Bye Bye Boo!
You may have heard the rumors so let me confirm my departure from Boo after less than six months. The call was as to whether I wanted to work exclusively out of the UK or stay in the US. When presented with such a scenario, I decided that I would be better off working in the US only and, as a result, have left Boo. It wasn’t an easy decision as I enjoyed working with the folks at Boo but didn’t feel that it would be right for me to move to the UK for a couple of reasons: first of all, I like New York a lot more than I do London. This is a purely personal judgment call but after having spent several months in London, I know that it’s not a city I want to live in. Second, I have spent a lot of time establishing a ground base in the US. As many of you know, I’m French and have bumped around the world for quite a few years before finally settling down in New York. Since I did not intend to uproot myself again, there was not much choice. And last but not least, I think Boo has challenges to address that top management is unwilling to address. So I left.
Now you’re probably wondering what I’m up to next, so here goes…
A new company: Moveable Media
In late 1999, an idea started brewing in my mind about the potential to form a B2B and E-commerce consulting company around new concepts that pulls from my experience. While I can’t give more details right now, let me just say that I’m starting my own company. It’s called Moveable Media and will be very different from the current offerings out there on the Internet.
However, the business plan is quite strong and I already have had discussions with parties interested in backing me financially. As a result, I am now making the jump that so many have made before and starting my own company, which will launch its first offering this year (in 2000).
While the company is still in its embryonic state, I am looking to fill a few positions, including that of CTO so if you know anyone that might be interested in joining a dynamic, New York based start up headed by an Internet veteran (yes, folks, I have now officially landed that title, having been in the industry for 7 years), send them my way.
Many of the people I consulted about this have been asking me why it took me so long to make the jump back into entrepreneurdom. Well, the reason is really quite simple: I needed to get some experience. Having worked around C-level people for the better part of the last decade, I now feel that I’ve learned enough to build a reasonably successful company.
The TNL.net newsletter
You may have noticed a small change of direction in terms of the TNL.net newsletter. Instead of just covering new applications, I’ve recently sent out dispatches on industry events such as the AOL-Time Warner merger and the Transmeta announcement. In a way, this is more of a return to my analytical roots. As a result, I will send out more analytical pieces along with the regular offering of cool new technologies I uncover.
You may also have noticed that the frequency of this newsletter seems to have increased a little, with this already being the third dispatch this year (whereas last year saw about a dispatch a month). This is part of my effort to offer you something more current and I will try to make sure that you get better updates in general. So enjoy it and feel free to tell me whether I’m right or wrong in my approach with this. After all, it’s all about learning.