George Bell, Former CEO Excite and UPromise

Entrepreneurs in Innovation is already turning out to be well worth the two hours late on Wednesday. This week George Bell, former CEO of Excite and UPromise, was in to speak. He was very entertaining and informative. He told many stories of his early days at ABC as a documentory writer (filming african pygmies and such). He went on to develop the idea behind the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) before joining Excite as CEO. George told of the meteoric rise of Excite and subsequent crash, which was caused in no small extent by AT&T after they acquired them.

George said he learned everything he needed about management in a tent. He said he learned numerous lessons while trying to get people to do things they didn't want to do when filiming in remote locations in the jungle or on Mt Everest.