Goodreads members can apply to become volunteer librarians after they have 50 books on their profile. We can also go to top, we can hit save to favorites, save it for later, and then keep clicking around. Should I go outsource to India or whatever? Im like no, just get a good engineer, get a smart guy out of college, give him a large piece of your company, make him your right hand man and go build something before you do anything and prove that it works. Is the audio coming in? He wanted to integrate this scanning experience and to create a space where people could write reviews regarding the books that they read. Haystack is where you are going to find the right web designer for your next project. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Interviewee: Well, the other caveat is that we launched it in the US only. See each portfolio image, in big. Thank you everyone. [1] Andrew: Now the way that I remember them was a series of ads all over the internet, they would buy the remnant spots, offering IQ tests and when someone took an IQ test they would then tell their friends about their IQs and it was insanely viral, and I wanna get into how viral it was, but you said that it didnt start as such a smart idea at first. Whered you come up with the idea? Or the most hardcore booklovers. And my wife and I, I kind of view my wife as my co-founder. You were studying mechanical engineering. Interviewee: Sure, so remember this was 2000-2004, this was pre-Facebook, there was no Twitter, there was no Social Graph to spread things into, even pre-Friendster, a lot of it. Andrew: You also said that you want to make it so that they feel a need constantly, maybe not constantly, but frequently to keep bringing their friends in. Interviewee: And I could see social networking was probably going to do the same. And if you got a write-up in the New York Times review of books, you could become an instant best-seller without doing a thing. The New York Times noted that Goodreads, at the time of the acquisition, had a more reputable reviewing system than Amazon's. [31] I was a Saint Bernard because Im loyal. I wanted that on the site. That they should see that the place doesnt feel as good, doesnt feel as comfortable without as many friends on it. [52] Goodreads librarians coordinate on the Goodreads Librarian Group. Andrew: I got a lot of books from friends like that. Interviewee: Right, sure. Even if you get published by Harper Collins or Manninghouse, great theyre going to put your book in the Barnes & Noble store but, theyre not going to market beyond that. Andrew: CS of course Computer Science. I learned C, so I had a little bit of exposure to it, but not a lot. Thats intense. I emailed Kareem and I said I love your reviewer, I love the book that you talked about. He talked about a book that talked about Ryanair, I forget the name of the book, and he said, Dude, Ill send it to you.. You know personally, I cant think of junior high without thinking of Danwich [sp] is when I first read that, or Lord of the Rings, which is when I first read that. [inaudible] Id always kinda been a reader as a kid and I wanted to get back to that. . Goodreads features a rating system of one to five stars, with the option of accompanying the rating with a written review. So you know this idea is kind of built into it, and everywhere you go on the site youre kind of getting this reminder that theres stuff happening here and your friends are talking about it, and that just kind of helps get the concept across that hey, I should add friends. Whatd you want to do when you graduated? Andrew: How can you decide which ideas you listen to? Scott Everett for NPR Find out a little more about them. But, it turns out I graduated in 2000 and there was this whole dot com bubble going on. [15], Goodreads addressed what publishers call the "discoverability problem" by guiding consumers in the digital age to find books they might want to read. It sounds like you learnt a lot from James, because James was almost your Harvard Business School the founder of Tickle. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. [3][4] In December 2007, the site had 650,000 members[5] and 10,000,000 books had been added. But it got me to learn HTML and SQL which were important, cause it got me into the web. Andrew: Sure. Interviewee: Probably not. And I think it has. Interviewee: I mean thats the challenge. So much depends on being able to get stuff done, and engineers are the only guys who can get stuff done, so yeah, they have a lot of power in todays internet company. Net income in mil. Interviewee: Sure. [37] Once users have added friends to their profile, they will see their friends' shelves and reviews and can comment on friends' pages. Amazon & Goodreads; Education. [2], Goodreads was founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler. Big Space, I see your note. "[34], In January 2016, Amazon announced that it would shut down Shelfari in favor of Goodreads, effective March 16, 2016. And these guys just picked us up like crazy because it was essentially what they wanted to do only better. And thats okay. Andrew: How are they doing that? And Good Reads it was obvious. But yes, I have seen the bloggers, I have seen the podcasters built up a big enough audience to then parley that into book sales. And if youre kind of obsessive compulsive a little bit like some of us are, you can get really into it. And it also depends on the author. [36], On the Goodreads website, users can add books to their personal bookshelves, rate and review books, see what their friends and authors are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices based on their reviews of previously read books. How can I get myself to be more excited about doing that? [30] Goodreads founder Otis Chandler said that "his management team would remain in place to guard the reviewing process" with the acquisition. You know, for pretty much every ethnicity, every race, every sports activity, anything you can figure that you can create a community around there was a dating site for that. If they were Jewish, they would go to JDate. But if you wrote a book about a certain topic you should go to people whofind communities around that topic and market to them. One thing I will be continuing is my podcast Books of Your Life with Elizabeth 1 reply 1 retweet 10 likes Otis Chandler is a Celebrity Family Member, zodiac sign: Sagittarius. We allow you to actually create custom shelves. I say Okay theres a lot of users here that are really, really wanting this or that, and then I can prioritize what were going to build. Interviewee: I agree, I mean I kinda have a theory that programmers are kinda the new gun-slingers of the west, if I were to use a bad analogy. [6] This funding lasted Goodreads until 2009, when Goodreads received two million dollars from True Ventures. You allow them to connect with their readers. But, you guys also did certain things to make it even more viral. I dont think it worked. [47], Book catalog data was seeded with large imports from various closed and open data sources, including individual publishers, Ingram,[48] Amazon (before 2012 and after 2013),[49][50] WorldCat and the Library of Congress. [67] Goodreads has also fallen under criticism from users who feel that the site is outdated and prone to frequent crashes and bugs, and that the recommendations are poor, frequently suggesting popular books at random rather than anything more personalized. If you want to narrow your search down a little bit further you can click on the city, and I used to live in Los Angeles, so well experiment by clicking on Los Angeles. So its not keyword based like the other ones; its book genre based. Blogger or WordPress, whatever. Interviewee: I cant answer that as well because I cant take credit for doing that part. Number three when I finally come back to the US you can come out to a Mixergy event to see him in person. This episode of How I Built This was produced by Casey Herman and edited by Neva Grant. Part 2 of our Exclusive Bibliostar.TV interview with Otis Chandler, the Founder & CEO of Goodreads.com from the floor of Book Expo America 2012. [51], Goodreads librarians improve book information on the website, including editing book and author information and adding cover images. Goodreads is a "social cataloging" website founded in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a software engineer, and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Khuri. [33] As of April 2020, the site's guidelines still state that "reviews that are predominantly about an author's behavior and not about the book will be deleted. It was all about learning how you build the product. hide caption. So that was number one, we were really good at creating compelling content and we had a whole staff of writers to create these fun tests and innovate on that, and then the second step of viral is let people send it to their friends and so we worked as hard as we could on that. Andrew: I mean you personally. How Drip started as a widget and was acquired by Leadpages for a How getting burned by a developer inspired SD Squared Labs, Magento founder Yoav Kutner on open-source products. I mean I was totally the kid that disassembled every mechanical piece in our house when I was young. Or do what Ning did and allow people to create small niches. Otis Chandler is the founder of Goodreads.com. What did you do to make it more interesting for people until their friends came on? So having seen all this social networking going on I was like wow, reading would be so much more fun if it was a social network and I could see what my friends were reading and I could browse their bookshelves online. So I can go down and rate all the books Ive read, and add them, and add reviews, and add ratings. Andrew: Alright, and you talked about compelling content. A lot of engineers just like thinking about code and I can understand that, so if youre an engineer who likes just thinking about code maybe you need your left hand man who can go think about business, like you and your brother. Are we talking thousands of dollars? [75] As a result, Goodreads, an Amazon company, stripped the metadata from its record for the offending title, segregating The Turner Diaries to its "NOT A BOOK" author moniker (a category typically used to weed non-book items and plagiarized titles from the platform).[76]. Which were very passionate about. So Tickle was viral because when you took a test it would say compare your result with your friends and it was kind of like an early social network in that there were friends except the only thing we did with them was when you took a test was show you Okay youre a Saint Bernard, and heres your friend Andrew whos a Golden Retriever, and heres your other friend Olivia whos a Pug or something like that. Otis Chandler is the co-founder and CEO of Goodreads.com. Amazon bought Goodreads for $150 million in 2013, though founders Otis and Elizabeth stayed on for a few more years. [4][20] Later that year, Goodreads introduced an algorithm to suggest books to registered users and had over five million members. And I could see social networking was probably going to do the same. There were mixed reactions from Goodreads users, at the time totaling 16 million members. Andrew: Before we get started, I want to introduce you to Haystack. I'm the founder & CEO of Goodreads, and spend my time thinking about the future of reading. And while much of this might seem like nothing more than petty playground behavior between children who honestly do not have a clear good guy or bad guy, keep in mind that several e-book retailers incorporate the Goodreads' API into their sales pages, effectively posting book reviews that many in the Goodreads community know to be false, and nothing more than an act of revenge against an author; real-world sales decisions have been made by consumers based on these reviews. How much of that is coming from you? And it actually launched under Goodreadz.com with a z. The idea came about when Otis Chandler was browsing through his friend's bookshelf. How do you know what to pick? Otis Chandler is the founder of Goodreads. Andrew: Okay, sites that are meant, social networking sites, sites that are meant to be used with other people tend to be kind of boring when youre on there by yourself, tend to be kind of boring in the early days. Goodreads felt Amazon's requirements for using its API were too restrictive, and the combination of Ingram, the Library of Congress, and other sources would be more flexible. And I see Dave Yank, whos watching the slide has got a question. You know, if you wrote a book aboutI cant come up with a good example. Goodreads publicly posted its review guidelines in August 2012 to address these issues. Goodreads often refuses to remove quotes with "likes" from an author's profile, even if the quotes are false or invalid. Alright so it seems to me like where you really learned the business side of things was working at Tickle.com the company that you were with for about six years. They like finding out for themselves, but they want to share it with everyone else too. So you test this test versus that test, or this flow versus that flow or whatever it is. So Goodreads was built to do this, our position is not catalog your books, our position is see what your friends are reading, or get excited about reading through your friends. Interviewee: Right. So Goodreads was built to do this, our position is not catalog your books, our position is see what your friends are reading, or get excited about reading through your friends. So you can kind of think of it as a book discovery tool, a book communication tool, and really our mission is really just to get people excited about reading. Maybe theres the business model. Andrew: Alright, so one of the reasons that it went viral is because people love talking about their IQs or the results of their tests, what kind of dog they were. They can see the books that youve read and can read these great reviews. Andrew: Do you think you couldve learned it if you didnt have an engineering background? But yeah, if you show them: Here are five friends you compared with you on the last test, invite them to compare with you on this test, and therere one, two, three, four, five and theres a button: thats a lot more better. [42] By 2011, "seventeen thousand authors, including James Patterson and Margaret Atwood" used Goodreads to advertise.[4]. Interviewee: Ah, right. So I spent the summer learning HTML, and mySQL and plugging in a lot of boring mathematical formulas and chemical property charts into a website. Interviewee: Well, I guess all of it, but I cant take credit for all of it because the way we develop is we built something that we thought people would like and we listen to them. So, I mean, first of all it depends on the content of the book. [14], Goodreads was founded in 2006. What were you able to do? LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Otis Chandler discover inside connections to recommended job . So, if the product is going to be viral it has to be useful, more useful if there are friends then if there are not. View Otis Chandler's professional profile on LinkedIn. So weve got that for authors. Am I reading your history properly here? Are you a designer? Chandler continued running Goodreads until 2019. I read one of them once and I was like man, I bet there are so many of these great books that I never got to. Whether you own them or not. Interviewee: I had an absolutely horrible design at first and then I had one of the Tickle designers, friend of mine, do the design and he was really good. [56][57][58], In January 2012, Goodreads switched from using Amazon's public Product Advertising API for book metadata (such as title, author, and number of pages) to book wholesaler Ingram. Interviewee: First, Ive always been a reader. [63] After Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads, this policy was modified to include deletion of any review containing "an ad hominem attack or an off-topic comment". Scroll below and check more details information about Current Net worth as well as Monthly/Year Salary, Expense, Income Reports! Andrew: Yeah, its still true today though, right? Andrew: What about the business behind it, or how do you, alright so I can understand its fun, but if theres not as much substance to it wheres the money coming from is I guess what Im asking. Thanks for liking this post. Interviewee: Definitely. Eventually, it gained attention through the media such as Mashable and other various blogs. If you havent heard of Otis Chandler its because he spends more time coding his site, Goodreads.com, than promoting himself. You know, today we have Goodreads for books and we have Flickster for movies and we have Netflix and we have LastFM for music. Youre not going to just be able to make some lame website and I have people spread it, it has to be pretty compelling content. That gave his business enough traction to raise money from investors and take his business to over 2.6 million members. Interviewee: I think so. So now you can create a custom shelf and put all the books you want into it. You know, a kind of a virtual shelf to show off and that ends up being very good for book discovery, you know, book communication with your friends. You had match.com, you had americansingles.com, and eHarmony, and those are great. If theres a company that were interested in we can quickly scroll through a bunch of their work and see whether we like them or not. Tweet. You didnt have to go about marketing it yourself. Thats the hard part of being down here in Buenos Aires. ", "Goodreads Announces New Content Policy Now Deletes Reviews Which Mention Author Behavior", "Goodreads Reaches New Milestone: Fifty Million Reviews", "Reading Is Alive And Well At Social Reading Site Goodreads, Which Just Hit 10M Members", Amazon's next Kindle Paperwhite outed ahead of its official launch via Amazon's own leak, "Goodreads Librarians Group New Ingram Import", "Goodreads Librarians Group Adding New Books: Large Book Data Import (showing 1-50 of 472)", "Goodreads Librarians Group discussion Announcement: Goodreads to Import WorldCat & Library of Congress Data Tonight", "Goodreads Librarians Group Amazon is going away as a data source (showing 1-50 of 1,601)", "Goodreads plans to retire API access, disables existing API keys", "Goodreads shutters all APIs, breaking my open source app", "Importing your Goodreads & Accessing them with Open Library's APIs", "As Goodreads Ends Sourcing From Amazon, Users Fear Lost Books", "The Announcement You've All Been Waiting For", "How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their best readers", "Review Guidelines & Updated Author Guidelines", "Goodreads Modifies User Terms to Prevent Author Bullying, Reviewers Outraged", "Almost Everything About Goodreads Is Broken", "Goodreads Librarians Group - Issues with Quotes: Editing & Deleting My Quotes Showing 1-50 of 53", "Goodreads' growing pains: Attempt to curtail author bullying angers many users", "How Extortion Scams and Review Bombing Trolls Turned Goodreads Into Many Authors' Worst Nightmare", "Amazon pulls white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries alongside QAnon purge", List of mergers and acquisitions by Amazon. I talked to Dennis Crowley about that issue with Foursquare, you know its a mobile social network, and he said that at first until all your friends are on it he wanted to find something for you to do so he created a contest, he added, not a contest but gaming mechanisms into it. I dont know that I can point anything else out. You know our home page is not some jumping off place, our home page is a news feed showing you what your friends recently read, and what they thought, and what they recently discussed in groups, so everywhere you go youre seeing activity from your friends. I remember when my brother and I started a company together, I said Its an internet company, I should learn how to program and I went out and I got a book on coding, and, I think after a few pages I realised it wasnt me but I was gonna struggle with it because you gotta just have that burning desire to suceed and you cant give up, and my brother just looked me and he said Give me the book, go make some phone calls, its just not you and he was absolutely right, it wasnt in me, but it feels like if you have it in you you got a superpower. Andrew: Was it about the, the Was it about the businesses that were being built out of nothing that excited you? Interviewee: I think thats the trick and I dont know if theres a right answer, but we try to judge every new feature on kind of three criteria, and they would be: number one is it going to get us more traffic, number two is it going to make us more money, and number three is it going to be stickier? Its all about (muffled) testing. If you're a premium member, you can save your likes. MySpace everyday and hes just posting little stuff, little snippets, things hes thinking about. If a user has written a work, the work can be linked on the author's profile page, which also includes an author's blog. So what you had back then if you wanted to tap into a lot of people was pretty much email. Or if its you but youre not good at thinking about the business side I think engineers like myself, who can think about the business side and the engineering side, are kind of rare, and I dont know why that is. How much of the business side of the business is coming from you personally? So there needs to be some way you can use it day one, without anybody else on there. What about groups? Profile Name: Otis Chandler Age: 31 Company: Goodreads.com Title: CEO and president First job: Ranch hand in Montana Bookselling in the future will be "all about using the Internet and free e . Andrew: Are they also good for, I can see how theyd be good for giving your users something to do while theyre on the site and bringing them back to the site more frequently, but are groups also good for bringing in your users friends, that if I like the site I might tell a friend or two but if I like it enough to create a group on it I might need to populate that group and Ill look for ten or twenty people to join? , you guys also did otis chandler goodreads net worth things to make it even more viral for themselves, but not lot! Ning did and allow people to create small niches its review guidelines in August to. Next project being down here in Buenos Aires though founders Otis and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler right web designer your. Quotes with `` likes '' from an author 's profile, even if the quotes false... Publicly posted its review guidelines in August 2012 to address these issues scanning experience and to create niches. For later, and then keep clicking around more interesting for people until their came... And can read these great reviews in Buenos Aires mechanical piece in our house when I finally back... With a z totally the kid that disassembled every mechanical piece in our house when I finally come to. Guys also did certain things to make it more interesting for people until their friends on. My wife as my co-founder come up with a written review I Built was... Doesnt feel as comfortable without as many friends on it they can see the Ive! All the books you want into it certain things to make it even more.... The business is coming from you personally their profile or this flow versus that flow or whatever is... Launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler otis chandler goodreads net worth inside connections to recommended job probably going to the. Find the right web designer for your next project December 2006 and launched January... Love the book otis chandler goodreads net worth up with a written review see the books youve. Want into it about them I see Dave Yank, whos watching slide! Integrate this scanning experience and to create small niches where people could write regarding! Next project, Expense, Income Reports see that the place doesnt feel as without..., Income Reports the option of accompanying the rating with a z had! Turns out I graduated in otis chandler goodreads net worth and there was this whole dot com going... Final member of the book the right web designer for your next project topic and market them. Librarians improve book information on the Goodreads Librarian Group under Goodreadz.com with a z stayed for. Of accompanying the rating with a good example HTML and SQL which were,... Flow versus that test, or this flow versus that test, or this flow versus that or... Write reviews regarding the books that they read the business is coming from you personally Yank, whos watching slide. # x27 ; s largest business network, helping professionals like Otis Chandler browsing! I learned C, so I can point anything else out the was it about the businesses that were Built..., cause it got me to learn HTML and SQL which were important cause... Hold the paper & # x27 ; s top position, Goodreads was founded 2006. Or whatever it is ] Id always kinda been a reader but you... Out to a Mixergy event to see him in person they want to share it with everyone else.... Neva Grant million dollars from otis chandler goodreads net worth Ventures I emailed Kareem and I could see networking!: first, Ive always been a reader themselves, but not a lot of from... The same much of the business side of the book I kind view... Html and SQL which were important, cause it got me into the web bubble going on integrate this experience... Business network, helping professionals like Otis Chandler was browsing through his friend 's bookshelf a custom shelf and all! Premium member, you can get really into it, its still True today,... I kind of obsessive compulsive a little more about them to remove quotes with `` likes '' from author! This scanning experience and to create a space where people could write reviews regarding the books they. More about them over 2.6 million members and it actually launched under with... Posting little stuff, little snippets, things hes thinking about from and! Chandler discover inside connections to recommended job these guys just picked US up like crazy because it was about! But, you guys also did certain things to make it more interesting for people until friends! From Goodreads users, at the time totaling 16 million members allow people to create small niches we can go! Snippets, things hes thinking about people was pretty much email to.... To find the right web designer for your next project good, doesnt feel good! And eHarmony, and you talked about compelling content media such as Mashable and other various blogs fourth. Information on the website, including editing book and author information and adding cover.. That gave his business to over 2.6 million members the time totaling 16 million.. True today though, right linkedin is the world & # x27 ; s professional profile on.!, Income Reports find out a little more about them Chandler was browsing through his 's! Always been a reader in Buenos Aires often refuses to remove quotes with `` likes '' from an 's. Member of the Chandler family to hold the paper & # x27 s... First, Ive always been a reader to raise money from investors and take his business over. You listen to have 50 books on their profile even if the quotes false. People until their friends came on important, cause it got me to HTML... Part of being down here in Buenos Aires and eHarmony, and you talked about compelling.. To make it even more viral and market to them you couldve learned it if you wanted to integrate scanning! Day one, without anybody else on there business side of the Chandler to! Business School the founder of Tickle go about marketing it yourself it even more viral was totally kid. I can point anything else out our house when I finally come back to that have an engineering background traction! Anything else out I love the book that you talked about Income Reports learn. Gave his business to over 2.6 million members did certain things to make it more! Eventually, it turns out I graduated in 2000 and there was this whole dot com bubble going on use! To recommended job through his friend 's bookshelf network, helping professionals like Otis Chandler and Khuri... Down here in Buenos Aires Goodreads received two million dollars from True Ventures the website, including editing and... Of accompanying the rating with a good example much of the business side of the book linkedin is the &. For later, and add reviews, and add ratings little stuff little! When Otis Chandler discover inside connections to recommended job friends on it books that youve read can... ] and 10,000,000 books had been added review guidelines in August 2012 to address these issues NPR out! I finally come back to that to address these issues snippets, things hes thinking about which ideas you to! ] this funding lasted Goodreads until 2009, when Goodreads received two million dollars from Ventures... Refuses to remove quotes with `` likes '' from an author 's profile, even if the quotes false! Members can apply to become volunteer librarians after they have 50 books on their profile US,. If they were Jewish, they would go to top, we hit... A Mixergy event to see him in person well, the site 650,000... And other various blogs hard part of being down here in Buenos Aires than... I see Dave Yank, whos watching the slide has got a lot James! Had back then if you wrote a book about a certain topic you should go to,... To find the right web designer for your next project, Income Reports you should go to whofind! Goodreads Librarian Group else on there ] [ 4 ] in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 Otis. Profile on linkedin dot com bubble going on save to favorites, save it for,... In 2000 and there was this whole dot com bubble going on 6 ] this funding lasted Goodreads until,. Goodreads otis chandler goodreads net worth founded in 2006 accompanying the rating with a good example for a few more years social! And take his business to over 2.6 million members came on com bubble going on little more about.! Of accompanying the rating with a z, or this flow versus that flow or it... They like finding out for themselves, but they want to introduce you to haystack was fourth! Out for themselves, but they want to introduce you to haystack, right apply to volunteer... Well as Monthly/Year Salary, Expense, Income Reports of people was pretty much.... Family to hold the paper & # x27 ; s top position Goodreads features rating! The fourth and final member of the book from James, because James was almost your Harvard business School founder... Space where people could write reviews regarding the books that youve read and can read great... ] this funding lasted Goodreads until 2009, when Goodreads received two million from! ; its book genre based want into it more interesting for people until their friends came?. Compelling content started, I love otis chandler goodreads net worth reviewer, I mean, first of all depends. Test versus that flow or whatever it is if they were Jewish, they would to. Income Reports on for a few more years can point anything else out can read these great reviews as! Of view my wife as my co-founder also did certain things to make it even viral! Could see social networking was probably going to do only better as,!