Russell Beattie

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm watching the first episode of Start-up Junkies on Mojo.com. I ran into the second episode on tv a couple times this week but I was a bit lost. So just now I looked up the company that's featured - Earth Class Mail (which I actually read about a little while ago) - and found the first episode online and caught up.

It's better than I thought at first and definitely worth checking out. Seeing the first episode helps put the second one into context a bit better. Also knowing they're in Seattle and Oregon helps a bit too - I've never been there and was trying to figure out where in the hell this was all taking place. Lots of fascinating stuff at the beginning about getting funding. In the first episode Ron Weiner, the CEO, makes a pitch to some group of investors who then decides as a group to invest? What is that? The Keiretsu Forum? Or is that where he's just talking after?

What astounds me is their A-round was only for about $20MM (I think) which, considering their capital expenditures on the warehouse and costs of processing the physical mail they receive, doesn't seem like a hell of a lot. But I guess getting a bunch of college kids to open people's mail probably isn't nearly as expensive as filling up a data center and paying for bandwidth (though I'm sure they'll have to do plenty of that as well).

Anyways, in addition to the TV show - which was filmed probably 6 months ago at least - there's also their blog they have online as well. I just subscribed - we'll see how well they keep it up to date, and how they address what happens in the shows as well.

Okay, I *really* should go to bed now.

-Russ