They sailed. They saw. They innovated. The lead heard 'round the world.
An idea on its own quickly evaporates like a warm breath on a winter day. It is the people that entrain to an idea with a common purpose and passion that make an idea powerful.
When Tom Houge and Jeff Lucas set out to circumnavigate the world on University of Virginia's Semester at Sea, they did not expect to spark the world's next global social networking revolution.
The spark that is Fipeo lit with Tom in room 3055 of the MV Explorer and caught fire with Jeff in The Main Dining Hall on Deck 5.
Fipeo, led by Houge & Lucas, has squared off against Airtime, led by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. For those who don't already know, the Sean/Shawn duo is known for their time creating Napster and Parker is also known for his time at Facebook (as featured in The Social Network) as well as his role at Spotify.
Airtime recently posted pictures of their lavish San Francisco digs, complete with a throne, online. More evidence of the hubris that was demonstrated when Sean Parker, a multi-billionaire called the Picasso of business by Forbes, discussed his shenanigans at Le Web in France.
Parker told the audience how he held up a 6 foot long novelty check made out from Sean Parker to Airtime for $15,000,000 at the end of each investment meeting and arrogantly said, “By the way guys… If you don't invest, I will.”
Airtime has received millions in funding from Founders Fund, Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner, Ron Conway, Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, will.i.am, Scott Braun, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
Parker and Fanning first crossed paths working for a company that would be fraught with legal issues. Houge and Lucas, 21 and 22 respectively (same ages of Sergey Brin and Larry Page at meeting), met while circumnavigating the globe on Semester at Sea.
There is a saying that goes, “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”
I hope that the amateurs at Fipeo will build something worthy of the MV Explorer, the ship that gave birth to Fipeo.
Join the movement at Fipeo.com
By: Kobi Ansong ([email protected])
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