Sunday, February 2, 2014

Our Ben Bernanke Connection




It looks like the end of an era. I'm not sure how to sum up this end or to what end this end is intended. What I do know is that our little company was once again in the thick of things when history was taking place. Whether we are talking about our evolutionary preemptive analytics (nTelegenz®); custom email  programming with our exclusive, instant notification email system, AlphaBytes; live television to shape industry perception for our clients; the first interactive cartoon, Hex Decimal; or our Trademarked seamless home to work environments, Tethered Communities™, Frank Bosson and The Bosson Group (or it's original members) have been in the business of working on programs, companies and topics that have been at the crux of industry and Internet as it's most revolutionary events unfolded. 

Unlike Al Gore we do not claim any great discoveries or even feel that we were all so revolutionary. At the time, we thought we were following trends and only time would tell us that we were in fact setting them. Whether it was the advice we gave a client and prospective VC when they looked at FutureLink of the ASP fame in 1999 as a brilliant investment and we were the only dissenting voice in the room saying "nothing proves this company is solvent". Fast forward a year to find in 2000 that they in fact, were not. Or in 2001 when a clients insisted on taking our custom built instant notification email AlphaBytes (then known as Encore) and selling it as part of a massive OS for Fortune Level companies. We screamed to anyone who would listen that no Fortune company would bet a half million dollars on an OS that was unproven and untested and that it would make more sense to sell the product of Encore as a sales tool (Constant Contact any one?)  and part of a greater sales strategy. A supposition we proved profitable when we acted as agents for Dynaco Door  growing their distributor base in America from a couple dozen to over 100 by setting appointments for them using our email tool and the first version of our professional level, seamless home to work environments Tethered Communties™. This was 2003 and the first time we began work designing and developing websites as more than a design feature for companies online - but as business destination. 


By 2008 with nearly our full suite of exclusive products in hand and a history of some of the most amazing firsts in Internet history: Live Television show - "The CyberLink Show" mixing interviews with client companies and breaks featuring our own interactive, full length feature cartoon, Hex Decimal; a full length feature Community Television show "Children and Internet Predators" shot in 2001 when we interviewed the FBI's first agent directed solely to the investigation of Child Predators online; the official formation of  Tethered Communities™, or the successful and profitable launch of instant notification emails using AlphaBytes in 2003, the same year we began successfully and profitably making websites. By the end of 2008 we had almost a decade of experience on business and the Internet and we were just getting started.

Because then came the great mortgage debacle of 2008 - and yes, we were in the thick of that as well. Seems we have a penchant for being in the hottest bed at the most historic moments. Now don;t let anyone kid you there are thousands of companies that were in these places at the same time hostory was unfolding for all these events- just not many that were in all these places when they were hot as they were hot and are still executing programming today. And so today as Ben Bernanke steps down it is with fond memories that we share this last little TBG legend and the history we've seen.

Because believe it or not, I was there...working for a client in the mortgage banking industry just before the great fall of '08. Oh, I have lots of stories to tell: How we used our own analytics program nTelegenz®, to project the length of the foreboding mortgage crash of '08 (back then predicting it would be 2013 before the country would emerge - we were wrong it did not) - but remember we were battling a popular opinion that saw the problem not lasting more than a year - two, tops! How a program we helped breathe into life would  become a three day must attend destination for every top banker in mortgage industry from 2004 through 2008. And for many the last time people like the famous Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller; Director of OFHEO James Lockhart; Chief Economist of Freddie Mac, Frank Nothaft; CoFounder of Moody's, Mark Zandi; and Senior Business Manager of Fannie Mae, Robert Murphy  would speak publicly of and before the impending doom that would lead to Mr. Bernake's appearance before Congress and his "tame the fed" hearings of July '08. One more company TBG helped climb out of its own deep hole with little more than wits, the cooperation and teamwork of some genuinely inspirational and brilliant people (mad props to Tina, David, Michael et al) and a phone. One more time we would be involved at the very moment that history and industry would collide. 

Since 1997 I have been in on some of the most important topics to shape business and the Internet as we know it today. Today with a full suite of tools from web design to analytics; from email to work from sales; from Social Media to Mobile optimization we are hard at work for our clients building the next generation of TBG history. Had I known then what I know now...my, my, my.