The Music Man (Remixed)

Shawn Conahan: Erstwhile CEO of mobile media developer Moviso. With company's sale to InfoSpace, last issue's Wireless Review cover star is this issue's point of departure. Next move TBD, but will continue marching to the beat of his own drummer.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel some personal attachment to Moviso and the people who work here. But then again, my job was to take this company from the less than $2 million in sales that it had and grow it, make it profitable and return a profit. We grew revenue 600%, achieved profitability this year and returned about 150% to my investors in less than two years. The feeling of that success offsets whatever misgivings I have about not continuing as leader of the company.

I was having this discussion with a friend of mine a couple of weekends ago, and the story of Jerry Seinfeld came up. He left his show at the top of its popularity — it was number one — and he said, “OK, I'm done. I've achieved it.” He could have stayed on for another year or two, but he left on top. I kind of feel that way about Moviso. I got us into 70% market share, and the market leader position.

I feel like I did right by everyone here; I did right by the employees, I did right by [former Moviso parent] Vivendi Universal by returning them a profit, and I did right by InfoSpace by making them a valuable asset they can now grow in their own vision. It feels like a win-win situation all around. And I made a couple of bucks on the deal.

I don't see anyone prepared for the scale that's going to be required to turn the mobile space into a media distribution channel, but there is huge money to be made there, and that's where I'm going to go next. I think this is no different from John Malone and Ted Turner building the cable industry. Let me put that into perspective: The device is the television, the SIM chip is the set-top box and the network operators are the MSOs. But who's John Malone? Who's Ted Turner?

It's rather arrogant of me to compare myself to those people — I understand that — but it is my aspiration to be the John Malone of the mobile space. He built the infrastructure on top of what already was in place to create a paradigm shift in how media got consumed. I think wireless is the same opportunity. This is my life's work. It is a vision that spans far beyond ring-tones, I can tell you that.