1. Have the "right kind" of founders, Ivy League, brash and exciting and magnets for press. Also have the "right kind" of company, lots of coders and claims of having an engineering culture.
2. Have a somewhat successful user generated content site.
3. Mutter some generalities about how we're "not just X man, we're like totally X for the entire internet"
I'm not a huge fan of the founders or the overall biz model (if there was one) but when they raised a bunch of money they did have pretty solid traction with users and that can sometimes be enough for VCs to take a gamble. $15m was entirely too much money. But that was a particularly frothy time. I don't think that deal would get done today.
They raised $56.8 million at a valuation of close to a billion dollars for a site that at the time was basically a lyrics site with not bad UI and SEO.
Not bad UI, but I wouldn't call the site good UI by any stretch. It loads fast and is simplistic, two things I appreciate, but it definitely lacks something. And whats with that logo?
2. Have a somewhat successful user generated content site.
3. Mutter some generalities about how we're "not just X man, we're like totally X for the entire internet"
4. ??
5. Profit