Episode 389: The Definitive Story of Monster.com with Jeff Taylor

Episode 389 and today’s guest is Jeff Taylor, serial entrepreneur and Founder of Monster.com. About a month ago, the combined entity of Monster & CareerBuilder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It signaled the end of an era and a 31 year run for Monster which is pretty extraordinary. A reflective tribute was added to LinkedIn by Jeff and after reading his post, I immediately reached out, as the story of Monster needed to be told and documented. Thus, I went long form for this interview, a la Joe Rogan style, to bring you the most detailed account of Monster.com from an initial dream to a top 11th or 12th website in the world & a major consumer brand. An initial dream, you might ask… yes… it’s true.  Jeff dreamt of the idea, the brand, and the mascot… which received tremendous pushback from multiple parties in the early days. It’s this story and so many others that we uncover: * The early building blocks of the internet and how groundbreaking Jeff and Monster.com was in terms of being the 454th dot com and posting the first jobs and resumes on the internet. * The debatable too-early acquisition of Monster in the very early innings of the dot com bubble by TMP Worldwide. * Stories of the hypergrowth years at Monster. * Behind the scenes of the, what was first considered a failure then turned iconic - When I Grow Up - Super Bowl commercial. * And what I found to be the most shocking story… which we lead with - the paper napkin agreement between Jeff Taylor and Reid Hoffman for Monster.com to acquire LinkedIn.  Wow - can you imagine what might have happened if Monster’s board didn’t turn the deal down? In addition to the deep dive into the legendary story of Monster, we also discuss Jeff’s background story, other companies he’s built like Eons, and his current company called BoomBand - which is reinventing the resume and building a new AI talent marketplace. The company is still in stealth mode but expects to launch its product late fall. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.