Nirav Tolia Cofounder, Epinions

Nirav Tolia: I wasn't sort of desperately looking for the right reason to exit. However, I was open to being inspired, if you will. I find that a lot of entrepreneurs in this economy are just inspired. They're passionate about what they're doing. So I wasn't thinking to myself, I need a better job, I need to make more money. It was nothing like that. I was thinking, hmm, I've seen David and Jerry, the founders of Yahoo, create this incredible company, it now has over 2,000 employees. Could I actually try to do the same sort of thing with a group of my friends the way they did? So when I heard this idea for Epinions, it immediately resonated with me. It sort of hit all the things I was looking for in an idea, so I took the plunge.

Jeffrey Rayport: Where were you when you heard about it? And what was it that flipped all those switches and you said, "This is it"?

Tolia: Yeah, it's actually a little bit of a longer story. When I was at Yahoo, I was lucky enough to cofound a nonprofit in Silicon Valley. The nonprofit is called Round Zero, and Round Zero actually refers to what entrepreneurs are before they get round-one financing — basically entrepreneurs without any money. It brings together entrepreneurs once a month to talk about the industry, to talk about how to get financing, to talk about the things that are hot. And I had met all of these people at Round Zero over the three years that I'd founded it. Many of them had come to me and said, "Let's start a company together. Let's actually go build something ourselves." And I always said, "No, I'm in Yahoo. It's a great place to be. I'm learning so much; I want to stay."

One particular guy I met at Round Zero, a friend of mine, Naval Ravikant, who's actually a cofounder of Epinions, had told me at a particular Round Zero event, "I have a great idea for a company. We have to do something together." And I sort of looked at him like, "OK, I've heard this pitch before." I actually said, "Before I even hear the idea, I just want to spend some time together. Because if we start a company together, we're going to be spending 20 hours a day together for months and years. So for the next couple of weeks, let's just hang out, have a good time."

Rayport: You mean, forget the idea for now, let's just get to know one another.

Tolia: That's right. Let's go out for pizza, let's talk about who our favorite football team is, etc. Let's just see if we can coexist as friends and colleagues. So I did that with Naval for a couple of weeks, and we actually didn't kill each other. We actually found a lot of common ground. Then one night, he shared the idea with me. It was actually a Saturday night, and he put this thing up on the whiteboard — it was the concept for Epinions. And I was looking for something that had a lot of potential; that was definitely on my list of things to look for, I was looking for something that was very consumer-facing. Being at Yahoo, one of the great benefits is, you walk down the street and say, "I work at Yahoo," and people smile. They light up, they say, "I love Yahoo, I use it all the time." What a great name. I was looking for that same sort of emotional connection with consumers. And I felt like Epinions had that potential.

And then, finally, I was looking for a real business. When you start a company, it's not just a hobby. It's a real business. You have to have revenue; you have to be held accountable to your investors; you have to be profitable. So those were the three things I was looking for. Something really big, something that was very, very specifically consumer-facing, and something that was a real company.