StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Stephen Messer

Co-founder & Vice Chairman, Collective[i] · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@smesser ↗LinkedIn ↗collectivei.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

In 1996, Messer co-founded LinkShare, a pioneer in online affiliate marketing, and served as its CEO and Chairman until Rakuten acquired it for $425 million in 2005. He later co-founded Collective[i], an enterprise platform that applies artificial intelligence and neural network modeling to forecast and accelerate B2B sales and revenue.

10statements → 6claims → 2claims resolved → 3.6/5average certainty → 1.9/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

0 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 2 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Stephen argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Messer: LinkShare held 96% of global affiliate market at acquisition
“We were the first affiliate marketer. We became the global player. I think when we finally sold the business to Rakuten, it was Probably. 96% of the affiliate market globally and still is today.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 2:39 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Stephen Messer on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Stephen Messer said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Messer: 5% of global B2B economy passes through Collective[i] daily
“We usually just disclosed about five percent of the globe's B to B economy is passing through us every day.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 9:33 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Insight
Messer: Launching an AI company requires north of $100 million
“AI companies, you're usually talking about, you know, usually north of a hundred million dollars to get these companies off the ground.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 14:12 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Insight
Messer: Collective[i] scales as a data network, not SaaS
“We are not a SAS business. We're a data network business. We scale in a vastly different way.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 19:40 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Assertion Contradicted
Messer: LinkShare held 96% of global affiliate market at acquisition
“We were the first affiliate marketer. We became the global player. I think when we finally sold the business to Rakuten, it was Probably. 96% of the affiliate market globally and still is today.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 2:39 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Assertion Partly supported
Messer: LinkShare is Rakuten's top revenue generator outside Japan
“So when we came there, it was the first American acquisition they had made. And I think to this day, it's probably still the greatest revenue producer outside of Japan that Rocky has ever had.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 2:53 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Messer: Collective[i] never raised a $20M Series A
“There is no twenty million dollars series A. It's actually much more money than that into this company.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 14:07 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Disclosure
Messer: Collective[i] ACV is usually above $100,000 at $9,000 per manager
“Usually you're looking at per, per manager, roughly around 9000 dollars a year per manager. So depending on how big your team is. So our ACV is usually above a 100,000 dollars, but we have SMBs all the way up.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 13:17 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Disclosure
Messer: Founders netted more than $100 million from LinkShare sale
“Well, let's hope one, I hope we made more than that, which we did.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 15:25 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Messer: Collective[i] has roughly 140 full-time employees
“About a 140 in the company.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 10:56 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Messer: Only 15 to 20 Collective[i] employees are non-engineers
“Maybe 1520.”
Stephen Messer Jan 12, 2023 ▶ 11:58 He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
He Sold his First Company for $425m, Here's What He Did Next Jan 12, 2023 12m
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more