Xurpas: I saw them grow

I saw this article about Xurpas, from bubble to bust recently. I classmate who started his business about the same time sent the article to me. He's a successful tech entrepreneur who built his business along with his wife almost at the same time as Xurpas. I guess he was surprised at how badly it went for the IPO. While I wasn't following it closely, it didn't come as a surprise to me since I was told that the IPO raised was used to buy up a bunch of startups around the region and locally. Sadly the startups didn't grow as big as expected and their core business, SMS and mobile content, got affected when Globe Telecom became strict on these content providers when consumers complained that their load was being stolen. 

I got to know the guys early 2000s when they were just starting in their small office. We'd go to meeting together to pitch SMS promotions to ad agencies and brands. At the time was the peak of such activities and they were able to ride the wave of success along with other content providers. They were one of the few who survived and continued to thrive until their IPO. At that, time they were very successful that I they bought themselves (the three partners) a BMW 5 series each within 5 years of when they started. This is all a great story of the highs and lows of entrepreneurial life and I fully expect to see them back on top once again.

I'll link some of the article about the 'bust' below since I didn't want to elaborate much on it.

- Xurpas, from Bubble to Bust

- Xurpas Halts Operation of Singapore Unit

- Xurpas Makes all 6 Director Multimillionares

Fun Content for the Pandemic

Youtube has become my go to platform during the pandemic. I easily spend two or more hours watching videos there. I don't normally subscribe but I consistently watch videos from creators.Vanlife, NBA, cars, ebikes, late night shows are among the consistent content I follow on YouTube. Essentially though, I get trapped by the recommendations but there are some consistent creators I follow. 

I was watching 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' when I discovered one of their segments 'What does Karen know?'. It's a segment where Seth shows Karen, a millennial, a pop culture reference of his youth and checks if she can relate or knows about the picture. At the same time, Karen similarly show a picture of her youth references and checks if Seth knows about it. I found this segment very funny and Karen was a breath of fresh air and made the segment click for me. Below are a couple of segments from previous shows and you can just search for more if you like it.

In this time of pandemic content that makes you smile and laugh are priceless.