"We sold the business in pieces to people we did business with over the years"
That doesn't sound like an acquisition
"that company made 38.5 million dollars a year"
No, they made $38.5 million dollars ONE YEAR. The year before, it was 5.5 ... the year after, who knows ...
I guess little semantic games like this are necessary when you need to position yourself as a seasoned expert–for the purposes of gaining readership to your blog or selling your book.
I think it's mentioned that part of his company was sold to brad greenspan of euniverse/intermix(myspace) fame. I don't know how much this reflects on Andrew and/or mailbits, but brad greenspan and euniverse are know for, among other things, 'legitimizing' the adware business, until most everyone realized it wasn't legitimate. Also euniverse and brad had a pretty well publicized accounting fraud scandal that resulted in him leaving euniverse. Anyone that worked in the LA online advertising business during the late 90s early 00s will know euniverse is about as shady as shady can get, without actually getting thrown in jail.
Some startups would be happy to get $38.5 M in revenue ANY YEAR. You can knock the guy all you like, but he's been through the trenches and his Mixergy content is pretty good.
How many really believe the story about selling his old (presumably worn) clothes back to J Crew to raise his seed capital? I'm guessing the truth is that he pitched a J Crew board member by including 'the clothes off his back' as a jokey item in his business proposal, but that's not the substantive part which got him the check. Sorry, I'm getting a 'rich dad, poor dad' vibe off this guy and his site.
After reading the two-chair tale o' woe, the comment that they "sold the business in pieces" leads me to think his company collapsed after the dot.com bust.
Sure, their 1999-2000 balance sheet looked spiffy, but that was the peak of the boom. How did the next year go? Did these guys enjoy a profitable exit or endure a liquidation?
Edit: Poking about, it seems they sold the company in 2003. That's quite a time after the 1999-2000 numbers being splashed about in his feel-good writing. I'll bet the numbers in those later years would shine a bit more light on the business's true condition.
Comments
I, too, am interested in finding out more about his previous venture.
It's been posted a few times,
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/04/08/the-andrew-warner-stor...
"We sold the business in pieces to people we did business with over the years"
That doesn't sound like an acquisition
"that company made 38.5 million dollars a year"
No, they made $38.5 million dollars ONE YEAR. The year before, it was 5.5 ... the year after, who knows ...
I guess little semantic games like this are necessary when you need to position yourself as a seasoned expert–for the purposes of gaining readership to your blog or selling your book.
I think it's mentioned that part of his company was sold to brad greenspan of euniverse/intermix(myspace) fame. I don't know how much this reflects on Andrew and/or mailbits, but brad greenspan and euniverse are know for, among other things, 'legitimizing' the adware business, until most everyone realized it wasn't legitimate. Also euniverse and brad had a pretty well publicized accounting fraud scandal that resulted in him leaving euniverse. Anyone that worked in the LA online advertising business during the late 90s early 00s will know euniverse is about as shady as shady can get, without actually getting thrown in jail.
Some startups would be happy to get $38.5 M in revenue ANY YEAR. You can knock the guy all you like, but he's been through the trenches and his Mixergy content is pretty good.
How many really believe the story about selling his old (presumably worn) clothes back to J Crew to raise his seed capital? I'm guessing the truth is that he pitched a J Crew board member by including 'the clothes off his back' as a jokey item in his business proposal, but that's not the substantive part which got him the check. Sorry, I'm getting a 'rich dad, poor dad' vibe off this guy and his site.
He sure knows how to "tell a story". That could indeed mean embellishing the facts.
Thanks for that.
After reading the two-chair tale o' woe, the comment that they "sold the business in pieces" leads me to think his company collapsed after the dot.com bust.
Sure, their 1999-2000 balance sheet looked spiffy, but that was the peak of the boom. How did the next year go? Did these guys enjoy a profitable exit or endure a liquidation?
Edit: Poking about, it seems they sold the company in 2003. That's quite a time after the 1999-2000 numbers being splashed about in his feel-good writing. I'll bet the numbers in those later years would shine a bit more light on the business's true condition.