My first national commercial… sweet.

You can hear me in my defacto computer voice asking for more money from the poor guy at the carwash.

Southwest Airlines Wanna Get Away Car Wash Commercial

Blog, Blog, Blog…

We released a new edition of the Two Hawks Quarterly Journal! Check out all the great writers I am lucky to be studying with and learning from! Thanks to Antioch University Los Angeles.

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My first published piece!

Was in the last Two Hawks Quarterly Journal! My short film about a sexual non-identifier can be viewed, along with a group of very talented writers. I’m honored to have been chosen.

Red Herring 100: Phone Numbers

Making a profit during an industry-wide recession gives Tellme Networks big dreams.

May 23, 2005 Print Issue

Mike McCue will look you straight in the eye and tell you his company has no interest in going public at least, not yet. It’s not that Tellme Networks, where Mr. McCue is CEO, has a balance sheet too weak for Wall Street. In fact, he’s grown Tellme from $5 million in 2001 revenue into a $100-million-plus juggernaut of a voice platform and networking company that became profitable in the second half of 2004.

Mr. McCue wants Tellme to continue its torrid growth, and he’s concerned that millions of shareholders might make his job tougher. We like being private, says Mr. McCue, a jeans-wearing chief executive with the sort of happy-go-lucky attitude that comes from growing a business by leaps and bounds during an industry recession. We can make bold, risky decisions, and not have our stock price hammered.

He will have to make risky decisions to fulfill Tellme’s outsized ambition to be a part of every phone call on Earth. To make this happen, Mr. McCue’s team has built a web browser for the phone, replacing HTML with VoiceXML and substituting VoIP for HTTP.

Hereís how it works: a customer of a Tellme client, such as Merrill Lynch, calls 1-800-MERRILL. The call is routed to Tellme’s network, which translates English language voice commands into VoiceXML and talks to Merrill Lynch’s own computer system. Tellme’s network transfers the data, such as account balances and credit card information, between the caller and the company’s servers.

Because these calls save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars that would be spent on human operators and their own telecom networks, dozens of large enterprises, including Federal Express and Cingular Wireless, count themselves among Tellmeís clients.

The company estimates that of 1 trillion phone calls placed each year in the United States, 20 billion go to large enterprises and 100 billion go to 800 numbers of mid-sized enterprises. Already, 35 million Americans make calls through Tellmeís network each month.

Because only a few 800 numbers co-brand with Tellme, the vast majority of those callers have no idea that the company is powering the back end they just think they’re calling their bank, airline, or directory assistance. Yet Mr. McCue insists that the quality of those calls and the money saved is what keeps enterprise clients coming back.

That Apple-like focus on user interface began with the company’s founding, when Mr. McCue and Angus Davis, now a Tellme director, quit Netscape in 1999 to start the company. Tellme’s voice portal number, 1-800-555-TELL, was built on the same technology as its current core business, but had a different goal: to become the Yahoo of the phone. Tellme scored $238 million in venture capital from heavyweights like John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins. The company expected that people would call for movie tickets or make trades on eBay, but the idea proved ahead of its time.

By late 2001, it became clear that Tellme would have to change tack. After making a sale to AT&T’s 555-1212 directory assistance, Mr. McCue had an A-ha! moment. I said: Let’s go where the phone calls are today, not where they’ll be tomorrow, recalls Mr. McCue. With so many companies looking to cut costs, it worked. Tellme signed up MCI and other service providers as Mr. McCue focused on cash flow position and profitability.

Four years later, with the rise of location-based text messaging services like 4INFO and Google Local, the times have finally caught up with Tellmeís original plan. Mr. McCue is pushing to enhance the company’s public face, renewing the concentration on 1-800-555-TELL. Along with Google, Yahoo has once again become a potential Tellme partner.

Other partners include voice-related software companies like TuVox, which once might have been rivals, but are now key builders of applications that run on Tellme’s network. The Tellme Studio application platform already has 25,000 developers.

Mr. McCue also wants to continue expansion among mid-sized enterprises, where competitor BeVocal has a strong foothold. Tellme is coy about its future plans, but Mr. McCue is clear about its broad vision. If you want to know what weíll do next, he says, just ask yourself: where are the phone calls?

Tellme Networks

ADDRESS 1310 Villa St.

Mountain View, CA 94041

PHONE 1-650-930-9000

www.tellme.com

FOUNDED 1999

CEO Mike McCue

EMPLOYEES 300

FUNDING $238 million, 4 rounds

KEY INVESTORS AT&T, Benchmark Capital, Ignition Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, The Barksdale Group

Full article can be viewed here:

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=12090&hed=RH-100%3A+Phone+Numbersßor=Regions&subsector=Americas

411 – The Old Skool Search

Before there was the web, Yahoo or Google, the only search available to the masses was 411. Enough, to inspire colloquialism, ìhave you done a 411 on so and so?î Well, that boring old search is still generating more dollars than all search companies. In 2010, it is going to be a $11.4 billion business, up 42% from 2005. Makes you wonder, what people are doing with all the free information available on the web. U.S. consumers call 411 an average of 35 times per year, which translates to 6.5 billion directory assistance phone number look-ups, according to The Pierz Group. Despite new information sources like Google and Yahoo, US consumers will continue to dial 411 – 55 billion times by 2010, generating revenues of $11.4 billion, according to The Pierz Group. Americans are second only to the residents of Reykjavik, Iceland who call directory assistance an average of 36 times per year. This is good news for TellMe Networks, which has been capturing an increasing share of the directory look-up business. I guess SBC+AT&T marriage must be coming in handy for them.

In Wired and Random Access | Wednesday, April 27 at 1:45 AM

from: http://www.gigaom.com/2005/04/27/411-the-old-skool-search/

FANDANGO TO PROVIDE ONLINE MOVIE TICKETING TO IMDb.com

(Los Angeles – February 23, 2005) Fandango (www.fandango.com), the nation’s largest movie ticketing service, has introduced ticketing on the world’s most comprehensive movie information site, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The new service, launched in partnership with Tribune Media Services (TMS), enables IMDb.com’s millions of unique monthly visitors to buy movie tickets for any theater in the Fandango network up to 45 days in advance of a film’s opening.

IMDb.com is the world’s most comprehensive movie information site on the Web, with synopses, trivia, reviews and more for more than 430,000 films and television productions. Now, with the addition of Fandangoís ticketing capability to over 1,000 theaters and 12,000 screens (representing nearly 70 percent of all U.S. theaters enabled for remote ticketing), IMDb.com users will be able to rely on highly accurate and comprehensive U.S.-based local movie showtimes provided by TMS and click directly to Fandangoís website to purchase tickets.

Fandango ticketing capabilities will be found on all movie information pages for films currently in theatrical release at participating theaters. The new functionality will give users one-click access to purchase tickets for the movies they want to see.

With the addition of movie ticketing from Fandango, we are now able to provide a full spectrum of services for movie fans, says IMDb.com’s managing editor, Keith Simanton. Our users are among the worldís most frequent and fervent moviegoers, and they are among the first to see new movies in their theatrical run. Weíre happy to now offer them the convenience of online ticketing through Fandango.

The alliance between our leading movie ticketing service and IMDb’s comprehensive movie information site is a winning combination, as today’s filmgoers regularly use the Internet to discover new movies, says Fandango CEO and president Art Levitt. Now film fans can research upcoming movies on IMDb.com and purchase advance tickets via Fandango at the same time. We are proud or our new relationship with IMDb.com, the industryís home page, and to be part of IMDb.com’s comprehensive suite of services.

About IMDb.com

With a searchable database of more than 430,000 movies and entertainment programs, and approximately 1.6 million industry cast and crew members, the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) is the world’s most comprehensive source of information on movies and the film industry. The site features include cast lists, quotes, trivia, reviews, box-office data, celebrity biographies, photographs, coverage of film festivals and major events, and streaming trailers. Founded in 1990, the site includes films from the birth of motion pictures in 1891 to future releases scheduled through 2006, encompassing every genre of film, as well as television shows and video games. In 1998 IMDb.com was acquired by Amazon.com and today operates as an independent website.

Considered the gold standard in the entertainment industry, IMDb.com has more than 25 million unique monthly visitors. To address the keener needs of the industry professional, IMDb.com launched IMDbPro.com (www.imdbpro.com) in January 2002. This subscription service focuses on upcoming production information, contact information for companies and individuals, news from the ìHollywood Reporter, expanded coverage of box-office information, and STARmeter and MOVIEmeter rankings which was the basis for the recently-released Top 25 Stars of 2004.

About Fandango

Fandango, the nation’s largest online and phone movie ticketing service, sells tickets to over 1,000 theaters and 12,000 screens (nearly 70 percent of theaters enabled for remote ticketing) and to four out of the five largest U.S. theater chains. Fandango offers moviegoers the ability to select a film, theater and show time, and purchase tickets in advance on www.fandango.com and at 1-800-FANDANGO, the only nationwide phone service for buying movie tickets in advance. Fandango sells tickets to more theaters than all of its competitors combined and is the exclusive ticketing service for the largest North American exhibitors: Carmike Theatres (NASDAQ: CKEC), Century Theatres, Edwards Theatres, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Regal Cinemas (NYSE: RGC) and United Artists Theatres, as well as to Brenden Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, Eastern Federal Theatres, Kerasotes Theatres, Majestic Crest Theatre, R/C Theatres, Signature Theatres, Star Theatres and Wallace Theaters. Fandango allows moviegoers to bypass the box office via Print at Home ticketing and theater kiosks, and offers the ìgift of the movies,î Fandango Bucks, and an e-mail invitation tool, Evite Friends.

About Tribune Media Services Entertainment Products Division

Tribune Media Services (TMS) is a leading provider of print, online and on-screen entertainment listings and editorial information to newspapers and online media, cable and satellite operators, and consumer electronics companies. Offering a full line of enhanced entertainment information products and services, TMS’ TV information clients include Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, New York Times, USA Today, TiVo and Microsoft. TMS collects information from more than 12,500 broadcast, cable and satellite sources worldwide. Its newspaper, cable and satellite program magazines reach more than 30 million households in over 50 major markets on a weekly and monthly basis. Additionally, TMS’ passive program guide (PPG) is available in 9 million homes worldwide.

TMS print and online advertising networks provide opportunities to reach nearly 70 million people, through major market newspaper TV supplements and Zap2it.com. TMS Movies collects data from more than 35,000 movie theater screens in North America to create and market print and electronic movie information products and services. TMS Movie information clients include Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., Clear Channel Interactive, Cox Communications, Inc., Los Angeles Times and others. TMS Movies is also the exclusive licensing agent for Fandango, the nation’s largest online and phone ticketing service for the movies.

Additionally, TMS offers Zap2it.com, a leading entertainment information website for TV and Movie listings and editorial, and information on the latest video and DVD releases.

View the online article here: http://www.fandango.com/press_releases.asp?id=65