Seth W. Godin is an American author and former
dot com business executive.
Background
After leaving
Spinnaker
A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually n ...
in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment in New York City.
He then met
Mark Hurst and founded Yoyodyne (named in jest after the fictional
Yoyodyne in ''
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension''). After a few years, Godin sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne, where he promoted the concept of
permission marketing.
Business ventures
Yoyodyne, launched in 1995, used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August 1996,
Flatiron Partners
Fred Wilson (born August 20, 1961) is an American businessman, venture capitalist and blogger. Wilson is the co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm with investments in Web 2.0 companies such as Twitte ...
invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake.
At Yoyodyne, Godin published ''Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers''. In 1998, he sold Yoyodyne to
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
for about $30 million
[Yahoo Acquiring Yoyodyne]
''Wired.com
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...
''. October 12, 1998. and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing.
In March 2006, Godin launched
Squidoo. In July 2008, Squidoo was one of the 500 most visited sites in the world. By 2014, it was no longer considered financially viable and was sold to
HubPages.
Writing
Godin is the author of many books. ''Free Prize Inside'' was a ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' Business Book of the Year in 2004,
["] while ''
Purple Cow
"Purple Cow" is a short nonsense poem by American writer Gelett Burgess. It was first published in 1895.
Poem
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Publication history
Th ...
'' sold over 150,000 copies in more than 23 print runs in its first two years.
["...reports that the two-year-old title has more than 150,000 copies in print after 23 printings"] ''
The Dip'' was a ''
Business Week
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'' and ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' bestseller; ''Business Week'' also named ''Linchpin'' among its "20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business" on November 13, 2015.
In June 2013, Godin raised more than $250,000 from readers with a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...
campaign, which in turn secured him a book contract with his publisher for his book "The Icarus Deception."
Godin was inducted into the American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame in 2018.
Godin has a chapter giving advice in
Tim Ferriss' book ''
Tools of Titans''.
Blog
Seth Godin's blog was named by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' among its 25 best blogs of 2009.
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* – Detailing the idea of
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Personal life
Godin and his wife Helene live in
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
Hastings-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in the state of New Yor ...
, with their two sons.
Seth Godin on Stepping Up and Making it Happen
/ref>
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godin, Seth
Living people
American male bloggers
American bloggers
American business theorists
Advertising theorists
Marketing people
Marketing theorists
American marketing people
People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
Writers from Mount Vernon, New York
Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni
Tufts University alumni
Tufts University School of Engineering alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)