Fortune Magazine // September 27, 1999
Your intrepid blog host & writer was featured in the 1999 edition of Fortune Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 issue, with the headline “The Hundred Thousandaire”… read on to see why it was appropriate given the timing of the issue:
San Francisco, 1999:
Working at the center of the Internet world, youthful hubris leaving no doubt that all of us in our 20s were changing the world forever. It was at an endless circuit of launch parties for startups that a friend introduced Jodi, at her first event like this.
As I had liberally made use of the open bar by then, I started riffing like a Boor about dot-commers inheriting rock-star status; changing the world more than electricity; just the worst. Jodi seemed to get that I was “playing” the role of total doofus, not living as one. Ran into her twice more, talked shop.
A few weeks later, several big-shot types I knew emailed to ask why an editor in NYC was asking about me. I didn’t know.
Within 3 days, I got a call from NYC: Fortune had a photographer en route to SF, and would be shooting me in 12 hours. Wouldn’t tell me why… Then a month passes, and every one on my team had a copy of Fortune’s issue on the 40 most influential Internet players under 40. When folks kept staring at me at a bistro over lunch, I asked my top guy what was up.
He showed me this:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/09/27/266144/index.htm
Fortune Magazine “Internet Top 40 Under 40” issue featuring Jonathan Bates – 1999 by Jonathan Bates
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