theCHIVE turned 10 years old last month. We decided to forgo the pomp and circumstance of throwing big party until next spring – we’ve simply got too much going on these days. These are exciting times here, with theCHIVE, CHIVE TV and Atmosphere firing on all cylinders.
Still, having made it 10 years on the internet is an accomplishment, so I’m marking the occasion with a 3-part series looking back at moments Chivers never knew about – forks in the road that would forever define theCHIVE. In many ways we were, and still are, kids from Indiana who decided being rich in friends was more important than actually being rich. Leo and I don’t have as much money as people think..but we certainly could have.
In 2014 Playboy tried to buy theCHIVE.
First, let’s be honest here, it wasn’t a bad offer.
That’s me with a very bad haircut in front of the Beverly Hills AT&T, where I worked from 2002-2004 slinging cell phones. I wasn’t making enough money to afford LA’s steep rent, so I was sleeping in the basement of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house on the UCLA campus. It was really more of a boiler room than a basement as I recall.
A couple years prior to that, I packed up everything into an old 1985 BMW with $40 in my pocket and moved to L.A. If you told me then I’d create theCHIVE and get offered the Playboy gig, I’d have laughed you out of the room.
Just a few blocks away from that AT&T store was Playboy’s corporate office. In 2014, theCHIVE was not only the largest humor site in the U.S., it was one of the largest websites in the world in any category.
At the time, Playboy was looking for strategic opportunities. Hugh Hefner was suffering from a number of complications, an iconic era was coming to an end at Playboy, and what better way to set a new direction than bringing in some unhinged idiots to help right the ship?
Like I said, not a bad deal at all.
We met on the balcony of our Venice office to discuss our options. We decided that we were having too much fun and the money wasn’t worth it, so we called our accountant to break the news. He said, “In 25 years, I have never seen kids turn down that kinda money. I think you boys might have lost your minds, but maybe that’s the point.”
This is the actual photo I took of that moment. I remember thinking I’m either going to look back on this moment and regret it, or it’s the best decision we ever made.
We had other issues, too. Snapchat was colluding with a real estate broker to price us out of our famous Venice Beach offices, which they successfully accomplished. The last thing we told Evan Spiegel was that we were coming back for the office, and when we did, we were going to be bigger than Snapchat. Everybody laughed, the only two people in the world who believed that statement at the time were myself and Leo.
Sometimes I think about what life would have been like had we sold. For starters, I don’t believe the Playboy mansion would have been sold. Hef would have passed two years later, I suppose we’d be living there now? I’d split my time between theCHIVE and Playboy and I’m certain we could have saved it, but at what cost? Never step into the shadow of an icon, I think. If I’m forever known on the street as “The Chive Guy,” I’m just fine with that.
In the years that followed, unsolicited offers to buy theCHIVE would come in fast and hard. Tech publishers’ valuations and multiples were nothing short of silly. Facebook’s algorithm was lavishing publishers with traffic and making them all look much better than they were, but we knew Facebook was just a get-rich-quick scheme that wasn’t sustainable.
You know what is sustainable? A real community. The only time I ever publicly discussed the amount of interest in our company was at Midwest Madness in 2015 when I told the Chivers they were the only thing that mattered to us. I promised the Chivers we would never sell out, and we never did.
By 2017 the music had stopped on publishers, Facebook traffic dried up amidst news that Mark Zuckerberg and his crony Sheryl Sanberg had inadvertently helped rig a Presidential election, polarized America, and laundered user privacy data to shady data brokerage firms like Cambridge Analytica. Facebook online sharing plummeted and traffic to publishers from the social network dried up completely. Today, most publishers are putting on a stiff upper lip, refinancing, trying to keep their heads above water. And Playboy sold the fabled mansion.
We had invested in a pulse, not a pixel. Having a genuine community was all that mattered in the end. Now, while publishers are searching their couch cushions for loose change, theCHIVE launched CHIVE TV, which is quickly making its way into every bar and restaurant in America. We spun up Atmosphere, Ambient TV Everywhere. While the tech giants battle for real estate on your mobile device and your home TV, theCHIVE took the entire “3rd space” in America while nobody was watching.
And Forbes announced that we had overtaken Snapchat in reach. The impossible had actually happened. Something tells me they aren’t laughing any more over at Snapchat.
As for Playboy, they have a new direction as well. Hugh’s son Cooper has been named Chief Creative Officer, effectively filling his father’s velvet slippers. Playboy has gone back to its roots, restarting its storied Playboy Club in New York and bringing nudity back to their magazine. Heck, I re-surbcribed. Even the mansion’s new owner Daren Metropolis announced he intends to restore the Playboy mansion to “its original grandeur.”
What’s old is new again, and Playboy has a new path, it just wasn’t for us.
When I tell people this story, their reaction is often “yeah, that makes sense.” But I’ve always thought, in the moment, there are few that would turn down the mansion and the money. Later this afternoon, we’ll open theCHIVE HQ to everybody, not just our veterans and first responders. While Facebook and Snapchat heavy up on security this holiday season, placing armed guards outside their headquarters, theCHIVE continues to let our community in, not lock them out. Turns out, being rich in friends really is more important.
Looking back on this photo years later, I’m finally at ease. I think we got it right.
KCCO,
John
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