iNetSpace

When Spectrum Technologies was breathing its last, there were still a fair number of talented people. Titan had done an excellent job in assembling a team for large-scale Unix C/C++ development, and not all of them had bailed out as the company sputtered its way into that good night. The division head, Dan, gathered his minions together to explain his vision. "Titan has done us wrong!" sez Dan. "We shall found our own company and prove to the world How It Should Be Done!"

While the response was not overwhelming, Dan had been a pretty good guy, so we were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn't ready to start the new show, however, so we dispersed. I wound up at the sister division; others went elsewhere. Dan kept in touch, though, and promised that things were, as they say, Moving Along.

Eventually, he unveiled his vision. A friend of his named Nick had at least the shell of a consulting company. They would enhance this corporation into a real company, rehire everyone from Titan, and go on to become fabulously wealthy. The more cynical of our brethren took to calling this the Dan and Nick Traveling Road Show, but spirits remained high.

At long last, the day came that DANTRS was ready to become a reality. Eventually, it even got its own name: iNetSpace. Little by little, he wheedled a fair percentage of the Titan staff into joining up. The first ten of us were "founders" and received what appeared to be sizable stock grants. (Later, we would find that our 120,000 shares actually represented just 1% of the company.)

At first, things went well enough. iNetSpace had a major contract with the Physician's Data Corporation. We shared office space with them in Dallas' remarkable InfoMart. (I'd kill to someday hold a Spy Game there.) Soon enough, we had a second big contract with Fluor Daniel Telecom. That one may have been a White Knight gig from a former Titan employee turned Fluor manager, but it was still another big revenue stream.

iNetSpace finished its first calendar year in the black which apparently caused no end of headaches for the accountant; start-ups aren't supposed to make money. We had about a dozen quality people, two large customers, brand new office facilities, and some serious optimism.

So, given all that, you'd think things were on a roll. Alas, such was not the case. Several ill-omened factors were starting to make an appearance, and a shadow began to spread over our sunny dispositions. (I seem to be getting poetic again; sorry.)

First off, despite the rapid acquisition of the two contracts, iNetSpace was having trouble landing new business. We had only one sales guy, and he wasn't getting the job done. He was good at the cold calls and getting the meetings, but he wasn't a closer. This might have been tolerable if Dan or one of the veeps could handle that part, but none of our leaders seemed to have those skills. "Any day now" deals would just drift on and on into the future.

Second, we were starting to accrue a lot of overhead. Dan combined two serious flaws in his hiring practices. Flaw #1 was wanting too much structure too fast. He wanted to feel (and look) like a big, professional company. So, we had four vice presidents at a thirteen person company. Veeps of Sales and Engineering made sense, but why have a Veep of Marketing when your company has no products or advertising? Flaw #2 was making his choices based on "niceness". The fact that most of his recruits came from his church group or his Guard buddies was fine, but the fact that many of them had no relevant skills was not. It's great if your co-workers are nice people, but it's also nice if they can pull their weight. Having a bunch of useless, salary-consuming folks combined with Dan's expensive tastes in corporate style to eat up the bulk of the revenue stream.

Third, the work wasn't right. Perhaps you recall my mentioning how Titan had assembled a team designed for large-scale Unix software development? For some reason, these people weren't all thrilled at being packed off to do Windows consulting. Even better, some of us got to do Lotus Notes and CGI forms! What few prospects the Sales guy managed to bring in all looked like more of the same, so we were getting seriously grouchy. After all, if we'd wanted to be Windows consultants, we wouldn't have been working for Titan in the first place. This disgruntlement fed straight into problem #4...

Fourth, and perhaps most damning, Dan started to lose it. He'd done fine when he was the head of the division at Titan. Once he was the Big Boss, though, the stress started getting to him. It's not that I'm not sympathetic, but I know I'm not cut out for CEO-ship. Dan didn't. He'd put in a Nice Guy policy like flex time or use-your-own-computer, and then he'd be sullen when the employees used it. (e.g. He came in at 0630; the engineers around 1000. So, he spent three and a half hours staring at empty chairs fuming.) He'd present some Cool New Idea(tm), and then he'd regard attempts to clarify the idea as malicious criticism. He started feuding with people and declaring that most of the staff had "bad attitudes".

Eventually, I became the first (though by no means the last) to get canned from iNetSpace. To be honest, I'm not free of blame here. I pushed the flex time policy to the breaking point, skirted the edges of the dress code, and sometimes dozed off after lunch. On the other hand, even my boss admitted that my productivity was high and my quality was excellent. I feel like this should have bought me some slack, but.... *shrug*

(An amusing side note: Ultimately, I was the only person to make any money off iNetSpace stock. As a founder, I had been granted 120,000 shares free upon joining. While there was no vesting period, if we left for any reason during our first year, the company reserved the right to buy it back at $0.001 per share. They chose to do so, and I got a nice check for $120. Since the company never went public, this makes me the only person to make a profit. Lucky me, no?)

I wasn't exactly thrilled by the whole situation, but a call to a headhunter quickly found me my position with Source Media. This protected both my pocketbook and my self-esteem. Ultimately, I blame the bulk of the problem on Dan who had, by this time, lost all ability to deal with his engineers. Whenever someone asks why I left iNetSpace, I leave it at "Don't have a personality conflict with the CEO of a thirteen person company."

As I said, I wasn't the last to get the axe. Over the next few months, Dan first hired and then disposed of a pile of engineers. Once he'd boiled things down to the point where any further losses would endanger the company, he had to quit firing everyone who wore bright colors. Instead, he took turns berating them for being ingrates with bad attitudes and then begging them not to quit.

While this was going on, the company pursued but failed to land any number of contracts. I believe they did pick up a few small projects, but they never landed another big fish like PDC or Fluor. Fluor eventually finished its project and had no further need for iNetSpace. With that cash cow cut off, the coffers began looking frighteningly empty. Several times, paychecks were delivered late.

In the end, the company folded. By that time, all my friends had left, so I'm not sure what the last days of iNetSpace were like. Probably nothing good based on the stories I head leading up to the end. Dan got increasingly nutty, morale fell in the toilet, people quit and were instantly branded as deserting traitors, etc. The last employees reported not getting their accrued vacation cashed out and other such petty screwings.

So, there it is. A petty tale of opportunity squandered and hope destroyed. Next time go be a tiny cog in a large corporation. Sure, you'll still lose your job eventually, but the stress factor is lower.

Hmmm... in rereading this, I note that I am still bitter. Perhaps I'll rewrite it sometime when I'm in a good mood.

Mage <barkley@cirr.com>