The man who knows nothing is back. I'm glad to say that over the past year I have learnt a few things...how to mess up a carefully planned proposal in Paris by flubbing the words and coming out with the immortal line, "you wanna make it permanent". I also found out how hard it is to get back into the work place when you have not been "on the scene" for three years, even though I ran the most successful reverse merger fund in recent history through the largest recession and financial collapse in recent global history.
So let's examine the work environment:
A brief history in time...ran international programming for Hollywood Studio, launched three TV networks, two online networks, produced thousands of hours of TV, won two Emmy's, nominated for three, raised $85MM and turned it into the most successful reverse merger in SPAC history for a valuation of $173MM...and yet apparently there's nothing out there?
Not that every headhunter/job should be beating a path to my door...but you would think there would be some exciting things floating around. In my opinion my mistake is in effect, to disappear from the industry PR machine. When I ran KOL and RED at AOL, I must admit I was in the press a lot...but to be fair, we had a lot to talk about. When I left and ran the SPAC fund, there wasn't an opportunity to "PR myself", and so to the entertainment industry the profile faded.
So if the headhunters are not calling, and there's not big gig in sight, what do you do? Many people have said I should go and set something up and run it. The problem being that the one thing that really turns my lights on is original online content, and it's tough to raise money for that. VC's either think they know it and it's failed, or don't understand it so it's failed. The existing business model is broken, and I would need someone to really drink the cool aid to back me, and so far that person alludes me. The other problem is that the original online content world, unfortunately, is full of failures. Companies that did not sort on the one thing that you have to be able to do...make a profit. It is no use if your online blog is getting a million people reading and viewing it, if you can't sell the impressions and make a profit. The most basic part of business, it costs me $1 to do so I need to sell it for $2 to make a profit. Now call me crazy, but even without an MBA, I think I can work out that one.
Also, for some reason, people have this "web 1.5" attitude that whatever you do on the web will magically find an audience and then virally spread like wildfire and get a huge audience. Well I tend to go for the "web 3.625" version of, when you build a product you have to let people know it's there and market it. At KOL and RED I built the whole business on the back on online content and made a lot of original content. Off the back of that I built a business valued at over $150MM after three years, and an estimated five year value of $500MM.
It's a little bit like NBC launching and marketing a programming slate, and nobody watching...oh hold on, bad example. But, if you want to launch successful online content you have to have a successful marketing strategy.
So anyhow, back to jobs. Is it time for me to retire, buy a small radio station in Carmel and play "Misty"?
