TheFunded.com has been a big deal in the startup world. It allows entrepreneurs to write about their experiences meeting with venture capitalist while staying anonymous. TheFunded.com has become such a big deal because no one knew who was behind it. That and most of the reviews were negative, aggravating named VCs. The suspense even reached outside the blogosphere with magazines such as Inc. wondering “Who’s behind TheFunded.com?“.
Last night at an event at Stanford, Aedo Ressi announced he is the founder of TheFunded.com. This is a classic PR mystery move, I couldn’t but see it as a linkbait move as well. Ressi’s site received as much publicity for its unknown founder as it did for its function, reviewing venture firms. Since the story of who ran TheFunded.com has quieted down in past months, Ressi comes out and sets the startup/tech blogs pumping out articles again (like so).
While we see traditional linkbait as writing an article that grabs ones attention (usually in a negative way), Ressi just kept quiet. In the current internet marketing environment, the tactic was brilliant. Ressi didn’t write a scathing article attacking a VC to grab the attention of the Valley, he simply opened a platform that allowed any entrepreneur to do it. At the same time hiding from , instead of bathing in, the publicity that made it even more intriguing.
Thus turning in old PR tactic into a new linkbait tactic. Well Done Mr Ressi.
There’s another site in the same vein: http://www.antiventurecapital.com which focuses on alternative financing strategies. It’s hard to meet people who don’t hate VCs.
Comment by FYI — November 16, 2007 @ 5:10 pm