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(L to R) Jason Zuccari, Chris Bauernshub, Alan Zuccari,
Arvind Dixit
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*This Is A Re-posting Of An Article That I Wrote Over A Year
Ago For Examiner.Com. I own the work. Enjoy and please feel welcome to leave as many comments as
you’d like about either website.
On May 9, 2013 the Pop Culture Trends
Examiner had the opportunity to interview CEO and founder, Arvind “Avi” Dixit,
of Bubblews.com. You may not have heard of the website Bubblews.com, but
chances are that you will soon. With a launch in Sep. 2012, by 25-year-old,
Avi, Bubblews.com has experienced a massive growth of 6 million monthly
visitors since its launch, an almost unheard expansion for a startup company
that is a mere 9 months old. With a revolutionary concept to share ad revenue
with its users, Bubblews.com very well may be the next big player in the social
networking game.
What is Bubblews.com? A simple descriptive
of Bubblews is that it’s like Facebook for bloggers. It’s a place where people
around the globe can share their musings and exchange pleasantries, but they
actually share in the ad revenue generated by Bubblews.com. Having hopped on
the site to check out the Bubblews.com “philosophy,” as the founder likes to
refer to it, I had to find out about the brains behind this revolutionary
concept for bloggers. Intelligent and engaging, Avi Dixit is not what one would
expect from the CEO of an up and coming social blogging network. So check out
the interview and the man with a plan to change the way that the world
exchanges information.
PCTE: What is your business
background? If you attended university, where and what did you study?
Avi: I attended West Virginia
University and received a Bachelor in Biology. It sounds strange that a
scientist would turn 180 degrees and become an entrepreneur, but to be honest,
I think having studied Biology helps me more in business. Biology is all about
gathering knowledge and understanding processes. Not just the start and finish,
but the many steps it takes to get to your end goal. Science also trains you to
come up with hypothesis and create several studies, or “experiments” to
validate the concept. You see this a lot with our business practices within
Bubblews. We create things on a smaller scale, test them out and then work to
fully develop and implement these features into our ecosystem. It takes a
little bit longer, but we feel it is the best way to ensure you are delivering
as close to perfection as possible. I think the fundamentals of entrepreneurial
business are as simple as having the confidence in what you believe in and
making sure you execute properly. Ideas are just ideas unless you can execute
them properly and fortunately for me, biology/science, has trained me to make
as little mistakes as possible. I would not change any part about my education;
however, I have been reading and obsessed with various business philosophies
since I was a little kid. Thoughts, like cells within our bodies, proliferate
through our beings and make up whom we are.
PTCE: As the founder and CEO,
Bubblews is obviously your brainchild. Are there others that helped you reach
your goal to create Bubblews?
Avi: Yes. There are 3 other co-founders
within Bubblews and we would not be here today, or moving forward as quickly
without them. Chris Bauernshub (C.O.O.), William Webb (C.T.O.) and Jason
Zuccari (President). These are probably the three most brilliant guys I have
ever come across and when we all get into a room to brainstorm, magic happens.
You do not run into harmonious, synergistic collaborations between founders
like this everyday. We truly have a special bond and are working on some
incredibly large projects (to be released by the end of this summer) that will
really 'wow' and impress the world. We are the guys that are not afraid to make
the bold moves and disrupt what a lot of people feel comfortable with within
the digital world currently because we feel we are forging a better, brighter
path for the internet. We like to joke around and call ourselves “The Founding
Fathers.”
PTCE: What inspired you to create
Bubblews?
Avi: My inspiration for Bubblews
came when I started observing that these large social media/online conglomerates
[that] have basically created these huge unpaid workforces. Hundreds of
millions of people flock to their websites to give them eyes, content and their
personal data, while getting absolutely nothing in return. These huge online
conglomerates are making record profits, while people are still left with empty
pockets. To make matters even worse, other companies have put such a strict
vice on bloggers. Bloggers now-a-days have to be perfect and almost
professional writers. That is not what blogging started out to be. People
should not be forced in how they convey their message. Life is not static like
that … it is dynamic. People's moods can change throughout the day and I wanted
to create a platform that would allow people to convey their thoughts with the
world while being properly compensated for it.
PTCE: What’s with the name? When
I first read it, I’m thinking is it pronounced Bubble-Ooze or Bubbles? How do
you pronounce it and where did you come up with the name?
Avi: I was lying in bed one night
and I kept thinking how thoughts are sort of like bubbles. They move around,
pop into existence, some are big, some are small, much like our thoughts. Then
I also started dissecting what the word “news” should really mean. I came to
the conclusion that news should be considered anything new that someone has to
say. You can think of the phrase ‘what's new?’ Something clicked in my head and
I added the words Bubble and news together, birthing 'Bubblews.' Then came the
idea of properly compensating people for their time/thoughts on our platform
and that the words blogger/blogging had to be replaced with bubbler/bubbling
because we are bringing creativity and life back to the world of online
content. We are just different.
I also think having a quirky name
helps reflect the vibe of our brand. We are not afraid to laugh at ourselves
and we enjoy hearing people try and pronounce it differently - it's just fun
and makes for a laid-back atmosphere. (Readers: Avi never answered how to
properly pronounce the company name, which only makes Bubblews more
interesting).
PTCE: What sets Bubblews apart
from the other online news/media/content outlets?
Avi: Bubblews.com is unlike
anything else out there. We see the value in people's thoughts, opinions, joys
and pains, whereas others do not. We have a very clear vision of where we are
taking Bubblews and we are implementing it in small pieces. We do not believe
in having such strict rules on our members and making people feel like they
need to be professional writers. All we ask for is that people write from their
own mind and help others to learn through telling/sharing their past
experiences. We have so much to learn from each other and Bubblews is the
platform where people feel most comfortable coming to share themselves with the
rest of the world. There is something extremely special happening within our
community and it will only get better over time.
PTCE: For a company that was
founded in September 2012, Bubblews seems to have seen quite a growth.
Regarding users, can you expound on where Bubblews started and where Bubblews
is today? Where do you see Bubblews at the end of the next 12 months?
Avi: I am one that likes to hold
everything we are working on behind-the-scenes very close to the inside of the
company. We currently have three very large projects that we are working to
release by the end of the summer. As we start to put each piece together,
people will really get to see what the broad Bubblews vision is. The growth is
fantastic; we honestly could not ask to be growing any faster. People feel the
breath of fresh, creative air coming from Bubblews and are very excited to see
what we have planned for them next. We are always looking out for our members’
best interest.
PTCE: What is the one absolute
that you’d like my readers to know about Bubblews?
Avi: Bubblews is a brand that
believes in doing the right thing. We are here to help mold the
blogging/social-networking world back to what it was before Wall Street took
over. Our goals in the first few years are not insane profits, but creating
something that changes the world and people have fun using. Bubblews is not
just a website, or experience, but a philosophy. People feel the need and want
to be creative as soon as they enter our website, we cherish that and it makes
us very proud. On top of that, we are solving real-life problems for people,
all around the world. (Avi shared that via earnings from Bubblews, a user was
able to purchase her first refrigerator. The user is from the Philippines, so
the refrigerator was far beyond a luxury item).
PTCE: What would you wish my
readers to know about Arvind Dixit, the gentleman behind Bubblews?
Avi: I am just a normal guy that
is intensely passionate about what we are doing. I am very approachable and
love to interact with people. I also consider myself to be quite creative and I
cannot wait to show the world what we have dreamed up!
What the Pop Culture Trends
Examiner took away from this interview was an impression of a passionate young
entrepreneur with an obligation to social responsibility. Readers can check out
Avi’s website at Bubblews.com and stay tuned for more on this revolutionary
gentleman and his game changing social networking site.
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