I join Yahoo….

March 15th, 2007

Well, after a long hiatus from blogging, I have news. I have officially joined Yahoo!. We’ve been in talks for a while and it all came together recently.

Mike has the story over here.

At Yahoo, I’ll be running the Brickhouse, the program spearheaded and created by Caterina Fake, inside Bradley Horowitz’s Advanced Development Division (ADD). The Brickhouse is all about launching ground-breaking new product opportunities – Yahoo Pipes was the first product launched in this style. There are several more exciting ideas in the pipeline (pun intended!)

While I’ve gotten used to launching startups – Confabb was number seven and I had two others in production, the opportunity to do the same thing at the world’s largest internet company was too much to pass.

I spoke on a panel with Bradley and Marissa Mayer of Google about 18 months ago and was very impressed with his openness and vision. Google is, well, amazing in it’s own right, but Yahoo’s mission of connecting people to their passions and communities hits closer to my own view of how technology should be leveraged.

The folks at Yahoo! have been great and I’m hugely impressed with the culture, professionalism and drive at the company. I can’t wait to get started. Caterina’s enthusiasm and passion to get Brickhouse created should be much congratulated and I intend to keep that spirit alive!

I’m going to actively stay Chairman of Confabb (see my cool blog badge on the right!) – we’ve just brought on David Dell to be CEO and are in talks with several investors, and I can stay an advisor to the other startups I’ve been coaching/guiding.

I’ve always been passionate about innovation, and now I get to do that at the world’s largest internet company. Sweet.

I’ll be blogging more frequently about innovation in general and the process behind how it occurs (it fascinates me), so stay tuned!

Entry Filed under: Blogging

44 Comments Add your own

  • 1. John Keegan  |  March 15th, 2007 at 1:10 am

    Congrats! Great news, Salim!

    I am sure you will have a great success there, and we’ll all be looking forward to the first of many innovations that will be incubated at Yahoo with you at the helm of Brickhouse…

    Best of luck to you!

  • 2. Salim Ismail To Head Yaho&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 1:46 am

    [...] Tomorrow they’ll announce that Salim Ismail, a non-Yahoo entrepreneur, has been hired to run Brickhouse. He takes over from interim head (and Flickr co-founder) Caterina Fake, who will take a new role at Yahoo. [...]

  • 3. keith bohanna  |  March 15th, 2007 at 2:00 am

    Have a ball Salim :-)

    keith

  • 4. AIT  |  March 15th, 2007 at 2:08 am

    Hello Salim,
    Congrats! I’ve been following your news through TechCrunch. As an entrepreneur who’s still trying to get his first attempt running, I must say you keep me going.
    I am an MIT student finishing my SB in CompSci. I was wondering if Brickhouse has any place for a passionate web 2.0 believer like me.
    Good luck and all the best.
    Thanks,
    AIT

  • 5. Oh I wish I was Salim Ism&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 4:21 am

    [...] Salim Ismail, a high tech veteran entrepreneur (Pakistani?), has just been asked to head Yahoo!’s Brickhouse, and what a job it is. [...]

  • 6. Conor O'Neill  |  March 15th, 2007 at 4:58 am

    That’s wonderful news Salim, hearty congratulations! I can’t wait to see what comes out of Brickhouse next.

    Hope you can get your hands on a pint of Murphy’s to celebrate :-)

  • 7. Multimedias.mobi » &hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 5:02 am

    [...] Tomorrow they’ll announce that Salim Ismail, a non-Yahoo entrepreneur, has been hired to run Brickhouse. He takes over from interim head (and Flickr co-founder) Caterina Fake, who will take a new role at Yahoo. [...]

  • 8. Sohaib  |  March 15th, 2007 at 5:28 am

    Congrats Salim, your name in the title on Techcrunch grabbed my attention and thats how I came here, good luck and keep us posted!

  • 9. Elatable | Bradley Horowi&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 5:54 am

    [...] Well, not really… I think that you just announced it Mike! Salim confirmed too! But hey, if you’re looking for an official Yahoo! person with a working purple badge to actually confirm… I’ll bite! We hired Salim! He takes over from interim head… [...]

  • 10. Fred Oliveira  |  March 15th, 2007 at 6:24 am

    Salim, good luck! The brickhouse is slowly molding into a pretty exciting endeavor. If it helps push the Yahoo! dynamism forward, I’m all for that.

  • 11. Tariq KRIM  |  March 15th, 2007 at 6:55 am

    congrat Salim,
    are you moving west coast ?

    best,

    tariq

  • 12. Pat Phelan  |  March 15th, 2007 at 7:02 am

    Congrats Salim
    I am out for spring Von next week, hopefully we can get together.
    Well done

  • 13. Catherine Wall  |  March 15th, 2007 at 7:34 am

    Best of luck Salim from all at it@cork!

  • 14. Scripting News for 3/15/2&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 7:43 am

    [...] Salim Ismail, founder of Confabb, has passed the baton to the company’s first CEO — David Dell, ex of The Conference Board, and took a juicy entrepreneurial job at Yahoo. [...]

  • 15. Howard Greenstein  |  March 15th, 2007 at 8:59 am

    Salim:
    All the best in this new role. I wish you much success.

    Howard

  • 16. Serial Entrepreneur Salim&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 9:37 am

    [...] Not a bad choice, considering Ismail has launched seven start-ups – the most recent being Confabb – and has two more in production. Here’s what Ismail had to say on his blog… At Yahoo, I’ll be running the Brickhouse, the program spearheaded and created by Caterina Fake, inside Bradley Horowitz’s Advanced Development Division (ADD). The Brickhouse is all about launching ground-breaking new product opportunities – Yahoo Pipes was the first product launched in this style. There are several more exciting ideas in the pipeline (pun intended!) [...]

  • 17. Becki  |  March 15th, 2007 at 9:55 am

    Salim – Congrats!!!!!

  • 18. Steve Morsa  |  March 15th, 2007 at 10:12 am

    Congrats, Salim.

    You’ve made a great decision; Yahoo’s a wonderful company.

    When you have a few minutes, you may want to take a look at a completely new form of advertising where advertisers will be able to select and bid directly on the actual traits and characteristics of their most desirable customers; instead of (just) the words we all type into search boxes.

    Paid match’s benefits are many, including pinpoint targeting, higher CPCs and CTRs, far easier SMB comprehension, acceptance, and integration; competitive secrecy, and greatly reduced click fraud (fraudsters can’t click on ads they can’t see and can’t find).

    Frankly, there’s never been anything like match engine marketing (MEM)/paid match.

    Nice overview at MatchTo.com; detailed structural and operational information in pending patent #11/250,908.

    Could there be a better way to slow media-darling Google’s continuing advertising march…than a new form of PPC advertising superior to their own Adwords?

    Seems like this should be right up Brickhouse’s alley.

  • 19. Marketing Begins At Home&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 10:53 am

    In the congrats department

    Congrats are due to Salim Ismail who is joining Yahoo! to head up the Brickhouse.
    I’ll let Salim explain…
    The Brickhouse is all about launching ground-breaking new product opportunities – Yahoo Pipes was the first product launched in this s…

  • 20. Shelley  |  March 15th, 2007 at 10:59 am

    What about Catarina? This whole barely started, she started it, and now she’s no longer in the picture?

    What’s the story?

  • 21. Ben Metcalfe  |  March 15th, 2007 at 11:07 am

    Wow, Salim this is amazing news! :)

    Sounds like a cool gig to get stuck into. Congrats.

  • 22. dave mcclure  |  March 15th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    congrats salim… sounds like a great opportunity to innovate from the inside. yahoo can certainly use someone to help them keep up with joneses, and i’m sure brad & team are psyched to have you on board.

    best of luck :)

  • 23. Rodrigo A. SEPULVEDA SCHULZ  |  March 15th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

    hey Salim ! quelle bonnne nouvelle pour toi ! lancer une boite, développer une division de Yahoo! you never stop :)
    cheers,
    rodrigo

  • 24. Jeremiah Owyang  |  March 15th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    Congrats Salim!

  • 25. Salim  |  March 15th, 2007 at 1:12 pm

    Shelley, good question… Caterina was the driving force behind Brickhouse and that’s not going to stop – she’s very much in the picture. I’m relying on her to provide guidance on how to navigate Yahoo and her product guru-ness as we develop ideas.

  • 26. Mike Nicholson  |  March 15th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Congrats and welcome aboard (from another yahoo).

  • 27. Library Stuff » Blo&hellip  |  March 15th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    [...] Congrats to Salim and Yahoo. (via) Posted in Salim Ismail, Yahoo, Brickhouse | Trackback | del.icio.us | Top OfPage [...]

  • 28. Brian Berliner  |  March 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    Salim,

    Awesome news!

    Yahoo’s ADD group is a great place to land, and you have the right style for cranking out the innovations. Many congratulations!

    -Brian

  • 29. Phillip Pearson  |  March 15th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

    Congratulations!

  • 30. kareem  |  March 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    congrats buddy! sounds like it’ll be a great place to be! ;)

  • 31. Sanford  |  March 16th, 2007 at 12:14 am

    Congrats Salim – way to go…

  • 32. MikeD  |  March 16th, 2007 at 10:14 am

    Congratulations on this. This sounds like a tremendous opportunity. Not sure if you remember me but we chatted briefly at the del.icio.us millionth user party on the Y! campus.

  • 33. Mark McArdle  |  March 16th, 2007 at 10:50 am

    Yahoo! is very fortunate to have you. Congratulations!

  • 34. Hassan Qureshi  |  March 16th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

    Congrates!

    With Best Wishes,

  • 35. Perry  |  March 19th, 2007 at 10:05 am

    Salim, sincere congrats – sounds like a fantastic and intriguing challenge!

    Let’s catch up sometime; it’s been too long since the “early pitch days of PubSub”…
    Cheers, Perry Evans

  • 36. colbert  |  March 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am

    congrats from me too….Throws confetti all around..Yahoo!

  • 37. Tal  |  March 19th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    Congrats, Salim. Sounds like a great position for you. Can’t wait to hear how you launched Confabb.com on your own dime(s), as I am trying to do something similar — but obviously much different — and need inspiration on the organizational/developmental front. I really don’t want to look for outside investors that are concerned with exit strategies, etc. (and perhaps we differ on that particular point), but want to find a team of passionate folks that share the vision and are willing to invest their own time, if not their own money, in making it happen. I also wonder how an entrepreneur gets a meeting with someone at Brickhouse–and how they protect their idea if they do get a meeting (NDAs are rather useless, no?). (Just FYI, I do have some business experience: I am a co-founder/co-owner of two companies, but neither is a technology-based company.) In some sense I feel like my idea would be a good fit with the goals of Brickhouse (it is definitely a “Web 2.0″ idea, for what that is worth), but I am also very idealistic in terms of what kind of company I want it to be, and am not willing to compromise at all in that regard. It’s not that I think getting ‘big’ is necessarily ‘bad’, it’s just that I’d rather be a Patagonia than a Nike.
    Anyway, best of luck in your new position!

    Tal

  • 38. Marc’s Voice »&hellip  |  March 20th, 2007 at 8:11 am

    [...] They’ve got Ismail. Salim goes to Yahoo – good for him. And Yahoo. No wonder he was waving at me out of his car the other day on 101. [...]

  • 39. Web Strategy by Jeremiah &hellip  |  March 22nd, 2007 at 6:23 am

    [...] Last night, Salim greeted each guest and presented them with a drink ticket, and enjoyed the jokes and appreciation. You may also know that Salim has recently joined Yahoo, and is heading up their skunkworks team, which will yield some exciting products. I wonder what additional innovation will come out of Yahoo, I’ve got great interest after hanging with YPN, Pipes, and MyBlogLog teams. [...]

  • 40. The Next Wave » Web&hellip  |  June 20th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

    [...] Made some amazing connections: Jason Fried at 37signals, Zaga Novakovic from centiv, the wonderful people at duo consulting who put the whole show on, Calvin Hendryx-Parker of Six Feet Up, and Salim Ismail who just joined Yahoo as the “head of Brickhouse” (which is the new product dev center). [...]

  • 41. Ken Maier  |  December 10th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    I think this is a quantum leap forward for Yahoo and believe that it could yield stellar results. Curious what plans Yahoo has for automating the idea collection and management process and when they will open it up to the rest of the world…..

  • 42. John Hind  |  February 24th, 2009 at 9:24 am

    We would like to request a fee quote for a kenote address by Salim Ismail for the following User Conference events: Sept ‘09, Florida and Nov ‘09, Spain.

    Please contact me with details or put me in touch with someone who can.

    Many thanks,
    John Hind
    International Speakers Bureau

  • 43. A week of amazing people&hellip  |  April 15th, 2009 at 7:42 am

    [...] happened yet but hopefully one day. Today was a day of dreams I met with Patrick Collison, Salim Ismail, Brad Garlinghouse, Craig Walker and finally the boss man himself Michael Arrington Mike invited me [...]

  • 44. Salim joins Yahoo!&hellip  |  February 18th, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    [...] see Salim reporting that he has started a new job with Yahoo! Congrats [...]

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