Foodspotting Begins Looking for Business Models

Recently this headline from AdWeek caught my eye. According to the article, apparently the CEO (and co-founder) of Foodspotting is “currently more interested in building an audience than making money”. To me that is the perfect embodiment of putting the cart before the horse.

I don’t want to rip on Foodspotting and best of luck to those involved, but they stand in good company when it comes to searching for business models. Here are a couple more: Yahoo and AOL. (Nostalgia sidebar: Remember when Yahoo was the way to find stuff on the Internet?)

Are there other examples like Foodspotting? It sure feels that way. I’m not counting personal blogs (like yours truly), but sites that set out as businesses. Of course, plenty of sites build up traffic and get bought, and if that is the business plan, fair enough. (TechCrunch may not be the best example as it was already profitable by some accounts. Also, check out the second link to Incomediary, the list is quite interesting. And getting bought by AOL means you can cash out, but you may regret it. )

I’ll keep updating this space as I find more examples. Please help by submitting your examples in the comments.