Guest Blog Post: Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker

Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker (Guest Blog Post)

Excited About A New Space

“They sailed. They saw. They innovated.” The lead heard ‘round the world.

An idea on its own quickly evaporates like a warm breath on a winter day. It is the
people that entrain to an idea with a common purpose and passion that make an
idea powerful.

When Tom Houge and Jeff Lucas set out to circumnavigate the world on University
of Virginia’s Semester at Sea, they did not expect to spark the world’s next global
social networking revolution.

The spark that is Fipeo lit with Tom in room 3055 of the MV Explorer and caught
fire with Jeff in The Main Dining Hall on Deck 5.

Fipeo, led by Houge & Lucas, has squared off against Airtime, led by Sean Parker and
Shawn Fanning. For those who don’t already know, the Sean/Shawn duo is known
for their time creating Napster and Parker is also known for his time at Facebook (as
featured in The Social Network) as well as his role at Spotify.

Airtime recently posted pictures of their lavish San Francisco digs, complete with
a throne, online. More evidence of the hubris that was demonstrated when Sean
Parker, a multi-billionaire called the Picasso of business by Forbes, discussed his
shenanigans at Le Web in France.

Parker told the audience how he held up a 6 foot long novelty check made out from
Sean Parker to Airtime for $15,000,000 at the end of each investment meeting and
arrogantly said, “By the way guys… If you don’t invest, I will.”

Airtime has received millions in funding from Founders Fund, Accel Partners,
Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner, Ron Conway, Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher,
will.i.am, Scott Braun, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.

Parker and Fanning first crossed paths working for a company that would be
fraught with legal issues. Houge and Lucas, 21 and 22 respectively (same ages of
Sergey Brin and Larry Page at meeting), met while circumnavigating the globe on
Semester at Sea.

There is a saying that goes, “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember,
amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

I hope that the amateurs at Fipeo will build something worthy of the MV Explorer,
the ship that gave birth to Fipeo.

Join the movement at Fipeo.com

Lead: http://www.modernghana.com/news/380093/1/fipeo-the-voyage-of-discovery.html
Airtime Investors: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/fanning-parker-airtime/
Airtime Office: http://www.facebook.com/airtime
Novelty Check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNhc64b_po (skip ahead to 37:00)
Picasso of Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppiLJeFP4n0

Adam Danielson: Fipeo: Next Biggest Thing?



Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Angel List

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Dan Marion: Changing the World: Fipeo.
The Post And Courier: Student's brainchild going live

FacedYou from Fipeo on Vimeo.

Fipeo from Fipeo on Vimeo.

Video Like Photos Are, Text Used To Be

We have seen an entire generation of photo based tech startups. Facebook might be the biggest among them, Instagram reigns in the mobile domain. Pinterest might be the newest entrant.

Before that things were more text based. Yahoo chat room were text based, and a lot of social activity happened there. AOL's instant messenger was also text based.

I think we are about to see a new generation of companies for whom video will be the starting point. This is primarily a function of larger bandwidths available in the mainstream, but it is more than that.