Almost Famos: A Good Start-Up Gone Bad
The Observer Nov 25
http://observer.com/2013/11/almost-famos-a-good-start-up-gone-bad/Excerpts:
A fair amount of noise was made recently when it
was reported that Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones
had lost an untold sum of his estimated net worth of
$300 million in a failed Internet start-up. How could
Mr. Jagger, a seasoned rock star who studied at the
London School of Economics and famous for his
shrewd business acumen, get fleeced in a bad
business deal? In short, he didn’t. But Mr. Jagger was
involved in the Internet venture called Famos, along
with Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart and singer
Britney Spears. But none of them, it turns out, lost
money. I spoke with Famos founder Rent Sidon to
find out the story...
People took notice. Interested investors included
television networks, musicians and celebrities,
claimed Mr. Sidon. It was going to be huge in every
way. The plan was to launch—no, to carpet bomb,
as he puts it—the world. They ran a beta test with
Ms. Spears and were happy with the results. It was
ready to go live. The idea was to time it with the
Rolling Stones 50th anniversary tour. They would
make a huge splash. Famos signed a contract with
the Rolling Stones, but the Stones pushed back tour
dates. Time started to slip away.
“It was difficult to
sit around for 18 months,” Mr. Sidon lamented. “You
can’t do that with a start-up. It killed us."
This would seem to be a bit of
confirmation that the marketing of the 50th
tour was originally expected to start in early 2012,
if not late 2011. Was it Keith's condition that delayed
it? Or something else?
Because of Dave Stewart's involvement in Famos,
I remember that earlier in 2011 there was a lot more
speculation that Famos was going to be used to
market SuperHeavy, rather than the Stones.
So that's the other mystery we've never had solved.
Why Damian and Mick pulled the plug on
SuperHeavy so fast, essentially even before the
album was released.
I suspect that Damian walked (didn't even show up
for the album release party) because he got wind
that Mick had exercised his option to return to
the Stones, but that's just a guess.
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The rise and fall of Mick's internet venture Famos (Read 627 times)
