Wendy Boswell from about.com Interviews Mr. Femi Olu CEO & Founder of BigClique.com

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(Q) How did you start BigClique?
BigClique was started first as just a hobby for me and I never imagined it would ever grow so fast and have as many "diverse" supporters so quickly. The first idea was to be a niche search engine for the African American / Urban markets BUT after 3 weeks of blasting out the first press release and other online and offline martketing campaigns the then "tiny" BigClique became B I G Clique and I never EVER imagined that I would go in the direction of a major general search engine so fast. What I did was ALWAYS listen to my users good points, bad points, "INSULTS" and constructive criticisms and implemented what they all saw and which I did not or I just overlooked. The reason I call myself a major search engine apart from having a very large index "comparative to when the search engine (bigclique) commenced" is this, I remember Google as an example..., they started back in 1999 or so they never had what I had after just 3 months of starting, so comparatively I am more advanced for the same time period, no investment, no staff and no office, they had all of this. This keeps me going and I never had the outside private funding of the millions of dollars they or any other startup had. I initially started BigClique with just $90,000 (personal funds) and a very basic stripped down version of Nutch/Creative Commons software which today has been totally transformed by my programmers. We have added over 90% custom components and scripts to the initial software and soon it will be customized 100% within 2 months. BigClique is entirely funded from my own funds and I have been an entrepreneur since 1994 and started building search engines/software since 1995.

(Q) How much time do you spend on it?
On average 20 hours per day and it is normal for me not to sleep for up to 3 days in a row then take a wink for about 4 or 5 hours then I am back at it again. I am very happy I had my 3 children with my Wife before I had the "crazy" idea to start BigClique! :-) I know I am in competition with other great search engine companies and they have several hundred employees each, so me working 8 hours per day with a 1 hour lunch break in between, taking two 20 minute coffee breaks, watching "American Idol" and taking the weekends off is not going to work for now. How I work, I know I am in control of the situation and this way works for me personally. This has lead BigClique to be successful and grow quickly. Working from home has many benefits, one being... it keeps me in front and close to my wife and children and this is the most important thing for me.

(Q) Who else is involved?
Well to help with the workload I outsource some of the backend programming to 2 other programmers. I also outsource my web graphics to a web designer and I outsource my call center. I travel alot for my business so my call center enables me to be reachable where ever I am in the world by phone if need be. The people that work with me are all workaholics like myself (LOL!) and believe in BigClique and always go the extra mile for me and without them BigClique could not of grown to what it is today so quickly. I have never seen my workers/partners and all contact is done via Email, ICQ and Skype. It has been this way for about 3 years (it if isn't broke, don't fix it!).

(Q) What do you feel is the most important goal(s) of BigClique at this time?
At this moment I have many important goals for BigClique. I usually work on more than 10 things at once just because of the nature of the search engine business. Saying that though, building the search index, keeping on top of the relevancy of the search results and removing spam websites is a daily task... but one which I have control of and love doing thanks to all the feedback I get from users. As our name suggests, the word "Clique" means a group of people working together and/or with the same interests and this has helped me further the cause of the search engine with like minded users pulling together. I think I have garnered alot of support for the simple reason users see the hard work I am putting into BigClique and I have a hands-on approach to user feedback and I make the end user the top priority.

(Q) How about five years from now where do you see yourselves or hope to see yourselves?
5 years from now BigClique will greatly evolve, the future is very promising and looking very attainable right now. I will take BigClique to Wall Street within 5 years, but ONLY on my terms. I have so many things on the table that if I had private investment I could start on all right away (today). The technology is already in place and completed and with investment I could compete head to head with the 3 major search engines (Yahoo, Google & MSN) within 1 year and start closing the gap overnight. What I can offer, the other search engines cannot put into place so quick just because of thier corporate structure and committed "contracts". BigClique will always be run as "cells" and very "hands-on" like Blogs/Forums where user feedback is read and actioned on ASAP so users can see we listen. I really am not the stereotypical "Corporate" Harvard type of a guy and this freedom allows me to venture into unknown territory and fix problems as they arise and create technical features with no barriers on thought, sometimes having alot of knowledge can be your own downfall. I doubt you will ever see me in a big office 5 years from now as I now run BigClique from my Laptop and a PC from my home. Right now, BigClique is a "sleeping giant" (with two eyes open) a bit like Google back in 1999 and Yahoo & MSN never saw them coming, now look where Google is today (Well done Google!). I think Matt Wells at GigaBlast.com also has alot to offer with his search engine and along with him and a few newer search engines, I think we will give the current major search engines a run for thier money in time to come.

(Q) What makes you excited to work on this most of all, or what keeps you going?
What really gets me going are the users as BigClique was created for them. To see something you created and people utilize is a very nice feeling. When you go to the the major search engines and basically get the same search results this is not good for anyone, this is a monopoly for the few sites that always are number 1 to 10 in the search results. Now I possess relatively the same search engine technology I can assure you that many of those top 3 or 10 search results have NOTHING to do with seo or relevancy but undisclosed PAID adverts for specific keywords. This is very easy to do in the search engines backend configuration and something I will never do (my morals will not allow me too). BigClique search results are based on proper keyword searches, site optimization and our algorithms. We show users search results from websites with no unfair position weighting involved or assigned keywords to undisclosed paying companies. Since creating BigClique I have been inundated with these type of "requests or contract demands" from WELL KNOWN companies offering me LOTS of money to place them top 3 in the web search results and I have rejected ALL and will continue to do so. So if you are one of those companies reading this please do not contact me offering this type of "cash". The whole essence of BigClique was to defeat this type of malpractice not be in competition with it. I am sure many of you have gone to search engines and typed in a particular keyword and the search engine you are on show thier very own search engine listing or product at the top of the search results. This happens alot for education type searches on a few major engines. So the same way they can manipulate these top search results is the same way they can manipulate the rest of the search results.

(Q) What made you choose to be a general search engine rather than a niche, or vertical search site?
Well as explained a little earlier... I always had the intention to grow out from the niche sector but I never imagined how fast it would happen it literally happened overnight and within the first week of our debut Beta release I had to purchase another 7 high end servers instantly to cope with the traffic! (many more servers have since been added). Our user base is now international, I see from my server logs and I have recognized this and updated and re-designed the site accordingly. This is another example of listening to your users, I listened and implemented the changes "overnight". I think niche and vertical search engines are great and serve a great role on the web and more competition and variety is good for everyone and in the end it is the user that wins and I am all for this. Just to end... when BigClique was first created, I only had the intention of serving web search results and nothing else, but again... users directed me, supported me, gave me feedback and ideas for adding more features which you can view on the site today. One important feature was the addition of the latest news headlines which can be viewed just above the web search results.


BigClique.com
gRock Media Group
Contact: Mr. Femi Olu (CEO & Founder)
410 Park Avenue
15th Floor, Suite 460
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 917.210.8387
Fax: 909.752.9710
Email: press@bigclique.com


About.com
Wendy Boswell
http://websearch.about.com
Email: websearch.guide@about.com


About BigClique.com
BigClique.com is an International general search engine available in seventeen languages which competes on the same technology level as other well known major search engines. Using its own database and search technology to spider and index the Internet, BigClique leads Internet surfers to more targeted search results and removes untargeted clutter often found at other search engines.