After focusing on selling custom-made social network software for the past five years, a Silver Lake company is launching two services its co-founder hopes will change how people manage their online communities and social media conversations.
SocialEngine.net has sold its software to more than 9,000 customers including hobbyists, schools, professional organizations and people who want to build specific niche communities online.
Cupertino’s Apple Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. in Redwood City use the software to build themed online communities for educators and gamers, respectively. Among the company’s other customers, the most popular types of communities center on pets, parenting, traveling and dating. The software is available for as little as $299 per site, and offers the basic essentials to quickly build a community website for those who don’t have the time or skills to do it themselves.
“It’s a build or buy question,” said Alex Benzer, SocialEngine co-founder and chief executive. “The overall vision for our company is to allow people and brands to build and manage and grow amazing online communities.”
But now, Benzer wants to move the company into the consumer market. One new site, FanMix, is geared toward social media professionals, collecting online accounts into one e-mail inbox. The service is a one-stop view of a person’s conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs.
The other new site will also be called SocialEngine, which will focus on community building and themed content sharing.
The company’s traditional function of software sales will be called SocialEngine PHP.
FanMix, which is built for use with Google Inc.’s Gmail, is in its testing period. The service will offer one account free but a subscription will be required for multiple accounts.
“Ultimately that’s the future of this company: a migration toward the subscription model,” Benzer, 27, said. “FanMix is sort of the management and growth component, and SocialEngine is the build-create component.”
The company had revenue of $1.4 million last year.
Jacquie Phillips, co-founder and head of product at Santa Monica-based social activity site Lifecrowd, said FanMix has tremendous potential for social media professionals handling multiple accounts.
“If all of those social conversations and online activities are coming together in once place, it’s very useful, very powerful,” said Phillips, a former business product manager at Menlo Park-based Google.
But Chris Winfield, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Tampa, Fla., online marketing agency BlueGlass, questions whether enough people will sign up.
“There’s constantly new social networks coming up,” Winfield said. The site can have “all of the coolest features,” but it’s still “hard to get your customers to have another log in.”
Adoption challenges
Benzer admitted to concern about adoption, but said he’s confident his service will provide enough incentives to make its use worthwhile.
SocialEngine was co-founded in 2007 by Benzer and Charlotte Genevier. While at the University of Redlands, the duo sold a blogging community site that they started and used the money to launch SocialEngine. This led them to the TechStars accelerator program in Boulder, Colo. Upon completion, Genevier stayed in Boulder to nurture investor relationships and run the technical side; Benzer moved the company to Pasadena to focus on business development. With SocialEngine growing, Benzer relocated the company’s headquarters to a bigger space in Silver Lake four months ago.
Although media and industry attention is largely focused on the beach cities, Benzer, a native of Pasadena, sees Silver Lake as an up-and-coming, untapped tech sector.
“We didn’t just set this up because I live here,” he explained. “I think there’s incredible talent out here and there’s a real need for a hub. That’s what we’ve done here.”
SocialEngine’s offices are built on interaction and reflect Benzer’s laid-back approach to management. There’s a pingpong table, a golden retriever named Barkley, and frequent mixers and events. The offices are also home to a half-dozen other startups with two or three employees each. Benzer opened his doors to local entrepreneurs who work rent free side by side with his SocialEngine’s nine on-site employees. Genevier and another employee are in Boulder.
It looks and feels like an accelerator, except Benzer has no vested interest in his “tenants.” Instead, he offers a free home on L.A.’s east side to his fellow entrepreneurs in the hopes of fostering a collaborative environment of startup founders.
“The main goal is to have people around that I can learn from,” Benzer said. “I’m just trying to be a better CEO; that’s my No. 1. My No. 2 is recruiting. If I can develop at a critical mass out here, and have events people want to come to, have startups, build a network out here, it really helps me recruit. And recruiting is the hardest thing.”
