Before there was Hashable, there was Tracked, Michael Yavonditte’s attempt to build a better Yahoo Finance. It was little too complicated, and not social. “I felt like I was on the wrong side of history,” he tells Chris Dixon in this episode of Founder Stories.
So Yavonditte (who had previously sold advertising startup Quigo to AOL for $360 million) started from scratch, recruited a new team, and Hashable was born—a lightweight mobile app that helps you keep track of your business meetings and contacts, and is replacing business cards for many people.
In the video clip below, Yavonditte explains what exactly is Hashable and hints at some upcoming features. Be sure to also watch Part I of this interview, in which Yavonditte describes how he went toe-to-toe with Google back in his Quigo days, and came out all right. He also describes his thoughts on management: “Leadership is not acquiescing to the mob.”
Previous episodes of Founder Stories can be found here.
Michael Yavonditte is a veteran of new media and technology. Prior to being named chief executive officer of Quigo Technologies in 2002, Mr. Yavonditte served as vice president of sales for USA Networks Electronic Commerce Solutions Group in New York. In that position, he was responsible for negotiating complex ‘outsourced’ e-commerce alliances with leading U.S. retailers. His group managed the e-commerce operations for CBS Sportsline, Nascar.com and the National Hockey League. In 2000, Mr. Yavonditte joined AltaVista, where he quickly...
Hashable is the best way to save and remember where and when you meet people. You can send virtual business cards to kick off relationships - quickly and paper-free. With Hashable’s iPhone or Android app, you can combine all of your relationships to create a unified address book. Plus, make private notes about your contacts and set follow-up reminders to keep your relationships current. As you use the app, you will be able to view a scrollable history of...
Chris Dixon is a Partner at and co-founder of Founder Collective. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay. In addition to his work with Founder’s Collective, Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that...
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