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Introducing the New Focus.com
- Recommended by:
- Craig Rosenberg,
- Chris Selland,
- Caty Kobe,
- and 21 others
This week marks the beginning of a new journey for Focus.com. Earlier in the week, Ziff Davis acquired our marketing services business - a business that helped buyers connect with vendors who could meet their needs. Focus.com was not part of the acquisition and on Wednesday a small, dedicated team began a new journey to build Focus into the world's leading community for sharing business expertise.
The decision to sell a business that generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue, real EBITDA, and real cash flow is not an easy one. So why did we do it? First, Focus.com is working. The community creates a tremendous amount of value on Focus every day. The membership numbers show it, but the real proof is in the Q&A exchanges and events that take place on the site. You can see this for yourself by checking out Q&A exchanges like this one on Marketing Automation Predictions or events like this roundtable on Sharepoint in the Cloud. Second, it became increasingly clear in recent months that we were trying to build two businesses inside of one and that both businesses were suffering because of this. The true value of Focus.com lies in helping professionals make better decisions, whereas the true value of the rest of the business lies in helping buyers and vendors connect with each other. These are two really different objectives and one shouldn't constrain the other.
Ultimately though this is nothing more than a decision to focus on Focus. That means a few things:
1. Our team is smaller, but more dedicated and more awesome. It's made up of people like Craig Rosenberg, Caty Kobe, and Jamie Burkhart. Everyone on the team is committed to the Focus mission.
2. You will see us develop more innovative features that allow people to share business expertise. In fact, you'll see the first of these releases in the next couple of weeks around our events platform. It is a quantum leap forward for us on the product development front.
3. We will continue to raise the standard of quality on Focus. Finding the best people to answer questions, speak at events, and publish research is a never-ending quest and one that we are committed to.
4. We will also develop new products that allow the business to create monetary incentives for participation in the community. It's early days here, but we have some exciting ideas that we hope to make a reality in the coming months.
Each one of these initiatives is designed to provide members and Experts alike with a better experience. The improved experience will come in the form of higher quality expertise and a more streamlined approach to creating and consuming that expertise. I view it as more of the same, but better. We hope you'll see it the same way and if there's any feedback you want to provide as we embark on this journey, just let us know.
Scott
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
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17 Comments
Well Right On! Let's get DISRUPTIVE!
:-D
Say what? As a participant that viewed FOCUS.com as a Q&A site with an emphasis on business, this news of spinning off the former Tippit business unit came as a surprise. It was like learning from a friend that his ex-wife had just gotten custody of their children - and you didn't know that he even had either an ex-wife or children!
This announcement sent me "digging through the crates" at Archive.org's Wayback Machine and CrunchBase to learn more about the beginnings of Tippit (Focus Research) and the funding rounds. When you see the metamorphosis of FOCUS, a surgical split falls along the legacy versus Q&A platform lines.
As for me, I see much greater value to the Q&A platform if engagement can grow exponentially. Good luck to Ziff Davis, who has had its challenges transitioning from publishing to digital media, with B2B Focus.
While this is not the forum, it would be interesting how the preferred overhang fared (and their influence) on this outcome. I have my guesses...
Congratulations all around. And I'm especially glad we still have Caty here with us.
What great news. And an inspiration to all entrepreneurs who see that a great idea, executed brilliantly will take root in the world.
Congratulations to all.
To Scott and the Focus Team....congratulations and best wishes in the next chapter of Focus' journey!
~Robert
Congratulations - I'm sure the (no pun intended) focus created by this transaction will lead to new opportunities for growth & greater heights for the business. I'm very excited to be a part of this terrific community and to work with you and the Focus team!
So now you have funds to pay for your experts? Only joking! Congratulations and loking forward to watching Focus.com growth.
Congrats Scott and the entire focus team....good stuff.
Looking forward to seeing you guys really take it to the next level and glad I can be there for the ride.
Rock on!!
Andrew Kordek
Co-Founder, Trendline Interactive
A Email Marketing Agency
Twitter: @andrewkordek & @trendlinei
Email: andrew@trendlineinteractive.com
Congratulations. Very happy to see this development. makes total sense.
Congrats - hope to stay close during the journey...I've enjoyed the ride so far!
Very exciting news, I will continue the comment from Mr. Judy. It's been a great experience and I see all the ingredients for some game-changing! PS. You've got some amazing people on your team.
Congratulations! Focus.com is truly the only quality network for business conversations and I am looking forward to being a part of it as an expert as well as a member looking to learn. All the best!
Congratulations on the next phase!! It's been great watching Focus.com evolve over time into a site with simply excellent content.
Huge congrats! This is a testament to all of the good, hard work by the folks at Focus.com and Focus Research. I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
Scott and the rest of the Focus.com team, it's a privilege to have a chance to work with you all. Best wishes on the renewed trajectory!
It's rock and roll time!
Congratulatuons.
Congratulations. I know from experience that getting "focussed" is not necessarily easy but it does pay off. I look forward to more from Focus as I find it quite a useful resource, so much better than some of the discussion forums on LinkedIn.
So, Thank-you for the update!
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