<ul><li>The <keyword id="13324430" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dodo-project" source="Orion">DODO project</keyword> has existed for over two years now, with over $5 million in funding.</li><li>The <keyword id="218256" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dodo" source="Orion">DODO</keyword> project aims to employ proactive <keyword id="29547" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="market" source="Orion">market</keyword> maker algorithms to change how decentralised exchanges work.</li><li>DODO claims to provide better pricing and fewer chances of slippage than regular DEXs.</li></ul>The crypto industry is moving fast, and you need to look no further than decentralised exchanges (DEXs) to find proof of this. But while most DEXs are run by the concept of automated market makers (<keyword id="306195" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="amm" source="Orion">AMM</keyword>), the <a href="https://dodoex.io/" data-type="tilCustomLink">DODO project</a> aims to take things a step further and change how DEXs work even before they become truly mainstream. It has over $5 million in funding and is backed by Binance, among others.<br /><br />DODO is a <keyword id="1337625" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dex" source="Orion">DEX</keyword> platform that promises traders “highly capital efficient liquidity pools that support single token provision, reduce impermanent loss, and minimise slippage”. That promise comes from what the platform called proactive market maker (<keyword id="306910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pmm" source="Orion">PMM</keyword>), a new kind of algorithm that makes buy and sell decisions on the platform.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="wazirx" comment="wazirx" text="wazirx"><span data-til="noop">wazirx</span></cmsannotation><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How is DODO unique" comment="subhead" text="How is DODO unique"><span data-til="noop">How is DODO unique</span></cmsannotation><br />On paper, DODO is just another DEx. But as mentioned above, the PMM is what differentiates this project from fellow DEXs like Uniswap. But to understand the difference between PMMs and AMMs, we first need to know how liquidity works in crypto trades.<br /><br />When you’re trading particular crypto on an exchange, centralised or decentralised, the only way the trade can go through is if there’s a buyer on the other end. On a centralised exchange, the company can provide liquidity through certain partnerships and more. However, DEXs are driven by smart contracts instead of companies.<br /><br />This means that when you’re trading on a DEX, let’s say Ether for USDT, the platform needs an ETH-USDT liquidity pool. DEXs achieve this by allowing anyone to provide liquidity, and smart contracts define when liquidity can come into play. On regular DEXs, these smart contracts are called AMMs. <br /><br />So, AMMs go about the process of market making by pooling in two crypto-assets, and the trade price is determined by how much liquidity is available on that pool. In turn, this means that the price you expected when you initiated a trade could be lower when the trade goes through — a phenomenon that is known as slippage. In traditional stock trading terms, this will be akin to the price of a stock or asset changing in the time it takes your broker to execute the trade.<br /><br />PMMs try to mitigate this concern by attempting to proactively adjust the parameters of a trade as it happens. Basically, it is capable of taking into account the available liquidity in real-time and adjusting the relevant parameters of trade to avoid slippage. They do so by creating liquidity pools nearer to the market price than AMMs.<br /><br />The DODO project claims that its PMMs can even be adjusted to take into account external price oracles to avoid impermanent loss, which is a phenomenon that affects liquidity providers when the price of an asset changes between the time it is deposited to provide liquidity and when it’s withdrawn.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Tokenomics" comment="subhead" text="Tokenomics"><span data-til="noop">Tokenomics</span></cmsannotation><br />The vDODO token, which is the native <keyword id="6357017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cryptocurrency" source="Orion">cryptocurrency</keyword> of the DODO project, has three categories — traders, liquidity pool creators (LPCs), and liquidity providers (LPs). The tokens have three functions — governance, crowd pooling and initial dex offering (IDO) allocations, and trading fee discounts on DODO.<br /><br />The vDODO token is used to serve as proof of membership in DODO’s loyalty program and can be minted at a fixed rate of 1 vDODO being equal to 100 DODO. The platform also encourages long-term membership by redeeming vDODO tokens to DODO tokens by employing a variable exit fee.<br /><br />On the governance front, holders of the vDODO token can vote on proposals with a single vDODO token being equal to 100 votes.<br /><br />At the time of writing, the token was trading at around ₹30.08 on <a href="https://wazirx.com/exchange/DODO-USDT">WazirX</a>. The <keyword id="6286377" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crypto-exchange" source="Orion">crypto exchange</keyword> has also partnered with the DODO project for a giveaway that runs between March 1 and Mar 18. In a <a href="https://wazirx.com/blog/dodo-inr-giveaway/">blog post</a>, WazirX said that the giveaway would be worth ₹56 lakh, and users can receive free tokens from the DODO project for performing various activities.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="DODO Lite version" comment="subhead" text="DODO Lite version"><span data-til="noop">DODO Lite version</span></cmsannotation><br />The platform also introduced a ‘lite’ version of the DODO app, which is meant for those who are new to the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The DODO LITE app provides users a clutter-free experience and performs trades more easily.<br /><br /><em><strong>Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post in partnership with WazirX. Cryptos are unregulated virtual assets, not a legal tender and subject to market risks.</strong></em><br />

DODO Project’s market-making algorithms could revolutionise crypto exchanges

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company, says it will aim to revive the dodo using gene editing. </li><li>This is the latest attempt to revive extinct animals in the face of the biodiversity crisis. </li></ul><p>Billion-dollar startup <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-church-startup-colossal-bring-back-woolly-mammoth-crispr-2021-9">Colossal Biosciences</a> claims it has come a step closer to reviving the dodo, a flightless bird that has been extinct since the 17th century. </p><p>The futuristic plan is <a href="https://colossal.com/return-of-the-dodo-scientists-launch-project-to-bring-back-the-extinct-species-using-stem-cell-technology-more-than-350-years-after-it-was-wiped-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only possible now</a> that the Dallas-based company has decrypted the dodo's entire genome, according to a press release. </p><p>The bird is the latest in the collection of long-gone animals that scientists want to bring back to life. The startup has previously said it plan to recreate the Tasmanian wolf and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animals-brought-back-extinction-woolly-mammoth-2017-2">the woolly mammoth</a>. </p><div type="image" title="A woman looks at a stuffed dodo bird in a case in the Natural History Museum in London, UK." height="1355" width="1806" msid="97531421" hostid="261" sizebytes="58610"></div><p>There's still a lot to be done before these birds can be brought back. Scientists can't recreate life from scratch, so they will have to figure out a way to put the dodo-specific genes into the embryo of a living animal. </p><p>That in itself is no small task. The next step is comparing that genetic information to the genes of <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/31/world/dodo-bring-back-from-extinction-colossal-scn/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closely-related birds</a> such as the Nicobar pigeon, and the Rodrigues solitaire, an extinct giant flightless pigeon, to figure out the mutations that "make a dodo a dodo," Beth Shapiro, a lead geneticist on the project, told CNN.</p><p>Shapiro says the ultimate plan would be to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2023/02/01/scientists-pledge-de-extinct-dodo-bird/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reintroduce the birds</a> into Mauritius, where they lived before they were wiped out by humans. </p><p>A bird created using such an approach would be a hybrid that resembles its ancestor. </p><p>The plan is "very, very challenging," Ewan Birney, deputy director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory who is not involved in the project, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/31/gene-editing-company-hopes-to-bring-dodo-back-to-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Guardian.</a></p><p>Still, the company has raised another $150 million for the project for a total of $225 million since 2021. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-31/dodo-bird-dna-has-startup-valued-at-1-billion-to-bring-back-extinct-species" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a>, the latest investment values the startup at $1.5bn. </p><div type="image" title="Woolly mammoth in snowy landscape" height="2259" width="3014" msid="97531556" hostid="261" sizebytes="695042"></div><p>There are obvious ethical questions when thinking about creating a species with the goal of releasing them into the wild, Birney said.</p><p>"There are people who think that because you can do something you should, but I'm not sure what purpose it serves, and whether this is really the best allocation of resources," Birney told the Guardian. "We should be saving the species that we have before they go extinct."</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-form-bio-spins-out-of-woolly-mammoth-startup-raises-30m-2022-9">Colossal Biosciences</a> claims bringing back these animals isn't its only goal. </p><p>These grand schemes also serve as a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2023/02/01/scientists-pledge-de-extinct-dodo-bird/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moonshot for conservation research</a> and the hope is that useful tools can be discovered along the way to help animals survive the current biodiversity crisis, it said.</p><p>"We're clearly in the middle of an extinction crisis. And it's our responsibility to bring stories and to bring excitement to people in a way that motivates them to think about the extinction crisis that's going on right now," Shapiro told CNN. </p><p>"I particularly look forward to furthering genetic rescue tools focused on birds and avian conservation," she said.</p>

Billion-dollar startup plans to bring the dodo back from the dead, and claims it can also revive the woolly mammoth

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aaae14ecc50291c008b4591-1428/screen shot 2018-03-15 at 51010 pm.png" alt="dodo heroes" data-mce-source="The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Digital <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> companies are looking to diversify revenue, especially as Facebook becomes an unreliable partner.</strong></li><li><strong>Traditional TV shows have been considered a good opportunity, however, they can be hard to actually complete.</strong></li><li><strong>We spoke to The Dodo's leadership about their upcoming collaboration with Animal Planet, "Dodo Heroes," with an eye toward what can get a show the green light.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />The digital media world is in a twitchy mood, and the culprit is Facebook, which has been sending gradually less traffic to publishers over the last few months, even in an area that it once called the future of the platform: video.</p><p>This has led to belt-tightening around the industry and at least one death (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/littlethings-online-publisher-shuts-down-and-blames-facebook-algorithm-2018-2">Little Things</a>) already. And smart publishers are looking at the projects they hoped would diversify their revenue away from a reliance on a single tech giant, and assessing when they will bear fruit.</p><p>For video publishers, one of the growth opportunities bandied about has been the development of TV series: either on linear TV or on premium streaming outlets like Netflix. But getting a TV show on the air is tough, and many get killed in various stages of development. Not every digital media outlet has had the success of Vice when it comes to actually getting shows on the air.</p><p>Nevertheless, a handful of shows from digital upstarts like BuzzFeed (<a href="http://deadline.com/2017/11/oxygen-crime-development-slate-new-projects-up-vanished-podcast-1202206775/">Oxygen</a>), Vox (<a href="http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news/pbs-and-vox-medias-eater-announce-new-series-hosted-by-chef-marcus-samuelsson-no-passport-required/">PBS</a>, <a href="http://deadline.com/2016/05/fyi-orders-original-series-about-pre-fab-homes-1201749029/">FYI</a>, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-grows-docuseries-lineup-flint-town-ezra-klein-produced-explainer-show-1075888">Netflix</a>), Ozy (<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pbs-expands-relationship-ozy-media-orders-unscripted-series-third-rail-breaking-big-1007175">PBS</a>), and Attn: (<a href="http://deadline.com/2018/03/showtime-greenlights-pilot-attn-1202305013/">Showtime</a>) have beaten the odds and received the green light.</p><p>To understand what it takes to land one of these deals, and how they work, Business Insider spoke to The Dodo's CEO Izzie Lerer and president YuJung Kim about their collaboration with Animal Planet, "Dodo Heroes," which is currently in production and whose 6-episode first season will debut June 9 at 9 p.m.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aaae17792c06931008b4590-579/izzie lerer.jpg" alt="Izzie Lerer" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="Izzie Lerer of The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p><p class="caption">Izzie Lerer of The Dodo</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>It helps to have a partner</strong></h2><p>The first big point to understand is why getting on linear TV is so attractive for digital media outlets, some of which have talked about television like it's a dying medium.</p><p>The short answer is "money," but a longer one is the idea of extending a brand into a premium product. In the digital video system, it's currently very hard to make enough money to support the kind of high-cost production that can help define a brand and impress big advertisers. And while the ad dollars might not be in traditional TV forever, they are certainly there now, and a TV show gets a video company a much bigger budget.</p><p>But people don't just throw money at you to make a TV show.</p><p>"Once we could proved ourselves in short form, we could play in mid form, then longer form," Izzie Lerer told Business Insider in an interview, explaining the way video brands like The Dodo hope to add layers.</p><p>But getting a TV show on the air is a long and arduous process, and takes a lot of capital and capabilities many digital media companies simply don't have. That's why it helps to have a partner in traditional TV who understands your brand and has a stake in your financial success. In The Dodo's case, that was Discovery.</p><p>"The linear [television] conversations really came about with Group Nine, coinciding with The Dodo maturing as a company," YuJung Kim said.</p><p>In late 2016, the Group Nine holding company was created to tie together four media brands: Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo, and Seeker (Discovery's digital network). Discovery, which owns Animal Planet and had previously invested in The Dodo, put another $100 million into Group Nine at the same time.</p><p>That financial stake in mutual success helped solidify the trust between Animal Planet and The Dodo when it came time to develop a show together, Lerer said.</p><p>"There has been a lot of trust on both sides around what we each know, a lot of willingness to bring social and digital know-how," she continued.</p><p>Susanna Dinnage, the global president of Animal Planet, told Business Insider she was also struck by the "common purpose of the two brands."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aaae1ca283f112b008b458c-2400/35790ep105013.jpg" alt="35790_ep105_013" data-mce-source="The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Pitching the data</strong></h2><p>With the trust established, Animal Planet and The Dodo could embark on the process of actually making the series.</p><p>"Our real bread and butter is telling stories where the animal is the center, making animal the protagonist, their quirks, their likes and dislikes," Lerer said, before adding "that's more challenging for linear" television. Not all of The Dodo's bread and butter stories would translate easily.</p><p>Lerer said that when thinking through what would work on traditional TV, the team decided to focus on stories that were more relationship-centric and human-centric, settling on "Dodo Heroes," which spotlights humans who go above and beyond to help animals.</p><p>Then they decided on potential subjects using data on what had performed well for The Dodo in short form online.</p><p>"Given that the concept came from us, they were looking for a rec from us around casting," Lerer said. "In almost all cases we had data around the heroes we ended up featuring."</p><p>"That was the very starting point, pulling data on those specific stories," Kim added.</p><p>One of those stories in the upcoming season that Kim specifically pointed out centers around a vet, Derrick Campana, who makes animal prosthetics. He works a lot with dogs, but in the episode "we get to see him work with an elephant which is incredibly unique," Kim said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aaae1f592c06931008b4597-1691/screen shot 2018-03-15 at 51258 pm.png" alt="the dodo animal planet" data-mce-source="The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Enter a third party production company</strong></h2><p>To make the show, The Dodo and Animal Planet worked with a third-party production company.</p><p>"Animal Planet agreed on a production partner, Nomadica Films," Lerer said. "They are out in the field shooting. We have been extremely involved every step: casting, providing shot lists, talking them through our approach, what we want it to feel like and look like."</p><p>The use of a third-party production company is an important point, and is a common arrangement for TV shows coming from digital media companies, though some have done production in-house (like Vice).</p><p>Why use a production partner?</p><p>"Everything from equipment, to experience shooting that kind of production," Lerer said. "We don't have a built out originals team. These shoots are all over the world they are very time intensive. We are also a really lean shop." The Dodo currently has 63 employees.</p><p>Other industry insiders Business Insider spoke to also emphasized that a company like Nomadica was a known entity for Animal Planet, and while this would minimize risk, it could also limit the financial upside for The Dodo.</p><p>This is markedly different from many of the TV-like shows appearing on Facebook's Watch platform, which digital media companies like The Dodo have been making entirely in-house.</p><p>"We have been able to use the people we've had," with a few additional hires, Kim said of The Dodo's Facebook Watch shows. These include "Comeback Kids: Animal Edition," which Lerer described as the "number one" show on the Watch platform.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aaae23b68e3332b008b458c-1416/screen shot 2018-03-15 at 51341 pm.png" alt="the dodo animal p" data-mce-source="The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Is it a hit?</strong></h2><p>When the show comes out this summer, it will be time to measure its success.</p><p>"I want to reach every audience with this show," Dinnage said. "Total consumption becomes a really interesting point. Everyone living in world of linear ratings, that's only part of a story."</p><p>One point Kim stressed was that from an ad-sales perspective, Group Nine had made "a bundle that is pretty rare in the market, a true digital-linear package. 'Dodo Heroes' is perfect example in one product being able to bring together digital and linear," she said.</p><p>But though both Lerer and Kim pointed to The Dodo's moves to diversify platforms - "we are the No. 1 animal channel on YouTube" - the spectre of Facebook is still hanging over many brands that built huge followings on that platform.</p><p>"Engagement is the key word in the [Facebook algorithm] shift," Kim said. "Content that generates engagement will rise to top … On [Facebook] Watch we have three of the top five when it comes to shares per episode."</p><p>That sentiment is true when comparing competitors in the space, but the absolute Facebook numbers have not been kind for video views, even for video publishers with engaging videos.</p><p>The Dodo's total video views on its main Facebook page have fallen from their peak of around 1.2 billion in April 2017 to around 560 million in February 2018, according to data from CrowdTangle.</p><p>That drop is not out of step with many of The Dodo's competitors, but it does raise the question of how much having an engaging brand can help one beat against the Facebook tide. That is one reason why diversification is so important, Kim said.</p><p>"Our approach to being a distributed media company has always been about creating exceptional programming wherever audiences are - whether that's on Facebook, TV or beyond," Kim said in response to the decreased reach of video publishers on Facebook. "It's about being diversified, and most importantly, creating engaging content that people love. Time spent on our content was at an all time high in February, and I think that's a testament to our ability to optimize content for our audience across all our platforms."</p><p>The Dodo grew from 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion monthly video views over the last year on all platforms, the company said, even with the Facebook drop.</p><p>For distributed media companies to continue to grow revenue, initiatives like The Dodo's upcoming TV show will be important to understand where to lean in, and where to lean away. With Facebook no longer the silver bullet, we'll see which brands that grew enormous from it can extend beyond it.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twist-at-the-end-of-the-synchronized-global-growth-story-emerging-markets-tech-2018-3">There's a surprising twist at the end of the 'synchronized global growth' story</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/JpuQfflb-xjRU7l6Z.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

As digital media sours on Facebook, traditional TV shows like The Dodo's partnership with Animal Planet could help diversify revenue - but they're tricky to pull off

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563d14e79dd7cc25008c811a-1517-1138/ilererheadshot-5-2.jpg" alt="isabel lerer" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="Isabel &amp;quotIzzie&quot; Lerer, founder and CEO of The Dodo" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p><p class="caption">Isabel "Izzie" Lerer, founder and CEO of The Dodo</p></div><p></p></div></div>Izzie Lerer isn't sure how she came up with the name for her startup.</p><p>It's something her brother, parents, and cousins all take credit for. The one thing she knows is she bought the domain name, thedodo.com, while sitting at the dinner table surrounded by all of them.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563ce5519dd7cc19008c7e9c-319-425/unnamed-2.jpg" alt="the dodo" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="This Dodo was a gift from Izzie Lerer's father, Ken, to commemorate the launch and early success of her first startup. It now terrorizes the 30-person office." /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p><p class="caption">This Dodo was a gift from Izzie Lerer's father, Ken, to commemorate the launch and early success of her first startup. It now terrorizes the 30-person office.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Now, a giant 3-foot-tall stone bird stands guard in the office of her 30-person startup. It was a gift from her father Ken, meant to both taunt and congratulate Lerer for launching her first business venture.</p><p>Lerer, 30, launched <a href="http://www.thedodo.com">The Dodo</a> in January 2014. The media startup, which writes about animals and animal rights issues, now has 15 million monthly unique visitors and nearly 100 million monthly video views across social platforms like Facebook and YouTube.</p><p>The Dodo doesn't generate much revenue, but its strong early readership helped Lerer raise an $11.5 million Series B round of financing at a post-money valuation tbetween $40 and 50 million. Discovery is the lead investor with participation from Softbank, SBNY, Berggruen Holdings, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Greycroft Partners and NBA commissioner David Stern. Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington joined The Dodo as one of its advisors.</p><p>"I've been a supporter since Day 1 - long before Day 1, actually," Arianna Huffington told Business Insider in an email. "Izzie's vision was nothing short of wanting to change the world in the way animals are treated. I was betting on her, and believed she would become an important voice in this country on this issue. That bet has certainly paid off."</p><p>Here's how Lerer did it.</p><h2><strong>From a PhD to startup founder</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563d15e1bd86ef1c008c813e-1252-939/brtn1kz0.jpeg" alt="izzie lerer" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="Isabel &amp;quotIzzie&quot; Lerer, founder and CEO of The Dodo." /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p><p class="caption">Isabel "Izzie" Lerer, founder and CEO of The Dodo, cares a lot about animals. She has a cat she's trying to make Insta-famous. She also grew up with dogs and is an avid horseback rider.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In 2015, Lerer received her PhD in Philosophy from Columbia, with a focus on human/animal relationships and animal ethics. But long before she did her dissertation, she realized she didn't want to become a professor.</p><p>"<span>I wanted to do something connected to my research but that also had real world impact," Lerer says. </span></p><p><span>Her family knows a thing or two about building media companies. Izzie's brother, Ben, is the co-founder of Thrillist, a website, e-commerce shop, and newsletter dedicated to guys and their interests. He recently <a href="http://recode.net/2015/09/30/thrillist-and-jackthreads-raise-54-million-split-into-separate-companies/">sold a minority stake to Axel Springer</a> (the parent company of Business Insider) for $54 million. Her father Ken co-founded The Huffington Post, which was acquired by AOL for $315 million. He is also the chairman of Buzzfeed and a board member of Business Insider.</span></p><p><span>Izzie wasn't always set on being an entrepreneur, but she felt a media company dedicated to her love of animals could both be entertaining and educational.</span></p><p><span>"I thought, 'What if we bridge the gap between advocacy and entertainment and create a brand where we're able to tell these kinds of stories in a way with positive messaging?'" she says.</span></p><p><span>Animal content, Lerer noticed, also happened to be inherently viral. S</span><span>ites like LolCats, Buzzfeed, Barkpost, and Little Things all generated tens of millions of monthly pageviews by posting photos of cute animals online and watching them spread across Facebook and Pinterest. </span></p><p><span>In January 2014, Lerer launched her site. She hired an executive to help oversee the project while she completed her PhD, but he didn't pan out. The next few months were spent tinkering with content and its distribution. </span></p><p><span>In May 2014, The Dodo got its first big validation moment.</span></p><h2><strong>The 103-year-old orca who drew 7 million readers</strong></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563ce72c9dd7cc01308bc967-801-440/screen shot 2015-11-06 at 12.43.03 pm.png" alt="orca story the dodo" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="This viral orca story published in May 2014 was a breakthrough moment for The Dodo." data-link="https://www.thedodo.com/recently-spotted-103-year-old--547381307.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.thedodo.com/recently-spotted-103-year-old--547381307.html">The Dodo</a></span></p><p class="caption">This viral orca story published in May 2014 was a breakthrough moment for The Dodo.</p></div><p></p></div></div>A few websites had written about an unusually old orca spotted off the coast of California. The orca was 103 years old - significantly older than most orcas held in captivity. According to The Dodo, Sea World orcas live only four and a half years on average.</span></p><p><span>Lerer's team saw an opportunity to take a viral animal story and educate readers about a broader issue. The Dodo published an article titled, "<a href="https://www.thedodo.com/recently-spotted-103-year-old--547381307.html">Recently Spotted 103-Year-Old Is Bad News For Sea World</a>." A few influencers shared the article on Twitter and their Facebook feeds. Soon, The Dodo's site exploded with readers. The article ended up reaching 7 million people. </span></p><p><span>"I almost retired," Lerer jokes of that moment. </span></p><p>Another pivotal moment for the company came in January 2015, when The Dodo hired its first video producer. Joanna Zelman, TheDodo's executive editor, now heads up all of the company's video efforts and Lerer says the department has been "transformative."</p><p>Video has become a major focus for publishers and social platforms over the last ten months. That's because advertisers are now shifting their budgets away from TV (where they've traditionally spent the most money) and into digital with pre- and post-roll placements. Advertisers pay higher CPMs (cost per thousand views) for video placements online than for banner ads. So theoretically, digital platforms and publishers can make much more money running ads on videos than on articles. </p><p>Since the beginning of this year, The Dodo's video views have grown from 0 to 98 million per month. Lerer says the average Dodo video now generates 4 million views and 25,000 Facebook shares. The videos are primarily being watched on Facebook where The Dodo has 1.3 million fans, then on YouTube.</p><h2><strong>No revenue but lots of distribution</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563cf1c39dd7cc11008c8088-648-1152/dog train snap.png" alt="Dog Train Snap dodo" data-mce-source="The Dodo" data-mce-caption="A Dodo article optimized for Snapchat" /><p class="source"><span>The Dodo</span></p><p class="caption">A Dodo article optimized for Snapchat</p></div><p></p></div></div>In early 2015, Lerer also noticed that readers were consuming most of The Dodo's content on other websites. She made a decision to shift her company's focus away TheDodo.com and optimize content so it could live natively on Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. </p><p>When The Dodo launched, it had a classic newsroom structure led by traditionally-trained editors and journalists. But over the past year, social has started to rule the newsroom. The Dodo currently has six social media editors and twelve writers. I<span>n fact, the leadership of the newsroom is split between one journalist and one social media person.</span></p><p>In terms of traffic and readership, the distributed model is smart -it has helped The Dodo's video views skyrocket. But from a monetization standpoint, it's something The Dodo and many other digital publishers will need to figure out.</p><p>Some social platforms offer publishers a revenue split for content viewed on their websites. But often, the revenue share isn't meaningful and traditionally, publishers have sold their own ads and kept 100% of the revenue. </p><p>Someday, The Dodo will have to learn how to pay its own bills. For now, thanks to the $11.5 million investment, Lerer's team can continue to focus on building distribution. </p><p>"As far as I see it, there are really three reasons we have been able to grow quickly: Timing, our social-first, distributed content model, and our team," Lerer says.</p><p>"We couldn't have started this company ten years ago and been successful. And if we started it five years from now, I think we would be too late. We're seizing a moment where animal content is ruling the internet, and the animal welfare movement is gaining a great deal of momentum."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iranian-actress-forced-to-flee-country-because-of-instagram-2015-11">An Iranian actress who posted Instagram photos of herself without a hijab was forced to flee the country</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="YwMmVveDocmTAqkArBO8acX6cdplCXGm" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'YwMmVveDocmTAqkArBO8acX6cdplCXGm',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

How an animal lover turned her passion into The Dodo, a booming ~$40 million startup, in 2 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The startup looking to bring back the woolly mammoth announced a breakthrough in its work. </li><li>Colossal Biosciences says it created elephant cells that can be reprogrammed to make other cells.</li></ul><p>The startup that wants to<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tasmanian-tiger-research-company-hires-influencers-instagram-tiktok-bachelor-contestant-2022-8"> bring the woolly mammoth back from the dead</a> said it is inching closer to its goal after a breakthrough in creating reprogrammed elephant stem cells.</p><p>The advance is "momentous" as it could unlock several fields of research, including how to make the building blocks for a mammoth baby, Ben Lamm, cofounder and CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-revive-mammoth-dodo-colossal-biosciences-2023-2">Colossal Biosciences</a>, said in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240306305869/en/Revolutionary-Elephant-iPSC-Milestone-Reached-in-Colossal%E2%80%99s-Woolly-Mammoth-Project">a statement</a>.</p><p>Its hope is to bolster biodiversity by bringing back lost species while also helping species on the brink of extinction survive harsh changes like the climate crisis.</p><p>The<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-church-startup-colossal-bring-back-woolly-mammoth-crispr-2021-9"> company,</a> which Business Insider was told is currently valued at $1.5 billion, has grand plans. These include bringing back the woolly mammoth and the dodo.</p><p>"Each step brings us closer to our long-term goals of bringing back this iconic species," said Lamm. Colossal Biosciences thinks it can create a mammoth-like, gene-edited creature through IVF by 2028.</p><p>It could also help living elephants, which are notoriously tricky to study in the lab, the firm said.</p><p>"Elephants might get the 'hardest to reprogram' prize, but learning how to do it anyway will help many other studies, especially on endangered species," said Colossal cofounder and Harvard geneticist George Church.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lab-grown-chicken-good-meat-stem-cells-just-eat-2021-4">Stem cells</a> occur naturally in the body. They are special because they can evolve into pretty much any cell type — bones, hair, skin, organs — provided they are told what to do.</p><p>To program them, the body bathes the cells in a complex mix of chemicals that nudge them toward their final cell type. This is called differentiation.</p><p>This process was long thought not to be reversible, but in the early 2000s, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=e2cf75ab80141a8042ef0e8279994dabaeff48a287de85d5676b460a1eb19807&amp;postID=65e98997894bac29c4169e06&amp;postSlug=colossal-biosciences-stem-cell-breakthrough-woolly-mammoth-revival-closer-deextinction-2024-3&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2F534310a">scientists figured out a cocktail</a> that could turn differentiated cells back into stem cells.</p><p>This was a boon for biologists, who could then reprogram these stem cells, called iPSCs, into cell types they didn't necessarily have access to before in the lab.</p><p>This dedifferentiation cocktail worked on most species, including humans, monkeys, big cats, and birds. But elephant stem cells remained remarkably resistant to the process, per the statement.</p><p>After tweaking the chemical composition of the mixture, Colossal Scientists say they've finally cracked it.</p><p>"We knew when we set out on the woolly mammoth de-extinction project that it would be challenging, but we've always had the best team on the planet focused on the task at hand," said Lamm.</p><p>This offers avenues to understand better how to make a mammoth. It means the scientists can create cells like hair and cold-busting fat storage in the lab.</p><p>"We are most excited to use the cells we have developed to grow elephant gametes in a dish," said team lead Evan Appleton in the statement.</p><p>Gametes are the sperm and egg cells that fertilize to make an embryo. If the scientists could make them in the lab, they could create them without having to resort to harvesting them from elephants.</p><p>"The goal, I think, is to turn these iPSCs into sperm and eggs, which would allow for in vitro fertilization and, eventually, surrogacy," Vincent Lynch, a developmental biologist and associate professor at the University at Buffalo in New York who was not involved in Colossal's work, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/woolly-mammoth-de-extinction-inches-closer-after-elephant-stem-cell-breakthrough">told Live Science</a> in an email.</p><p>"Those methods are pretty challenging and haven't been developed yet, but it is only a matter of time," said Lynch</p><p>The research could also help scientists better understand how elephants carry their babies.</p><p>"Elephant gestation is so long and complex, so really understanding the developmental biology aspect of elephant biology is so important," Eriona Hysolli, the head of biological sciences and mammoth lead at Colossal Biosciences, told Live Science.</p><p>This doesn't mean the team will be rolling out baby mammoths tomorrow, though, Hysoli told Live Science.</p><p>Understanding how to turn tweak these elephant stem cells into cells from the extinct species will be another hurdle to tackle going forward.</p>

$1.5 billion startup says it's getting close to bringing the woolly mammoth back from the dead with elephant cells


<br />In a three hour long speech on wednesday, President <keyword id="191809" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Xi-Jinping">Xi Jinping</keyword> gave himself a shining report card and a long do-do list as he is trying to turn the page at the critical once-in-five years party congress of the top leaders of the Communist Party of <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>. Considered China's most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping or even Mao Zedong, Xi will try to use the congress to lay the foundation to extend his term for even longer than the normal 10 years and the congress also assumes significance for Xi as he will have a far greater ability to choose his colleagues than he had in the last congress held in 2012. It is because of this that India will have to keep a close watch at the developments in <keyword id="1333" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="beijing">Beijing</keyword>.<br /><br /> Another term for Xi does not augur well for <keyword id="6354642" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="modi">Modi</keyword>. First, China has lately started asserting in the world economic sphere, especially with its One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR) project. OBOR needles India as it passes through Indian territory occupied by Pakistan. A stronger and more confident Xi will not only find a new zeal to increase China’s global economic clout but can also flex its economic muscle in the region by investing in more infrastructure projects in the region, which will also give it strategic as well as diplomatic heft at India’s expense. Second, a stronger and more confidant Xi can also escalate the border tussle with India. Xi wants to make China the number one global power by replacing USA but finds rising India a stumbling block. India’s growing alliances in Indo-Pacific region (Japan, Australia and Southeast nations such as Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia) and with USA to rebalance China’s aggression is viewed as an obstacle by the Chinese regime. Xi would like to test India newly acquired confidence, especially with regard to Bhutan. India and Bhutan have a special security arrangement under which India will extend support whenever the Himalayan state faces a security threat. Doklam may be over but China is not going to digest the humiliation that India posed to it. China may have pulled out of the border tussle due to the upcoming Congress. After the Congress, it can escalate tension with India. India’s Modi-led efforts to gain supremacy in the region will come under serious challenge with a stronger Xi. Modi’s ‘Act East’ policy can face strong resistance from China.<br /><br /> One positive for Modi is that with Xi growing stronger, there will be greater liking for stronger leaders in India. That will ensure he remains popular with the masses<br /><br />

You Searched For "dodo project" and got 7 results

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Billion-dollar startup plans to bring the dodo back from the dead, and claims it can also revive the woolly mammoth

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As digital media sours on Facebook, traditional TV shows like The Dodo's partnership with Animal Planet could help diversify revenue - but they're tricky to pull off

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How an animal lover turned her passion into The Dodo, a booming ~$40 million startup, in 2 years

Alyson Shontell

$1.5 billion startup says it's getting close to bringing the woolly mammoth back from the dead with elephant cells

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Xi’s marathon speech had some strong message for India, Modi needs to watch out

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Ben Lerer spent his 20s building an email startup for 'civilized bros' - here's how he turned that into a $580 million media company

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