Editor’s note: this week we commemorate the 2-year anniversary of the lawsuit that almost killed Mojo Supreme back in May 2006.
So two years ago right now, I had come to grips with the reality that my former partners had declared war on me and used the weight of their parent company to try to crush me [see the details here].
When Diplomacy Fails, It’s Time for War
Diplomacy was not an option any more, I had to fight war back the next day at the courthouse. But, seeing how I was the little guy who could not match the spending of a multi-million dollar company backed by a multi-billion corporation, I had to maintain a cordial tone throughout the ordeal because invariably, they would have to drop the case for me to walk away with any semblance of a victory.
In fact, while IGN and Askmen were teaming up to destroy me, I knew that News Corp. had very little idea of what was going on, nor did they care. I could be wrong on this point, but News Corp. is the biggest media company in the world; I was running a company that had made $200 in revenues at the time. Ultimately, I knew that I had to wedge a line between Askmen and IGN, and then, between IGN and News Corp. But that was the long-term game plan. Short-term, I had bigger things to worry about:
I had no idea how to get through the next day and frankly, I had no clue what the next day held for me.
Out of Your Element
By 11pm on May 9th 2006, I had read the thousands of pages of affidavits, gone through the hundreds of screen grabs and began to come up with a line of defense. A part of me actually welcomed the experience, so to speak.
Bear in mind, I’d gotten served papers at around noon that day, spoken to lawyers and decided to represent myself the next day at 9am. Despite my confidence, a part of me felt like a dead man walking.
It would have been really simple to walk into court and say “ok I give up” but reading the paperwork made me realize that it wasn’t a business decision to come after me, it was a personal decision to make an example out of me.
In the face of such a thing, I knew I had to show strength. I really did not know if I had such strength in me; I would find out over the next days.
In fact, I was trying to exude a cool and calm confidence but I was nervous, no doubt. I am not sure if I can say that I was scared… because I did not even know what to expect. I had absolutely no training as a lawyer and had no idea what to expect procedurally.
Overnight, it was literally as if I had been thrown into the operating room of a veterinary and asked to operate on a dog.
Anyway, throughout that afternoon, I’d analyzed injunctions a bit and frankly, I had a bad sense that this was the start of a never-ending nightmare.
By midnight, I drafted what I considered would be my defense outlining what I figured would lead to my innocence.
I also sheepishly gathered a barrage of documents and “appendix” examples. Honestly, imagine Mr. Bean being your lawyer.
I was certainly not prepared to step into court and take on lawyers from venerable Fasken Martineau… but that’s exactly what was awaiting me the next day at 9am.
It’s Always Personal
The one thing that I learned to do was master my emotions. I’d always been a very emotional person. But this experience forced me to change how I channeled those feelings.
Reading the material made things crystal clear: this was a highly personal and frivolous matter. In March when I got that initial threatening letter, I was unsure of who was leading this personal attack; after reading the material, it was clear.
There was no less than seven affidavits:
- Somewhat unsurprisingly, IGN CEO Mark Jung had not submitted one. It was both brilliant on his behalf because it kept his hands clean, but frankly, with all due respect, it was also very cowardly, for he had to authorize and finance the proceedings.
- IGN VP Dale Strang was the highest ranking office to attack me. That was odd since he was the one who had told me IGN might invest in my startup if I chose to leave their company and start my own. This was a bad career move because Strang is a career executive and the type of person I could one day recruit to run some of our company’s operations. He not only burned a bridge with me but ultimately risked his reputation within his company. This was poor judgment any way you diced it then, or look at it now. Strang’s decision was twice as odd, because he had basically moved from Ziff Davis to IGN (direct competitors) and was now accusing me of violating my non-compete, which every lawyer was saying I was not. But, I digress.
- Out of nowhere, IGN’s counsel Todd Murtha - whom I never met and could not distinguish from a squash - was also a willing collaborator. With him, I was baffled. Never met me, never crossed him; he didn’t have a clue as to what actually happened, yet gladly regurgitated the garbage he was asked to put his name next to.
- And of course, at the Askmen level, no less than five traitors lined up: President Ric Poupada was clearly the orchestrator of this personal attack - his signature pettiness all over the affidavits. I’ll spare the details. Following him were his lieutenants Chris Rovny-Bellerose and Luis Rodrigues, along with Armando Gomez and Ric’s brother Andre (who worked at the company with us).
Recall that scene in Seinfeld where Jerry and George are talking about NY Mets first basemen Keith Hernandez when Kramer walks in and says “I hate Keith Fernandez” and then moments later Newman echoes “I despise him”?
You get the idea.
From my vantage point, Poupada and Jung were behind this plot, but the difference between Jung and Poupada, frankly, is that I did not help make Jung wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Askmen would still be selling penis enhancement systems were it not for the five years of service I - and the rest of the company, in fact - put in that shop.
From March 2001 to December 2005, I played a small part which led to big results: about $10M in sales and about 95% of the company’s sales. This was my thank you note.
All of that being said, at this time 2 years ago, I could not let these emotions take my focus away from the challenge that awaited me the next day when I would enter the biggest obstacle of my professional life.
What happened? Tune in tomorrow for Flashback - May 10th 2006: Judgment Day.
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