[4][11] They began by posting silly photos of themselves as well as jokes, links, and other amusing material they collected from emails circulating among college students.

[11] In under a year they received a buyout offer from an Internet company called eFront for $9 million, most of which would have been financed with stock shares.

[11] In 2001 they added Jake Lodwick, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Zach Klein, a friend of Van Veen's from Wake Forest.

[11] The group moved the company to San Diego briefly[11][13][12] before settling in New York City in 2004, where they set up shop in a 4,800 square-foot loft in TriBeCa.

[4] He and fellow CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen were friends since the sixth grade and attended Dulaney High School together.