Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial and never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia and an angel investor, died final month at age 41 resulting from “problems from a recurrent mind tumor,” based on a report mail attributed to his household and revealed on Genius.
The startup world appears to have realized of his passing simply this weekend, and quite a few tributes have appeared on Platform X, together with former TechCrunch writer-turned-investor Josh Constine, who as soon as interviewed Moghadam and his founders on Genius when the corporate was all nonetheless in its relative infancy and known as Rap Genius. Wrote to Konstina: “Relaxation in peace, Mahbod. A fancy, abrasive and generally problematic man, however on the identical time really humorous, good and at all times distinctive“
Moghadam most not too long ago lived in Los Angeles, the place, after spending about 20 months on the enterprise capital agency Mucker Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence, he centered partially on growing schemes to assist creators receives a commission extra immediately for his or her work.
One such latest mission was HellaDoge, a short-lived social media platform that supplied to pay its customers Dogecoin to put up Dogecoin-related content material for the good thing about the remainder of the platform’s customers. The official thought was that, in contrast to Fb or Twitter, which themselves generate promoting income primarily based on the participation of their customers, HellaDoge customers would immediately profit from their participation.
IN interview 11 months in the past with on-line media In response to 2 Hip Hop, Moghadam talked a couple of comparable thought for an organization known as “Communagram” the place he stated “you might join your Venmo and [as a creator] simply receives a commission for utilizing it,” somewhat than counting on Spotify or YouTube to receives a commission.
Moghadam’s curiosity in how individuals can and will receives a commission dates again to 2009. After graduating from Yale College after which Stanford Regulation Faculty, he grew to become a lawyer simply because the economic system collapsed in 2008. In the identical interview final 12 months, Moghadam stated he was “simply tiptoeing” across the workplaces of the legislation agency the place he received his first job – Dewey & LeBoeuf – and praying he would not get fired.
When the inevitable occurred—Moghadam stated the legislation agency “ended up simply giving us some cash to go away”—he used the cash to co-found Rap Genius with two of his Yale buddies: Ilan Zechory and Tom Lehman.
The location initially invited customers to remark and clarify lyrics to hip-hop songs, however it will definitely grew to become so well-known that rappers gravitated to the platform to clarify their very own lyrics, in addition to appropriate customers who misrepresented them, together with rapper Nas. who grew to become an advisor and one of many first buyers.
By the point Rap Genius hit the TechCrunch Disrupt stage in Could 2013, all three had obtained funding from Andreessen Horowitz and have been on the verge of rebranding Rap Genius as Genius and increasing their attain.
However Moghadam additionally started drawing consideration to the annotation firm for belligerent habits, each private and non-private. In November 2013, he attributed his poor habits to a benign fetal mind tumor, which was eliminated throughout emergency surgical procedure. Nevertheless, he continued to push the boundaries of what was potential. Certainly, in 2014, after posting tasteless feedback within the type of annotations following the publication of a mass assassin’s manifesto on the Genius platform, Moghadam resigned on the urging of Lehman, who was the corporate’s CEO.
Moghadam later co-founded Everipedia, a now-defunct blockchain-based decentralized encyclopedia that allowed customers to create pages on any subject so long as the content material was impartial and cited.
When it got here to an finish, he joined Mucker Capital.
On reflection, Moghadam expressed dismay that Genius members weren’t paid for serving to create the platform. “The one purpose Genius can get away with slaving away lyrics is as a result of individuals love the music a lot,” he stated in an interview with In response to 2 Hip Hop final 12 months.
In any case, the corporate fell in need of its ambitions, failing to succeed in far past its core viewers of rap followers and unsuccessfully suing Google for copying and putting its lyrics on the prime of search outcomes to draw customers who may in any other case go to Genius.
In 2021 it was offered for $80 million – lower than half was obtained from enterprise buyers – into the holding firm.
In the meantime, Moghadam by no means reached the identical heights professionally as he did within the early days of Genius, despite the fact that he remained extremely regarded by lots of Genius’s most ardent followers, showing on varied podcasts the place enthusiastic hosts fawned over him .
Moghadam additionally by no means forgave Lehman and was nonetheless attempting to sue the corporate as of final 12 months, attempting to “squeeze some juice out of this rock,” he stated in an interview final 12 months.
Criticizing the brand new house owners of Genius, Moghadam added that “no less than [original] CEO [Lehman] immediately constructed Genius along with his personal two arms. He is a nerd. That is the one benefit of it.”