Last year, Mike Tung, the CEO of the revolutionary startup Diffbot, granted me this interview as I was visiting the AOL Offices for the TechCrunch Mobile Disrupt Conference.
And what, you may ask, is Diffbot, and why do I call it “revolutionary”? Diffbot, of which this blogger is a member, essentially picks up where Dabble left off. Dabble is, or was, a company started by Mary Hodder, and which allowed you to paste in a website URL, and extract video and text from it.
I met Mary Hodder at VloggerCon in 2006; at the time she was 10 months into the coding and rolling out of the Dabble platform. Here’s that video:
That’s essentially what Diffbot does today. Diffbot is (OK. Kinda sorta) Dabble with more seed money behind it.
Diffbot was created within the confines of the Stanford Students Enterprises Ventures organization, also called SSE Ventures. I was given a rare tour of the startup company, though I’m more inclined to refer to it as a club. I was introduced via a mutual friend, and after waiting for our initial conversation to finish, gave me the interview you see above.
The video interview tells you about Diffbot and how it started between Mike and his co-founder at Stanford. It’s a great video to introduce you to the SSE Ventures Program, and is a true example of how colleges like “The Farm” are recognizing that they should provide a place for students to grow their tech ideas into viable businesses. Check out what the website for SSE reads:
SSE Ventures is excited to announce the creation of a new SSE program, called SSE Labs.
Formally replacing our seed-funding initiative, SSE Labs aims to bring together the best entrepreneurial
resources from Stanford and Silicon Valley. As the only startup accelerator for Stanford students, it provides the most promising Stanford student entrepreneurs with the opportunity to spend the summer working on their startup companies. With full financial support and the guidance of experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers, and corporations, Labs participants will work and live together to execute their ideas.SSE Labs is the best way for Stanford entrepreneurs to accelerate their companies towards success.
This is a true revolution. A recognition that what students at Stanford are learning can impact society not in the future, but, with a little seed money, today. Diffbot’s a great example of the work of SSE Ventures and the future of American business.
Bill Carroll