A focused family business
Chief Geek
Email Picture
Randi Lynn Beach / For The Times
ALL TOGETHER: Don MacAskill, the 30-year-old chief executive and "chief geek," says: "We work in earnest to create a family atmosphere."
Picture this: an online photo-sharing site with a loyal customer base and no corporate ties run by a close-knit clan out of Silicon Valley.
By Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 24, 2007
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. -- Ever the proud father, Chris MacAskill screens 20-year-old home movies of his sons -- Ben singing about a stegosaurus, Mark getting a mohawk -- on his laptop.
"This is the negative of working with family members," a red-faced Mark, now 26, says before retreating to his cubicle.
Meet the MacAskills, Silicon Valley's version of the Waltons: seven members of a close-knit clan, ranging in age from 23 to 63, who run SmugMug Inc., which helps families share their own Kodak moments online. They are holding their own against photography services on the Internet run by corporate giants even though they have never taken a dime from outside investors.
They started on a shoestring budget in 2002, not moving into real offices in Mountain View, Calif., until April. Before that, the MacAskills and their employees set up shop in the five-bedroom home of Chris and his wife, Toni. Engineers bunked two to a bedroom. Blow dryers and vacuums routinely blew circuit breakers. Barking yellow Labrador retrievers chased tennis balls up and down the stairs.
Toni, the SmugMug matriarch, referees family squabbles. When things get out of hand she sometimes jokes that she'll send everyone to their rooms for a time out.
The MacAskills deftly blend business and family -- a radical concept in the youth-obsessed Internet industry, which admits adults, particularly of the gray-haired variety, only reluctantly.
The company now employs 28 people -- all MacAskills, family friends and SmugMug customers they hired -- in five countries. The MacAskills have signed up more than 100,000 paying subscribers despite mounting competition from free services, in part by emphasizing their family-friendly approach. They post their own family photos and home videos on the website, spend countless hours chatting up their users in the company's online forum and send lively customer service e-mails such as "Who loves you, baby?"
They also reward customer loyalty. Two years ago, when SmugMug raised its prices, it grandfathered in all its current customers. Every year, SmugMug organizes "shootouts" for its customers: roving expeditions to national parks with expert instruction on how to get the perfect shot.
And once, as payment for photo services, the MacAskills accepted livestock.
That personal touch has won over customers, some of whom traveled from as far away as Boston to attend SmugMug's recent fifth-anniversary party, where they dressed up in colorful costumes courtesy of SmugMug and mugged for the camera. Others have been so taken with the company that they quit their jobs to work there.
"Google went to great lengths to create a dorm atmosphere," said Don MacAskill, the 30-year-old chief executive and "chief geek." "We work in earnest to create a family atmosphere."
At the head of this Mormon family is Chris, 54, a Stanford-trained geophysicist and lifelong shutterbug. After a stint at Steve Jobs' Next Software Inc. in the 1990s, he caught entrepreneurial fever. With his family pitching in, he built Fatbrain.com, an online bookstore for geeks, and took it public in 1998. Barnesandnoble.com bought the company in 2000 for $62 million. The money was distributed among the many stakeholders, with most of it going to outside investors.
SmugMug employees and customers know Chris as "Baldy," not because his hair is thinning (it is) but because he once shaved it off during a motorcycle ride in Mexico -- a trip he took seeking catharsis after he witnessed from a New York board room the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11.
In 2002, Chris became the first to join his son Don, a programming prodigy then working on his seventh start-up, which soon became SmugMug. Together, they recruited Toni, 56, a motorcyclist like her husband. In addition to helping customers and coining the company's name, she handles SmugMug's finances as she did in the early days of Fatbrain. She calls herself the "countess of cash."
Before long, Don's brothers dropped out of college to lend a hand. Ben, now 28, was going to school to pursue a career in biotechnology, and Mark was eight months away from a degree in actuarial science. Ben, the "czar of testing," hunts down software bugs in new features. Mark, the "stats geek," is in charge of figuring out how people use SmugMug's site to improve it and draw more users.
They were followed by their sister. Anne MacAskill Bean, who is 23 and expecting her first child, provides customer support (her specialty is printing) from her home in Columbus, Ohio.
Chris' sister, Robin MacAskill, 63, of Bethesda, Md., telecommutes part-time as a customer service representative.
The MacAskills have found family to be a competitive advantage. SmugMug's revenue has doubled every year, this year reaching $12 million, and the company turns a profit.
The ties that bind families such as the MacAskills can lead to both great fortune and great friction, management experts say. Relatives who go into business together often work selflessly toward a common goal, but family problems can spill over into the workplace.
"Families have the advantage of a common bond for life, and the disadvantage of a common bond for life," said David Russell, director of Cal State Northridge's Family Business Education and Research Center.
Don acknowledges that at first he wasn't sure whether the MacAskills and the people they work with at SmugMug would be able to separate family and business.
"I worried that new hires would feel alienated or steamrolled by the family," he said. "Now that we have been doing this long enough, we in the family are in the minority, and those fears are evaporating."
He also said the family hadn't seen any conflicts turn into "real family feuds or anything like that -- knock on wood."
The MacAskills are determined to retain control of their business, turning down all offers to invest in or buy the company. Employees, who include "sorcerers" (engineers) and "support heroes" (customer service staff), agree that SmugMug wouldn't be the same with outside influence.
SmugMug may have one of the most distinctive corporate characters in Silicon Valley. After all, this is the company that in January gave a couple, Naomi Smith and Roger Brimacombe from Fetlar, one of Scotland's Shetland islands, a lifetime SmugMug membership in exchange for a sheep. As part of the lighthearted deal, the ram, which remained on Fetlar, was christened Smuggy, and SmugMug's green smiley face logo was spray painted on his coat, where it remained until he was sheared this fall.
In 2005, to celebrate hitting their company's sales goal, the SmugMug family -- babies and dogs included -- dyed their hair green and gathered for a photograph. For corporate photos posted on the site, the company hires a professional face painter to make up employees as superheroes.
Few ham it up quite like Chris. Fellow motorcyclist and SmugMug customer Glen Heggstad once took an around-the-world ride and sent Chris what appeared to be a loincloth from Africa, so Chris donned it -- and nothing else -- for a spin around the neighborhood. When Heggstad saw the photos, he sent Chris one of tribal women wearing the garment as intended: like a halter top.
In more ways than one, SmugMug has defied conventional business wisdom from inception. Undaunted by the prospect of starting a company amid the ruins of the Internet crash and rising competition from major players including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Eastman Kodak Co., the MacAskills set out to build a site they would want to use. That meant sending no spam, running no ads next to people's photos, offering unlimited storage and taking great care to protect photos from unwanted viewers.
Rather than giving away the product like some photo-sharing sites, they decided to offer three levels of paid subscriptions to appeal to amateurs and professionals alike. In doing so, SmugMug has found its niche, albeit a much smaller one than other online photo companies.
SmugMug has a fraction of the monthly visitors of its biggest competitors, but by catering to people who are willing to pay for privacy and storage, the company has become "one of the big winners" in its field, IDC analyst Chris Chute said.
"They really started off as a very realistic service and business model," he said. "They weren't trying to take over the world and become the next Kodak, and that has served them well."
For example, the MacAskills camped the night on a Palo Alto sidewalk to be among the first to buy iPhones and promptly produced a photo service for the device that became one of Apple.com's top picks. They are also getting into video, recently rolling out a high-definition video service for SmugMug users despite the high bandwidth costs.
It's partly that gadget-head spirit that has made SmugMug such a hit with customers. Chris has been building computers from scratch with his sons since they were little. Don spent so much time on the computer that he had to be banned from it for the second half of second grade because he hadn't turned in a single homework assignment.
"We used to dread parent-teacher conferences," Chris said.
Customers crowd an online forum, Digital Grin, where they get to know the MacAskills one on one.
Sean Rogan, 33, was a SmugMug customer who used to keep readers of Chris' motorcycle forum on the edge of their seats with his tales of life on the road. While he was passing through San Francisco on his way to Guatemala, Chris surprised him by offering him a job as the company writer.
"I thought: Could this have really found me?" Rogan said.
The MacAskills enfold their employees, Rogan said. Nicknames, inside jokes and spirited debate are common at the dinner and conference room table, which is Don's repurposed kitchen table. Employees get $500 to decorate their cubicles.
Everyone is treated to annual bonuses, matching 401(k)s, stock options and health club memberships. And SmugMug picks up the entire tab for medical coverage.
Each day, the company takes everyone out to lunch. In the afternoon, Chris, who recently converted some SmugMug employees and even customers to vegetarianism, whips up a fruit-and-vegetable concoction. Toni serves up freshly baked goods, like she did in her kitchen when the kids brought friends home after school.
The company runs on what it calls "collective consciousness," with everyone getting a say.
No one punches a clock; early risers and late sleepers set their own schedules. All have to be nudged to log off and go home at night.
"We just have this love of the business," Chris said. "We would rather do this than anything else."
jessica.guynn@latimes.com
Monday, December 24, 2007
Online social networks get down to business
Online social networks get down to business
Local users find easier connections
Sunday, December 23, 2007
BY TINA REED
The Ann Arbor News
It'd be nice to be able to meet every possible business contact face to face.
But for Ann Arbor attorney and consultant Don Blumenthal, time and money constraints make that impossible, so he turns to LinkedIn and Plaxo, online social networks that've been established as meeting places for business.
"There is only so much you can do unless you have an unlimited travel budget,'' said Blumenthal, who specializes in technology, law and policy. "I can't fly out there to meet (contacts) and it's better than a cold call.''
Social networking online is not just for the young.
Web users of all ages in Ann Arbor have embraced online social networks, jumping on sites like LinkedIn - a strictly business network that creates a form on online resume; Plaxo - a network that catalogs and updates contacts' information; and even the popular social network Facebook to spread information, reach out to customers, contact and collect connections they've met in person and collaborate on business projects.
Using LinkedIn simplifies parts of Lindsay McCarthy's job as the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce's director of programs and events by allowing her to visualize mutual connections with contacts she's collected.
"If I'm looking for a speaker, I can look at my connections and see if I know someone who could perhaps put me in contact with that person I'm looking for,'' McCarthy said. "I've done it without the network's help, but it isn't as easy to see and make those connections.''
Almost every Thursday afternoon, a group of local technology junkies meet over Bi Bim Bop, a Korean dish, at Eastern Accents restaurant on Fourth Street.
Calling the event A2B3, it's a regular chance to network about technological projects in an informal environment - organized by Ed Vielmetti from Internet marketing firm Pure Visibility. Vielmetti has built up hundreds on contacts on Twitter (a socially networked microblogging service), Flickr (a socially networked photo sharing site), LinkedIn and his Ann Arbor blogs.
Flexing his Web marketing muscle with his presence online, Vielmetti puts notes and maps, directions, blog posts and streams news up on the sites; regular updates are sent to subscribers' computers and cell phones using Twitter. Online networking is nothing new, Vielmetti said. The Internet itself was designed as a network between academic institutions; but it's simply evolved into different uses, he said.
"If you're trying to mobilize people to go to an event and you're gathering groups of related people, such as on Twitter, you can get them off their seat to do something,'' he said.
When Eli Neiburger, an occasional A2B3 attendee and Ann Arbor District Library manager of information access and systems, tried to reach a new audience, he did what many businesses have tried by opening a "branch'' on MySpace.com, a popular social networking site used to share music and interests.
It was largely embraced by young gamers, but he found older patrons weren't interested.
"The older generation is entering and networking different ways,'' Neiburger said. "You see a lot of it on Flickr where the social component is almost a secret until you find someone with pictures you enjoy. On eBay, you are professional, you're developing your reputation and you're developing rivalries against other names.''
In more traditional networking in Ann Arbor, job seekers, employers and entrepreneurs gather at downtown venues to exchange business cards over hors d'oeuvres. Events like those have been successful for attendees, said Amy Cell, Ann Arbor Spark's director of talent acquisition who organizes the events.
Rather than wrapping up the schmoozing when the gatherings end, it heads online.
"It makes sense to do both - when you're doing online networking, you can be very targeted in who you approach which can be very helpful in making connections,'' Cell said. "But if you go to a general networking event, you never know who you are going to meet which can be good as well.''
Although "with new job seekers and with the Pfizer closing, there was a big group moving to LinkedIn, certain communities - especially the most technological groups - are on Facebook,'' Cell said.
It's true for Ann Arbor resident Doug Dormer, who said he uses private Facebook groups regularly to collaborate on business projects rather than holding face-to-face meetings.
Before Dormer found Facebook this spring, his business plan for White Pine Systems, LLC was almost grounded. His goal is to design a secure way for individuals to access their own medical records and share them easily.
Facebook provided a well-designed, ubiquitous platform, he said.
"This is where things are going in the future,'' Dormer said. "We think it is the first step toward integrating social communities with traditional business models.''
Tina Reed can be reached at 734-994-6843 or treed@annarbornews.com.
Local users find easier connections
Sunday, December 23, 2007
BY TINA REED
The Ann Arbor News
It'd be nice to be able to meet every possible business contact face to face.
But for Ann Arbor attorney and consultant Don Blumenthal, time and money constraints make that impossible, so he turns to LinkedIn and Plaxo, online social networks that've been established as meeting places for business.
"There is only so much you can do unless you have an unlimited travel budget,'' said Blumenthal, who specializes in technology, law and policy. "I can't fly out there to meet (contacts) and it's better than a cold call.''
Social networking online is not just for the young.
Web users of all ages in Ann Arbor have embraced online social networks, jumping on sites like LinkedIn - a strictly business network that creates a form on online resume; Plaxo - a network that catalogs and updates contacts' information; and even the popular social network Facebook to spread information, reach out to customers, contact and collect connections they've met in person and collaborate on business projects.
Using LinkedIn simplifies parts of Lindsay McCarthy's job as the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce's director of programs and events by allowing her to visualize mutual connections with contacts she's collected.
"If I'm looking for a speaker, I can look at my connections and see if I know someone who could perhaps put me in contact with that person I'm looking for,'' McCarthy said. "I've done it without the network's help, but it isn't as easy to see and make those connections.''
Almost every Thursday afternoon, a group of local technology junkies meet over Bi Bim Bop, a Korean dish, at Eastern Accents restaurant on Fourth Street.
Calling the event A2B3, it's a regular chance to network about technological projects in an informal environment - organized by Ed Vielmetti from Internet marketing firm Pure Visibility. Vielmetti has built up hundreds on contacts on Twitter (a socially networked microblogging service), Flickr (a socially networked photo sharing site), LinkedIn and his Ann Arbor blogs.
Flexing his Web marketing muscle with his presence online, Vielmetti puts notes and maps, directions, blog posts and streams news up on the sites; regular updates are sent to subscribers' computers and cell phones using Twitter. Online networking is nothing new, Vielmetti said. The Internet itself was designed as a network between academic institutions; but it's simply evolved into different uses, he said.
"If you're trying to mobilize people to go to an event and you're gathering groups of related people, such as on Twitter, you can get them off their seat to do something,'' he said.
When Eli Neiburger, an occasional A2B3 attendee and Ann Arbor District Library manager of information access and systems, tried to reach a new audience, he did what many businesses have tried by opening a "branch'' on MySpace.com, a popular social networking site used to share music and interests.
It was largely embraced by young gamers, but he found older patrons weren't interested.
"The older generation is entering and networking different ways,'' Neiburger said. "You see a lot of it on Flickr where the social component is almost a secret until you find someone with pictures you enjoy. On eBay, you are professional, you're developing your reputation and you're developing rivalries against other names.''
In more traditional networking in Ann Arbor, job seekers, employers and entrepreneurs gather at downtown venues to exchange business cards over hors d'oeuvres. Events like those have been successful for attendees, said Amy Cell, Ann Arbor Spark's director of talent acquisition who organizes the events.
Rather than wrapping up the schmoozing when the gatherings end, it heads online.
"It makes sense to do both - when you're doing online networking, you can be very targeted in who you approach which can be very helpful in making connections,'' Cell said. "But if you go to a general networking event, you never know who you are going to meet which can be good as well.''
Although "with new job seekers and with the Pfizer closing, there was a big group moving to LinkedIn, certain communities - especially the most technological groups - are on Facebook,'' Cell said.
It's true for Ann Arbor resident Doug Dormer, who said he uses private Facebook groups regularly to collaborate on business projects rather than holding face-to-face meetings.
Before Dormer found Facebook this spring, his business plan for White Pine Systems, LLC was almost grounded. His goal is to design a secure way for individuals to access their own medical records and share them easily.
Facebook provided a well-designed, ubiquitous platform, he said.
"This is where things are going in the future,'' Dormer said. "We think it is the first step toward integrating social communities with traditional business models.''
Tina Reed can be reached at 734-994-6843 or treed@annarbornews.com.
Email Coaching Program Helps Online Marketers to Create More Profits in 2008
Email Coaching Program Helps Online Marketers to Create More Profits in 2008
Owner of Internet Profit Planning, Angela Wills, announces email coaching program to help small business owners set themselves up for new year's profits.
Baldwin, Canada, December 22, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Angela Wills, owner of Internet Profit Planning has introduced the ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ Email Coaching Program, which helps online marketers to plan and set up their marketing process for 2008.
Wills has spent the last several years helping internet business owners with various marketing tasks on the internet. Her unique methods have made her the go-to person for online marketers to be more successful.
“I created this coaching product because so many people were struggling to keep on track with plans that make them money online,” says Wills. “Now they’ll be able to grow their online business faster and easier.”
By joining the ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ program, business owners will be able to:
- Have a plan of action for setting themselves up for profits in 2008.
- Get step-by-step guidance on how to set up the necessary programs for building income.
- Learn how to use the programs put into place for maximum results.
The ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ email coaching program is available for $147 and can be purchased by going to http://www.NewYearsProfits.com.
For more information, go to NewYearsProfits.com. Questions can be directed to 905-716-2995 or email: info@internetprofitplanning.com.
About Internet Profit Planning (http://www.internetprofitplanning.com)
Internet Profit Planning (http://www.internetprofitplanning.com) works with online business owners all over the United States and Canada to increase their online presence through marketing systems and efforts. With 5 years internet marketing experience, Wills has helped dozens of online business owners increase their income using various online marketing strategies.
###
Contact Information
Internet Profit Planning
Angela Wills
905-716-2995
info@internetprofitplanning.com
internetprofitplanning.com
Owner of Internet Profit Planning, Angela Wills, announces email coaching program to help small business owners set themselves up for new year's profits.
Baldwin, Canada, December 22, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Angela Wills, owner of Internet Profit Planning has introduced the ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ Email Coaching Program, which helps online marketers to plan and set up their marketing process for 2008.
Wills has spent the last several years helping internet business owners with various marketing tasks on the internet. Her unique methods have made her the go-to person for online marketers to be more successful.
“I created this coaching product because so many people were struggling to keep on track with plans that make them money online,” says Wills. “Now they’ll be able to grow their online business faster and easier.”
By joining the ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ program, business owners will be able to:
- Have a plan of action for setting themselves up for profits in 2008.
- Get step-by-step guidance on how to set up the necessary programs for building income.
- Learn how to use the programs put into place for maximum results.
The ‘Set Yourself Up For New Years’ Profits’ email coaching program is available for $147 and can be purchased by going to http://www.NewYearsProfits.com.
For more information, go to NewYearsProfits.com. Questions can be directed to 905-716-2995 or email: info@internetprofitplanning.com.
About Internet Profit Planning (http://www.internetprofitplanning.com)
Internet Profit Planning (http://www.internetprofitplanning.com) works with online business owners all over the United States and Canada to increase their online presence through marketing systems and efforts. With 5 years internet marketing experience, Wills has helped dozens of online business owners increase their income using various online marketing strategies.
###
Contact Information
Internet Profit Planning
Angela Wills
905-716-2995
info@internetprofitplanning.com
internetprofitplanning.com
The Children's Internet Announces New Business Developments
The Children's Internet Announces New Business Developments
Highlighted Links
The Children's Internet, Inc.
MacReport.Net
SAN RAMON, CA--(Marketwire - December 20, 2007) - The Children's Internet, Inc. (OTCBB: CITC) announced today that it has amended the terms of its agreement with The Children's Internet Holding Company (TCIH) to permit TCIH to purchase up to an additional 128,040,988 shares of TCI Common Stock for an aggregate of $8 million. The parties also agreed to extend the outside termination date of their Definitive Stock Purchase Agreement (DSPA) from December 31, 2007 to January 31, 2008.
Currently, the DSPA provides for the purchase of 128,040,988 shares of TCI stock for an aggregate purchase price of $8 million. The new agreement allows TCIH to potentially double its investment in TCI through exercise of a warrant to purchase up to 128,040,988 shares of TCI common stock at an exercise price equal to the purchase price per share of common stock under the DSPA. The warrant may only be exercised after the closing of the DSPA, and then, only until April 30, 2008.
Richard J. Lewis III, TCI's Acting CEO and the Manager of TCIH, commented: "The warrant gives TCIH the flexibility to provide significant additional funding to TCI at the closing, which will allow TCI to implement its post-closing strategy more quickly and efficiently than we otherwise would have been able to do. The extension of the termination date also gives us additional time to plan our post-closing efforts, manage the IT transfer from Two Dog Net and raise additional funds."
TCI also recently entered into a Services Agreement with Two Dog Net (TDN) under which, TDN will continue to provide TCI office lease and equipment rental services until the closing under the DSPA. TCIH is a third-party beneficiary to the rights of TCI and a guarantor of the payments to be made by TCI under the Services Agreement.
New Technology Development Team
In order to facilitate the transfer of technology and ensure continual and reliable performance under the Service Agreement, TCI is also pleased to announce the formation of its new technology development team (the "Tech Team") that is being put into place by TCIH in anticipation of the closing. Each member of the Tech Team has a specific area of Internet software and security expertise. The Tech Team is led by Kenneth C. Wilkinson, formerly of Boxer Technology, LLC., who has over 20 years' experience in the IT business including as a leading software developer. Senior Developer Rick Leinecker has been an expert in the field of Internet filtering technologies for over 10 years. Tyler Wheeler, the Chief Architect and one of the original creators of The Children's Internet® software, has over 20 years of software and hardware integration and design experience. Daniel W. Schoenthal has over 25 years of design and implementation experience, and is currently providing content architecture and access control list services in addition to being the home office trouble shooter for TCIH
About The Children's Internet, Inc.:
The Children's Internet, Inc. (http://www.ChildrensInternet.com) is the exclusive marketer and distributor of The Children's Internet® membership based service created just for kids. The Children's Internet is the most comprehensive, secure Internet service and "educational super portal" for children, pre-school to junior high, providing them with SAFE, real time access to millions of the best pre-selected, pre-approved educational and entertaining web pages accessed through a kid-friendly search engine.
The Children's Internet provides kids with a rich array of easy to use applications, including secure e-mail, search engine, homework help, games, news, learning activities and virtually limitless educational resources all within its safe, protected online community that gives kids a sense of freedom and parent's total peace of mind!
Awards won by The Children's Internet®:
The Children's Internet® was declared winner of Outstanding Products of 2006 by iParenting Media Awards in the software category.
The Children's Internet® received the coveted National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval.
The Children's Internet® was ranked by PC Magazine as Editors' Choice in the category of "Kids' Browsers and Services" and declared the winner, rated #1 over AOL, MSN and EarthLink.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release may be deemed to contain "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements are made as of today's date and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. You can identify such statements by our use of such words as "should," "expect," "will," "intends," and similar words and phrases which denote future events and which may depend on the future performance of the Company. Specifically, these include statements as to future product releases, the implementation of strategic initiatives and the ownership in TCI upon completion of the transaction and whether or not the transaction will be consummated. Our assumptions underlying these statements are also "forward-looking" statements. Forward-looking statements are based on information and assumptions that are dynamic in nature and subject to rapid and sometimes abrupt changes. Our forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by the statements. Our forward-looking statements are also subject to important risks and uncertainties detailed in our latest reports filed with the SEC and available on its website at www.sec.gov.
INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT:
ir@tciholdingco.com
Phone: (916) 965-5300
Fax: (916) 965-8275
Highlighted Links
The Children's Internet, Inc.
MacReport.Net
SAN RAMON, CA--(Marketwire - December 20, 2007) - The Children's Internet, Inc. (OTCBB: CITC) announced today that it has amended the terms of its agreement with The Children's Internet Holding Company (TCIH) to permit TCIH to purchase up to an additional 128,040,988 shares of TCI Common Stock for an aggregate of $8 million. The parties also agreed to extend the outside termination date of their Definitive Stock Purchase Agreement (DSPA) from December 31, 2007 to January 31, 2008.
Currently, the DSPA provides for the purchase of 128,040,988 shares of TCI stock for an aggregate purchase price of $8 million. The new agreement allows TCIH to potentially double its investment in TCI through exercise of a warrant to purchase up to 128,040,988 shares of TCI common stock at an exercise price equal to the purchase price per share of common stock under the DSPA. The warrant may only be exercised after the closing of the DSPA, and then, only until April 30, 2008.
Richard J. Lewis III, TCI's Acting CEO and the Manager of TCIH, commented: "The warrant gives TCIH the flexibility to provide significant additional funding to TCI at the closing, which will allow TCI to implement its post-closing strategy more quickly and efficiently than we otherwise would have been able to do. The extension of the termination date also gives us additional time to plan our post-closing efforts, manage the IT transfer from Two Dog Net and raise additional funds."
TCI also recently entered into a Services Agreement with Two Dog Net (TDN) under which, TDN will continue to provide TCI office lease and equipment rental services until the closing under the DSPA. TCIH is a third-party beneficiary to the rights of TCI and a guarantor of the payments to be made by TCI under the Services Agreement.
New Technology Development Team
In order to facilitate the transfer of technology and ensure continual and reliable performance under the Service Agreement, TCI is also pleased to announce the formation of its new technology development team (the "Tech Team") that is being put into place by TCIH in anticipation of the closing. Each member of the Tech Team has a specific area of Internet software and security expertise. The Tech Team is led by Kenneth C. Wilkinson, formerly of Boxer Technology, LLC., who has over 20 years' experience in the IT business including as a leading software developer. Senior Developer Rick Leinecker has been an expert in the field of Internet filtering technologies for over 10 years. Tyler Wheeler, the Chief Architect and one of the original creators of The Children's Internet® software, has over 20 years of software and hardware integration and design experience. Daniel W. Schoenthal has over 25 years of design and implementation experience, and is currently providing content architecture and access control list services in addition to being the home office trouble shooter for TCIH
About The Children's Internet, Inc.:
The Children's Internet, Inc. (http://www.ChildrensInternet.com) is the exclusive marketer and distributor of The Children's Internet® membership based service created just for kids. The Children's Internet is the most comprehensive, secure Internet service and "educational super portal" for children, pre-school to junior high, providing them with SAFE, real time access to millions of the best pre-selected, pre-approved educational and entertaining web pages accessed through a kid-friendly search engine.
The Children's Internet provides kids with a rich array of easy to use applications, including secure e-mail, search engine, homework help, games, news, learning activities and virtually limitless educational resources all within its safe, protected online community that gives kids a sense of freedom and parent's total peace of mind!
Awards won by The Children's Internet®:
The Children's Internet® was declared winner of Outstanding Products of 2006 by iParenting Media Awards in the software category.
The Children's Internet® received the coveted National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval.
The Children's Internet® was ranked by PC Magazine as Editors' Choice in the category of "Kids' Browsers and Services" and declared the winner, rated #1 over AOL, MSN and EarthLink.
Forward-Looking Statements:
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FACES OF BUSINESS 2007 : True believer: John Battelle tries his third media enterprise
FACES OF BUSINESS 2007
True believer: John Battelle tries his third media enterprise
Sam Zuckerman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 24, 2007
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As long as there's been a Web, John Battelle has been near the center of it.
Managing editor of Wired magazine and later CEO of the company that published the Industry Standard, Battelle was an essential figure at the digital world's two most iconic publishing enterprises, chronicling the explosive growth of the Internet during the 1990s.
His contagious enthusiasm and missionary zeal about the world-changing power of technology were instrumental in making both magazines cultural phenomena in their own right.
"John saw certain things way before most people," said former Industry Standard Managing Editor Jonathan Weber, now publisher of New West, a Denver online media company. "His role was to be the true believer."
Now, at the ripe age of 42, Battelle is in the thick of his third media venture, one he says could become an even bigger phenomenon than the first two.
This being 2007, there are no printers and no post office to contend with. Battelle's Federated Media Publishing lives entirely in the online world of blogs and related Web 2.0 sites.
What Battelle has done is zero in on a unique money-making opportunity that's emerged as a handful of such sites have turned into successful businesses. With a roster of 140 online affiliates, his company handles back-office chores - most vitally the sale of advertising, which is the life blood of Internet publishing ventures - so that the bloggers and online entrepreneurs can spend their time thinking great thoughts and writing great copy.
"He was looking for a way to somehow liberate the folks who do the writing," said Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, an investor in Federated.
Just 2 years old, Federated Media, with a staff of 53, has been in the black for three months, Battelle said recently during a wide-ranging interview in his Sausalito office.
In contrast with online publishing conglomerates such as Gawker Media, Federated doesn't own the sites in its network. Its business model is to contract with independent online publishers and take a minority cut, typically 40 percent, of the advertising it sells for them.
It also makes money by holding conferences that attract well-heeled digerati, charging several thousand dollars for admission.
Gawker Publisher Nick Denton, who's made a cottage industry of tormenting Battelle, needles Federated's chief for allegedly exaggerating the popularity of the company's affiliated sites and for losing ad sales business from key clients, such as Digg.com. And Denton, whose sites have been accused of tabloid-style journalism, repeatedly has posted an old photo of Battelle flipping the bird.
Battelle said he has no interest in publicly feuding with Denton. "I have nothing but nice things to say," he said.
Recent surveys of traffic to Federated sites have confirmed Battelle's claims about the network's popularity, he said. And concerning Denton's gloating over lost clients, Battelle noted that Digg and other supposed defectors still do business with Federated. Affiliate gains and losses are part of the normal churn of the advertising business, he added.
"Our churn is extraordinarily low," Battelle said.
When Digg moved its ad sales business to Microsoft, founder Kevin Rose posted a statement calling Federated "an awesome partner" and noting that his company would continue working with Battelle's operation on special projects.
Those who know Battelle, who grew up in Pasadena, say his drive and charisma were evident from his earliest days at MacWeek, when he was a newly minted Berkeley anthropology graduate turned tech reporter. He was legendary for prying loose secrets about the insular Apple, once getting his hands on a new Mac version before its official release. MacWeek put a picture of the computer's motherboard on the cover.
Wired founders Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe picked Battelle to be their managing editor, a leap of faith almost as big as starting the magazine itself.
"He looked like a Southern California water polo player and had this can-do attitude, excitement and optimism," Metcalfe recalled. "He came to us with fully formed ideas about the magazine we were inventing. Here's a complete stranger that felt like our oldest friend."
What they shared, Metcalfe said, was a vision of digital technology as "this giant economic machine creating wealth, disrupting existing power structures and sparking a whole new way of thinking."
After Wired, Battelle was recruited by publisher International Data Group to start the Industry Standard. The magazine quickly became the essential guide to the dot-com boom. And it turned into an integral part of the bubble itself, thick with advertising and known for its flashy electronic billboard at the foot of the Bay Bridge. Everyone expected a blockbuster initial public offering that would sow a crop of millionaires and place the Standard in the top tier of magazine publishing.
A year-and-a-half later, the Standard was dead, killed by the dot-com bust and IDG's decision to declare the magazine bankrupt. Never in publishing history had a magazine risen so spectacularly and fallen to Earth with such a resounding thud.
Battelle said he was shattered by the Standard's spectacular and very public flame-out.
"I was bereft," he recalled. "I lost something I had created. I knew I had let down so many people."
Some in the Internet world suggested his Internet boosterism and predilection for Big Thoughts about the march of technology had blinded him to the excesses of the dot-com era and set the Standard up for failure. One disgruntled ex-employee even started a Web site called Battelle Watch, sticking him with the name "Mr. Bubble" and chronicling his foibles.
For his part, Battelle experienced an almost religious crisis of faith in the theme that had animated his personal and professional outlook since college and his early days as a wunderkind reporter at MacWeek - the idea that the digital revolution was an epochal and potentially liberating event in human history. He even considered forsaking the tech world to start a magazine about men's health.
"It was the narrative I had been involved in since MacWeek," he said. "But when the Industry Standard blew up, I lost faith in the narrative."
Battelle taught at UC Berkeley and then found his optimism rekindled by the mushrooming clout of Google as an Internet search powerhouse. His best-selling book, "The Search," is part history and part meditation on the transformation wrought by search technology.
Battelle said he got the idea for Federated in 2004 from his blog, SearchBrains, which was attracting up to 60,000 visitors a month. But he couldn't make a business of it without hiring a staff, and there wasn't enough revenue to pay employees. Catch-22.
Around that time, friends at technology blog Boing Boing told him that their expenses for Internet hosting services were doubling, a drain of cash that threatened to shut them down. Battelle had a brainstorm - start a business to handle administrative tasks and pump up advertising so there would be enough money coming in to pay the bills and turn a profit.
"Why not create a company to partner with them ... a collection of companies that hang together?" he recalled thinking. "Perhaps there's a business there.
"I just saw it," he said. "But I couldn't believe it would work. You say, 'No, put it away. Last time I started a business it didn't work out so well.' "
But he couldn't put it away. He modeled it and found "off-the-charts" profit potential for his company and its affiliates. Both his marketing and online author contacts told him they were interested. He started Federated Media in spring 2005.
Now, once again, Battelle is in a publishing maelstrom of his own making. Federated's Sausalito office buzzes - just like Wired and the Standard. Battelle is at the center, setting off sparks that keep the atmosphere electric and inspire prodigies of work from his staff.
And he's still the true believer.
Asked about his reputation as a wide-eyed technology enthusiast, Battelle confessed that there's truth in the description: "I believe in Google. I believe in the Internet. I believed in the Industry Standard. I believe in Federated Media. Frankly, I don't know how else to live."
Battelle said he doesn't know what's going to happen to Federated, although he suggested one possibility is "a great exit." That could be interpreted as a sale down the road at a fabulous price to a deep-pocketed buyer who would preserve his vision of an online media community.
But the prospect of big money seems less crucial than that sense of being at the center of things.
"Maybe ... we become part of media history," he mused. "That would be most important to me."
Online resource
Faces of Business is a year-end series of profiles featuring prominent people in the Bay Area business scene. To read all the profiles:
www.sfgate.com/ZBWQ
Faces of Business is a year-end series of profiles featuring prominent people in the Bay Area business scene. To read all the profiles, go to www.sfgate.com/ZBWQ.
John Batelle
Age: 42
Job: Founder, chairman, Federated Media Publishing
Previous employment: Founder, chairman, CEO, Standard Media International; publisher of the Industry Standard; managing editor, Wired magazine.
Blog: SearchBrains ( www.searchblog.com), covering media, technology and the Internet.
Education: Bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology and master's degree in journalism, UC Berkeley
Family: Married, three children
Quote: "I've had a 15-year obsession with the intersection of media and technology. I've been obsessed with making media in this space."
E-mail Sam Zuckerman at szuckerman@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
True believer: John Battelle tries his third media enterprise
Sam Zuckerman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 24, 2007
Printable Version
Email This Article
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(0)
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John Battelle runs his Federated Media Publishing from an... John Battelle likes the feeling of being at the center of...
Business & Finance
--Get Quote:
Symbol Lookup
--Main Business & Finance Page: Stock quotes, portfolio, funds and more...
--Small Business Center: A new resource for small businesses. Get expert advice, forms and more.
--SFGate Technology: It's a high-tech world - - we just plug you into it...
As long as there's been a Web, John Battelle has been near the center of it.
Managing editor of Wired magazine and later CEO of the company that published the Industry Standard, Battelle was an essential figure at the digital world's two most iconic publishing enterprises, chronicling the explosive growth of the Internet during the 1990s.
His contagious enthusiasm and missionary zeal about the world-changing power of technology were instrumental in making both magazines cultural phenomena in their own right.
"John saw certain things way before most people," said former Industry Standard Managing Editor Jonathan Weber, now publisher of New West, a Denver online media company. "His role was to be the true believer."
Now, at the ripe age of 42, Battelle is in the thick of his third media venture, one he says could become an even bigger phenomenon than the first two.
This being 2007, there are no printers and no post office to contend with. Battelle's Federated Media Publishing lives entirely in the online world of blogs and related Web 2.0 sites.
What Battelle has done is zero in on a unique money-making opportunity that's emerged as a handful of such sites have turned into successful businesses. With a roster of 140 online affiliates, his company handles back-office chores - most vitally the sale of advertising, which is the life blood of Internet publishing ventures - so that the bloggers and online entrepreneurs can spend their time thinking great thoughts and writing great copy.
"He was looking for a way to somehow liberate the folks who do the writing," said Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, an investor in Federated.
Just 2 years old, Federated Media, with a staff of 53, has been in the black for three months, Battelle said recently during a wide-ranging interview in his Sausalito office.
In contrast with online publishing conglomerates such as Gawker Media, Federated doesn't own the sites in its network. Its business model is to contract with independent online publishers and take a minority cut, typically 40 percent, of the advertising it sells for them.
It also makes money by holding conferences that attract well-heeled digerati, charging several thousand dollars for admission.
Gawker Publisher Nick Denton, who's made a cottage industry of tormenting Battelle, needles Federated's chief for allegedly exaggerating the popularity of the company's affiliated sites and for losing ad sales business from key clients, such as Digg.com. And Denton, whose sites have been accused of tabloid-style journalism, repeatedly has posted an old photo of Battelle flipping the bird.
Battelle said he has no interest in publicly feuding with Denton. "I have nothing but nice things to say," he said.
Recent surveys of traffic to Federated sites have confirmed Battelle's claims about the network's popularity, he said. And concerning Denton's gloating over lost clients, Battelle noted that Digg and other supposed defectors still do business with Federated. Affiliate gains and losses are part of the normal churn of the advertising business, he added.
"Our churn is extraordinarily low," Battelle said.
When Digg moved its ad sales business to Microsoft, founder Kevin Rose posted a statement calling Federated "an awesome partner" and noting that his company would continue working with Battelle's operation on special projects.
Those who know Battelle, who grew up in Pasadena, say his drive and charisma were evident from his earliest days at MacWeek, when he was a newly minted Berkeley anthropology graduate turned tech reporter. He was legendary for prying loose secrets about the insular Apple, once getting his hands on a new Mac version before its official release. MacWeek put a picture of the computer's motherboard on the cover.
Wired founders Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe picked Battelle to be their managing editor, a leap of faith almost as big as starting the magazine itself.
"He looked like a Southern California water polo player and had this can-do attitude, excitement and optimism," Metcalfe recalled. "He came to us with fully formed ideas about the magazine we were inventing. Here's a complete stranger that felt like our oldest friend."
What they shared, Metcalfe said, was a vision of digital technology as "this giant economic machine creating wealth, disrupting existing power structures and sparking a whole new way of thinking."
After Wired, Battelle was recruited by publisher International Data Group to start the Industry Standard. The magazine quickly became the essential guide to the dot-com boom. And it turned into an integral part of the bubble itself, thick with advertising and known for its flashy electronic billboard at the foot of the Bay Bridge. Everyone expected a blockbuster initial public offering that would sow a crop of millionaires and place the Standard in the top tier of magazine publishing.
A year-and-a-half later, the Standard was dead, killed by the dot-com bust and IDG's decision to declare the magazine bankrupt. Never in publishing history had a magazine risen so spectacularly and fallen to Earth with such a resounding thud.
Battelle said he was shattered by the Standard's spectacular and very public flame-out.
"I was bereft," he recalled. "I lost something I had created. I knew I had let down so many people."
Some in the Internet world suggested his Internet boosterism and predilection for Big Thoughts about the march of technology had blinded him to the excesses of the dot-com era and set the Standard up for failure. One disgruntled ex-employee even started a Web site called Battelle Watch, sticking him with the name "Mr. Bubble" and chronicling his foibles.
For his part, Battelle experienced an almost religious crisis of faith in the theme that had animated his personal and professional outlook since college and his early days as a wunderkind reporter at MacWeek - the idea that the digital revolution was an epochal and potentially liberating event in human history. He even considered forsaking the tech world to start a magazine about men's health.
"It was the narrative I had been involved in since MacWeek," he said. "But when the Industry Standard blew up, I lost faith in the narrative."
Battelle taught at UC Berkeley and then found his optimism rekindled by the mushrooming clout of Google as an Internet search powerhouse. His best-selling book, "The Search," is part history and part meditation on the transformation wrought by search technology.
Battelle said he got the idea for Federated in 2004 from his blog, SearchBrains, which was attracting up to 60,000 visitors a month. But he couldn't make a business of it without hiring a staff, and there wasn't enough revenue to pay employees. Catch-22.
Around that time, friends at technology blog Boing Boing told him that their expenses for Internet hosting services were doubling, a drain of cash that threatened to shut them down. Battelle had a brainstorm - start a business to handle administrative tasks and pump up advertising so there would be enough money coming in to pay the bills and turn a profit.
"Why not create a company to partner with them ... a collection of companies that hang together?" he recalled thinking. "Perhaps there's a business there.
"I just saw it," he said. "But I couldn't believe it would work. You say, 'No, put it away. Last time I started a business it didn't work out so well.' "
But he couldn't put it away. He modeled it and found "off-the-charts" profit potential for his company and its affiliates. Both his marketing and online author contacts told him they were interested. He started Federated Media in spring 2005.
Now, once again, Battelle is in a publishing maelstrom of his own making. Federated's Sausalito office buzzes - just like Wired and the Standard. Battelle is at the center, setting off sparks that keep the atmosphere electric and inspire prodigies of work from his staff.
And he's still the true believer.
Asked about his reputation as a wide-eyed technology enthusiast, Battelle confessed that there's truth in the description: "I believe in Google. I believe in the Internet. I believed in the Industry Standard. I believe in Federated Media. Frankly, I don't know how else to live."
Battelle said he doesn't know what's going to happen to Federated, although he suggested one possibility is "a great exit." That could be interpreted as a sale down the road at a fabulous price to a deep-pocketed buyer who would preserve his vision of an online media community.
But the prospect of big money seems less crucial than that sense of being at the center of things.
"Maybe ... we become part of media history," he mused. "That would be most important to me."
Online resource
Faces of Business is a year-end series of profiles featuring prominent people in the Bay Area business scene. To read all the profiles:
www.sfgate.com/ZBWQ
Faces of Business is a year-end series of profiles featuring prominent people in the Bay Area business scene. To read all the profiles, go to www.sfgate.com/ZBWQ.
John Batelle
Age: 42
Job: Founder, chairman, Federated Media Publishing
Previous employment: Founder, chairman, CEO, Standard Media International; publisher of the Industry Standard; managing editor, Wired magazine.
Blog: SearchBrains ( www.searchblog.com), covering media, technology and the Internet.
Education: Bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology and master's degree in journalism, UC Berkeley
Family: Married, three children
Quote: "I've had a 15-year obsession with the intersection of media and technology. I've been obsessed with making media in this space."
E-mail Sam Zuckerman at szuckerman@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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