3,026 Days Later

July 12th, 2007 • Business, Entrepreneurship + Startups, Technology, Venture Capital

A little over 8 years ago, I came up with a zany idea (which was later patented) to make the Internet a better place by creating a technology which would automatically identify where people were based solely on their IP address. The idea came to me when I hit the FedEx and Ikea website one evening. Then (and now), both sites asked for my country location before showing me any content. I thought that was a horrible user experience especially for dialup Internet users (like me at that time). So I devised what I thought was a simple solution to the problem. It turned out that implementing the “simple” solution was not simple at all.

Just over two years after I left my full-time role at Digital Envoy, 3,026 days after I came up with the idea, and after raising $12 million in lifetime capital, Digital Envoy has been acquired by Landmark Communications. Landmark may not be a company which you’re familiar with (they’re a privately held conglomerate) but you definitely know the companies they own such as The Weather Channel, a number of newspapers, and a handful of television stations. From everything I’ve been told by my Digital Envoy co-founders, they seem to be nice and decent people (I’ve had no direct interaction with the Landmark folks so I can’t speak to this).

There are a lot of lessons that I’ll take away from this eight year experience and I’ll be writing about them at some point. But before all that I want to thank all the people who made Digital Envoy a success.

It starts with my two co-founders - Rob Friedman and Dennis Maicon. Without the two of them, Digital Envoy probably would have folded a long time ago. We’ve been through a lot of trials and tribulations together including a ten month marathon for raising money (we raised $10.5 million in July 2001 and none of us had raised money before), hiring employees, firing employees (not sure how I got stuck doing this more often than anyone else), and dealing with difficult partners and customers. No one ever said starting a company was easy but these two guys shared the burden of getting this going and keeping the train on the tracks. Thanks guys for everything you’ve done over the years and your recent herculean efforts to get to a liquidity event.

Next, all the employees - past and present - who played their part in Digital Envoy’s success. We’ve always had an eclectic group of employee which made coming to work interesting and fun. We stood by each other through great times like the arrival of babies (there was something in the water I think) and weddings (one was even inspired by a DE introduction) as well as when we had less happy events happen. This team has really enjoyed working and blowing off steam together (whirleyball anyone?). I will say I don’t think I’ve played a game of Halo since I left Digital Envoy and I definitely miss the regular afternoon games. Many thanks to all of you, from the data crunchers to the executives, for your hard work and relentless dedication to a great customer experience.

Finally, I want to thank all of our angel investors. Without you folks, Digital Envoy would have never happened. We came to you with a concept in hand, no real working product, and no history of entrepreneurial success. Yet somehow, you folks decided to take a chance on us. You stuck by the company through thick and thin and tried to keep an eye out for us whenever possible. You guys are the true financiers of the company and I wish we’d been able to repay you back even more than we did. Thank you so much for believing in us and giving us the ability to take our shot at success.

So here’s to 3,026 days from idea to acquisition. Thanks for the ride and all the memories. I won’t soon forget the wonderful times I had at DE.

Note 1: The Digital Envoy cake above is a real cake that my wife made for the end of softball season a few years ago. Since day one, the company has been a family affair for me.

Note 2: The dog above is the original mascot and product name of Digital Envoy. Our product was originally called SPOT (Systematic Position Online Targeter). We wisely decided to change the name of the product to NetAcuity.

Tags: Digital-Envoy, startups, Venture Capital

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