Comments on: Slide Cuts Ad Staff, Shifts Focus

By: Slide Announces $500,000+ Sponsorship From Hot Pockets

Slide Announces $500,000+ Sponsorship From Hot Pockets — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:34:11 +0000

[...] team that will focus on higher-end campaigns, ones in the $500,000 category range.” (Source: GigaOm) Many large developers that I spoke with laughed at the concept, asking “Are there really [...]

By: Slide Confirms Cuts to Ad Sales Staff, Continues to Shift Focus @ cash tower

Slide Confirms Cuts to Ad Sales Staff, Continues to Shift Focus @ cash tower — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:43:43 +0000

[...] half of Slide’s revenues, and that the company is working on its own payment platform. Today, GigaOm reports that the company has laid off several members of its sales staff. Levchin confirms that the company [...]

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:45:52 +0000

Interesting article. Advertising seems to be trending with the overall media dilution from Online. I like to watch innovators in the space. I found one the other day call AdCandy. I think it is http://www.adcandy.com. There are a ton of targetted and specific sites out there to get the message out beyond tradtional means.

Keep up the great insight.

Jeff

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:49:28 +0000

It’s obvious Slide has failed. Levchin was a one hit wonder. He entered Facebook at the right time when apps were just being introduced but made fatal mistakes in leveraging and converting all that traffic into a real and sustainable business model. The 500K business model focus sounds like another mistake. Max is a techie not a business person and therein lies most of the problem. He should step aside and let someone else run the company and he can focus on product. Fail.

By: lance

lance — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:21:25 +0000

slide never really had a business plan or out look….the are always looking over their heads and doing what RockYou did. it was a simple cut and copy on their front. paypal was a one hit wonder like hotmail was for the founders…just pack up and move to some island. i agree with the above comment…OM you are getting to close with some of he firms that you cover….do some real analysis and competitive analysis on some of these companies and look at their business model which is nothing more then cut and past…cover real tech firms.

By: Sun Valley’s Lusty Old Men Are Fickle | Tech-monkey.info Blogs

Sun Valley’s Lusty Old Men Are Fickle | Tech-monkey.info Blogs — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:28:58 +0000

[...] It’s a tough world for a flirty company on the make. In summer 2008, media honchos like Barry Diller and Jeffrey Katzenberg were making eyes at social networking companies like Slide, the well-funded maker of Facebook applications started by PayPal founder Max Levchin. Just in time for this year’s conference, Slide is laying people off and scrapping its failed business model. [...]

By: MindOnMediaSales

MindOnMediaSales — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:13:36 +0000

Om, Interesting article overall, but there must be more to this story than appears here. @Bill above is right: there is a “hole” in both the story and their stated logic as regards cutting their sales force. Either they didn’t think their current team could ramp from $50k deals to $500k+ deals [not likely], they think they can ‘bypass’ the $50k deals on their way to $500k deals [not at ALL likely], or the stated reason was a cover for some other reason, or direction yet to be revealed.

I also agree with both @Jimbo-NYC, and @mikesimonsen on the “margin” issue. Having worked with two Social Media startups in the past 1.5 yrs, very, very, very few clients in this climate are going to dream of signing off on a $500k ‘sponsorship’ for something that is not proven, tested, locked & loaded. Those $50k deals ARE the stepping-stone to $500k deals. So unless Slide gives such iron-clad ‘performance guarantees’ to that client at $500k that its nearly a giveaway…that “margin” they thought would be ‘higher-value’, ends up dramatically LESS than the original one on the $50k deals to begin with [on a % basis.]

If Max has already proven he can do what is stated here to his Board, he should also sell the ad programs himself, as a Maestro. If not, one can only wonder what their Board was thinking when they heard this kind of “logic”…?

From the top, there must be more to this story, somewhere.

Ken Nicholas
MindOnMediaSales.com

By: Maky

Maky — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:49:44 +0000

Om,

Let’s face it, this is a stupid move – Slide is nothing but ubber commodity inventory —- anything that runs off facebook pretty much is….wish Max would stop sticking his nose up at this fact and actually accept it. Slide is not worth $500M. They’ll be lucky if they got 10M for that business – getting valued like facebook and then taking a significant down round is where I see this going.

By: Top Posts « WordPress.com

Top Posts « WordPress.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:17:42 +0000

[...] Slide Cuts Ad Staff, Shifts Focus Max Levchin’s Slide, a San Francisco-based startup that caught the Facebook application wave early, is making a [...] [...]

By: Ted Rheingold

Ted Rheingold — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:59:48 +0000

I heard from an insider Slide is making Zynga-like money on virtual gift sales. Was this person truly in the know, I’m not sure, but a current update on Slide’s run rate and top performing sectors would be v. v. interesting. RockYou too. Think you can get it Om? I think you can ;)

By: Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | TECHNICK

Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | TECHNICK — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:56:44 +0000

[...] first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and [...]

By: Slide Confirms Cuts to Ad Sales Staff, Continues to Shift Focus

Slide Confirms Cuts to Ad Sales Staff, Continues to Shift Focus — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:26:57 +0000

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:23:11 +0000

If they are going to focus on the higher-value, non-IAB units why get rid of the entire ad sales team?

By: News, Technology, Community » Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:06:49 +0000

[...] first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and [...]

By: Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | TechDozer.Com

Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | TechDozer.Com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:00:15 +0000

[...] first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and [...]

By: Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | UpOff.com

Slide cuts staff, refocuses on premium ad deals | UpOff.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:46:48 +0000

[...] first reported the news last night, after obtaining a copy of the email chief executive Max Levchin sent to the team and [...]