ROJO will you ever sell letsrun?

G.O.A.T.R.O.L.L. wrote:

I would leave if this site was sold. I left dyestat, flotrack. The messageboard is everything. Unregistered posting, easy to use, forum posting rules gray at best, site owners posting/responding.

Never thought I'd find myself on Letsrun this often. Once Dyestat was bought I didn't see myself posting much anymore as most of the fun was seeing the characters/regulars posting in the Playground and subforums (especially the spike threads). Tried tracktalk for a bit right after but it's not the same. Letsrun has provided me a ton of entertainment recently and their recaps are pretty well done.

uyiuiiiyi wrote:

Rojo wrote:

On a more note, I have thought about doing something else and doing letsrun on the side. ...What should I do? ...

On this very forum, you were given a great idea, spawned by recent RaceAcrossAmerica fiascos. Did you see it? What do you think? Any interest?

Please post it again. I am bad at a) reading emails and b) seeing multimillion dollar ideas on my messageboard. I've always wanted to have a LetsRun event.

The first letsrun marathon? You hit the start line, hop in your car and drive to the finish.

When is Lehigh valley? I keep meaning to 'run' it each year in the same time that Mike Rossi did.

former Ithacan wrote:

I'm loving that LRC is pushing forward and testing new directions. The Syracuse article was like a mini-RWTB and seeing how 'Why I Sucked in College' has so much staying power, I'll be curious to see if the Syracuse story and other similar stories have that kind of staying power.

Rojo, I'd love to see you give Malcolm Gladwell a column. And, include him in your round table discussions, like the one on Bekele, Geb and Mo as GOAT - those were great.

... maybe have regular knowledge-based contests to allow LRC visitors be guests on your round table discussions.

I'd love to see LRC content be more share-able across social media, which would require, possibly, the writing and page layout surrounding the stories be a bit more Altantic-ish.

If I go big, I'm going paywall. Not joking. The idea of doing more and more content for free is just dumb. It would work here as we have a big audience and small staff but is not a good one for the future of journalism.

My thought was to have a membership. We might bring back letsrun training talk where we do the hour long podcast with the coaches like we used to . It's broadcast live for free but if you miss it, the archive is for members only. Same thing with a feature like Jon's. We'll post it for free at 12 noon for the starving college kids but if you don't read it by 1 pm. Members only.

All of our normal coverage - race previews and recaps would be free as would the messageboard. But the features, a special trianing forum with JK, and the audio archives are like $1 per week.

These are not great ideas. What you need is a good product manager. You have a solid product but it definitely needs help.

Employee 1.1 is looking to make some investments, would you sell to him?

Rojo wrote:

Jose the Plumber wrote:

This site claims letsrun is worth $2 million;

Depressing. Flosports got $21.2 million in VC funding and likely is losing money. We are profitable. I was hoping this baby was worth at least $40 million.

You might be being sarcastic, or are a little clueless.

In case the latter, yes $2 million is not that much in acquisition value. But the only way you'd be worth 20 times that is if you changed the UI to something that's not extremely outdated, innovated consistently (at least once a year) and had the platform for mobile apps.

You're only worth $2 million because you haven't changed anything in 15 years.

1955 wrote:

In the 1970's I subscribed to pretty much every running magazine there was. I stuck with RW and T&FN into the 1980s, T&FN into the early 2010's, but now LR is now my source of running information. You're doing something right. Don't screw it up like RW did.

I check LR multiple times a day. I like the front page and do read it, but the value is about the message boards.

Just stop with the auto-play ads.

Hey, 1955! How are you doing?

A while ago you had a thread going about some health issues that you were experiencing. Hopefully all is well with you. Since I am also from the year of 1955, it was of special interest to me.

I know this isn't the topic of this thread, but when I saw that you had posted I thought I'd ask.

I honestly wouldn't be half the runner I am today without letsrun. From reading on it occasionally to posting and finding out how I could train better. All the way to having my own training thread tracking my progress, with dozens of interested individual following along really was a cool experience. I get most of my running information here and even though most of us are 'armchair' coaches, there still is a lot of good advice and knowledge being given and shared.

Also, letsrun, why don't you sponsor me? Give me a free letsrun jersey and I'll wear it at all my races. That's good publicity, right? I'm not sure how many of the runners at my races or even some of the track meets know about letsrun, so I'll be a walking advertisement since I win 90% of the road races I enter. Maybe even give me a free pair of shoes

Birdlegs wrote:

1955 wrote:

In the 1970's I subscribed to pretty much every running magazine there was. I stuck with RW and T&FN into the 1980s, T&FN into the early 2010's, but now LR is now my source of running information. You're doing something right. Don't screw it up like RW did.

I check LR multiple times a day. I like the front page and do read it, but the value is about the message boards.

Just stop with the auto-play ads.

Hey, 1955! How are you doing?

A while ago you had a thread going about some health issues that you were experiencing. Hopefully all is well with you. Since I am also from the year of 1955, it was of special interest to me.

I know this isn't the topic of this thread, but when I saw that you had posted I thought I'd ask.

Hi, Birdlegs, thanks for asking. I updated on that thread a couple times but quick recap:

- totally unexpected heart attack in mid-Feb. No known risk factors.

- I was cleared to run after 1 month but it took another month for me to work up the nerve (I was walking instead)

- I started running again very slow & low mileage, gradually worked my way up to 30 mpw (I was doing 40+ at the time of the heart attack), and am planning to stick to that.

- Still have daily twinges (!) but nothing severe enough for another ER trip (or even to take any of my new nitro pills). Periodic check-ups w/ cardiologist.

Getting old sucks.

This outdated UI is probably one of the major positive factors to the website and forums, since it allows me to visit using old devices. I would be extremely saddened if an updated UI changed this positive experience to a chore.

Im cashin out wrote:

just curious, would you ever? under what conditions? for how much? would you still want to be involved? would you make them keep it the same? have you ever considered selling in the past? anything else you'd like to share?

I wonder what percentage of Flosports employees actually get paid.

In fact I bet there are also many LRC employees that do it for free.

The top 4 or 5 people in both these companies probably make $35,000 per year and the rest PAY to work there.

I know for a fact that almost all Flosports employees must pay to use their own website! It's like paying for parking at the YMCA so you can work there!!!

The worst thing about LRC, Flosports, and companies like them is they deceive their employees. Like Uber they make people believe that they are private businessmen and will make money.

The reality is you must pay to use the company website for Flosports and also must spend tedious hours trying to break in to their Concur system to even get a few measly bucks to make up for travel and costs!

Name wrote:

This outdated UI is probably one of the major positive factors to the website and forums, since it allows me to visit using old devices. I would be extremely saddened if an updated UI changed this positive experience to a chore.

Several years ago, many forums went to an 'updated style' that was far less compact, much slower, and more difficult to scan. I loved that letsrun stayed lightweight and compact. Easy to suck down info. Nowadays, I'm sure they could move to a modern forum backend that would significantly speed things up without sacrificing the compact style we know and love.

This is the place for the running world. What would the price be? And what the hell would happen if that price were paid? For example, remember what the hell happenend when the front page was redesigned? People lost their minds - their world was rocked.......this site is the place to learn about running, for runners, or used to be runners, run by those who understand that. Best content, best message board, and enough loyal followers to keep coming back day after day, regardless. Empire is not always represented in dollars.

Im cashin out wrote:

just curious, would you ever? under what conditions? for how much? would you still want to be involved? would you make them keep it the same? have you ever considered selling in the past? anything else you'd like to share?

Sorry, I haven’t read the whole thread, just the title and I have to say...oh yawn?

rojo wrote:

uyiuiiiyi wrote:

On this very forum, you were given a great idea, spawned by recent RaceAcrossAmerica fiascos. Did you see it? What do you think? Any interest?

Please post it again. I am bad at a) reading emails and b) seeing multimillion dollar ideas on my messageboard. I've always wanted to have a LetsRun event.

The first letsrun marathon? You hit the start line, hop in your car and drive to the finish.

When is Lehigh valley? I keep meaning to 'run' it each year in the same time that Mike Rossi did.

I apologize, but on my run tonight, l listened to some videos that included some stories of handicap less fortunate folks doing inspiring athletic things, only to come back and see you talking 'paywall'. It is not your fault how corrupt the economic system is in this country (or in the world system, for that matter, when considered from various angles), but I'm chilling on the idea now.

As a venture capitalist, I wouldn't touch this site without requiring new management.

uyiuiiiyi wrote:

rojo wrote:

Please post it again. I am bad at a) reading emails and b) seeing multimillion dollar ideas on my messageboard. I've always wanted to have a LetsRun event.

The first letsrun marathon? You hit the start line, hop in your car and drive to the finish.

When is Lehigh valley? I keep meaning to 'run' it each year in the same time that Mike Rossi did.

I apologize, but on my run tonight, l listened to some videos that included some stories of handicap less fortunate folks doing inspiring athletic things, only to come back and see you talking 'paywall'. It is not your fault how corrupt the economic system is in this country (or in the world system, for that matter, when considered from various angles), but I'm chilling on the idea now.

Very, Very ,Very few people would ever pay to go to this site and the brojos know it. Rojo was joking around