Read The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future Online
Authors: Steve Case
The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future (25 page)
I wouldn’t have a story to write if it hadn’t been for the team that brought AOL to life. I will always be indebted to my co-founders, Jim Kimsey and Marc Seriff, and the dozens of pioneers who stuck with us in those difficult first years—as well as the hundreds, and then thousands, of people who joined our team as AOL expanded. When we started up in 1985, only 3 percent of
American households were online, and most people didn’t see the need to ever get online. By the time I stepped down as CEO in 2000 (to facilitate the merger with Time Warner), the Internet had come of age, and nearly half of all U.S. Internet traffic flowed through AOL. None of that would have been possible without our tireless team. I learned firsthand that entrepreneurship is a team sport, and we certainly had the dream team.
I also want to thank the tens of millions of people who believed in AOL and joined us as we sought to get America online. Thanks for giving those AOL free trial discs a try! We would never have succeeded without your support. Your belief in us made this story possible.
Lastly, I want to thank the next generation of entrepreneurs, the ones who are tinkering with their ideas at their desks or in their garages. They give me hope that
The Third Wave
will usher in an exciting new era of innovation—and that, through their efforts, America can in fact remain the most entrepreneurial nation in the world.
JOANNE S. LAWTON © WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
STEVE CASE
co-founded America Online, which at its peak handled nearly half of U.S. Internet traffic, was the first ever Internet IPO, and was the top-performing stock of the 1990s. As chairman and CEO of Revolution, a Washington, DC–based investment firm he co-founded in 2005, Case partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build businesses such as Zipcar, Sweetgreen, and many others. He was the founding chair of the Startup America partnership—an initiative launched by the White House to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. A member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepre-neurship, he also serves as chairman of The Case Foundation, which he established with his wife, Jean, in 1997. He lives in McLean, Virginia.
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TWO
GETTING AMERICA ONLINE
1
. See
http://ir.timewarner.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=70972&p=irol-faq
. AOL went public March 19, 1992.
2
.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-day-america-online-went-offline-in-1996/
THREE
THE THIRD WAVE
1
. http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/dotcom/insights/business%20technology/unlocking%20the%20potential%20of%20the%20internet%20of%20things/unlocking_the_potential_of_the_internet_of_things_executive_summary.ashx
FIVE
THE THREE P’S
1
.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/elon-musk-starting-a-company-is-like-staring-into-the-face-of-death/
SEVEN
THE RISE OF THE REST
1
.
http://americanunderground.com/1-billion-6-exits-24-mos-durham-nc/
2
.
http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/resources/entrepreneurship-policy-digest/the-importance-of-young-firms-for-economic-growth
3
.
http://www.datacenterresearch.org/reports_analysis/economic-timeline/
4
.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremeevents/specialreports/Hurricane-Katrina.pdf
5
. Ibid.
6
.
http://www.nola.com/futureofneworleans/2015/07/future_new_orleans_entrepreneu.html
7
.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/new-diversity-reports-show-the-same-old-results/?_r=0
8
.
http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/Places-of-Invention-4626
NINE
A MATTER OF TRUST
1
.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Decade/aol-buys-time-warner-162-billion/story?id=9279138
2
.
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/7.10/aoldata.html
3
.
http://w3.nexis.com/new/docview/getDocForCuiReq?oc=00240&lni=4S33-6N40-TX4X-W0GM&perma=true&csi=8399&secondRedirectIndicator=true
4
.
http://w3.nexis.com/new/docview/getDocForCuiReq?oc=00240&lni=3T4V-0260-008R-F2RV&perma=true&csi=8399&secondRedirectIndicator=true
5
.
http://money.cnn.com/2000/01/10/deals/aol_warner/
6
.
http://www.timewarner.com/newsroom/press-releases/2000/01/10/america-online-and-time-warner-will-merge-to-create-world-s-first
7
.
http://www.cnet.com/news/nasdaq-5000-ten-years-after-the-dot-com-peak/
8
. From
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=776228
, cited to Nina Munk’s book
Fools Rush In
. Apparently it’s on page 277 of the edition published in 2004.
TEN
THE VISIBLE HAND
1
.
http://nuclearfutures.princeton.edu/courses/wws353/
2
. Ibid.
3
.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/accomplishments/systems/radar/
4
.
https://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-99/fox.html
5
.
http://www.faseb.org/portals/2/pdfs/opa/2008/nih_research_benefits.pdf
6
.
https://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-99/fox.html
7
.
https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100660
8
.
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-everywhere-uber-is-banned-around-the-world-2015-4
ELEVEN
AMERICA DISRUPTED
1
.
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/06/kevin-ashton-internet-of-things-in-the-us-000102
2
.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/23/nih-budget-cuts/8056113/
3
.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/budget-sequester-squeezes-scientists/2013/09/24/a88f3686-1caa-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html
4
. Ibid.
5
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/science-sequestration_n_4536209.html
6
.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301402.html
7
.
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2-13-13CaseTestimony.pdf
8
.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/25donate.html
9
.
http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/2012/11/immigrant-entrepreneurship-has-stalled-for-the-first-time-in-decades-kauffman-foundation-study-shows
10
.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-04-11/news/49058680_1_advanced-degree-exemption-uscis-h-1b-petitions
11
.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/27/the-track-star-economy
12
. http://www.leaderpost.com/business/immigration+loss+Canada+gain/10127038/story.html
13
.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/21/the-effects-of-chinas-push-for-education/educated-workers-are-good-for-china-and-the-rest-of-the-world
14
.
http://ventureburn.com/2014/02/russias-entrepreneurial-landscape-according-to-ernst-young-ew/
15
.
http://www.economist.com/node/21548263
TWELVE
RIDE THE WAVE
1
.
http://main.wgbh.org/imax/shackleton/sirernest.html
2
.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/27/change-the-world
3
. http://books.google.com/books?id=qNVrfoSubmIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=why+the+west+rules+for+now&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6jl-VO-9NpGSyAS034HgBA&ved=0CB4Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Get%20a%20horse%22&f=false
A note about the index:
The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Adelson, Merv,
xii
Aetna,
140
Ebola outbreak (2014),
170
–71
proverb,
69
agriculture industry,
51
,
81
–82,
84
,
95
Airbnb,
192
American Tobacco,
91
Andreessen, Marc,
115
AngelList,
160
AOL (America Online),
xiii
,
xiv
,
2
accounting scandal (2002),
137
–38
broadband and web threats,
xii
,
118
Case as CEO,
33
–34,
38
,
39
–41,
56
–67,
114
–25
CDs,
7
CompuServe buyout offer,
59
–60
credibility challenge,
72
–75
culture of,
104
diversifying the business,
115
–17
as dominant Internet provider,
40
–41,
67
,
137
first service (1985),
xiii
headquarters,
31
,
38
,
64
,
104
–5,
117
importance of,
38
–39
Instant Messenger,
3
,
39
,
116
,
136
launching and rollout,
30
–33
Leonsis and,
34
–36
Microsoft takeover attempt,
60
–66
as news platform,
39
online advertising,
67
online community,
39
–41
P&G marketing concepts,
13
partnerships and,
xii
–xiii,
56
,
62
,
72
–75,
86
,
132
,
138
–39
people factor,
139
–40
perseverance and,
78
pricing,
65
prominent board members,
104
–5
revenue sources,
67
shopping on,
39
system down crisis (1996),
40
–41
Time Warner merger,
xi
–xiii,
114
,
116
–26,
155
as transformational,
xii
,
xiii
,
xiv
usage surge and problems,
66
“You’ve got mail” recording,
31
–32
AOL Greenhouse,
36
–37
Apple,
2
,
57
,
139
,
142
,
150
,
185
,
192
AOL deal with,
73
Apple II computers,
42
App Store,
26
Case, Quantum Computers, and,
23
–29
executive quote,
189
