These Last 6 Months and What Is Next

December 29th, 2006 • Business, Technology

I’ve refrained from talking about what I’ve been up to since I graduated from Emory’s Goizueta Business School. The time has come to discuss what I’ve been up to and what I’m going to do next.

Near the end of my school year (in early 2006), I got a call from EarthLink. After getting a hold of my resume, they were interested in having me come and interview. I’ve been a long time shareholder of the company (I bought stock in MindSpring soon after it went public in 1996) and thought this might be a good opportunity to know the company better. So I did the interview. Then another. And then another.

That’s right, I did three interviews along with two dozen emails with hiring managers discussing what and where I could help EarthLink. If you know my background, you know I don’t fit in the “normal” buckets that people are classified in. Am I technologist? Entrepreneur? Strategist? International relations buff? No one (including me) knows. I’m a blending of a lot of different things.

So after many negotiations back and forth, I was offered either of two positions at the same pay rate. The choice was mine to do what I wanted at EarthLink and what a great position to be in! I ended up choosing to join a team whose goal was to introduce Internet delivered video and content for EarthLink. This was a perfect fit for me because I’ve been thinking about this space since before I started business school. I had clear ideas as to what I thought needed to be built and I thought these ideas lined up with EarthLink’s stated goal. As I joined the company, I decided that when I left EarthLink I would shed most, if not all, of my holdings in the company.

A little more than a week ago, I found out that EarthLink was not going to keep me past the end of the year. Pretty disappointing given the opportunities I said “no” to so that I could join the company, not to mention the horrid commute I was suffering through daily (45 minute drive each way assuming no accidents - same on MARTA which I’ve now become a bigger fan of). EarthLink has made some huge bets on Helio, Muni WiFi, and Voice Services. Because of these bets, the company seems to have little appetite to pursue another heavy investment (relative to the other investments though, what I was working on would have been significantly cheaper).

So I’m trying to figure out what to do next. Most folks are checked out for the year now so I’ll probably start looking around after the new year. I’m also toying with some ideas but I’m not sure how quickly or easily I’ll be able to raise money (which you know is the bane of my existence). This is also the reason that I’ve been blogging a lot lately. I’m planning on keeping up a pace of at least a post per day - maybe more.

So if you think you might need some help in your company, or some temporary consulting insight, drop me a line via LinkedIn, Ether, or post a comment to this entry.

Oh yeah, I still hold a little EarthLink stock - about 15% of my previous holdings - but the majority is gone. Even though the stock has languished for years, I bought so long ago that I still made a decent profit.

Tags: consulting, EarthLink, Emory-University, entrepreneurship, Ether, Goizueta-Business-School, Helio, Internet-video, LinkedIn, MARTA, Muni-WiFi, stock

Trackback URI.