This one slipped through the cracks, but apparently Brad Bostic, who co-founded mobile Q&A answer service ChaCha together with current CEO Scott Jones back in 2006, has stepped down as President of the company and will not be replaced.
In an interview with the Indianapolis Business Journal, Bostic stresses that he will stay involved with the company as an advisor and strategist, saying ChaCha has matured enough for him no longer to be needed for day-to-day operations.
“I’m doing some evangelism for the company at trade shows, at conferences. [To say I] ‘left’ is not the appropriate characterization,” Bostic said.
More interestingly, Bostic openly discussed the fact that ChaCha is struggling to become a profitable company in the current economic climate, despite the fact it fired 1/3 of its workforce and brought on salary cuts for the rest of the employees earlier this year.
ChaCha lets people ask questions from their mobile phones to have humans (so-called Guides, often part-timers working from home) attempt to correctly answer them by text message. ChaCha makes money by embedding advertisements in those answers, and advertisers pay only when users respond by clicking through to the text ad. In the past, we’ve questioned the scalability of its business model, and we’ve also made fun of some of the answers that have been sent to users by Guides.
We pegged the company’s total funding at $58 million, but Bostic in the interview says only $43 million was poured into the company, among others by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. He also said the company is not yet cash-flow positive, but that there is a consistent growth in audience and revenue is starting to come in.
Let’s hope for ChaCha that Bostic’s evangelizing at conferences spurs more thereof.
Looks damn funny, man! Chacha or choo-choo (shoo-shoo), their business model is incredibly lack luster. How will they make money if they talk about Eiffel Tower for a question on Randy Newman’s show at Seattle Moore theater? God save their employees
The amount of money poured into this company seems like the perfect example of bubble stupidity. For $58 million you could buy a company like this and still have $57.5 million left over.
Wonder why do people support such stupidity!
Obviously you don’t completely read articles.
P.S. I think you spelled your name wrong.
really really bad sign. add them to the deadpool!
Boy, these guys are looking younger and younger. They are probably not that much younger than me, but it not the years, it’s the miles.
Interesting to see what changes they change in their model to keep afloat. The main draw to this service is that it is free, and they respond rather instant. There needs to be some expandable advertisement models if they plan to stay in buisness.
Some things, nobody ever needs them right away.
domain name alone is enough to sink ship. i think they could use some domain counseling from goodguide.com. they need a strategic acquisition investment and new strategy asap. it may already be too late.
DialLocator.com – call me
SpamLocator.com – locate bullshite spammer from Ning.
The company is already gone guys. Think, will you or me go to some “ChaCha” company to get “accurate” text answers to our verbal questions? Real fun!
I was making the rounds of Atherton VCs and networking events while I was living in the South Bay. I met a famous man that had raised and burnt several rounds. I just couldn’t figure why he was allowed to keep coming back, despite the fact that five out of six were bad or non-performing exits.
It’s a slice of life. http://abmw.wor...-mountain-view/
With my limited knowledge this model would have more sense in post smartphone era. In todays market where the computing power of phones is the same as the computers of 90’s. I dont understand why someone will use it if they can simple google for the information.
I guess someone told him that red is his color…and he believed it.
I always wondered how this free service would generate revenue… did it generate any revenue? I also thought AT&T bought it up.
sure, tons of revenue! it’s very common for executive teams to shrink as the company becomes more successful!
It’s unfortunate, but the Chacha experience is so poor now. Business model aside, they won’t continue to attract and retain users unless something changes with the accuracy and speed of their responses. I’m willing to accept ads, but not if the ad comes immediately and the response takes 20 minutes or it never comes.
I used to love Chacha. What happened?
Looks like Brad Bostic is cashing out before Cha Cha becomes illiquid and all he is left with is a Gold plaque and Cha Cha pens. Smart move Brad , we all have seen it before. ” Abandon Ship!!!” Jeff Bezos want his money back!!!
This was tweeted by exectrax in February:
ChaCha’s Co-Founder Brad Bostic no longer President & Chief Commerce Officer – 2009-02-17
http://www.exec...x.com/c/r/58/4/
also
ChaCha removes Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Jay Highley and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Brian Modiano – 2009-02-13
http://www.exec...x.com/c/r/58/3/
Has anyone consider that maybe Brad wasn’t doing a good job and was asked to resign instead of firing him?
From what I heard, ChaCha hired tons of people recently, and still hiring for BIG positions.
I don’t think anyone here really knows their business model, what EXACTLY is their business model for you to mock?
If they suck so bad, I wonder why AT&T team up with them when you call. Or why ESPN did an amazing story on them. I guess the pros know better than the people leaving comments
And for people who would rather use a smart phone to search themselves, I would figure you to be always an “employee” and not an “employer”. Instead of deligating someone to do your work for you, you rather put in the man hours, way to go buddy.
I guess using ChaCha is really just for smart people.
Have you seen some of the people they hire there though? I have seen them on message boards and they brag about how they give crap answers to make their .10 each.
Those people are guides, they are contractors, not actual hired employees.
I am talking about actual hires.
And if you are fast and good, 10 cents isn’t bad. And also think that you’re saving gas money, car check ups, and wardrobe. So making their $6-8 an hour isn’t bad.
ChaCha answers 600,000 questions per day. Everyone uses ChaCha for answers with a personal touch that you cannot get elsewhere.
It costs money to start up a big business like this & to train their guides, which there are over 55,000 of them.
ChaCha has only gotten better in the past few months & has been ranked as #1 for Alternative Search Engines, among others.
If you haven’t tried the services yet, I would suggest doing so before knocking them. They’re only getting better & being publicized more in the media.
In a nutshell, expect to be seeing them around for a long time.
No I don’t think they will be around for a long time.
It will be automated and the contractors are no longer needed. The funny thing is- the guides don’t realize the work they have done for their pennies on the hour.
They have built a HUGE search engine, one silly question at a time. And I have used ChaCha and see the automated answers to almost every question.
Even the most obscure q&a is in there and truthfully- it is just a matter of time before the guide goes to the wayside- and cha cha no longer needs humans.
Would the chacha business model work, if you had guides sitting in india who get paid only 15% of what american guides need to get paid.