2009 is for All Web Leads

In many ways, it is great to have 2008 behind us. It was a very difficult year across multiple fronts here in the US.

For All Web Leads, it was a breakout year. Our business grew much faster than our industry grew. We matured as a company at an even faster pace. We are poised for great things.

2009 is here. And I am excited to see what this new year brings us here at AWL.

On the eve of the election...

It is November 3rd. Tomorrow is election day here in the US. We get to choose a president and vice president, and many senators and congressmen/women - not to mention governors as well as state and city representatives. In a uniquely American way, this chaos will produce order and an orderly transition from the old to the new will take place.

No matter what your political affiliation, we all can take pride in our great country as we engage in this process. I hope you vote and exercise your responsibility and your privilege.

12 weeks in...

It's been twelve weeks. 3 months. And what have I learned?

Well, I have re-learned that I love small companies. There is something very appealing about a group of people all coming together to accomplish something none of them could do alone. And being on the same page is so, so much easier when the number of employees is small. Clarity of mission - much easier. Clarity of plans - much easier. Changing course - much easier. Having fun - much easier.

I have also learned that I can more easily share leadership than I thought I could. I have really enjoyed working closely with the two co-founders, especially with Jim Waltrip the CEO to help him articulate and implement his vision for the business...rather than simply impose my own.

I am having a blast.

It's a new gig for Bill

After kissing a lot of frogs and not finding a princess (see below), my search has concluded.

This week I joined All Web Leads, one of the most successful online lead generation providers to the US insurance industry. AWL's team uses Internet marketing to turn consumer interest in insurance products into policy sales for most of the largest insurance carriers (and their agents) in the world. This company has grown revenues more than 100% annually over the three years, a remarkable track record for a young company. It is also a tight-knit team with a fast paced, energetic, and entrepreneurial company culture. Oh, did I mention the company is VERY profitable and is based right here in good, ole' Austin.

The two founders, Jim Waltrip and Ryan Patterson, are extremely bright and driven entrepreneurs who know how to build a business from the ground up. I am excited to be working with them to take AWL to the next level. My role is the company’s Chief Operating Officer or COO.

Stay tuned for more about this next journey of mine. I am pumped!

My new work email is bill.daniel@allwebleads.com. Check out our website for insurance agents at www.allwebleads.com and one of our main consumer sites at www.usinsuranceonline.com.

30 years is not that long...Dartmouth does that to you.

I just returned from my 30th college reunion. That means it was 30 years ago this month that I graduated from college. My alma mater, Dartmouth, is located in beautiful Hanover, New Hampshire, right on the Vermont border. Reunions are held for our class - the class of 1978 - very five years so this is the sixth time since we all graduated that we gathered in Hanover to...well, read on.

Laurel and I began our time at this reunion on Weds. 6/11 by spending the night in the Ravine Lodge at Mt. Moosilauke.

This lodge was built by members of the Dartmouth Outing Club, a club at Dartmouth focused on hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, etc. It has been around forever and maintains this rustic lodge as well as the portion of the Appalachian Trail that runs right through Dartmouth's campus (and more.)



We hiked up Mt. Moosilauke - a 7.6 mile round trip - on Thursday 6/12 with a small group of '78s (Lex Bond Bundschuh, Doug Wildes, and Paul Conklin; Dave Hov and Fred Siekert hiked later that morning.) This was my first time back to the Ravine Lodge and Mt. Moosilauke since September 1974 - my freshman year at Dartmouth. Like most freshman even to this day, my time at Dartmouth began with a hiking trip that ended at Mt. Moosilauke and the Ravine Lodge. It has not changed at all in 34 years.

It’s fun to think back to my freshman trip in the Fall of 1974. I saw several of the people on that trip this past weekend at Dartmouth. Of my closest friends in life, a majority came from my Dartmouth years. In fact, when I think of the friends I made during my four years at Dartmouth, followed by all the weddings, the raising our families, the pursuits of our lives, etc. and then realize that the bonds we formed in Hanover have not only lasted 34+ years but appear to be on their way to lasting a lifetime, I am truly amazed. Dartmouth does that somehow.

It was a hard days day (and night)

I recently spent the day with my college friend, Bill Petit, about whom I wrote in my very first post on this blog (see below, July 30, 2007 post). Bill has endured nine months of hell on earth since the unfathomable tragedy that befell he and his family on July 23, 2007. Bill is a hero to me. He gets up each day and finds a way to make it through. He is not yet OK...or as he says it: he has "ok days and horrible nights."

It is hard. Very, very hard. Yet on a warm spring day in march, in San Antonio the day of the NCAA men's basketball championship game between Kansas and Memphis, Bill took time out to be with me. We talked. We shared. We reminisced. We laughed. We cried. He may have thought of it as me spending time with him. Before I got there, so did I. But when I left, and looking back on it, it really was Bill spending time with me. It was hard for Bill. A hard days day. But he graciously and unselfishly poured out his heart that day to me.

I still think about that day. Every day.

WOW: Big Bend National Park - March 2008

Laurel and I just returned from a week in Big Bend National Park. We spent part of the time with her parents and part just the two of us. In a word, "WOW!"

At almost 1,000,000 acres, Big Bend is big. And the terrain is quite diverse - from the Rio Grande, to canyons, to mountains, to forests, to deserts. Sort of like Texas, I guess.

We drove 1,200 miles in the week - it's a long way there and back - and saw a whole new part of Texas (new to us). Beautiful. Inspiring.

Spring has sprung...and I am looking for a princess

There is no mistaking it is spring here in central Texas. The mountain laurels and bartlett pear trees are in full bloom and fields of blue bonnets are starting to sprout.

March is upon us.

I have spent the first two months of 2008 kissing frogs...looking for that proverbial princess. Now I know it was frog turning into a prince in the fairy tale, but that doesn't work for me...it's a princess.

After taking a very serious look at two companies on the West coast (Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest) in the Fall of 2007, I passed on both. My bar for leaving central Texas is high: something extraordinary; something I simply MUST do. Although both of these companies are great and will, in my opinion, be successful, neither one rose to the level of extraordinary...for me.

Neither one turned into a princess.

During January and February, I spent a significant amount of time on a buy-out opportunity right here in Austin. Great SaaS company (people), wonderful niche, strong cash-flow, good growth prospects - completely boot-strapped with no outside capital. Perhaps a princess? I'll never know as my private equity partners and I were outbid by a "strategic" (e.g. a public company) buyer at the last minute.

Spring is (usually) a rainy season here in central Texas. And sometimes when it rains, it pours. Four other opportunities occupy my time as I write this. Will one be that princess? Perhaps...

2008 - Three Key Technology Trends to Watch

2007 is about to end. 2008 is a new year.

I believe there are three significant technology trends that are behind the best company formation and growth opportunities in our industry:

1. The monetization of search by way of Internet-based advertising. This trend started with Overture and others but is best embodied by Google's AdWords and AdSense offerings and the attendant amazing revenue and profit growth Google has generated in the lst four years.

2. Software-as-a-Service(SaaS) or delivering the functionality of application software such as CRM or ERP over an Internet connection from a hosted, typically multi-tenant, instance of an application. This trend has not only created a new business model for new SaaS companies such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite but also spurred traditional software vendors such as SAP and Oracle to offer their solutions in this same fashion.

3. Virtualization or the simulation of an entire server or PC in software. This trend has driven the incredible growth of VMware culminating in a spectacular 2007 IPO and a $30 billion valuation for the company (which is 85% owned by EMC.) A large number of venture-funded companies have been (and are being) created to capitalize on this trend.

Dartmouth Class of 1978 - An Amazing Group of Men and Women

President James Wright made the following remarks during his Tenth Annual Report to the General Faculty this week:

"And I am delighted to be able to announce today that the Class of 1978 Reunion Giving Committee, made up of Bill Daniel, Elissa VonHeill Hylton, Steve Mandel, and Barbara Dau Southwell, has committed to meeting two goals by the time of their 30th reunion next June. Now we need to understand that the Class of '78 broke all previous reunion records in 2003 when they raised over $14 million for their 25th reunion. They have agreed to do this again! They have committed to raise the $40 million necessary to name the College's new Life Sciences building and contribute at least $3 million in unrestricted gifts supporting the student experience. This current commitment raises the bar for class gifts to an unbelievable height. I am so pleased that we will be able to name the Life Sciences building for the Class of 1978."

I am thrilled. It really is astounding that this group of men and women has had such financial success and yet remains as generous and committed to giving back to Dartmouth at the same time. It is a honor to be a part of such a group.