eBaum's World

While just hitting my stride in a new financial planning and insurance venture in upstate New York, from truly out of the blue sky over in deep left field, came a request for help with a crazy new business that I was unaware of.  It was my recently graduated son who told me had an idea and a plan to do something different than a conventional job. He then introduced me to what we all know as the internet, all the while telling me he was going to be rich. Truthfully, I listened to what he tried to explain to me, but, I really did not understand.

Start Up

A few short months later this small unknown website that was launched from my teenaged son’s bedroom received a Cease and Desist letter from Viacom regarding some things he had posted to his website. That was a fateful day. He needed my help with business and legal issues that were suddenly having a very negative effect on his site. I took over the business and legal end of his still small business, eBaum’s World.

I had an idea regarding the Cease and Desist letter from Viacom. I decided to try and get some publicity and maybe some sympathy to help fight big bad Viacom. At the same time, I realized the more publicity I could garner for my son’s site, the better his business would fare. I still did not have a handle on internet ads/clicks/conversions…etc. I only knew that the more people talked about a business, the better it was. I was lucky and perhaps my son was even luckier.

I managed to get the story of Viacom threatening my minor child with this lawsuit some attention. After that, it really blew up. I had to hire a team of lawyers and accountants and bankers to accommodate this unreal meteoric growth. The web property and name was trademarked. We suddenly had a veritable juggernaut on our hands. I sold my equity in my financial planning firm in order to take on the role of Executive VP. The business for this website was incorporated in 2000.

Growth

In 2006 the eBaum’s World site was the fifth-largest video serving website in North America. We received over 1.25 million unique visitors a day. Our site received over 9000 videos daily for possible publication. We were one of the very few UGC [user-generated content] that made money from the onset.

Exit

I devised a plan to make a quick exit of eBaum’s World while we were enjoying this amazing success. I was able to do some financial planning in advance to mitigate the income taxes due in the event of a sale. In November of 2007, the website was sold for 52.5 million dollars to a tech firm in San Francisco. The income tax was capped at 15%.

The social networking sites were coming of age as the UGC sites were looking like melting ice cubes. Virtually all of the extremely popular sites from the dawn of the internet were gone. Big Boyz, College Humor, Metacafe, etc. Does anybody remember what happened to My Space? The entire landscape changed from there. Twitter, FB, Linked In, Instagram, YouTube, these are the new hipsters of the internet. All the funny jokes, skateboard accidents, pranks, that reigned supreme are memories.

EBaum’s World Today

Interestingly, eBaum’s World is still existing and still boasts decent traffic numbers after all these years. I cannot wait to see what the next “big thing” will be.

Do You Need Help with Your Business – Start-Up, Growth or Exit?

Today I am taking the skills and knowledge that I obtained during the eBaum’s World journey and using it to help other businesses.  Do you need help?  The first consultation is free.  Please call 585-978-9788 or fill out the form on this website to contact us.