Matt Bell, who has a solid presence online and often points up cool things around the place, has an interview up with Juked founder JW Wang. It’s a pretty extensive interview and I haven’t yet read all of it, but I’ve learned a few things already, such as the fact that Juked started out as just an idea scribbled out on a napkin.

Other things that first began as something scribbled on a napkin? The Dick Rutan Voyager. The seat-belt adjuster for short people. Southwest Airlines. Etc.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview. JW Wang says:

When we started it wasn’t meant to be anything more than a hobby. I just figured I’d get a bunch of fun people together and we’d write for each other. So we started with a bunch of real-life friends, people who were spending a lot of time online and whom I thought were interesting and had fun things to say. Four of them went to my high school; a couple were friends of these friends. Very creative people. One of them works with film, now, one works for American Idol(haha), one wrote TV episodes for Dawson’s Creek and The Guardian. One’s a doctor, I think, one a university admin of some kind, a couple of them are designers (web, graphic). And then there’s me; I went from marketing to writing. No, my parents are still not happy with the decision.

Oh, here’s a little trivia: one of the people originally involved in that student start-up left the company and formed Rotten Tomatoes. Now he’s sitting on an island somewhere, under palm fronds, sipping mai tais.

Enjoy.