An End to Chaos

My name is Darrell Heaps. I am 32 years old. I run a company called Weave Communications. Been doing this for just over 3 years now. Previous to this company I led a start-up web development company called NKaos Interactive Media. It was part of the Internet bubble and all things that it represented (except getting rich). It was an amazing experience that went from 3 of us using school computers at night to 25 people and 2M in sales, to almost bankrupt, then layoffs and finally a merger and trying to stay alive. The last couple of years have been tough, but things are changing. That leaves to where I am today, on the verge of another cycle, another opportunity that represents the dream from the early days.

I’ve decided to start writing this so that I can keep a record of the professional life I am living. My intent is to write about experiences and ideas from the past and today. I truly think there was an incredible amount of vision in the early days of the Internet, before the realities of what was achievable came into play. Even today, with all the advancements being made, we haven’t even scratched the surface.

I read recently read a post titled "That 1994 feeling" . It was about RSS and it's similarity to the impact of HTML. As I read through it I couldn't help think that I can feel it. We are entering into another renaissance period. The Internet is changing the world, it’s just taking slightly longer than we had thought. Instead of taking 5 years, it’s going to take 10. What is the world going to look like 5 years from now – in 2010? That’s an interesting number to look at isn’t, seems futuristic. Think about how much the world has changed from 1990 to 2000 and the Internet only gained steam in the late 90’s. Yes it’s true, I believe there is a great deal of change and opportunity in how the Internet and technology are going to make our lives better and I’m really glad to be a part of it.

But for now, I’d like to go back to the beginning, before all of this happened.

It was spring 1994, I had completed my 2nd year at York University, taking a dual degree in computer science and business administration. It was late spring and I was looking for a summer job. My dad ran a company that provided travel information services and this guy had come in selling Internet access. My dad thought it would be a good idea for me to see if I could get a job with them. So I called, got an interview and got the job after the first meeting. The company was called Altcom Internet Marketing.

It was a small company that started out doing fax broadcasting, then branched into Internet dial-up and websites. I was hired to sell websites and figure out how to build them. I worked with another guy (who’s name I can’t remember) that I think did some scripting and ran the dial up side of the business. A guy named Micheal Scriven ran it, he was in his mid to late 30’s and had a lot of things on his mind other than running the company. There was also an outside investor that I never talked to.

It was an interesting time. 1994 was when the first version Netscape came out. It was like a revelation. I remember seeing web pages display with really simple graphics and a grey only background. I was in awe. In previous years you never saw anything like that, the Internet was a text only world; BBS had some graphics but nothing like this. I thought, wow this will be just like video one day, this is going to be huge. That day I started to learn how everything worked. I found stuff online about HTML, printed out a ton of stuff and bought a book on the way home. It was a Friday and by Monday, I was good to go. Although I had a lot to learn – I began cold calling and trying to sell web sites.

Exciting as it was, I don’t have to tell you the hell that cold calling is. Anyone who had done this knows what I mean. It’s uncomfortable and when you don’t know what you are doing it’s even worse. So needless to say I wasn’t very good at calling people and trying to sell them on the “Web”. Some people had heard about the Internet and email, and some even the web. But a business having a web site – huh?

Eventually some of the existing dial-up customers wanted a site so I went about building them, graphics and all. I wish I had a copy of what they were because they would be funny to see now. Anyway it didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was the one selling and then building the sites, while the guy running the place was no where to be seen – hmm. As I said, it didn’t take long. By the time school was back in session (Sept) I had started a company with two brothers, Ian and Bryce Hough and we called it NKaos Interactive Media.