Clickshare Set Back

A statement by Felix Kramer, former Marketing Director and Member, Board of Directors of Clickshare Corporation

Measured by "Internet Time," it's been dangerously slow going. But to this day, the opportunity remains: there is nothing else like Clickshare out there, aggregating microtransactions. Though it is less likely, we might still get the chance to find out if Clickshare could be broadly adopted. (I still believe in it.)

However, I'm sorry to inform you that we recently reached a fork in the road -- and took a wrong turn. Here's my abridged version:

• During the first half of 1996, we had an opportunity to involve badly-needed partners, but we spent untold hours and months on negotiations that ultimately went nowhere because of internal disagreements at Clickshare.
• Since then, in spite of the resulting frictions, our technical team completed work on our software and integrated that software into three web sites including a demonstration server of The Christian Science Monitor.
• On September 13, on the occasion of Venture Market East, we publicly announced that the Clickshare Service was commercially available.
• We had laid the groundwork to move forward within the online community: potential content and service providers, strategic partners, analysts, journalists and funders.
• You can see the overall results at the archive of the 1996 Clickshare Home Page on this website and the "mindshare" results -- coverage in the top online publications -- at Clickshare in the News, also archived on this website.
• But for months, prospective publishers and investors had told us, "come back to me when you have a professional management team and some paying customers." We were amateurs -- people without the experience or profile to negotiate the deals and build the organization. In August we finally began a national search for a CEO.
• Guess what? We found just the right person, who had built an online information service from the ground up (it was later sold for eight figures), and who was willing to take a chance running a startup. We were ready to go -- we'd even set the stage for an ideal attention-getting launch of our reincarnation.
• Unfortunately, we were waylaid by "founderitis." One co-founder (the controlling stockholder) was so committed to his views and so unwilling to relinquish control that everyone else eventually left -- including, most importantly, the incoming CEO, the core technical staff who had designed and built the system, and yours truly.

Personally, I must come to terms with having little to show for a year of my life -- though I've gained many attentive readers online and some good friends. I also gain some satisfaction from the knowledge that I have never had to exaggerate or misrepresent Clickshare. And I'll try to steer clear of people so convinced of the inevitability of their company's success that they often can't perceive their own best interests.

What happens to the key players who have left (all of whom, in my opinion, acted honorably and openly)?

• David M. Oliver and <oliver@gang.umass.edu>, co-founder, former President, and until recently Managing Director-Technology (the principal architect and developer of the Clickshare Service), has recently accepted a position with IBM's Internet Division.
• Michael Callahan <mjc@stelias.com>, co-founder and former Member, Board of Directors (currently based in the Bay Area), has resumed his studies in math theory while continuing his consulting for Stelias Workgroup and becoming involved with the Coda distributed file system project at Carnegie-Mellon University.
• Felix Kramer <felixk@panix.com>, until recently Marketing Director and Member, Board of Directors (currently based in NYC), has begun looking for the next unusual, unique or never-been done-before project to launch and promote.
• John Kemp <advgoat@berkshire.net>, until recently, Clickshare programmer, continues as Internet Manager of AdventureGoat Online, a web-based adventure travel information service, also has many ideas.
• Wayne Tvedt <wayne@shore.net>, until recently, Clickshare programmer, is currently working as a software consultant in Cambridge, MA.
• Our incoming CEO remains anonymous.

As shareholders, it is in our economic self-interest for Clickshare to succeed without us. Clickshare continues discussions with content and service providers and investors. The outright sale of the software remains a strong possibility. I hope that some savvy publisher, ISP, credit card company or other entity will come to terms with co-founder William P. Densmore, Jr. <densmore@clickshare.com>, who will shortly regain his titles of Chairman and CEO of Clickshare.

Thanks for your interest, patience and support. Feel free to forward this to any interested parties.