Seth W. Godin, also known under his pen name as "F. X. Nine" (born 1960), is an American author, marketing expert, entrepreneur, and a former dot-com business executive.

Early life and education

Seth W. Godin graduated from Williamsville East High School in Williamsville, New York in 1978. He attended in

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

, graduating with a degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and philosophy. He also earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Career

After leaving Spinnaker in 1998, Godin self-funded Seth Godin Productions with $20,000 as a book packaging business. He operated this venture out of a studio apartment in New York City. He and Mark Hurst co-founded Yoyodyne, a

permission marketing Permission marketing is a type of advertising in which the people who are supposed to see the ads can choose whether or not to get them. This marketing type is becoming increasingly popular in digital marketing. Seth Godin first introduced the co ...

company named after the fictional Yoyodyne in '' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.''

Business ventures

Yoyodyne, launched in 1995, used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August 1996, Flatiron Partners invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake. In 1998, he sold Yoyodyne to

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

for $29.6 millionYahoo Acquiring Yoyodyne
'' Wired.com''. October 12, 1998. and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing. In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo. By July 2008, Squidoo had become one of the 500 most visited sites in the world. In 2014, it was sold to HubPages. Godin founded altMBA, a 4-week online workshop, in 2015. He also runs a podcast called Akimbo.

Awards

Godin received the following awards: * ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' Business Book of the Year, 2004 for ''Free Prize Inside'' * ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' bestseller, '' The Dip'' * '' Business Week'' bestseller, ''The Dip'' * ''Business Week'' named ''Linchpin'' among its "20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business" on November 13, 2015. * American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame, 2018 * ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' 25 best blogs of 2009 * ''The 2018 Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry Winne

'

Personal life

Godin and his wife Helene live in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in the state of New Yo ...

, with their two sons.Seth Godin on Stepping Up and Making it Happen
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References

External links

*
Spotlight On Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godin, Seth Living people American male bloggers American bloggers American business theorists Advertising theorists Marketing theorists American marketing people People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York People from Williamsville, New York Writers from Mount Vernon, New York Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Tufts University alumni Tufts University School of Engineering alumni Williamsville East High School alumni