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MindSpring |
MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider which merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name. In 2006, the MindSpring brand was relaunched by EarthLink as a free VoIP service, which was discontinued in early 2008.
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MindSpring was founded in February 1994 by Charles Brewer in Atlanta, Georgia. It had only non-paying customers for four months and eight modems. It initially shared facilities and technical staff with Internet Atlanta, another local ISP. In June 1994 it opened for business and took on its first paying customers. By late 1994, MindSpring had obtained investment funding from ITC Holding Company and moved into offices at Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center. It established its first point of presence outside Atlanta in September 1995, and went public on NASDAQ in March 1996 with the ticker symbol MSPG 1.
MindSpring grew quickly by acquiring other companies. Along the way, it acquired the ISP business of Nando.net in North Carolina, although Nando continued as an online news website. In September 1996 it acquired PSINet retail subscribers. In February 1998 it acquired Inter Direct and took over its call center in Phoenix, Arizona. That October it acquired SpryNet and its offices in Seattle, Washington. It also acquired many smaller "mom and pop" ISPs along the way.2 3
In February 1999, it acquired Netcom and its subscriber base surpassed 1 million. It announced its first high speed cable service to Montgomery, Alabama in March 1999 and DSL services to eight cities the following November. In September MindSpring launched its first national advertising campaign4.
In On September 23, 1999 MindSpring and EarthLink announced a merger of equals that would create a new company under the EarthLink name based in Atlanta. On February 4, 2000 the merger was completed, creating the second largest Internet service provider in the world with over three million subscribers. MindSpring's stock symbol MSPG was retired and the new company began trading under ELNK5.
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MindSpring enjoyed a cult like following with its employees and subscribers. It was known for having a very casual atmosphere, with employees on a first name basis with everyone else and no dress code. In its first few years, MindSpring grew with little paid advertising and relied on satisfied users and employees to spread the word and bring in new users6
Office life at MindSpring was quite different from that at other companies. Employees were encouraged to express themselves in their workplace. CEO Charles Brewer frequently brought his three-legged Rottweiler to the office, and furnished his own office with plastic lawn chairs7.
Employees of MindSpring still consider themselves part of a large family. Ex-employees occasionally throw Christmas or reunion parties in the Atlanta area.
In October 1996, the company had just hired employee #44, was considered a "regional ISP" and tech support was largely an "all-hands" affair. There was no scripted dialog when dealing with customers. The company's local access numbers (or POP's) consisted of US Robotics Sportster 28.8 modem "pools" that were actually tables stacked several deep in modems. Troubleshooting was often performed by having an engineer stand next to the table while another dialed into the "hunt group" until the failed modem was found and quickly replaced with a new one. Network monitoring was performed by humans, dedicated to providing a trouble free network. But network monitoring had a long way to go in 1996 when the total number of subscribers was in the neighborhood of 14,000.
The Network Operations Department was formed in 1996 with Doug Dillon as manager. Doug interviewed and hired Patrick Payne as the Center's first Network Engineer, followed shortly thereafter by Brandon Ross and Shaun Petrill. Doug left Mindspring in 1997 at a time when the company was beginning to see rapid growth and Patrick Payne was chosen to lead the Network Operations Center (NOC).
Between 1996 and 1999, the company grew from about 14,000 subscribers to nearly 1,000,000 (on paper anyway) and had grown from 44 employees to several hundred across the country. The Network Operations Center had grown to 12 engineers. All the while, the company received a string of awards for customer satisfaction and most reliable ISP, beating out deep-pocket companies such as AOL, MSN and AT&T. The POP's had transitioned from the standalone Sportster modems to US Robotics Total Control modem cards housed in multiple racks. True networking monitoring had finally replaced the engineer listening for the bad modem hiding in the stack on the table.
The MindSpring Core Values and Beliefs were known to the employees as the CV&B's. They were read during all company meetings as well as some team meetings. When possible, the CV&B's were used for guidance.
The original CV&B's were thought up by Charles Brewer before he had the idea of MindSpring. He would joke that he didn't know what type of business he wanted to start, but the list of core values and beliefs would rule whatever it was.
Original CV&B's8
- We respect the individual, and believe that individuals who are treated with respect and given responsibility respond by giving their best.
- We require complete honesty and integrity in everything we do.
- We make commitments with care, and then live up to them. In all things, we do what we say we are going to do.
- Work is an important part of life, and it should be fun. Being a good business person does not mean being stuffy and boring.
- We are frugal. We guard and conserve the company's resources with at least the same vigilance that we would use to guard and conserve our own personal resources.
- We insist on giving our best effort in everything we undertake. Furthermore, we see a huge difference between "good mistakes" (best effort, bad result) and "bad mistakes" (sloppiness or lack of effort).
- Clarity in understanding our mission, our goals, and what we expect from each other is critical to our success.
- We are believers in the Golden Rule. In all our dealings we will strive to be friendly and courteous, as well as fair and compassionate.
- We feel a sense of urgency on any matters related to our customers. We own problems and we are always responsive. We are customer driven.
After merging with EarthLink, a new CV&B was added: "We love to compete, and we believe that competition brings out the best in us."9
The 14 Deadly Sins were created by Charles Brewer10. After the merger with Earthlink, the 14 Deadly Sins were no longer emphasized and were eventually removed from EarthLink's website.
THE 14 DEADLY SINS OF MINDSPRING (or ways that we can be just like everybody else)11
- Give lousy service- busy signals, disconnects, downtime, and ring no answers.
- Rely on outside vendors who let us down.
- Make internal procedures easy on us, even if it means negatively affecting or inconveniencing the customer.
- Joke about how dumb the customers are.
- Finger point at how other departments are not doing their job.
- Customers can't get immediate "live" help from sales or support.
- Poor coordination across departments.
- Show up at a demo, sales call, trade show, or meeting unprepared.
- Ignore the competition, they are far inferior to us.
- Miss deadlines that we commit to internally and externally.
- Make recruiting, hiring, and training a lower priority because we are too busy doing other tasks.
- Look for the next job assignment, instead of focusing on the current one.
- Office gossip, rumors, and politics.
- Rely on dissatisfied customers to be your service monitors.
In April 2006, EarthLink relaunched its free Vling voice communication service under the name MindSpring. The service allows for free text chatting similar to other instant message programs, as well as telephone calls to any SIP-compatible software12. This service was discontinued in early 2008.
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