New Attitude
After dishing the dirt on failing dotcoms, the internet's bad boy proves he can do better.
In 2000, Philip Kaplan found fame and fortune with
F**kedCompany.com, a website that attracted subscribers by dishing
the dirt on dotcom lawsuits, bankruptcies and layoffs. The site
still reports on dotcom gossip, but Kaplan has been slightly
distracted by his recent launch of another web-based business.
In 2004, backed by $4 million in VC funding, Kaplan partnered
with Gidon Wise, 32, and founded San Francisco-based AdBrite Inc. The
e-commerce business lists and sells available online ad space,
simplifying the process for both publishers and advertisers.
Meanwhile, Kaplan and Wise take a 25 percent cut of each deal made.
"We make buying ads essentially [like] buying a book on
Amazon," explains Kaplan, 30. AdBrite has seen over 700
percent year-over-year revenue growth, and its ads reach more than
20 million visitors each day. Looks like F**kedCompany.com
certainly won't have anything dismal to report about this
dotcom.