A decade after being banned from Wall Street, the former internet analyst now runs a business website. He talks about redemption, regrets and market madness
His formula for Business Insider is a mix of instant comment on Fed announcements and iPhone launches with click-chasing lists and, increasingly, in-depth reporting. A slideshow of “the sexiest CEOs alive” earned 2m views but 20,000-word profiles of Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and AOL’s Tim Armstrong got as many clicks between them. This blend of lowbrow and highbrow is not unlike a newspaper, Blodget argues, where “the dining and motoring sections pay for the Iraq bureau”. But, with headlines such as “11 Elon Musk quotes that show his genius”, is it prone to hype? “I have seen what it is like to be utterly savaged in the press. I have also seen what it is like to be absurdly lionised,” he says. What he tells his team is that “somebody doing something stupid doesn’t make them an idiot”.
Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget delivered the following presentation put together with the help of the BI Intelligence team
