Why are some start-ups remarkably MORE successful than others?  Nisan Gabbay can answer that question and does so every week at Startup-Review.com, one of the hottest new Web sites to enter the business blogging scene.

Listen in on my brief interview with Nisan to find out what makes this remarkable blog tick.

RUNNING TIME: 12 minutes

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
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Jeff Molander:  Hello, this is Jeff Molander. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Nisan Gabbay, formerly of Sierra Ventures, where he focused on consumer online services, web advertising, and mobile applications. Since we recorded the interview, he announced his departure from Sierra to a new, yet to be named web startup.

Nisan’s blog, ”Startup Review.com,” is taking off in a pretty big way, attracting the attention of analysts, investors, and entrepreneurs alike. How? Well, he has chosen to perform in depth research on successful companies of all sorts, using interviews with key management team players, venture capitalists, and employees as a means to access and piece together information information that describes behind the scenes paths to the remarkable success of each company.

Well thanks for joining us, Nisan. Why don’t we start with how you got the idea for Startup Review?

Nisan Gabbay:  The content for the blog was really something we were already doing internally. That is a large part of my role, is to do diligence on potential investments in the online area. So it is natural that questions come up. For example, if we are looking at a company that is trying to get into online classifieds, the question is, “Well, what did Craigslist do that was successful? Where are the strengths and weaknesses of Craigslist? Can a company compete in that area?”

So we would put together these mini case studies as we are evaluating opportunities, so it was something that we had already done, so had that content.

The second question, around what is our goal with the blog, is really a two part question: one, why the blog for Sierra, and why did I personally decide to take on this endeavor?

In answer to the “Why Sierra?” part of the question, the managing directors at Sierra have come from an enterprise software background, having founded and run successful startups in the enterprise area, and we have been traditionally more known for investing in enterprise oriented companies. Over the last three years we have made quite a number of investments in consumer oriented technology, an area of very heavy focus for us, particularly on the Internet.

So what we wanted to do is raise the awareness to both entrepreneurs and other VCs that we are actively investing in early stage Internet companies, both through consumer and online advertising, and that we want to be part of the conversation that is going on in the blogosphere. So that was kind of the main goal for Sierra. It obviously helps in other area such as diligence on potential investments, sourcing of new potential investments, as well as bringing more people into our network.

So those are the main reasons for why Sierra decided to do this.

Second me, personally I think the overriding factor is that I enjoy it and find it interesting. I like thinking about what makes companies successful. I enjoy doing that part of the research.

And I really enjoy talking to people, talking to former entrepreneurs, people involved with these companies, and really hear from them what the story was, and what were the lessons that they learned throughout their experience with those companies. It makes for a great way to meet people and to network.

I think having the blog itself kind of puts your feet to the fire a little bit to produce content on a regular, consistent basis; and I think that is a good thing because it really forces you to do it. I kind of liken it to having a dog in some respects: if you want to get exercise, and you want to walk twice a day, then get a dog and that will make sure you do it. So this is a way that keeps me regularly talking to people, and so it has been good in that regard.

Jeff:  It looks like you are dedicating yourself to producing a good number it looks like about one per week of stories on the site, and creating compelling content that keeps readers coming back for more is always a challenge.

One thing that I have found unique about Startup Review is its ability to keep my interest based on seriously valuable insights, quite frankly insights provided by those who you are interviewing, many times, who seem to be opening up quite a bit, sharing information with you rather liberally.

Nisan:  Yeah, I think that is one of the advantages. I think that we have a venture capital firm, so we have a pretty strong network of people that we can tap into. This is part of what we do on a daily basis, so it is things that we are thinking about, and that does come up in regular conversation. A lot of the insights are collected from multiple data points, whether that be the founders, customers, competitors, investors in the company. That is what is nice about being in this position, to be able to do that.

Then secondly, in the interviews, yes, I have been very pleased with how forthright people have been, and really thought through and answered most of the questions that I have had for them, so that has been nice.

In terms of the content itself, you are right. We launched this; we wanted to do something that was differentiated from other things that were out there. There clearly are a lot of venture capital bloggers already. We did not want this to be just another site where a venture capitalist is giving their thoughts. We wanted to provide some real value to the community in terms of, you are going to get a detailed case study based on real research and our network of contacts. That has been the goal, and I think it has done well in that regard.

Jeff:  Again, the reason people subscribe to the RSS feed or listen to a podcast like Gilmore Gang over and over is quality. I listen to the Gilmore Gang for that very reason; for that only reason. Obviously you have got quality working in your favor. Given that, what results have you seen so far in terms of payoffs for all this good content that you have been putting out there?

Nisan:  I think we have been pleased with the initial early attraction, in terms of people are subscribing and viewing the content, having over 700 RSS subscribers in three weeks. So I have been pleased with that result. The first case study Craigslist got picked up by a couple of bloggers, and it has had over 5000 views in that time. I think, obviously, the blogosphere is so interconnected, and it is fairly easy to have the content, for people to pick it up. So I think in that regard it has done well.

Then secondly, from a networking perspective, it has been a great way to meet people and to speak to people about what makes certain companies successful. So I think it has really helped on the networking side as well. For example, Jeff, obviously I would not be talking to you if it were not for this, so that is a big bonus for us.

Jeff:  Yes. Indeed, that is how we met, while you were working on reviewing Linkshare Corporation, a former competitor of mine while I was helping start up what is now Performics, which is a division of Doubleclick today.

So anyway, what kind of companies are you focusing on in terms of reviews at this point?

Nisan:  Just to be clear, the companies that we are profiling are not companies that Sierra has been invested in. These are really just what have been the true successes in the Internet area. So there is no bias whatsoever in terms of choosing something that we have been involved with or looked at in the past.

The real criteria that I have looked for to select these companies is to really focus on those companies that have truly been a success, and I define a success as being, did they achieve a successful exit for their founders or their investors? If they have not yet achieved a successful exit, have they established a strong business model meaning they have significant revenue, probably $40 million plus a year revenue? Or thirdly, in the case of something like a Craigslist, have they established an exceptionally well known Internet brand, which I think Craigslist has done, even though they have not exited and they have not had significant revenue?

So I think those are the three things that I look for. Definitely not looking to profile on the site early stage companies that are just getting launched. I think there are plenty of Web 2.0 oriented blogs that are covering those companies, so we really wanted to look at it from more of a kind of post success, pre success basis, and that is what we are targeted on.

In terms of how do we choose the specific companies, it is based on a couple of things. One, do they fill the specific criteria stated above, as I said before, for being a successful company? And then it is really, “Well, who do we have access to at those companies,” not creating a case study unless we are able to speak with somebody who has been involved with the company at an early stage.

So that is really dependent on people that I can get to most easily. For example, there are a couple of companies that I would love to profile, like Neopets for example, or Bitpipe. I do not personally happen to know anyone who is involved with those companies, so I have not yet been able to create a case study on them. But I am hoping that as we build readership that people will also help me and contribute, and suggest potential contacts that they have that they can put me in touch with, in order to be able to do those stories on those companies.

So I will put a little plug in here that on the blog there is a section called “Contribute,” where people can mention certain contacts that they may be willing to offer up that I could contact and interview for a post.

Jeff:  So it sounds like you are fairly open minded regarding who you are reviewing here. They do not need to be a Web 2.0 company, they can be somebody like Craigslist, or…

Nisan:  Yeah, I mean, we are trying to look both at those types of companies, and we are also profiling successful companies in the online advertising side people who have done well in lead generation, for example, or affiliate marketing. Some of the upcoming case studies, I plan to do one on Linkshare, one on Adteractive.

So it is not only on the consumer focused companies, it is a mix of both. It is just smaller companies, companies that have had exits, for example, in the $20 to $100 million range, that may not have been very high profile in the media but were very successful exits for the entrepreneurs. I think those stories are worth highlighting as well.

Jeff:  Well thanks again, Nisan. I should probably let you get back to researching and writing more interesting reviews. Be sure to check out Nisan Gabbay’s Startup Review.com if you are interested in tapping into unique insights on how trailblazing companies are built from the ground up to succeed.

Nisan:  Thanks Jeff.

Jeff:  This has been Jeff Molander reporting.