Netzah

[hartmans]

Two years ago, Arley, Chuck, John and I formed a small consulting company. The idea was that we were good at software development, we knew people who had product ideas and who we believed were good at marketing those ideas but who didn't have in-house software expertise. We had one customer at the time we founded the company and hoped to get other customers. For a variety of reasons we were never very successful at finding additional companies. Also, our customer did not manage to make the sales numbers they believed they would. Even so, Netzah was profitable on paper, although if the founders had charged fairly for their time it would have run a significant loss.

I left Netzah back in November when I joined the IESG. I didn't expect things to go anywhere and I had no free time. However last weekend I signed papers to sell off the Netzah IP for cash, notes and stock in another company. Apparently John has managed to find someone who believes his business and the Netzah technology it uses is valuable. This is surprising. I'm quite happy for him; he managed to turn what I thought was a fairly frustrating failure into a great opportunity. Of course, the check is not yet in the mail so things could fall through. Still, so far, it looks as if I may end up making enough money off Netzah that it breaks even for me. That's certainly better than I expected.

I have enjoyed working with Arley as president of the company. If you are ever looking for a sharp, hard-working, persistent, ethical and compassionate businessman I'd recommend him highly. John as always delivered on grand vision, optimism and enough sales to bring the project as far as it came. Netzah is going to be something I look back on with complex emotions.