sam 28/02/20 3:24 pm yeah.. of course jerry threatend to take
comany down etc. like i expected etc. bill had
worked something out with him payments over
time etc. and he came back and said no, thats
not acceptable (we gave him a senior secured
note even for it).. and he wanted a $300k
note.. ha ya riht
sam 28/02/20 3:25 pm so i told bill.. add up all his stuff/exp.
etc. take taxes out.. and pay him the backpay
within 24 hrs.. and i guess there's a small
severance since he washere from the begin. and
thats due in 30 days
sam 28/02/20 3:25 pm and basiclaly he owes the company a note for
his stock
bryant 28/02/20 3:25 pm He already all moved out?
sam 28/02/20 3:26 pm so i took all his leverage away by saying
we'll abide by the contract
sam 28/02/20 3:26 pm pick up ur pay within 24 hrs as needed by the
law
sam 28/02/20 3:26 pm and in 30 days, we'll revoe his equity if he
doesnt agree to terms on severance
sam 28/02/20 3:27 pm he was sying'ill bring the company down.. i
can cause problems, etc.' i was like'i dont
care what you do.. its totally irrelevant.. do
whatever u feel like.. we dont care.. we been
through it all, as u already know.. we're
going to follow our agreements and abide by
it'
sam 28/02/20 3:27 pm heh
sam 28/02/20 3:27 pm yeah.. i gave him a termination letter today
sam 28/02/20 3:27 pm because its the 25th
sam 28/02/20 3:27 pm 27th
sam 28/02/20 3:28 pm and he had severnace that built up half months
pay every 2 months or something.. so he doesnt
get his last one.. and it separates us for 30
days
sam 28/02/20 3:28 pm lets the employees get all used to everything
sam 28/02/20 3:28 pm then i can deal with him by playing hardball
on the promissory note
sam 28/02/20 3:29 pm hey u have to fight fire w/ fire :)
bryant 28/02/20 3:30 pm Yeah. I know he had been working in other
areas, so the change isn't going to be huge
for ppl like Jon and myself. We had limited
contact with him the last few months. Before
it was almost daily, but obviously after the
shift that wasn't needed.
sam 28/02/20 3:30 pm yeah.. same here..he wasnt doing much last 2-3
months
sam 28/02/20 3:31 pm and i asked dennis, bill, etc. in advance..and
they didnt have any problem.. so i said
ok..lets cut that out too.. bettr to cut our
losses now.. cuz he was getting more and more
demanding as the market was getting
down..wanted pay increases, priortized before
other employees, etc. i said noway
sam 28/02/20 3:31 pm so is Jon okay ?
sam 28/02/20 3:31 pm probably alot of changes for him.. but i want
to make sure he doesnt go anywhere:)
bryant 28/02/20 3:33 pm Yeah, as far as I know. Like everyone to a
certain degree he and I have talked "what do
we do if" and stuff like that but it's mostly
been tied to "what if eF were to go under",
etc. We don't talk about it much, mostly
because he's got some pretty big distractions
right now. Specifically his house and his
Mom's health.
bryant 28/02/20 3:33 pm I have to assume him going into a mortgage is
a sign he's sticking around. I know he's
still going through with that.
sam 28/02/20 3:34 pm yeah i can undertsand that
also im moving traffic from him to scott p...
and having him do programming, ad server
management and admin.. and programming for
that
something he enjoys.. and matt is happy about
that too
bryant 28/02/20 3:34 pm I think that will help. I know Jon has said a
few times he's not really happy in traffic.
sam 28/02/20 3:37 pm basically, it looks like 125k payrool, 125k
webmasters, 80k s4r, 40k facilities, 30k
misc.. 50% reduction in expenses.. without
effecting revenues because of reduction in
expenses.. so 400k/month .. we havent had a
400k month in like 10 months.. i think feb
will be 500k.. and march im trying to push for
700k and april 1 mil..that way we start to
save up some $.. and as soon as webmasters are
done..we'll go through and reduce the debt
too..negotiate, etc. like its 1mil.. 300k
pillsbury, 150k cais, 200k backpay (im
negotiating that rightnow)...200k misc.. so i
want to clean all that up.. and cais is in
dispute.. so i think a month or two..and it'll
be wpiedout.
sam 28/02/20 3:38 pm after everything settles down in a few days..
we'll probaly have an employee meeting.. so
we'll get u guys on the phone..and go over
everything
sam 28/02/20 3:38 pm meaning we havent had a rev month that was as
low as 400k in 10 months
sam 28/02/20 3:38 pm dec was 800k..but 50% was uncollectible
bryant 28/02/20 3:39 pm That will be great. It's concerning me a bit
how long the sites are taking, but I've pulled
Marc D. in to handle the initial talking to
streamline the process a bit so hopefully that
will help. All the sites seem to come around
with time and a good deal of talking, but that
takes time. I'm concerned about Brian leaving
next week too. I talked briefly with Jon
about maybe jumping in but he wasn't too
comfortable with it.
sam 28/02/20 3:40 pm i can jump in .. and marcd.. and we can pay
brian a bonus for finishing even
sam 28/02/20 3:40 pm like 1000/week as a consultant
sam 28/02/20 3:40 pm so you have that option as well
bryant 28/02/20 3:40 pm Yeah, I'll feel him out about that a bit
tomorrow. Perhaps even ask it as a favor. We
can really use him another week or two.
sam 28/02/20 3:41 pm yeah im not sure if jon would be able to
handle it.. i think brian got burned out on
this..lot of friction.. and probably better to
have jon focus on the tech stuff..so we dont
lose him cuz of all that
sam 28/02/20 3:41 pm yeah.. we'll pay himtoo.. so u have that
option
bryant 28/02/20 3:42 pm Yeah, I could tell pretty quickly Jon wanted
no part of it. He's conflict averse, which I
knew of course, but some of this isn't
combative so I thought maybe.
bryant 28/02/20 3:42 pm We'll get it all figured out
sam 28/02/20 3:42 pm marcD is good at this kind of stuff..really
good
sam 28/02/20 3:43 pm i think we owe himfor nov/dec.. ill tell him
that if u help out on this stuff, we'll get
his nov money soon.. like 2k..and dec money in
30 days.. i had told him we'd work something
out..so he'll be more than happy
bryant 28/02/20 3:43 pm That's good to hear - I think putting him as
the first line of defense should really help.
A lot of time is spent just getting people
past the initial shock of what they need to
do. After that it's just working out the
details. Which isn't always easy, but it's
more time effective to break it out.
sam 28/02/20 3:44 pm ok ill prep marcD.. he'll beperfect.. he
handled like 20 affiliates for us.. in the
affiliateprogram.. he made webmasters put up
floating ads and all sorts of stuff.. so he
knows how to talk :)
bryant 28/02/20 3:45 pm Anyway, I better crash. Couple sites always
want to keep talking late, but there are
several that want first thing in the morning.
So I'm going to get in as much sleep time as I
can.
sam 28/02/20 3:45 pm k..gnite
bryant 28/02/20 3:45 pm Phone will be ringing in about 5 hours. Heh.
That's good though, each one we cover makes
the rest of the job easier.
sam 02/03/20 12:50 pm i should probably get an attorney involved. i
will call one tomorrow and get them started by
giving them the babynames stuff.
bryant 03/03/20 1:38 pm Still need that exit agreement template if you
can shoot it over.
sam 03/03/20 1:39 pm oh ya.. k
sam 03/03/20 1:39 pm i cringed when i saw the to: also.. hopefully
noone starts trouble:)
bryant 03/03/20 1:39 pm If they do, we'll kill it quick.
sam 03/03/20 1:40 pm on 2nd thought, it might not be so bad to have
discussions going..and everyone sees
stuff..and have an open air ..its a hard time
to do it cuz they'll just complain about
payments irght now:) its hard to kill it on
an open-list w/ all the webmasters addresses..
sam 03/03/20 1:41 pm hopefully hebus signs soon.. im telling bill
to set aside 10k for him already
bryant 03/03/20 1:41 pm Well, I don't mean kill it quick by gagging
them, I mean kill it quick by me contacting
anyone who abuses this directly and making
myself plain.
bryant 03/03/20 1:41 pm They can talk in the egroups thing - doesn't
need to be by spamming everyone.
sam 03/03/20 1:41 pm thats true
sam 03/03/20 1:42 pm use some marine techniques on them huh :)
bryant 03/03/20 1:43 pm Heh, I'm just in a bad mood now, that's all.
I went off on Jo too hard, but she just hasn't
done that before and didn't know better. I
don't know what happened to my suggestion they
use a one-directional list, but hopefully it
will happen now. I guess Greg just assumed
she would know to BCC.
It's her screw-up, I just think it could have
been prevented. Especially had I realized she
was mailing it before she did.
bryant 03/03/20 1:43 pm Like I said, just in a nasty mood all around
right now. =)
sam 03/03/20 1:45 pm thats okay.. she said im sorry.. i said dont
worry about it..
sam 03/03/20 1:45 pm kiss and make up with her :)
sam 03/03/20 1:45 pm i dont think greg is technical so he probably
didnt know what you meant
bryant 03/03/20 1:50 pm Yeah, I'm not suggesting he dropped the ball
at all. Jo and I are fine, I just made the
point to her that even though someone (even
me) probably should have mentioned to her to
use BCC, she still should have seen the
reasoning for that on her own.
sam 03/03/20 2:01 pm i just emailed u the release.
also, someone took the emails on the
newsletter and invited everyone to the
yahoogroups :) oh well.. i think we're
wrapping up the signing of the biggest sites
anyways.
and also we'll use them talking on the yahoo
groups as violation of the nda.
sam 03/03/20 2:03 pm we should find the owner of the yahoo egruops
list and kick them out :)
bryant 03/03/20 2:05 pm Hmm, actually the egroups thing might be a
positive. There's a lot of negativity in
there from time to time, but it's also been a
good way for them to vent. Better yet they
either don't know we're in there or don't care
- but it's a good way for us to keep tabs on
general moods, etc.
sam 03/03/20 2:06 pm thats true yeah.. and when things turn around,
we can use that to deploy campaigns, etc.
bryant 03/03/20 2:06 pm Better to have them talking in front of us
than behind us. =)
bryant 03/03/20 2:11 pm Actually this is great - someone starts
yapping and we'll just direct them to the
eGroup. Almost as if it was part of our own
plan to foster better communication.
sam 03/03/20 2:11 pm hehe yeah :)
i think someone made this mistake back last
year.. too.. and not one person responded.
bryant 03/03/20 2:12 pm Actually I remember that. Was it Bill H.?
sam 03/03/20 2:13 pm yep
pcmech guy is a pain in the neck.. he called
me 5 times and left msgs.. now he just emailed
me saying he got the newsletter, etc. and
wants to know where his counter proposal is
.and lack of comm. is why he wants to leave
efront, yadayada
bryant 03/03/20 2:13 pm Strange reaction to the newsletter. That's an
obvious attempt on our part to provide better
communication.
sam 03/03/20 2:13 pm wellthat i didnt respond back in a day to him
or something
sam 03/03/20 2:14 pm any idea how to approach him? im thinking
about giving him the options:
* buy his site back and pay us..
* 4 cpmU even maybe or something + we host to
make it economical
* something
bryant 03/03/20 2:14 pm Yeah, they're all that way. As far as they're
concerned, our worlds revolve around each of
them individually. As if they're the only one
out there we need to serve.
bryant 03/03/20 2:17 pm Sounds good to me. Can't offer him much more
than that. I spoke with a friend (lawyer)
about all of this to see how far ppl could
possibly go, and really - since we just can't
pay the old rates and we're offering deals to
keep ourselves from going under and in some
cases we're letting people go - he says they
really have no recourse.
bryant 03/03/20 2:17 pm Said the only thing outside of renegotiating
or leaving that they could do is simply not
sign anything and hold out to see if the
market corrects.
bryant 03/03/20 2:18 pm But there actually can't be a class action
suit.
bryant 03/03/20 2:18 pm Which means that even if several got together
to sue, they would have to pay fees out of
pocket. Class action everything is free.
bryant 03/03/20 2:19 pm Can't be one because the webmasters aren't a
class that is.
sam 03/03/20 2:19 pm really?
bryant 03/03/20 2:21 pm So he says. We didn't go into it much, but
when there's a segment of people who are
clearly defined and not tied to the body they
want to sue by common means (like same
contract terms) - then they can't be treated
as a class.
sam 03/03/20 2:21 pm if they leave, can we make them pay us our
equity interest in the website?
sam 03/03/20 2:21 pm aha i see.. that makes sense
bryant 03/03/20 2:22 pm I asked him that but he didn't really have a
clear answer. It was something along the
lines of "grey area, merits to both sides".
He doesn't specialize in property or
contractual law though, and I didn't want him
talking to partners and charging me. =)
sam 03/03/20 2:23 pm yeah.. i do have a new law firm i engaged
today.. gotta pay like a 5k retainer and sign
paper tuesday.. so we have multiple and easier
to juggle bills.. plus this one i got them to
take 33% equity for their bills:)
bryant 03/03/20 2:24 pm He did say ppl would have a really tough time
convincing any reputable firm to come after
us. (1) because it's shakey ground with us
offering people solutions and (2) because
individualluy even with the bigger sites the
potential award (which couldn't exceed what
they're owed) isn't enough to really pay for
any real action.
sam 03/03/20 2:26 pm yeah.. btw, babynames never replied to a harsh
email i sent them .. very interesting
sam 03/03/20 2:26 pm i think they're bluffing us
sam 03/03/20 2:26 pm did i fwd u the email
bryant 03/03/20 2:27 pm No, don't think so.
bryant 03/03/20 2:28 pm I think they have to be bluffing. I'm sure
they talked to a lawyer, but I think they were
probably told that there's nothing to gain
from any action.
sam 03/03/20 2:29 pm im @ my home comp so dont have it.. but
basically they were requesting/demanding dns
changes
i emailed them and cc:'d their lawyer saying
not only are we not going to approve the
changes, we wont do a thing about it until the
conflict is resolved. that they continue to
violate our non-compete policies by having
amazon links there and ignore our requests to
deploy campaigns and holding our books hostage
by disabling the l90 account so we cant
complete our jan/feb financials.. that i am
waiting on an agreement from robert (their
lawyer).. and until this issue is resolved, i
am turning off access to our property
babynames.com to protect our data:)
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm then jennifer talked to tim
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm eckel
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm and he was going down on them too
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm so she got stressed and logged out
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm hehe
bryant 03/03/20 2:30 pm Heh, wonder why she talked to Tim?
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm i told him to tell her about the house
example, we dont have money or assets
sam 03/03/20 2:30 pm i think from the egroups list from awhile ago
they had communicated
sam 03/03/20 2:31 pm which is good..cuz tim tells me everything..
and says everything we want to say :)
bryant 03/03/20 2:31 pm OK cool, that's helpful.
sam 04/03/20 1:22 am hey johan msged me.. were u able to talk to
him
bryant 04/03/20 1:23 am Which site is Johan?
sam 04/03/20 1:23 am sub-net.com, seekmp3, anti-leech, mp3toplist
bryant 04/03/20 1:25 am No, haven't had a chance yet. You can give
him my ICQ and/or email so he hits me and not
you tho. Will get to him asap.
Hebus is arguing about some of the things in
the addendum.
sam 04/03/20 1:26 am we should stand firm..
what is he arguing about
sam 04/03/20 1:26 am our biggest thing is we're giving him 10k
right away.. he should be real happy bout that
sam 04/03/20 1:26 am and use that as leverage
bryant 04/03/20 1:26 am He wants all the stuff about waiving his
rights and claims against eF taken out.
Basically all of 2b.
bryant 04/03/20 1:26 am He doesn't have any outs in his contract, but
we still need that language in there.
bryant 04/03/20 1:27 am He also wants Net15 and not Net30.
bryant 04/03/20 1:27 am lol.
bryant 04/03/20 1:27 am I'm talking to him, but I think he feels like
he needs to work us down on every issue.
sam 04/03/20 1:27 am ya that wont work.. tell him we need thisi
because we cant have him come back and say you
owe me more money
bryant 04/03/20 1:27 am Crap like this is why I don't have enough
minutes in the day. =)
sam 04/03/20 1:27 am yeah i know ..thats what i gathered
fromtalking to him :)
sam 04/03/20 1:28 am he's basically ours.. tell him if we dont get
it done in 24 hours, we'll have to apply the
10k for another webmaster..and he'llh ave to
wait another month for his check :)
sam 04/03/20 1:28 am cna i see the addendum.. it starts his new
payment on march 1 right
sam 04/03/20 1:32 am perfect
bryant 04/03/20 1:40 am He's being difficult. He wants a clause in
the addendum that says he gets to keep the
domain name for the term of the agreement.
bryant 04/03/20 1:46 am Sounds like he'll sign this, but he's also
saying he's not going to give up the domain
name until the contract is up. Obviously he's
not within his rights to do that, so unless
you have an issue I'm going to drop this
subject with him if he'll let me.
sam 04/03/20 1:56 am yeah drop the subject.. we want domain name in
our name
bryant 04/03/20 1:56 am We covered it, he seems okay now.
bryant 04/03/20 1:57 am Told him it's like buying a car. He goes on
the lot today and signs a deal - he leaves
with the car and a promise to pay. If he pays
he keeps it, if he doesn't, the dealership can
repo the car. But he has the car while paying
for it.
No layaway plans in net acqusitions. heh.
sam 04/03/20 1:58 am hehe
bryant 04/03/20 1:59 am I see Johan's sites are on this release
template you sent me. Are we cutting him
loose? If so, what does he still want for
you/us/me?
bryant 04/03/20 1:59 am nm, wrong sites/person.
sam 04/03/20 1:59 am no we're not cutting him.. that was stas.net's
sites
bryant 04/03/20 2:00 am Yeah, wrong group of sites.