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After begging and pleading, and kicking in any chore money I could find I received a Commodore 64 computer. This was normally well outside of my families budget, but apparently I was already showing a proficiency with computers. I couldn't afford the games, which turned out to be a good thing as it pushed me to quickly learn commodore basic programming. I immediately set out writing my own text adventure game. I have no idea what it was called. I'm 12 years old at this point.
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I had used an Apple III prior, but the IIe was really where my programming skills began to fully develop. My father ran the school so I had access to a full computer lab of them after hours and weekends...and was there every second possible.
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This movie opened my eyes to the world of hacking. Until this point I viewed computers as individual isolated entities. The thought of them being networked and accessible changed my entire perspective on computing.
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My high school decides to send a math teacher to a summer course so that she can begin teaching a new computer programming class with Apple IIe computers. I take the class but quickly learn I know much more about it than the teacher.
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Inspired by the movie War Games I've been looking for large systems to hack into. Living in a small town area this was not so easy. I eventually learn of a community college running a connected mid-frame computer. I begin the task of finding a way in.
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Through grades and a little pull I'm able to attend college credit programs where I get to work with a computer lab connected to the university systems. This will allow me to graduate high school with quite a bit of college credit already built up.
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I finally find an access point into the college midframe via a 2400baud modem. I find that is a VAX VMS system, which I had never heard of. I search for, and find, old manuals in the college library and begin teaching myself the system. Eventually finding my way in to administrative priveleges.
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I discover (finally) an interconnected network of systems called BITNET which connects many of the universities together. Also discover MAD, the first large multiplayer dungeon game.
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I suppose I should have been more excited about being college bound. But to tell the truth I just wanted to go to work.
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At the same university whose systems I had hacked into I'm able to display my self-taught skills to get an evening job managing their VAX VMS midframes. VAX 11/780 system with 8 inch floppy system disks and a relatively new MicroVAX.
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I worked continuously through high school and college. Due to my experience with computers I worked at a Radio Shack computer center selling Tandy 1000 and 2000 units off and on for years.
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At 21 I was promoted up to manage Radio Shack computer center in the Memphis region. The youngest to date in that position.
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I move to St. Louis to work on the SLU midframe and mainframe DEC VAX equipment. I hate it, but the access to interconnected networks is available once again. I dive into Internet Relay Chat and the "internet" with a vigor
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I was beta testing an early version of NCSA Mosaic via Marc Andreesen up the road at Univ. of Illinois. We had very few Xwindows systems around so I was sneaking into the secured computer room on a new DEC Alpha to play with it. This was the first HTML page with a graphic I had ever seen. Until then I had only used the text based LYNX browser
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Myself and a grad student setup and connect one of the early IRC servers (at slu.edu) and I take on IRC Operator status. IRC handle was "Liberal" . Things are happening quickly now. I give a speech at the MIDnet conference on IRC, its benefits, risks, usage guidelines, etc. All anyone wants to know is how to control its usage. I sigh a lot
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I apparently already had 5 email addresses in Feb. of 1994. God only knows why. Status symbols?
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The internet is finally going into the commercial sector. I quickly follow. I take over as Manager of Systems (VAX/OpenVMS and Win95 PC's) at Hermann Marketing. The largest promotional marketing company at the time ($100M). I begin pushing the benefits of eCommerce to their company. They don't listen. I sigh a lot
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With the help of a VP of sales I convince the company to let me build a eCommerce group. One problem. There are no effective security and payment systems built yet...much less off the shelf eCommerce packages since noone is building them yet. I hire a developer, and the two of us start writing code.
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As I'm struggling with getting management to buy into eCommerce, I'm building my own company (Skyynet) as well as helping Grant Weber at Habanero get his off the ground. Internet development folks are a very small, tight community at this point.
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The timing was perfect on eCommerce. The Fortune 500 clients are falling over themselves and we've successfully built a backend integrated, fully secured, eCommerce systems that is easily replicated. We start selling them...a lot of them...too many of them
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Intel (a client at the time) has a New Research Group that has been working with a company CyberCash to figure out electronic payments and backend integration. They see my work and they want to share work together. I stupidly agree and open my kimono. This work was the seed of an Intel / SAP venture called Pandesic years later.
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At this point I'm one of the few people in the world who've successfully done large scale eCommerce and internet marketing. This little fish in St. Louis is getting a lot of attention from Silicon Valley. I decide to make the leap, I engage with a recruiter (more of an "agent" in those days) who lines me up with the best and brightest. Interviews begin
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My first interview is with a gentleman whose name I forget, Louis Borders I will never forget however. I didn't know of it as WebVan since at the time everything was hush-hush and simply known as "Project Oasis" on the documents I was given. The job was in managing their development efforts. I was torn because the business plan didn't seem feasible...yet Louis Borders created it and he's a logistical genius. Regardless, I declined as it just wasn't creative enough for me.
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I met with these folks in both San Francisco and their Connecticut offices. To tell the truth I really liked them and their work, but some of the folks I would be working with were just a little "slick" for my tastes. I eventually decline, but came very very close.
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This was a creative marketing agency that I liked right off the bat. From the funky offices to the funky people I was enamored with them. But when they insisted on flying my wife out so that she could meet them they had me. I took a position heading up their interactive division doing internet marketing for top tier clients. This is where I met Paul Huber, who I idolize to this day and try and model some of my management style after.
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I initially move out to SF by myself for a few months while my wife wraps things up back in St. Louis. The company puts me up in a swank little bachelor pad in Pacific Heights. At this point I don't realize just how lucky I am to have my own parking garage in SF.
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Everything I know about smart personlized marketing I learned here. Agency of record clients included Cisco, Netscape, Levis, British Airways, etc. Extremely progressive work with extremely intelligent people
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As much as I like SF as a "single guy", it's not the same for a married couple looking to start a family. We find a nice place on the Peninsula on the border of Millbrae and Burlingame, where we proceed to live with nothing but a mattress, a tv, and a washer/dryer for 2 weeks until our furniture arrives in from the moving company.
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My work with internet marketing personalization, 1:1 marketing, etc. puts me onto the original Internet Marketing Council
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We're pregnant! Well, my wife is anyway. We decide we would prefer to raise a family in Marin county, and I'm looking for a shorter commute during the pregnancy so I accept an offer from Autodesk located in San Rafael. We call up the movers and we're on our way to our 4 house in 5 years. A trend that has yet to stop I'm afraid.
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I had since moved on to manage internet marketing for Autodesk, a $2B market cap company. They had a massive upcoming global campaign to launch AutoCAD 2000 so my time was spent primarily in building the "bible" for internet marketing within the organization. I began making a name for myself with some of the players (namely Carl Bass the CTO) with my strategic knowledge of leveraging the internet
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Marin GeneralMy treasure is born via emergency C-Section
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Carol Bartz (the CEO) and Carl Bass (the CTO) wanted to get a piece of the internet madness that was taking place. Autodesk was a cash rich company and a Ventures group was formed to take that cash and invest in, acquire, build, and spin out new companies aligned with Autodesk objectives. I was part of the 4 person team put together to do that.
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Quidnunc was based in the UK. They had opened a New York office successfully and were looking to do the same in San Francisco. They needed someone connected to the marketplace and with a lot of experience in consulting. I was brought on as a Partner to launch the SF offices. It was madness. We went from 0 to 70 persons in six months. We had a champagne toast every week just to welcome all the new people who started since last week.
