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Mahbod Moghadam is the cofounder of (Rap) Genius and Everipedia, and a Stanford Law graduate. I’ve been friends with him for quite some time now, and I am fascinated by his hyping marketing techniques. He is a really good marketer, in fact so good, that he even convinced me to have my fund Flux Ventures invest in his startup Everipedia. In this interview, I wanted to understand how he builds such companies.
City where you’re from: Los Angeles, CA
Hobbies: Piano (Bach), working out
Favorite quote: YOLO
Twitter: @mahbodmoghadam
Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
It was not my idea! I had just gotten laid off when my friend Tom Lehman built the prototype for “Rap Exegesis”, as it was then known. I started annotating the lyrics for Biggie and 2pac because I felt like someone’s gotta do it. The turning point came when we were accepted to Y Combinator – it happened on our 2nd attempt, after the immortal Justin Kan wrote a favorable blog post about the site. YC changed my life – that’s how I became an entrepreneur! I started wearing geeky clothes – I made the jump to a new lifestyle.
Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?
My biggest influence, without a doubt, is pianist Glenn Gould. He is the person who made me devote my life to music. There is a movie about his life called “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould” – you gotta watch it!!
The defining experience of my life was getting my brain tumor surgically removed. I know it sounds corny to say it, but the experience made me cherish my life bla bla bla.
Now
What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
I am an Angel Investor in 7 different companies, so I am trying to help them blow up! They are an amazing group of companies, mostly Y Combinator alums. One of my angel investments, Coinbase, has already become a household name! I am very proud. I am also doing everything I can to help the two companies I founded – (Rap) Genius and Everipedia! They would not exist were it not for my brilliance.
How is your site different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision?
Both of the sites I founded are crowd-knowledge sites. The funny thing is, pretty much every single crowd-knowledge site blows up, even if it sucks. Wikifeet is a shitty foot-fesih wiki from the 90’s, and it still gets more traffic than Yik-Yak, which has raised millions of dollars. Everyone wants to build the next Snapchat, they don’t want to build the next Wikipedia because that’s a lot of hard work. But it’s what the internet was meant for! The purpose of the internet is to make knowledge free, so that the rich can finally be taken down! Fuck them!!!! Yeeeee.
If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use (we like specifics)? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of?
I’m a big believer in Facebook ads, but I’m not very good at designing them. I think they work better in India than in the U.S. tho, which is something to consider. The way I build my communities is by using Facebook and Twitter for free tho – it’s all about the @ reply. If you post a status, who knows if anyone will read it? But EVERY @ reply gets read. Food for thought..
Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it?
Sadly, both of my companies were pretty much instant successes. I was bootstrapping for about a year before Rap Genius got into Y Combinator, but even then, I had 100% faith in the product. I remember, every day I would go to 24 fitness, and on the elliptical, I would chant “Rap Genius, Rap GENIUS!!” to myself until I got tears in my eyes. It would make me work out harder.
Value-add questions
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
If your CEO did not build your product, the same way Zuck built Facebook, or my CEO’s built my companies, then either you WILL fail or you deserve to fail.
Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?
I think the “must read” for this kind of stuff is Hacker News. That is the hub of the legit startup community – all the famous people read it too.
While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc)
It sounds elementary, but I like the habit of making lists and crossing stuff off the list. It is childish, but it makes me do more work! In terms of company management – I’m not good at it, but I think 1-on-1’s are the key to management.
What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak?
Gym is the most important part of my life. The Wooden Center is basically my Mecca.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Building a dope product and getting users! Everything else will follow.
Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today.
The most important step was becoming friends with some incredibly talented people! I was not the catalyst for either of my companies, I was friends with the right people and I was able to help them with their projects. So, make friends with nerds. Also, use your product yourself! At both Rap Genius and Everipedia, I have one of the highest IQ’s in the entire community. At Rap Genius, I’ve been banned for 2 ½ years from using the site, and I’m still like #7 on the leaderboard! If you don’t use your product yourself, addictively, then, just like I said above, you either will fail or you deserve to fail.
What are some of your favorite books?
My favorite books are Tess of the D’Urbervilles (most poetic novel), David Copperfield (the closest to a guide of how to live your life), and War & Peace (the most dramatic rendering of reality via literature).
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
Genius is now one of the top 100 sites on Alexa. Everipedia is growing very fast. I see both of these sites being in the Alexa top 10 eventually, worth billions of dollars. I see them both becoming part of the fabric of the internet, the same way Youtube / Wikipedia are.
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