Passing the torch

Succession stories are often associated with anxiety, trepidation and bewilderment; particularly when a founder passes over the reigns.  It’s the exception, rather than the norm, when succession happens naturally, which is why I’m so thrilled with the way Sphere/Surphace’s leadership has evolved. It will come as no surprise to our partners or anyone else following our progress that we’ve entrusted the reigns of the business to Josh Guttman as our next CEO.  Working with my co-founders Martin Remy and Steve Nieker, he’s made Sphere/Surphace hum and has earned the title.

Josh joined Sphere in the second half of 2007, after a lengthy and persistent appeal process. He fully believed in our business and value proposition from the start and it was apparent from the vigor with which he approached me. Once on the team, he applied that same vigor to business development, turning over every rock he could find and signing partnership after partnership, including several of our largest. When we were acquired by AOL in April 2008, we asked Josh to lead our expansion across the AOL universe and represent us on the ground in NYC.  He did so admirably, guiding our contribution to AOL while ensuring that our existing business continued to prosper. Without being asked, he assumed leadership of Product Development, Advertising Management and Design and each of these areas has improved significantly under his stewardship. In March, we named Josh COO and his command of the business has only improved since.   He oversaw some great hires in product development and business development in 2009, and led an inspiring retreat at our annual get together in September.  

My decision to step down was made easier knowing that Surphace is in excellent hands. Josh is the right leader for the business today. He’s a natural leader and a great guy to work with – earning consistent praise from all. Mapping out an exciting product pipeline for the next twelve months, Josh has provided Surphace with the ingredients to continue to prosper as a standalone business within AOL. I couldn’t be more pleased for Josh and excited for the Surphace team. Please join me in raising a virtual toast!

Next.

It’s been almost five years since Martin Remy, Steve Nieker, Toni Schneider and I started working on Sphere.  For me, it’s around 10% of a life. And it’s a time when I find myself thinking a lot about a particular question: What do I want to do next?

In 2005, I had the good fortune of being on the founding team of Sphere and joining True Ventures simultaneously. I always thought that I’d eventually focus all of my attention on one or the other, but both were too much fun and I guess I’m selfish in that way.  As time passed, I went deeper into each role and I never got around to choosing one or the other. It worked out nicely. True is on its second fund and Sphere had a successful sale to AOL in 2008. Most importantly, Sphere’s business and team are both thriving within AOL. While I’m proud of my contributions to both, the heroes in this equation are Martin, Steve, Toni, Shea DiDonna, Braughm Ricke, Om Malik, Puneet Agarwal, John Burke, Phil Black, Jon Callaghan, Marty Moe, Bill Wilson and AOL – they trusted and empowered me to pursue both. I am extremely grateful.

As I’ve thought through the question of what’s next, I’ve realized that I love the complementary perspectives acquired from building a company as an entrepreneur and investor. They are symbiotic roles and it’s really hard to say which has influenced me more. While my role at True as a Venture Partner will continue to deepen (because there is nothing more rewarding than working with people you admire and trust), I also find myself with a burning need to start another company. I’ve discovered my formula and doing both makes me happiest.

As for my next company, I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but I’ve decided that I need to move on from Sphere (now Surphace) to figure it out.  This may feel like old news as I’ve been working to make myself obsolete as Josh Guttman transitioned into the CEO role. My decision is easy as I know that Surphace is in excellent hands. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving if I didn’t believe that Josh was the right leader for the business today.  He’s a natural leader and has a strategy for the future that I believe is going to accelerate growth for Surphace and AOL. I couldn’t be more pleased for Josh and excited for the Surphace team.

As for my thoughts about Surphace and AOL’s future, I’m more optimistic than ever. We joined AOL at an opportune time. AOL is doing what great, sustainable businesses do every so often – they’re reinventing themselves. As the business model of the oldest and one of the biggest Internet businesses evolves, Sphere/Surphace has become an important piece of their strategy to reach across and engage the web. In the past year, we’ve had an insiders’ view into how AOL’s new leadership team has moved aggressively to engage their audience (new vertical focused websites; a focus on engagement and not page-views for page-views sake; hiring leading journalistic talent when others downsized; acquisitions in the local content space; shorter development cycles with an emphasis on release, iterate and release). There is nothing like winning and the AOL publishing business is winning. As a result, I’m pleased to also announce that I’ve agreed to serve as a Special Advisor to AOL Ventures as they reinvent themselves. I am thrilled at this opportunity to evolve my relationship.

I want to give a huge thanks to the people who’ve made the last few years what they were: my family tops the list, an entrepreneur is only as good as their support system and this is my secret sauce. My co-founders, Martin and Steve, who trusted me to play a role in helping them get the tech they invented the exposure it deserved. Toni and Phil who taught me about generosity at a moment when I was able to learn. Matt Mullenweg who opened up my thinking of how a start-up operates.  Marty and Bill who have been consistently supportive since Day One – I can’t underscore enough how much I appreciate the manner in which they’ve empowered us to thrive in an appropriately independent environment. They have treated me (and the Sphere team) with enormous respect for which I am both thankful and flattered.  The original Sphere team, the current Surphace team who have embraced AOL. Our investors and advisors who supported and helped shape our vision. The True team and entrepreneurs who have taught me about sacrifice, vision, execution and the value of pursuing your dreams — and, of course, Lewis Dvorkin, Kevin Lockland and Bill who paid us the nicest compliment of all in offering to acquire our company and then doing so.

It’s been a thrilling, at times difficult, always rewarding and lucky ride I’ve been on. Thanks to all.

Goodbye Sphere, Hello Surphace

We’re super excited to formally announce that Sphere has a new name.  Our new name is Surphace.

The obvious question is why, in the midst of continued success – growth and distribution – are we changing our name?  In most cases, businesses change their names in order to relaunch, restart and/or establish a clean break from their pasts.  Our situation is very different.  Our business is as strong as ever, and from where I sit, the future looks as bright as I can remember (brighter, in fact).

Sphere is a name that’s been good to us.  It helped us become the business we are today catering to the likes of: Time, CNN, Tribune, WSJ, TMZ, CBS, AOL and millions of individual blogs.  As a brand, it communicates the totality of information disseminated across the web.  When we launched the business 3+ years ago, we did so with a desire to deliver that totality to users in the form of a blog search engine, so the name made sense.  Over time, our business has shifted, focusing much of its energy on large name-brand publishers.  We’ve learned that those publishers are as interested in syndication of their own content as they are in retrieving relevant third-party stuff.   In essence, our business today is centered around bringing content to the surface and so, Surphace is a name that, not only defines our business, but one we’ve grown to love.

Surphace is also a name that weaves incredibly well with our 2010 product roadmap, which includes, among other things:

• S4 – our self-serve platform currently in alpha (you can sign up for beta right here)
• SurphBoard – a spiffy updated editorial UI for our larger partners
• A url shortener in stealth mode – strategic to other products
• A real-time conversation thread, showing topical surphing in motion
• And a few more that we can’t yet disclose….:)

Nothing else about us will change.  Practically our entire team (plus a few talented additions) remains intact since the acquisition 18 months ago, and we couldn’t be happier with our extended family at AOL.  Some of you reading this must be chomping at the bit, wondering what’s going to happen to the Sphere domain.   To quell that curiosity, Sphere.com will soon grow to become one of AOL’s benchmark online destinations, and to maximize the suspense, I’ll leave it at that for now.

To all our existing partners, I plan to connect with each of you in person over the coming weeks to discuss our new product pipeline.  To all our future partners, we can’t wait to work with you.  Please get in touch and let’s see what we can create together.

Doing business the Sphere way….

This is a good shot of the Sphere business team during a strategy session, courtesy of Lu at COD Ranch. This is, quite naturally, our preferred mode of operation…in front of a roaring fire, laptops at the ready, coffee/tea in hand. In this photo (counter-clockwise starting from left): Josh Guttman, Adam Embick, Jeff Yolen and Tony Conrad.