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A Very Public Offering: The Story of theglobe.com and the First Internet Revolution

Stephan Paternot (Goodreads Author)

3.93 · Rating details · 15 ratings · 4 reviews

In the volatile world of internet start-ups, it can take just a nanosecond to lose it all.

A decade before Facebook, Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman created the first social network in their college dorm room. After a meteoric rise, theglobe.com became world-famous for its billion-dollar IPO, only to quickly plummet toward the depths. This very personal history details ...more

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Paperback, Second Edition, 279 pages

Published November 13th 2018 by Actarus Press

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Jan 25, 2019 H. P. rated it liked it

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A Very Public Offering is the story of how two students at Cornell started an Internet company and wound up worth $97 million by their early twenties . . . and out of a job and worth just a few million by their mid-twenties. theglobe.com was one of the first dot-com bubble cautionary tales. It also helped pioneered use of the Internet for community and Silicon Alley in NYC. And, believe it or not, but for a little irrational exuberance it might have been a viable community.

Stephen Paternot and T A Very Public Offering is the story of how two students at Cornell started an Internet company and wound up worth $97 million by their early twenties . . . and out of a job and worth just a few million by their mid-twenties. theglobe.com was one of the first dot-com bubble cautionary tales. It also helped pioneered use of the Internet for community and Silicon Alley in NYC. And, believe it or not, but for a little irrational exuberance it might have been a viable community.

Stephen Paternot and Todd Krizelman started theglobe.com while they were students at Cornell. A Very Public Offering is Paternot’s account. It was originally published in 2001. This new edition includes a new intro and afterword (it probably isn’t worth the purchase price if you already own the original version). Paternot landed on his feet: he got into film producing and founded a film finance startup.

The prose and the narrative are a little rough, but it is too good a story for that to slow it down. It was a heady time. theglobe.com IPO was priced at $8 but its share hit $97 on the first day. The even crazier part is that sixteen million shares traded hands the day of a three-million-share deal. The initial run up gave Paternot, who owned a million shares, a net worth of $97 million . . . on paper. Fourteen months later the stock price was down to $7. Paternot and Krizelman stepped down as co-CEOs when the stock dipped all the way to $2. (Most of Paternot’s shares were locked in, but Paternot did manage to sell enough shares to not lose everything.)

theglobe.com comes off as a little snake bit. Its pre-IPO road show came right as the NASDAQ dropped bigtime. It never got the truly crazy valuations of some other dot coms and didn’t raise as much money as later companies. It turns out that their investment bankers Bear Stearns screwed them. A secondary offering closed days after Alan Greenspan issued his famous warning about “irrational exuberance” and raised rates. Despite having at one point 30,000 paying subscribers and later a user base sufficient to bring in real advertising revenue. Maybe snake bit isn’t the right term. On one hand, theglobe.com had more actual revenue than a lot of Internet companies with far higher valuations. Does it make any sense for a company twenty times bigger than at its IPO date to be worth one-hundredth as much? On the other hand, it still wasn’t undervalued.

It was a fascinating time. But maybe it wasn’t all that different. Paternot complains (maybe a little too much) about how unfair the press was to him (but, then again, you shouldn’t be hitting the clubs every night when you’re CEO of a public company, and you should never be wearing plastic pants). And apparently message boards were as toxic twenty years ago as they are today.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of the revised edition of A Very Public Offering via NetGalley. ...more

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Feb 03, 2021 Shabbs15 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well this was the 3rd book I read that featured specific case studies on businesses or specific sectors, the other two being shoe dog (about nike) and the four (amazon, google, facebook and apple) and I have to say that it does get a little repetitive and tiring, perhaps because the writing isn't as good in this one, or perhaps because the entrepreneur goes through the same cycle of passion -> project -> realizing people love your business -> trying to keep up with growing the business -> IPO. I Well this was the 3rd book I read that featured specific case studies on businesses or specific sectors, the other two being shoe dog (about nike) and the four (amazon, google, facebook and apple) and I have to say that it does get a little repetitive and tiring, perhaps because the writing isn't as good in this one, or perhaps because the entrepreneur goes through the same cycle of passion -> project -> realizing people love your business -> trying to keep up with growing the business -> IPO. I mean, these are all unique and interesting stories that meant a lot to each writer in their own respect, but everytime I read another book, I feel like my presence is more and more on the sidelines, like I could never do something like and that the more I read about these life stories, the more I think they really weren't that great, when in fact, they were!

Should I read another business book, it would have to be about an industry that I know little to nothing about (maybe something like healthcare); however, I am fairly confident that I am going to break this rule, probably due to FOMO and just curiosity.

Nonetheless, this book DOES in fact give a very insightful look into what it was like during the birth of consumer internet and during the dot com bubble. You hear what it's like growing and IPO'ing a business right in the thick of New York and the in the thick of the internet and really what it's like to be a small fish in a big pond. Theglobe.com appeared to be a very archetypical company in the dot-com bubble and it was, but hearing the story from the man n the inside really gives us an account that has been missing when it comes to looking at the dot-com bubble.

You could really sum up internet attitudes by saying that back then you had to convince investors that people are gonna use the internet and why products like forums and chatrooms had any utility at all. People simply didn't understand, "why not just fax or use e-mail" they'd say. Now you have to convince people to get off the internet and no-one could've predicted what the internet was going to turn into and Paternot even sounds ashamed of what the internet has turned into in his epligous.

Aside from this, I found the epligoue interesting: Paternot's reflections over 20 years and his discussions about his future ambitions almost seemed as if another person was writing, and you could say that yes this was the case. Reflecting in his epilogue, 20 years later, where he has immersed out of the spotlight, reveals the following: how we all have our period of stardom, our 15 minutes of fame in human history and when our time is over, we fall back and move onto other things in our life. Nothing is lasting, greatness isn't lasting, success isn't lasting; he talks at the end about how his family is the most important thing to him now. Maybe family is the only thing that lasts. ...more

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Mar 27, 2020 Brett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Highly recommend this book for any entrepreneur or tech startup enthusiast!

This an outstanding chronicle of a high growth tech startup that rose to fame in the world’s very first tech boom.

The Author - Stephen Paternot - shares his account of the company’s history and adventures - including the early days, their IPO experience, the tech issues that arose and the conflicts with investors and bankers.

I feel that the Author is very open and transparent about his journey with the Company. He doesn’t ...more

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Mar 15, 2020 michael j. monahan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Paternot Knocks It out of the park!

A fast-paced, internet tale of the founding of the globe.com. Paternot is an excellent writer. You have a ringside seat to the founding, rise, collapse and rebirth of internet based businesses. I would recommend this book to any entrepreneur, business student or anyone looking for a fast, great business read.

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About Stephan Paternot

Stephan Paternot

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Stephan Paternot is co-founder & CEO of Slated, the world’s first online film finance marketplace. Powered by machine-learning analytics, over 1,200 listed films have received over $1.25 billion in investor introductions as of 2018. Over half of this year’s Sundance Film Festival selections and Oscar nominated films were made by Slated members in producing, directing, and writing roles. Stephan is ...more