Based on your reflection that you followed the competitors instead of following your original business plan/web site model, why did that happen? Did you feel that they had a better plan, more in touch with their customers, ahead of the curve with the technology or was it reactionary to market share?
I think we followed ezGov or at least reacted to them because we didn't have the confidence of experience to follow our own convictions at that point. I don't see this as a major part of where we went wrong, in comparison, for example, with the degree to which we adjusted our business plan to suit wall street. We were more focused on raising money early on than we were on creating a sustainable business. Of course raising money was a part of the strategy the entire bubble was based on. Raise funds, launch a product, get lots of customers, and then worry later about the realistic nature of your ability to generate revenue from that.
Would you have ever considered striking a deal with Bryan Mundy's ezgov to "split the market" or each have your own niche such as north/south city governments?
I don't think we would have. For one thing we were working with extremely different technology platforms, but more importantly, I don't think Brian wanted his company to be run by a couple of kids in New York and as we proved over and over, there was no way we were going to let experienced managers take over. Time after time VCs and other members of our team tried to get us to relinquish day to day operating control and it wasn't until bankruptcy forced it to happen was there a change of leadership.
What do you think that your competitors, who started at the same time but are still in business (ezgov) or the multinational that purchased govworks, is doing to either stay in the market or keep others out?
I haven't looked at the eGovernment space for a while, but govWorks was purchased by a consortium of large companies that were already entrenched in the government software and services space. So, to continue, I'm sure they've continued to develop innovative products, scale out their business to serve more customers, and given the trends in software these days, they're probably building out open APIs and software platforms to support continued growth.
**tough to ask**...Were you surprised that ezgov stayed in business after the horribly early death of its founder?
No, I wasn't surprised. Brian Mundy had put together a solid team with a clear vision. The mark of a good leader is one who makes himself unnecessary.
Of course it was very sad when Brian passed away and our sympathy is still with his family so many years later.
Would you recommend to a future entrepreneur to enter an already established market that you could improve upon or try to find an area (such as govworks did) that was charting new territory?
I recommend that an entrepreneur go after a market that he or she is passionate about. First and foremost, make sure that you believe in what you're doing and love what you're doing, but after that, go after the best opportunity. So, if you know a market well and know a way that you can innovate to change that market, that's great. You can't judge an opportunity simply based on it being new or old.
Since there was over 400 hours of filming that was made into a 1 1/2 movie that shows equal part personal drama and internet boom/bust, what type of movie would you, as one of the 4 founders, liked to "remake" to tell the story of govworks and your personal journey?
I would like to make a movie that is more of a business school case study and that shows more of the real business challenges we faced and that I faced trying to build new software products in such a short timeframe.
Did any family or friends try to warn you (or any of the founders) to not go into business with friends?
No, everyone encouraged me.
What does Tia remember about that time in her life and were you concerned that the success of govworks would negatively impact your relationship with your daughter?
She doesn't remember that much about it other than knowing that it happened and having seen it in the movie (in addition to the outtakes). I'm not sure how success could have had a negative impact on my relationship with her. On the contrary, success would have provided the financial resources to spend more time with her.
How did govworks decide on parking tickets first and (seeing the look of the first site) did you think that you should have expanded or kept it small/controlled until you grew market share?
Parking tickets was the first idea based on an old, unpaid parking ticket that Kaleil found. I don't think that was enough of a business plan at first, but we should have stayed focused on transactional services for government including that payment of parking tickets and moving violations as well as permits, licenses, etc.
What was going on in your mind when you received the termination letter?
It was a surprise, to some degree, but in some ways relief as well. I had felt for a while at that point that we needed to bring in senior leadership and I had conducted a search for CTO candidates and even found one I wanted to hire (although he ended up not accepting the job). Since I had an excellent employment agreement, I was as I said, in some ways relieved.
Do you feel that govworks would have succeeded if there had been clearly defined roles and that you had been in total control of the site's technology?
No, I don't think that was the problem. Also, I don't think that technology problems stemmed from my not having control of technology, instead they came from continued changes in the requirements of the product, an inability on my part to manage up on how products are built, and also based on some simple technical architecture mistakes that I made.
Based on the newness of the e-commerce in the 90's, what were the limitations of site building?
Much of what we were building hadn't been done before, so there weren't code frameworks or libraries to work with and there weren't foundational products that we could build upon. Instead we had to build everything from scratch which means it takes longer.
What pure-play company are you most in awe of? (**the kids have studied ebay, paypal and kiva.org**)
Kiva is great, but only because of the market it addresses. I love the concept of doing well by doing good. On a more practical note, I love the recent decision (August 07) of Facebook to open its platform to developers who want to build facebook widgets. It will prove to be one of the best and most critical innovations of their history as it positions them to compete with Google, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, Salesforce, etc. It was a brilliant move.
We'll be looking forward to hearing from you and we greatly appreciate your time and energy.
Have a great weekend! Hope that it is sunny where you are!
Jody/JoAnn
Pioneer Valley Regional School
Business Teacher
