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Curated playlist

Companies based in San Francisco

  • IGNIGN began in 1996 as five separate gaming websites. Sites like N64.com and PSXPower later merged into one brand.
  • InstagramInstagram grew out of a failed check-in app called Burbn. Its makers kept the photo feature users liked most.
  • RedditReddit began in 2005 with hundreds of fake users. The founders needed the empty site to look alive.
  • DoorDashDoorDash began as a Stanford student website called PaloAltoDelivery.com. It launched in January 2013.
  • Salon.comSalon.com once asked ad-blocker users to let it mine Monero on their computers. It was a 2018 experiment.
  • Bleacher ReportOne Bleacher Report writer spent three years there and earned $200. He wrote over 500 articles for the site.
  • GoodreadsGoodreads began in 2007 as a way to copy browsing a friend's bookshelf. It had 800 users then.
  • LucasfilmLucasfilm began on the 10th of December 1971, when filmmaker George Lucas founded it in Marin County, California. Today it is best known for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and for pushing the craft of special effects, sound and computer…
  • AirbnbAirbnb began with an air mattress in a San Francisco living room. Roommates short on rent hosted guests in 2007.
  • Visa Inc.Visa does not issue credit cards, extend credit, or set your interest rate. Banks build on its payment network.
  • AnthropicAnthropic finished training Claude in 2022 and then held it back for months.
  • The AthleticIn 2022, The New York Times Company paid $550 million for the sports site The Athletic.
  • MasterClassMasterClass began as a Stanford student's business and opened with just three instructors.
  • Business WireIn 2000, Business Wire ended its fifteen-minute head start for financial outlets on company news.

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