Streams of Thought: Where Are They Now?
A few years ago, VH1 ran a program called Where Are They Now that tracked down artists that had faded from wider public view. So I thought it only fitting that, as part of this "Decade of Streaming Media.com" issue, I track down a few people who had played varying roles in the advent of streaming media.
Kerry Lange
Some readers might remember Lange from the early days of the Streaming Media tradeshows. Lange held various roles, starting in logistics and moving up to conference programming and exhibit sales until 2003.
Today, Lange handles the day-to-day management of Ammo Marketing, which deals with finding key influencers for traditional and emerging brands for an impressive client list including Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, Volvo, Brown-Forman, KPMG, Microsoft, and Lonely Planet. We chatted briefly on the phone last month, and she filled me in on the company she and a few partners bought from the original owners.
"There’s a group of us," said Lange, "from the ‘good old days’ that keep in touch. We have a Yahoo! Groups list and several of those I worked with in the early days—like Joey Manley—are still involved in the industry."
Bessie Delucchi
Delucchi worked alongside Lange, handling public relations and press relations. I remembered that Bessie had expressed a desire to go into fashion studies, so it was no surprise to find out that she’d completed fashion school. Both Lange and Delucchi are also involved in volunteer work with not-for-profits in the Bay Area.
Joshua Sharfman
The CEO and president of Digital Lava, Inc. went on to shift industries and ended up as the chief technical officer (CTO) of the California Association of Realtors and CEO of the California Association of Realtors’ Real Estate Business Technologies subsidiary. Sharfman, still sporting his trademark handlebar mustache, was listed by Inman News as one of the 100 most influential people in real estate in 2005.
Jeff Mortensen
I worked with Mortensen while in one of several temporary startup executive roles I did in the late 1990s. Mortensen went from selling streaming media hosting and delivery services for Tappedinto—a venture that later merged with Streamlogics—into selling traditional cable services in the Orlando, Fla., region and then back into the "over IP" delivery space, working with a Z-Tel derivative under the name of Proximiti.
Krishna Pendyala
I lost touch with Pendyala shortly after he sold MediaSite to Sonic Foundry. Today, Pendyala is involved in the financial advisor sector, choosing to stay in Pittsburgh to pursue his dual passions as chief operating officer and coach at Waldron Wealth Management. According to the website, Pendyala is responsible for "managing the quality of service, operations, technology, people development and the brand of the firm. He is very passionate about organizational performance and personal success."
Christine PereyOne person I’ve kept in frequent contact with is Christine Perey, whose Perey Research & Consulting firm was my first entrée into the world of gap analysis, go-to-market, and market strategy projects, doing early work for her and Andrew Davis, who went on to found Wainhouse Research.
From the early days of QuickTime (and QuickTime Conferencing) until around 2005, Perey was a staple in the videoconferencing and streaming research market. Today, she’s working an EU research concept that may eliminate some of the industry’s nagging search and synchronization issues within the next few years. In the meantime, she’s just published an impressive research report on the use of video on mobile handsets that received critical acclaim at the just-completed Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, setting the stage for her re-entry into streaming and video delivery slightly ahead of the current streaming media curve.
One recurring theme has come up with each of those I’ve talked to in recent weeks: They all use the skills they learned in the startup heyday of streaming media to insert a bit of entrepreneurship and forward thinking into the industries they now work in.