User:Twcbinc
BIO I started working with Commodore, Apple and DOS computers as a hobby in 1984 at the age of 14. I was interested in video games, telecommunications, software programming, bulletin boards and data communications. In the days “where wizards stayed up late,” I spent most of my time working online through 300bps modems and was a part of the evolution of bbs’s to the Arpanet, ultimately leading to what we now call the internet. I have spent my life on the leading edge – developing innovative technologies and service companies to evolve digital services and infrastructure.
In 1993, when I was working for the largest NOVELL shop in St. Louis, I met the co-founder for my first success story at DiamondNet / Savvis Communications. I brought the concept and technical know-how; he brought business skills and seed money. In 1995, DiamondNet was formally founded. At DiamondNet / Savvis Communications, I was named COO and CTO. I designed the first high quality national internet backbone with the latest networking protocols and hardware. This new internet backbone allowed us to capture the early adopters developing music, movie and video games. I then closed the first large contract for DiamondNet / Savvis Communications with Apple Computers. The Apple contract attracted Gateway Venture Partners as an investor to fully fund the company. The Apple contract also allowed Savvis to scale very quickly by leveraging the Apple testimonial to close additional business. Savvis was later sold to Bridge Information Systems / Reuters and went public through a traditional IPO with JP Morgan as the lead underwriter. Savvis currently is traded on the NASDAQ.
In 1997, I founded Intira Corporation, seeded by a CAPCO investment led by Stifel Nicholas Investment bank. In my new netsourcing business model, I took my network design from Savvis and supplemented it with 3 data centers to be housed in St. Louis, New York and Pleasanton CA. Building the 3 data centers required large amounts of capital. I quickly closed a 30mm dollar Series A round from Ascend (a hardware manufacturer later sold to Lucent) and Cascade Communications. Many other hardware companies joined in to help fund this massive netsourcing business model. I brought Intira Corporation to 1.7mm in monthly revenues. When Intira was close to being cash flow positive, I was approached by the former Treasurer of Ascend who wanted to take the company to the next level. I agreed to sell a large portion of my ownership to allow him to step in as the CEO. After my resignation, Intira filed an S1, led by Goldman Sachs. The market bottomed out and it was not a good time to go public, so Intira was purchased by a small company out of Dallas, Data Return. Data Return was later sold to Terremark where many of Intira’s original engineers still work today. Terremark is now one of the leading companies in enterprise class hosting and is traded on the NASDAQ. In 1999, I invested and served as a director for my identical twin brother’s company, Phoenix Networks. Phoenix was a consumer and business DSL service provider which sold high speed internet connections. Phoenix grew the company into a top DSL provider. In 2002, Phoenix’s business lines were sold to Megapath and the residential lines to Earthlink.
In 2002, I started Infinium Labs aka Phantom Entertainment as a video game distribution company. We attracted senior personnel, including the founder of Microsoft XBOX and the lead developer of DirectX. In 2004 the company went public through a reverse merger. Phantom developed a new video game console called the “Phantom” which allowed consumers to purchase games on demand through the internet with streaming software developed by Phantom Entertainment. The console went through several revisions before being cancelled in February 2006 due to the market conditions and capital restraints. Instead, Phantom decided to focus on the “Lapboard,” a keyboard peripheral for video gaming which was developed as part of the end-to-end initial gaming system design. The company is private today and the lapboard is selling at www.phantom.net.
In 2005, I started GameStreamer, a new video game digital distribution platform. I completed a auto-mated publishing system which allows for video games to be published, protected and distributed to a mass audience of white label partners. I also closed licensing deals with over 250 video game publishers which represented over 3500 game titles for digital distribution as well as a plethora of white label partners. The company is still in the development stage but has a enormous potential to capture a large portion of the 6b a year PC Game market.
timothy@ceosavvy.com