AllThingsD » Jason Rapp

L.A. Stories: HipSwap Tries to Take the Creepy out of Craigslist (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:56:24 +0000

Last week, I visited Los Angeles to get a gander at some of the many digital companies that are doing some interesting things down south of Silicon Valley.

First stop: HipSwap, a community-based marketplace that is now in 14 U.S. cities after initial tests in Los Angeles and New York City.

Its goal is to de-creep the experience — because no matter how it’s done online, local buying and selling still has a lot of glitches. Using a visual approach (think Pinterest), with hipster social hooks (think Airbnb) and focusing on location (hmm, perhaps think Foursquare), complete with delivery in some cities, HipSwap is hoping to differentiate itself from big players in the space, such as Craigslist and eBay.

The app-heavy HipSwap allows anyone with stuff, including boutique merchants with quirky stuff to move, to quickly snap photos of items, price them and then — presumably — sell. Payment is made via PayPal or credit card, with HipSwap in between the buyer and seller, to ease the transaction’s typical awkwardness.

Because it is local, the items are varied, from trendy baby strollers to funky furniture to antique sewing machines. And, because it is in the L.A. area, HipSwap is also pushing celebrity fare, with a charitable “Shop My Closet” marketplace and video series, which recently included Kyle Richards from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

The Santa Monica, Calif. start-up recently closed $1.1 million seed funding from a number of prominent investors, such as Founders Fund, Greycroft Partners, as well as former Microsoft exec — and early Pinterest angel — Hank Vigil and Mahalo President Jason Rapp.

Here’s a video interview I did with co-founder and CEO Rob Kramer about the interesting retail concept:

[ See post to watch video ]

Mahalo Lays Off 25 Percent for Shift to Apps From Video

Liz Gannes — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:37:25 +0000

Mahalo, the often-pivoted company run by well-known entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, laid off a quarter of its staff earlier this month.

Jason Calacanis

Mahalo President Jason Rapp downplayed the move in a phone interview with AllThingsD, saying it was part of a transition from cheaply churning out gaming videos in the style of Machinima.com to making educational iPad apps like Learn Guitar.

The layoffs eliminated 18 employees, leaving Mahalo with a headcount of 49, Rapp said. They happened on Oct. 5.

These aren’t the first layoffs for Mahalo. The company had 102 employees in February of this year before making layoffs spurred by Google’s “Panda” update, which downgraded content designed to rank highly in search results. Mahalo was even larger a few years ago when it focused on building its own search alternative, Rapp said.

Rapp noted that while Mahalo’s videos get 30 million views per month, they are not necessarily profitable based on YouTube ads. Educational iPad apps, by contrast, seem to be instant money makers, because users will pay for them. Mahalo plans to gear up to release one app per week, though it only has four out so far. It will also continue to make educational videos.

Mahalo, which is backed by Sequoia Capital, News Corp. and CBS, soon plans to move its headquarters to Culver City from Santa Monica, Rapp said, and it has $5 million of funding in the bank to fuel its shift to instructional content.

Calacanis photo by Flickr user eirikso.

Roll Camera! Jason Calacanis Makes a Video Push at Mahalo, and Wants You to Know About It

Peter Kafka — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:00:46 +0000

Jason Calacanis has overhauled his Mahalo start-up yet again. Just ask him.

Actually, no need to: The not-at-all bashful entrepreneur has been working hard to make sure we’re all aware of what he’s calling “the Mahalo 4.0 launch/pivot.”

So there will be no shortage of places to read about this today. And if you want to hear Calacanis pitch his pivot himself, you can do that too, via a livestream of the DLD conference, where he’s presenting right now.

So here’s what you need to know:

Calacanis, who launched Mahalo in 2007 as a “human-powered search engine,” then turned it into an “answers” site, is now trying to move deeper into the “how to” category dominated by Demand Media. Which just happens to be going public today in a very hot offering that will value the company at more than $1 billion. [Correction: Demand will start trading on Wednesday, January 26]
The most important part of the move is a new emphasis on video, which Mahalo is creating itself. That’s a different strategy from Demand’s, which relies on a computer to spit out editorial assignments, then hands them out to an army of freelancers.
Calacanis and Mahalo president Jason Rapp, who came on board last spring, have hired a team of 50 editors, who are now cranking out some 900 videos a week on topics like “How to Cook a Ham.” They plan to have a staff of 100 dedicated to videos by the end of the year.
Mahalo still relies primarily on Google ads for revenue, which the company won’t disclose. But last week Calacanis said incoming dollars from Google’s YouTube have shot up 9x in the last year.
Rapp says Mahalo still doesn’t need to raise any more money beyond its initial round, which brought in $20 million from investors like Sequoia, CBS and News Corp. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

If you missed Calacanis’s pitch this morning but still want to see people talking about his site, here’s a promo clip the company supplied. It features Calacanis’s employees, but not Calacanis, so it’s a lot less interesting. But you’ll get the idea.

Mahalo 4.0 from Mahalo.com on Vimeo.

Mahalo Taps Jason Rapp as President

John Paczkowski — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:31:56 +0000

Jason Rapp, the former New York Times (NYT) exec who was moved by IAC (IACI) last year from its M&A department to head up Gifts.com, left the company back in February without a word about where he was headed.

Turns out he’s found a new gig: President of Mahalo, a human-powered search engine backed by Sequoia Capital, News Corp. (NWS) and CBS (CBS).

In that capacity he’ll be scaling and commercializing the company’s business, which he said had a record search-advertising month in May. Rapp will be joining Mahalo’s board of directors as well.

Rapp Becomes CEO of Gifts.com

Kara Swisher — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:00:16 +0000

Jason Rapp, IAC’s SVP of mergers and acquisitions, will become CEO of Gifts.com, an IAC-created gifts recommendation engine.

Gifts.com President & CEO William Lynch, who founded the site for IAC (IACI), will transition to HSN full-time as its EVP of marketing and content. He had previously been managing the HSN.com site, while also running Gifts.com.

The site, which also offers gift cards that can be redeemed at over 100 merchants, is now a 40-person operation.

Rapp has been with IAC since 2006 and, prior to joining the company, worked at the New York Times Company.

After a contentious battle with large shareholder Liberty Media, IAC is in the midst of separating itself into five publicly traded companies, expected to be completed in the third quarter, spinning off HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International and LendingTree.

Left in the new IAC will be: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, Evite, Excite, IAC Advertising Solutions, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Vimeo, Webfetti and Zwinky, Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications, ReserveAmerica; Pronto, Gifts.com, Green.com, Primal Ventures, InstantAction, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, RushmoreDrive.com, Very Short List, and 23/6.

Also included will IAC’s current investments in Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.