One of the scariest what-ifs for an online company is “What if Google comes into our market and competes with us?”

Clicky, a real-time analytics company run by just 2 people, has been competing with Google since it launched. Noah Merritt, the company’s co-founder, says the company did over $500,000 in revenue last year, with a 60% margin. And the business continues to grow…

Clark Benson found a clever way to grow his dating site, eCRUSH. He had users send anonymous email to people they had crushes on. The recipients of those emails would enter the email addresses of the people they had crushes on. If two people match, eCRUSH helped them connect. The scheme generated hundreds of thousands [...]

This is the story of the woman who launched one of the first online dating sites, back when most people thought the whole concept of online dating was weird. Fran Maier launched Match.com, helped change that perception and built what became one of the most recognized online brands.

Then the company was taken away from her. It was …

Sandy Jen and her friends tried two previous ideas, but neither one felt right. Then they hit on a vision to make instant messaging services like AOL’s AIM accessible on a web page — instead of via a download. It felt so right that Sandy quit her job to pursue it full time. Her co-founder’s credit card bankrolled the idea and they were off.

In this interview you’ll hear…

I remember Katrina Garnett being a big source of conversation in the tech industry during the 90′s. As the founder of CrossWorlds Software, she somehow managed to keep getting the industry spotlight on herself and on her startup. When she wore a black dress in one her company’s ads it probably became the only time [...]

Unlike the other ideas they were kicking around, Rashmi Sinha knew SlideShare was going to be a hit. She knew it as soon as her cofounder (and husband) pitched it to her. At conferences they noticed there wasn’t an easy way for presenters to share their PowerPoint presentations online. So why not build a site that makes sharing presentations as easy as sharing photos and videos?

It was a simple idea with an obvious need. But…

“We just clicked,” is an answer that comes up repeatedly in my interviews when I ask people about why they do business together. It’s amazing how many business decisions are made on a feeling that people have about each other.

So I invited Ori Brafman, author of the new book “Click,” to…

If you saw the movie 40-Year-Old Virgin, then you know about the kind of eBay drop off store Trevor Ginn worked for. It was the sort of place where people dropped off their junk and hoped it would sell on eBay. It wasn’t very satisfying, but it helped Trevor spot his opportunity….

Spend a few minutes listening to Jon Staenberg in this interview and see if you’re not ready to go out and invent the future. He has a contagious energy.

The other thing you’ll hear in this interview is how he…

Myplay was the first company Doug Camplejohn launched. It took on the mighty music industry, but in the end it was a friend who did it the most damage. In this interview, you’ll hear him explain how one mistake in the contract with AOL kept him from selling his business when he wanted to. (Before you negotiate a contract, make sure to listen to that section.)

His next startup was…

I met Jim Lanzone over 10 years ago and I was sure he would quickly IPO his startup, eTour, which was a web discovery site similar to Stumbleupon. He raised over $50 million in funding, had top backers and generated a lot of buzz.

Then the internet went through what past Mixergy interviewees called a “nuclear winter,” and the company lost its stability. I watched others disappear from the industry, but Jim ended up…

Before launching his mobile startup, Ellipsus Systems, Rikard Kjellberg spent most of his adult life as an employee of Swedish Space Corporation and a company it spun off. But in the late 90s, he saw the opportunity for mobile apps, so he left the corporate world to pursue it. It was a tough economic climate for a startup and his first approach was off, but he and his cofounder adjusted, found the right partners and sold it for over $17 million.