I graduated from college in 1990 and went into broadcasting at WLKY-TV.  I did that for about two years and decided that TV news wasn't for me, so I switched to computers.

My next job was for a neat newsletter company called The Cobb Group.  It was an Internet-style company before there really was an Internet. Basketball goals in the hallway, flexible hours, etc.  There were a lot of cool people there.  I worked there for five and a half years.

In 1997, Joe Pierce started up a newsletter division for International Data Group, the people who bring you PC World magazine.  He hired me to telecommute from Louisville and develop their email newsletter infrastructure.  Shortly after he hired me, IDG shut down the print newsletter division and transferred the email division to PC World in San Francisco.  It was a sweet deal for me...I got to travel to San Francisco every six weeks for meetings.

In 1998, the folks that work for Ozzy Osbourne contacted me about buying a domain I owned - "ozzy.com".  I sold them the domain, and as a result of the transaction they found out that I knew a lot about computers, television and photography.  They needed someone to go out on tour with them to do the web site, so they hired me for Ozzfest '98.  It was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life.  I still smile when I look at the tattoo I got on the tour...

After Ozzfest, Joe Pierce, Bob Ford and I started a company called "emazing.com".  Emazing published email newsletters back before spam was such a problem.  We launched the company late in 1998 and sold it to Sony Music in 1999.  We ran it from 1999 through 2002.  During that time, we grew it from 10,000 users all the way up to over 15 Million.  I built all of the technical infrastructure to make it all happen.  We ended up with over 60 people at one point. But the economy and a shift in focus at Sony forced us to scale the company down before we left.  We left it with about fifteen people working there, and at the time we left emazing.com was still running.

Now, that's all changed.  Emazing.com was shut down in the fall of 2002. Sony let go everyone except the core technical staff that used to work for me. Joe and Bob started an Internet company called Information Outfitters and bought the remnants of emazing.com from Sony. They tried to make emazing into a paid product, but it didn't work.  Now it's all shut down as far as I know.

As for me, I left Sony and started David Harpe Photography. I'm doing mostly still photography these days from my studio at the Glassworks building in Louisville. I photograph a lot of glass art and architecture.  It's a great gig and I am having a blast. I am so glad that I didn't do another Internet company. I'm glad I know what I know about the Internet, because it makes it easy to take care of my clients.

I hope you enjoyed this little romp through my life! Feel free to send me email...

Dave

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