Today is a special day, just minutes ago, we announced our first institutional round of investment totaling $12.5 million for gWallet. It was led by Adams Street Partners, Trinity Ventures, and included various other prominent investors. You can read the formal press release is here: http://www.gwallet.com/press/gwallet_closes_funding.html
As many of you know, I originally created gWallet to be a platform for offers in the coupon space. We tried that and changed our direction. I’m probably the most critical person and I’ve set the bar pretty high for myself. I sold my first Company for $40 million at 18, my second one for $300 million at 25, and at 27 started gWallet. Even though the coupon space was interesting, it wasn’t quite big enough of a challenge for me. I also have an important philosophy when it comes to business that I even mentioned in my book. Here’s an excerpt from it:
“Most people think they need to know exactly what they want to do when they start a business, but they’re wrong. If you go into something with a very specific plan, you might be so focused on your goal that you won’t see the promising opportunities that present themselves as you make your way along. Take the blinders off. Look around. Don’t be afraid to go off on all sorts of unusual directions, since that’s where you might just find the most unusual—and promising—opportunities.”
That’s why we changed our focus and became a platform in the virtual currency space. And have had tremendous success thus far. It’s a new, multi-billion dollar market with a bigger challenge and something I feel we can dominate.
And, even though we raised $12.5 million – that just means the journey officially begins for us. The formula to success is going to be on hiring the best rockstars, innovating, and most importantly executing. The capital will give us great resources to open new offices throughout the world, launch our several product initiatives, and even potentially acquire companies.
I’m very excited about this milestone. I always felt – the third time can be a charm. And, I am hoping I can create #3, to be even bigger then my prior 2. With God by my side, I think I may have a great shot at this.
Steve Jobs once said these four words in a speech – and they’ve resonated with me since. “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” To me this means – to never forget where you came from, and most importantly, never forget where you want to go.”
Today is a special day, just minutes ago, we announced our first institutional round of investment totaling $12.5 million for gWallet. It was led by Adams Street Partners, Trinity Ventures, and included various other prominent investors. You can read the formal press release is here: http://www.gwallet.com/press/gwallet_closes_funding.html
As many of you know, I originally created gWallet to be a platform for offers in the coupon space. We tried that and changed our direction. I’m probably the most critical person and I’ve set the bar pretty high for myself. I sold my first Company for $40 million at 18, my second one for $300 million at 25, and at 27 started gWallet. Even though the coupon space was interesting, it wasn’t quite big enough of a challenge for me. I also have an important philosophy when it comes to business that I even mentioned in my book. Here’s an excerpt from it:
“Most people think they need to know exactly what they want to do when they start a business, but they’re wrong. If you go into something with a very specific plan, you might be so focused on your goal that you won’t see the promising opportunities that present themselves as you make your way along. Take the blinders off. Look around. Don’t be afraid to go off on all sorts of unusual directions, since that’s where you might just find the most unusual—and promising—opportunities.”
That’s why we changed our focus and became a platform in the virtual currency space. And have had tremendous success thus far. It’s a new, multi-billion dollar market with a bigger challenge and something I feel we can dominate.
And, even though we raised $12.5 million – that just means the journey officially begins for us. The formula to success is going to be on hiring the best rockstars, innovating, and most importantly executing. The capital will give us great resources to open new offices throughout the world, launch our several product initiatives, and even potentially acquire companies.
I’m very excited about this milestone. I always felt – the third time can be a charm. And, I am hoping I can create #3, to be even bigger then my prior 2. With God by my side, I think I may have a great shot at this.
Steve Jobs once said these four words in a speech – and they’ve resonated with me since. “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.” To me this means – to never forget where you came from, and most importantly, never forget where you want to go.”
As you know, gWallet recently entered the virtual currency space, and I’m extremely bullish about our entry in this industry. Just yesterday, one of our users bought $1200 worth of digital goods. Five years ago, no one would have ever predicted that someone would buy $5 worth of in-game currency.
That said, last week was a trying one for the virtual goods industry. First, Anu Shukla of Offerpal and Michael Arrington in this video mixed it up at the Virtual Goods Summit, and then Arrington published several articles exposing the sleazier side of the offer industry.
To us, this disruption is exciting. We entered this space because of its phenomenal growth potential, but we were also attracted by the relative lack of sophistication of our competition. Like all businesses, the offer marketplace revolves around supply and demand. (Supply is applications and virtual worlds that support virtual currency, and demand equals advertisers.) We excel at working with advertisers; we proved this at both ClickAgents (acquired by ValueClick in 2000 for $40 milion) and BlueLithium (acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million).
When we took a look at the offer business, however, we immediately realized that the demand side of this business is broken. No one is working directly with advertisers to help them understand and appreciate the value of this marketplace. Michael Arrington did a great thing by exposing the weaknesses associated with this model, and his words are starting to wake people up.
Last week I was on a panel at the 80/20 conference with some of my competitors, and I outlined what I think is broken in the industry and how we plan on fixing it.
Here are some of the points I made:
·In order for a marketplace to work, supply and demand need to operate in synch. In the offer business, all of my competitors are sourcing advertisers through affiliate networks. Most of these affiliate networks don’t offer any transparency to the advertiser: the advertiser often doesn’t know where its inventory is appearing, since it’s blended with traffic from other sites. It’s like adding water to soup; it may be palatable, but it’s not as nutritious as the real thing. To be successful, a company like ours needs to work directly with advertisers and agencies and implement tracking that can deliver the best ROI possible. You can’t do this by just rotating affiliate links.
·Over the last ten years, we’ve developed long-lasting relationships with major brands like GM and Anheuser-Busch. That’s why we’ve walked away from many of the shady offers our competitors are working. Over the long-term, you can’t make money by deceiving both consumers and advertisers. It’s just bad karma, and sooner or later, it will bite you in the ass. We’re introducing large advertisers and agencies into this vertical, and to our surprise, none of our competitors have even approached them. It just reminds me how unsophisticated this industry is and why we’re so excited to fix it.
·This system is not good for publishers, either. Sooner or later, when our competitors shun shady offers, there will be a huge price correction in this space. Some developers who are making upwards of $10,000 a day in revenue are in for a rude shock. The funny thing is, many of them already know this. The big players realize that they can’t go public with this kind of suspect revenue, and they are taking aggressive steps to remedy the problem. We applaud companies like Zynga that are saying no to offer scams. It will take longer for smaller players to realize that the high eCPMS to which they have become addicted are ultimately bad for business, but they will realize it soon enough.
·Bringing large brands and agencies into this space requires an extensive amount of education. You have to teach these players how to create value; you have to create specific social media offers that are different from traditional advertising or affiliate network buys. For example, for subscription-based advertisers, we’re designing offers right now in which advertisers pay $X for a new user, and if that user subscribes to their product for Month 2 or Month 3, they receive a residual bounty.
·Technology is not just talk; it is the underlying asset that enables both supply and demand to work in synch. Right now, our competitors are almost openly dismissive about the importance of technology. At the 80/20 conference, for example, the largest competitor in our space declared that “they don’t optimize; they just outperform.” Translation: “Meaning, we have no technology but we’re doing something cosmetic.” If you’re a company like Zynga, is this really the answer you want to hear? This kind of approach provides no scale, long-term sustainability, or value; it’s just a bunch of hand-waving. We’ve learned how important technology is based on my prior two ventures in the ad network space, where technology was the cornerstone to our success.
·We love developers in this space. It’s amazing how social gaming has changed the fundamental business model of a gaming company. And it’s only going to get bigger when the right monetization engine is in place for this marketplace.
I’m a strong believer that the right player with the right platform can create substantial value inside this ecosystem. I remember when I started ClickAgents. We were probably the 30th ad network to enter the market, but just two years later, we had carved out a leadership role in the marketplace. When I started BlueLithium, we may have been the 300th ad network, but three and a half years later, we proved that through data and analytics, a startup can create tremendous value.
In conclusion I want to apologize to Michael Arrington for Anu Shukla’s response to his question during her panel discussion at Virtual Goods Summit. When someone challenges you about a legitimate industry issue, you shouldn’t need to resort to verbal abuse or profanity; you should address them in a way that proves your model through logic and reason. Anytime someone uses vulgarity, it shows that you’d rather use noise to make your statement speak louder than your reason. So for that, I’m sorry, Michael, but thank you for waking this industry up.
As you know, gWallet recently entered the virtual currency space, and I’m extremely bullish about our entry in this industry. Just yesterday, one of our users bought $1200 worth of digital goods. Five years ago, no one would have ever predicted that someone would buy $5 worth of in-game currency.
That said, last week was a trying one for the virtual goods industry. First, Anu Shukla of Offerpal and Michael Arrington in this video mixed it up at the Virtual Goods Summit, and then Arrington published several articles exposing the sleazier side of the offer industry.
To us, this disruption is exciting. We entered this space because of its phenomenal growth potential, but we were also attracted by the relative lack of sophistication of our competition. Like all businesses, the offer marketplace revolves around supply and demand. (Supply is applications and virtual worlds that support virtual currency, and demand equals advertisers.) We excel at working with advertisers; we proved this at both ClickAgents (acquired by ValueClick in 2000 for $40 milion) and BlueLithium (acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million).
When we took a look at the offer business, however, we immediately realized that the demand side of this business is broken. No one is working directly with advertisers to help them understand and appreciate the value of this marketplace. Michael Arrington did a great thing by exposing the weaknesses associated with this model, and his words are starting to wake people up.
Last week I was on a panel at the 80/20 conference with some of my competitors, and I outlined what I think is broken in the industry and how we plan on fixing it.
Here are some of the points I made:
·In order for a marketplace to work, supply and demand need to operate in synch. In the offer business, all of my competitors are sourcing advertisers through affiliate networks. Most of these affiliate networks don’t offer any transparency to the advertiser: the advertiser often doesn’t know where its inventory is appearing, since it’s blended with traffic from other sites. It’s like adding water to soup; it may be palatable, but it’s not as nutritious as the real thing. To be successful, a company like ours needs to work directly with advertisers and agencies and implement tracking that can deliver the best ROI possible. You can’t do this by just rotating affiliate links.
·Over the last ten years, we’ve developed long-lasting relationships with major brands like GM and Anheuser-Busch. That’s why we’ve walked away from many of the shady offers our competitors are working. Over the long-term, you can’t make money by deceiving both consumers and advertisers. It’s just bad karma, and sooner or later, it will bite you in the ass. We’re introducing large advertisers and agencies into this vertical, and to our surprise, none of our competitors have even approached them. It just reminds me how unsophisticated this industry is and why we’re so excited to fix it.
·This system is not good for publishers, either. Sooner or later, when our competitors shun shady offers, there will be a huge price correction in this space. Some developers who are making upwards of $10,000 a day in revenue are in for a rude shock. The funny thing is, many of them already know this. The big players realize that they can’t go public with this kind of suspect revenue, and they are taking aggressive steps to remedy the problem. We applaud companies like Zynga that are saying no to offer scams. It will take longer for smaller players to realize that the high eCPMS to which they have become addicted are ultimately bad for business, but they will realize it soon enough.
·Bringing large brands and agencies into this space requires an extensive amount of education. You have to teach these players how to create value; you have to create specific social media offers that are different from traditional advertising or affiliate network buys. For example, for subscription-based advertisers, we’re designing offers right now in which advertisers pay $X for a new user, and if that user subscribes to their product for Month 2 or Month 3, they receive a residual bounty.
·Technology is not just talk; it is the underlying asset that enables both supply and demand to work in synch. Right now, our competitors are almost openly dismissive about the importance of technology. At the 80/20 conference, for example, the largest competitor in our space declared that “they don’t optimize; they just outperform.” Translation: “Meaning, we have no technology but we’re doing something cosmetic.” If you’re a company like Zynga, is this really the answer you want to hear? This kind of approach provides no scale, long-term sustainability, or value; it’s just a bunch of hand-waving. We’ve learned how important technology is based on my prior two ventures in the ad network space, where technology was the cornerstone to our success.
·We love developers in this space. It’s amazing how social gaming has changed the fundamental business model of a gaming company. And it’s only going to get bigger when the right monetization engine is in place for this marketplace.
I’m a strong believer that the right player with the right platform can create substantial value inside this ecosystem. I remember when I started ClickAgents. We were probably the 30th ad network to enter the market, but just two years later, we had carved out a leadership role in the marketplace. When I started BlueLithium, we may have been the 300th ad network, but three and a half years later, we proved that through data and analytics, a startup can create tremendous value.
In conclusion I want to apologize to Michael Arrington for Anu Shukla’s response to his question during her panel discussion at Virtual Goods Summit. When someone challenges you about a legitimate industry issue, you shouldn’t need to resort to verbal abuse or profanity; you should address them in a way that proves your model through logic and reason. Anytime someone uses vulgarity, it shows that you’d rather use noise to make your statement speak louder than your reason. So for that, I’m sorry, Michael, but thank you for waking this industry up.
As you all know, gWallet is now live and in beta. We’re gearing up for our first ever summer internship program. If your a driven person looking to be an innovative start up environment then we want to hear from you! Based on the various job tasks – most will be located in our San Francisco headquarters. However, we do have a few openings that can be remotely based. Internship opportunities can lead to full-time employment.
For more information – please send your resume to: hr@gWallet.com
Today, I feel honored to be an American more than ever. We’ve witnessed a quantum leap forward in our nation’s history and have proven that the American Dream is still alive.
• In 2000, Obama couldn’t get a floor pass to be at the DNC and left early.
• He also lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives that same year.
• In July 2004, Obama was finally invited to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 DNC in Boston.
• That year he ran for U.S. Senate. His running mate Jack Ryan withdrew from the race – leaving his new opponent only three months to campaign. Nevertheless, Obama won and became the U.S. Senator of Illinois.
• On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States.
• Eight years from losing his primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives, he proved to run the most successful campaign as the President of the United States.
Since his campaign began – Obama was the unlikely candidate to win. But, his strategy and determination prevailed to realize his ultimate dream. I congratulate Obama on his perseverance and strength – giving many across the Country the deep inspiration – that if we fight for something we really want – we will ultimately prevail.
Today was supposed to be a historical day in Politics for a “good reason.” The Congress was supposed to pass a bill that would help the government buy up to $700 billion in distressed assets and bailout the US economy from another potential depression. Given the grave alternatives – it was suppose to pass with flying colors. But, it didn’t. Because, put simply, inefficient bad politics.
What upsets me the most is when you ask the average person about this bill they have an incorrect understanding of it. The media and bipartisan politics have labeled this as a “bailout for Wall Street’s billionaires” – but little do they know – this has a direct effect on the economy to everyone (whether you own a single stock or not). Except, all we hear is “Oh my god – $700 billion of taxpayer money going to save the Wall Street boys” – when it should be characterized as a bailout to get the US Financial system back on track. Let me break it down in plain English – the banks have frozen credit. Right now, it’s so hard to get a loan – even a person of my financial background would go through several levels to get approved, and the chances are given how tight things are – I wouldn’t get approved. So, what other ways does this affect the “real world”?
• An 18 year old student trying to get a loan for college – will likely get denied
• A small business owner who has to do payroll – and borrows money from banks for cash flow reasons – will unable to do payroll and will inevitably either shut down or layoff employees. (This is actually a “real example” that’s currently happening across the nation).
• A family who actually wants to buy their first home and has good credit with a down payment – will likely get denied.
• Entrepreneurs trying to start businesses and increase employment – will not be able to do so due to lack of capital.
• Your credit cards will either get cancelled by the banks that issued them or they will likely drop your limit substantially.
• Cost of day-to-day goods will skyrocket. We already know how expensive gas is? But – all indicators are showing that cost of food is now also skyrocketing.
Here’s the simple way to understand it. We run on credit – the US economy runs on credit. We need credit to survive day to day. When credit is frozen – the cycle stops. And that’s what’s happening now. We have reached a precipice. Today’s demise on Wall Street was a great indication of what is yet to come. The Dow Jones dropped 777 points (worst ever in history) – and tells us if we don’t do something, Armageddon in the world economy could be near. So, this package put forth wasn’t to bail the Wall Street rich – it was too free up bad assets on the banks – so they could now let people like you, me, the student, the small business owner, etc. borrow money again. That way – the cycle – the economy continues to operate in its normal course. Without credit – we’re pretty much screwed. In effect – we are already at a 6.3% unemployment rate. If a bill like this doesn’t pass soon – we’re estimated to hit a 20% unemployment rate soon.
I think the media and most importantly politicians have a fiduciary responsibility to get on camera and educate the average citizen how this fundamentally will affect them. That way, people don’t think it’s only going to save the rich guys on Wall Street. We’ve failed to do that. Heck, if people in America have lost faith in George Bush – they should have hired George Clooney to perhaps give an Economy 101 lesson on what this really means for everyone. A basic education on the merits of this plan is badly needed to change its current perception.
Before, the voting started today, the speaker of the house – Nancy Pelosi gave a bipartisan speech attacking the President and the Republicans for putting us in this mess. After the voting ended, the bill didn’t pass. The vote was 205 for and 228 against the legislation. The Democrats supported it while the Republicans didn’t, which is shocking since – The President and the Secretary of Treasury who brought this bill together are both Republicans. The Republican leader later went on the record and said they didn’t have their parties vote because Nancy Pelosi attacked their party in the beginning of the voting session. This is pretty pathetic. We don’t hire politicians to think with their feelings – we hire them to actually do a job. And today, they absolutely failed. While this bill was going to provide credit back in the economy and stimulate it back to its course – it failed. The Stock Market crashed today and erased $1.4 trillion in value (that is 2 times more than the actual value of the current bill) in just one day. Does Congress want to do the math here and start doing their job rather than playing high school games on who can be the bigger bully? This congress and governmental system is starting to have the similarities of a circus rather than a governing body. And, that doesn’t exude the confidence that we desperately need.
Every day of negligence from our government is costing us money. Today it wiped off $1.4 trillion of hard-earned equity created by us all Americans. I just hope we come to some solution here and a bill is passed soon – otherwise our economy is in danger of hitting another depression, forget about just a recession. I maybe too young to know what is like to be in a depression – but the history books leave me with enough information to educate me and tell me – that this is something we’re not ready for or want to take the chance of getting into.
The Dot-Com Bubble. For those of you that forgot – this is where a lot of people made a lot of money, and for those who didn’t time it right, lost a lot of the money they helped create. Welcome circa March 2000, when the NASDAQ window shut any chance to take your Company public. Prior to March 2000, the strategy was simple. Build a dot-com, let it be any dot-com, forget about making money, raise venture capital, and then raise some more. When you finally raised 3 to 4 rounds, you hired an investment bank – and went public. And, viola – companies went public and overnight some turned into billion dollar market caps, without every making a penny. On paper, at least.
This was when I first got introduced entrepreneurism. I started ClickAgents, one of the first ad networks focused on performance based advertising. I actually didn’t raise any venture capital – since truth be told I was nervous to take any. Looking back at all the different meetings I had, one conversation came to mind. This was from a prominent investor, who basically suggested that my strategy was “flawed.” ClickAgents was doing the exact opposite of most companies he saw. We were actually profitable. Which meant we’d be valued at an EBITDA (just like a traditional company) rather than a hyped up multiple on the perception that we’d make money someday. Needless to say, ClickAgents didn’t become a billion-dollar IPO, but instead got acquired by ValueClick for $40 million. Valued of course on real metrics (profitability).
As many of you know, I then started BlueLithium and last October 2007 – sold it to Yahoo for $300 million. We were growing rapidly and were also profitable. So, we were again valued on real company metrics (profitability).
What makes me nervous – we claim the economy is in a recession, but the Web 2.0 private companies aren’t. Some of the astronomical valuations – I’ve seen from various companies, almost makes me remember 1999 all over again. The big difference here is – back when the first bubble hit – the valuations were still low in the private markets, but the public markets exaggerated them. Which meant the investors, employees, and founders could eventually cash out when the company went public. In today’s euphoria, these Web 2.0 companies are getting skyrocket valuations during their investment round. When you look at the brutality of the public markets this year and what Sarbox compliance has required to take companies public – it makes you wonder what exit strategy do these companies have if they can’t go public. I guess, that’s simple – there hoping to get bought for an even higher price.
However, I’m not sure there are buyers at these levels. At least, not enough of them.
Here are some recent valuations:
1.Slide – a Web 2.0 widget company. I’ve met the CEO myself a few times, who I respect and think very highly of, but this is a company that recently raised $50 million on a $500 million valuation. It’s supposed to do $10 to $12 million in revenue this year. Not profitable.
2.RockYou – a Web 2.0 widget company like Slide but the “mini-me” version. Is rumored to close a round of financing in the $400 million range. The revenue is supposed to be smaller than Slide. And of course, not profitable.
3.Twitter – the Web 2.0 site that lets you tell your friends what you’re doing. No revenue, no profitability, and no business model. But, about to close a round at a $100 million valuation.
4.Facebook – a great product that has close to 100 million users worldwide. But, a $15 billion valuation on $150 million in revenue. A ridiculous multiple of 100X revenue.
Some of these companies have great products, features and great teams – but also great valuations on the hope that same day they’ll turn black. This is happening – when the memory of the dot-com bust is fresh with us from 8 years ago. If this is a bubble – which I believe it to be – I hope it doesn’t cause the economy to enter into a bigger recession.
I also hope this doesn’t wipe off valuable equity created from a lot of entrepreneurs, investors, and employees who end up waiting too long to make an exit.
People should always remember, in the game of musical chairs, the music always stops. And even if the music stops it’s okay – so long as you have a business that is rapidly growing with real metrics…
Now that I’m a distant outsider I can actually talk about my thoughts regarding this potential merger. First off – a disclaimer, I am a shareholder of Yahoo and Microsoft.
As you may know, Microsoft has been trying to acquire Yahoo for the last three months. The deal broke apart this past weekend when Microsoft offered up to $33 a share, and Yahoo wanted $37 a share. Yahoo traded at $28.67 on Friday and was originally at $19 a share when Microsoft first announced their original offer on January 31st.
First off, as a shareholder, I would have loved the outcome to happen since I would have been personally benefited. But, taking the personal emotions out of it – here’s the business analysis for it and how it could affect you as a consumer. Microsoft needs Yahoo. As we all know, Microsoft has been a monopoly in the operating system and browser war. As of March 2008, Microsoft held a 91.57% market share in the OS War and 76% in the browser war.
Operating System Market Share
Browser Market Share
According to Comscore, in March 2008 – here’s a look at market share via the search engines.
Google has a 59.8% market share that continues to trend higher. Yahoo is at 21.3% and MSN is at 9.4%. If Yahoo decides to stay independent that means its only option will be to outsource search to Google. What does this mean? Google will have a total of 90.6% of the market share in search queries (when you add Google, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL). That would leave Microsoft in the dust with single depleting digits in the search market place.
What does this mean to the consumer? Probably won’t have a direct effect till later – since the direct effect will be faced to the advertisers that advertise on Google’s marketplace first. Yahoo believes that by outsourcing its search business it will gain as much as $1 billion in more profits annually since Google will be able to add more search queries to its market place and charge more for them.
It’s a classic supply and demand problem. Search is a very scarce marketplace – the more volume you put in it – and as the demand increases, the prices will go higher. So, how will this eventually affect the consumer? Well, the hundreds of thousands of advertisers that advertise on Google – to make a “ROI profit” – will be making less of a “profit.” And, they will eventually have to increase prices – which “YOU” the consumer will have to pay for.Not exactly, the best result especially in this economy.
Therefore, outside of personal reasons for the merger to have gone through – my business approach is that – I hate monopolies and would hate to create one so hard to break in the advertising world. Google would have too much power, and Microsoft was on the other side of the fence this time around, trying to stop this power – with the proposed transaction. It’s going to be a very interesting week for the three companies mentioned and what it means to their stock prices this week (Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo).
Hello Everyone. Welcome to my blog. This is actually my first blog post ever and I thought I make this one special. From my website you may already know my story, but I’m hoping this blog allows me to communicate directly with everyone.As you all know, I’ve had an incredible and fortunate journey in my life. Not a single day goes by – when I think about how grateful I am. Nevertheless, nothing came easy or was handed to me. It was all risk that turned into reward after some great ups and downs. Over the last 9 years – I’ve had an amazing career on the Internet. At 16 – I started my first Company, ClickAgents, and then one of the first things I did as an adult, at 18, was merge it with ValueClick for $40 million. At 21, I made one of the best decisions of my life, and that was to re-join this industry and start BlueLithium. And, as you may know, BlueLithium merged with Yahoo for $300 million last October. So what next you may ask? I learned one thing about myself while I was learning everything about the way the world works. I love to be challenged and I love to win.
After the merger with Yahoo – I stayed on an interim basis as CEO. In the beginning of 2008, my job was done. One thing I know about myself is that being idle is not something I can do. I figured out very early on – I’m not the type of guy that can simply go on a never-ending vacation or just sit on an island for the rest of my life sipping a margarita. I was ready for my next challenge.
I was introduced to the William Morris Agency and shortly thereafter signed up with them. As you may know – William Morris is one of the oldest talent agencies in the world and represents some of the greatest personalities in entertainment. I felt fortunate that I was in great Company. Things started to move fast. I had some great ideas on some TV shows that I was working with them on, as well as, a memoir that I wanted to write about my journey.
Within several weeks – I was presented an opportunity about a new show that a major network was producing. The more and more I learned about it – the more I fell in love with the underlying premise of the show.Several weeks later – I was casted and selected by the network to star in it. The filming took several weeks and was an incredible experience for me. You can definitely say it was very different than starting a Company. But, like I said – I am always up for a challenge, and this was definitely a memorable one. The show is slated to come out on a major network come this Fall – and as things come closer – I am hoping you all watch it and enjoy it as much I did being a part of it.
Meanwhile, after the filming, I met with several of the top book publishers. I was looking for the right publisher that understood the reason why I was writing this book and the message I wanted to get across. Far too many times – people hear my story and they ask…How? Why? And how can I? The short answer is – it’s not easy and there is no easy way. But, the long answer (you will find after reading the book) if I can do it – you can too! I believe everyone can find that same magic I was able to find in myself. After meeting with Palgrave Macmillan – I signed global rights to my book, “The Dream.” William Morris also helped me find my ghostwriter – Pablo Fenjves (NY Times bestselling author) to help create a very powerful book that I am hoping inspires people to find their magic. Pablo and I have been working on the book for several months now – and it’s been a privilege to work with such an incredible writer. We’re about 90% done – and will be turning over the manuscript next month (June) and are looking forward to releasing it during winter 2008.
So, now what, you may ask? Sell Company #2 – film a show, write a book, what could be next? Like I said – being idle is dangerous for a guy like me. So, I decided to go back into my roots. I love creating something out of nothing. The joy of it – is the best adrenaline rush you can get.
I started researching a couple of months ago – of what the market needed and what Company #3 could do. Obviously, I have a non-compete so I can’t start another ad network. But, what is something that I can use my skill set toward and have a great time creating? Then, it all clicked. And over the last 8 weeks, I’ve been in stealth mode launching gWallet (www.gWallet.com).
I realized how much the credit crisis was hurting America. In a recent report, almost 18% of American homes will either have zero or negative equity. Even the government is looking for a quick fix. President Bush’s recent economic stimulus package was the result of injecting cash back into America. But, the underlying problem still is going to exist. How can you maximize the value of that dollar? Hence, the ideas of gWallet were defined. And, I went to work.
You can say – I am back into full swing and loving it! The adrenaline rush is back – since this is what I love doing. Everything from picking out the name, to the logo, to creating the team is almost like solving the most intricate puzzle. Except – you’re stuck with it after your done building it. Therefore, you have to be careful every step of the way.
Today, VentureWire released an article that outlines how much progress we’ve made in just the last 8 weeks. We’re already well under way for raising $10 million for gWallet. I start my pathway again. I hope this time – it is just as exciting as it’s been the last two times, if not more. Wishing everyone continued success as my journey continues…
47 Comments 
