Onwards!Infonauts

Season 3 Episode 44: (Originally Recorded March 2024) In this final episode of Season 3 of Onwards!Infonauts, we welcome Donna Laquintano who shares her journey from property management to managing startup management as the executive assistant to Ron Berg and Van Morris. She leaped into startup life juggling executive travel arrangements, never-ending office reconfigurations and professional growth while maintaining kindness, respect, humility and a wonderful sense of humor.Donna dives into her fondest memories at Infonautics, from the legendary Friday Frolics and her karaoke performances to the profound sense of unity experienced during the 9/11 tragedy. She shares humorous anecdotes and reflects on the strong bonds formed with colleagues across various departments, emphasizing the family-like atmosphere that permeated the company.Beyond Infonautics, Donna discusses her career transitions, highlighting the importance of networking and building lasting relationships. She shares her passion for driving, her love for St. Augustine, Florida, and ducks. Donna imparts valuable advice to young professionals, emphasizing the importance of kindness, adaptability, and a strong work ethic.Contacts:Donna Laquintano can be reached on LinkedIn and at her email address: dalaquint@gmail.com.  Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts.Sponsors:JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO workDisclaimer:None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 3 Episode 3: (Originally Recorded February 2024) What happens when inspiration strikes and leads to an unexpected journey? In this episode of Onwards! Infonauts, we sit down with Michael Holland, who shares how a chance encounter with Infonautics founder Marvin Weinberger during his time at Cornell University changed the trajectory of his career forever. From hopping on a tiny plane for a last-minute interview to his first day on the job bumping into a Cornell fraternity brother in the hallway, Michael’s introduction to Infonautics was anything but ordinary.Michael takes us on a whirlwind ride through his time at one of the pioneering internet startups of the ’90s. Whether it was navigating job roles, working on groundbreaking projects like Encyclopedia.com, or helping launch innovative products like Company Sleuth, Michael’s stories reflect the excitement, chaos, and ingenuity that defined the early internet era. We hear behind-the-scenes anecdotes, including the hilariously unconventional interview questions from his hiring process and some legendary office pranks that scream startup culture.With wisdom honed through years of experience as a product management executive, Michael shares insights on leadership, adaptability, and the art of storytelling in technology. He reflects on the simplicity of early metrics, the lessons learned from building platforms, and the power of clarity in product development. This episode is a treasure trove of anecdotes, nostalgia, and actionable advice for anyone in tech or curious about what it was like to be at the forefront of the internet revolution.Contacts:Michael Holland can be reached on LinkedIn. Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts.Sponsors:JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO workDisclaimer:None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 3 Episode 2: Marvin Weinberger In this episode of "Onwards! Infonauts" we chat with Marvin Weinberger, one of the founders of Infonautics Corporation. Marvin’s story started well before Infonautics, at another data-centric company called Telebase Systems.  Telebase was an online information company, providing customer access to databases around the world using telex machines with 75 baud speed, as Marvin jokes with Sean and Jim. Later, Marvin was featured in Business Week, where they took a picture of Marvin in front of the computer room… giant computers with only 1 Gigabyte of capacity on them. In the 1990s, technology was very different than it is today. Cloud computing was in its infancy. People had to decide whether to make more powerful PCs or do it in the cloud. Today, it’s clear that the cloud can do everything. And Marvin has been there to influence many of these changes. Marvin started Infonautics as a project to bring education to children throughout the world. He was fortunate to have been a friend to a successful inventor and businessman, Herman Fialkov. Marvin met Herman’s grandson, Joshua, at a Klezmer concert a few years prior. Later, Marvin and that kid, Joshua Kopelman, were reunited when Marvin mentioned to Herman that he was seeking some help with his new venture.  Marvin gives wonderful insights to the technology scene in the 1980s and 1990s. He reflects on the influence of some significant mentors, like Lloyd Morissett who was one of the founders of Children’s Television Workshop, the creator of “Sesame Street” as well as Howard Morgan and Israel “Mel” Melman. All of the early mentors were important to the start and growth of the business. Please join us in this episode as we discuss the Good Business Pledge, Stella D’Oro Swiss Fudge cookies, and how to take advice from people who are older and wiser.  Contacts: Marvin Weinberger can be reached at marvin@innovationfactory.com or on LinkedIn.  Innovation Factory    Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 3 Episode 1: Kyle Odum Join us on a captivating episode of "Onwards! Infonauts" as we delve into the inspiring journey of Kyle Odum, the Director of Creative Services for the city of Philadelphia. Hailing from the heart of the city, Kyle shares his remarkable trajectory from a Drexel University graduate to spearheading the IT department at Infonautics. In this episode, Kyle unfolds the early days at Infonautics, where CTO Jim Beattie provided him with the opportunity to establish the IT department and navigate the intricacies of this pivotal role. Hear firsthand about Kyle's stint on Eileen Limroth's customer service team, the challenges he faced, and the heartbreak that eventually led to his departure. Discover how the lessons learned during his 18-month tenure at Infonautics, coupled with a bootleg copy of Dreamweaver, became the stepping stones to Kyle's subsequent successes in both his career and personal life. Throughout the episode, Kyle generously shares memorable anecdotes about influential figures like Bruce Ross, Lucinda Duncalfe, Josh Kopelman, Cathy Palma, Eric Law, Kendra Muscella, Joyce Bell, Tammy Taylor, Jim Beattie, Greg Rettew, Sunny Balijepali, Jim McMonagle and a few others. Tune in for a journey through the past, filled with nuggets of wisdom and reflections on the pivotal moments that shaped Kyle Odum's remarkable career. This episode is a testament to resilience, growth, and the enduring impact of the Infonautics community on one individual's journey "onwards." Contacts: Kyle Odum can be reached at kyleodum@gmail.com or on LinkedIn. You can check out his wife, Anitria’s cake shop here https://www.4everyoccasioncakes.com/   Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 9: Josh Kopelman Jim McMonagle and Sean McGlinchey speak with Infonautics’ co-founder, serial entrepreneur and investor Josh Kopelman in this episode of Onwards! Infonauts. Josh brings his high energy, appreciation and sense of humor to our rambling discussion of his career and his start with Marvin Weinberger in the early 1990s. Despite Josh’s not-so-veiled threat to launch an alternative show about Infonautics that he believes will crush our efforts and spirit, we thoroughly enjoyed our chat.  He brings up lots of fun memories of working at Infonautics, the lessons he learned and what he took forward with him in a career that continues Onwards and Upwards! Contacts: Josh Kopelman can be reached on LinkedIn. Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 8: Joyce Bell In this episode of Onwards! Infonauts, Jim McMonagle and Sean McGlinchey speak with Joyce Bell, who was an exceptional QA team member.  Joyce made a big impact on the teamwork and culture environment while working 4 + years at Infonautics, from 1995 to 1999.  Joyce, like many others, went to work for BigChalk for a little over 1 year, and like many others had to pivot following the internet crash of 2001.  Listen to this episode with Joyce while she reminisces with Sean about their great times in the Content department, playing between the buildings baseball and interviewing people while they played a game or two of ping pong.  Joyce shares her first impression of Beth Laing, who pulled her motorcycle into the quiet office park on West Valley Road. Joyce shares her recollections of meeting people like Beth and Arturo Perez during her interview and then gets into many stories about creating HHUPF, working with some wild personalities like Doug Bodden and why she thinks Infonautics was such a special place. Contacts: Joyce Bell can be reached on LinkedIn. Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 7: Ron Berg In a very special episode of Onwards! Infonauts, Infonautics’ CFO Ron Berg, we are very pleased to warmly welcome Infonautics employee #3 or 4 or 3 and a half, Ron Berg. Since Ron’s four years as Infonautics’ CFO he has gone on to take his turn in multiple C-suite and founding roles at companies around the country, spending too much time on the west coast.  He’s now back in the Philly area and joined us from home in Bucks Country. In this episode Ron tries out a new role as Chief Corrections Officer for Onwards! Infonauts. He goes to tell us tales from joining Infonautics and diving headlong into what it was like to quickly grow, IPO, and survive as a company and the lessons he learned about hiring the right people and more importantly investing in understanding the individual’s goals and dreams — and the overall importance to building a culture of success. Discover how to manage stage fright during road shows, compare prices on animal crackers and uncover which Philadelphia food institution served as a key contributor to Infonautics’ guest satisfaction. Contacts: Ron Berg can be reached on LinkedIn. Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 6: Lucinda Duncalfe In this episode of Onwards! Infonauts, we have a power chat with Lucinda Duncalfe.  Lucinda is presently Founder and CEO of AboveBoard, an inclusive platform for executive hiring. Although she was officially a part of the Infonautics team for only one short year, she made a great impression on everyone she met.  Like most Infonauts, she is a startup fanatic, but also took some practical steps in her career, like joining powerhouse tech company SEI when she knew she had to pay for student loans.  But as soon as the opportunity arose, she quickly got back into the startup game when she joined Infonautics in 1996. Lucinda was recruited by our oft-mentioned friend of the firm, Sonia Stamm.  Lucinda covers her first day on the job, where there was no computer, no desk and no real plan handed to her.  She somehow made it work, and she thrives on that! Like the rest of us, Lucinda just figured it out. Even though her Infonautics days spanned only 12 months, Lucinda spins some great tales, often calling them “those crazy days.” She also has a great affinity for many of the folks who worked alongside her at Infonautics. In this episode, you will get to hear descriptions of many people you know, including someone she called a “perpetual motion machine.” Other positive recollections from her time at Info include the Infonautics Good Business Pledge, and Van’s guidance to “solve for yes.” We hope you enjoy listening and taking time to reconnect with Lucinda. Reach out to Jim or Sean if you want to join us on a trip down memory lane! We can’t wait to talk to you! Contacts: Lucinda Duncalfe can be reached on LinkedIn or via email.  Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 5: Matt Simeone In this episode of Onwards! Infonauts, we sit down with Matt Simeone, Managing Partner of Riverton Partners, as he takes us on a captivating journey through his unique experiences at Infonautics. Coming to Infonautics from LexisNexis was quite the culture shock when he sat down at his first all-hands meeting that included Marvin playing the violin. Matt shares stories of bad coffee, wiffle ball battles, making sales calls with ping-pong in the background, and a sales pitch outcome that was straight out of Hollywood. Embark on a captivating journey as we delve into the lessons learned from the experiences of a young, albeit jaded, Matt Simeone. Join us as we explore his transition from the world of big corporate sales to a suburban technology startup, and discover how those experiences profoundly influenced the trajectory of his career and eventually led him to start his own company, Riverton Partners. Contacts: Matt Simeone can be reached on LinkedIn or by email Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice. 

Season 2 Episode 4: Jim Ulsh Today you can hear Jim and Sean interview Jim Ulsh. Or does Ulsh interview Jim and Sean? Mr. Ulsh gets into his early days at Infonautics, where he was looked upon as the only adult amongst children because he wore a tie.  He shares his prior career as a toxic waste remediator and how that career was appropriate, given his college degree in Chemistry. Lucky for us, he did not bring any toxicity into the culture of Infonautics.  Like many folks, Ulsh answered an ad from the Sunday newspaper and was hired due to his charm and the fact that the company was hiring a lot at that time.  Without any real experience in publisher content, Ulsh, like many others, just had to figure it out. Mr. Ulsh shares lots of stories about content, data and the eventual merger with Proquest.  He claims to have had the longest tenure of anyone who existed in the Infonautics Universe.  From his start at Infonautics, to the transition to Big Chalk, and eventually rolling it up into ProQuest, his career in Elibrary and its progeny spanned a period of about 18 years.  Jim talks about challenges to integrate two data companies, and how the culture at Infonautics was envied by the ProQuest people.  Part of that had to do with the other popular adage “solve for yes.” Since leaving ProQuest, Ulsh has worked in technology.  Currently, he is a product manager at powerhouse information publisher, Elsevier.  His product management skills and “figure it out” mindset enabled Jim to constantly achieve more than before.  We enjoy talking to Infonauts and especially those we haven’t been in touch with to find out how their lives unfolded since, what it meant to you to be an Infonaut and how that affected (or didn’t) what followed. Reach out if you want to jump in or wait for us to reach you! We can’t wait to talk to you! Contacts: Jim Ulsh can be reached on LinkedIn Jim and Sean can be reached at the Onwards! Infonauts Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 3: Beth Laing In today’s episode, Beth Laing recounts her journey to and away from Infonautics. An early hire at Infonautics fresh from Atlanta and a role with The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Beth started in 1994. Admittedly green at the start she relished the role of building the impossible with like-minded people who were all willing to just figure it out. She eventually found her niche landing content deals and then figuring out what to do with the content in all its varied forms. She put together a team that partnered with engineering to build a content pipeline, “chunking data” to make it searchable. Two years after her arrival she moved West to California and the online portal of the San Jose Mercury News. As part of the Knight Ridder family she ended up in Minneapolis and then found her way back home to Atlanta. Always moving onwards, Beth took a software development boot camp and became an engineer and is now a Director of Engineering at Atlanta startup, CallRail. While in Atlanta she helped create Refactr.tech, an organization and annual conference about growing and showcasing powerful voices of marginalized people and allies in technology. Beth’s time at Infonautics may seem relatively brief but it had an outsized impact on her career and we think you’ll enjoy what she did, enjoyed and learned from her time there and what she carries with her today. We enjoy talking to Infonauts and especially those we haven’t been in touch with to find out how their lives unfolded since, what it meant to you to be an Infonaut and how that affected (or didn’t) what followed. Reach out if you want to jump in or wait for us to reach you! We can’t wait to talk to you! Contacts: Beth Laing can be reached on LinkedIn. And you can follow her organization, Refactr.tech on LinkedIn as well. Jim and Sean can be reached at the Onwards! Infonauts LinkedIn page. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 2: Rich Gallagher. In this episode, Rich Gallagher recalls joining Infonautics after interviewing with the executive team.  Rich had a long career at another company in a nearby town, but Rich felt that the company was being affected too much by recent M&A activity.  His first days at Infonautics were about setting high level goals and then letting loose to solve any and all problems put before him.  Rich had 4 objectives: (1) create a content management team; (2) help create a subscription model; (3) build out the information system for the royalties; and (4) figure out how to fulfill a brand new software license opportunity with a company in Australia.  Rich gives us some valuable quotes like “set support structures not control structures.”  And many other gems of wisdom, but you need to listen to find out what it means to “solve for yes” and “know your ‘why’ and know what success looks like.” There’s an abundance of advice in this episode and listeners will have much to hear and learn.  It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Rich Gallagher can be reached on LinkedIn. Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 2 Episode 1: Eileen Limroth. In this episode, Eileen recounts her first days at Infonautics in 1995, animal crackers, building a customer support team from scratch, hijinx, juggling startup life with babies, the transition through the iterations of the company and essentially turning the lights off at Infonautics in the early 2000s. Plus what it meant to walk away from her career. We enjoy talking to Infonauts and especially those we haven’t been in touch with to find out how their lives unfolded since, what it meant to you to be an Infonaut and how that affected (or didn’t) what followed. Reach out if you want to jump in or wait for us to reach you! We can’t wait to talk to you! Contacts: Eileen can be reached at mulunker@yahoo.com Jim and Sean can be reached at Onwards! Infonauts. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 8: Scott Bernberg. In this episode, Scott Bernberg recalls his first days at Infonautics sitting at a folding table in a room focused on bug fixes for the just-released Electric Library, while Jill Kauler sat directly on the other side of the table from him. He learned to be a web developer on the fly using his trusty O’Reilly reference books. Scott walked us through his work on Entertainment Sleuth and what he’s up to these days as Vice President of Product Development at Vivvix, a company he has been with through several iterations since he left Infonautics. He also shares the most important lessons learned from his days at Infonautics around authenticity and accountability. You’ll also get to hear about the evolution of his music career from pub gig rock bands to accordion virtuoso. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Scott Bernberg can be reached on LinkedIn and you can see him play accordion at Steamin’ Days at the Marshall Steam Museum in Delaware. Jim and Sean can be reached on LinkedIn at the Onwards! Infonauts company page as well as our personal LinkedIn pages. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 7: Sonia Stamm. In this show, Sonia Stamm, an honorary Infonaut and founder of Stamm Consultancy, shares her experience as a recruiter with CEO Resources during the early days of Infonautics. She describes her role as a gatekeeper for hiring the right people who could align with the company's mission and values. Sonia explains how her passion for aligning people and processes with organizational goals led her to create Stamm Consultancy, a company that provides custom consulting and training to mission-based organizations. She talks about her approach to consulting, which involves understanding the unique challenges and needs of each organization and designing solutions that can help them achieve their objectives. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Sonia Stamm can be reached on LinkedIn and her website, Stamm Consultancy. EMail: sonia@stammconsultancy.com Jim and Sean can be reached on LinkedIn at the Onwards! Infonauts company page as well as our personal LinkedIn pages. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 6: Ram Mohan. Ram Mohan was hired by two engineering leaders, Mike Krupit and Terry Graber, in 1995.  Terry had been working with Ram at a prior company, and he successfully recruited Ram to join Infonautics.  Ram confided that he did not interview with the team, it was more of a conversation. They brought Josh Kopelman in for a quick meeting with Ram and they agreed to hire Ram before the end of that day. Ram progressed through the company and wound up in the CTO seat very soon. He was with us in the good times and bad and recalls some of the lean times. Ram was also a part of the camaraderie, practical jokes, and even some of the ping pong activities. After Infonautics, Ram joined Afilias, an early web domain registrar, Afilias.  Their claim to fame was the .info (dot info) registrations. After Afilias was sold to private equity investors, Ram went Onward in the same industry with Identity Digital, which is now the second largest domain registrar. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Ram Mohan can be reached on LinkedIn and by email: Ram@mohan.info Jim and Sean can be reached on LinkedIn at the Onwards! Infonauts company page as well as our personal LinkedIn pages. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 5: Cathy Palma. Cathy Palma was hired by VP of Marketing, Jack Clewis back in 1995. Though she has been formally trained for music and theater, she made the trips to NYC a few too many times, and decided on her next passion, internet startups. Jack hired Robert Palmer, and eventually Robert was promoted and Cathy reported to him.  One of her many claims to fame was to own the chachke closet, and that earned her a special title, well, we will let her tell you what that nickname was!  Cathy was an active part of the trade shows and, just like most Infonauts, she learned a lot which teaching others in the business. In this episode Cathy serenades Sean and Jim with a version of White Christmas. This is the first musical performance on Onwards! Infonauts. Since Infonautics, Cathy has started her own recruiting firm, Higher Ground Associates. It's a play on words (Hire > Higher) plus the translation of Bryn Mawr from Welsh into English actually means high hill. Business is doing well and she has been a reliable part of the recruiting strategies of many businesses in the area. Cathy is living the startup life following everything she learned from and contributed to Infonautics back in the day. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Cathy Palma can be reached at: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Web Email: Cathy@highergroundassoc.com Jim and Sean can be reached on LinkedIn at the Onwards! Infonauts company page as well as our personal LinkedIn pages. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 4: Andrea Michalek.  Andrea has a wonderful viewpoint and great stories to tell from her start as an Infonaut a week after the INFO IPO developing search backend technology with Mike Shultz, Lee Larocco, and Khosrow Motamedi. She was inspired by Marvin’s core belief that “every child deserves an unfair advantage.” It changed the way she looked at her career and doing work that matters. Andrea continuously took on new challenges and leadership roles at Infonautics becoming an entrepreneur there and launching many companies since then. Her life came to a halt with a traumatic brain injury a few years ago and her story of recovery is inspirational as she learned to regain basic skills to relaunch her company,  Topular Strategy, providing leadership consultancy and serving as an interim Chief Product Officer. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Andrea Michalek can be reached at: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | and all her other links! Web: Topular Strategy | Leadership Advantage Jim and Sean can be reached on LinkedIn at the Onwards! Infonauts company page. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. https://www.linkedin.com/company/68066173/ Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 3: Eric Van Gorden. Eric joined the Content team in 1998 when we were chugging along with endless piles of publisher material, contracts, and royalties to work through. He was the hero we needed at the time we needed him to step in and become an integral part of the team and company. In this episode, Eric walks us through his life as an English major working in medical and mathematics publishing to Infonautics and the Internet Age where he pretty much didn’t understand a word anyone said. Find out how he survived, thrived, and then built a career in content working for the likes of ProQuest, Ebsco and now working with another Infonaut! It's a fun conversation and we hope you will take a little time to listen. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Eric VanGorden can be reached on LinkedIn  Jim and Sean can be reached at the Onwards! Infonauts LinkedIn page. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work. Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.

Season 1 Episode 2: Mike Krupit. Mike was a very early employee at Infonautics, the first outsider after Marvin, Josh and Ron.  He was hired in 1994 to be the company's first Director of Software Development.  Mike established himself as a very competent leader as the company grew through rapid changes. He has had a great influence on many in the technical world inside and outside of Infonautics. For example he started up the Philadelphia New Tech Meetup. This group has easily impacted over a thousand technology entrepreneurs in the region. Mike also started several other companies, and at one point joined CD Now, where he started as CIO and worked his way to the CEO office! In this episode, Mike talks about moving out of the Telebase building, then buying the ping pong table from Toys R Us and transporting it in a convertible BMW. We also discuss the values of passion and being authentic. The stocked kitchen comes up as do a few other interesting insights.  It's a great conversation and we hope you will take a little time to listen. It's said that one measure of a great leader is the number of new leaders that follow.  Similarly we say that one measure of a great startup is the number of new startups begotten from that startup.  Whether you became a serial entrepreneur or set out on a variety of career paths, we want to hear where your journey as an Infonaut has taken you. Contacts: Mike Krupit can be reached on LinkedIn Jim and Sean can be reached at the Onwards! Infonauts LinkedIn page. Sponsors: JMX Advisors for Interim or Fractional CFO work.  Disclaimer: None of these discussions are to be relied upon as professional advice.