The Extraordinary Events That Led to the Sale of Telalink in 1999

Thomas Conner • Dec 05, 2013

Fourteen years after Telalink was sold to PSINet, the story behind the deal offers an intriguing look into how a Nashville-based Internet service provider navigated its way through the "speed-dating" process that ultimately resulted in its acquisition. 

This story was never supposed to be told publicly. We had decided that we would let “what could have been” fade into the past like the 28.8K modem. Nevertheless, out of loyalty to Telalink folklore, once the story (or at least a version of it) came out years ago in a local newspaper, I no longer felt compelled to stay quiet and, around this fourteenth anniversary, it‘s time to offer my version of the events that led to November 22, 1999.


1999 started with a bit of a reprieve for me. With the help of Frank Woods, I was able to negotiate a payment plan with Gayle Fuson of Bohan Carden & Cherry so Telalink could cashflow again. Additionally, “irrational exuberance” was in full swing by this year. The market was going insane over tech companies. Cash was pouring into just about anything with a “.com” in its name. The NASDAQ composite was skyrocketing, hitting a record high just about every day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also hitting new highs but the tech-heavy NASDAQ was the new sexy. Everything was coming up roses for everyone but business schools. They were suffering because 20-somethings saw no point in spending three years getting an MBA when they could become a “dot-com millionaire” in a few months with nothing more than a radical idea to “shift paradigms” or “create “synergies” with a business plan that didn’t even include a revenue model. “We will monetize this model later,” was a typical statement.


Several businesses were setting up servers with Nashville Regional Exchange Point (“NREP”), so that was going well. By spring, Ken and Jerry from ISDN-Net and the Telalink leadership (Bill, Tim, Bob and Thomas) began meeting about merging and that led to my meeting with ISDN-Net’s CFO about financials. Not waiting to actually merge, we soon started meeting with interested buyers and we presented ourselves as two companies that were “in the process of merging” and interested in being bought out. So many suitors came calling. I disliked most of them. We’d have visits from these arrogant, boisterous, “alpha males” who wanted us to be impressed with their grand “roll-up” plans, meaning they had all of this investor cash to buy up little ISPs so they could then become dominant players in the market. Typically, a CEO or acquisition specialist would fly in and we all had to dance a certain way. EVERY time I was in one of these meetings, I couldn’t help but feel as if I were in some kind of speed dating session (note: I have NEVER participated in a speed dating session).


It felt something like this (remember, we’re speed dating):


CEO: “Hey baby, I think I like your stuff. You got it going on.”


Telalink/ISDN-Net: “Oh stop it (fanning ourselves) We’re just a coupla little ol’ ISPs down here in Nashville who got together and had some fun. Have yourself a tall glass of sweet tea. Now, how badly do you want us?”


CEO: “Well wait a minute. I mean, you should really want ME! Take a look at my roll-up plan. We’re taking the Southeast by storm and my investors have millions! I was once a professional wrestler before I became a Kenny Rogers Roasters manager. I know EVERYTHING there is to successfully bundle ISPs and become the next big player in this biz. We’re going to be EBITDA positive by spring 2002 at the rate I’m going, baby! I’ve read The Art of War! But never you mind your pretty little head. I don’t want to bother you with such saucy language. Let’s just jump in the sack together. I’ll pay you something based on this formula that my finance guys whipped together: 


The original blog entry included an impossibly complex formula that has not yet been re-created


 (blogger's disclaimer: this is a real formula but is really just for demonstration purposes only) 


I have no idea what the hell this means but you don’t want to pass this up……and you can have a big time stake in our plan going forward....”

Blah, blah, blah. Whatever “the deal” was with the buyer of the day, we usually never got beyond the meeting where everyone was trying to impress one another. Meanwhile....


My first meeting with ISDN-Net’s CFO was a bit of a disappointment. We finally agreed to peek at one another’s financial statements for the first time. ISDN-Net proposed a merger in which Telalink’s worth was 40% and ISDN-Net’s was 60%. This was most deflating and downright insulting. 


“Exactly how did you come up with this?” I asked.


“The numbers don’t lie. Our revenues are a lot bigger than yours,” said the ISDN-Net guy.


“Yeah, if numbers were all the same, that would be true. YOUR revenue includes a lot of equipment sales and consulting fees. OUR numbers include a nearly equal amount of RECURRING revenue. THAT’S what matters with ISP mergers and acquisitions,” I rebutted. 

And so it began. Back and forth and back and forth we went with scenario after scenario. Slowly but surely, over months, the ratio headed more toward an equitable deal. This process frustrated me and gave me a healthy concern over how we would work together. I was feeling a little nervous and somewhat leery. Taking the minority stake in an operation of “equals” was definitely eating at me but we continued the exercise for some time. 


One day, in the middle of deliberations, we got a call from PSINet, the company that had a strategic partnership with NextLink and that had originally told us, at Telalink about a year prior, that we were too small for their acquisition interests. They were suddenly interested in buying our combined companies- Telalink and ISDN-Net. Rarely did we meet in the Telalink office (our space was quaint) but the usual suspects were all there, in suite 1 of the Euclid Court Building at 110 30th Avenue South. Ken and Jerry from ISDN-Net; Bill, Tim, Bob and me from Telalink; Eric Lunn from PSINet. 


“We’re very interested in your companies. VERY interested,” said Eric.


“Let me tell you something….unless we’re looking at ten times revenue, you can be interested all you want but we don’t have much to talk about because that’s what it’s going take,” said Ken in a pompous tone.


“Ummmmm, WHAT?!” I asked. 


“Yeah, where did THAT come from?” asked Bill. 


You see, ten times revenue would have been an insane deal. No one was paying that kind of multiple for companies our size. A multiple of two to three times revenue would have been a good deal. Asking for ten times your revenue was bold but unbelievably foolish. It just sounded as if we weren’t serious or, more likely, that we didn’t know what we were doing. It gets worse...


“Okay, well, I’m not going to talk about multiples until we see your financials,” said Eric. 


“We’ll overnight them to you,” said either Ken or Jerry.


“Ummmmm, WHAT?!” I asked. “I can’t have anything ready to send tomorrow. I’ve already got a busy rest of the day and it’s going to take some time to get everything compiled. I’ll need a few days if I really have to compile everything on this list!” 

I was mad and starting to feel like a fool. 


“Well, the sooner the better,” Eric said. Once we get what we need, we’ll be back in touch.” 


That was pretty much it. Eric headed back to New York or Virginia, or maybe to his next acquisition target. As soon as he closed the door behind him, I vented my anger.


“Guys, you can NOT promise stuff on my behalf and flippantly tell someone that we’ll overnight the most current financials to anyone unless I say that I can live up to that. PLEASE don’t ever do that again. The list that he gave me is long and it will take my entire week to assemble this. And another thing....TEN TIMES REVENUE?! If I were that guy, I would have left this room as soon as I heard that! When was this discussed and how could you say something like that when NO ONE would consider that.”


I don’t remember the response but I stormed out in anger. Maybe I got an apology. I don’t know. By the beginning of the next week, I sent a FEDEX package to PSINet, certain that I had held everything up because I couldn’t meet the “we’ll send them out tomorrow” deadline. 

Weeks passed and while there was no word from the PSINet people (I was certain that deal was dead), the Telalink and ISDN-Net folks had finally felt good about an arrangement that was at about a 51%/49% arrangement. Ken and Jerry had actually, maybe prematurely, had their attorney draft a letter of intent and sent it to us. All we had to do was sign and it DID finally meet with our approval. We scheduled a time for them to come over after the July 4th weekend. They would come to our office after lunch. It was pretty much set until….(Queue the music. What follows really did happen)


About 30 minutes before Ken and Jerry were to arrive, I got a call from a gent at PSINet. 


“We want to buy you.” he said.


“Of course you do,” I said, sarcastically. “What’s your multiple? One times revenue?” I was starting to get pretty bold and snarky with all of these so-called “We want to buy you” conversations. 


“I’m faxing a letter of intent to you as we speak. Looks like we’re landing right at just over $5.5 million. I don’t know what ‘the multiple’ is. I just know that’s what we want to pay for you.” 


“That’s stock, right?”


“Stock, cash, combination. Whatever you want.”


“Uhhh, but that’s for BOTH companies, right? You guys want to pay $5.5 million for both ISDN-Net AND Telalink.”


“No, we’re not interested in them. Just Telalink. For one thing, we had to ask for their financials for weeks. And, once we got them, we saw a bunch of revenue that didn’t really interest us. We’re looking for the pure recurring revenue companies like what you guys have. Have you got the fax yet?”


Have you ever been given such astounding, such amazing, such undeniably good news that you heart started pounding hard, you started breathing really fast, you were shaking all over and you couldn’t actually formulate discernible words? I pulled the two page letter off the fax machine. The more I read, the dizzier I got. 


"THIS was the deal!" I thought…."but wait! Ken and Jerry are on their way to see us right now! We CANNOT sign their letter of intent! I need to tell Bill and Tim right now!" I ran and grabbed Bill.


“You gotta…..you gottta…..you gotta look at this. C-c-c-come into my office r-r-r-right n-n-n-now……..look at this! I’m going t-t-t-o g-g-g-g-et T-t-t-tim. TIM!! TIM!!! TIM!!” I ran down the hall to find him. 


I found Tim and grabbed Bob and we raced to the conference room, knowing that Ken and Jerry would be walking in any minute. 

Imagine this next paragraph spoken in a nervous tone and a rapid speed: 


“Okay, here’s what we do. It’s too late to call Ken and Jerry. They’ll be here any moment. We can NOT sign their letter of intent and we can NOT tell them why. They can’t know about PSINet’s offer at least right now. Keep you mouths shut. Don’t say anything! We’ll just stall. Leave it to me. Don’t say anything. Keep cool. Look normal. Act normal. Don’t panic. We don’t have to tell them anything. We’ll tell them later, in a few days. Just, everybody, stay calm. I’ll handle this.” These were my instructions and I sounded nothing like a calm, normal, non-panicky dealmaker. I was shaking all over and my voice kept trembling, my inflection indicating a very abnormal sense of nervousness. I needed to pee. 

“We have to tell them!” said Bob. “It wouldn’t be right. They’re expecting to merge with us. They’re going to know something’s up. We’ve been talking about this for months!”


“I don’t disagree with you. We’ll tell them. Just can’t do it today. We HAVE to look at this offer from PSINet and we HAVE to do what’s in the best interest of the company…..and a $5.5 million cash offer is sounding MOST interesting. Look, today, we do nothing with no one but let’s keep cool and defer signing with ISDN-Net. We just need to….


KNOCK KNOCK! The sound came at the door. I hid the PSINet fax in a folder and clutched it tightly.


In walked Ken and Jerry. 


“Hey guys! We’ve been looking forward to this moment all day, haven’t you?” inquired Jerry.


Bill, Bob, Tim and I collectively swallowed. 

“Hey, have a seat. How’s it going?” one of us said.


“Okay,” said Jerry rather confidently. “We’ve done everything you requested. This letter of intent has got everything we negotiated included and, even though we feel like you’re getting more than your fair share, well, we’re ready to do this deal with you guys. Let’s sign this letter and get on with this merger.” 


My voice was still unstable.


“Oh, yes, well, well look at that letter. It sure is there….”


“You see? Look! 49/51! It’s all there,” said Jerry. He looked at me, noticed my discomfort, wondering if there was a problem. 


“Yeah, uh, oh yes. Yes indeed. Looky there. Yeah, w-w-well, you see. So, I don’t think we want to sign today…just yet. I mean, we need a little time to ourselves on this. You understand. You know. It’s a legal thing. I just think..” My voice trailed off. 


“But this is what we’ve all been working toward for the past six months!” Jerry started to look pale as I gazed away toward Bill, Tim and Bob. Their heads were bowed as they stared at the table. Jerry was trying to make eye contact with someone. He knew something was terribly wrong. “I don’t get this. What’s wrong? Why won’t you sign? That’s why we’re here!”


“Listen,” I said. “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to make you guys drive all the way up from Brentwood just to be told that we won’t sign. I’m, I’m really sorry about that.” My hands were clammy as I fiddled my fingers.


“We just need a little more time,” said Bill, his hand suddenly covering his mouth as his elbow rested on the table. 


“That’s it. More time,” said Tim, looking up at the ceiling. 


Bob couldn’t say a word. 


Jerry lay his head on the table, his arms enveloped around his head as if he were an elementary school student who had just informed the teacher- “I don’t feel so well,” which would be followed by “Just put your head down on the desk, honey.” 


Indeed. Jerry was down and out. Thirty minutes earlier and ISDN-Net and Telalink would be in agreement to merge. Thirty minutes, yes, but they DID have months to come up with a fair deal that would have rendered the PSINet offer a non-issue. 


Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the ISDN-Net guys. They were clearly disturbed and frustrated as we nervously sat around the table, no one offering any hint of what had happened.


“Well…..just call us,” said a defeated Jerry. “Let us know as soon as possible. We need to get this done.”


And I silently knew that it would never be done.


They left. 


My heart rate returned to normal. My breathing, not as short and rapid. We sat at the table a little longer after Ken and Jerry. We looked at each other, eyes shifting from one to another while keeping somewhat still. 


“That was weird,” said Tim.


“It was uncomfortable,” said Bob.


“We’re selling out to PSINet!” said Bill, smiling from ear to ear.


“I’ll call Frank Woods and Anne Arney,” I said. “Let’s call a company-wide meeting and meet back down here in 30 minutes. We’re doing it. We’re selling.”


It was July 6, 1999 at approximately 2:00 pm.


To be continued….


The Reluctant Shareholder and Other Tales Surrounding Telalink's Merger Agreement

By Thomas Conner • 16 Sep, 2014
As the summer of 1999 neared an end, so, too, did the independent life of Telalink Corporation. A “novel-thick” merger agreement with PSINet was nearing its final draft stage. Amidst the fine details being reviewed and re-reviewed, the Telalink leadership had to settle on a few things before we could sign the agreement and close the deal.

PSINet Adventures- "Why Don't We Just Take Him Out and Shoot Him?"

By Thomas Conner • 02 May, 2014
In the summer of 1999, PSINet was performing its due diligence prior to the acquisition of Telalink and it provided our first insight into one of PSINet's more colorful personalities - our soon-to-be new boss.

Adventures in Marketing, Collaborations, Joint Ventures and Merger Flirtations

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It's kind of like high school- who likes whom; who's doing what to get whose attention; whose parents are allowing whom to do what and when with each other. Except no curfews and everyone wanted the geeks.

Beautiful, Bountiful 1997. Hateful, Ugly 1998

By Thomas Conner • 27 Sep, 2013
Telalink was on its way to hitting $1 million in sales that fall. To celebrate, I called a surprise meeting one evening, announced that we had officially become a $1 million company and invited everyone for dinner at Amerigo’s by way of the longest stretch limousine that I could find in Nashville. The million dollar sales mark was such a landmark, and yet, we felt that we were just at the beginning. It was hard to look beyond Nashville with all of the opportunities in front of us.

Telalink Sales- Omelets to Order, Frozen Shoes, a Hockey Stick, a Beach Ball and the Cuss Jar

By Thomas Conner • 30 Aug, 2013
Meet a few members of the Telalink Sales team from the 90's. Enough stories for a television series.

The Mind Games of Mindspring

By Thomas Conner • 29 Jul, 2013
In which "All-you-can-eat" internet service for $19.95 is introduced in 1996 and forces the Telalink team to become the "business internet" provider in Nashville...and we get free moving labor.

Hooray! We're Number One! Wait....Really?

By Thomas Conner • 14 Jul, 2013
This is a story about how some basic accounting and being part of the most intriguing industry in the world paid off for the Telalink peeps.

"Thanks for Calling Technical Support. How Might I Help You Understand How Stupid You Are?"

By Thomas Conner • 17 Jun, 2013
A brief commentary on the evolution of technical support at Telalink Corporation. Just remember that Bill was phenomenal in many other areas.

"The Radius Must Authenticate to the Sparc"

By Thomas Conner • 20 May, 2013
My first day at Telalink Corporation, October 11, 1995, was fascinating. I had not been in the office for more than an hour when I received my first phone call. Actually, my desk, computer and phone were not actually set up yet so Mary Watkins, Bill’s mother, took the call. “It’s someone from the Winchester Police Department. Evidently, the neighbor whom you paid to clean out your basement and garage broke into your house and stole a window air conditioner,” said Mary. “The policeman wants to know if you want to press charges.” One of my neighbors was battling a drinking problem. When he was sober, he was a great guy. When he got drunk, he became somewhat mischievous. I gave a hundred dollar bill to another neighbor who agreed to be the escrow agent. If neighbor #1 (the beer lover) cleaned the basement (it was really a cellar. This was a century old house that had belonged to my grandmother) and hauled off all of the trash, neighbor #2 would transfer the $100 to him. Neighbor #1 performed to expectation. Neighbor #2 paid neighbor #1. Evidently, neighbor #1 then proceeded to liquor store #1 and perhaps liquor stores #2, #3 and #4 where he proceeded to convert the $100 into another form of liquid asset. He imbibed the rest of the day and found the courage to claim a small window air conditioner as a bonus. Neighbor #2 was able to watch neighbor #1 break into my house and find his way to a second floor bedroom before the commotion erupted during the air-conditionerctomy. “No need to press charges,” I said. “Tell him to put the AC back and stay out of my house. I’m about to rent it out and if he does something like that again, I’ll have to take a more punitive approach.” Sadly, my new renter proved to be a colorful enough character in her own right but I will save that for another day. Much was happening at Telalink in those days. Joel Moses was dedicating his weekly column in the Nashville Scene to all things Internet. He was giving Telalink plenty of good coverage and Channel 4 (WSMV) traded out commercial spots (“Internet! Twice the Speed! $35!”) in exchange for their own website and access. In fact, not long after the web came along, local news stories about porn on the web were gaining in popularity. It seemed like Tim, ordained by the Nashville media as the foremost authority on Internet porn, was always on the news, discussing the latest trends in the more salacious content on the ‘Net. Bill once commented that he knew that we were on to something when pornographers, gamblers and churches all wanted on the Internet. By this time in the story, Tommy was out, although he was still in. Still an equal shareholder with Tim and Bill, and still a resident of 110 30th Ave N, Tommy decided that this was no life for him and he opted to take a full time job with Vanderbilt. Not long after I arrived, we all agreed that the best arrangement was for me to simply buy him out. That would free him of any responsibilities as a principal and it would validate the importance of my position, not only as the financial officer, but hopefully as leader, negotiator, organizer, and strategist. For example: Issue #1: ITS Communications found out about Telalink and approached Bill about reselling Telalink service as its own service in the Nashville market. Telalink would get paid $10/month per customer. ITS would sell and support the service. While this sounded like an easy deal, ITS sold the hell out of the service and, if I am not mistaken, they sold it unlimited internet access, a still-new concept. Telalink customers were only allowed 30 hours a month but that was soon doubled to keep up with the competition. You see, unless we had an available phone number for every customer to be able to dial into our service at the same time, the first hapless soul to dial in when all of the lines were occupied would get a busy signal. Remember the early ads “no busies?” So, part of the challenge was to limit usage and kick people off after a certain amount of time online. We also gambled that not everyone would dial in at the same time. However, when ITS private-labeled Telalink service, the model was nearly blown up because they were selling accounts faster than we could add phone lines and ITS support was terrible. Back then, customers needed a lot of help, and some luck, to get online. Telalink had created an installer kit that got users set up and it included a free version of Netscape Navigator. ITS customers started to figure out that they were actually just dialing into Telalink and, because they could not get adequate assistance from ITS, they would just call us. Bill was not happy with the arrangement so I read the contract that they signed. It looked pretty simple to me. All we had to do what was give ITS 60 days notice of our intent to cancel. So, I wrote a letter to ITS, referenced the agreement, sent it overnight and added that we would only agree to renew at $35/month per customer. We got an instant response. They argued that this was the same price at which they were selling the service and this would kill their model. We agreed but showed no signs of letting up. If I recall, we were able to triple our ITS revenue for about 4 months while slowing down our phone line orders to a more reasonable level, not that Bellsouth was cooperating with our requests anyway (see paragraph 5 of http://www.thomasbconner.com/post/2013/02/28/whats-an-internet-again.582282). ITS decided to leave us and we were happy to dissolve our association. Suddenly, we had plenty of capacity to grow our customer base. Issue #2: As I recall, Bob was traveling back and forth to “Convent Place” quite a lot in my first few days at Telalink. Part of the reason was related to sheer brilliance. Telalink worked a deal with Charles, the owner, who had converted an old convent into an eclectic assortment of offices, yoga, banquet space, etc. The deal was that we would feed the entire building with a big pipeline of dedicated internet access and then break out lines to individual subscribers throughout the building. It would be a very cool amenity- one of the first “wired” buildings in Nashville...and Telalink’s margins would be very attractive. The not-so-brilliant part was the idea that we would move half of our personnel to Convent Place. Now, at the time, Telalink occupied two condos, conjoined by an enclosed upstairs landing. That’s a total of two kitchens, 4 bathrooms and total of 7 rooms (one was already our server room) that could be used for office space/work stations. Why would we need to split up our team and occupy space in another building? While it first appeared that we had no room, it was also true that Tim and Timmy still lived there. Bill moved out and his bedroom became our shared office along with Scott Holden, “aka Splotchy.” To learn more about Splotchy, go here . In addition, Vanderbilt friend, Dave Tempero (currently IS Business Manager for Network Systems at Nintendo), had his consulting business, Sector 3, operating out of one of the rooms. Finally, there was one more consulting company called Nvision, owned by Shawn Yeager, and I really never knew him or what his company did. He was sort of like Lazlo from Real Genius. Ever so often, I would see Shawn come and go with nothing more than a “Hey, how are you?” and then he would disappear. My point was that it seemed really important to me that we should try to work near one another (i.e. in the same office space), at least until I got a little more familiar with the basics- the who, what, where, when, why, and how of Telalink. In other words, it might be time for some other folks to move out so that we would have enough room for Telalink staff. No move to Convent Place. Issue #3: No insurance. None. On anything or anyone. All I can say is that the first insurance sales person who cold-called me was a lucky man. Until I could get a business commercial liability policy, workers compensation insurance and health insurance coverage for everyone, I went to bed dreaming of catastrophes, injuries and other unsavory workplace disasters that would render Telalink to the status of defendant or debtor. Issue #4: No staff meetings. What I remember were one-on-one conversations and debates between Bill and Robert Beckett, Bob and Robert, Bill and Bob, Splotchy and “the fat guy,” as he was occasionally called and almost everyone had some kind of crude comment to share with Tim in the event that Feisty (Tim’s cat) pooped on a cable or someone’s work area. Izzy, the other office cat, was generally well liked, as was Feisty, but Feisty was unbelievably artful in her fecal distributions throughout the office. I decreed that we would have weekly, face-to face meetings and, accordingly, would take notes. This proved to be a challenge. First, Bob spoke too fast. Secondly, it seemed like everyone spoke in code with letters: TCP/IP, HTML, ISDN, T1, T3, FTP, 56K, 28.8, Bitsurfr, blah, blah blah. At one point, in the midst of a spirited debate between Bill and someone, probably Bob or Robert, his passionate argument boiled down to one Shakespearean moment when he declared, “The Radius MUST authenticate to the Sparc!” He even used hand gestures. I had scribbled indecipherable comments throughout our first staff meeting but there was one thing that resonated, “The Radius must authenticate to the Sparc.” I thought to myself that if there is one thing that you take away from this meeting today, you will believe with all of your heart and all of your soul that the “Radius must authenticate to the Sparc.” The moment came for the scribe to report what was said earlier about something so I re-read my notes. “Bob said something about something that I did not understand. Bill disagreed. Robert disagreed with Bill but said Bob was wrong too....Let’s see, something, something, something and, oh, Bill says, ‘The Radius MUST authenticate to the Sparc.’ That’s really all I got.” Everyone laughed. It must have been funny. Don’t ask me why. Seventeen years later, I still don’t know what they were talking about. By the way, Robert Beckett is now Services Technical Leader for Cisco Systems. You can see him, still talking code, here.  Our meeting adjourned and we reconvened at either Harvey Washbanger's or Rio Bravo. I forget which but it HAD to be one or the other.

Interns Respond

By Thomas Conner • 03 May, 2013
was really glad to get some feedback from the Telalink intern graduates following my last post . There were a few posts in response on my Facebook wall that I thought needed to be merged into my blog so that’s what I am doing today. Before I do, though, I was listening to a story on NPR about how women novelists in the US were being classified in Wikipedia ( http://n.pr/16eApbn ). I was only half listening when the word “Kaldari” rang out and I realized that Ryan Kaldari was being interviewed! Ryan was one of the original “unofficial” MLK interns who attended UC Berkeley before working for Sitemason for many years. He left us to work for Viacom and he now calls San Francisco and Wikipedia his home. One day, I’ll write about how, as a student, Ryan wrote a $2.00 counter check to Rio Bravo to pay for his soda but he either forgot to sign the check or wrote so illegibly that no one could figure out how to contact him, which was only necessary because the check bounced! The Rio Bravo team knew the Telalink crew well enough to venture a guess that the $2 mystery check writer was somehow associated with them. And now, let’s hear from some of Ryan’s colleagues from MLK. First, Paula Pfleiger Thrasher writes: “I think I mentioned in the other post, not quite the full story on how the internships started. Carl Tashian was the first MLK intern, but I think he may have even started before the first official school co-op internship thing for school. Carl can fill in details there. I didn't start until October-ish timeframe in 1995. I had originally lined up an internship downtown that fell through right as the school year started, then ended up instead working out at the McClures in Belle Meade in the receiving department doing data entry on bill of materials/invoices/etc. I did that for at least six weeks then my boss got arrested for tax fraud. Plus it was mind-numbingly dull. So I was looking for a new internship when Carl invited me to Telalink. I started working help desk, and there was a paid employee called Rich (I think - I forget his name? Anyone else remember?). He was kinda passive aggressive and a little jerky. At that time Bill (Butler)/Bob (Collie) were sick of answering customer calls so they put up with him. He eventually quit (got fired?) and at one point the entire help desk team was pretty much me and Bill's mom (Mary Watkins). Crazy. Then we hired Scott (Sears) and later Marc (Powell). I never wrote any real sexy or famous sites, but I did write that dang support website complete with filemaker database backend (I think? can't remember) along with a little homegrown ticket system. Didn't make Time magazine though - ha.” [editor’s note: I am not disclosing the name of the jerky guy but I can state that he was not fired. He left for another position with another company] Daniel Templeton writes: “I was at Sun until it became Oracle and about a year and a half longer. I'm now two Years at Cloudera, the leading Hadoop distro provider. I did indeed marry Cari, and she's now been at Google for six years.”  Finally, Carl Tashian shares this fantastic memoir: Starting around 1993-4 I had dialup Internet access via CTRVAX and later via PPP from Vanderbilt's CS department. I paid by the CPU hour or something. Which at first was expensive, but once I moved to PPP it was actually the wrong way to bill things, so I could be on all day and would barely pay anything in terms of CPU. And perhaps that is why, at some point, Vanderbilt limited access to the university community and shut down outside accounts like mine... But I was hooked to the Internet at that point. I was running a MUD and writing code for it, running a BBS w/UUCP that needed nightly Internet access, I was playing with the first generation of web browsers, I was a newsgroup junkie, and I couldn't imagine giving all that up. I think I got an AOL account for a minute, but that didn't work out--it wasn't close enough to the metal. So I found Telalink. It was exactly what I wanted, but too expensive for me. Something like $40 per month? Way out of my price range. So (and I honestly think this is the first time in my life that I'd ever done this) I cold-called Telalink and invited myself over. I came up the back stairs and climbed a ladder to the roof, where Bill and Bob were grilling up some food and working off of RoofNet, which was really just one ethernet cable snaked through an open window. Anyway, that first meeting was a little awkward, because I was a shy kid so new people were a challenge. But after chatting a bit we went downstairs and I remember Bob showing me around-- the Linux boxes, the Cisco routers, ISDN modems, etc. It was definitely a wonderland for me, and the fact that Telalink had a 256k link was a huge draw. I remember telling Ryan and Paula about it. Anyway, I'm not sure how it came up but I started spending more and more time at Telalink. This felt like it was way before the official internship, which would have been from Sept 1995 to June 1996, where I worked about 25 hours a week at Telalink. Tim, Bill, Bob really stayed out of our way as interns, gave us full access to everything and pretty much let us explore our curiosities as long as we didn't get in the way too much. I think in particular Bill is a great leader in that way--very trusting. And that's how the HTML guide came to be--just by being curious and having the time to follow it through. It felt a lot more like a real job during the Official Internship period. I think it was Ryan, Paula, and I. At some point, before we hired Kelly Setzer, it seemed like all of the web & DNS servers were my responsibility. Bill gave me a pager. I took it very seriously. I'm sure I made a lot of mistakes, and I remember, when Kelly came on board, realizing that he was a Real Sysadmin. I learned a ton from him. Telalink was a great learning environment across the board, life-changing for me. And I think things like the HTML guide got me into college, ultimately. Because I wasn't that psyched about school, didn't take it seriously, and didn't test well. I wanted to make things people would use. Still do. BTW the Telalink Virtual Tour website is still up ( http://tashian.com/virtela/ ). I it threw together by scanning some pics from an old book on telecommunications from the school library. It’s stories like these that remind us just what a frontier it was back then but, maybe even more importantly, what great relationships, vocations and contributions came out of this “internship” community. So much passion to learn and create. I hope that we can get some more stories from other Telalink graduates. I also wonder where and how these stories are happening now.
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