Link Exchange's Blog Roll Fortune
Share
A story about how Zappos founder Tony Hsieh created an early internet advertising company called Link Exchange that was acquired for $400M.
"Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, created what was called Link Exchange. It went from 0 to like a $400 million acquisition. All they did originally was help broker deals for blog rolls, which were the things on the side of blogs that showed other recommended blogs to read. Eventually it became pay-to-play for these blog roll placements. I think that's where MySpace kind of got the idea of 'here's my top 8' - it was like a way to help you discover new people."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.