BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com BloggingStocks http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/media/feedlogo.gif BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Investment Diary: CircleBuilder closes first round]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/09/09/investment-diary-circlebuilder-closes-first-round/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/09/09/investment-diary-circlebuilder-closes-first-round/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/09/09/investment-diary-circlebuilder-closes-first-round/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

It has taken about ten months longer then we had planned, but CircleBuilder.com has finally closed its seed round of funding. The convertible debt has become equity priced at a dollar a share and it's gone up in value, at least on paper. However, that value is not liquid, so is not worth discussing.

Before I go further, I should disclose that I am on the Advisory Board of the company and was one of the early investors. Many of my posts are written as an "adventure in investorland" relating my own experiences. For those who feel this is too promotional, you can turn away. My purpose is to share the journey of an insider as this company builds.

There was little certainty that CircleBuilder would be a success when we started. Along the way, I have had some reservations about the financial and time commitment; I do not need one more thing to do, or a way to lose money.

When we started, MySpace was all the rage and Facebook was gaining momentum rapidly. The founders, Howard Brown and Brent Cohen, came to me with an idea to develop a social networking site catering to religious communities that were not well served by the free-for-all, anything-goes nature of existing alternatives.

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Investment Diary: CircleBuilder closes first round originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>circlebuilderFaithInternetSheldon LiberSheldonLibersocial networksSocialNetworksstart-upsTue, 09 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EST<![CDATA[The ascension of GodTube: What took this long?]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/20/the-ascension-of-godtube-what-took-this-long/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/20/the-ascension-of-godtube-what-took-this-long/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/20/the-ascension-of-godtube-what-took-this-long/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Web watcher comScore Inc. has reported that last month, the new site GodTube.com saw traffic climb 973% -- growth unprecedented in the web's history. GodTube welcomed 1.7 million unique visitors between its official August 8 launch and month's end, debuting in comScore's list of top 1,000 internet properties.

Owned and operated by Big Jump Media, Inc., GodTube is exactly what you might guess -- a Christian alternative to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s YouTube. Similar to its secular counterpart, GodTube visitors can upload, view and comment on sermons, music videos and performances, testimonials, skits and sketches, rants, raves and what have you. In six weeks, it has accumulated more than 20,000 user-submitted clips and streamed more than 800,000 hours of video.

It's fascinating that here we are nearly two decades into the internet, and only now does a dominant faith-oriented web destination start to take shape. Sure, denominations and sects have their own predominant web resources -- some even run dynamic, regularly updated web portals. But your web search for religion will mostly yield a lot of domain squatting (www.religion.com, www.god.org) and last century's web design (www.jesuschrist.com, www.yhwh.com).

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The ascension of GodTube: What took this long? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ChristianityevangelismfaithfeaturedGodGodTubeGodTube.comInternetJesusreligionThu, 20 Sep 2007 11:10:00 EST