Catherine (15), Dave (16), and Geoff (26) Cook have taken the term “family business” and given it a whole new meaning. They are the founding team behind MeetMe (formerly known as MyYearbook). This social media site has over 90 million members, and it allows people to meet, play games, and interact. The site has evolved over the years as it was acquired by another company, launched a mobile dating app, and now allows users to sign in through Facebook.
My favorite part about this story was that Geoff, who was already a successful web entrepreneur, decided to invest in his siblings’ idea at the dinner table. And it wasn’t a small amount either. He wrote a check for $250,000, which is a lot of faith to put in two kids who are just learning how to drive.
Another interesting aspect of Catherine and her siblings’ approach was their target audience. They knew that the top spots for social media sites for the masses were already taken, so they focused their approach specifically on teenagers, just like LinkedIn focuses on professionals. It was because of this approach that they were able to find market share in a seemingly already-saturated market.
Focusing on a specific area of the market is definitely a good call for any social media site. With the few huge players deeply entrenched in the market to the point where people sign up for other sites using Facebook, I think that the future of innovation in the internet world lies in people developing products that serve the needs of a specific group, not more one size fits all websites.
It’s awesome seeing a family of entrepreneurs who all support each other. Geoff investing that much money into his siblings must have taken a tremendous amount of faith. 90 million members is an insanely successful website for two teenagers to come up with.
I think it’s incredible to see that a brother was willing to invest that much money into his sisters’ business idea. It’s also incredible that he had that much money from a previous endeavor available to invest. This family did get it right, though, with the target market. So many big businesses don’t look at how saturated a market is before entering, but these girls did.
Focusing on a specific niche in the social media world is a nugget of truth. It reminds me of another market specific social media platform Rejib – created to connect the world of snow sports.
It is really cool to see how a brother has so much faith in his siblings and there idea that he invested a substantial amount of money in them to start a business. By making that investment it impacted their family in an incredible way.