Tales of a teenage CEO
October 17, 2000
Web posted at: 10:33 a.m. EDT (1433 GMT)
by Michele Keller
(IDG) -- The high school sophomore from
California's San Fernando Valley may not have much Silicon Valley cred,
but she does have some unique insight into the lives of the 68 million
members of GenerationI, and she's drawing from it as the founder and
president of Goosehead, a company that produces and streams Web shows
on a site for teens who aren't "little kids."
Despite the obstacles, she's creating her
own little media empire. Goosehead.com gets 300,000 hits per day and
attracts attention as much for the novelty of its 15-year-old president
as it does for Whatever, its series of streaming Web shorts. Actor
Richard Dreyfuss, a relative of one of Power's mother's business
partners, has signed on as a private investor and will help develop two
new streaming Web episodes. There's also a paperback book deal, The
Goosehead Guide to Life, to be published by Hyperion in 2001. According
to Power's stepfather, Mark Schilder, who is "co-president" of
Goosehead, MTV made Power an offer in March to develop an
Internet-related show. "They said, you're beautiful to look at, you can
talk, you're intelligent, you're exactly what we want," Schilder says.
But she turned it down to stay with Goosehead, which recently signed a
deal with MGM to develop its streaming Web shows into a series for
Showtime.
The fact that the site has a teenager as
its leader is hitting the right note, at least from a publicity
standpoint. Goosehead has gotten play in the New York Times, the Los
Angeles Times, People and Vanity Fair. (The New York Times noted that
Dreyfuss praised Power's "purity of vision.")
In some ways, her age is a distinct
advantage - the site's tone seems more genuinely teen-oriented than
another sites. But it also has its drawbacks, as she takes her share of
flak for being the teenage head of a Web startup. "It was really hard
two years ago, when I was 13," she says. "People would laugh at me. It
was like, 'Go play with your Barbies.'"
Power's interest in the Internet began in
fall 1998, during a particularly difficult eighth-grade year (she
switched schools and "was going through the 'no friends' stage"). The
result was a photo-filled Web page, which she named Goosehead after a
childhood incident in which she accidentally decapitated a goose-shaped
lawn ornament. She promoted it in chat rooms and listed it on search
engines, and it caught on and started receiving up to 40,000 hits per
day.
Encouraged, she decided she wanted to
"professionalize" the site and began e-mailing Webmasters whose pages
she admired to ask for advice. When her stepfather found out she was
corresponding with adult men, he got involved and to his surprise,
found that many of the Webmasters genuinely wanted to help her build
the site into a Web business. "Ashley had some pretty grandiose ideas,"
Schilder says. "I truly don't think she anticipated where she was going
or how much was involved."
Two years later, with the financial help
of Ashley's parents and funding from several private investors, some of
whom were the Webmasters Ashley had originally e-mailed for advice, the
redesigned site launched in February.
The streaming Web show Whatever stars
Power and is loosely based on the part of her life that's not involved
with the company. She lives in Studio City, Calif., with her parents,
mom Michelle and stepfather Schilder, who co-own an advertising agency,
and a 2-year-old brother. (Stepdad Schilder says that both parents make
six-figure salaries and put any of her income from Goosehead, including
the proceeds from the book deal, into a trust fund for Power.)
The site, which contains Web shows, chat
rooms, message boards, homework help, horoscopes and advice from
Ashley, has been criticized for its straightforward information about
teen sexuality and for the glamorous, borderline-risque photos of Power
displayed on almost every page.
The company's marketing decision to post
so many photos of Power is one she says she has mixed feelings about.
But partners in the company aren't afraid to admit that the site
wouldn't be what it is without the looks and personality of its
15-year-old founder. "This is a time of the Internet where it's hard to
get press, and that has not been a problem for us," says Pat Galvin, an
investor who originally became involved with the company when Power
e-mailed him to ask for Web-building advice.
"Adults may think we are not mature
enough to handle some things," she says. But, "I don't really like to
be talked down to," and most teens don't, she says.
While much of the press has been
skeptical of her actual involvement with the site, staff and investors
say she handles the content, while her stepfather and company partners
handle the business end. "She's an incredibly mature person for being
15 years old," Galvin says. "Nothing happens here that she's not
involved in."
The one aspect of the Web site that is
all Power's is the voice and the content. (On the Web site she writes:
"I take out the garbage, pick up dog crap, keep my room in complete
chaos (just to drive my parents insane), and I'm getting my learner's
permit soon, which I'm totally excited about.")
What makes the site different from other
teens' Web pages are Power's business ambitions and her understanding
that the "by-teens-for-teens" approach is the way to reach the
desirable GenerationI demographic. In a way, the site is the ultimate
peer-to-peer approach for building a Web site.
That said, Goosehead faces serious
obstacles to succeeding in the online teen space. The site itself is
not profitable. Several better-funded teen entertainment sites have
shut their doors - Kibu.com closed last week, and MXGOnline folded last
month. But the company's investors are banking on Goosehead's strategy
of taking online content offline, in the hopes that teens catch on to
the brand, and they're also betting on the fact that their figurehead
will tap into the teen market.
"My life seems to be a little hectic
because of Goosehead and running a company," she writes on the site.
"But, it can also be fun, and I give total props to anyone doing it,
adult or teenager."
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