Ensight – Jeremy Wright

As part of his 2006 wrap-up, Rick Segal (one of our VC’s) names me the “Most Newbie CEO of 2006“:

Most newbie CEO Award: Jeremy Wright, b5 Media

When Brightspark Ventures and JLA did the b5 investment, we talked a bunch about Jeremy as the CEO.  We decided that we were going give Jeremy the shot and set our expectations accordingly. What followed has been some oops, ouch (bet that hurt) and yowsa but to our extreme delight, Jeremy rocks.  In terms of personal growth, he has been amazing. In terms of the company, ahead of plan, below expenses are the summary points.  The VC community talks a bunch about “the people” and “investing in people”.  Jeremy is a pleasure to work with and simply reaffirms the notion that, in the end, it is all about the people.

I’m totally sure this is a compliment. I am, after all, a new CEO. Just that in gamerspeak newbie means someone incredibly naive who thinks he can do anything, asks others for help, tries things that should be impossible, doesn’t know all the rules, sometimes steps on people’s toes and…

Oh, wait…

Okay, newbie CEO it is I’ll take it not as “too stupid to know better” but more as “too much energy to sit still long enough to know better, but learns well enough given his energy levels”. It’s like in school when I got marks like “A-, would have been a B+ but he was just so darn cute”.

Okay, I didn’t get those kinds of notes. They were more like “B+, would have been an A- if he’d only clean his @Q#@#ing desk”, heh.

Anyways, thanks Rick! And here’s to newbie CEO’s who work their asses off, learn on their feet and don’t know the meaning of “impossible”!

Aaron, you truly freaking suck

Seriously. I thought I almost outran this little meme. Like a dozen people I know missed me. Which made me oh so grateful. In secret I kinda wanted to be tagged (in that “oh, the murderer left his fingerprint as a 10′ x 10′ 3D representation in the middle of the room and wants to get caught” kind of way). Not really. But kinda. Only because I don’t really have many secrets. I mean, I talk too much so I tell offhanded things to different people. So unless you hang around me (a lot) most secrets I say are probably secrets.

By the same token, even if you only hang around me a little bit you’ll probably know at least 1 of these. Mad props to anyone who actually knew all 5

Oh, and before I do, the rules state that the 5 people I tag at the end of this need to tag 5 others.

My 5 Secrets

1. I used to be a youth pastor.
2. I was in the army. As a summer job. I’m now blacklisted.
3. I’m an introvert. In fact, I’m so completely introverted that sometimes before speaking I need to do jumping jacks and slap myself around (in the face) to get ready. Sure I still enjoy people and sometimes crowds, but I often need to “recharge”.
4. I have the weirdest sense of humor. Maybe not a secret. But some people honestly think I’m either an idiot or mentally retarded. Someone I met for the first time a week ago honestly thinks I’m a freak because I was all introverted at this party except when I was making weird, off-the-wall statements. Btw, how would you charade Robert Downey Jr.?
5. I have secret career aspirations. They include being a taxi driver, waiter, bouncer, pizza delivery guy and a weather girl.

Some bonus secrets that I’m also stealing from others?

Like Aaron, I tend to attract gay men. Except it’s in San Francisco for me. On the positive, flip-side, I don’t attract San Francisco women. At all.

Like Brian, I played high school sports. Mine was volleyball. My problem was that my school (Ecole Secondaire Le Caron) rocked the province in volleyball (most years taking home more than half the first-places). So I was relegated to intramural sports. Which were often more competitive anyways. I was knocked my gym teacher unconscious with a spike.

Like Robert, I’ve struggled with nose picking my entire life. I’m seeking psychiatric help on this.

Who’M I Tagging?

Good question. The only reason I really participate in these things (besides shamefully revealing parts of myself and showing off my social ineptitudes) is to say howdy to folk I haven’t talked to in awhile.

So, I’m tagging… Rob from BusinessPundit (yeah, you joined a competing blog network, but I won’t hold that against you), Shel Israel (it has been too long since we’ve talked… I’m coming to the valley in Jan, can we do supper?), Ingrid Diaz (okay, we’ve talked lately, but we don’t talk ENOUGH!), Dan Wilt (sorry I’m gone buddy…. and, yes, Jeff, if you had a blog I’d tag you too because it’s also been too long! … btw Jeff, F.E.A.R. isn’t the same without you …) and finally… I’m tagging me (yep, you heard that right. We need to spend some real quality time together without distractions mate, so get some work done and let’s go for a walk tonight!).

Huzzah! (I’ve taught Evan to say this…There’s nothing cuter than a 3-year-old yelling “Huzzah!” with a fist held high in the air! Haha!)

Okay, so I know this post will make it obvious that I’ve crossed some kind of threshold into “luxury living land”, but bear with me!

Over the last year or so I’ve been eyeing HDTV’s. I mean they’re big, they’re cool, they’re gorgeous. And with the Xbox 360, they take the experience to the next level.

We have a bit of extra money kicking around (not a lot, but a bit). We were planning on going away for Christmas, but that’s not happening anymore. So we have some money to splurge.

Over the last week, the HDTV eyeing has gone from “one day that might be nice” to “if we wanted, one day could be this month”. And as that transition’s happened I’ve been on a bit of a vision quest. I’ve almost figured out the difference between Plasma’s and LCD’s (ie: really not much when it comes down to it). I’ve looked at the various brands and their overall satisfaction (LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony good… “Prima” and Hitachi not so much). I’ve figured out the size range that’ll likely work (38-44″).

And, as of last night, I picked out the TV I wanted. It’s an LG 42″ LCD. It’s a bit pricey, but the lower end models didn’t have 1080 resolution. And to me it just seems silly to go HD and not be able to have reasonable resolution choice.

I went to bed last night fairly happy that we’d chosen the TV.

I woke up this morning wondering what the hell was wrong with me that I’d want to spend 2500$ on a freaking television!

I mean sure, better TV. Less power (slightly). Easier on the eyes. Way, way, way better gaming. Those are all good, but are they really worth a couple of grand? I mean, we don’t have a house (and don’t plan on buying one soon) so don’t really have a lot to put the money into (and we’re getting rid of our car, so that’s a no-go too).

I don’t mind splurging a couple of grand, but on a TV? How does any sane person really justify spending that much on a television set? And the evilness of it is that once you spend 2500$ on a TV, it’s pretty silly to have a 100$ sound system, so you go and upgrade that. Then you upgrade your cable, and all of a sudden you’ve gone from “oh, I want a new TV” to spending 5000$ just to sit there and gain weight.

I mean, seriously, what the hell was I thinking?!

(note to self: yes, this means that if you ever talk yourself into buying an HDTV all your friends will just laugh at you and call you a loser)

I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with the money. And, yes, I’m still feeling pulled towards buying an HDTV. Conflicted? Yeah. But even if I buy one, I’ll still think it’s crazy.

I mean, imagine the drum gear I could buy with 5000$

One of our sites has somehow been classified as spam. See the post by the blogger here. She’s tried contacting them. I’ve tried contacting them. We keep getting shut out, and for no good reason. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

Then the kicker came when I contacted tech support for help.  I was talking to an online tech support person when I got disconnected.  They kept trying to find out how I logged on to Netscape.  So I got back on and was hooked up with another CS Rep.  He asked me if I paid for the IS part of Netscape or used it for email and I said no.  I don’t have netscape for my email nor do I pay for finding information and submitting stories.  The guy actually told me that he could only help me if I was a paying customer and then disconnected.

Maybe Jason Calacanis still knows folk over there who can help out? Maybe you do. Personally I don’t know anyone at AOL, but real bloggers shouldn’t be blocked from Netscape.com.

Just a note that we’ve finally changed our cell numbers. My new number is 416 726 3602