CHAPTER4
The Source
This is the beginning of the Information Age!
—author and futurist Isaac Asimov
As Jeff Wilkins was assembling his skunk works at CompuServe in Columbus, a Virginia entrepreneur named William F. von Meister was pondering his next business move. The 36-year-old had recently been ousted from his position as CEO of a high-tech startup called TDX—a company he had founded two years earlier.
This was not a new experience for Bill von Meister, who seemed surprisingly inept for an entrepreneur. His business practices were questionable—and sometimes questioned in court. He started nine companies in ten years; the longest he stayed with any was two years, and he was forced out of most of them. His reputation was such that people ...
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