Intersection of Community and Commerce

Jeff Housenbold, Shutterfly

Jeff Housenbold, CEO of Shutterfly, recalls how he learned that merging community with commerce was the winning ticket in business online. He recounts his days at Raging Bull, an upstart financial vehicle that knocked the larger, more established players out of the ring. It's secret? The site was bullish on building community and responsive to its users, resulting in millions of users in just a few short months. Furthermore, Housenbold credits the financial portal with two ubiquitous contributions to Web culture: The "off-topic" and "block this user" functions that are commonplace today.