alan ramadan monash university graduate #7770904 bsc ...mams.rmit.edu.au/cqrkmawx8kq6.pdfalan...
TRANSCRIPT
Adventures in capitalism
Alan RamadanMonash University Graduate #7770904BSc (Comp Sci, Applied Maths) 1983
Agenda
Unnatural Liaison - An Entrepreneur in Australia in the 80’s and early 90’sAmerica’s Cup, Stanford and QuokkaHyper Growth IPO - dream or nightmare?Shit HappensBest is Yet to comeLessons Learned
Unnatural Liaison - An Entrepreneur in Australia during the 80’s and early 90’s
Talking about the period of 1983-199210 Years in Australian Business with BHP, BKS and OzWareSuccess and failureIn a small pond with big ideasThe inevitable draw of High Tech and Silicon Valley
The turning point - the America’s Cup and John Bertrand’s return
Playing on a world stage– A technology competition at the highest
level– Working with the worlds best– Benchmarking the worlds best McLaren
and BMWSomething weird is happening– People get off on this stuff!
Sun World 95 - what happened while I was away playing with boats?
Stanford Uni - it all makes sense
Thanks to George Foster, I attended the Executive Program for Growing Companies in 1995All my business experiences came together - successes, failures, questionsNetscape’s IPO (we were all wrong)Yahoo two doors down the hallThe “ah ha” moment and Hoover tower
What the XXXX is a Quokka anyhow?
A Kangaroo?A Rat?A Sports Entertainment Company?Huh?
Rosetta Stone
The Whitbread - proof point
Scrambling and early stage fundingCan we do this from Melbourne?Establishing an office in SFOThe missing Zero (4,000,000 not 200,000)Wall Street Journal - for the first time in history a sport is covered better on the Internet that by traditional media
OK now lets build a business
The Quokka Sports NetworkNew sports - Action, Motor Sports– Marathon de Sables– First Ascent– CART– Moto Grand Prix
The Olympics & NBC - I don’t believe itMore Oxygen - Series B, C
Hyper Growth
Keeping it together when every operating metric is exploding:– Headcount & DNA– Funding requirements– Valuation– Audience & Revenue
Exploding Headcount
FTE’s at the end of each year
297
360
200099989796
118
4017
Growing Funding Needs
$22 Mil
$38 Mil
CBASeed
$6 Mil$1 Mil
Series
Cumulative Capital Raised
Growing Valuation
$132 Mil
$320 Mil
Pre IPO 99
989796
$36 Mil$4 Mil
Growing Reach
681,000
Growth Rate: 75% per quarter
1999
Net
wor
k La
unch
1.25 Mil
2000MarDecSeptJunMar
Q3 98 Q4 98 Q1 99 Q2 99 Q3 99 Q4 99 Q1 00 Q2 00
Growing Revenues
Total Revenues(millions)
Net
wor
k La
unch
$.5 $.9
$2.6 $3.0
$.8
$6.7SponsorshipAdvertising
ConsumerContent
$9.5$10.4
Phases of development
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Dec-
95
Apr-9
6
Aug-
96
Dec-
96
Apr-9
7
Aug-
97
Dec-
97
Apr-9
8
Aug-
98
Dec-
98
Apr-9
9
Aug-
99
Dec-
99
Apr-0
0
Aug-
00
Dec-
00
Apr-0
1
Star
tup
Proo
f of
Con
cept
Scal
ing
IPO
Post
IPO
Dot
com
cras
h
1 2 3 4 5 6
Shit Happens
1995 - oneAustralia II Sank1997 - Whitbread servers died1999 - IPO stumbled2000 - Internet Stocks tank2001 - Terrorist attacks and world turmoil
oneAustralia 1995
Internet Stocks head south andtake us with them...
Sydney 2000 Olympics coverage
Sydney 2000 - the first complete Olympic coverage in conjunction with NBC
Rated #1 by ESPN magazineRated #1 by Sports IllustratedRated #1 by Media Metrics
Live Coverage (Olympic Mtn. Biking)
Live Viewers (Olympic Rowing)
Analysis - Olympic Track & Field
Analysis - Olympic Track & Field
Analysis - Olympic Diving
What’s next
BroadbandInteractive TVHDTVWireless
future (prototype DBS broadband display)
future (Interactive TV display)
future (broad-band HDTV display)
future (narrow-band PDA display)
A few lessons
#1 - Can Do#2 - the Australian Psyche#3 - be in the center of the action#4 - focus
Lesson #1 - Can Do
There is absolutely no reason why you can’t succeed in the high tech industryAustralians are smart, educated, hard working and innovativeBe confidentLearn to networkTake risks
Lesson #2 - You have to unlearn stuff
Australian psyche is a problem to be overcome– Its OK to fail - its an essential part of
long term success– Big picture is OK but long term value
comes from focus and executionShe’ll be right mate is valuable only in the very early stagesQuickly hire people smarter than yourself otherwise you can’t scale beyond your limits
Lesson #3 - Be connected to the big market & the center of action
The US market is 30X the Oz marketSilicon Valley is on a run away– 60% of the Worlds Venture Capital– 80% of the Worlds successful “early stage
experience” - Grey hair• Board Members• Finance and Legal Counsel• Advisors and Mentors
Its very hard to do it from Melbourne or Sydney without a lot of travel...It requires a HUGE commitment from you and your family
Lesson #4 - Stay focussed
Stay true to your vision and continually refine (not enlarge) your focus and overpower the challenges with twice as many resources as you think are necessary At the end of the day you are building a long term sustainable businessDon’t look behind you - its uglyAs Sy Kaufmann says - Al, at the end of the day if you keep executing the “street” will eventually get it