Ypulse Interview: Max Levchin, Founder of Slide

Max was my last interview for my next BusinessWeek Online Viewpoint column about teens and the MySpace ecosystem (now I have to actually write it!). If you missed it, check out my previous interview with Snapvine's Joe Heitzeberg where I asked the same set of questions.

Ypulse: Where did the idea for Slide first come from? Was it designed to be a stand alone app or always with the intention of living on profiles/social networks?

Max Levchin: I was observing my girlfriend shop online one day; she was on Zappos and scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of pages of shoes. It inspired me to start thinking about a "slideshow" product that would present products she liked in a compact yet compelling way, condensing the information, and give her more time to spend with me :-)

I asked some friends to check out the product and it became quickly apparent that they were really excited about it — but not exactly for the purpose I'd originally thought of! They wanted to view their own photos and share them with others. It is the same idea, presenting condensed visual information, but for the purpose of self-expression, bringing this information to the people you are connected to. I realized that there is an opportunity for a product like Slide on the web. As soon as the first slideshows found their way into people's pages, word-of-mouth took over and we’ve been growing exponentially ever since.

YP: What percentage of your users are teens? How much do you attribute Slide's success to this demographic?

ML: We don't require our users to provide personal information so I can't tell you for sure. Our user base probably very closely mirrors the popular social networks — MySpace, Bebo, Xanga and also people active in the blogosphere. We do get a lot of fan email from teens, so I'm sure they've had an important role in Slide's growth. Teens, more than any other age demographic, are used to expressing themselves using new media tools like Slide. To them, it's part of their daily routine like brushing their teeth.

Newsletter readers: Visit Ypulse.com for the rest of the interview.

YP: Is there a general popular theme you see in teen Slide shows?

ML: Our users love to express themselves, so their photos - starring their friends, families, heroes, pets - are stories, entire diary entries or collections of thoughts about whatever the subject. What Slide does best is provide simple but effective tools for them to express emotion and add dimensions to their stories. For example, they might use the hearts theme to express love or friendship, the rainbow theme to express happiness and maybe the rain theme to express sadness. It's a generation that's using all forms of digital media to share with the world, or their circle of friends, who they are.

YP: Do you see this ecosystem of add ons to social networks like MySpace growing, and if so in which directions?

ML:Definitely growing massively. There is a clear correlation between the growth of successful social networks and the degree to which they allow users to customize their pages. A brilliant early move by MySpace was their decision to simply get out of the way and allow for complete customization of users' profiles. This led to unprecedented growth, as users first invested the time and effort into making "their spaces" truly their own, then invited their friends to see the results. Other astute social network operators have certainly noticed this: Bebo, Facebook, and several others have opened up to third-party add-ons recently. The add-on space is going to become massively more interesting (and competitive!) this year, as completely new ways of self-expression and communication are invented and presented to the community.

YP: What do you think has been the biggest factor in your success, both in the application itself and in the marketing of Slide?

ML: We have not done any marketing at all. The service has grown simply by word-of-mouth, and it continues to grow exponentially because it's easy to use, has a simple, intuitive interface and serves a real need. We're also constantly iterating on Slide, releasing fun new features weekly to continue delighting and exciting our users. This interaction with the user, listening to their feedback, and tuning our product to their needs and wants is the biggest factor.

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