The business world is constantly evolving.  Companies must often times adapt and restructure to meet the needs of their customers and to stay in business.  Our next guest’s story explains how business owners must keep up with an ever changing industry…

Please introduce yourself to our readers…

I’m Doug Luce, residing in Seattle. When I was growing up in the 80’s, I was fascinated by computers and in particular with computer communications. I spent high school hooking my 8-bit computer up to BBS’s to chat with people all around the US. I moved to Pittsburgh for college and in 1990 hooked up with my business partner through his local BBS. We met and hit it off and together we started a company we named Telerama.

You once started your own business – what was it?

The Internet back then was only used to any degree at universities and very large companies. The rest of the world hadn’t heard of it. But I knew that legions of nerdly-minded folk who would love to get online. I wanted to see that happen. The only way I could think of the Internet being offered to the public was through an independent company. So we gave it a shot. The first couple of years saw a few hundred signups so we kept our day jobs. In 1993, after the first web browser came about and people started writing about it, the Internet took off and so did our user base. It was getting to be too much work to handle things and hold down a job, so we switched to full time at Telerama.

Did you have any outside funding?

The only real funding we had to start the business was a $5000 loan from my dad. This was to purchase our Internet access from a local university consortium. Everything else was self-funded. We relied on decommissioned IBM servers that we’d picked up cheap from university salvage.

What was your vision/goal for the company?

The vision was to bring the Internet to the masses, but we also set a financial goal: make enough profit so that we could buy ourselves Polish Platters once a month from the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. (I think they were $5 per.)

What was your company culture like? Did it ever change?

The culture was always scrappy, we never had fancy offices or much in the way of perks. We hired friends and acquaintances and through referrals from our personal networks. This ended up being people like us, basically a bunch of weirdos who wouldn’t fit into a regular corporate environment. I didn’t like the idea of emulating other companies just because, so mostly avoided adopting corporate rules or policies. I encouraged people to be people and not fungible, interchangeable resources that just happened to be human. (Mostly –as Lord CEO of a Successful Company, I would, at times, take myself too seriously and do some less optimal things.) This was the state of things for quite a while until the business started going downhill.

Why are you not with that business anymore?

I think two things caused Telerama to decline. The first was the evolution of the industry itself. The large telcos and cable companies eventually got rid of all independent wireline ISPs. The more important thing was my inability to get the company to do something more sustainable. That was largely because I just couldn’t convince myself of the worthiness of a new direction. What could compare to the idea of introducing the wider world to the Internet? After declining revenues and the departure of most of the staff, I eventually sold the assets to another company.

Would you do it again?

Yeah, totally. I just need to find something I can believe in, something I think will really make a difference out there. And something I personally would be able to make happen.

What are you doing now?

For the last few years, I’ve been working as a software developer. I’ve re-learned what it’s like to be an employee and working for someone else. It’s provided me with useful perspective and hopefully tamped down the Lord CEO syndrome. Because I will have to get back to doing my own thing.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?

My advice to others thinking of starting their business: don’t listen to advice. At least don’t listen to advice that discourages you from your goal. Everyone’s a critic, or an expert, or a well-meaning soul who doesn’t want to see you throw your life and savings away. Thank those people, then forget everything they tell you. Move ahead.

What is you favorite song?

My favorite song is Emission, by Merzbow.

Thanks for sharing doug! You can find him on Linkedin here