WHITE TUESDAY
by Geea
Monday afternoon Alex_Community announced a special State of There Address
would be held on Tuesday April 19, 2005. Much of the community
speculated what the announcement would be. The mood of the community
was of excitement and most felt good news would come, and good news it was!
Michael Wilson along with Steve
Victorino
announced that There will be spinning out from Forterra and become
it's own
business entity "Makena Technologies." Almost a year ago
we heard the news of no more updates, no more bug fixes, no new content,
that day was referred to as Black Friday. With this new exciting
announcement we now have White Tuesday with only brighter days ahead.
Many Therians gathered around radios to listen, some held listening parties,
but in the end Tuesday night, April 19, 2005, was a night to party in There.
A day we can now refer to as "White Tuesday".
STATE OF THERE – SPINOUT ANNOUNCEMENT
ALEX:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this very special “State of There” event.
This is Alex_Community, and I am a product manager at There. I’d like to
thank everyone for helping us pull this together so quickly, especially our
broadcasters and all of you who are hosting listening parties. Thanks also
to Nep for acting as my technical advisor once again. I’m here tonight with
Steve Victorino, our President and Chief Operating Officer, who has some
very exciting news for us. So without any further ado, I’ll hand things
over to Steve…
STEVE: Introduction
for Mike
Thank you very
much, Alex. Members of the community, fellow Thereians: Not even 2 months
ago, I was in-world to chat with the community about the state of our
virtual world There. I summarized the major accomplishments over the last
several months, and gave some insight into the plans for 2005. I confirmed
that the State of There is confident and strong.
Today, we have the
first of what we hope will one be several important announcements for There
in 2005. This announcement is so exciting, that I need to introduce someone
else – someone that many of you have already talked to, probably in some
cases many times, in our world called There.
As background, he has 25 years of
experience in the online community and the eCommerce field.
He was an early employee of eBay, Inc.,
where he was responsible for building the organization and technology for
the world’s largest and most successful eCommerce site. The architecture,
processes and organizations he established during eBay’s startup days in
1997 carried eBay through its IPO and beyond.
He began his career at Macy’s California,
where he developed point-of-sale and electronic credit card authorization
systems, soon becoming the youngest senior executive in the company’s
history. Following Macy’s, he provided management and software support for
Chevron’s 10,000+ member online user community.
After Chevron, he was an early employee
and key developer for the Oracle for Macintosh product line. After several
years, he moved on to Neuron Data, where he worked on bringing artificial
intelligence together with modern relational and object-oriented database
technology. Excited by the emergence of portable computing, he later worked
for eShop (aquired by Microsoft in 1996), as the chief architect and project
manager for its electronic shopping product.
He has also held key positions at daVinci
Time & Space, developing ITV-based community, and at The Well, leading the
development of its web-based community product, Well Engaged.
He left eBay in 2001, “retiring” to
pursue new startup opportunities, including There, where he served on the
Board of Directors and held various roles in engineering, engineering
management, and community.
So, without any further delay, allow me
to introduce the new CEO of There, Michael Wilson:
MIKE’S COMMENTS:
Thank you, Steve. Good evening,
everyone. Many of you may remember me… Certainly, the last time this
community heard from me, it was under dramatically different circumstances.
Last May, I was handed a statement prepared by others and asked to deliver a
message that wasn’t good. This time I have prepared the announcement myself
(or at least read it beforehand) and am incredibly pleased to be the bearer
of great news.
Why have we called everyone together on
such short notice? The big news is that effective yesterday, April 18th,
the There consumer service was spun out from Forterra Systems as a separate
entity. We are now our own company.
This move has been in the works for quite
some time. We had hoped to announce it during the March 1st
“State of There” and actually prepared an alternate version of that
address. However, these sorts of business transactions typically take a
long time – and this one was no exception. Finalizing the deal took longer
than we hoped, so we had to hold off on telling you until it was completed.
Many things we alluded to in the last address are going to come true, and
things we couldn’t talk about then, you’ll learn about today.
So, why did we want to spin out and
become our own business entity, separate from Forterra? As Steve mentioned
in the March 1st address, Forterra is primarily focused on
licensing its virtual world technology for use in real-world applications.
They have contracts not only with the United States Army, but for homeland
security and medical first response as well. This is far different from
running a consumer service like There, and having two such divergent areas
of focus makes it difficult to do either one particularly well. There is
certainly viable enough as a business that we were willing to work with
Forterra to spin it out as its own entity.
Behind the scenes, most of what happens
will be invisible to you. The service and brand will continue to be called
There, although the assets are now held by a company called Makena
Technologies. As Steve mentioned in his opening, I am the new CEO of
There. Steve will continue to fill the role of President and Chief
Operating Officer.
What does it mean that There is its own
company? Well, first of all, it means that There is not closing! In fact,
we will be growing. I want to nip any rumors in the bud before they start:
there will be NO layoffs as a result of the spinout. Everyone here is part
of the new company, and we have been working toward this for some time. For
example, PixelVixen was hired in anticipation of the spinout and is now a
permanent employee. We also plan to hire more employees in the near term,
with a focus on engineering. This will be a careful growth, though – we
don’t want to expand too quickly and repeat the mistakes of the past.
The spinout also means that a lot of
money is being invested into There, which means great things for everyone.
It means our decisions and efforts will be squarely focused on the consumer
service. It also means a return to long-term strategic planning, rather
than a focus on short-term survival. Most especially, it means a renewed
focus on making this a successful business and service.
I am thrilled to be able to deliver this
news to you today. To put this in a little bit of perspective… as Steve
mentioned, I have been involved with online communities for 20 years. This
started all the way back at Chevron and carried through to daVinci Time &
Space, then to the Well, and then to eBay. Four years ago, someone showed
me a version of There, and I quickly realized it was the next big step for
online communities. In spite of the tumultuous events that have happened in
There’s relatively short history, I have continued to be a believer in its
potential, which is why I led the initiative to spin out There to its own
business.
When Steve spoke to you six weeks ago, he
closed with words that I would like to repeat and reiterate… “You’re seeing
a hard commitment from us to make this service a success. We will continue
to increase our investment, in terms of real dollars, in terms of staff, in
terms of the passion and creativity we bring to this, to making sure that
There stays open, and operates, and thrives and prospers today, tomorrow,
and well into the future.”
Back to you, Steve…
CLOSING Statements
Thanks Mike.
Personally, I’m delighted – check that – I’m ecstatic to have Mike leading
our efforts. Mike and I met four years ago at one of There’s Board
Meetings. It was clear from that very first meeting that we share very
similar philosophies with respect to running start-up ventures. It was also
clear that we both have a strong track record of success, and we fully
intend to make There as successful as either Four11 or eBay.
One of our
philosophies is that actions speak louder than words, so if I may highlight
a few of our actions since the last State of There Address now 7 weeks ago
to the day. I said to “Imagine being able to rename or assign a name to a
portazone”. Its done, and in the next release. I said to “Imagine being
able to teleport directly to a portazone.” That’s done, and in the next
release. I said to “Imagine controlling all foreign objects in your
portazone”. That done, and in the next release. So is saving a portazone
layout. So are dice. These are just a few of the many improvements that we
have made in the last 7 weeks. This announcement allows us to accelerate
our rate of improvement, and more than anything else – signals our long-term
commitment to There and to our community.
Back over to you
Alex –
ALEX:
Thanks very much,
Steve and Mike, for joining us this evening and sharing the great news.
Everyone at the office is really excited and glad that we can finally share
this with the community.
Just a note, I will
be following up shortly in the forums with a brief Q&A document with more
about the spinout. Thank you again to our broadcasters and listening party
hosts for coming together on such short notice. We certainly appreciate
it.
On behalf of the
entire team at There, thanks to everyone for your continued dedication and
support. Good night, and we’ll see you in There.
|
Follow-up to State of There address |
|
Hi, all -- So, we've just concluded the
address. Steve and Mike announced the spinout of There as a business
entity separate from Forterra. As a follow-up, we put together some
questions and answers regarding the announcement...
Q: What does it mean that There has “spun out” from Forterra?
A: It means that There is now its own company – a completely separate
business entity.
Q: Why did we want There to be its own company?
A: Because Forterra is focused on
licensing its technology for real-world applications, and There is a
consumer service. The two are very different business models, which
makes for a difficult balance. Having a separate company allows us the
freedom to make our own decisions for the consumer service.
Q: Who is in charge of There now?
A: Mike Wilson is the new CEO. Steve
Victorino will continue in the role of President and COO.
Q: Will there be more layoffs as a result of this change?
A: No, there will not be any layoffs. In
fact, we intend to hire more
employees.
Q: Will the name of the company change?
Will There still be There?
A: The service and brand will continue to
be called There. The assets are now held by a company called Makena
Technologies.
Q: Are your offices going to move?
A: No.
Q: Is this just a ploy to separate There from Forterra so you can
close the service without any impact on your military customers?
A: No.
Q: Will There continue to be able to take advantage of any advances
Forterra makes to the platform?
A: Yes, absolutely, it is part of our
agreement. We also have a good
working relationship with our former colleagues at Forterra. DICE is
actually a great example of this - a Forterra employee originally
created it.
Q: Are you going to bring back any former employees?
A: There are rumors that Skippy is being
rehired.
Q: Will this affect my account or my Therebucks balance?
A: No. Your account, Therebucks balance, etc. will remain exactly as
they were. |
