Adam welcomes CEO of Watchmojo.com Ashkan Karbasfrooshan to the show, calling in via Skype from Montreal, Canada. He describes his website as being like about.com, but in video format—the site has almost 6,000 short form videos on every topic imaginary. ‘You name it, we probably have a video on it’. Adam and Ash discuss how more and more consumers are switching to the internet, and that there’s actually been a threefold growth in the last 18 months to prove this. Adam marvels how you used to go into the other room if you needed to check something on the internet, but now that everything is being combined, we’re sort of right on the border of not having to leave the room anymore. Adam says ‘we’re really gonna kick into high gear over the next five years I imagine.’ Ash breaks everything down to a dichotomy between those who embrace the new media and those who don’t. Adam also talks about the ability to fast forward through commercials, and so advertisers need to find a way to incorporate their products directly into the show. He also says that advertisers have to have more compelling ads. He points out that he stopped for a Dos Equis commercial because he genuinely likes those ads. Ash says, ‘you can’t really rationalize advertising,’ and gives Vanity Fair as an example since they seem to survive solely on social relevance. It reminds Adam of seeing magazines at the hair salon, and he complains that they never have magazines for guys. ‘Don’t dudes get their haircuts??’ Adam asks Ash about Montreal and he says it’s a great city like San Francisco, and very European. He says in general that people are not quite as business oriented in Montreal as they are in the US, and Adam wants to know more about why they aren’t as motivated. Ash mentions Canada’s smaller population and says that it’s ‘in your DNA in the States to compete.’ Adam agrees, saying ‘everybody in the United States is a hustler,’ but he doesn’t mean it in a bad way. Ash says that on average, if you took 100 of each culture, Canadians are not going to be hustlers the way Americans are—again, not in a bad way. He talks about selling his first company to Newscorp, and now that watchmojo.com is taking off, Canadian companies are worried that he’ll go with an American company again. Whenever he asks them what they have to offer, they say nothing. Adam invites Ash to come visit in person next time he comes to LA, but in the meantime definitely check out watchmojo.com. Produced: Donny Misraje Audio: Katie Levine Search: Logan Moy Build and Edit: Katie Levine Show Summary: Matt Fondiler
