Back in the early 2000s, my business partners and I launched a number of websites. Some were successful (CollegeHumor, Vimeo), others were not.
This URL features a detailed, contemporaneous look at of one of the unsuccessful projects, a 2002 "social directory for college students" called Campus Hook. To my knowledge, this is the first time this document has been shared publicly.
It may be of interest to anyone looking at the history of social networking sites, especially the transition from online dating to more general interpersonal interaction.
It may also be interesting in the context of Facebook's history: although we identified a very similar demographic opportunity as the FB founders, we (obviously) failed to win the big prize.
(I contend that we failed because we were simply too old to care about the core product or users; by the time the site went live in early 2003, we were college seniors eager to move to San Diego and begin our adult lives. We could hardly have cared less about dorm-room dating. However, the lack of school email verification -- attributed to the Winklevii years later -- could also have been a determining factor!)
If anyone has questions, I'll keep an eye on this thread and do my best to answer. AMA!
-Jake Lodwick