YP.com / LiveDeal.com changes at the helm
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
LiveDeal (who owns YP.com) has elected Rejesh Navar to Chairman of the Board and is searching for a CEO to replace Dan Coury.
YP.com was notorious for sending “activation checks” that appeared to be small rebate checks from the Yellow Pages publisher. By cashing the checks (they were generally about $3.52), the cashing company granted access to YP.com to withdraw a monthly fee from the bank account. Other billing methods consisted of LEC billing where charges go on a businesses’ phone bill. That billing source has become much less viable recently because of changes in requirements by carriers.
After an FTC investigation and change at the company, independent board member Dan Coury stepped up to the CEO position to clean up the company.
I’ve become friendly with Dan during his time, and was frankly amazed that he was able to keep the company from falling into oblivion.
The new team at YP.com merged with LiveDeal.com to combine online Yellow Pages and classifieds. Their sales came through domestic and offshore telemarketing. The company became listed on the Nasdaq, streamlined operations and retooled its sales / marketing processes.
The transition from deception (which was highly lucrative) to reality was painful, and unfortunately Dan Coury was a casuality of depressed stock prices and slower than acceptable ramp. You’ve got to grow to keep investors happy.
Selling advertising to SMEs is hard work, but can be highly rewarding if you control expenses while building revenue.