How is this any different than other social sites? Basically what they're doing is crowd sourcing humor and that seems like a better plan than a lot of other startups I've seen.
Give the huge audience potential (who doesn't like a good laugh?) and their proven record of success (3 years) it doesn't seem like a terrible investment to me.
Whenever I see these numbers I can't help but think about how much food you can buy for $30m. I know economics is obviously more complex than that, building wealth helps the world etc. but I still find it impossible to get over this. Just being honest.
Also I'd be very wary of investing my money on people with such malleable ethics. But I guess with so many new VCs without a clue there's a lot of money to be made.
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/zvue-corporation
http://www.google.com/finance?q=zvue (very likely the same ZVUE)
Check their home page: http://www.zvue.com/
"$15 million cash and $2.5 million in stock" !
"$5.2 million revenue in 2007!" (check the Wikipedia source page for this figure, hilarious)
Edit: I see now you are acangiano...
"NOW WITH MORE LOL CATS!"
"THE MILLION DOLLAR HOMEPAGE IS NOW OFFERING FRANCHISES!"
"TRON GUY CELEBRITY APPEARANCES INCORPORATED"
"FAIL BLOG, NOW WITH 40% MORE FAIL!"
And this is the kind of investment that will make you look like an idiot if it blows up. But I have to think someone like Brad Feld, whose firm was part of this investment, is pretty confident in the business if he is willing to put his money and his reputation at stake on this.
Funny movies, funny books, and funny tv shows have all proven to be big money makers over a long period of time (but they also bomb often). Why is a business built on funny websites so ridiculous?
It seems that a lot people have a hard time differentiating between an intelligent business and a business that makes intelligent products.
