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Dot-Coms: What Have We Learned? Soccer Coach James Cramer, age 45 New York hedge fund manager Cramer became a high-profile Net dude when he co-founded TheStreet.com. The day the company went public, its stock hit $60; at press time shares were below $4. By Jerry Useem First-Person Interviews by Eryn Brown Photo by Paxton
In the very beginning when the company was set up, I wasn't allowed to run it. The government asked me not to. So it was my blueprint but not my execution. And that two-headed monster--me being a really visible guy associated with the site, but not really in charge--is a failure on my part. If I had been able to pick the right people from the beginning, this enterprise could have been hugely successful as opposed to just kind of successful. I blame myself. I blame myself every single day. I should have realized that it was not possible to set up an enterprise and fund it when I could have no control over it. But that's what I did. And that's what I pay for every day. Nobody really cares for the Internet--except for the newspapers and magazines that live off the advertising on it, and people who can't sleep and need something to do. It has created an undisciplined culture of slothfulness and foolishness that's now a culture of despair. I'm sorry, I've got to call it like I see it. You know, there was a period where there was tremendous value to doing something different on the Web. But now all of it looks the same, equally tiresome. The technology has stalled, and the look and feel have stalled. It's just not that interesting. The Internet won't be embraced correctly until our children take over. I hope to live to see that. The idea that you can develop something for the Net today and have it be commercially viable is crazy. AOL and Yahoo have taken 90% of the creativity and the capital and, at least when it comes to content, have made the Internet so that it's even more ossified and difficult to break into than TV. It happened in such a short period, it's astonishing to me. If I had something that I wanted to do to get people's attention, I would do it on TV, because it's easier, cheaper, and a lot more fun. It's a shame, because the Internet was really fun for a while. It was fun for about three or four years. Oh, it was fun. It was cool. It was a really cool thing. Now it's just something I wish weren't in front of me, so I wouldn't have to look at it. What's next for TheStreet.com? Excuse my language, but I don't have a fuckin' clue. It ain't up to me. It never was. I wish it were. But it wasn't. And that's the tragedy of the enterprise.
What's next for me? Oh, this unbelievable project. It's called "Coaching Fifth-Grade Soccer." There I can accomplish everything I want in life. I can make everybody happy at home and have something to show for it in the end. I'm done with the material stuff. The shocking riches-to-rags story that I've become because of my TheStreet.com hobby has made me realize that I'm a darn good hedge fund manager and a real good dad. I want nothing to do with the rest of it.
Vol. 142, No. 10
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What I would say to you is that if TheStreet.com were a private company, and were a magazine, people would be astonished at our success. But we're a public company and we're a Website, so people think that we're idiots. I think what we've done is remarkable. But what we failed to do is tragic. And what's happened is, in all the confusion and hubbub, we look as if we don't know what we're doing.
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