The Wall Street Journal ran an article a few days ago about firms that manage online reputations and the emerging importance of building, harvesting, and monitoring your name on the web. As more user generated content floods the web, its becomes crucial to watch your own name and reputation in search results, social news sites, and blogs.

Of course, what would an article about reputation be without a Rapleaf mention? Check out towards the end of the story, Rapleaf gets the nod for being a great way to build an online reputation through commerce.

If you haven’t already started to grow your reputation with Rapleaf and want to start, an easy way to begin is by rating your friends. Sign up here.

And you can read the full Wall Street Journal Article here

The Washington Post just posted an article called The Ol’ Bait and Click, where they cover how far swindlers will go in deceiving online buyers. An example of a typical scam is to sell low priced items, receive positive feedback, sell a larger item, and then screw over the buyer. Unfortunately this happens a lot and this is something we’re trying to solve with Rapleaf.

And speaking of Rapleaf, we’re mentioned towards the end of the 2nd page. Check it out! It’s a great article with some key insight, so I suggest reading it.

And if you want to fight back against these swindlers and promote your reputation, sign up here.

We just launched a product called Upscoop that is really cool. The premise of the site: upload your contacts from your email address book and see what social networking and online community sites your friends use.

We’re featured on TechCrunch. Check it out here:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/26/stalk-your-contact-list-with-upscoop/

Go here to see the Upscoop blog.

The SF Chronicle recently put out an article on startups that penny-pinch in this post-bubble era (compared to the excess of the Web 1.0). And yes, we made the cut (you’ll need to scroll 2/3 of the way down).

We can proudly say that we are really cheap. Dirt cheap. You won’t see us spending thousands of dollars on launch parties. That money could be better used to add more hardware.

We share office space with another startup and that drives our costs down. Our landlord wanted $230 for an official sign on our door…we told them we’ll hold on that (we’d rather use that money to buy more hardware).

We even steal office supplies from our own home and bring them to work. Is that considered theft? No, that’s considered being lean, mean, and Rapleaf green! And more green equates to longevity.

There’s a great article in UC Berkeley’s COE Engineering News about Rapleaf and its origins. Check it out here.

[…] RapLeaf traces its roots to Shah. In the spring of 2005, he was a student in the College’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) program. In his CET class IEOR 190A, he heard a guest lecture on Silicon Valley entrepreneurship by Hoffman, a successful businessman who has founded three companies. After graduating, Shah called Hoffman and pitched him an idea for a system that would make people more ethical. […]

Clancy Nolan writes a piece on Rapleaf in this month’s Venture Capital Analyst magazine from VentureWire.

snips:

Rapleaf, which operates similarly to eBay’s online rating system, is designed to track e-commerce reputations across multiple Web sites and marketplaces. The idea is reminiscent of “whuffie,” Hoffman says, referring to the reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.” In the book, your “whuffie” is a constantly updated rating that measures how much esteem and respect other people have for you. The rating system is instantly viewable to anyone, and determines who gets scarce items like the best housing or a table in a crowded restaurant.

A person’s Rapleaf score is calculated by the number of positive ratings minus the number of negative ratings given by buyers and sellers, and is designed to be integrated with multiple Web sites and platforms. The ultimate goal, Hoffman said, is to make Internet users to act responsibly when buying and selling items. “If we are successful, we literally will create more ethical people in this world,” he said.

Clancy wrote the original Rapleaf funding story in VentureWire. of course, she gets the essence of what we are doing with this quote: “If we are successful, we literally will create more ethical people in this world.” Nothing is more motivating than to have an opportunity to really have a massive positive impact on society.

and others. this video has been posted to thousands of blogs already … and it does have a few small (and extremely uninteresting) quotes from a Rapleaf perspective.

Watch the video

John Sumser has a great post on trust, reputation, and transparency.

John writes the #1 blog and newsletter on the recruiting industry. in his long piece on trust systems, he points to Rapleaf:

Rapleaf is interesting because the rating system is independent of any particular platform. You might call it open source reputation management. Since buyers and sellers inhabit a vast array of sites and universes, the Rapleaf view appears to be platform independence. A single repository of reputation information (hmm, will they spider Amazon and the others?) is a marketplace that can facilitate other markets.

Transparency is the essence of 21st Century organization and management. The twin engines of technology and demographics make it clear that lots of heretofore unused, unneeded and unavailable information will become a part of our economic, social and commercial processes. The things you buy, use, think, inhabit, operate or otherwise consume will come wrapped in an information envelope that makes its history and legacy very apparent.

thanks John!

The San Francisco Chronicle blog has a funny post in yesterday’s blog:
Get some cash and some karma

Snip:

RapLeaf, which is trying to hire three software engineers, has resorted to a $5,000 referral reward to anyone who refers the right candidate.

Hoffman was inspired by KarmaOne, an online job site which offers bounties for referrals.

Bear in mind, these guys are looking for “amazing” staffers. RapLeaf recently hired a marketing person after reviewing 436 resumes.

yeah … and we hired a gorilla.

Eric Mattson, the host of the Marketing Monger Podcast was kind enough to invite me onto his podcast. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to discuss Rapleaf.

check it out here

Rapleaf was mentioned in yesterday’s BusinessWeek online round-up:

What’s the Trick to Selling on the Net?
Build up a reputation for being trustworthy. For the three quarters of a million small businesses that rely primarily on eBay (EBAY), along with hundreds of thousands more that use other sites, the ratings accorded the seller are key in establishing buyer confidence.

A new survey of consumers by Rapleaf.com, a site that helps businesses establish selling “scores,” showed the seller’s reputation to be the most important criterion in closing a sale, followed by the site’s reputation, and the payment methods accepted. More than 70% of buyers sampled reported not doing business with a seller because they didn’t have a sense of trust, and half reported an experience in which the product wasn’t accurately pictured or described.

and special thanks to Scott Allen for putting together the survey that BusinessWeek refers to.

Rapleaf was mentioned in today’s Wall Street Journal in an article on venture capital by Becky Buckman. Buckman is one of the most insightful journalists on venture capital and start-ups. Article was on the front page of today’s (Saturday edition) paper.

She mentions Rapleaf only briefly … but it is our first mention in the Wall Street Journal. snip:

Last month, at a brunch for young techies at the San Francisco home of former PayPal Inc. CEO Peter Thiel, some entrepreneurs dismissed venture capitalists’ transparent efforts to woo them at parties. When Auren Hoffman, the 32-year-old founder of Internet company Rapleaf Inc., saw some venture capitalists had managed to squeeze into the brunch, he said, “They must have crashed.”

VentureWire did a full write-up about Rapleaf today … unfortunately, i have no link to the full story (you need a subscription). but here is a quick quote:

The company is working with 46 various online ecommerce companies and Web sites to integrate Rapleaf’s technology. Rightcart.com and online classifieds site Edgeio.com are two of the start-ups that Rapleaf is working with currently. The market for portable ratings will likely continue to grow, especially as giants like Google Inc. launch their own marketplaces.

Hoffman said that he doesn’t view eBay as a competitor. “The people we are helping may be people that compete with eBay, but we don’t,” he said. “We are focused on classifieds sites and sites like Craigslist.org.”

The San Francisco Chronicle blogs on Rapleaf today:

Rap this!

snip:

RapLeaf, the new San Francisco start-up that aims to let people leave eBay-like feedback on buyers and sellers in a bid to smooth transactions between complete strangers and boost buying confidence on the Web, has raised nearly $1 million in a round led by former PayPal dynamo Peter Thiel.

and this:

Why the name RapLeaf? we ask.

“Why the name eBay?” Hoffman replies.

“Rapleaf is really cool and we fell in love with the name. For some reason, our members love it too. I think they like our cute leaf.

“Plus, it is seven letters or less and the URL was available.”

And leafs are green, the color of the Web2.0 money-making machine.

the blog post was by Jessica Guynn — the new Chron super-reporter covering all things technology.

and she also wrote another post on one of our favorite topics … Whuffie …

Matt Marshall wrote today about Rapleaf closing our angel round … i’ve been getting many inquiries about this story and will devote a longer blog post to this in the future …

yeah … i was reading Roger’s blog and come across his musing on Rapleaf on my Blog!!!???

he writes:

I want a widget/plugin for my blog that will summarise all RapLeaf information in my sidebar.

and makes a call for action:

Anyone developing anything like this for WordPress?

yeah … cool idea. Roger … let us know how we can help.

and … we just put up Rapleaf Forums in the last hour so people can discuss these ideas. people are encouraged to take on this thread there too.

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the very entertaining Cameron Reilly from down under yesterday. Cameron, of course, is the host of G’Day World — one of the top tech podcasts.

G’DAY WORLD! #122 - Auren Hoffman, Rapleaf

Over at SiliconBeat, Matt Marshall writes a long piece on Rapleaf.

Matt is well known for writing smart and detailed write-ups and he nails Rapleaf here (except that called me a “networker” … sigh).

Matt gives a good example transaction in his blog:

For now, here’s how it will work: If Auren buys five U2 tickets from Matt for tomorrow’s show for $150, he can go to Rapleaf after the show and say “Matt is good at selling tickets, he sold me five tickets, they were great, and even
threw in a free parking pass.” Matt then gets an email saying he was rated
positively, and which asks him he wants to rate Auren, the buyer. Matt says:
“Auren, he wasn’t very courteous.”

of course, i’d always be courteous … especially to Matt.