Re: Washington CEO Magazine Go2Net article....!
Thanks Jack for alerting us to this issue... It is on line, on the link below.... Even has a picture of Russell and John.....(including some blue sky just to prove that sometimes it really does shine in Seattle)....I've just posted some of it..Truly a wonderful article, and truly a wonderful company!! Yes, Russell and John, "It's the vision thing", and thanks to all of you and all your hard work!! Looking forward to meeting you at the next stockholders meeting! We do wonder if you all ever sleep...??
KLP
This Article from July 1999 Issue of Washington CEO Magazine
waceo.com
Russ and John's Excellent
Adventure
Go2Net's Russell Horowitz and John Keister have parlayed an
infectious vision for the future and a stingy acquisition strategy
into a spot among cyberspace's elite portals.
By Jeff Bond
Copyright © 1999 by Washington
CEO Inc.
Photo: Dennis Wise / Studio 3 Inc.
Red-faced, with a dome of
unruly blonde curls, Russell
Horowitz is expounding at high
speed about the future impact of
the Internet. It's the kind of rambling, yet controlled and calculated, speech for
which the CEO of Seattle-based Go2Net is famous.
Part high-tech visionary, part bean counter, Horowitz speaks like a human
espresso shot -- all ticks and nervous energy -- as he lets loose with a barrage of
factoids and sound bites, all tied up in his general sales pitch: The Web is changing
our lives, and his nascent network is going to be a major player in the revolution.
"Think about it this way," Horowitz says, barely breaking verbal stride to breathe.
"You have a global industry, and the leaders in that global industry are a few dozen
U.S.-based companies. It's not like there are a bunch of international players in this
game. There are a few, but not a lot. These few dozen U.S. companies are going to
be the foundation for what is going to be a global industry that will impact every
person on the planet. It may take five years, or 10, maybe even 20 years, but it's
only a matter of time."
On the other side of a desk sits John Keister. The president and co-founder of
Go2Net, and a high school buddy of Horowitz, he waits for his partner to finish.
On occasion, he punctuates a point with a line or two of his own. The lanky
Keister, no relation to the television comedian of the same name, is the calm
counterpoint to Horowitz's intensity.
Implicit in this team's vision is the rather audacious claim that their little-known Web
network is going to be one of those industry titans, right up there with AOL,
Yahoo!, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and a few others. They will be one of the
proverbial masters of the universe. Never lacking for confidence, they've already
announced their plan to be one of the top 10 most popular sites by the end of
1999.
A year ago, such a claim would have been downright laughable. But today, it
seems almost within reach. Against all odds, Horowitz and Keister have taken a
small group of sites specializing in sports, finance and Internet commentary, and
used an acquisition strategy to basically buy their way to the top.
Go2Net is billed as the portal for the serious Web user tired of the nonsense and
spamming on the other sites. It consists of a group of properties that include,
among others, MetaCrawler, a top-ranked search engine; StockSite, a financial
markets site that is the only surviving site from the company's 1996 launch; a
financial discussion site, Silicon Investor; an interactive gaming network, PlaySite; a
business hosting service, HyperMart; and a comparison-shopping service,
WebMarket.
New businesses are being added almost monthly. Recently, Go2Net acquired
Haggle Online, an auction site, to compete with eBay and Amazon.com. To beef
up Go2Net's hosting network for small and medium-size online businesses, the
company picked up Virtual Avenue and USA On-line at the end of April, bringing
to 275,000 the number of businesses being hosted on the site.
-------> more to this article in the on line magazine....
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