“That was brand new in 1995 when we had the idea. In July 1996 we launched the service and then just hit a fantastic curve. When I started it was hard. Every dollar that was spent had to be accounted for. We were willing to go the next five or six years to make that successful. We were very fortunate that within a span of two years we saw personal reward from that experience.”
“[DFJ was reluctant to endorse Four11's move into Hotmail's territory, but Four11's evolution was inevitable.] Four11 was our directory when we launched our first product, ... but it became apparent to them that we would be very successful. We were sending more subscribers to Four11's directory in three or four months than they had amassed in two years. Even though I was told that DFJ had discouraged them from getting into the e-mail business because we were there already, they started developing it internally when they saw how successful it was for us.”
“Microsoft isn't going away any time soon, but the role they will play in the future of software will not be the same as it has been in the past two decades,”
