Start-up section finished!!!

As per title – if anyone thinks I have missed owt give me a shout!

Regards

Lee

Video Uploaded

As per title I have now published the video of the talk I was asked to give at Sheffield University to a group of students in the software incubator. Sound is not good, video is fine.

Unfortunately this environment means that a whole bunch of detail can’t be covered, hopefully that can be addressed via this website, and the Q&A section was not recorded.

Video is available in three parts here http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/sheffutalk

Regards

Lee

Next update to the story

I have received a bunch of feedback and most of it was not anonymous

Aside for pointing out my lack of talent as an author, unsurprisingly there are a few people out there who have said they want to contribute to this story.

The journey was a shared one and one of the best ways I can think of recognising the contribution of each Plusnetter is for your individual stories to be included in this effort. 

My plan of attack is for the next chapter to cover the PNT story prior to the launch of Free-Online (late 1998). I was going to post up my next instalment some time next week but in order to give people the opportunity to get their versions produced I am going to hold off until April 25.

There will be a couple of options on how to handle the content – you can send me the content and I will up load it, I can create accounts for people on this site or you can upload the content wherever you like and I can link to it from this site.

I would like to encourage people to reflect their recollections whilst making no effort to second guess the contents of any other versions – people who share the same journey often perceive it differently! [sic]. I for one am very interested in reading different views of events!

It would be quiet cool to have the stories being published simultaneously but I understand that most people may be pushed for time – so don’t worry if you can’t keep up with the time line we can add stuff later.

So all you pre Free-online Plusnetter’s type away!

Regards

Lee

Why?

I have set-up this website to create a record of my life and experience of building PlusNet (PNT) and the relevant experiences prior to building said business.

What I hope to achieve by doing this is to give thanks where due, recognise the contributions of key people and also hold people to account for their actions (including myself) and to close the door on this chapter in my life. Mostly I want to place on record my gratitude towards my friends and colleagues and how proud I am to have shared the journey with my fellow Plusnetters and to state nothing will ever eclipse those feelings!

I will pull no punches and will, where I can, share full detail with regard to the key stages of this story – this may well displease some individuals but as they say “you reap what you sow” .

There is quite a bit to cover off and this will take a while to complete so bear with me, but whether you shared this journey with me or have a bunch of learning opportunities ahead of you, hopefully you can take some value from this. If not hopefully I can get a bunch of stuff off my chest

With regard to timing – although I decided to do this a number of years ago (loads of people suggested that I tell my story), it just didn’t seem right to do it until my relationship with PlusNet was truly ended and given how badly BT and some of my former colleagues handled my PNT exit that is a relationship that has technically lasted longer than I thought would. I am doing this now as my association with plusnet is almost concluded as the tribunal process I have been forced to engage in is soon to be completed. I will then also be in a position to put on an event to say thank you to all of my fellow Plusnetter’s who helped me greatly over the years.

I am going to try and do this by telling the story as it happened and leaving outright opinion pieces to the end of the process. It also has to be said that this task is harder than I thought it would be given the lack of access to a significant body of personal and proffessional records that go back a long time – so if any of you Plusnetters out there can help me with reflecting elements of certain sections then I would really appreciate it.

Contents:

[1] “My beliefs”

      Cultural learnings

[2] “Before PlusNet”

        What made me the way I am

[3] “Start-up”

        Generous customers

        Brave people

        Hard work

[4] “Middle years”

        Hold on we really can do this!!!

        Culture is everything  

[4] “Closing stages”

        PAIN!!!!!!!!

        More milestones

        More PAIN!!!!!!!!!

[5] “Successes, failures and fuck ups”

[6] “Heroes and villains”

[7] “My closing thoughts”

For those of you that want the quick high level version I will be uploading a video of a talk I gave to the students of Sheffield University, and you can look “10 years in one image”.

For the avoidance of doubt – throughout my time as the leader of PlusNet irrespective of causation I take full responsibility for everything that went wrong and claim none of the credit for anything that went right, credit belongs to my fellow Plusnetter’s.

Oh and apologies in advance, my grammar and spelling is not the best – this will have to be a case of substance over style!

Regards

Lee