Description: ALL right, class, here’s your homework assignment: Devise an app. Get people to use it. Repeat. That was the task for some Stanford students in the fall of 2007, in what became known here as the “FacebookClass.” No one expected what happened next. The students ended up getting millions of users for free apps that they designed to run on Facebook. And, as advertising rolled in, some of those students started making far more money than their professors.

Source: NYTimes.com

Date: 05/07/2011

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/technology/08class.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business

Questions for discussion:

• How is this venture capital model different from conventional thinking?
• Do you see any flaws in the concept?
• Is this contributing to a bubble or are the valuations paid for these apps justified?