The NetSuds (TM) Report

The December 4, 2000 Issue:

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Definition:  "com and .com" = Telecom, Datacom, IT or Internet

In this Issue:

     1.0  Heard on the Net
     2.0  Jobs in the "com and .com" Market
     3.0  NetSuds on Tour - Zhone & Optical Solutions
     4.0  Web Sites Worth Using
     5.0  Home Internet Access Poll
     6.0  e-Day Reflections

1.0 Heard on the Net

        1.1 People on the Move:

                Please email:  people@netsuds.com to report a change in your
                job status if you are moving from or to a company in the
                "com or .com" space.

                Arun Sobti, ADC VP & GM of the Broadband Access & Transport
                Group left ADC to joing a start-up in Silicon Valley.  He
                has been replaced at ADC by ADC CFO Bob Switz.

                PG Narayanan, ADC CTO just announced his departure from ADC.

                Todd Ortberg was promoted to the position of GM of the ADC
                Cable Access Systems Division, replacing ex-ADC executive
                and Optical Solutions CEO Darryl Ponder.  Todd was formerly
                the VP of Engineering of CASD.

                Brian Davies has taken the position of Controller at
                Crossworks, Inc., davies@cross-works.com, www.cross-works.com

                Dean Boorman is seeking a Project Management, IT Management
                or SW development Management position.  Contact Dean at
                651.739.1455 or deanboorman@yahoo.com.

                If you are a tech worker or executive looking for your next
                "big thing" consider interning at the NetSuds office.
                NetSuds sees lots of great opportunities every day in the
                start-up AND public company markets.

        1.2 Companies on the Move:

                Please email:  start-ups@netsuds.com to report (1) the
                formation of a new start-up, (2) momentum change at an
                existing start-up, (3) addition of key hires, or (4) a funding
                event at a start-up.  Please give details on the above
                including any information you do not want made public.  We
                are very discrete.

                NewsClerk.com entered in to 2 JVs to provide the Advertising,
                PR and publishers with digital reprints of copyrighted
                material.  Contact Bill James at bill@jitcorp.com.

        2.0 Jobs in the "com and .com" Market

                Please email:  jobs@netsuds.com to report job openings in the
                "com and .com" Market.  In the body of the message, give the
                name of the company and a URL link to the job postings.

                Nervewire - http://www.nervewire.com/careers/jobs.htm
                Optical Solutions - http://www.opticalsolutions.com/join.htm
                SpanLink - http://www.spanlink.com/careers/HEADER.html
                UniMax Systems - http://www.unimax.com/jobs.htm
                HighJump Software - http://www.highjumpsoftware.com/careers/
                Minnenet.com - http://www.minnenet.com/website.nsf
                CBS MarketWatch.com - http://www.cbsmarketwatch.com/jobs/
                Chaincast Networks - http://www.chaincast.com/
                BlueWater - http://www.bluewater.net/careers.html
                NexTel - http://www.nexteljobs.com/
                Marquette Bank - http://jobs.marquette.com/

Visit Rauenhorst Recruiting at http://www.rauenhorst.com/         "Helping to take you where you want to go."

        3.0  NetSuds on Tour - Zhone & Optical Solutions

        NetSuds loves on-site tours!  Email me if you want to show off your
        company.  I can be reached at matt@netsuds.com.

        In November, I visited both Zhone Technologies and Optical Solutions
        thanks to Zhone-ers Peggy Walsh and Ted Stockwell and OSI CEO Darryl
        Ponder.

        OSI is a Plymouth start-up building FTTH (Fiber To The Home)
        equipment.  This is a big-buck start-up bet which wants everyone
        to run their phone, TV and Internet services off of their fiber-based
        equipment.  The labs are big and impressive.  The equipment is
        state-of-the-art and you can see the generations from prototype to
        release 1, release 2 and future releases.  This is, in most senses,
        revolutionary, not evolutionary stuff.  The core is being deluged
        with optical routers, switches, muxes but the edge is still plagued
        with copper - most running V.56, not DSL.  Yes, there is voice-over-
        DSL.  But there is no true mass-deployable TV-over-DSL.  Yes, there
        are some cable modems out there.  Most just run data, not voice.
        Fixed wireless - keep waiting.  Satellite - yeah, some.  But FTTH
        promises 2-4 phone lines, digital TV and 100 Mbps ethernet drops!
        And people in New York Mills, MN and Perham, MN are enjoying it now.
        Cool technology, cool company ... but the wait to have it mass-
        deployed in the urban and suburban areas will be long.  Perhaps the
        DOJ should have been less concerned with MicroSoft and more
        concerned with those that control the "last mile".

        Zhone Technologies is a $500M "start-up" based in Oakland, CA.
        Their CTO, Jeanette Symons, frequents Minnesota on a regular basis
        to visit the Zhone-acquired Roundview folks who are now working on
        various IP technologies.  Roundview started out life as a SAN
        company but migrated to IP routing upon acquisition by Zhone.  Zhone
        has very ambitious plans for the last mile as well but with more
        evolutionary technologies which could see mass deployment in the urban
        and suburban areas soon.  They also have cool labs with some of the
        latest leading-edge technologies, great tools (everyone gets a flat-
        screen monitor on their desk) and lots of broadband Internet connectivity.
        The programmer's development environment is "west coast"; just like
        our beloved Vikings' offense.  Ted is an engineer's engineer and the
        place doubles as the Minnesota warehouse for Mountain Dew, junk food
        and leftover Halloween candy.  Zhone appears to be a fun place - like
        OSI - for engineers to work on leading-edge technology.

        4.0  Web Sites Worth Using

        Search Engine - www.google.com - For serious searchers only.  Yes,
        Yahoo! is a great new media portal but Google got me better results
        than Yahoo!, Northern Lights, etc.

        Software Updates - www.updates.com - This is a hot application.
        Go to this site and have your hard drive analyzed for updates to
        all your existing software.  This program even makes recommendations
        on freeware, shareware, dollarware and hardware.

        E-tailing - www.egghead.com - Ever since my first visit to onsale.com
        this has been my favorite place to buy computer equipment, office
        equipment, networking gear, watches and travel.  The savings are still
        great but the best part is their customer service and order tracking.
        Egghead and Onsale merged about a year ago.

        Software - www.tucows.com - The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock
        Applications.  Need a video viewer?  Need it on Unix, Mac, WINME,
        WIN 3.11?  They got it.  They got everything.

        Domain Names - www.register.com - Great for registering web site
        domain names (unless you work at an ISP).  The best part of the
        service is that you can find out who currently owns a domain name
        even if they don't list it on their web site.  So much for stealth
        mode!  Get their email address and phone number.

        5.0  Home Internet Access Poll

        How many of you are waiting for high speed Internet access from your
        home?  How many of you are tickled pink with your Internet access.
        Out in Chanhassen I live too many feet from my Qwest Central Office
        to get DSL service.  My cable TV provider, MediaCom, does not
        provide cable modem service.  There is no wireless Internet access
        although I haven't checked out Ricochet or satellite.  I know MCI
        and Sprint don't provide MMDS service right now.  I'm sure I could
        get a T1, T3 or an OC-3 but let's get real.

        How about you?

        Fill out the NetSuds poll at http://www.netsuds.com/ and check the
        results.  You can only vote once per IP address so you'll have to
        cheat creatively.

        6.0  e-Day Reflections

        The first day-long NetSuds event in Minnesota was a fun, exciting,
        worthwhile event.  Rich Karlgaard's keynote speeches were very
        informative.  He described the big 3 of the new Internet economy:
        Processing, Storage and Bandwidth.  The last of these, bandwidth,
        is the challenge before us right now.  The big part of that challenge
        is the so-called "last mile".  Dominated by the incumbent local
        exchange carriers (ILECS) also known as the "baby Bells" or regional
        Bell operating companies (RBOCs), the last mile is what connects
        homes and businesses to the miles of fiber optic networks that
        constitute the Internet backbone.   Minnesota has many advantages
        over Silicon Valley.  One, rents on Sand Hill Road right now are
        $20/square foot ... per month!  Engineering talent is very expensive.
        Graduating engineers are commanding $100,000 and more.  

        Collen Salo (Newbury Ventures, Silicon Valley), Shanti Mittra (Primus
        Venture Partners, Cleveland), MaiHanh Pham (Emigrant Capital, New
        York) and Daniel Rosenberg (Sterling Venture Partners, Chicago) all
        flew out to see our Minnesota entrepreneurs strut their stuff during
        breakfast, lunch and at the Training Camp.  Their participation, at
        their own expense, shows an interest from outside VC money in our
        talented start-ups.

        Our local VC and angel community also participated.  Michael Gorman
        (St. Paul Venture Capital), Jeff Tollefson (Crescendo Ventures) and
        John Risdall (Risdall Linnihan Incubator) all did great on our VC
        panel discussions.  About 120 people attended our first-ever
        Training Camp.  People walked away very fulfilled and more VC-savvy.

       You can check out the agenda we had for the Training Camp at
        http://www.netsuds.com/eb/2000/Nov2000/etc.htm to find out what you
        missed.  We will probably do this again in 2001 given the great
        feedback.  Events like this help create a better start-up climate
        because savvy entrepreneurs are more apt to obtain venture funding.

If you are aware of others who would like to receive the NetSuds Report,
ask them to visit http://mailman.netsuds.com/ to subscribe or unsubscribe.

Please send your comments and feedback regarding this issue of the NetSuds
Report to matt@netsuds.com.

Matt Noah

952.934.5424
fax:  425.795.2019
matt@netsuds.com

P.O. Box 277
Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317

(c) 2000 NetSuds.com, Inc.  All Rights Reserved

Re-sending of this newsletter to any number of colleagues is encouraged provided you also cc: report@netsuds.com.