Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd Edition

The Big Cash-Out

In April 2000, I had a chance meeting with an old friend. My friend was starting up a new Internet service provider and wanted to know if I would be on the advisory board. What was going to make his new ISP different, he said, is that it would offer high-speed service in areas where cable and DSL were not available using unlicensed wireless equipment.

“What a coincidence,” I told him. “Vineyard.NET has been using unlicensed wireless equipment for nearly five years! You don’t want me on your advisory board—you want to hire me!”

In fact, he didn’t only want to hire me; he wanted to hire me, Eric, and the rest of the Vineyard.NET crew, and, while he was at it, he decided that he might as well buy Vineyard.NET.

My friend’s company was Broadband2Wireless (BB2W). The firm had more than $6 million in funding and was planning on closing a second round for $25 million or so by September 2000. Over the next few weeks we negotiated with him the purchase of Vineyard.NET by BB2W and guaranteed jobs for all of the Vineyard.NET employees.

Broadband2Wireless was a wild ride. Over the next three months the company grew from 3 employees to more than 60. Instead of planning a validating trial in one city, and then a careful build-out, we decided to launch in 6 cities by September 2000, then be in 20 cities by January 2001, and in 40 cities by January 2002. Why the rush? Because we were told that there was so much competition that if we didn’t quickly grab a huge amount of potential market ...