It’s always cool to learn how the world’s most popular blogs got their start. In almost every backstory, you’ll find a heavy dose of creativity and execution, good timing and touch of the unconventional.

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore is one of those bloggers. He started the social media news site from his parents home in Scotland, then quickly expanded to New York and San Francisco (I actually used to work on the same floor at SOMACentral). Now it’s the #2 blog in the world behind the Huffington Post, with rumors of a massive buyout from CNN.

The videos below are from a 2010 Bloomberg Business Week interview, so they’re a tad old—but that doesn’t really matter. What matters are the vision, core values and execution behind the blog:

• Cashmore says he has trouble with authority and had no choice but to do his own thing
• Mashable is 100% bootstrapped
• 100% of Mashable’s content is created in-house, so nothing is aggregated
• Ad revenue and conferences are Mashable’s main source of revenue
• While scoop content offers massive short-term value, utility content offers better, long-term value (think news vs. how-to)

My hunch when I moved here three weeks ago from Hawaii is now confirmed: The tech scene in the Bay Area is all about—well, tech.

This thriving, buzzing industry is built around a culture of code, of devising niche solutions to niche problems. At its center lie the software engineer, who reigns as queen bee in the hives of the tech giants and startups of Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

So what about the rest of us?

What about the marketers, the designers, the writers and editors, the community managers and publishers of content? Do we get a fair shake at shaping the future in a world gone tech?

I’d like to think so. The question is—how? [Read more...]