Social networking is undoubtedly a ubiquitous feature of our online lives. But whether these platforms can make a lot of money is a big question. To this end, the business models of widgets - Slide, Flixster, iLike, RockYou - built atop of these “social graphs” seem somewhat tenuous. Max Levchin knows this all too well. He recently raised  $50 million for what many consider to be a widget company. That company – Slide – now has a market valuation of half-a-billion. With such a high bar, comes hard work. Max’s mission over the next year or two – besides continually finding more ways to iterate upon Slide’s popular SuperPoke -- is to get profitable. If Slide isn’t making money in ... [ Read more ]