To: S100 who wrote (114699 ) 2/28/2002 12:55:49 AM From: S100 Read Replies (1) | Respond to The telecom-friendly environment spills in many other ways too. For example, after six years in business with small long-distance firms, Derek Geetsen formed his own company, Genesis Corp., in June of 1995. "We started exclusively as a long-distance service provider, competing in the long-distance market. Then in June of 1996 we entered in the local market and began competing with Pacific Bell." Offering service in California, Arizona, Colorado and Oregon, Genesis is a $20-million company with about 55,000 customers. And although Geetsen's business shares little in common with the manufacturing and research and development bent of most of San Diego's telecom, his entrepreneurial abilities are right along the same line. In a similar service-providing vein is Rhythms NetConnections, one of San Diego's newest telecoms. The company is offering businesses high-speed data connections over existing copper lines. The pitch to businesses is that they only have to buy the "bandwidth" they need. Again, the technology is digital, and the speed in which the company was up and going, blazing. Eric Geis, the company's vice president, put the business plan together in April 1997. Venture capital funding came through in July and by December the first customer, an Internet Service Provider, had signed on. In less than a year, the company has grown to 52 employees.
