Chris Richmond (entrepreneur)

Chris Richmond (born July 29, 1986) is an American businessperson and entrepreneur.[2] He founded a television streaming site called ShareTV.com, co-founded an adtech platform called Proper Media and acquired websites such as TV Tropes, Snopes, and Salon.com.[3][4][5]

Chris Richmond
Born
Christopher Richmond

(1986-07-29) July 29, 1986
Oakland, California,[1] U.S.
Occupations

Career

Richmond founded his first large website in 2007, called ShareTV.com.[6] This became one of the first online distribution partners of HULU and TheWB,[7] and was one of first sites to stream the Oscars online.[7]

In 2014, Richmond, along with his business partner Drew Schoentrup, acquired TV Tropes, a wiki geared toward fiction writers.[8] To announce the purchase, Richmond and Schoentrup launched a Kickstarter campaign to ask the members for their help in improving the project. The campaign raised more than $100,000 in donations.[9]

In 2015, Richmond co-founded an adtech platform called Proper Media. Its first official client was Snopes.com, the largest and oldest fact-checking website on the web.[10] After a year, Proper Media purchased[11] a significant stake in Snopes.com. There was a legal dispute[12] regarding whether Proper Media purchased 50% or 40% of Snopes.com. The dispute started in 2017 and continued until 2022, when Richmond and Schoentrup bought out all other shareholders of Snopes.[13][14]

In 2018, Richmond helped with his 3rd acquisition by acquiring Spoutable.com under Proper Media.[15] This acquisition added eight employees and nearly doubled the reach of Proper Media.[16]

In 2019, Richmond and his business partner completed the acquisition of Salon.com for $5 million from Salon Media Group (OTCQB: SLNM).[5][17]

In 2021, after 6 years of year over year growth with Richmond as CEO, Proper Media was sold to Sovrn Holdings. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.[18]

In 2022, Richmond took over as CEO of Snopes after completing the transaction with Schoentrup to buy out the other shareholders.[14][19]

Cybersquatting case

Richmond started out at ShareTV.org and was completely unable to obtain the commercial equivalent, ShareTV.com, from a cybersquatter. In 2013, Richmond won a lawsuit for ShareTV.com against the cybersquatter, despite the fact that they owned the domain seven years before ShareTV began its trademark.[20]

Snopes.com lawsuit

As of 2016, Richmond was engaged in a lawsuit against Snopes over whether he and Drew Schoentrup own 50% or 40% of Snopes.[21][22] As a result of this dispute, ad revenue was withheld from Snopes.com and its founder David Mikkelson launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep Snopes.com running.[23]

References
  1. Dorset, Catlin (29 July 2015). "30(ish) Under 30(ish)". San Diego Union Tribune. Pacific San Diego. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  2. Weiner, Yitzi (15 February 2018). "How I Hacked HULU to get Warner Brothers to Call, With Chris Richmond". Medium. Thrive Global.
  3. Madrigal, Alexis C. (24 July 2017). "Snopes Faces an Ugly Legal Battle". The Atlantic.
  4. Funke, Daniel (20 March 2018). "Snopes has its site back. But the legal battle over its ownership will drag on for months". Poynter. Poynter Institute.
  5. Kelly, Keith J. (2019-09-04). "Techies wrap up $5M acquisition of Salon Media". New York Post. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  6. "About Us – ShareTV". sharetv.com. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  7. Andreeva, Nellie (2013-02-24). "Oscar Telecast To Be Available Online For The First Time". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  8. Sterling, Bruce. "TV Tropes, the all-devouring pop-culture wiki". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  9. "The TV Tropes Revitalization Project". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  10. Waddell, Kaveh. "Should Facebook Buy Snopes?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  11. "For Fact-Checking Website Snopes, a Bigger Role Brings More Attacks". The New York Times. 2016-12-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  12. "Snopes, the internet's foremost fact-checking website, may die in a messy legal battle". Vox. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  13. "Disclosures". snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  14. "Snopes Co-Owners Acquire All Remaining Shares of the Company, Bringing Total Stake to 100%". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  15. Bigelow, Bruce (12 March 2018). "Xconomy: Proper Media Acquires Spoutable, Last Piece of Venture Studio". Xconomy.
  16. Media, Proper (27 February 2018). "Proper Media Acquires Spoutable.com". www.prnewswire.com. Proper Media. PRNewswire.
  17. "slnm20190905_8k.htm". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  18. "Publisher-Focused Tech Startup Sovrn Acquires Proper Media | Built In Colorado". www.builtincolorado.com. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  19. "Inside Snopes: the rise, fall, and rebirth of an internet icon". www.fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  20. "Troubling: Federal Court Gives ShareTv.com To ShareTv.Org Despite.Com Registered 3 Years Earlier & 7 Years Before TM". TheDomains.com. 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  21. Bruno, Bianca (10 May 2017). "Fact-Checker Snopes' Owners Accused of Corporate Subterfuge". Courthouse News Service.
  22. "Snopes, in Heated Legal Battle, Asks Readers for Money to Survive". The New York Times. 2017-07-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  23. "Snopes and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
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