Jay Adelson definitely has the passion for Internet entrepreneurship, as evidenced by his string of digital enterprises. Such is his influence in the global Internet industry that he was recognized as a member of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008; he as was also a finalist in the 2009 list.
Adelson started his career at Netcom, a pioneer global ISP, in 1993 as an installation coordinator. By 1996, he was already the Director of Network Operations in charge of network engineering, operations, and customer services; he also departed the company in 1996.
He soon worked for Digital Equipment Corporation to build, operate and maintain the Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX), later renamed as the Peering and Internet Exchange. He was instrumental in building a data center and suite of services for scaling Internet traffic and its core.
In 1998, Adelson set out on his own to establish Equinix, Inc. where he was also the Chief Technology Officer; he was in charge of the invention, design and construction of the company’s data centers and Internet Business Exchanges.
In 2005, he co-founded Revision3 with Ron Gorodetsky, Keith Harrison, Dan Huard, and David Prager. As CEO and Chairman of the Board in the next 2½ years, he raised two rounds of capital. He remains as chairman of the board although he has relinquished his CEO position in 2007; Revision3 was purchased by Discovery Communications in 2012.
In 2004, he also co-founded Digg with Kevin Rose, Ron Gorodetsky, and Owen Byrne. He became Digg’s CEO in February 2005 where he recruited the first management team, raised two additional rounds of capital, and led the company’s peak performance of 40 million unique visitors monthly. He left Digg in April 2010.
Adelson has made other Internet investments including SimpleGeo, a location-aware services company; Opsmatic, a provider of configuration management system; and Center Electric, an early-stage technology venture capital company.
No comments:
Post a Comment