Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs Inc., and now an entrepreneur-in-action at Sequoia Capital is working on a new company called, Project X. Valleywag published some details about the company earlier this week, that has the apparent backing of Mark Cuban, Jon Miller (ex-AOL) and Sequoia Capital, amongst others.
An anonymous tipster tells us that the new company could go under the moniker, Kokua. Kokua, apparently means to help or guide in Hawaiian.
When we checked Calacanis does own the domain and we also saw some interesting screen shots of the new company, though it is hard to say if they really are authentic. While Calacanis didn’t deny the fact that he owned the domain, he declined to comment on further speculation about the nature of his business. (Disclosure: I am one of the dozens of advisers for TechCrunch 20, a conference being put together by Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington)
An unconfirmed outline of the company appears after the fold, and please treat it like that – unconfirmed speculation.
The new company apparently is said to be a blend of Wikipedia and podcasting with a focus on highly lucrative segments like automobiles and video games. Each segment is likely to have a host (compensated perhaps) just like About.com. The host would do a show and build a community that will also help populate the Wiki.
Highly-focused niche content is becoming more valuable these days where Google’s search results leave you clicking in confusion. From a more practical standpoint, the videos and contextual content can generate better AdSense dollars and higher video advertising revenues.
Given that Calacanis has built two studios – one on the left coast and one in New York — our tipster may not be that off the mark.
Om,
Mark Pincus revealed yesterday on his blog that he is an investor in the new project. It’s called Mahalo.
-JLB
http://www.sampletheweb.com/kokua/mocks/kokua.png
http://www.sampletheweb.com/kokua/mocks/kokua-1.tiff
http://www.sampletheweb.com/kokua/mocks/Kokua3.png
http://www.sampletheweb.com/kokua/mocks/kokua.png
I think it’s a smart place to play. We’ve had a lot of talks with publishers and other people on the traditional media side this past quarter and automotive is allegedly hot online right now. Gaming’s a no-brainer of course, and it’s really such an underserved market in a lot of areas, I think you can slip into one of those holes and do well.
Very interesting.
Seriously??? Kokua???
Lets see what Kokua tells us? I can’t see that become a popular phrase.
I’m going to kokua PSP3!
Nah. Jason loves playng and it surely is much fun for him to quickly make a screenshot on his 24″ iMac. I’m sure he has already gotten this far with Photoshop.
Jason said late last year in one of his “beta” podcasts that he liked the word Mahalo so much that he bought the domain and that he might use it some day…
Kokua is a music festival held to benefit the non-profit organization founded by Jack Johnson (jackjohnsonmusic.com) in Hawaii.
Probably not very insightful, but what can I say, I’m a JJ fan.
http://kokuafestival.com/
Dumb name for a good concept. Calacanis has the experience to make this work but the real challenge is going to be standing out amongst the crowd here. Steve Case’s online health venture is growing rapidly but one wonders if this is just a game of constant re-investment into marketing and product development which is great for consumers but doesn’t lead to much ROI for the investors/founders.
“Lets see what Kokua tells us? I can’t see that become a popular phrase. I’m going to kokua PSP3!”
hee hee. just like ‘Google’. what kind of a silly word is that.
Umm, isn’t this called About.com?