Ross Mayfield's Weblog

SlideShare Launches Pro Subscriptions

Today's SlideShare Pro subscriptions launch has got the web buzzing (disclosure: I'm an Advisor). SlideShare Pro has been iterating in beta with some customers who have found a new cornerstone in their social media strategy.

“SlideShare is the fastest growing external social media site Dell is engaging through, said George Palantine, Dell Senior eBusiness Manager and a Beta customer of SlideShare Pro. "The custom branded Channel for Dell Large Enterprise was easy to set up, the new analytics features help us measure what we manage and we are able to directly capture leads from within the communities professionals participate in.”

Here's a roundup of the buzz:

• CEO Rashmi Sinha's blog post
• Coverage: ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat, TheNextWeb, IDG News Service, paidContent,Techie Buzz, Mashable, TechMeme
• Blog Posts: CTO Jon Boutelle, Marketing Pilgrim, IR Web Report, Andy Beard
• Lean Startup Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium (the sausage making behind this announcement)

Socialtext wins the Startup Cup

Socialtext wins the Startup Cup
Originally uploaded by Ross Mayfield

Yesterday we won the first Startup Cup soccer tourney. Really fun single elimination tournament organized by Weebly that included Footballistic, Slide, Square, TechCrunch, Scribd, Uservoice, Revision3, Xobni, Box.net, WePay and Kabam. Here's the Flickr set.

There really should be more startup events like this, and the infamous Bowling 2.0 which we won back in 2006.

UPDATE: Coverage by TechCrunch:

The matches were hard-fought, and much sweat (and some blood) was spilled as each company vied for the top prize. In the end, SocialText came out the leader, led by company cofounder Ross Mayfield. And there were no losers: everyone got free Chipotle burritos and Subway sandwiches. I’ve never seen so many burritos at once. It was beautiful.

And here's the video from when we beat Facebook for the Bowling 2.0 trophie: