@LARGE
For my next trick

By Scott Kirsner, 6/12/2000

One of the peculiar characteristics of the successful Net entrepreneur is believing that, as an encore, instead of starting just one company he ought to start 10 or 20.

Meet Ken Lang, the former chief technology officer at Lycos, and a founder of WiseWire, one of the Web's early personalization companies. After Lang and his partners sold WiseWire to Lycos in 1998, he spent slightly more than a year as the portal's CTO before leaving Lycos last fall.

Lang initially started doing some private investing in Net start-ups. But he says he ''wanted a more hands-on intensive role in the companies I'm involved with. Having had dozens of my own ideas, each of which could create another eBay, I wanted to start an Internet accelerator that could make companies go much faster from concept to IPO.''

Lang says his new incubator, called 100X, will invest between $50 million and $100 million in launching Internet companies this year, and he is already in the early stages of building 10 different companies. Two that have been announced are FitPlay.com, which aims to create a community of fitness buffs and amateur athletes who can find partners and schedule matches online, and Pixtaker Inc., which will create an online stock photo market for amateur photographers who own digital cameras.

Lang says 80 percent of the companies that 100x starts will spring from his own ideas and those of his staff, while 20 percent will come from outside entrepreneurs - a ratio that's closer to that of Bill Gross Idealab than most local incubators.

''In some ways, [100x] does resemble Idealab,'' Lang agrees. ''But we're very technology-driven. We have a whole bunch of PhD-level people from MIT and Carnegie-Mellon analyzing what the trends are and looking to build technologies that become platforms and standards.''

100x has 50 employees, and Lang says he's hiring about five more each week. He's undaunted by the market's current cold shoulder toward Net start-ups.

''No matter what the market climate is,'' Lang says, ''there's always room for another eBay.''

Are you on the list?

San Francisco's craigslist is the community bulletin board Bay Area digerati refer to for information about jobs, events, apartments, and personals. Now, craigslist has a Boston edition, run by Meryl Bralower and Rob Katosky, at boston.craigslist.com.

''I read about craigslist in Fast Company, and immediately called Craig [Newmark, the site's founder] to set up a meeting,'' says Bralower, who consulted for local Net companies like Streamline and CEOExpress.com before starting the craigslist operation in Cambridge.

''I believe in the power of the Web to bring people together, and that's what we're trying to do.''

Boston is the first craigslist ''franchise city'' in the United States, though others are planned.

Craigslist Boston will be holding an official launch event in early July. And, yes, Craig himself is expected to be in attendance.

Reboot

Starting with the July issue, the Boston Software News, a free monthly publication about the local high-tech scene, will have a new name: Boston Digital Industry.

''We're acknowledging in words what we've always known - that we focus on the entire spectrum of the digital industry, not just software,'' says publisher Richard Anders. The Software News first appeared in 1997, and has a sister publication in New York (henceforth known as New York Digital Industry).

Given that the Boston Software News had an affectionate nickname (BoSoft), how will the time-crunched Net crowd, always looking to save a syllable or two, refer to the new pub?

Editor Jack Burlingame suggests grabbing the first few letters of each word in Boston Digital Industry and shortening it to BosDigIn. We'll see if that takes.

Fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency

Heard in the halls of Lycos,in the days after Spain's Terra Networks announced its plans to acquire the Waltham portal: ''Nobody expects the Spanish acquisition!'' (Try saying it like a member of Monty Python.)

Shakeout, cont.

Is OutOfOffice.com OutOfOptions.com? The Needham firm isn't yet filing for bankruptcy protection, but it has sublet its space starting today, moved its site to a less-expensive hosting provider, and ''reduced other operating expenses to zero,'' says cofounder Lee Levitt.

''No one's taking a salary, but we'll continue to shop the business for 60 or 90 days.''

OutOfOffice.com launched last fall to help business travelers use technology more effectively. There are guides to getting faxes through

e-mail and storing files on the Net, and the company also offered round-the-clock technical support for any software or hardware problem for a fee.

The six-person company wasn't able to raise a crucial round of venture capital this spring, but Levitt says that he and chief executive John Straw are discussing a sale of all or part of the company's assets to several of its business partners.

Awards overload?

Two local networking groups dole out the prizes this week.

Tonight, the Massachusetts E-Commerce Association names its ''Mass eComm 10'' - 10 local e-commerce leaders whose efforts have made the planet a more peaceful place, and ensured that all of us can have pork rinds delivered to our doors within an hour.

Scary: For the first time, winners will be giving acceptance speeches (''I'd like to thank all my vendors. I love you guys!'') Heartening: There's a dessert reception afterward.

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Interactive Media Coalition hands out its leadership awards at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge. Categories include Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, and Contribution to Society.

No one has ever been able to satisfactorily explain to me the differences between Mass eComm, MIMC, and the Massachusetts Software and Internet Council. Can you? It might be nice to see some consolidation, so that companies didn't have to join multiple professional associations.

And the groups themselves would be able to pool their resources - mostly to buy better desserts at these awards shindigs.

Party on

Art Technology Group's annual user conference may have the best party-to-tutorial ratio in the industry. The event, being held this week in Palm Springs, Calif., brings together 100 employees of the Cambridge software company with 550 of their customers, who use ATG's Dynamo product to serve up highly customized Web storefronts.

Today's agenda includes a golf tourney at the PGA West's Stadium Course. Tomorrow, there's a private polo match and a casino party in the evening.

The conference closes Wednesday with a ''1920s Movie Premiere,'' complete with paparazzi and searchlights, held in Greta Garbo's old digs on the grounds of the La Quinta Resort & Spa. There are also after-hours parties that run until 1 a.m.

''We're a pretty late-night bunch,'' says John Caron, ATG's director of marketing.

Better keep the lights in the conference rooms extra bright, guys.

Scott Kirsner is a contributing writer at Wired and Fast Company magazines. He can be reached by e-mail at kirsner@att.net. To read his columns online, go to www.digitalmass.com/at-large.