might be able to incorporate Decide-style data features into its platform. The five-person company is lean, trying to stretch the $1.5 million it has raised from angel investors including Rudy Gadre and Chase Franklin a long way. Fridgen joins other Yabbly advisers Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger Networks, and Andy Liu, CEO of BuddyTV.
The company added several new features over the summer, such as Amazon product listings within product conversations; the ability to create top 10 lists of favorite products; and easier ways to invite Facebook friends to join Yabbly and to follow existing users.
Those last two could help address key challenges Yabbly is facing: One is the standard hill for every consumer startup to climb—attracting users. Another challenge for Q&A sites is getting people to ask good questions. Questions have to be somewhat nuanced to take best advantage of Yabbly’s community of answerers, and to get them engaged in providing helpful advice, Leung says. “What’s the best camera for mountain biking?” will yield a much better answer than simply, “What’s the best camera?”
“It’s like putting out a little RFP,” he says.
With holiday shopping upon us—Nordstrom’s blessed it’s-not-Christmas-until-after-Thanksgiving policy notwithstanding—this will be a big season for Yabbly to prove its value to consumers.
Meanwhile, Fridgen says he and the Decide team of “data junkies” are right where they want to be inside San Jose, CA-based eBay.
“We are building some really interesting, innovative tools for the 25 million sellers on eBay who create over 400 million listings in the marketplace,” he says.
Specifically, they’re applying the Decide technology and know-how to help eBay sellers choose between an auction or fixed-price sale, set prices, and make real-time listing modifications to help them be more successful, Fridgen says.
I told Fridgen I was a little sad to see the acquisition of Decide, which I’d described as “about as Seattle as it gets right now in tech.” The company had that Oren Etzioni pedigree of being really useful by leveling the information playing field between consumers and companies. It was sometimes described as a Consumer Reports updated for the modern Web. I used it, in conjunction with Consumer Reports, to help pick out a new washer and dryer earlier this year.
He says Decide, having raised an additional $8 million this spring from Vulcan Capital, and existing investors Madrona and Maveron, “had quite a bit of runway,” good growth, and customers willing to pay for its ad-free, subscription service. Still, Fridgen says, “it takes time and money to build a scalable consumer audience.”
“The question was, can we have more immediate impact on a much larger scale, and have a positive outcome for our team and investors through this partnership with eBay? And the answer was, ‘Yes,'” he says.
