Bill Conrad's Blog - Posts Tagged "starting-a-company"
Ad Reporter (A Failed Startup)
I have tried starting businesses since I was a kid and took my first leap right after college. 1994 was a bleak time for new graduates, and because of my strong interest in audio, I decided to develop a digital audio mixing board for recording studios. (A mixing board is the device that combines all the microphone inputs into the two-track stereo like you would hear on a CD.)
I did not have enough money to make it happen, so I sought out investors, which required a business plan. I like to think that the year I spent learning to write one was an unofficial MBA. Then, I spent my life savings developing a partial prototype. Nobody was interested, and I admitted defeat.
So, I liked my wounds, found a job, and schemed up business ideas in my spare time. Since that first attempt, I have tried three more times, and this is the story of my most expensive failure.
In 2010, I worked for Northrup and became friends with a logistics coworker, John. One day, he told me about the business he was starting. It had something to do with advertising and the internet. I thought the overall concept sounded interesting and offered my ideas.
We talked every few days, but John was not keen on a partnership. Then, there was a massive shakeup at Northrop. The F35 project was completed, and upper management laid off the development team of 1500 people. I was a contractor on an unrelated project, and upper management laid off all contractors because it would look bad if long-time workers were laid off while contractors kept their jobs. While I did not like this decision, I understood it. Side note: My boss submitted my name and three others to the president of Northrop to remain on staff. How cool is that?
I lost track of John during this chaotic time, but fate intervened. A subcontractor Northrop worked with offered me a part-time job. It was not exciting, but it paid a few bills. One day, I attended a Northrop meeting, ran into John on the sidewalk between buildings, and got his contact info.
We chatted over email about his project, and he decided to bring me in. This did not go over well with his two friends, who were already on the project. I picked up on the rumblings but did not think it was a big deal. Authors call this foreshadowing.
John was not new to starting a business. He used to run a successful charity that brought together big business, government, and people in need. (Side note: Why was he not still there if it was successful?) He also started a movie company that produced two films. His wife got part of this business in the divorce, which contradicts our conversations.
Before I joined, John set up a corporation with stock certificates and kept 51% of the shares to retain complete control. I felt this was reasonable because I had seen other startups fail due to bickering. It did not dawn on me that this was too much responsibility. Wow, we are loading up the foreshadowing bus.
John had studied internet advertising for years and noticed a big problem. During an advertising campaign, a business could pay big $$ but not see the relationship between their advertising money and the additional profit generated. This is called Return On Investment, ROI. So, he cobbled together a method to determine this correlation. Side note: he was unable to explain it to me.
John submitted a preliminary patent for his idea and brought in two friends to help. The first was Jennifer, who would do the marketing. Her role was to identify a company like Google and show them how the service would improve customer satisfaction. John then brought in Jo, who would run the corporation, fill out the paperwork, and coordinate the teams.
As things became more organized, the foundation for a solid company began forming. This is when John made his big discovery. If you do a web search, this will yield search results, including advertisements. This might be a map of nearby businesses, a graphic (banner) advertisement, or, most importantly, the “contextual advertisements.” This is a text-based (not graphical) pitch related to your search. For example, searching for bread recipes might get text describing cookbooks or a cooking website.
John had discovered what everybody had missed. Contextual advertisements were (and still are) deeply flawed. Why? The people developing search engines are not advertisers; they are programmers. All advertisements need the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. John created a system to generate an advertisement with four text lines for each P. A place example would be: “This cookbook is available at a bookstore three blocks from your location.” Brilliant!
The team was preparing to approach a company at the stage I joined. I would be a technical helper but would not get any stock until I had proven myself. No problem. I threw myself into understanding advertising and hit a roadblock. I could not understand John’s patent. We spent hundreds of hours over the phone/email/documents until I had a moment of clarity. Then, the main issue was obvious.
John had put the horse behind the cart. This was not an advertisement reporting system but a new marketing technique/database with a reporting back end. So, I began rearranging, simplifying, adding, clarifying, and deleting unnecessary junk from the patent. The result was a clean advertising system that an expert could understand.
With this system, users (people/companies that place contextual advertisements) would enter data for their advertisement, choose where the advertisements get placed, see the real-time result, how the advertisement affected their bottom line, and better target their audience. Brilliant!
John gave me stock with the patent improvement, and I paid for more. This would be a billion-dollar company, so I felt it was a wise investment. But… What were Jennifer and Jo doing at this time? From John’s perspective, being a pain. I ignored the situation because I was on the technical side. That was a big mistake.
I must take a side track. Since becoming a writer, my perspective has changed, making me wonder what Jennifer and Jo thought about me. Until writing this very sentence, it had not occurred to me to give the matter some thought. (Note: This happened in 2010, and I have spent a lot of effort trying to forget this failure.) So, I noodled the matter and felt they were upset about me jumping in and hogging the spotlight. My work proved they were not ready to approach a company because the work done so far in marketing was flawed. Jennifer had followed John’s marketing direction based on a backward idea. Now that we had a proper direction, the actual marketing work began.
Jo was probably just as upset because I came in and shook things up. Until then, she was the right-hand person who ran the business while John took care of the technical details. When I took over the technical side, John focused on the business parts. I imagine Jo was upset with me for delaying the point where we would make money, and it was clear she was upset with John for micromanaging her.
What was John feeling? He was excited that a talented and hard-working person had joined the team. I now see John’s sadistic side. He took pleasure in challenging and belittling Jennifer and Jo. Until writing this sentence, I did not put that together.
Why did Jennifer and Jo stick around? (Writers call this character motivation.) They saw that the company was on the verge of making billions, and they had stock. So, they put up with him. Money is always a strong motivation.
John and I burned the midnight oil to submit the first patent, and the team began the next phase of the operation, approaching a company. We sought investors to build the software database and program the web interface. But… Were we really doing that? In retrospect, our goals were all over the place despite having direction. We had Monday night Skype meetings, which lacked focus, and this led to arguments about the direction we were taking.
This lack of direction frustrated me, and I offered to develop the next phase, which was taking the 4P system to other platforms (beyond search engines) and different advertisement types. This included graphical banners, television, video games, and print. Plus, I got way deep into defining exactly how the website and database worked. The result was a giant (foreshadowing) patent.
Out of the blue, John wanted to bring in three new people. Jo, Jennifer, and I were not keen on the idea, but because of the 51%, we were not part of the discussion. What were these three people going to do? Their role was utterly undefined, but the joke was on John. They all wanted to stock up front, or they would not participate. John did not like this attitude, and we never heard from them again. Reading that sentence still makes me laugh all these years later.
While I spent every free moment working on the second patent, John, Jo, and Jennifer were butting heads. I chose to bow out of the feud and now see that I should have stopped all work and acted as a mediator. Things rapidly spun out of control, and John became verbally abusive.
A good example of this conflict was developing the “tri-fold.” This two-sided piece of paper folds in three, resulting in six columns. The single document quickly breaks down what our company was about and what we were looking for. John insisted on having a tri-fold, and we all put in tremendous effort to create one. The problem was that we each had different ideas of what to focus on, and the exact wording was a huge issue. The arguments became heated, and something that should have taken a week took over two months.
What were Jo and Jennifer doing that was so bad? Their assigned jobs. Jennifer’s role was marketing, and she was fantastic at it. She was bright and had a solid plan. Instead, John wanted total control, but his plan changed daily, and he could not communicate his ideas to Jennifer.
Meanwhile, Jo wanted to define the corporation and assist with the marketing. I was happy she was there and liked her ideas. Or was I? I now see the first big crack of failure as the friction between Jo and the rest of the team. I foolishly took John’s side, agreeing that Jo had become a liability. I should have acted like a neutral party and supported her role. Next was the battle between Jennifer and John. She offered solid practical ideas while John shot for the moon. The arguments got so bad that we stopped the weekly meetings.
During this time, I had worked hard on the second patent, which involved talking to John every night about the technology ideas. During our conversations, he was convinced Jo and Jennifer were out to take over or sabotage the company. I regret to say that I agreed with John’s misgivings. So, he hatched a plan. The company needed (I do not recall the exact amount) twenty thousand dollars to continue, which would come from the stockholders. The idea was that if one of the stockholders could not pay, they would be voted out of the company. I have since checked, and it does not work that way, so this was a foolish plan.
I recall Jo had about 10%, Jennifer about 15%, and I had been given or purchased about 24%. So, this meant Jo had to pay (I recall) $2,000. Her income came from her catering company, which made little money. So, this was a big ask. Well, she paid, which torpedoed John’s plan. He was furious.
Where were we at this point? We had a patent in review, another patent ready to be submitted, a trifold brochure, business cards, a PowerPoint presentation, printed stationery, a business plan, a technical description, and corporation-issued stock. The entire business rested on the first patent in my name and John’s, not Jo and Jennifer’s. Yes, this was intentional and should have been a big red flag. Plus, I do not think they ever saw the patent or the technical description, which was also deliberate and another big red flag.
The weekly meeting had stopped, and John and I began to argue about the company’s direction. John took over the marketing by sending out poorly written introduction letters (I think this included the tri-fold) to Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook. And WOW! Facebook was interested!!!! Yay! We made it! Success!
Let’s get going! Crickets… Hey John. Let’s get going! I kept leaving voice mails with John, and he refused to respond. Then, a new trend occurred. John figured out how to leave voicemails without the phone ringing. He sent me incoherent rants about Jo and Jennifer. “Get your people under control!” I had no idea how to respond and left kindly worded voice mails asking him to explain and reengage the company. Jo, Jennifer, and I were ready and willing to proceed despite all the negatives. Why? It was a solid idea worth billions.
At this point, John had stopped all communications, and I reconnected with Jennifer. It was then I learned how caustic John had been to her. Jo had been speaking with her and revealed the verbal attacks were much worse. I should have contacted Jo to get her side of the story. This was a mistake, but “mistake” is not the right word. This was a moral failure.
Then, Jo sent out a group text message. She had been hiking with her boyfriend, and they got lost. It was a harrowing situation, and, in the process, their dog died. She asked for a donation to some dog foundation. I sarcastically texted John, “Why is she asking us for a donation?” You know how life works. Yes, I texted the group and realized I permanently destroyed my friendship with Jo. We have not spoken since.
I tried to get John to reengage, but he remained silent. Meanwhile, I re-established a good working relationship with Jennifer. We felt John had lost control, and I offered to take over until he was ready to continue. Jennifer and I went to a lawyer to make this happen, who explained that suing John would be expensive. His solution was to write a strongly worded letter advising John to communicate with me. At this point, I still felt the company was worth saving, but John needed to step aside.
The letter worked, and he called me. We had a long conversation in which he blamed Jo and Jennifer for everything. I asked him to take a break while I got things back on track. He wanted no part of that.
I thought about suing John with the idea of him turning over his stock shares but decided a lawsuit would not work because he had no money and would never turn over the company. What about the money the three of us invested in the company? The majority was still in the company bank account. Until then, we only spent money on printer ink, business cards, and stationery. I never got a dime back.
My last course of action was a blocking one. I submitted the second patent under my name to prevent John from doing so. I feared he would sell both patents, but the joke was on me.
Over the next five years, little happened. I learned that John had shut down the corporation, and the patent office rejected the first patent because it contained example names like Microsoft and Yahoo, which are trademarked. The problem was the patent did not have the TM logo after the names. This would take about five minutes to fix and a day to resubmit. The patent office sent John the notice, and he did not respond. Thus, the patent was rejected.
The patent office rejected the second patent because it was too broad. I had the option to break up the single patent into eight patents but did not because it would be too much work. I later learned that if I had spent the effort, all eight patents would have been rejected because they would have been based on a rejected patent.
Out of the blue, I got a call from somebody researching patents. They had all kinds of questions, but I told them that the patents were in the public domain and she did not have to ask my permission to use the information. The lady wanted to use me as a consultant, but I never heard back.
Now, I must take a side track and think of your perspective. Again, my writing side is poking through. You are probably thinking, “You know, I am glad you failed. The last thing I need is more advertising cluttering up my search. Jerk!” I almost agree, but let me tell you about last night.
I watched Rick and Morty (for the millionth time) on the streaming service Hulu. It automatically inserts commercials, and the same three kept appearing in the same order. Some skin care drug, Progressive Insurance, and a car dealership from a city I do not live in. But at least Progressive had several commercials to choose from. Nope, I got the same worthless one.
This repetition got me all worked up. If there was only some way I could communicate this frustration. This is what Ad Reporter did. It was the feedback loop that got quality advertisements in front of people.
Is this good for you? You are undoubtedly unaware of products and services that can improve your life, meaning that advertisements could be less annoying and possibly helpful. Imagine such a world.
One would think that big internet companies would have snapped up this idea. After all, the patent is in the public domain. The problem is the same one that existed before the patent. People in big internet are not marketing types, so they cannot see the value. This is still a multi-billion-dollar idea but remains a historical internet footnote.
What did I get out of all of this? I learned all about how to write patents, how to form a corporation, and how to start a business. I also learned about people and how to coordinate a team better. My big takeaway was what not to do.
What was the big failure? My best guess is that John had a nervous breakdown. He tried to do everything himself and refused to let us do our assigned role. I think the idea of succeeding scared him to the core.
How could I have known that John had this significant flaw? It was all there. The pompous attitude, the smug comments… I should have put more effort into discussing a proper partnership and defining our roles initially. Doing so would have revealed the problem. Why? John would have insisted on “me, me, me” for who would do what. Then I would have said, “But you are one person. You cannot do everything.” That would have angered him, and the partnership would have stopped immediately.
Should I have joined this venture? Here is the problem. From my perspective, I did everything correctly. Initially, I assessed that John was the right person to lead the venture. His idea was rock solid, and so was the plan to make it happen. John had assembled a good team, and we were all on the same page. This should have worked. Yeah, no.
My big problem was misjudging John. It is now clear that he was an overcompensating person. His plan to succeed was to fake it, meaning he convinced himself that he knew more than the big internet companies. So, when it came time for him to shine, he folded. The results were 100% predictable.
To answer the question, I wish I had passed on this project. Yes, I learned a lot, but there was never a chance of success. Sure, John worked hard, but he worked on the wrong things. His failings gave him a shaky foundation to build anything. Success needs every team member to focus, which applies the most to the team leader.
What about his idea? It was as brilliant as it was not thought out. Remember that ROI? John indeed identified the problem, but his solution had no merit. I was the one who located the issues, established the solutions, and documented everything.
What advice do I have for people looking to start a business? “When selecting a business partner, do so with more effort than selecting a spouse.” This means you will be joined at the hip. Will they step up to the plate when times are tough? Often, one partner ends up doing all the hard work. This turned out to be Jennifer and I. I advise asking many questions, developing roles for everybody, writing everything down, and ensuring everybody is committed. Then, keep the lines of communication open and start down the list of tasks. Everybody should know what the other is doing, offer their help/support, and agree on the plan moving forward. When an obstacle arises, immediately handle it as a team.
It was a painful experience to work so hard on something and be powerless to prevent it from failing. Some things cannot be fixed, and a person who fakes confidence is one example.
I cannot end this story without admitting to my failures. My first problem was not understanding Jennifer and Jo’s roles. They worked hard, and I should have contacted them to learn what they were doing and offer my assistance. The second failure was being more protective of Jennifer and Jo. John became a monster, and I should have stood by their side.
And then there was my arrogant text message. One could argue that it was inappropriate for Jo to have sent something inappropriate. That is not true. Jo was in pain, so she reached out to her friends. I was not understanding or supportive. I still have deep regrets about that moment. All I can say is that I will try harder in the future.
Why tell you all of this? Two reasons. One, seeing somebody else fail is entertaining. Second, I still contend that this is budget therapy. Thanks for reading!
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2...
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2...
You’re the best -Bill
March 19, 2025
I did not have enough money to make it happen, so I sought out investors, which required a business plan. I like to think that the year I spent learning to write one was an unofficial MBA. Then, I spent my life savings developing a partial prototype. Nobody was interested, and I admitted defeat.
So, I liked my wounds, found a job, and schemed up business ideas in my spare time. Since that first attempt, I have tried three more times, and this is the story of my most expensive failure.
In 2010, I worked for Northrup and became friends with a logistics coworker, John. One day, he told me about the business he was starting. It had something to do with advertising and the internet. I thought the overall concept sounded interesting and offered my ideas.
We talked every few days, but John was not keen on a partnership. Then, there was a massive shakeup at Northrop. The F35 project was completed, and upper management laid off the development team of 1500 people. I was a contractor on an unrelated project, and upper management laid off all contractors because it would look bad if long-time workers were laid off while contractors kept their jobs. While I did not like this decision, I understood it. Side note: My boss submitted my name and three others to the president of Northrop to remain on staff. How cool is that?
I lost track of John during this chaotic time, but fate intervened. A subcontractor Northrop worked with offered me a part-time job. It was not exciting, but it paid a few bills. One day, I attended a Northrop meeting, ran into John on the sidewalk between buildings, and got his contact info.
We chatted over email about his project, and he decided to bring me in. This did not go over well with his two friends, who were already on the project. I picked up on the rumblings but did not think it was a big deal. Authors call this foreshadowing.
John was not new to starting a business. He used to run a successful charity that brought together big business, government, and people in need. (Side note: Why was he not still there if it was successful?) He also started a movie company that produced two films. His wife got part of this business in the divorce, which contradicts our conversations.
Before I joined, John set up a corporation with stock certificates and kept 51% of the shares to retain complete control. I felt this was reasonable because I had seen other startups fail due to bickering. It did not dawn on me that this was too much responsibility. Wow, we are loading up the foreshadowing bus.
John had studied internet advertising for years and noticed a big problem. During an advertising campaign, a business could pay big $$ but not see the relationship between their advertising money and the additional profit generated. This is called Return On Investment, ROI. So, he cobbled together a method to determine this correlation. Side note: he was unable to explain it to me.
John submitted a preliminary patent for his idea and brought in two friends to help. The first was Jennifer, who would do the marketing. Her role was to identify a company like Google and show them how the service would improve customer satisfaction. John then brought in Jo, who would run the corporation, fill out the paperwork, and coordinate the teams.
As things became more organized, the foundation for a solid company began forming. This is when John made his big discovery. If you do a web search, this will yield search results, including advertisements. This might be a map of nearby businesses, a graphic (banner) advertisement, or, most importantly, the “contextual advertisements.” This is a text-based (not graphical) pitch related to your search. For example, searching for bread recipes might get text describing cookbooks or a cooking website.
John had discovered what everybody had missed. Contextual advertisements were (and still are) deeply flawed. Why? The people developing search engines are not advertisers; they are programmers. All advertisements need the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. John created a system to generate an advertisement with four text lines for each P. A place example would be: “This cookbook is available at a bookstore three blocks from your location.” Brilliant!
The team was preparing to approach a company at the stage I joined. I would be a technical helper but would not get any stock until I had proven myself. No problem. I threw myself into understanding advertising and hit a roadblock. I could not understand John’s patent. We spent hundreds of hours over the phone/email/documents until I had a moment of clarity. Then, the main issue was obvious.
John had put the horse behind the cart. This was not an advertisement reporting system but a new marketing technique/database with a reporting back end. So, I began rearranging, simplifying, adding, clarifying, and deleting unnecessary junk from the patent. The result was a clean advertising system that an expert could understand.
With this system, users (people/companies that place contextual advertisements) would enter data for their advertisement, choose where the advertisements get placed, see the real-time result, how the advertisement affected their bottom line, and better target their audience. Brilliant!
John gave me stock with the patent improvement, and I paid for more. This would be a billion-dollar company, so I felt it was a wise investment. But… What were Jennifer and Jo doing at this time? From John’s perspective, being a pain. I ignored the situation because I was on the technical side. That was a big mistake.
I must take a side track. Since becoming a writer, my perspective has changed, making me wonder what Jennifer and Jo thought about me. Until writing this very sentence, it had not occurred to me to give the matter some thought. (Note: This happened in 2010, and I have spent a lot of effort trying to forget this failure.) So, I noodled the matter and felt they were upset about me jumping in and hogging the spotlight. My work proved they were not ready to approach a company because the work done so far in marketing was flawed. Jennifer had followed John’s marketing direction based on a backward idea. Now that we had a proper direction, the actual marketing work began.
Jo was probably just as upset because I came in and shook things up. Until then, she was the right-hand person who ran the business while John took care of the technical details. When I took over the technical side, John focused on the business parts. I imagine Jo was upset with me for delaying the point where we would make money, and it was clear she was upset with John for micromanaging her.
What was John feeling? He was excited that a talented and hard-working person had joined the team. I now see John’s sadistic side. He took pleasure in challenging and belittling Jennifer and Jo. Until writing this sentence, I did not put that together.
Why did Jennifer and Jo stick around? (Writers call this character motivation.) They saw that the company was on the verge of making billions, and they had stock. So, they put up with him. Money is always a strong motivation.
John and I burned the midnight oil to submit the first patent, and the team began the next phase of the operation, approaching a company. We sought investors to build the software database and program the web interface. But… Were we really doing that? In retrospect, our goals were all over the place despite having direction. We had Monday night Skype meetings, which lacked focus, and this led to arguments about the direction we were taking.
This lack of direction frustrated me, and I offered to develop the next phase, which was taking the 4P system to other platforms (beyond search engines) and different advertisement types. This included graphical banners, television, video games, and print. Plus, I got way deep into defining exactly how the website and database worked. The result was a giant (foreshadowing) patent.
Out of the blue, John wanted to bring in three new people. Jo, Jennifer, and I were not keen on the idea, but because of the 51%, we were not part of the discussion. What were these three people going to do? Their role was utterly undefined, but the joke was on John. They all wanted to stock up front, or they would not participate. John did not like this attitude, and we never heard from them again. Reading that sentence still makes me laugh all these years later.
While I spent every free moment working on the second patent, John, Jo, and Jennifer were butting heads. I chose to bow out of the feud and now see that I should have stopped all work and acted as a mediator. Things rapidly spun out of control, and John became verbally abusive.
A good example of this conflict was developing the “tri-fold.” This two-sided piece of paper folds in three, resulting in six columns. The single document quickly breaks down what our company was about and what we were looking for. John insisted on having a tri-fold, and we all put in tremendous effort to create one. The problem was that we each had different ideas of what to focus on, and the exact wording was a huge issue. The arguments became heated, and something that should have taken a week took over two months.
What were Jo and Jennifer doing that was so bad? Their assigned jobs. Jennifer’s role was marketing, and she was fantastic at it. She was bright and had a solid plan. Instead, John wanted total control, but his plan changed daily, and he could not communicate his ideas to Jennifer.
Meanwhile, Jo wanted to define the corporation and assist with the marketing. I was happy she was there and liked her ideas. Or was I? I now see the first big crack of failure as the friction between Jo and the rest of the team. I foolishly took John’s side, agreeing that Jo had become a liability. I should have acted like a neutral party and supported her role. Next was the battle between Jennifer and John. She offered solid practical ideas while John shot for the moon. The arguments got so bad that we stopped the weekly meetings.
During this time, I had worked hard on the second patent, which involved talking to John every night about the technology ideas. During our conversations, he was convinced Jo and Jennifer were out to take over or sabotage the company. I regret to say that I agreed with John’s misgivings. So, he hatched a plan. The company needed (I do not recall the exact amount) twenty thousand dollars to continue, which would come from the stockholders. The idea was that if one of the stockholders could not pay, they would be voted out of the company. I have since checked, and it does not work that way, so this was a foolish plan.
I recall Jo had about 10%, Jennifer about 15%, and I had been given or purchased about 24%. So, this meant Jo had to pay (I recall) $2,000. Her income came from her catering company, which made little money. So, this was a big ask. Well, she paid, which torpedoed John’s plan. He was furious.
Where were we at this point? We had a patent in review, another patent ready to be submitted, a trifold brochure, business cards, a PowerPoint presentation, printed stationery, a business plan, a technical description, and corporation-issued stock. The entire business rested on the first patent in my name and John’s, not Jo and Jennifer’s. Yes, this was intentional and should have been a big red flag. Plus, I do not think they ever saw the patent or the technical description, which was also deliberate and another big red flag.
The weekly meeting had stopped, and John and I began to argue about the company’s direction. John took over the marketing by sending out poorly written introduction letters (I think this included the tri-fold) to Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook. And WOW! Facebook was interested!!!! Yay! We made it! Success!
Let’s get going! Crickets… Hey John. Let’s get going! I kept leaving voice mails with John, and he refused to respond. Then, a new trend occurred. John figured out how to leave voicemails without the phone ringing. He sent me incoherent rants about Jo and Jennifer. “Get your people under control!” I had no idea how to respond and left kindly worded voice mails asking him to explain and reengage the company. Jo, Jennifer, and I were ready and willing to proceed despite all the negatives. Why? It was a solid idea worth billions.
At this point, John had stopped all communications, and I reconnected with Jennifer. It was then I learned how caustic John had been to her. Jo had been speaking with her and revealed the verbal attacks were much worse. I should have contacted Jo to get her side of the story. This was a mistake, but “mistake” is not the right word. This was a moral failure.
Then, Jo sent out a group text message. She had been hiking with her boyfriend, and they got lost. It was a harrowing situation, and, in the process, their dog died. She asked for a donation to some dog foundation. I sarcastically texted John, “Why is she asking us for a donation?” You know how life works. Yes, I texted the group and realized I permanently destroyed my friendship with Jo. We have not spoken since.
I tried to get John to reengage, but he remained silent. Meanwhile, I re-established a good working relationship with Jennifer. We felt John had lost control, and I offered to take over until he was ready to continue. Jennifer and I went to a lawyer to make this happen, who explained that suing John would be expensive. His solution was to write a strongly worded letter advising John to communicate with me. At this point, I still felt the company was worth saving, but John needed to step aside.
The letter worked, and he called me. We had a long conversation in which he blamed Jo and Jennifer for everything. I asked him to take a break while I got things back on track. He wanted no part of that.
I thought about suing John with the idea of him turning over his stock shares but decided a lawsuit would not work because he had no money and would never turn over the company. What about the money the three of us invested in the company? The majority was still in the company bank account. Until then, we only spent money on printer ink, business cards, and stationery. I never got a dime back.
My last course of action was a blocking one. I submitted the second patent under my name to prevent John from doing so. I feared he would sell both patents, but the joke was on me.
Over the next five years, little happened. I learned that John had shut down the corporation, and the patent office rejected the first patent because it contained example names like Microsoft and Yahoo, which are trademarked. The problem was the patent did not have the TM logo after the names. This would take about five minutes to fix and a day to resubmit. The patent office sent John the notice, and he did not respond. Thus, the patent was rejected.
The patent office rejected the second patent because it was too broad. I had the option to break up the single patent into eight patents but did not because it would be too much work. I later learned that if I had spent the effort, all eight patents would have been rejected because they would have been based on a rejected patent.
Out of the blue, I got a call from somebody researching patents. They had all kinds of questions, but I told them that the patents were in the public domain and she did not have to ask my permission to use the information. The lady wanted to use me as a consultant, but I never heard back.
Now, I must take a side track and think of your perspective. Again, my writing side is poking through. You are probably thinking, “You know, I am glad you failed. The last thing I need is more advertising cluttering up my search. Jerk!” I almost agree, but let me tell you about last night.
I watched Rick and Morty (for the millionth time) on the streaming service Hulu. It automatically inserts commercials, and the same three kept appearing in the same order. Some skin care drug, Progressive Insurance, and a car dealership from a city I do not live in. But at least Progressive had several commercials to choose from. Nope, I got the same worthless one.
This repetition got me all worked up. If there was only some way I could communicate this frustration. This is what Ad Reporter did. It was the feedback loop that got quality advertisements in front of people.
Is this good for you? You are undoubtedly unaware of products and services that can improve your life, meaning that advertisements could be less annoying and possibly helpful. Imagine such a world.
One would think that big internet companies would have snapped up this idea. After all, the patent is in the public domain. The problem is the same one that existed before the patent. People in big internet are not marketing types, so they cannot see the value. This is still a multi-billion-dollar idea but remains a historical internet footnote.
What did I get out of all of this? I learned all about how to write patents, how to form a corporation, and how to start a business. I also learned about people and how to coordinate a team better. My big takeaway was what not to do.
What was the big failure? My best guess is that John had a nervous breakdown. He tried to do everything himself and refused to let us do our assigned role. I think the idea of succeeding scared him to the core.
How could I have known that John had this significant flaw? It was all there. The pompous attitude, the smug comments… I should have put more effort into discussing a proper partnership and defining our roles initially. Doing so would have revealed the problem. Why? John would have insisted on “me, me, me” for who would do what. Then I would have said, “But you are one person. You cannot do everything.” That would have angered him, and the partnership would have stopped immediately.
Should I have joined this venture? Here is the problem. From my perspective, I did everything correctly. Initially, I assessed that John was the right person to lead the venture. His idea was rock solid, and so was the plan to make it happen. John had assembled a good team, and we were all on the same page. This should have worked. Yeah, no.
My big problem was misjudging John. It is now clear that he was an overcompensating person. His plan to succeed was to fake it, meaning he convinced himself that he knew more than the big internet companies. So, when it came time for him to shine, he folded. The results were 100% predictable.
To answer the question, I wish I had passed on this project. Yes, I learned a lot, but there was never a chance of success. Sure, John worked hard, but he worked on the wrong things. His failings gave him a shaky foundation to build anything. Success needs every team member to focus, which applies the most to the team leader.
What about his idea? It was as brilliant as it was not thought out. Remember that ROI? John indeed identified the problem, but his solution had no merit. I was the one who located the issues, established the solutions, and documented everything.
What advice do I have for people looking to start a business? “When selecting a business partner, do so with more effort than selecting a spouse.” This means you will be joined at the hip. Will they step up to the plate when times are tough? Often, one partner ends up doing all the hard work. This turned out to be Jennifer and I. I advise asking many questions, developing roles for everybody, writing everything down, and ensuring everybody is committed. Then, keep the lines of communication open and start down the list of tasks. Everybody should know what the other is doing, offer their help/support, and agree on the plan moving forward. When an obstacle arises, immediately handle it as a team.
It was a painful experience to work so hard on something and be powerless to prevent it from failing. Some things cannot be fixed, and a person who fakes confidence is one example.
I cannot end this story without admitting to my failures. My first problem was not understanding Jennifer and Jo’s roles. They worked hard, and I should have contacted them to learn what they were doing and offer my assistance. The second failure was being more protective of Jennifer and Jo. John became a monster, and I should have stood by their side.
And then there was my arrogant text message. One could argue that it was inappropriate for Jo to have sent something inappropriate. That is not true. Jo was in pain, so she reached out to her friends. I was not understanding or supportive. I still have deep regrets about that moment. All I can say is that I will try harder in the future.
Why tell you all of this? Two reasons. One, seeing somebody else fail is entertaining. Second, I still contend that this is budget therapy. Thanks for reading!
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2...
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2...
You’re the best -Bill
March 19, 2025
