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| Enteractive, Inc. and USWeb
Cornerstone [Nasdaq:CNRS] |
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Go To: Enteractive
Company Overview |
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| Position: Vice-President and General
Manager |
Go To: www.usweb.com |
Go To: Enteractive
Product Overview |
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Go To: www.crstone.com |
Go To: www.enteractive.com |
Products/Services Launched:
- Sacred Mirror of Kofun (Enteractive)
- Enchanted Tarot (Enteractive)
- Richie Sambora Interactive Guitar (Enteractive)
- Jacques Cousteau's Cities Under The Sea (Enteractive)
- USWeb - Connecticut (including Western Mass.)
- USWeb Hosting Services
- USWeb Internet Development Services
- USWeb Media Asset Management Application
Other:
- Participated in Enteractive's 2nd Round Public Offering
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| Situation/Background: Enteractive,
Inc. bought Lyriq International in February 1996. The original intent of the
acquisition of Lyriq was to first gain the development and sales/marketing expertise of
the company, and second to gain the existing contents and brands of the company. At
the time of the acquisition Lyriq was developing products at 10% of the typical budget
within the entertainment software industry and in 20% of the time. This feat was
primarily achieved from the efforts and methods of Gary Skiba, my partner in this venture.
Enteractive also wanted the benefits of the sales and marketing expertise that
resulted in Lyriq being present in over 10,000 sales locations (thanks to Tom Fitzsimons
and Jim Daly of Channel Sources, Inc.) and its distribution contracts that were expertly
negotiated by myself and Howard Luxenberg (Director of Marketing). As a result, the
first year of my two year post acquisition employment contract were spent re-organizing
and re-building the existing Enteractive, Inc. organization so that it could take
advantage of the methodologies and other intellectual assets of Lyriq International.
During this timeframe the company introduced some award winning products including: The
Sacred Mirror of Kofun, Enchanted Tarot, Richie Sambora Interactive Guitar, and
Jean-Michel Cousteau's Cities Under The Sea (see product overview page for more
information about these products). During this first year the primary shareholders and
market makers for Enteractive, Inc. came to the conclusion that it was in the
companies best interest to redirect its energies and capital into the emerging Internet
marketplace. The costs of producing and marketing entertainment software were
soaring and correspondingly the margins and profits were dropping. The result of
these discussions was Enteractive, Inc. acquiring the rights to launch USWeb offices in
New York and the areas surrounding New York (Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Rhode Island). USWeb, now named marchFirst, is a national organization providing web
development and hosting services that was co-founded by my friend and colleague Toby
Corey. I agreed to close down and sell the software business and to establish the
Connecticut office of the new company - USWeb Cornerstone.
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| Position Objectives: Determine optimum
physical office location and build from the ground up a world-class Internet development
and hosting services organization leveraging the USWeb brand and assets. Meet and
exceed a first year quota of $1.5M. (For complete job objectives click here). |
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| Issues: Existing employees had signed
on to develop entertainment software products, they needed to be motivated to stay and
become energized about producing web sites for corporate clients. By late 1996/early
1997 many agencies had already established themselves in the Connecticut region as premier
web development organizations, and most target companies had either established
in-house resources or relationships with one of the existing web development
organizations. |
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Results:
- Established office in Stamford, CT.
- All of the existing talent from the entertainment software group agreed to stay on and
build the web development agency. This became the core development team for this new
agency.
- Recruited top sales talent from within the Connecticut region with experience selling to
existing Fortune 500 accounts headquartered in Connecticut.
- Developed and implemented solutions in the areas of media asset management, sales &
marketing automation, real estate, e-commerce, project automation and communications, and
human resources.
- Successfully penetrated key accounts both locally and nationally, including: Loctite
Corporation, Pfizer, Nine West, United Technologies, Petco, Hartford Insurance, The
Danbury Mint, Starter, and World Golf Village.
- Exceeded the $1.5M first year sales quota.
- The USWeb Cornerstone Connecticut office was the only office in the company that was
operating profitably and exceeding its sales targets.
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| Turning Point Event: Upon reaching the
end of my two year post acquisition employment I entered into negotiations regarding
staying on and continuing my role in building the new USWeb Cornerstone franchise.
The Chairman would not agree to allocate stock options for current and future work on the
premise that my existing share of the company was sufficient as motivation to build the
company. My position was that the stock I held was for the purchase of my prior
company (LYRIQ) and was not intended for any existing or future efforts at building the
new company. We amicably agreed to disagree. |
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| Response: I resigned to pursue new
ventures and the Connecticut office was consolidated into the New York which desperately
needed the talent and resources to meet demands in the New York area. |
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| Current Situation: USWeb Cornerstone
withdrew from the non-New York regions and consolidated its resources to meet the needs of
the New York City market. The company re-organized again and was renamed Cornerstone
Internet Solutions. The company struggled in supplying Internet development and
hosting services profitably and purchased an organization with a B2B internet solution
that targeted New York area food distribution. This Internet B2B play was well
regarded by Wall Street and the stock rose to $12/share from its low of $2/share along
with the rest of the .COM stocks. All the founders and original investors sold much
of their holdings during this meteoric (really idiotic) rise in stock price. With
the late 2000 .COM crash the stock plummeted to $.10 share and is currently in the process
of being delisted as a NASDAQ small caps stock. (2/01). |
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| Final Note: While my two years with
Enteractive/USWeb Cornerstone were a bit disjointed due to the significant amount of
change that was occurring both internal to the company and within the industry I have to
say that they were also years filled with some great professional achievements. I
also would like to say that I had the pleasure to work with some of the best people both
artistically and professionally in my career. Many of the products were questionable
as to whether they should have been produced given the profit potential corresponding to a
small target audience size. However they were produced magnificently by some of the
best in the industry, which is why these products have received critical acclaim and
continue to be used many years after their development. The marketing roll-out of
the Sacred Mirror of Kofun was one of the best in the industry and accomplished everything
that a company desires in terms of garnering attention to the product and to the company
for a quality product. There were many issues and problems that led to my leaving
and the companies woes in the marketplace, but I won't dwell on these here as it would
serve no purpose. I will just remember the great events with people like Jean-Michel
Cousteau, Ritchie Sambora, Terry Gilliam and great accomplishments with colleagues such as
Meg Tuttle, Karla Knickerbocker, Andrew Gyenes, and Ken Gruber to name too few that will
last a lifetime. |
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| For more Information see document and articles
below, or go to: |
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Enteractive
Overview Page |
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Enteractive
Products Page |
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