Tim FerrissSmart and Successful People Missed The Internet in The '90's
Tim Ferriss
Early career across finance roles 0:00
Before the internet, the speaker worked through Yale Economics, Credential Investment Corp, investment banking, Insead, and Euro Disney, where he helped manage a huge launch of 15,000 hotel rooms and 50,000 daily visitors. He grew comfortable with numbers and fundamentals, then became CFO and COO of a 180 person division of United Media, a turnaround role that felt like a big step up.
Discovering the internet at United Media 1:31
He read a Business Week article about something unfamiliar called the internet and found the idea thrilling, since there was no browser yet. By 1995 he launched the Dilbert website using the company's intellectual property, drawing huge traffic from tech users, selling IBM the first hardcoded ad, and building merchandise sales. When he asked the parent company for funds to build an internet division, a senior executive refused, saying they would wait for the next internet, convincing him his future lay elsewhere.
Building DoubleClick into a leader 3:30
By 1996 he saw clear signs the internet was taking off, with more people going online, shopping, and using maps. He joined DoubleClick as an early employee, becoming CFO, then president, then CEO, driven by fast decision making and willingness to take risks. The company expanded into 25 countries while competitors stayed in six, operating in twenty countries before the first turned profitable, eventually becoming the dominant player in its space.
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