Bragster, a London-based social network for dares (think Jackass meets Facebok), has closed a $3.5 million Series A round of venture capital funding led by Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel Corp, reports TechCrunch UK. They were joined by angel investor David Frankel who previously invested in companies including GetMeIn and SiteAdvisor (sold to Ticketmaster and McAfee, respectively). Bragster is the re-launched Gottabet which won a seed round in 2006 but dumped its cash betting model. In Bragster you don’t place cash bets, you simply ‘brag’ to your friends that you will do something, like turn up at work in your pyjamas. Revenues will eventually come from ’sponsored brags’ created by brands and a white label version. Bragster is biggest in English speaking countries like the UK, US and Canada, with about 800,000 users globally after a year of operations. Bragster was foundered by Belgium-born Wim Vernaeve and Bertrand Bodson who run the company in London, with a 10 person team. The site is built on Ruby on Rails. Bragster joins a new wave of sites where you place non-cash bets on things such as news events (e.g. HubDub) and might make an acquisition target for a larger social network or a media company if it can build out its reach.
See all
Post
uh huh.
Liability?
I liked this idea so I signed up. It seems like it’s more of a Questions & Answers website, the original idea of bets isn’t working.. people are just asking questions like Yahoo answers or Yedda lol.. funny..
Raskin, there is a dedicated CS person that checks all newly created brags and takes down the ones that are inappropriate. Other than that the community can flag stuff or contact us directly. One example was a guy who said he would steal a penguin from the London Zoo and bring it back the next day (unharmed!)… Although we found it quite an entertaining thought, we removed it from the site.
I guess the reality is that we need to continue fostering a fun but sensible community where certain things are “Don’t try this at home” material.
(And ooh, did I mention we have a bunch of expensive lawyers that drafted an exhaustive set of Terms and Conditions?)
Wow!!! The idea so puts me off that I would have not even red the business plan. But again, I could not stand “America’s Funniest Videos”. Good luck to them.
Fascinating. I’m absolutely amazed that anyone would be funded for this. But on the other hand people seem to like “Jackass” and all the other stupid reality shows on TV, so what not.
Good luck.
Some ideas are so absurd they should go directly to the deadpool and funding she be donated to a charity of our (techcrunch readers) choice. This is a social network widget at best not a full fledged site.
This is just so ridiculous, I can’t even comprehend the funding number. Why would you even need millions of dollars to make a site where people write stuff? I mean, wow, I can tell my friends I’m going to jump into a freezing pool or ghost ride the whip…. ON THE INTERNET!
Can the next Crunchies please have a “Most Unnecessary Startup” category this coming year please? And the prize could be the monkey scratching its head.
this may be better integrated into an existing site like break, or collegehumor etc
@Tony T: Or a Facebook application.
1 person to check submissions presents multiple problems (assuming success)
a. Scaling. As the site gets more popular you gotta pay more of these people.
b. Rules. What is inappropriate? Stealing a penguin from a Zoo is, but what about taunting a penguin at Zoo? or a Tiger? (okay bad joke)
c. Strong T&C’s are fine and dandy, enforcing them and doing so without pissing off the community that built the site is another.
The idea though is problematic as these “dares” and “stunts” will become increasingly hard to police and filter, and will increasingly come close to “the line”.
This could be cool, if they got rid of all of the crap and just had Jackass-y stuff. It looks like they’ve got a lack of focus.
Also, why don’t they allow open dares to the community or something? Keeping it one to one is a serious limitation to the application.
I’m also wary of any start-up that gives unique visitors instead of user numbers. Application not so sticky, eh?
I think it’s a good concept but yep needs focus. For an idea like this to work, it needs focus and has to be viral. You can’t market something like this…it has to market itself. Otherwise it’s not working.
I feel if they focused on the dares and removed polls, they would get richer content. It might seem like a risk but it’s highly necessary. You can’t be everything to everyone for success to take hold.
you need the funding so sites like techcrunch pick it up. no funding = no techcrunch. get it
I’m more surprised that it was Intel Capital that backed this. They’re not exactly known for cutting edge investments… they’re boring in their portfolio.
You’re f’in kidding me, right?
It’s like the fall of the Third Reich, were money and debauchery were flowing like wine in the private sector. For this crackpot deal - how much 3 mil? Excuse me, 3.5 mil. For any number of sane verticals that have come and genuflected in the meeting rooms of Sandhill, nada.
It’ll all come tumbling down.
I always wonder about ’startup exaggeration,’ they say they have 800,000 users, but their compete people count is like 65,000. How many are ACTIVE?? I signed up for gottabet when it was first on techcrunch and haven’t been back, am I one of the 800,000?
One startup I know say that advertising on their facebook app gives you the opportunity to reach ‘thousands, even millions’ of unique users…but their four facebook apps combined have 12 active users. Let’s ditch the rose-colored web startups glasses and give some real numbers.
Also the beauty of techcrunch readers is that we probably know the acquisition strategy and who will buy them…don’t need to read that a ’social network,’ may be their acquisition target.
Good luck to em, I still like the original gottabet idea I just would’ve need more of my friends on it.
@Wim: It doesn’t matter how much you spent on your TOS, the fact is that when 1 kid breaks his collarbone on a prank / trick / ??? that was initiated on your site, you have yourself a lawsuit. Doesn’t even matter if the lawsuit ends up winning, you will spend money defending, and if my recollection of UK laws is still good, the defender in that suit is at a distinct disadvantage.
Multilply that by 100 and you’re done.
I’ve pitched shows to MTV before and their biggest fear is anything that encourages dangerous / illegal behavior in the users - the did get a lawsuit for Jackass, and that wasn’t even interactive like your site hopes to be.
Finally, the whole “we have editors” argument is weak and unscalable.
This is amazing to see these type of investment still exist in the internet ventures. Would be interesting to see how the venture will develop.
Sounds alright, no idea how it’ll make money, or any company that’ll want to be associated with penguin stealing.
Well Intel’s other social network is also awesome. I’m sure you’ve all hear of Eons…
@Raskin - not to mention that IIRC their liability goes up if they’re actively screening/approving items, instead of doing what most sites do (aka don’t screen, but take stuff down quickly if there’s a complaint).
Reality All Starz has a pretty good take on this idea too:
http://realityallstarz.com/
Intel really has that consumer web thing down. I can’t wait to pitch them. You know big hits like Eons and tutor.com. Oh wait, no one uses those sites. Shoot!
The true Jackasses are intel for investing in that sh….t . I feel a new tech craze coming on. Now that real estate is dead they want to invest in BS web sites again. Where is my sock puppet maybe I can sell dog food over the web.