Skip to content

1990s — Pen Computing, Gaming, the Internet, and the First Exit

EO (Aug 1992–Jan 1994)

After Apple, Barnett moved to Mountain View, CA and joined Pen Computing, working at EO as head of product management for hardware. EO was a spin-out from GO Corporation (Jerry Kaplan), funded by Kleiner Perkins with AT&T behind it. The EO 440 was a ~$2,500 pen tablet — about the size of an iPad Mini, designed by frog design with playful "ears," with snap-on cellular CDMA radio, fax, and email capability.

Ted pitched the EO to Gartner Group — they "made me feel like an idiot" with tough questions that exposed the market weakness. Handwriting recognition was ~92% accurate per letter, meaning errors in almost every paragraph. The pen computing wave collapsed: too expensive for consumers, not rugged enough for corporate, no always-on network. But the Palm Pilot later vindicated the category with a pragmatic approach (Graffiti simplified handwriting).

PF.Magic (Jan 1994–June 1996)

Product manager at PF.Magic in South Park, San Francisco, co-founded by John Skulski from Apple. Ted deliberately took a downward move — Director of PM at EO to assistant producer, working for someone five years younger. Made Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games, including "Balls" (3D fighting game that did well) and Dogs and Cats (Petz) — virtual pets that predated Tamagotchi (1996) and NeoPets (1999). Ubisoft bought the licensing.

The internet moment: Joel Dubner, an engineer at PF.Magic, showed Ted the internet one day. Ted had been running a First Class BBS out of his house. Seeing an early browser (Spyglass or similar) changed everything.

Ted left when first child Olivia was born (1996) and management dysfunction was getting in the way.

ActiveSite (July 1996–March 1998)

Founded ActiveSite, a consulting firm / startup incubator, with James Joaquin (Newton at Apple), Tony Espinosa (Apple), and Joe Beninato (met while interviewing at PF.Magic). Tagline: "Your website needs a product manager." Clients included Bank of America and Microsoft. Located in San Francisco.

The team explored several startup ideas — Radar Software (automating product development), property management software (real estate offices didn't even have computers) — before Ted's calendar prototype emerged as the winner.

When.com (March 1998–April 1999)

The pivotal move: co-founded When.com with the ActiveSite team. Ted built the founding prototype in Microsoft FrontPage — a social calendar with layered event subscriptions. Javier Rojas at Broadview Associates encouraged the calendar idea.

Fundraising: Jim Brock at Venture Law (Yahoo's founding attorney) as lawyer. Emil Waintraub at 21st Century Internet Venture Partners: $1.5M at $3M pre-money. Benchmark Capital: ~$6M at ~$14M pre-money, Kevin Harvey on board.

Technology: All C++ custom stack, Oracle database, own hardware at Global Center. No cloud, no open source.

Growth: ~200K users on their own, then the Netscape/Net Center deal brought 1.5M users "in two weeks." Competitors: WebCal (acquired by Yahoo), Jump (acquired by Microsoft).

AOL Acquisition (~1999)

AOL acquired Netscape in November 1998. The Netscape team recommended When.com. Barry Schuler initiated the acquisition; David Coburn negotiated. The offer: ~$150M in AOL stock (grew to ~$225M as the stock rose). Zero cash. One day short of their one-year anniversary of incorporating.

Ted and Tony joined AOL; James and Joe were let go (AOL only wanted engineering + product). Within ~6 months on AOL: 17 million users.

Ted found AOL soul-crushing — top-down, command-and-control. "It was like Office Space." Left ~2000.

Personal Life

  • Dad retired (~1990)
  • Amy relationship began (~1990); Amy was at General Magic (1993), then Violet (1996)
  • Olivia born (June 22, 1996)
  • Family moved to Seattle (~1996)
  • Brother Chris's wedding (~1998)
  • Willa born (January 29, 1999)
  • Started attending Burning Man (~1998)
  • First Burning Man — Aug 28–Sept 2, 2000, Gerlach, NV
  • UTS 20-year reunion (1999)

Context

  • Internet Boom 1.0 (~1995) — the wave that carried When.com
  • Hotmail acquired by Microsoft for $400M — "got a lot of people's attention"
  • Portal Wars: Yahoo, Netscape, Excite, AOL all racing to build sticky portals
  • Y2K (1999) — the peak of first-wave internet mania

See Also