Hey guys it’s Matt. I want to write you a really honest email about the future of Under30CEO…
As you guys have probably felt, our community has lost a lot of its luster. What was once a vibrant community of young people trying to take control of our futures has slowly but surely declined.
Our attempt to go from a couple bloggers into media company didn’t really work.
We launched two sites that failed: Under30Finance and Under30Careers and we basically became a content farm. Eventually, Google penalized us because we had hundreds of guest contributors who were just contributing for the linkbacks…
Our traffic plummeted from the 500,000+ monthly uniques it once boasted.
Meanwhile, I was galavanting around the world building our travel company Under30Experiences. Today, I write to you poolside in Costa Rica typing this on my iPhone…
But we have forgotten about you.
The reader. The ones who gave us our start in the first place. You rarely hear from us and probably think we are just making money off this site lounging in paradise…
But screw that.
Jared and I turn 30 this year and we need to make a decision about this site.
We could just continue to syphon money off advertising and publish half ass content… Or we could take back this blog and make it our own again.
No more media company bullshit. Just an engaged group of awesome young people looking for more out of life.
We want to get back to our roots.
So we need your help… we need to know:
What do you want out of life? What do you want to hear about? What would make you excited to read this site everyday? What is your biggest challenge? What are you struggling with?
No more internship advice, no more “personal branding” tips, no more crap on how to find a business partner… We’ve published 100 articles on each of those topics.
We want to write stuff that you care about.
We want to take back our community.
This means personal writing from our staff. Content that is designed to engage you, motivate you, and inspire you to innovate. Stuff that other people aren’t talking about.
We want to get to know you and we want you to get to know us. That’s what community is all about. We want to get personal.
Drop a comment and let us know what you want to see out of this site. We are down to start from scratch.
Much love and as always thanks for the support.
-Matt
Ps. If you haven’t read this interview with the Huffington Post this is the kind of stuff I’m talking about. These responses came from the heart.
Photo credit: Courtney Slade
