DISCLAIMER: Editing stuff in the minature text box that this blog interface offers is extremely cumbersome, so I'm going to attach a pdf with pictures and all the good stuff (recommend that you look at that for a better reading experience)

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My grandpa used to laugh when his 5 year old grandson told him that he was going to own a McDonald’s when he grow up so he could get chicken nuggets for free.

I got my first job in high school cleaning toilets at a local heath club.

Looking for something better, I bought a book about computers and tripled my salary by getting a part-time job programming at a local Internet startup.

19 years old and a second year at the University of Chicago, I was recognized by USA Today as a member of its collegiate all-academic team.  I took graduate level economics coursework while maintaining a 3.8 GPA at one of the most nationally renowned institutions in the country.  I traded derivatives and pre-IPO stocks in my spare time and had grown my summer job savings from high school into a $25,000 investment portfolio.  I played classical piano across the country and all around the world.   I ran track at the varsity level.  I started a non-profit to bring literacy to disadvantaged inner-city children.  I joined a fraternity.

I was looking for something exciting to do.

I tried the “work thing” again that summer at one of the largest and most prestigious financial services institution in New York.

We had entered the program with the carrot of a $5,000 signing bonus and a projected six-figure compensation package if we were willing to work hard all summer.

After one particularly hellish week, we were let out early on Saturday at 10:00 PM and decided to go to one of the “hottest” nightclubs in NYC; there, I met the bathroom attendant.

 His “job” consisted of the following

1.       Smoke a lot of reefer

2.       Hand out a variety of toiletries (soap, gum, cologne, moist towels) to drunk nightclub patrons

3.       Collect tips (averaging $2-5 / nightclub patron)

4.       Sell illegal drugs to supplement  tip income

This nightclub was three stories tall, had foot traffic exceeding 3,000 people throughout the night, and had a single bathroom.

I figured I had to find a way to “work smarter.”

At the end of the summer, I was the only intern in the program not offered a full-time position.

Multi-player computer games had created a demand for network connectivity to facilitate collaborative play.  Our fraternity house was located approximately 1 mile away from campus.  There were a total of 12 of us in the fraternity, but only 6 of us lived in the house while the rest lived in the dorms.  We had to find a way to connect to the University network so the other 6 could join us in playing StarCraft and Quake.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 had created a new breed of competitive telecommunications carriers like Winstar and Teligent who were pioneering the concept of using microwave technology to bring Internet and telephone service to underserved office buildings in the downtown metro.

A leased T1 connection in 1999 cost over $1,000 / month.  A microwave radio capable of delivering a T1 had a one-time cost of $15,000.

Wireless Networking technology, based upon the 802.11 standard (the precursor to WiFi), had become commercialized and was being used amongst the early adopters.  This technology was capable of delivering up to 2 Mbps of bandwidth using microwave technology in the 2.4 GHz bands at distances of up to 200 feet.

At the time, a Wireless Networking card cost $300.

With some basic reasoning and an understanding of the fundamentals behind electromagnetic spectrum and communications gained from reading reference materials, it made sense to assume that a wireless laptop card capable of delivering signal 200 feet could be modified to utilize external amplifiers and antennas to increase the signal and boost the distance to 5 miles.  All I needed was a hammer, some tools, wire and a soldering iron:

After making a basic prototype inside of the fraternity house, I decided to go to the rooftop to test my “contraption.”  Our frat house consisted of the basement and first floor of a 6-unit apartment building.  Looking for roof access, I climbed the balcony to the third-floor, but couldn’t figure out the location of the roof hatch.

Finding a solution to scale the side of a three-story apartment building was easy.  During a rebellious period in my first year in college, I had learned how to climb and repel off of many tall buildings structures throughout campus. 

Ironically, after building out anchors up the side of the building, I discovered a roof hatch on the other side of the building.

I learned about the concept of “line-of-sight” the hard way while standing on top of the frat house.  Line-of-sight in the world of microwave communications requires that both endpoints “see” each other in order to establish a reliable broadband connection.  Obviously, the 3 story frat-house didn’t satisfy this condition.

Surrounding the frat house were a variety of tall buildings that would provide clearance.  I just needed to figure out a way to get an antenna on the top of one of those buildings…

I started knocking on doors and it turned out that the property manager of the tallest building in the area was willing to talk.

It turned out that broadband access technology in the area hadn’t been heavily developed and service providers in the area were incapable of providing high speed access in the building.  We made a deal where I would gain rooftop access in exchange for wiring up the building and providing competitive broadband access to residents within building.

Now I just had to make everythingt work.

I got the system built-out and working and was able to establish connectivity between the fraternity house and campus.  I didn’t get very much time to enjoy the gaming experience because I had underestimated demand.  With a good percentage of the building signed on as customers, I became busy installing and supporting several thousands of dollars / month in Broadband Access revenues. 

I was in the cover story in the August 2000 issue of Red Herring Magazine.  I learned about “PR Spin” when editorial guidelines wanting an article about young entrepreneurship and mentoring caused me to “adjust” my story to fit the context of the article.

Caught up in the euphoria of the dot-com boom, it was my understanding that the next step was to develop a business plan to raise venture funding and start a company.

At the time, my older brother was attending graduate school at the Business School which had an annual business plan competition for its students.  I wrote up a business plan for my startup, put together a team and entered the business plan competition using his name.

I was the first undergraduate in the history of the GSB New Venture Challenge to be accepted into the semi-finals of the business plan competition.  During the three month process of developing a business plan, the team put together a proposal to raise $5 million in venture financing.  I also had my first taste of bad management when my team broke up due to my immaturity.  Not surprisingly, we didn’t make the finals of the New Venture Challenge.

EVERYONE out there said that a cocky 20 year old kid without even a college degree who “knew it all” had no chance in succeeding.

2. Which areas of the business plan were weak?

Needless to say Charlie you need to get your B.A. – some gray hair would be helpful.

20 years old, I had enough credits from my 1st 2 years of college to graduate a year early in the summer of 2001.  With ~$5,000 / month in revenue and $10,000 left in my checking account, I decided to prove EVERYONE wrong.