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Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report

What it does: Publishes sports news written by fans
Founders: Bryan Goldberg, 26 (far right); Zander Freund, 26 (far left); David Finocchio, 26; and David Nemetz, 25 (right)
Web site: www.bleacherreport.com
Based: San Francisco

Then: The four high school friends and longtime sports fans decided to launch a media company devoted to their favorite teams. They reasoned that the best, most compelling sports coverage was coming not from professional sportswriters but from fans. Last year the company landed $1.5 million in angel funding, and the founders expected it to be profitable by the end of 2009.

Now: The site has more than doubled its traffic, to nearly 3.5 million unique visitors a month. It partnered with CBS.com to feature its headlines, runs ads for HBO, Coca-Cola (KO), and McDonald's (MCD), and publishes around 600 to 700 posts a day. The company employs 22 people full-time, including a new CEO. Nemetz says the company raised an additional $3.5 million from investors in the fall of 2008.