1 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,160 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. 2 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,600 Speaker 1: I'm Joe Wisn't and I'm Tracy Hallaway. So, Tracy, I 3 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: think you know, and I think listeners know that, at 4 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: least for me, my interest in markets like really came 5 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: about during the dot combo. Yes, you have brought this 6 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,480 Speaker 1: up a number of times, and I have to say, 7 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: I love hearing the stories of you losing money during 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 1: the bubble. I made a little money. I made a 9 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: little money too, but I also I also lost them. 10 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 1: But for me, like so many things, are things that 11 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,639 Speaker 1: I've sort of like learned or like internalized about how 12 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: that markets work, like still come from more or less 13 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 1: that period. And I think it's obvious that on some 14 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: level what we're seeing now in markets, we've seen in crypto, 15 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: we've seen in tech, has some pretty obvious parallels to 16 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,279 Speaker 1: that period. I feel like the late nineties early two 17 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: thousand's tech bubble would be a good grounding for the 18 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,319 Speaker 1: current market situation. Uh So I envy you that experience. 19 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: But the thing that interests me a lot about two thousand, 20 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 1: when the bubble burst and all the tech stocks collapsed 21 00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: and all of that, is when did people actually declare 22 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: like tech is over, the tech bubble has burst. This 23 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: is it? Because this is a question that comes up 24 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,920 Speaker 1: a lot now, right, right, So it's like what is 25 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: over and what is real? And one like, so obviously 26 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: a year ago there were a lot of people who 27 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: on paper were worth a lot more money than they 28 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,680 Speaker 1: are right now. But presumably, you know, people are like, well, 29 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: what's the bottom? When does this bounce back? What's what? 30 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,320 Speaker 1: What do we? What do we? What sticks with us? 31 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,479 Speaker 1: Like these are all really interesting questions, and of course 32 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: no one knows the answer. But you know, all of 33 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: these conversations happened after the late nineties dot com bubble, 34 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: and you know, I think people forget like for years 35 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: no one talked about Amazon, like two thousand one through 36 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: say two thousand ex or seven. It was not a 37 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: particularly prominent company that people talked about, right. So this 38 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: is the other thing that interests me. It's what comes 39 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: out of the wreckage of a bubble bursting. Because everyone 40 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: was very excited about the Internet in the late nineties, 41 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: and so you saw a bunch of companies rise up 42 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: to come up with some sort of internet based business model, 43 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:21,959 Speaker 1: and then it all kind of went away after the 44 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: bubble burst, but some companies that did phenomenally well decades 45 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: later actually emerged out of that rubble. And the question 46 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:31,680 Speaker 1: of course now is whether or not the same thing 47 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:35,400 Speaker 1: might happen. So the question is like, how how do 48 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: you know it's over? What comes after that? What is 49 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: it like to lose on paper? Sort of like unbelievable 50 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:44,639 Speaker 1: gobs of money, which a lot of people are going 51 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: through now. So you know, obviously there were a lot 52 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: of like the dot com I p o s people 53 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: remember pets dot com was sort of infamous or like 54 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: hundreds and tons, but like I think the real first one, 55 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: the one that really caused people's attention just like, wow, 56 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: this is unbelievable amount of wealth here. I don't know, 57 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: do you remember the globe dot com? You know what? 58 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: It rings a bell, But I'm not that familiar with it. 59 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: I think it was famous for at the time being 60 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: like the biggest one day pop in IPO history. Yeah, 61 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 1: it was, I think at one time, and it was 62 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: definitely like one of the first lenges, like a little 63 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: bit earlier than the rest, and so it sort of 64 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: had this media ac rise um and then fall. Anyway, Uh, 65 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:32,120 Speaker 1: the the fact the co founders of the company. They 66 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: were like in the media and they're famous for like 67 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: being really young and really rich and wearing plastic leather 68 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 1: pants to parties, as one does when you're young and 69 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: really rich, and then of course the bubble collect that's 70 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: what you were doing. But I was like, oh, this 71 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: is like really cool anyway, so I'm very excited. I 72 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 1: just want to jump right into it. This is like 73 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: a personal thrill for me because of course there's got 74 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: me interested in markets. We're gonna be speaking with Stefan 75 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: Pat don't know. He is currently the co founder and 76 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: executive chairman of Slated, which is an online film finance marketplace, 77 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: but also he was the co founder and co CEO 78 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: of the Globe dot com. So we're going to hear 79 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: some stories about what those years were like and maybe 80 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: some takeaways for people today. So Stefan, thank you so 81 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: much for coming on odd lots my pleasure. That's quite 82 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: an intro. So let me start with like maybe an 83 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: embarrassing question, And I don't know if it's an embarrassing 84 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: question for me or maybe it's an embarrassing question for you, 85 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 1: But you know, I know a lot about the Globe 86 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,400 Speaker 1: because I remember the surge, I remember the I p O. 87 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:40,159 Speaker 1: I remember that you and your co founder were extremely rich. 88 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: I remember you're in the media. I remember the plastic pants. 89 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: What I don't remember is like, and I don't even 90 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: think I knew it at the time. What did the 91 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: Globe do? What was the Globe? Well, you're not the 92 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: only one who may have known the Globe, primarily because 93 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: of its stock price. Yeah, much to my chagrin, the 94 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 1: Globe dot com was one of the first virtual communities. 95 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: So back then we didn't call the social networking. It 96 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: was called virtual community. Uh. And it was a much 97 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: broader idea that the Internet was new, and there was 98 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: this idea that maybe people could plug in, log on 99 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: and exist online and build relationships online and interact with 100 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:23,160 Speaker 1: other people online. And that was the concept of virtual community. 101 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: The tools to do it hadn't been built yet, right, 102 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,799 Speaker 1: So chat rooms and forums and homepage building, all these 103 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: basic primitives is what we needed to build um And 104 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: now we take for granted today, Right, you don't think 105 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:38,919 Speaker 1: of these basic primitives and anymore. Just think you know, 106 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:41,479 Speaker 1: I'm on Facebook, I'm on TikTok, I'm on I'm on Twitter, 107 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: I'm on any of these things and you know, I 108 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 1: just upload and share and post. That's just it just works. 109 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,159 Speaker 1: But back then that wasn't obvious. So that's what we 110 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: we created its first generation primitives for virtual community, and 111 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: lo and behold, it became one of these stickiest business 112 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: models we could have ever imagined. And of course, um, 113 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,840 Speaker 1: you know, Facebook ran with that much more successfully than 114 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: us in the early two thousand's. What was the journey 115 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:11,400 Speaker 1: like from starting this virtual community to eventually, you know, 116 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 1: listing in a public market, because that seems like, you know, 117 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: it's quite an upward trajectory, So how did that work? Well, 118 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: it's it was non obvious. Um So of course, looking 119 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,119 Speaker 1: back thirty years later, and that's terrifying to even admit 120 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: that it's been that long, it all seems obvious, like 121 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: this was always going to happen. But back then, no 122 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: one understood what the Internet was, right. Tim Bernard Lee 123 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: is one of the creators of the HTTP protocol and 124 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: h t M l UM and it's something that's super fringe, 125 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: running on the dark one that that's been built, and 126 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: only university professors and some really geeky university students are 127 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: logging onto the Worldwide Web and creating web pages, and 128 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: you really could only go browse other university websites, so 129 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,880 Speaker 1: it was really cryptic, hard to use. You really needed 130 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: to know what you were doing, and to even get started, 131 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,479 Speaker 1: you needed to download what was called a browser, and 132 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,440 Speaker 1: the first one was really Mosaic. It was a old 133 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: beta version of Mosaic, which was something that Mark Andreson 134 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: had created before Netscape. And it just so happens that 135 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: my old college friend, best friend at the time, Todd Kreiselman, 136 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: and I we downloaded Mosaic. We we found her. We 137 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 1: we had dial up modems. I was using a fourteen 138 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: four modem, he had a nineteen point to kill a 139 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: bit modems, so super slow, but we both logged in 140 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: and found our way into what was the first chat 141 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: room we ever experienced. That's how primitive things were at 142 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: the time, and startup culture wasn't typical. Not everybody was 143 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: doing startups. That was very very much a Silicon Valley thing. 144 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:52,000 Speaker 1: Most people who were in university like us, were there 145 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: to go get their degrees and then go and maybe 146 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,480 Speaker 1: become a banker, a lawyer and you know, earn your 147 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: stripes that way. So for us to want to go 148 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: and try to do something different and create a startup 149 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: in college, let alone one in this new universe called 150 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,640 Speaker 1: the Internet. Was super risky. Our parents didn't understand what 151 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: we were talking about, most of our professors didn't understand 152 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 1: what we were talking about, and we just sort of 153 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: had to wing it and say, look, I think Todd 154 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: and I want to we think there's something there. There's 155 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: this thing called the Internet. It's just beginning. There's only 156 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: a few million people around the world using it, but 157 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: we've stumbled on this social experiment and chat that is 158 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,080 Speaker 1: so addictive. We think that could be the beginning of 159 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: something huge. So that's where it started. Non obvious. We 160 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: were taking the path less traveled by, certainly not the 161 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:40,920 Speaker 1: safe choice that you know, most of our friends were 162 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: gonna go and get jobs and earn fifty six seventy 163 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: thousand a year. We were gonna go make nothing. There 164 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: was no such thing as online advertising or e commerce 165 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: or any way to make money. So it was going 166 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: we were going into the great scary unknown with this 167 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: um well before there was ever the concept of an 168 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: I p O related to the Internet space. So let's 169 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:03,240 Speaker 1: talk about that I P O I think it was, 170 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,040 Speaker 1: which is a little bit earlier than the real man, Russ. 171 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 1: You're a little bit earlier out of the gate than 172 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,559 Speaker 1: a lot of these companies. The stocks surge six six 173 00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: percent of Clinic to something I'm reading here, Um, it 174 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: was market Camp was a little bit under a billion. 175 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:20,439 Speaker 1: What was that like? What was that day like? And 176 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: how much were you worth like the day before that day? 177 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:25,959 Speaker 1: And how much were you worth that day? Well, I 178 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,600 Speaker 1: think for for you to fully comprehended, for your audience 179 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: to fully comprehend what it felt like that day, you 180 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: would have to understand that. Uh. You know, for the 181 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: four years between the inception of the Globe and US 182 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 1: going public, there was no I P O Mania. Only 183 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: a few companies had gone public in this space. One 184 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:45,840 Speaker 1: of them was Yahoo. One of them was Netscape first 185 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,559 Speaker 1: and it sort of blew up and it became this 186 00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 1: news item. Yahoo went public and then not also became 187 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,680 Speaker 1: a news item. But in the short months after they've 188 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: gone public, their stocks have tanked. So people were going, Okay, well, 189 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:00,199 Speaker 1: I don't we don't quite understand what this Netscape is, 190 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 1: this Yahoo thing is. It doesn't seem to be working. Well, 191 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 1: what is the Globe bringing to the to the table 192 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,679 Speaker 1: that's new or different. Well, what we were bringing to 193 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:13,920 Speaker 1: the table in four years later was this super addictive 194 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:19,319 Speaker 1: social interaction online that was capturing people's imagination. It was 195 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:22,160 Speaker 1: still at a point where the market wasn't receptive to 196 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: I p O, so we didn't know that our I 197 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: p O was gonna work. We were actually coming We 198 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:30,800 Speaker 1: were in a recession in the summer of the markets 199 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:33,720 Speaker 1: have come down because long term capital management had collapsed. 200 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: We were running out of money and we were thinking, 201 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: I don't know that we're gonna be able to go public. 202 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:40,680 Speaker 1: We're probably gonna run out of money and our business 203 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 1: is just gonna go under and everyone will No one 204 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: will ever discovered with the internet is let alone virtual community. 205 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: And that's a bummer because we've just been at it 206 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: for four years talking about virtual community. But by November, 207 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: and it really was on Friday November, the market turned 208 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: that week and suddenly there were a couple other companies 209 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: that went public. Company called Fox went public, and then 210 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: a couple other small dot coms went public that went 211 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 1: up pretty quickly. And suddenly, um after having done a 212 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,199 Speaker 1: three week road show for our I p O and 213 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:17,760 Speaker 1: having been turned down by all the institutions that we're 214 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,000 Speaker 1: looking at the marks collapsing as the market turn. The 215 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,040 Speaker 1: phone start ringing off the hook, calling all of our 216 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:25,559 Speaker 1: bankers saying, hey, hold on, what's this thing you guys 217 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:27,920 Speaker 1: have been saying again about the Internet and virtual community, 218 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 1: the globe dot com. We want in. And suddenly this 219 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: little three million share offering we had had something like 220 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: forty five million shares of demand, massively oversubscribed x UM. 221 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 1: We didn't manage to move the price up much again 222 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 1: because we were worried that the market would turn again 223 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: and r S one filing would go stale, and that 224 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:50,120 Speaker 1: the ICHO again would never happen and we would die 225 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: right there, right right, you know, at the goal line. UM, 226 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: So we just we we just told the bank let's 227 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: not try to mess with the price. Let's just take 228 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 1: what we can get. And that day we were pricing 229 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: at nine dollars a share, which was way down from 230 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:06,240 Speaker 1: what we had been hoping to raise earlier in our 231 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: I p O process. But that um, there was enough interest, 232 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:12,520 Speaker 1: and that morning the bankers were telling us, hey, guys, 233 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:16,000 Speaker 1: the interest is climbing. Um, we're gonna go. You guys 234 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: should be pricing right around eleven a m. It's nine 235 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: thirty ten am, but it looks like this is going 236 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: to price at thirty dollars a share, and we were like, wait, 237 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,640 Speaker 1: weren't we priced at nine dollars? How's it going up 238 00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:29,480 Speaker 1: to twenty thirty? What's going on? Because this was very unusual. 239 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,520 Speaker 1: Stocks weren't popping that that way back in the day. 240 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:35,439 Speaker 1: And another half hour later, they're saying, oh, never mind, 241 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: it's not gonna go at thirty dollars a share, and 242 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:39,720 Speaker 1: we're like, okay, so what is it? Nine ten eleven 243 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,560 Speaker 1: and they're like, no, it's actually gonna fifty to sixty 244 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,400 Speaker 1: dollars a share, Like okay, wait, wait, what's going on? 245 00:12:44,559 --> 00:12:47,120 Speaker 1: And within another half hour, right as we're coming up 246 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: to eleven o'clock, the main trader that day suddenly yells 247 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:55,640 Speaker 1: out eight seven seven and the and I just remember 248 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:58,720 Speaker 1: that hundreds of bankers on that floor at bear Sterns 249 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,080 Speaker 1: stood up to look where we were standing, not understanding 250 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 1: what was going on. And it turns out our stock 251 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,319 Speaker 1: had run up from seven in the span of a 252 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,439 Speaker 1: couple of hours. And we started getting phone calls on 253 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:13,920 Speaker 1: our cell phones and people were telling us, oh my god, 254 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,600 Speaker 1: it's there's something on CNN and CNBC and they're talking 255 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:21,319 Speaker 1: about the globye yo and the world record, and you know, 256 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:23,040 Speaker 1: so my partner and I talked. We were like totally 257 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:25,199 Speaker 1: caught off guard. This sort of blew our minds away. 258 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:30,320 Speaker 1: It was headspinning. It was exhilarating. It was also terrifying. 259 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:32,280 Speaker 1: We didn't really know what an I p O was. 260 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,480 Speaker 1: We were twenty four years old, and the fact that 261 00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:37,679 Speaker 1: it went out of control up a thousand percent and 262 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: was all over the news was unusual. And they're telling 263 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:42,679 Speaker 1: us it's a world record I p O. Is that 264 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: is that good? Well, it's good because you're all over 265 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: the media. But very quickly it was like my god, 266 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: you guys left so much money on the table, Like okay, 267 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:54,320 Speaker 1: well but beer Stairs didn't want to reprice this up, 268 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 1: you know, to ten or eleven or twelve, let alone seven, 269 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 1: So there was you know, it was it was an exhilarating, 270 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:02,800 Speaker 1: crazy day, but we knew we had a new lease 271 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: on life. Our company was going to survive. Everyone was 272 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: now saying, whoa what is this internet thing going on? 273 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:12,760 Speaker 1: And our I p os somehow ended up becoming this 274 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,840 Speaker 1: lightning rod and kicking off I p O mania right 275 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: where every dot com wanted to go public and the 276 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 1: same thing happened, and then that we just happened to us. 277 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: I have so many questions, Um, I'm gonna try to 278 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: fit them all in into one mega question. Okay, One, 279 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:43,000 Speaker 1: what did you do that night? Yeah? Did you go 280 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: out and celebrate? Secondly, what do you think accounted for 281 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: the big pop? You know, this was a sector that 282 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: a lot of people were unfamiliar with. As you mentioned, 283 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:52,840 Speaker 1: there had been some I p o s that had 284 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,280 Speaker 1: flopped recently, So like, why did everyone suddenly come together 285 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: and you know, seemingly want to have a slice of 286 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 1: the globe dot com? And then thirdly, what was it 287 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: like pricing with the bankers? Because you know you mentioned 288 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:08,920 Speaker 1: you you went public at nine dollars, it felt like 289 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 1: you might have left money on the table. Um, how 290 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:16,440 Speaker 1: did they actually work out that number? Well, let me 291 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:20,280 Speaker 1: start with maybe this last question and then work my 292 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: way backwards from there. Um, So there had been a 293 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: huge amount of capital sitting on the sidelines in the 294 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: market because of the recession that had kicked in. Long 295 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: term capital management had unwound. Everyone was freaking out capital 296 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: pull out of the markets. So there's a lot of 297 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: money sitting there waiting to be deployed, and something like 298 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: a hundred plus UH road shows had been canceled, so 299 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,360 Speaker 1: tons of companies that would ordinarily go public that year 300 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 1: had haul pulled their I p o S were one 301 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: of the last companies on the road show that refused 302 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: to quit because we knew we were going to go 303 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: under if we didn't raise the money. Um. The way 304 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: that the pricing worked was, you know, the banks would 305 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: like you to believe that there's some giant, brilliant formula 306 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:00,520 Speaker 1: behind behind all this, but all they can never really 307 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 1: do is look at comps and what are comps based 308 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,120 Speaker 1: on other comps? And what are those comps based on 309 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 1: other comps? So it's like, okay, it's basically, what are 310 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,640 Speaker 1: other companies similar to you in concept? What are they 311 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: trading at? What's their multiple to revenue? Or in the 312 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:16,920 Speaker 1: case of Internet companies that have very little revenue, it was, well, 313 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: you know, how big is your audience? You know, you 314 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:22,600 Speaker 1: guys have you know, x millions of users versus Yahoo? 315 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: How do we you know? What have they valued at 316 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: right now? Well? There, their stock is low, So maybe 317 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,440 Speaker 1: you guys shouldn't have such a high stock price either. 318 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,040 Speaker 1: So it was it was it's very much. It's arbitrary, 319 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:37,320 Speaker 1: and um, you know, bear Stearns had basically said to us, listen, 320 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:39,600 Speaker 1: we're gonna take you on the road show to our institutions, 321 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: to the t ro prices and Jenas funds, and we 322 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,440 Speaker 1: think we can sell this at you know, let me 323 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 1: think finger in the air. Um, you know, a hundred 324 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: million dollar company and that would price you guys at 325 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 1: and the numbers may be an accurate because it's been 326 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 1: thirty years and I don't remember exactly, but you know 327 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: that's at eleven to thirteen dollar a share price. And 328 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: as we went onto the road and we said, okay, fine, 329 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,120 Speaker 1: hundred million dollar company or ninety million dollar company eleven 330 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: or thirteen dollars a share. We don't have a better guess. 331 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 1: I mean, either way, we were only generating a few 332 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:12,760 Speaker 1: million in revenue, so these multiple seem big. Who were 333 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: we to complain? But as we went on the road 334 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,200 Speaker 1: show and the markets were crapping out and all that 335 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: capital got pulled out, m everyone would take the meeting 336 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,920 Speaker 1: with us. They all thought the concept was I guess 337 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,000 Speaker 1: a little bit mind blowing. Okay, there's this thing called 338 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,280 Speaker 1: the Internet. There's virtual community. People are interacting with each other, okay, 339 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: and no one has seen the matrix yet, right, And 340 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,080 Speaker 1: most people people hadn't read Neil stevenson snow Crash, right, 341 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: so they couldn't really imagine a world. Will you plug 342 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,680 Speaker 1: into this thing called the metaverse? But there was something 343 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: to our story a virtual community, right that we're not 344 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: just a site online where you look up information. It's 345 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,360 Speaker 1: not just a magazine online. It's not a place where 346 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:50,600 Speaker 1: you just shop online. It's a place where you will 347 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,800 Speaker 1: build relationships and spend hours of your life, because that's 348 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:56,560 Speaker 1: what our users were doing, spending hours of their lives 349 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,840 Speaker 1: in chat rooms. Something about that resonated with all the 350 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,680 Speaker 1: institutions on the road show. But what didn't resonate with 351 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,680 Speaker 1: them was the markets are collapsing. You guys should stop 352 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 1: your ip O. Didn't you notice everybody else cancel it? 353 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,720 Speaker 1: So we, unfortunately, after the three week road show, had 354 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: no choice. The bear Sterns trying to lower the price, like, well, 355 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: no one's taking it at eleven and thirteen, they're not 356 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:21,040 Speaker 1: taking it at ten, they're not taking it at nine, 357 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: they're not taking it eight like okay, so no price 358 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: is low enough, and eventually bear Sterns and this is 359 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:30,480 Speaker 1: just I guess their sterns where they got some of 360 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: their reputation. They were like thinking that we'll we'll scoop 361 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:36,720 Speaker 1: up the whole of the globe and by the whole 362 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: thing is six dollars a share, and it felt like 363 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: so sharky of them to want to pull that, and 364 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 1: we were like, no, we're not going to do that. 365 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,359 Speaker 1: So we held off. And it's only because the market 366 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:51,359 Speaker 1: turned around at a critical juncture where everyone was suddenly 367 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:53,320 Speaker 1: going okay, okay, okay, what are the what are the 368 00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:56,000 Speaker 1: new I p o S on deck? Fox Cool? That 369 00:18:56,119 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: got priced tent below their their pop so it's well priced. 370 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 1: And then there was another little dot com called earth 371 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,560 Speaker 1: Web that went up a couple and I think that 372 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: made everybody click and go, oh, the action is where 373 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: these dot com companies are. Who's the last company we 374 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:15,440 Speaker 1: all met with that we liked the globe? So so 375 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: suddenly the timing those vectors came together and Bear Stearns, 376 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: you know, we then had to twist their arm to 377 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: convince them, listen, move the price back up, you know, 378 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,520 Speaker 1: six bucks of shares insulting you know, like, okay, eight, Like, 379 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,400 Speaker 1: come on, that's way below our I p O price. 380 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 1: It should have been eleven and thirteen. Okay, fine, nine, 381 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,400 Speaker 1: But we can't go higher or we'll lose the interest 382 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:35,920 Speaker 1: and everyone will walk and your s one's going to 383 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,760 Speaker 1: go stale on Monday, and it's it's it's Thursday today. 384 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:41,240 Speaker 1: So we felt we were sort of stuck between a 385 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: rock and hard place. Um, they wouldn't want it. They 386 00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:46,520 Speaker 1: didn't want us to interpret the forty million shares of 387 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,400 Speaker 1: demand is something that should require moving the price. Even 388 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,880 Speaker 1: though everyone on our team thought the price should move, 389 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:56,840 Speaker 1: we kept it at nine. And that's how it got 390 00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: set at nine. It's because of an accident in our market. 391 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,280 Speaker 1: Timing brought us further down. Everyone else that went public 392 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,240 Speaker 1: the following week and thereafter we're suddenly coming in way 393 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,840 Speaker 1: above their price ranges. Forget eleven to thirteen dollars, they 394 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,720 Speaker 1: were pricing thirty dollars a share on the you know, 395 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: the same scale, And so we realized that this sort 396 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: of blew everything up for everybody else. Unfortunately, we were 397 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,639 Speaker 1: the guinea pig. And and what's more unfortunate for us 398 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,159 Speaker 1: is that all of these institutions these big players that 399 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:28,879 Speaker 1: are supposedly there to own shares in your company and 400 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: hold for the long haul. And the banks, you know, 401 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: when they're taking on the road show, they're telling you 402 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: all about their institutional clients are gonna hold your stock, 403 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:36,840 Speaker 1: and you know they're they're big buyers, buying you know, 404 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: five million dollar chunks and they're gonna hold it for 405 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:41,160 Speaker 1: the long haul, that that's going to be your base. 406 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: You know, very little piece of it will go to retail. 407 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: But what happened is is the day of the I 408 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,359 Speaker 1: p O, when the stock went up a thousand percent, 409 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,359 Speaker 1: all these institutions that bought in at nine dollars were like, 410 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:54,560 Speaker 1: holy shit, Christmas came early, we're dumping it. So they 411 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,439 Speaker 1: sold all their stock to the highest bidders, which were 412 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:00,080 Speaker 1: the ones bidding all the way up to the are 413 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: a lot of institutions and day traders at that time 414 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 1: that didn't put in limit orders, so they were just 415 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: buying at market, you know, at seven ninety seven, and 416 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,520 Speaker 1: you know, and it meant that all the institutions dumped 417 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 1: the stock. The stock traded hands on average five times 418 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,120 Speaker 1: that day, so fifteen million shares and a three million 419 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: share offering and it meant that the globe was left 420 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:26,240 Speaker 1: being primarily held by retail investors, people who didn't understand 421 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: what was going on. You know, the institutions did extremely well, 422 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,360 Speaker 1: but it meant that we had a base of investors 423 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:36,560 Speaker 1: that weren't classically long long holders of stock. So sort 424 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,800 Speaker 1: of that that's set us up for not a good 425 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: start to our our public life. And what did you 426 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,719 Speaker 1: do that night? Yeah, yeah, so yes, that night there 427 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,040 Speaker 1: was some celebration. UM. Bear in mind, the day before, 428 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:50,960 Speaker 1: two days before, we didn't know we were going public, 429 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 1: so we didn't really have time to call up all 430 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 1: of our friends and tell everyone, like, guys, you know, 431 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 1: Friday night, we're gonna be celebribrating. It's very impromptu. But 432 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,600 Speaker 1: there was going out. Um, there was you know, some 433 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:07,200 Speaker 1: champagne or and or vodka one of my favorite nightclubs. Um. 434 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,679 Speaker 1: And you know, me explaining to my then very new 435 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:13,600 Speaker 1: girlfriend that something had crazy had just happened that day 436 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: and she didn't really understand what the hell I was 437 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,920 Speaker 1: talking about. But it was a surreal evening for me 438 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,600 Speaker 1: and for Todd and for our company. Um. Again, we 439 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,680 Speaker 1: went from our company is going to go under two 440 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,240 Speaker 1: new lease on life and apparently we did a world 441 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:31,680 Speaker 1: record with it, so this can only mean good things. 442 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: So how much was so? How much were you personally worth? 443 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: How much were you and Todd? Are you personally worth 444 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: at the top? And what was the deal with the 445 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 1: plastic pants? Because, like I said, I didn't remember question. 446 00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: I didn't remember what the Globe dot com did, but 447 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,320 Speaker 1: I do remember that you were in the media for 448 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,120 Speaker 1: wearing plastic pants. So what do you answer? But so, yeah, 449 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,480 Speaker 1: that's the story fashion choices. So you know, it's like 450 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to look at what I was wearing. 451 00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:00,480 Speaker 1: Vinyl was big in the late nineties. It was I 452 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: think I just think I just were a little too 453 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,159 Speaker 1: farn uh. So yeah, I mean Todd and I each 454 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,760 Speaker 1: had a million shares in the company. We owned ten 455 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,560 Speaker 1: percent of the company each, so technically at that peak 456 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:12,800 Speaker 1: day we were worth ninety seven million each. And that 457 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,280 Speaker 1: was sort of the headline at the time, you know, 458 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: net geeks strike it rich on the cover of the 459 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:23,159 Speaker 1: New York Post and pretty much all the tabloids. Um. So, 460 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: suddenly having my dorman at the building recognized and go, 461 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,600 Speaker 1: oh my god, congratulations, it was I felt suddenly very 462 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: vulnerable that everybody knew too much. Um, but yeah, the 463 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: vinyl pants that happened a year later, among all of 464 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: the wonderful media coverage and celebration and growing the business 465 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,560 Speaker 1: and becoming somewhat of a sensational story because back then 466 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: dot com whiz kids wasn't a thing, so this was 467 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,240 Speaker 1: sort of the beginning of that whole thing, and everyone 468 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:56,159 Speaker 1: was fascinated, like international media in particular. For them, this 469 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:59,639 Speaker 1: is a quintessential Americana dream. Not only in America can 470 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: you be a young entrepreneur, a young celebrity and make 471 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,920 Speaker 1: it rich, And that doesn't happen in Europe. So Europeans 472 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: were just fascinated with this story. You know, a dorm 473 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,920 Speaker 1: dorm room college startup that suddenly ends up, you know, 474 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,480 Speaker 1: the nexus of Wall Street worth a billion dollars like 475 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: that was completely surreal to them, and it was pretty 476 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: novel as well in America. But in America, you know, 477 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,600 Speaker 1: there was a much more entrepreneurial spirit in general, and 478 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 1: the start up the concept of startups was not a 479 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: typical um, you know, maybe a public company at twenty 480 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,399 Speaker 1: four was a little bit atypical. So some of the 481 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,160 Speaker 1: media wanted to just you know, most of the time 482 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: when we were being brought into interviews, it wasn't to 483 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,440 Speaker 1: get into the nitty gritty of our platform. It was 484 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:42,360 Speaker 1: to be like, oh my god, what's it like being rich? 485 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:44,800 Speaker 1: If you guys bought new houses, new cars, tell us, 486 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: tell us, tell us, you're getting marriage offers. It was. 487 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,440 Speaker 1: It was sensational, and so to a certain extent, Todd 488 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,919 Speaker 1: and I accepted that, like if if we've become these 489 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,880 Speaker 1: dot com whiz icons, Okay, let's let's just play that game. 490 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: This is how we get the media coverage and drive 491 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: our traffic up. Let's not be boring about it. Let's 492 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 1: let's let's play into that fantasy. Let's explain to them 493 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,160 Speaker 1: this great new virtual world we've created. Let's let's act 494 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,639 Speaker 1: like we're the cool We're the cool kids who always 495 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,239 Speaker 1: knew um what they were doing and that they were 496 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: ahead of their time. We didn't. But eventually, um, you know, 497 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 1: CNN came calling and they wanted they were launching a 498 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,919 Speaker 1: new series camera what's called I think it's called CNN Movers, 499 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:27,880 Speaker 1: half hour documentary with jan Hopkins, and um, they wanted 500 00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:29,520 Speaker 1: to follow us around. They wanted to know what what 501 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:31,639 Speaker 1: was the what was the life like of twenty four 502 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,680 Speaker 1: year old public company CEOs. So they are there. I 503 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,520 Speaker 1: made the faithful decision to let them into my life, 504 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: you know, let them into our homes. That's what they 505 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: wanted to do, and follow us out. They knew that 506 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:46,840 Speaker 1: I like to go out and go to a club 507 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:49,040 Speaker 1: and go dance, and they're like, can we follow you? 508 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,639 Speaker 1: And I said sure, Well I wasn't gonna go on 509 00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:59,879 Speaker 1: CNN and just dancing jeans was I Obviously important decisions taken. 510 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: You got a dance vinyl pants exactly look I mean 511 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: and back then, you know, this was way before the 512 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,600 Speaker 1: days of you know, Elon must smoking weed on Joe 513 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,960 Speaker 1: Rogan and like that's just you know, typical Thursday afternoon. 514 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,600 Speaker 1: I was thinking, what's the most crazy thing I can 515 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 1: do that will capture everyone's imagination and go, yes, this 516 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,240 Speaker 1: is the embodiment of the American dream. Well, I'll put 517 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,680 Speaker 1: on my vinyl pants in some tight T shirt and 518 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,080 Speaker 1: spike my hair with gel and we'll go to a 519 00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,239 Speaker 1: club and I will dance on a table and make 520 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 1: sure that there's other pretty girls dancing there, and you know, 521 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: shake a bottle of champagne. I don't remember everything I did, 522 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:40,520 Speaker 1: but the cliche what is now clearly a cliche, But now, 523 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,440 Speaker 1: of course it's so tame, it's it's honestly like it 524 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,280 Speaker 1: would it wouldn't make any news anymore today because it's 525 00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: just not that interesting. So part of me wants to 526 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: just ask questions about what it was like clubbing in 527 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:55,040 Speaker 1: the ninety nineties, because I think that would have been 528 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: an interesting experience. But um, I want to ask a 529 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,720 Speaker 1: serious question, which was you did the I p O. 530 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 1: You raised a bunch of money, you had fundraisings before that. 531 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: What were you planning to do with all the money? 532 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,600 Speaker 1: Like was there actually a plan for expansion or acquisitions 533 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: and things like that? Yes, uh so there wasn't. There 534 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:17,679 Speaker 1: was definitely a method to the madness, and we had 535 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: raised I think a couple hundred million dollars over like 536 00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:25,480 Speaker 1: quarter five six rounds of financing. It's nothing magical. It's 537 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,159 Speaker 1: you raise the money you need to buy more servers, 538 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,120 Speaker 1: hire more people, and build out your infrastructure and your team, 539 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 1: and you know you never have enough money, right because 540 00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: back then it was called Netscape poin the term GDF 541 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,600 Speaker 1: get big fast, So it was all about spend, spend 542 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: it as fast as you can, to grow as fast 543 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,440 Speaker 1: as you can. Everyone the only thing they cared about 544 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,640 Speaker 1: were eyeballs. Whoever is getting the biggest audience doesn't matter 545 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 1: what your revenues are. Yet it doesn't matter forget profits. 546 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: Just grow grow, grow, grow grow. So after our I 547 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,359 Speaker 1: p O and I p Omnia kicked in and all 548 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,120 Speaker 1: of our competitors, you know, we'd raised twenty seven million 549 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:00,600 Speaker 1: or I p O everyone else was raising sixty two 550 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,000 Speaker 1: hundred million, We're like, oh my god, they're outspending us 551 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,359 Speaker 1: in ads and servers and hiring. It became this race. 552 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: And by the way, these are the parallels of every 553 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:13,639 Speaker 1: single crypto boom bust cycles. It's interesting you see that 554 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,000 Speaker 1: because you know, we an that Escape was of course 555 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 1: uh founded, as you mentioned by Mark Andreas and get 556 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: big Fest. We like just didn't interview like you know, 557 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: now think about all the Andres and Horowitz companies. That's 558 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: sort of like how many hundreds of or thousands of 559 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: companies have essentially taken jeep that netscap, Netscape GBF model, 560 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,040 Speaker 1: and now it's like that is the thing or that 561 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:39,960 Speaker 1: is really defined tech in this modern age. Yeah, well, look, 562 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,040 Speaker 1: every boom bust cycle goes through that, right. But when 563 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,400 Speaker 1: you start off building something on really uncharted territory, no 564 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: one's exciting. Everyone thinks they're crazy and they're very scared 565 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,400 Speaker 1: about putting money in. Right, So first you have to 566 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:56,000 Speaker 1: tell the story and build a market and get the users, 567 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,840 Speaker 1: and then other companies need to tag along. And eventually, 568 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,720 Speaker 1: when the demand is there and the excitement is there, 569 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,959 Speaker 1: fomo kicks in. Right. That's when all the fast followers 570 00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: come in, and of course investors they go through their 571 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,480 Speaker 1: wave as well. Right, there's the there's the laggards, and 572 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: then there's the ones with the fomo. Not right in 573 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: the beginning, but a little bit later, who go, oh 574 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:18,240 Speaker 1: my god, everyone's doing well with that. I got a 575 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 1: pile in. That's where valuations go sky high. That's where 576 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: the industries get built because billions of dollars flow in. 577 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: But inevitably we passed keep madness and then you know, 578 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: eyeballs isn't enough. We need revenues. And then revenues isn't enough. 579 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,160 Speaker 1: You're losing money like crazy. You know, remember Amazon, they 580 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,720 Speaker 1: were losing billions of dollars a year famously, and it 581 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: takes a shakeout. Right, So when the bubble burst in 582 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: two thousand, two thousand one. It's because there wasn't enough profits. 583 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: There wasn't enough advertising dollars or e commerce, or the 584 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:49,760 Speaker 1: margins weren't big enough to sustain all of this. So 585 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:54,160 Speaker 1: the these using capital as this defensive moat to just 586 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,920 Speaker 1: outspend your competition. That started in the dot com era, 587 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: and then it got carried through again in UM the 588 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:08,760 Speaker 1: twenty I see omnia. It also has been part of 589 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:12,600 Speaker 1: web two point oh right, just who from Uber to 590 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: Lift to UM just you name it, everybody. Capital is 591 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,160 Speaker 1: a defensive moat became a core strategy and in notably 592 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:25,360 Speaker 1: always leads to this shakeout. So that's part. That's the 593 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,320 Speaker 1: bus cycle. But the beautiful thing is is we always 594 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,240 Speaker 1: come out of the bus cycle eventually. Right. Some of 595 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: the original players who usually started before a maniac kicks 596 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: in and have have been working from first principles, not 597 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,120 Speaker 1: from crazy had a money pouring showering down on them, 598 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: but from really good first principles. Usually those players survive, 599 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,080 Speaker 1: some of them don't UM, but it's the ones who 600 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,239 Speaker 1: work from first principles who usually do the best. Then 601 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: the ones that are the most disciplined and not spending 602 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: their money as fast as they can, who then continue. 603 00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 1: But those who come in later at the point of FOMO, 604 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,240 Speaker 1: will do so much spending to catch up and try 605 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: to overtake the market, they will be the first to 606 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: get to implode when there's a market controversion. So can 607 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,480 Speaker 1: I just ask when did you actually know it was over? 608 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,800 Speaker 1: Or let me ask two things? Okay, One, when did 609 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,320 Speaker 1: you know it was over? That the bubble had burst? 610 00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: And then secondly, what was your first sign of real trouble? 611 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: Like is there a moment or thing that you can pinpoint? Yeah? 612 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,120 Speaker 1: So we we for better or worse? Where the canary 613 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,959 Speaker 1: in the coal mine with the globe right. We were early, Um, 614 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: we could see this was going to be exciting before 615 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 1: everybody piled in. And then we could see that as 616 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:52,880 Speaker 1: everyone piled in and more and more money was getting 617 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: burned by all companies, that it was becoming untenable to 618 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,640 Speaker 1: keep spending our way to stay ahead. And spending your 619 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 1: money meant using some of that cash to launch huge 620 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:08,800 Speaker 1: ad campaigns, you know, hiring more staff, bigger sales teams. 621 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 1: You're doing that, But some of the cash and your 622 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,320 Speaker 1: stock as a public company was to acquire more companies 623 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: as well. If we can't organically grow fast enough, we 624 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,440 Speaker 1: will acquire companies. Then you acquire some companies, but their 625 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,760 Speaker 1: valuations are going up too, so you're now paying inflated 626 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: prices for other small companies to try to bulk yourself up. 627 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 1: And you name it all the major companies, Facebook, Alphabet 628 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,719 Speaker 1: and all that. They they bought hundreds of companies over 629 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,200 Speaker 1: the years that don't largely get reported, So all you 630 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 1: really ever see is this big top line growth, But 631 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: what you don't realize is what fraction of that was 632 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: the original organic stuff versus all the acquisitions and then 633 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:49,160 Speaker 1: the padding and sandbagging of their numbers so that the 634 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:52,600 Speaker 1: analysts can't quite see how you're you're buying your traffic, 635 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: you're buying the revenues to try to help goose your 636 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,800 Speaker 1: your overall top line figures. And we were having to 637 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:01,000 Speaker 1: do the same thing. We're buying more and more companies. 638 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,440 Speaker 1: They were helping, but not enough. And you know, a 639 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 1: lot of there wasn't enough advertising dollars to go around 640 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:08,400 Speaker 1: for all the Internet companies, so there's a lot of 641 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:11,240 Speaker 1: barter advertising going on, which was getting accounted by a 642 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 1: lot of companies as revenues, but it wasn't real revenues, 643 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: so there's some you know, some percentages phantom revenue. And 644 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,160 Speaker 1: we could see that we're on the little, you know, 645 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:24,720 Speaker 1: guinea pig wheel here, running as fast as we can, 646 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,040 Speaker 1: and it's getting harder and harder to keep up with 647 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,400 Speaker 1: that wheel. We can't feed the beast fast enough. So 648 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: we could see the writing on the wall here that 649 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,680 Speaker 1: at some point the music is gonna stop and there 650 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: won't be enough chairs to go around. So we kept 651 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: playing the game and doing pretty well all the way 652 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,840 Speaker 1: into the beginning of the two thousands. We had our 653 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 1: best quarter ever, which I believe was like a ten 654 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: million dollar quarter million dollar a year a run rate, 655 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:50,720 Speaker 1: which back then that was a big deal. But we 656 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,360 Speaker 1: were still losing money. But that's when my partner and 657 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,440 Speaker 1: I have felt like we couldn't keep up anymore. Um, 658 00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:58,840 Speaker 1: the sky was gonna start, it was gonna fall, and 659 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,680 Speaker 1: it was gonna fall maybe on us first, and my 660 00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:03,360 Speaker 1: my partner and I taught, and I we ended up 661 00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 1: resigning and bringing in a new CEO with more experience 662 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:08,959 Speaker 1: than us could. We could bring more discipline and maybe 663 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,239 Speaker 1: help control costs and would maybe navigate what we thought 664 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: would be an upcoming storm better than us, and unfortunately, 665 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:22,640 Speaker 1: you know, even though our revenues were climbing, traffic was climbing. Uh. 666 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:25,400 Speaker 1: We could see the storm coming. My partner and I resigned, 667 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:29,319 Speaker 1: bring in the new CEO. And then months later, um, 668 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,719 Speaker 1: other dot com started going under. They were running out 669 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,360 Speaker 1: of cash, and then the stock market started to slide 670 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,800 Speaker 1: over the course of like mid two thousand, spring of 671 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: two thousand, all the way until the beginning of two 672 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:45,640 Speaker 1: thousand one. Everything fell, so, you know, the globe. Unfortunately, 673 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:47,880 Speaker 1: we got called out early. As you know, this is 674 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,880 Speaker 1: exactly what's wrong with the whole Internet space. It was 675 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,359 Speaker 1: always a giant hoax, you know, run by these dot 676 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:56,360 Speaker 1: com kids. But two months later everyone went down. Yahoo, 677 00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:01,800 Speaker 1: Amazon drops in their stock. Um. Luckily for the big players, 678 00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,879 Speaker 1: they market consolidated under them, right, They got to buy 679 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: a lot of companies up on the cheap, they got 680 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 1: to hoard enough cash, uh, and they made it through. 681 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: Yeah who obviously didn't make it through for very long 682 00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 1: after the Internet renaissance, But out of the ashes, um, 683 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:21,680 Speaker 1: you know, Amazon came back super strong, and then of course, 684 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,360 Speaker 1: you know, the next generation portals came along, like Google, 685 00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 1: and then eventually the next generation social networks like Facebook. Right, 686 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,719 Speaker 1: so there needed to be a total washout. All of 687 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:34,880 Speaker 1: the cost the costs of building dot coms needed to 688 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:39,640 Speaker 1: come down for all these new second generation web two 689 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: point oh companies to sort of be borne out of 690 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:46,320 Speaker 1: and have succeeded since. So what is it like on 691 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 1: a personal basis to go from hundred million dollars plastic 692 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,880 Speaker 1: pants got the model girlfriend time to live an egregious, 693 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 1: frivolous life. Is I think you're quoted to assume something 694 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 1: a little less egregious and frivolous, said a little less 695 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,160 Speaker 1: than a hundred million. I don't know what's that like? 696 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:04,800 Speaker 1: And then how do you I mean, you have a 697 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:06,320 Speaker 1: new company now, So what don't you just talk a 698 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:07,840 Speaker 1: little bit about because there's gonna be a lot of 699 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:09,879 Speaker 1: people right now going through that who were like, we're 700 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,920 Speaker 1: at a billion last year and now we're you know, 701 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: how do you how much that process? Like, look, I 702 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:22,040 Speaker 1: went through an existential crisis when when the globe essentially 703 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,479 Speaker 1: folded a year later after the dot com bubble burst 704 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:27,880 Speaker 1: and the Internet went under and the media was basically like, 705 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:32,400 Speaker 1: ha ha, we told you so you know I it 706 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,520 Speaker 1: made me question my own sanity. Wait, what were we 707 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:37,799 Speaker 1: all crazy with what this internet thing could be? Were 708 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,319 Speaker 1: we crazy? What? So? What virtual community the potential it had? 709 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 1: Maybe we were. And it took a couple more years 710 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: of licking my wounds and retreating from the world. And 711 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,320 Speaker 1: by the way, by the end of all of this, 712 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,640 Speaker 1: not only did I not have ninety seven million dollars, 713 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:54,640 Speaker 1: I was a million dollars in debt because I had 714 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,400 Speaker 1: borrowed a million dollars against my stock to try to 715 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:01,360 Speaker 1: also bet on other dot COM's day went under, So 716 00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm retreating from the world. I 717 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 1: had to, you know, ask my parents to help me 718 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 1: with to keep my roof over my head. And I 719 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:17,640 Speaker 1: barely pulled through financially. And luckily, the reason I was 720 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:20,800 Speaker 1: able to pull through financially ultimately is because three or 721 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,279 Speaker 1: four years later, in two thousand four, the dot com 722 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,560 Speaker 1: world came back with a vengeance. The Internet renaissance kicked in. 723 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,000 Speaker 1: You know, Google appeared and then if Facebook appeared, and 724 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,799 Speaker 1: I was able to corral enough of my original investors 725 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:38,040 Speaker 1: who had made returns on the globe they had invested 726 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,440 Speaker 1: in early and sold at the I P O and 727 00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,200 Speaker 1: made a killing, and luckily many of them said, hey, steph, 728 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,719 Speaker 1: whatever you do next, we're in okay. Um, well, I 729 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,719 Speaker 1: don't want to run another company right now. I'm like 730 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:50,719 Speaker 1: still in shell shock here. But I see a lot 731 00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:52,640 Speaker 1: of other entrepreneurs now who are going and doing their 732 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 1: second companies. So I think the Internet is really coming back. 733 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,359 Speaker 1: And so I created a bunch of angel funds, brought 734 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: in my my angel investors alongside me, made some bets. 735 00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:06,360 Speaker 1: Those companies ended up doing really well. Uh without getting 736 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:08,160 Speaker 1: through a list of all the things they did, they 737 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 1: were part of the new fabric of Internet two point oh. 738 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:13,120 Speaker 1: And so that got me back in the game and 739 00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,560 Speaker 1: rebuilt my confidence as as an investor and as somebody 740 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,560 Speaker 1: who understood the market well enough to see what good 741 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: products might disrupt the world. Um, but you know, look, 742 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,239 Speaker 1: it's to be honest, my confidence was really shaken as 743 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,600 Speaker 1: a CEO, and as you know, had hitting such a 744 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,399 Speaker 1: flying that close to the sun and having my wings melt. 745 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:38,239 Speaker 1: It took me ten fifteen years to really want to 746 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:43,080 Speaker 1: to really consider getting back in the CEO set. And 747 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:46,440 Speaker 1: just on that note, I mean, when you when you 748 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: look at what's happening in markets, right now. I mean 749 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,719 Speaker 1: like the nasdact down. I think so far this year 750 00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,920 Speaker 1: crypto crashing, people talking about a crypto winter. What do 751 00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: you think is happening here? Is it? Is it the 752 00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:01,720 Speaker 1: tech bubble all over again? Or is there something different 753 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:08,480 Speaker 1: about this cycle? Nope, it's the same game, new players. 754 00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,120 Speaker 1: It's the same game. Uh. And it's it's It's quite obvious. 755 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,279 Speaker 1: And by the way, when I had my doubts and 756 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:18,120 Speaker 1: I went lived, I got into bitcoin back when it 757 00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:23,239 Speaker 1: was at Mount Cox at sixty dollars a bitcoin um 758 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:26,279 Speaker 1: and I appreciate, enjoyed watching it go from sixty to 759 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,560 Speaker 1: six and thought to myself, well, Jesus six d I 760 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:31,919 Speaker 1: better sell it now. And then it only went up further, 761 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: so I bought back in and then it only crashed. 762 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: So I realized, Okay, me trying to time the market 763 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 1: and figure out you know, mass investor psychology, uh is 764 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:44,480 Speaker 1: not working. So what I'm gonna do here is go 765 00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:48,560 Speaker 1: to first principles. Is this a long hold? Is the 766 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:53,239 Speaker 1: promise of bitcoin or really brought more broadly, blockchain, does 767 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:55,680 Speaker 1: it really have the potential to change the world? And 768 00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,640 Speaker 1: my feeling was yeah, but this is actually more like 769 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,520 Speaker 1: the dot com bubble before one point oh. This is 770 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:06,279 Speaker 1: like the laying down of DARPA net. This is like 771 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:08,920 Speaker 1: before people all get dial up modems and before all 772 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 1: of the great utilities of the Internet appeared. Right, this 773 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:16,480 Speaker 1: is laying down the fabric of of the of web. 774 00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,359 Speaker 1: What is web three point oh now? And so I'm 775 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:21,280 Speaker 1: gonna be a long halt. And it's once I stopped 776 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,880 Speaker 1: trying to bet the market and repeat people's minds and 777 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,480 Speaker 1: tea leaves about buying and selling that I started to 778 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:28,600 Speaker 1: do really well. And I went through the first bubble 779 00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:32,880 Speaker 1: and crypto winter, and then the second, and then the third. 780 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:35,239 Speaker 1: And it's in the third I c omania where I 781 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,640 Speaker 1: was like, there's this other thing called Ethereum World computer. 782 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:39,880 Speaker 1: I'm all in on that, and it's the same thing. 783 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:41,640 Speaker 1: It went all the way up, then came crashing all 784 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,359 Speaker 1: the way down, just kept holding. And if you look 785 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:48,480 Speaker 1: at the four or five major bubbles and crypto winters 786 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,240 Speaker 1: on a log arrhythmic scale, they keep moving up another 787 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,960 Speaker 1: order of magnitude higher each time. And yes, because there's 788 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,000 Speaker 1: a huge amount of speculation and there's a huge amount 789 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,239 Speaker 1: of huge amount of capital and fomo and people growing 790 00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:04,719 Speaker 1: money at bad blockchain concepts and bad level one or 791 00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,160 Speaker 1: bad level two or god knows, God knows what other 792 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,439 Speaker 1: ponzi schemes out there. But that's what had to happen 793 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,200 Speaker 1: with the Internet to begin with. Until you got to 794 00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,480 Speaker 1: Internet two point oh, you could truly say Internet two 795 00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,600 Speaker 1: point oh was where the world discovered the real value 796 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:23,920 Speaker 1: of the Internet. It just became hyper centralized. Well, we're 797 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,040 Speaker 1: still most of the world hasn't even dipped their toe 798 00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:28,520 Speaker 1: in yet to crypto. Right, it's all been about the currency, 799 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,720 Speaker 1: not the utility. The utility it's all started and focused 800 00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,640 Speaker 1: on the lego blocks, the building lego blocks of the 801 00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:38,239 Speaker 1: financial systems you defy, right, And then it started to 802 00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:40,560 Speaker 1: find a broader utility with n f t s, but 803 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:44,600 Speaker 1: again very gimmicky like you know, board eight board apes 804 00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:46,600 Speaker 1: and yacht clubs and god knows what that that's cool 805 00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:51,080 Speaker 1: for capturing people's imagination, but that's not the true unlocking 806 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,120 Speaker 1: of the broader utility of what blockchain can do. That 807 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,920 Speaker 1: will come later. So it's a ten to twenty year 808 00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:01,320 Speaker 1: play before the world will discover the true utility with 809 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 1: a staying power um and that will become Web three 810 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 1: and I am beyond bullish despite seeing my crypto networth 811 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:14,040 Speaker 1: plump plummet. No problem. I haven't been buying into it 812 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:16,280 Speaker 1: because of Fomo. I've been in it since the beginning 813 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:21,239 Speaker 1: and it's still early, early early days. Imagine people panicking 814 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,359 Speaker 1: after Internet one point, oh bubble burst and dumping their 815 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:28,080 Speaker 1: Amazon stock. Right there, We're dumping their Apple stock right there. Oh, 816 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:30,200 Speaker 1: it's all going under. It's all a fat well. You 817 00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:32,480 Speaker 1: would have missed out on one of the greatest returns 818 00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:34,759 Speaker 1: you could have ever had in the history of investments 819 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,960 Speaker 1: with Amazon, So you got you gotta sit tight. Stefan Patterne. 820 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,520 Speaker 1: Honestly a real pleasure, in a real sort of thrill 821 00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:45,800 Speaker 1: to chat with you and some incredible lessons. I actually 822 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:47,480 Speaker 1: like we hit we should we should have you back. 823 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,719 Speaker 1: I think, you know, we could talk for like two 824 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,680 Speaker 1: more hours about so many like here you talking about 825 00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: capital markets and that process was fascinating. You can talk 826 00:42:57,160 --> 00:42:59,759 Speaker 1: longer just about like the period of be ingregiously rich. 827 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,960 Speaker 1: I'm talking about there's so much more. Thank you so 828 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,160 Speaker 1: much for coming on, Odd Lodge. I thought there shows 829 00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:07,680 Speaker 1: like a real treat and some like extremely interesting perspective 830 00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:10,400 Speaker 1: on the Internet and what's happening now in market. So 831 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:28,000 Speaker 1: that was fantastic. I love that. I love that conversation. 832 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,239 Speaker 1: There were so many interesting things, you know. I was 833 00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:34,919 Speaker 1: just looking at the Globes chart, you know, which was crazy. Yeah, 834 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:36,800 Speaker 1: but it's crazy that you can still actually call that 835 00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,480 Speaker 1: up because I think it turned into so if you 836 00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:41,319 Speaker 1: have a terminal, you can look at the Globe dot com. 837 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:43,359 Speaker 1: I think it turned into like a shell company. Yeah, 838 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,200 Speaker 1: and I think they were like doing voipe stuff for 839 00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:47,919 Speaker 1: a while. But what's crazy, And Jim Channo has talked 840 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,160 Speaker 1: about this in a recent episode, like how tiny it 841 00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,239 Speaker 1: was because like you know, he had his beak, it 842 00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,200 Speaker 1: was like a hundred million. The company itself never was 843 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,800 Speaker 1: worth a billion. And then of course last year with 844 00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,920 Speaker 1: like the Spacks, we'd have these like fort intollar companies 845 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,040 Speaker 1: that didn't do it. It's crazy how small the numbers. 846 00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:05,840 Speaker 1: The other thing that struck me about that conversation was 847 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:09,600 Speaker 1: when he was talking about get big fast, Yeah, and 848 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,240 Speaker 1: it does feel like a lot of startups have internalized 849 00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,399 Speaker 1: that motto and you kind of wonder if it's ever 850 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:19,239 Speaker 1: going to go away, or if like just raising as 851 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,520 Speaker 1: much money as you can to get market share as 852 00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,680 Speaker 1: quickly as possible expand as quickly as possible if that's 853 00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:27,400 Speaker 1: just the standard forever and the market injuries and through 854 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,239 Speaker 1: line the fact that start that model like started Netscape 855 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:33,560 Speaker 1: and now purveys through entrees and Horowitz. It's really interesting 856 00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,040 Speaker 1: also that the not just the get big fast, but 857 00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:40,359 Speaker 1: the cycle and how the late players entered the game 858 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:43,200 Speaker 1: have to spend even more and so it creates this race. 859 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,600 Speaker 1: And then to hear him describe how an early two thousand, 860 00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:48,880 Speaker 1: the sort of like hamster wheel is on, it's like 861 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:51,560 Speaker 1: we can't We're spending so much money and it's just 862 00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:54,919 Speaker 1: like the marginal value of those acquisition dollars or growing 863 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:58,279 Speaker 1: traffic starts to decline. Like I think serious lessons for 864 00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,920 Speaker 1: like thinking about things that upen during this second but 865 00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 1: also the realization that he described about having to bring 866 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:07,360 Speaker 1: in a new CEO and someone who could actually instill 867 00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:09,560 Speaker 1: a capital discipline and maybe have like a bit more 868 00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,440 Speaker 1: of a strategy around finances, because it feels like with 869 00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:15,279 Speaker 1: a lot of these startups by you know, I don't 870 00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:16,960 Speaker 1: want to call him a tech bro, but you know, 871 00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:22,480 Speaker 1: technology brother, technology brother, it feels like technology brother and sisters. 872 00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:27,640 Speaker 1: It feels like what you need to start something up successfully. Sorry, 873 00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:31,840 Speaker 1: in a garage and like developed new technology may not 874 00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:34,520 Speaker 1: be exactly what you need to run a multi billion 875 00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:37,200 Speaker 1: dollar company, right, Yeah, No, it's so much stuff. I 876 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:40,520 Speaker 1: love that. We gotta have him back. Yeah, all right, 877 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:42,239 Speaker 1: should we leave it that? Let's leave it there. Okay. 878 00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,280 Speaker 1: This has been another episode of the All Thoughts podcast. 879 00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:47,680 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me on Twitter at 880 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,680 Speaker 1: Tracy Alloway. And I'm Joe Wisenthal. You can follow me 881 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,800 Speaker 1: on Twitter at the Stalwart. Follow our guests Defawn Pattern 882 00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,120 Speaker 1: on Twitter, He's at Stefan Pattern, and check out his 883 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:01,240 Speaker 1: book All About This, a very public offering the story 884 00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: of the Globe dot Com in the first Internet Revolution. 885 00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,080 Speaker 1: Follow our producer Carmen Rodriguez at Carmen Arman, and check 886 00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:11,920 Speaker 1: out all of our podcasts at Bloomberg under the handle 887 00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:13,960 Speaker 1: at podcasts. Thanks for listening.