| Chris Richmond | |
| Birth Name: | Christopher Richmond |
| Birth Date: | 29 July 1986 |
| Birth Place: | Oakland, California,[1] U.S. |
| Occupation: | |
Chris Richmond (born July 29, 1986) is an American businessman and entrepreneur.[2] He founded a television streaming site called ShareTV.com, co-founded an adtech platform called Proper Media and acquired websites such as TV Tropes, Snopes, and Salon.com.[3] [4]
Richmond founded his first large website in 2007, called ShareTV.com.[5] This became one of the first online distribution partners of HULU and TheWB,[6] and was one of first sites to stream the Oscars online.[6]
In 2014, Richmond, along with his business partner Drew Schoentrup, acquired TV Tropes, a wiki geared toward fiction writers.[7] To announce the purchase, Richmond and Schoentrup launched a Kickstarter campaign to ask the members for their help in improving the project. The campaign raised more than $100,000 in donations.[8]
In 2015, Richmond co-founded an adtech platform called Proper Media. Its first official client was Snopes.com, the largest and oldest fact-checking website on the web.[9] After a year, Proper Media purchased[10] a significant stake in Snopes.com. There was a legal dispute[11] regarding whether Proper Media purchased 50% or 40% of Snopes.com. The dispute started in 2017 and continued until 2022, when Richmond and Schoentrup bought out all other shareholders of Snopes.[12]
In 2018, Richmond helped with his 3rd acquisition by acquiring Spoutable.com under Proper Media.[13] This acquisition added eight employees and nearly doubled the reach of Proper Media.[14]
In 2019, Richmond and his business partner completed the acquisition of Salon.com for $5 million from Salon Media Group .[15]
In 2021, after 6 years of year over year growth with Richmond as CEO, Proper Media was sold to Sovrn Holdings. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.[16]
In 2022, Richmond took over as CEO of Snopes after completing the transaction with Schoentrup to buy out the other shareholders.[17] [18]
In 2023, Richmond and Schoentrup sold Salon.com for an undisclosed sum. Salon was nearing bankruptcy two decades on, when they bought it, in 2019, for $5 million. Nobody was laid off from the newsroom under Richmond and Schoentrup’s tenure.[19]
Richmond started out at ShareTV.org and was completely unable to obtain the commercial equivalent, ShareTV.com, from a cybersquatter. In 2013, Richmond won a lawsuit for ShareTV.com against the cybersquatter, despite the fact that they owned the domain seven years before ShareTV began its trademark.[20]
As of 2016, Richmond was engaged in a lawsuit against Snopes over whether he and Drew Schoentrup own 50% or 40% of Snopes.[21] [22] As a result of this dispute, ad revenue was withheld from Snopes.com and its founder David Mikkelson launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep Snopes.com running.[23]