Almost on a weekly basis someone asks me, "What happened to Offspring?" It's a good question.
Offspring Technologies was the company that I founded with my friend Shawn. It was back in 2001. The market was not good and tech companies especially were hurting because the dot com bubble had burst. I don't think anyone said to us "This is a great time to start a company!" There were many nay-sayers. In fact, the first two nay-sayers were the other two would-be partners in the company. Curtis Computer products was going out of business. Shawn and I had been let go, and these two other guys, Jason and Scott were going to be let go soon. Shawn and I were both in sales, Scott was the techie guru, and Jason was the finance guy. Shawn and I thought it would be a good team with which to start the company. But after our initial meeting in my home at the kitchen table, Jason and Scott walked saying that they didn't think the company would fly. They found employment elsewhere and moved on. Shawn was unemployed, and wanting to get going immediately. I was employed at another cable company, having been let go from Curtis several months prior to this meeting. So I had to decide just how much faith I had in this little start up. Granted, the odds were not with us. But there would be a window of opportunity with Curtis closing its doors. And someone would get the business in the void that Curtis was to leave. Could Offspring do it? Offspring was an "Offspring" of Curtis, and Curtis had acquired System Connection, the company that Shawn and I had originally worked for previous to Curtis' acquisition. So it was born. I decided that I would leave my good paying job to venture in the world of self-employment.
The early months were very hard. We didn't pay ourselves a dime. We kept putting everything back into the company. This is typical of small under-funded start-ups. It's also why many fail. They don't have the capital to keep going with out a paycheck. Six months into it, we hit it big with a large OEM account that I landed. It breathed air into the sails of the company, and from then forward, I felt like we would make it.
Later, we landed a huge distributor, that also brought a lot of badly needed cash into the company. We were on our way. This is when we really started to establish a brand. Selling to OEM accounts, you are not a brand. You in fact are brand-less. You are simply a factory supplying cables to the original equipment manufacturer. Your company name is not on the cable, the packaging, etc. You are transparent. To the end-user, you don't exist. With a distributor, we were private labeling all of or cables with our logo, our name on the packaging, our name on the boxes, etc. All of a sudden our products, branded "Offspring" were all over the Internet. Computer dealers and dot coms were selling our products. It was really exciting.
We eventually established our self as the leading computer cable brand in the college bookstore market. This was a real good niche for us and we ended up dominating the market. We surpassed billion-dollar competitors. There is something to be said for the small company, or the underdog. People like to support you. As long as your product is decent and your service is decent, people want to get behind you and help you succeed. No one cares to help the billion dollar company get richer.
Three years later we had a nice sized small company. We had done over a million dollars in sales, pretty much $2-3 at a time. The real underlying reason for what happened next was simply a difference in vision. I had a vision for the company that was to more or less stay small and run it until we retire. My business partner though had a different vision. He wanted out and wanted the stability of working for a larger company. There were too many headaches running a small business, especially one as complex as ours. I was not crazy about the idea of selling, but I could not see an amicable way of separating our company so that we could both be happy. We found a company that wanted to buy us out, and we sold it.
They made many promises and although I now have an MBA, this experience is worth 10 MBAs. I should make you pay for this advice. Here is my advice on selling your company:
1. GET EVERY LITTLE DETAIL IN WRITING & HAVE A GOOD ATTORNEY LOOK IT OVER.
2. GET CASH UP FRONT. NO LONG-TERM DEALS.
These two steps would have really changed the outcome for me. But, the promises that were made by this company, were not in writing. Also, they were supposed to keep the Utah location, but later decided to move everything to Florida. And, yes, you guessed it, I didn't get the cash up front. It was a 10 year plan... and some how 6 months into it, they decided that things weren't going as they had planned, so they weren't going to pay another dime. How can they do that you say? Refer to #1. They had written up the contract to favor them. Things continued to get worse and eventually they put pressure on me, threatened to sue me, and eventually forced me out of the company. Nice story eh?
Offspring Technologies was the company that I founded with my friend Shawn. It was back in 2001. The market was not good and tech companies especially were hurting because the dot com bubble had burst. I don't think anyone said to us "This is a great time to start a company!" There were many nay-sayers. In fact, the first two nay-sayers were the other two would-be partners in the company. Curtis Computer products was going out of business. Shawn and I had been let go, and these two other guys, Jason and Scott were going to be let go soon. Shawn and I were both in sales, Scott was the techie guru, and Jason was the finance guy. Shawn and I thought it would be a good team with which to start the company. But after our initial meeting in my home at the kitchen table, Jason and Scott walked saying that they didn't think the company would fly. They found employment elsewhere and moved on. Shawn was unemployed, and wanting to get going immediately. I was employed at another cable company, having been let go from Curtis several months prior to this meeting. So I had to decide just how much faith I had in this little start up. Granted, the odds were not with us. But there would be a window of opportunity with Curtis closing its doors. And someone would get the business in the void that Curtis was to leave. Could Offspring do it? Offspring was an "Offspring" of Curtis, and Curtis had acquired System Connection, the company that Shawn and I had originally worked for previous to Curtis' acquisition. So it was born. I decided that I would leave my good paying job to venture in the world of self-employment.
The early months were very hard. We didn't pay ourselves a dime. We kept putting everything back into the company. This is typical of small under-funded start-ups. It's also why many fail. They don't have the capital to keep going with out a paycheck. Six months into it, we hit it big with a large OEM account that I landed. It breathed air into the sails of the company, and from then forward, I felt like we would make it.
Later, we landed a huge distributor, that also brought a lot of badly needed cash into the company. We were on our way. This is when we really started to establish a brand. Selling to OEM accounts, you are not a brand. You in fact are brand-less. You are simply a factory supplying cables to the original equipment manufacturer. Your company name is not on the cable, the packaging, etc. You are transparent. To the end-user, you don't exist. With a distributor, we were private labeling all of or cables with our logo, our name on the packaging, our name on the boxes, etc. All of a sudden our products, branded "Offspring" were all over the Internet. Computer dealers and dot coms were selling our products. It was really exciting.
We eventually established our self as the leading computer cable brand in the college bookstore market. This was a real good niche for us and we ended up dominating the market. We surpassed billion-dollar competitors. There is something to be said for the small company, or the underdog. People like to support you. As long as your product is decent and your service is decent, people want to get behind you and help you succeed. No one cares to help the billion dollar company get richer.
Three years later we had a nice sized small company. We had done over a million dollars in sales, pretty much $2-3 at a time. The real underlying reason for what happened next was simply a difference in vision. I had a vision for the company that was to more or less stay small and run it until we retire. My business partner though had a different vision. He wanted out and wanted the stability of working for a larger company. There were too many headaches running a small business, especially one as complex as ours. I was not crazy about the idea of selling, but I could not see an amicable way of separating our company so that we could both be happy. We found a company that wanted to buy us out, and we sold it.
They made many promises and although I now have an MBA, this experience is worth 10 MBAs. I should make you pay for this advice. Here is my advice on selling your company:
1. GET EVERY LITTLE DETAIL IN WRITING & HAVE A GOOD ATTORNEY LOOK IT OVER.
2. GET CASH UP FRONT. NO LONG-TERM DEALS.
These two steps would have really changed the outcome for me. But, the promises that were made by this company, were not in writing. Also, they were supposed to keep the Utah location, but later decided to move everything to Florida. And, yes, you guessed it, I didn't get the cash up front. It was a 10 year plan... and some how 6 months into it, they decided that things weren't going as they had planned, so they weren't going to pay another dime. How can they do that you say? Refer to #1. They had written up the contract to favor them. Things continued to get worse and eventually they put pressure on me, threatened to sue me, and eventually forced me out of the company. Nice story eh?
-
Well this all was a horribly costly learning experience. I had put everything into this company. I felt like Dr. Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin in the Spider Man movie) when the board forces him out. Remember how mad he was? Well, I didn't turn into an evil villain... although... hmmm.
Well this all was a horribly costly learning experience. I had put everything into this company. I felt like Dr. Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin in the Spider Man movie) when the board forces him out. Remember how mad he was? Well, I didn't turn into an evil villain... although... hmmm.So a costly mistake it was. My real MBA didn't cost me this much! But, the story does have a happy ending. Two years later almost to the day, I am now running an offspring of Offspring, Professional Cable. This company has now replaced Offspring in many ways and I'm a 100% owner. Business is good, and growing rapidly every month.
So what did happen to Offspring? Well, this company continued to run Offspring into the ground and later sold it to another company in Michigan. They bought it for pennies on the dollar. They too continued to mess things up more, and well, go to website and its no longer there. It is in the ruins of cyberspace. The company does not exist. Like the ruins of the Roman Empire, you wonder what Hubris might have caused this fall. I'm not sure. But, I'm glad that a new empire is being built to fill the dreams of this cable guy.
Until next time
The Cable Guy
http://www.professionalcable.com/
So what did happen to Offspring? Well, this company continued to run Offspring into the ground and later sold it to another company in Michigan. They bought it for pennies on the dollar. They too continued to mess things up more, and well, go to website and its no longer there. It is in the ruins of cyberspace. The company does not exist. Like the ruins of the Roman Empire, you wonder what Hubris might have caused this fall. I'm not sure. But, I'm glad that a new empire is being built to fill the dreams of this cable guy.
Until next time
The Cable Guy
http://www.professionalcable.com/
1 comment:
So who is Uncle Ben Parker in this moral tale?
Post a Comment