Some good guys get rich
: A guy you probably never heard of named Tom Evslin is responsible for much of the growth of the Internet. For it was Tom who decided when he headed AT&T WorldNet to switch from per-minute billing for Internet access to flat, all-you-can eat access for $19.95 per month. AOL and everybody else soon had to follow and the market exploded. And the old ways of the old phone companies — ruled by time — gave way to the new ways of the new communications companies — ruled by access and bandwidth instead. The clock succumbed to the click.
Tom left AT&T (wisely) and started a company to broker voice services over the Internet (now acronymed VOIP). And today, VC Fred Wilson tells us that Tom’s company was sold to create the third-largest long-distance phone company. Couldn’t happen to a smarter guy.
