Ambush Interview #82 TheProfessor (Owner/Founder of Adult Friend Finder)

Congrats on the interview TheProfessor

andrew was great meeting you down at the playboy mansion, and thanks for bringing me! .. love your program, i still havent thought of any improvements but I'll let you know when i do

good one

I've been waiting for this one

Good one, Scott - should be one of the best Ambushes to date!

Shoot... I gotta start dating some Swedish women to quash these
rumors. I studied Chinese during grad school as a hobby and can
speak enough to get myself into a bar fight. Our first language
specific dating sites was in Chinese at http://asiafriendfinder.com.

This'll be an awesome one.

I've never had time to be a sport car person but picked up a
360 Modena a couple years ago off of ebay. While it's a beautiful
car that lets me chase motorcycles around the nearby winding
mountain roads , I soon found that it's a total guy magnet.
Women assume that I must compensating for something
with a Ferrari and every guy wants to be my new best friend.
I'm sure that someday there will be a Brokeback sequel that
features sports cars.

I recently parked it with this sign


and then someone lifted it... and it turned up here


My next car will probably be an old truck.

Good one

I'd be willing to put my truck up...but only as a straight across trade for the 360.

The guy that talked you into buying it was likely blowing smoke up your ass.

I'm not a spammer or anything but check out these hot landing pages!
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=577110

can we call you a Sig Whore instead??

I've been called worse.

I've never been a huge Ferrari fan but that is an absolutely beautiful car.



I'd hit it. Definitely.

Movie posters in the early years were very different than today.
Most were beautifully hand drawn and bring you back to a simpler
time - collecting them helps give me some balance from working with
bits and bandwidth all day. It's kind of like the feeling you get
when the power goes off at your house and you realize that there was
a time where people were not addicted to the Internet.

Yah - the mansion was a lot of fun! Was so great to finally meet many of our affiliates... at what a better location

Do you own offline businesses?

What's it like to know that you can buy most things and they won't make a dent in your bank account? Is it fun, or anti-climactic, or something else? Is the "mo money, mo problems" adage true or false?

How did you grow your business initially. Did you "hire" friends or family to help you operate it. In other words are some of your closest friends also in the top chain of command at FriendFinder Inc? Or did you go straight to finding people outside of your circle of friends to delegate jobs to.

How old were you when you launched AFF? Did you run any sites prior? Why personals? Why not porn?

Do you think you could start off in the online world and repeat your current success or have similar success?

What are the most important lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Did your sites ever use 3rd party billing or always merchant? Why or why not? I've read that in the early days some sites started out by taking mail orders because the internet hadn't yet created ways for billing users.

If you had to choose between money, power, or women, which would you choose?

Good questions Mike33

first i see pictures of Eli nude... now lars' butt. It's just too much! ;)

Andrew I want to thank you for being an available and supportive AA sponsor and dance partner.

I think Adult Frank Finder is one of the most trusted names in finding good quality Hot Dogs on the Net...

In other words?

Hey!
.....

Yah, this is one of our interview questions. Suppose you were
on a game show (e.g., let's make a deal) where a new car was
behind one of 3 doors and nothing behind the others. Let's say
you guess door #2. Now instead of showing you what's behind
door #2, I tell you that it's NOT behind door #1. Now, would
you want to change your pick to door #3? (answer later)

haha exactly sagi. :P

hey grunt! ;)

He constructs a very small ladder...

I started programming when I was 11 so by the time I got to
college, I thought that engineering would be more fun. I've always
enjoyed building things and figuring out how things work.

Ofcourse you should change to door 3.

i love it already
awesome interview

Haha, hey B!

In 1996, did you see the potential of the internet already, or are you pretty surprised at how things turned out (from a business perspective)?

Who would you say is instrumental or highly influential in launching your online endeavors?

Did it require much investment to get started?

Who do you consider to be your peers, adult or mainstream? Seeing that your one if not the most successful in the business, who do you look up to?

Q: Do you own offline businesses?

A: Not yet - want to start one?

Q: What's it like to know that you can buy most things and they won't make a dent in your bank account? Is it fun, or anti-climactic, or something else? Is the "mo money, mo problems" adage true or false?

A: It might be a bit of a cliché so say that I haven't changed much. I've
always been motivated by doing the best that I can. Growing up, "doing
your best" wasn't measured in dollars so fortunately, my working hard at
Friend Finder is not entirely motivated by money - revenue growth is just
another measure of if we're doing a good job. I'd probably agree more with
"mo money, mo responsibility".

Q: How did you grow your business initially. Did you "hire" friends or family to help you operate it. In other words are some of your closest friends also in the top chain of command at FriendFinder Inc? Or did you go straight to finding people outside of your circle of friends to delegate jobs to.

A: I started the first web personals site in 1994 while doing my Phd at
Stanford. In '94, people were not nearly as demanding as they are now
so was able to have a very simple site. A few years later, I started
Friend Finder on the computer on my desktop. In a few months, hired
a customer service person and started growing organically. Most people
were hired off the street or from dormrooms - was much more of a startup feel.

Q: How old were you when you launched AFF?

A: Started Adult Friend Finder in late 1996 when I was uh... 28.

Q: Did you run any sites prior? Why personals? Why not porn?

A: Yah - in 93, started a web development company out of my kitchen
and built sites for HP, Cisco, and a bunch of little sites. Started a little
restaurant review site at http://dine.com. Many people would call
up and ask if we were the "Internet". I thought it was so cool that
when you put up a webpage, anyone in the world could see
it - so it'd be natural to let people post personal ads. As we were
showing off the personals site to potential clients, we had to keep
it mainstream.

Q: Do you think you could start off in the online world and repeat your current success or have similar success?

A: I know that I have been fortunate to have started early and have
had a number of breaks along the way. I think the numbers of new
successful internet companies remain the same each year... but that
there are just more people trying to create one. Growing a company
like ours has taken years and years of crazy hours - it would be harder
to do that again.

Q: What are the most important lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

A: Listen to people, have integrity, juggle enough projects so that you
are less concerned about a single failure, be humble, ...

Q: Did your sites ever use 3rd party billing or always merchant? Why or why not? I've read that in the early days some sites started out by taking mail orders because the internet hadn't yet created ways for billing users.

A: I don't remember any 3rd party billing systems back in 1996 - we
just got a merchant bank and grew the relationship over time.

Q: If you had to choose between money, power, or women, which would you choose?

A: I'd choose the lesser of three evils.

Good questions, good answers. This interview is a pleasure to read.

very good interview

i guess you didn't like my questions....

that's definetly not women right? right?! ;)

What Lars said.................


good one!

This thread should be Pinned!!

nicely done

I had a feeling this wasgoign to be the ambush!! can't wait to read it all the way through!

im looking forward to this interview!

Jim

What Lars and Mike say. Very Good One

Wow great person to interview, I met Andrew in LA at the Webmaster Access show and was absolutely stunned how humble and quiet he was.

A real pleasure to meet someone so successful that has kept a good head on his shoulders and doesn't get caught up in all the bullshit.

DH

Did you actually went searching for that "é"? lol