The Economy and Me; Who’s On First?
⊆ January 30th, 2009 by Marc G | ˜ 1 Comment »There are certain characteristics of oneself that can be recognized better than others. I have always known I have the ability make people laugh. I take great pride in being able to make others feel good, because there is no way you can be in a bad mood if you’re laughing. It’s my way of trying to make this world a better place. Somewhere in-between Dr. Seuss and discovering my parents had Richard Pryor’s “Greatest Hits”, which I still have on vinyl no less, I honed my comedic chops with the most awesome book I have ever read; Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First”, which is still sitting in my library 30 years after I swiped it from my Dad. The skit “Who’s On First” still goes down as my favorite sketch comedy piece of all-time and instead of your typical bed-time stories my Mom and I would act out the skits from the book, especially that one. At one point I had “WoF?” memorized and could recite it on queue. The theme of that story involves two people who are technically on the same page, yet so far apart, which results in both parties missing each other based on clarity. Right now that’s how I feel about my career.
Green Grotto is now 3.5 years old and the firm just endured it’s worst year financially. What hurts more is that some exciting new contracts we had on the table (this is after terms were agreed to) got up and walked away, specifically due to the economy. On top of that our killer business model, for how we were going to weave sponsors into Playboy’s Second Life presence, didn’t pan out as planned mainly related to “cutbacks in new media spending”. I blame myself for not being able to close or convince advertisers that there was considerable value contained within the offer. The greatest success we had was a short campaign for Cinemax, which we ran for free. You can’t even buy an Extra Value Meal with free. I have always believed that with failure comes opportunity and right when I was ready to pack it in a promising new client walked through the door. Things worked out so well, based on the incredible trust that was forged, Ben Chase and Adam Greenberg asked me to join them as a founding partner of their firm, Enhance Films, which I accepted (No need to worry. GGS still lives on and I can easily balance both given the operational efficiency of this new organization).
Over the past few months they’ve allowed me to shape the business model and create a product that oozes Blue Ocean Strategy, which is a concept that I have fallen in love with, mainly because it’s how I think in business, but yet the authors brought me the clarity to those thoughts. On top of this it’s the a business that I’m absolutely in love with, which taps my 13+ years in the interactive space and allows me to solve a problem that everyone is yapping about regarding interactive advertising and content, yet within a short period of time will seamlessly integrate not only via the Internet, but also mobile and television. I’m currently teaching BOS to my students at Boston University and I’d be the ultimate hypocrite if I didn’t integrate it into our new venture. As a result we have a rock solid business model, a sound financial and an operating plan that affords us to run swift and lean for an extended period of time with a small staff, all while generating a tremendous amount of revenue. It’s an investors dream, but the harsh reality we face is that these investors are not flocking in as expected. As you can imagine most of what we’re hearing is “I love the idea, but I can’t afford to buy in right now”. Keeping with the Abbot & Costello baseball theme we even have a few mega-stars from Major League Baseball on board as early investors. This is supposed to be! We were supposed to be into our third phase of funding over a month ago, which has only delayed our launch. Naturally that means this concept, like a Space Shuttle re-entry, is at risk of missing it’s window of opportunity; luckily we have more than a few hours before that happens.
However, we have made serious strides with our business plan and just yesterday pitched a senior executive from one of the largest media companies on the planet who is having us meet the one person with absolute yes/no power. That couldn’t be more promising. It was the first time I felt like I wasn’t hearing:
“Who’s on first.”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know is on third!”
I’m hoping yesterday was a wake up call for my career and how I help it fight through the economic turmoil we’re all being faced with. Given the tightrope I’m on I’m looking ahead so as not to lose my balance and fall onto the unemployment safety net. That’s a harsh reality, but the only way I can see my career going at this point is ahead. If it doesn’t go my way all I can do is laugh. “Now that’s the first thing you’ve said right”. “Naturally”.
