What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news.
We weren’t sure what the heck to call this list. Not all these companies failed, so calling it a list of the principals behind “failed companies” just didn’t seem fair or accurate. Some of the folks below are traditionally believed to have driven their companies into the ground, while others are believed to have been strong leaders, but of ultimately unsustainable businesses. Others still are believed to have been visionaries, whose ideas were simply ahead of their times. Some of these companies still exist in some form, so could not strictly be called failures, but others have their pictures in the dictionary next to the word.
The common thread here is that we believe each of the below ten companies was built upon a great idea, and we believe that none of the below ten companies was able to parlay that inspiration – for whatever reasons, be it timing or otherwise – into the cultural prominence or billions of dollars they maybe could or should have. The ten individuals listed below are the names most closely associated with the company in question.
While they’re not all avid social networkers, none of these ten have disappeared altogether. They all have a web presence of some sort. Some have gone on to tremendous success, some maybe have not. But they’re all still out here either making, or trying to make, things happen to varying degrees, and the PeekScores do correspond accordingly.
Are there any failed and/or disappointing and/or not quite what they could have been companies (and the principals behind them) you think we overlooked? Let us know in the comments.
| Rank | Picture | Name | Position, Company | PeekScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 |
Shawn Fanning | Co-Founder, Napster | 8.36 / 10.00 |
| 2 |
|
Brad Fitzpatrick | Founder, LiveJournal | 8.24 / 10.00 |
| 3 |
|
Niklas Zennström | CEO, Kazaa | 8.21 / 10.00 |
| 4 |
|
Jonathan Abrams | Co-Founder, Friendster | 7.25 / 10.00 |
| 5 |
|
Andrew Weinreich | CEO, Six Degrees | 7.13 / 10.00 |
| 6 |
|
Philip Greenspun | Co-Founder, ArsDigita | 6.81 / 10.00 |
| 7 |
|
George Shaheen | CEO, Webvan | 6.29 / 10.00 |
| 8 |
|
Steve Perlman | CEO, WebTV Networks, Inc. | 5.85 / 10.00 |
| 9 |
|
Julie Wainwright | CEO, Pets.com | 5.79 / 10.00 |
| 10 |
|
Joe Park | CEO, Kozmo.com | 5.38 / 10.00 |