It’s Been 7 Startups
When people ask me if Resume Everywhere is my first startup, they are surprised at the answer. Not the fact that I’ve done startups before; rather, that RE is my seventh. Yes, really — 7. Here’s the breakdown:
| Company | Product/Service | Dates | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best! Software | Shrinkwrapped Fixed Asset Depreciation Software | 1995-1996 | Acquired by Sage Software in 2000 for $445M |
| Convergys | Leased Land Line Management software | 1996-1997 | IPO August 21, 1998; still trading |
| Exigent | Satellite Ground Control Software | 1997-1998 | Acquired by Harris in 2001 for $23M |
| Integrated Chipware | Requirements Traceability Software (RTM) | 1999-2001 | RTM Acquired by Serena Software in 2004 for $3.8M |
| Secure Telecomm Innovations | Network Encryption Software | 2001-2002 | Closed down in 2002 due to lack of funds |
| Realeum | Cloud-Based Apartment Management Software | 2002-2002 | Acquired by First Advantage Corp in 2004 for ~$2.5M (at least, that’s what I glean from the filed 8K |
| Resume Everywhere | Resume Synchronization Service | 2010- | Well, I suppose we’ll see… |
This is not to say that I was the driving force in all of these companies — for Best!, I worked tech support and QA. But I believe I learned quite a bit along the way of what to do and (probably more importantly) what not to do. And, for better or worse, RE is the first one in which I’m ultimately responsible for the whole shebang. It’ll be fun, I think.
I used to characterize my startup experience as one success (Best!), two break-evens (Convergys & Exigent) and three craters. Now that I lay out things in the above table, it’s not as bad as I thought it was. IC and Realeum both go in the loss column, but they weren’t complete failures; at least some money made it’s way back to the investors. STI, on the other hand, was pretty much an implosion. It’s where the 5 Guys From DuPont rule originated.
Most of this post originally appeared on Shuffling Paper, the RE blog.
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