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TheGlobe.com: Where are the stars of Web 1.0 now?
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by mtippett | September 30, 2008 at 08:45 am
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I can't believe it took so long to happen but the Silicon Alley Insider has done a piece tracking the stars of Web 1.0. On the list are Todd Krizelman and Stephan Paternot, who I worked for in the late 90's. It was a crazy time. New York was invincible. One of the sales people named her dog after the stock symbol (TGLO). We were hiring people by the hundreds. Bear Stearns was still around and did our IPO. It seems like a lifetime ago.
Before Facebook and Friendster, there was TheGlobe.com, started by Cornell juniors Todd Krizelman and Stephan Paternot in 1994. As the Internet bubble grew, the pair made history with the largest first-day gain of any IPO up until that date in November 1998. They became paper millionaires and made appearances on Oprah and Charlie Rose (see clip, particularly @8:50 for Krizelman's prescient statement about social networking).
In many respects theglobe.com (and other sites like sixdegrees.com) were way ahead of their time. In some senses they invented blogging. We were so close to owning the space. If only we didn't put up those damn annoying pop ups!
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at 09:41 on September 30th, 2008
You know, I could comment all over this one. Those days were definitely the wild west.
Ok, I will comment on one little part that makes me STEAM. All of those guys calling our current status web 2.X or 3.X were obviously not paying attention during the mid-late 90's. Communications and sharing tools were born by the likes of theglobe, geocities, yahoo, etc. Not only were the content creation and sharing tools available, but they were used in huge numbers relative to the % of online users. Prior to that, being online was pretty static aside from chat, IM and newsgroups.
So, if you're going to use sexy terms to hype up a new wave of "web X.X", use numbers that make sense to us old timers. :-)
Kevin
at 09:49 on September 30th, 2008
I hear you brother. Today's youngsters have no sense of history! Whipper Snappers!
at 14:06 on September 30th, 2008
Strange, I was just talking to someone about this the other day.
The glory days... great ideas they just needed the streamlined technology and all the buzz words that make things work.
My first gig was for an online soap opera called the eastvillage.com which uploaded video. These were the days of 28.8k and 56.k modems, and pre ad revenue.
at 20:46 on September 30th, 2008
MT, those "pop ups" defined the downfall of the potential. It's a clear sign you're headed for doom when ad sales drives the direction of the company, unless that is your biz.
Todd and Steph had the right idea and it was working. They just let others drive the co in the wrong direction.