Brett Brewer, co-founder of MySpace and a UCLA alumnus, came back to UCLA on Monday to give insights about his road to success in creating the popular social networking Web site.
The event also included an introduction by Marc Campbell, CEO and founder of Independent Comedy Network, also a UCLA alumnus. It was part of the Entrepreneurship Week launched by the Anderson School of Management.
Brewer said 2008 seemed poised to become the best year to start new businesses.
“As far as starting businesses and getting them off the ground, and recruiting talents in Southern California ““ in L.A. specifically ““ there has never been a better time than in 2008,” Brewer said.
He said he attributed this to the combination of technology and the development of the online advertising market, such as Google Advertising.
Brewer also said it is much less expensive to start a business today, which is possible with merely $20,000 to $30,000, compared to the minimum of $2 million in older times. This makes it much easier for entrepreneurs to take more risks and see whether their business will work or not.
During the lecture Brewer talked about his journey of creating Intermix Media, his first Internet company, which launched MySpace and was sold to News Corp. in 2005 for $673 million.
But he also said that success does not always come easily. He compared his entrepreneurial journey to a “roller coaster” in which he and his business partners moved from Los Angeles to Connecticut, then back to Los Angeles, experiencing failures and setbacks.
In the end they came up with the idea to create a Web site that he said is similar to Friendster, but better. The popular MySpace became the first profitable Internet content business in 2001.
“It is kind of really the first open platform that taps into the egotistical nature of people, and because they were proud of themselves in posting their pictures and posting comments on someone else’s pictures, people were really fascinated with themselves and with comments about themselves,” Brewer said, explaining the popularity of MySpace.
Brian Gamido, a graduate student in the business school, said that Brewer’s lecture shed light on the entrepreneurial story in which he started off as a UCLA undergraduate student.
“I learned (from the lecture) at a high level of qualitative aspects. I didn’t learn any techniques on how to become an entrepreneur, but … learning his story and then what challenges he faced is more inspiring for me if I want to start my own business,” Gamido said.
Aisha Ali, one of the organizers of Entrepreneurship Week and a graduate student in the business school said the purpose of the event was to help students take a new approach to create amazing new industries and products.
“Entrepreneurship should not just be thought of as a concept, but rather as a way of looking at life,” Ali said.