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[Image] [PeopleSoft.]
[Image] [Category The Net] FREE newsletter
[Image] E-Minds was food for thought
[Image] By Janet Kornblum
Join now FREE! July 15, 1997, 5:20 p.m. PT
MENU update Howard Rheingold is feeling good
Front Door but a little pensive these days now Latest Headlines
The Net that Durand Communications will acquire display on
Computing the company he started with venture desktop
Intranets capital funds, Electric Minds. The Net
Business Road Runner
CNET Radio During a joint press conference today passes 10,000
Perspectives held in the empty E-Minds offices in mark
Newsmakers San Francisco's China Basin, Durand E-Minds was food
Rumor Mill executives spoke about the intangibles for thought
of spirituality, human interaction,
NEWS OPTIONS community-building, and the challenges Motley Fool,
One Week View of continuing the vision of Electric Salon syndicated
Desktop News Minds. MTV, Yahoo site
News Alerts about to unfurl
Custom News "We have technology," said Durand's CEO White House
Advanced Casey Hughes, who like other Durand invites ACLU
Search executives was decked out in yellow after all
Push polo shirts adorned with the words Round 2 in Java
[Image] "just hitched" below the Electric Minds standards fight
[Novell] logo. "That technology isn't going to
create a sense of human interaction." Explorer beta
RESOURCES ready to channel
Subscribe People create that vision, he added. VDOnet upgrade
Member targets broadband
Services Hughes explained that he could not
Contact Us purchase the community, but that he Computing
Help would have to work to earn the Speedy systems
community's trust. When asked directly due from Apple
CNET SERVICES how much Durand paid to buy the
CNET.COM business, he replied: "It's no one's IBM moves servers
BUILDER.COM business, period. We did not buy to Pentium II
BROWSERS.COM Electric Minds the community; we Microsoft
GAMECENTER.COM secured only the assets. What the terms confused over
SEARCH.COM of the deal are are nobody's business." Memphis
DOWNLOAD.COM CompUSA to make
SHAREWARE.COM E-Minds faced closure when the venture PCs again
ACTIVEX.COM capital arm of Softbank withdrew an IBM slashes
MEDIADOME investment promise of $500,000. notebook prices
Rheingold was faced with two prospects:
MARKETPLACE selling the company or going bankrupt. Mac cloner pushes
CNET Store Pentium II
How to The sale to Durand, an Internet Intranets
advertise messaging and communications company, Borland on the
was made final only after the E-Minds comeback trail
online community gave Durand and the Businesses
offering a thorough inspection. Members increase Java use
quizzed Durand about details until they
were finally satisfied that it would do
a good job, and Durand was satisfied Centra teaches
that at least a core group of E-Minds intranet
members would migrate over once the education
deal was done. Business
Infoseek losses
In the small scope of things, Rheingold miss mark
said he was quite happy. "The fact that Ascend's growth
Durand and the community have been able short of mark
to work out an agreement is fantastic."
In the larger scope, though, he is Intel beats Wall
pretty reflective about his foray into Street forecasts
the business world of start-ups and
venture capital.
"It was a very painful educational
experience. I would do it again. I had
to do it." But, he added, "Running a
start-up is not what thrills me.
"The main mistake I made was taking a
million dollars because that put us on
track of building a company worth $10
million. Then I took another $10
million and that made it on track to
build a $20 million company. When you
take $2 million from a venture
capitalist, they want $20 million in
three to five years."
Just a year ago, when Rheingold
announced E-Minds, his talk was heady
and philosophical, full of the promise
of the new medium. "There something
happening out there," he said at the
time. "There's a real fervor for
many-to-many communications--grassroots
communication, not just Time Warner or
Microsoft giving us their slick version
of communication...We want to bring
that grassroots social community to the
Web."
These days, Rheingold is settling back
into his home office in the hamlet of
Mill Valley, California, and do what he
does best: build online communities on
a small scale without the need for big
money.
Rheingold will consult with Durand for
a few months and will probably continue
consulting with others about the social
aspects of virtual communities.
But when it comes to building new
enterprises, he's keeping it small. He
said he'll be buying a conferencing
system and will then see if he can get
a few people to subscribe to his Web
site for about $10 a month. "Maybe I
can get a few subscribers and maybe I
can bootstrap something," he said.
As far as the E-Minds sale goes,
Rheingold declined to give precise
figures. He did say that the money will
cover some but not all of E-Minds'
debts. "I can't disclose the amount of
cash, but anything more we can pay our
creditors is worth the trouble."
Durand, which runs the CommunityWare
site, will acquire E-Minds' trademark
and logo (which Rheingold said cost in
the neighborhood of $25,000), as well
as its domain name.
It also has the right to send one email
message to all who registered with
Electric Minds, Rheingold added. "I'm
really adamant that we are not selling
our database. It's really a sacred
trust."
As far as equipment goes, suffice it to
say Durand won't have to worry about
moving costs: It will take possession
of E-Minds' server, which was on loan
from Sun Microsystems and move it to
its Santa Barbara office.
Other than the server, there is no more
in the way of hardware to take away.
E-Minds liquidated its assets when it
ran into financial trouble, according
to Rheingold. Most of the staff, which
underwent layoffs in April, have
already found new jobs.
Rheingold is also encouraging E-Minds'
president, Wendy York-Fess, who he said
has gotten all sorts of job offers, to
consult with Durand as well.
After all that is done, he said, the
future is a bit up in the air.
related news stories
*Durand acquires Electric Minds July
14, 1997
*Virtual community quizzes buyer July
7, 1997
*E-Minds can't make e-money June 16,
1997
*Electric Minds trims workforce April
30, 1997
*Money now on Electric Minds April 7,
1997
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