>> ... Next Generation ...

Big Money
For Agig Idea

H

Ilan Zechory aims to
annotate the world
through Genius.com .

ALLAN NAHAJEWSKI I CONTRIBUTING WRITER

secure multi-million-dollar investments.
The project's first major investor was billionaire venture
capitalist Ben Horowitz. The second was Gilbert. It's a
relationship that began with a chance encounter.
"I went to a Lions game with a friend on
Thanksgiving," Zechory says. "My friend recognized Dan's
son, who he had met before. We were invited up to their
suite. Dan was there, and his other son was there. Dan's
sons both knew about Rap Genius and loved it. Dan
heard about it from me, but also saw his kids' reaction
to it and realized that maybe this was a big deal. He
invited me to come show him more about it the following
Monday.
"That's when I met some of the people on his team
and took the tour of Detroit operations. I also gave him
a presentation on what's going on under the hood of
our site. I brought my grandfather, who's a Detroiter. He
was impressed, and it was fun to have him with me on a
business trip. In a way, it was a storybook kind of thing."
Zechory said the terms of the investment involve hiring
Rap Genius and Nap Genius: Ilan Zechory takes a selfie
Growing Up With Rap
with his grandfather Allen Zemmol outside Penn Station
designers, engineers, editors and community leaders to
Zechory, 30, now lives in Brooklyn, but has fond memories in New York.
continue to build Genius.com , and then figure out a way
of growing up in Southfield and Beverly Hills.
to turn it into a business.
"My parents made me go to Hebrew School, and
"The return will come when we become part of the
I made them stop at 7-Eleven on the way to get me
He typed "good jobs, New York" in Google. The result?
fabric of the Internet," he says.
SweeTarts. I did a bar mitzvah with Cantor Greenbaum and
"I got a job at Google."
Plans include bringing the annotation model to other
Rabbi Nelson at Beth Shalom. My great-grandmother lived a
In New York, Zechory moved in with fellow Yale alumnus
websites. "Soon, we'll release tools that will enable all
couple of blocks away, so we would always go to her house,
Tom Lehman.
websites to be annotated," he said. "Even today, you can
walk back from services sometimes, eat and hang out and
"He was working at a hedge fund, but together on
add any text you want to Genius, annotate it here and then
tell stories."
weekends, we were constantly collaborating on other
embed it on your website."
Zechory says he fell in love with rap music at an early age.
projects and ideas," he said. "We wanted to come up with
Genius.com has 24 employees in Brooklyn.
"I remember going on a trip with my family to Israel when
something so we could quit our jobs, become entrepreneurs
"We're trying to be the worldwide knowledge
I was 11 or 12," he said. "I just got a Sony Discman, and all
and have some freedom in our lives."
community," Zechory says. "Imagine Twitter meets
I had was a couple of rap CDs — Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. I
Five years ago, a discussion on the meaning of rap lyrics
Wikipedia. It's like a Twitter for knowledge, or a more-fun
brought them to Israel, listening to them over and over again
led to an idea to provide an online forum to invite other rap
Wikipedia." ❑
in the back seat of the car, memorizing the songs.
enthusiasts in on the dialogue. And with that, RapGenius.
"I've always been into it, but never thought it would
com was born. Today, the site has 1.3 million iPhone app
EVENTS
become part of my career. At certain points, I thought I was
downloads and 6,900 five-star reviews.
going to be a scientist or a writer, but I really didn't think
The initial intent of the website was to keep the focus on
about business at all."
rap lyrics.
After graduating from Birmingham Groves, Zechory went
"But the community had a bigger vision," Zechory says.
to Yale, where he majored in religious studies.
"It wasn't long before Rap Genius housed the collected
"I wanted to do something creative — maybe writing,
works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, the speeches of
whether it was journalism or creative writing. I got into
Abraham Lincoln, poetry by T.S. Eliot and Langston Hughes,
Spend the weekend a
screenwriting and fiction writing in college, so I thought that
TV and movie scripts, Chipotle's menu, the back of a Tylenol
Tamarack.
was going to be my career path.
bottle, the roster of the 1986 New York Mets, and that
"I picked religious studies because it allowed you to do
dream you keep having where your teeth fall out — all
research," he said. "It was really like journalism — studying
lovingly and carefully annotated."
EXTGen Detroit, in conjunction with
how people live, what their religious lives were like and
While in New York, Zechory also become interested in
Partners Detroit, is holding its next Good
what meaning it gives to their lives. It was like creative
hypnotherapy. "I hypnotized my friends and their friends to
Shabbos Detroit Friday, Sept. 5 — Sunday,
nonfiction."
help them quit smoking or quit biting their nails. It grew into
Sept. 7, at the Butzel Retreat Center at Tamarack
Zechory's knack for writing eventually led him to Los
a business. For awhile, I was seeing 20 clients a week, also
Camps in Ortonville. Check-in time is 6 p.m. The
Angeles, where he wrote screenplays for the Emmy award-
doing Rap Genius at the same time. That's how I was making
cost is $50 if you register before Aug. 27; $65 if
winning HBO series, Deadwood.
money."
you register Aug. 28-29. Register at https://action.
While he enjoyed writing, he did not like living in Los
Does he still practice hypnotherapy?
jewishdetroit.org/events/goodshabos/gsd_2014_
Angeles.
"Ask Dan Gilbert."
shabbaton. For information, call Rachel Taubman at
"When I left L.A., I came home to Detroit for a few
(248) 205-2545.
months and spent some time with my family," he said. "I
Funding The Project
decided to look for a job in New York."
Zechory was joking, of course. It takes more than hypnosis to

ow did Ilan Zechory, co-founder of a website
for analyzing rap lyrics, garner a $40 million
investment from Dan Gilbert?
It's an improbable story, involving a trip
to Israel as a boy, religious studies at Yale, hypnotherapy,
a chance encounter at a Detroit Lions game on
Thanksgiving and some big thinking.
The story's end has not been written yet, but the
process is under way to convert RapGenius.com , one
of the top 90 websites in the country, into Genius.com ,
a Talmud-like forum for annotating the world's total
knowledge base.
"The Internet contains multitudes. It is the greatest
store of knowledge in human history," Zechory says. "But
so often we flit from page to page without ever diving in.
We believe that an Internet that is Genius-powered will
help us all realize the richness and depth in every line of
text."
That's the vision. Here's the story.

od Shabbos

N

❑

JN

August 28 • 2014

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