. They can also buy and send digital gifts to the streamer. “They do this because they want the attention of the streamer,” he says. “It’s almost like buying someone a drink at the bar. You don’t have to, but if you want a better shot, you maybe should.” Cook is pleased with the success The Meet Group has found by incorporating live streaming into the apps—but he still has his eyes on Momo. Thirty percent of the Chinese app’s users visit the live section daily, a goal that Cook wants to push toward. He also wants to continue pushing the boundaries of live video and sees one-on-one live video and various video dating experiences in the company’s future. As the social media landscape continues to coalesce around a select few apps, this self-proclaimed tinkerer believes that the unique nature of his business will allow it to keep flourishing. After all, as long as there are people searching for connection, there will always be a need to meet someone new. Interview by Nathan Chan, feature article reprinted from Foundr Magazine, by Erica Comitalo Key Takeaways How Cook’s resume editing side hustle at Harvard eventually led to an acquisition offer Why Cook decided to take a different route from MySpace and Facebook The surprising tactic that led to myYearbook surpassing a million users in nine months How Cook approached the funding and monetization of myYearbook The road to becoming a publicly traded company and the lessons learned How The Meet Group was born Why an investment in the live-streaming business changed the game What Cook has his eyes on for the future of The Meet Group

Today we get to go back in time and hear all about the origins of MeetMe from the app’s co-founder Catherine Cook Connelly. Catherine founded the company in 2005 while she was still in high school (total #girlboss!) Back then it was a website called My Yearbook and, in this interview, we talk all about the creation of that original platform and how it has transformed into the MeetMe app that you know and love today. Catherine shares some of the top successes and struggles in those early years of building the platform, and her advice for entrepreneurs. We also talk about the decision to add live streaming to MeetMe, what are some of her favorite live streams to watch, and her own personal experience with live streaming. Catherine also shares what she feels has been the best part of creating MeetMe and why live streaming has only made that better. If you want to catch one of Catherine’s streams, find her on MeetMe as CatherineC ! *make sure it’s the account with the official MeetMe tag

Geoff Cook is a serial entrepreneur and public company CEO. He started his first company from a Harvard dorm and sold it for millions of dollars at age 24. He sold his second company for $100 million. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET), a social dating and livestreaming company with a $400+ million market cap. He has spent $200 million in the last 3 years buying 4 companies as well as launching a NEW podcast app called Podcoin. During our interview we discuss: - Geoff shares how and why he started his first company out of his Harvard dorm room. - We discuss how he started his first social networking site, MyYearBook.com and later sold it for $100 million to a publicly traded company. - He shares how his new podcast app, Podcoin, works and how it is disrupting the podcast industry. - We talk about 4 things they did to quick ramp up the new Podcoin app to over 1 million minutes per day listening minutes. - He shares his theory on user retention and why it is so important to success with an app like Podcoin. - Geoff shares his favorite growth tool/software. - He shares one of his favorite books. Geoff's website: Twitter www.geoffreycook.com Download Podcoin -------------------------------- If you enjoyed this episode, please RATE / REVIEW and SUBSCRIBE to ensure you never miss an episode. Connect with Dennis Brown  AskDennisBrown.com LinkedIn Twitter  

There is more money coming into Podcasting and Geoff and David Cook are hoping to get some of it by building a podcast app that focuses on helping you find new podcasts, integrate social ingredients (likes, etc), and pay you one podcoin (1-4 cents) for every 10 minutes. I wanted to find out more about this app. Podcoin was created by David Cook who credited the idea to a speech his brother Geoff Cook gave to Princeton University in April 2018. It’s not the first time they’ve been business partners. David and Geoff previously co-founded myYearbook with their sister Catherine in 2005. The trio then sold the company to Quepasa for $100 million in 2011. It's been around since January of 2019 and currently has 15 million users that are consuming 1,500,000+ Listening Minutes PER DAY For more information see https://www.podcoin.com/audience Find the app on Apple and Android Fixing Mistakes In Your Podcast You are listening back to your podcast and there is a mistake you HAVE to fix. Here are your options when using Libsyn Thank you for contacting Libsyn Support It gets tricky with Spotify, and Google Play Music. If you upload a file with the same file name, all the other directories and apps up EXCEPT the two above. There are two options Strategy 1 If you go to content > previously published > edit the episode Then click on the Scheduling Tab and go to the advanced sub-tab You will see the destinations. Uncheck Spotify, Google Play Music and click Publish (which acts as a save button). Then rename your episode file, go to content > add new episode Then click on the Scheduling Tab and go to the advanced sub-tab You will see the destinations. Make sure to UNCHECK ALL of the destinations EXCEPT Spotify, Google Play Music and click Publish (which acts as a save button). 670 This will create a version of that episode just for those destinations, and the original version never goes offline. Strategy 2 Go to Content > Previously Published > Edit Rename your original file and use the replace option and click Publish (which acts as a save button). The current apps will have a small amount of time when the file will not play (as the apps update they will see the new file name, but there may be people who go to play the file and it won't work (as it's still looking at the old name). This can take up to 24 hours. But the episode will update on all platforms. What If I'm Not Using Libsyn? The bottom line is if you upload the new file with the same name, then it won't update on Spotify or Google Play Music because they make Question of the Month What is your biggest pain in podcasting? Go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contact and upload your file or use the speakpipe button by 5/24/19 Start Your Podcast Today www.schoolofpodcasting.com/start

Geoff Cook is the Co-founder & CEO of MeetMe and The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET), a social dating and live streaming company with a $400+ million market cap; Geoff has spent $200 million in the last 3 years buying 4 companies, including most recently, Growlr, a dating app for gay bears. Geoff is also the CEO of myYearbook--a social network to meet new people. Geoff Cook helped raise $20 million and grew myYearbook to profitability with 100+ employees and $30+ million in revenue. Geoff started his first companies EssayEdge and ResumeEdge from a Harvard dorm and sold them to The Thomson Corporation for millions of dollars at age 24. He sold his second company for $100 million. He also runs the leading podcast player, Podcoin, and can drive thousands of listening hours and hundreds of subscribers to podcasts on which he appears.   Podcast Highlights   Who is Geoff Cook? Geoff is a husband and father in addition to an entrepreneur. He started his entrepreneurial life in school because he didn’t want to get a job making only a few dollars an hour. Before then he didn’t really have any ideas about being an entrepreneur. Geoff realized that if he wanted to really make some money, selling your time wasn’t going to cut it because it has a linear relationship. You need to create something that isn’t tied directly to your time. He thought that instead of working a regular job, he could create something and potential make nothing, but also potentially make way more money, and at the very least have some fun. Geoff’s first venture was an attempt to just solve a problem, in his case essay and resume editing. He built a website from scratch and slowly grew his business from $10k a year in his first year in college to over $300k a year by the time he graduated. His second business was the social network myYearbook, within 9 months he had acquired over a million users to the site by leveraging existing platforms like Myspace. How much did your education contribute to your business success? In the early days of his first business, Geoff’s education did actually help him figure out what to charge and better tailor the experience to certain people. But it’s hard to draw a straight line from his education to everything that has happened since. Growing a Business Geoff runs a public company called the Meet Group which has a heavy focus on live streaming video. The cost to execute live streaming lead to them start acquiring other apps so they could leverage the infrastructure they already had. In the early days of Myspace and Facebook, creating a viral campaign that acquired email addresses was much easier and very powerful. Today you need to either buy it or build it, in the case of building it you need novelty in order for it to grow. Instead of relying on a lucky strike of a marketing campaign, another strategy to grow is to just buy companies that have already acquired the audience you want to reach. Why is live streaming such an important tool? Regular media like photos are very flat, where live video is much more interesting and interactive. The interaction is key and in the next few years, the quality and quantity of live streams available is only going to go up. Live streams are becoming part of many more traditional broadcasts as well. Podcoin Live streaming video is a lean in media, it’s very interactive and keeps your attention. Audio is the opposite, most people consume audio media while they are doing other things, it’s more passive. Podcoin was born out of the idea of “what if we paid people to listen to podcasts?” It allows the listener to share in the rewards of the organization that they are directly generating. The hardest pr

Meet Samantha Urban, CEO of Urban Translations and an all around inspiring founder in tech. Urban Translations, which translates paper menus into interactive experiences and languages.   Originally from Ventura County, Samantha grew up in the 80’s when tech was still a new thing, and seeing women in tech was rare. At the age of 10 she bought a computer running on Windows 3.1, the tech bug bit her, and she’s been chasing it ever since. After studying Computer Science, she worked in the U.S. Patent Office and MyYearbook.com, where she saw her first exit, and then with Stuzo before starting her own computer, Urban Translations.   So, how did she get into the hospitality industry? Much of her family works in hospitality so she has a unique perspective. But what really drove her to create her latest software, Urban Translations was a trip to Brazil. Listen in to hear the founding story.   Samantha finds that San Diegans are much more genuine and the culture fits how she wants to build her company and she’s been able to find her people. She’s a naturally fast-paced person and she appreciates the balance that the calmness and peacefulness of San Diego brings. Most people in San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are not born there. Each of these cities is very distinct and have their own culture, and it’s that culture that attracts the kind of people who fit in there. San Diego has her people.   So what’s next for Urban Translations? Samantha was thrilled to announce that they have been working with Samsung and are now working with Google. There is so much more that Urban Translation can do and Google and Samsung see this and want to collaborate on initiatives the hospitality industry hasn’t yet seen.  Listen to the full podcast to hear more!   Best taco spot - This has been an easy answer for most guests, but surprisingly, Samantha doesn’t have one. Instead, she dropped a crazy cool announcement - HEAR IT HERE FIRST - Her desire is for everyone to have a good experience while dining out and for restaurants to make good money.  We are what we eat and when we feed it good and organic products, we all become healthier. She learned this first-hand. Samantha has a passion for quality food and wants for restaurants to give us better food. Any restaurant with organic foods, good oils, etc. is eligible to get free software, service, and tablets if they serve better food. There will be a vetting process, and she wants to get at least one in 2018. If you know of a restaurant that could qualify, connect them with Samantha!   Eventually she wants to expand this offer to hotels and resorts all over.   And if you’re a San Diego company that offers healthy food, contact her for advertising opportunities within the Urban Translations platform. Best beer - Although she doesn’t drink anymore, her favorite was Modern Times.   Best coffee- Modern Times as well. OB Garden Cafe, who are making good waves for organic options and also has outdoor/indoor seating and yoga on the roof. You can find Samantha and Urban Translations on Twitter, on Facebook, Instgram, and LinkedIn as Urban Translations.

In July 2013, Alexandra Hoang and Kelly Trinh interviewed Catherine  Cook Connellly about her journey on creating MyYearbook. Alexandra and Kelly were Ambassadors for Girls' C.E.O. Connection and were recent high school graduates. The original video interview is still available to watch on the Girls' C.E.O. Connection YouTube channel. Follow along with Alexandra and Kelly as they learn how Catherine and her brother Dave grew myYearbook from a small startup in 2005 to a major competitor of Facebook in just six years. In November 2011 MyYearbook merged with the Quepasa Corporation and in June 2012 rebranded to MeetMe, Inc. Imagine starting a business at the age of 15 in your bedroom and growing it to be a $33.6 million. Then selling it for $100 million!!! The best part for Catherine was to sell it while continuing to be an executive with the company.  

Catherine Cook, Co-founder and Vice President of Brand Strategy of MeetMe. Catherine discusses her journey of communicating effectively from the beginnings of MyYearbook as it became re-branded to MeetMe. The company has built one of the top mobile apps for Millennials. https://www.meetme.com; Contact Catherine through her Twitter account @cncook. She will set up a time to connect.  

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues SDForum attendees got a glimpse of the future last Friday. Microsoft hosted the 4th Annual SDForum Teens Conference – an assembly of some of the most dynamic and creative young minds in Silicon Valley. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of high energy high school students who […]