Originally Posted by
Beckles
Wow, does Gary Leff have compromising pictures of you people? Gary Leff was elected to the TalkBoard then as TalkBoard President, those are positions he opted to run for and solicited FT'ers to vote for him. He then resigned in the middle of his term to start a competing commercial interest and all but ceased participating on FT. It's clear to me his respect for FT, especially those who voted for him. To compare his contributions to Randy or SD1K is an insult to those two in my opinion.
I believe they were working on MilePoint for quite some time, and that Gary only resigned from TB when their new venture actually launched.
Gary Resigned TB Feb 4, 11, 6:46 am.
MilePoint Beta launch Feb 4, 2011 12:00 AM
Buuuuuuut according to
this Randy Petersen post on MP, the idea to create a site to compete with FlyerTalk was Gary, Tommy and Ed's idea, not his.
UPDATE:
"Just curious. Are any posters being paid by or have stock/equity share in MP?"
In this original question, the answer was clearly no, no one else had any stock/equity share in milepoint other than my acknowledgement that the original idea was not mine, that belonged to a trio of frequent flyers who approached me. At the start of milepoint and until just this past weekend—100% of the ownership of shares was mine. Also, 100% of the expenses as well.
NOW, as for the update. Let's understand that I'm not likely the most fierce capitalist out here. I started the things I do with no biz plan or even thoughts on would there be a way to make money—let's remember I wasn't a biz major in college, preferring major and minors such as Anthropology, Black History and American History. This past weekend I got together with three members of milepoint—gleff (Gary Leff), Tommy777 (Tommy Danielsen) and Pizzaman (Ed Pizzarello) to basically chat about milepoint. As part of the discussion, I decided to divest the actual ownership of milepoint and award to each of these three members, full title to "co-founder" and as well ownership stakes (They actually did not ask for share ownership, but my practice has always been to be fair and acknowledge others efforts). Again, I'm more of a surfer dude capitalist and it seemed like a good idea since the actual idea of another forum for frequent flyers was born out of their own ideas. While I carry the expenses of milepoint (and let's acknowledge milepoint is done in the fashion of whatever it needs to be successful for its members) and the majority of share ownership, they do carry decision-level input on where milepoint is and where it is going. In an executive committee basis, we are all equal and frankly as I told them this weekend, it is so refreshing to have the uniqueness of partners such as them. They are all quite different and I still can't figure out how they got together, it still seems like an oddball combination. I have to say i could not be happier to be partners with them. And I love the fact that they are like many of our members, simply very gifted and caring business travelers who have put forth their best efforts to help create a forum for frequent flyers. I do like the idea that milepoint is actually owned and operated by actual frequent flyers. Here's an example of that. When we recently announce the membership drive for Kiva as a community charity, who chimes in but all the co-founders. Gary, Tommy and Ed all volunteered to help and are in the process of donating $500 apiece in loans to the Kiva initiative. Say what you will, but I love the idea that the actual owners of milepoint are actively involved as leaders in the things that define and help make milepoint a community for frequent flyers.
Anyway, I no longer own 100% of milepoint and proudly welcome Gary, Tommy and Ed as co-founders of milepoint both in title and actual ownership.
If there are any additional changes in this area, I will as I have done here update the question and answer. Thank you.
(resume or invest? koko, like a few others, you could have dragged me out of my temp retirement and we could have been partners in milepoint if it would have been your idea to start another forum—though i trust you would have had a better name than the other guys with their "MileTalk" concept. Like the others, you're considered a good guy in my mind and actions and I would have considered helping or becoming part of your idea. As for investing, we could talk ...)